“Benefactor…” Yoshioka spoke, his voice sounding like it came from far away, yet also like it was echoing directly from inside Toji’s chest.
“There is regret in your heart.”
Monk Yoshioka Hisoka’s Eye of Karma had already begun turning.
Toji raised a brow.
“Oh, that.” He lifted the spear, its tip dragging a shallow mark across the ground.
“I’ve killed so many people that I can’t even count them myself.”
“Regret?”
He smiled, but there was no warmth in it.
“I quit that a long time ago.”
“We monks do not speak of killing.
We speak of conversion.”
The spear suddenly shot forward.
Yoshioka’s figure instantly shifted three feet sideways.
The corner of his kasaya was lifted into the air by the wind pressure from the spear.
There was no warning in Toji’s attack.
No hand signs, no chants.
Pure physical strength driving steel.
Yet this speed had already surpassed the dynamic vision of most cursed spirits.
“Those burdened by karma…” Yoshioka’s fingers moved slightly as a wooden mallet made from a human skull struck the bone mokugyo.
Dong!
A dull sound spread through the temple hall.
Toji’s movements paused for a moment.
It wasn’t the feeling of his body being attacked, but something deeper, like someone had turned off a light inside his brain.
Fighting spirit, excitement, the desire for battle, the beast instinct that had always supported him in crushing every enemy, was silently being suppressed by some kind of force.
[Broken Precept Curse Technique: Mokugyo.
After being struck, it forcibly silences one emotion, or gradually strips emotions away.]
But after that brief instant, Toji’s spear tip had already reached Yoshioka’s face.
“That thing of yours…” Interest appeared in Toji’s tone.
“Pretty interesting.”
The fighting spirit removed by the mokugyo only lasted less than half a second on him.
Not because his willpower was strong.
He had never relied on willpower to live.
He was the Heavenly Tyrant.
His body was everything to him.
Things like emotions had always only been support.
When confused, let the body replace the brain and just fight.
Yoshioka retreated for the first time.
The main eye on its forehead stared fixedly at the man before it, trying to see through his “sins.”
But all it saw was blankness.
Not because he was innocent, but because this man’s sins were too heavy, too mixed, too chaotic.
The Eye of Karma couldn’t lock onto any single one.
“Benefactor…” A nearly undetectable change finally appeared in Yoshioka’s voice.
“Is emptiness.”
“You are very gifted.
Very suited for the Buddhist path.”
“Empty?” Toji gripped the spear in reverse, the shaft spinning half a circle against his waist before sweeping out horizontally with borrowed momentum.
“If I’m empty, then you bald bastard are vacuum.”
The spear split the air, the pressure from it sweeping across the Buddhist altar like a blade.
The prayer beads before Yoshioka scattered apart.
One hundred and eight beads turned into one hundred and eight shackles, weaving together into an airtight net in midair.
Each bead represents one affliction.
Greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, doubt.
As long as the target has touched the corresponding karma, escape is impossible.
Toji didn’t dodge.
He charged directly into the overwhelming web of shackles.
The moment the first bead touched his shoulder, Yoshioka had already spoken the corresponding affliction.
“This is greed.”
Before the words even finished, the bead exploded.
Pure strength erupted from Toji’s shoulder blade.
Before the “greed” shackle could even confirm the karma, it was crushed into powder by raw physical violence.
Then came the second bead, the third, the fourth.
Anger, ignorance, arrogance, doubt.
Not a single bead could stay on him for more than one ten-thousandth of a second.
“What…”
Before Yoshioka’s shock could fully form, the spear tip had already pierced through its kasaya.
That strike didn’t hit the core.
At the last moment, Toji changed the angle.
Not out of mercy, but because he saw the black halo made of twisted scripture behind Yoshioka beginning to expand.
The precursor to Domain Expansion.
“Endless…”
Toji didn’t hesitate for even a moment.
His body made the judgment faster than his brain.
The spear left his hand, turning into a silver streak flying straight toward the main eye on Yoshioka’s forehead.
At the same time, his feet had already stepped onto the base of the Buddhist altar.
Using it for leverage, he launched himself into the air like a fired cannonball, crashing directly toward the expanding darkness.
The moment the spear pierced into the main eye, the light of the Domain froze for an instant.
And that instant was enough.
Toji’s right hand pierced through the black kasaya.
His five fingers closed around something.
That was Yoshioka’s true body, the core hidden beneath the kasaya, formed from endless despair.
Warm, soft, still beating like a living heart.
“Preaching scriptures?” A complete smile finally appeared on Toji’s face.
Cruel, satisfied, filled with the thrill of killing.
“Go preach to the King of Hell.”
“You still wanted to use Domain Expansion on me?
Who gave you that chance?!”
He clenched his hand tight.
BOOM!
A massive shockwave exploded from the center of the temple hall.
The black kasaya shattered piece by piece.
The twisted scriptures burned away in the air, and those human faces let out one final groan before disappearing.
Yoshioka’s body was collapsing, but the shattered eye on its forehead still stared at Toji.
There was no anger inside it, only that chilling compassion.
“Liberated…” Its voice sounded out before disappearing.
“How good.”
Toji shook the residue off his hand.
The temple returned to normal. New chapters come out on g.com first.
Sunlight poured through the broken roof and landed on him.
He lowered his head and looked at his empty hands.
The spear was still stuck in a distant pillar, the shaft trembling slightly.
He walked over, pulled out the spear, and rested it on his shoulder.
“What bullshit Pudu Monk.” He stepped over the wreckage covering the floor.
“Did you really think I was stupid enough to wait for you to cast your Domain?”
‘Hm?’
“What’s this?” Toji picked up a finger from the ground, looking curious because the cursed energy on it was extremely strong.
Yukio, who had already finished his own fight and was watching from the side, leaned over to look at it.
“Could it be that thing was originally a Grade 1 cursed spirit, but after swallowing this, it became a Special Grade and developed intelligence?”
Toji complained, “I thought it’d be some tough character, but this was it?”
At that moment, Yaga Masamichi, who had already rushed nearby, started sprinting over after hearing the commotion.
By the time he arrived, the battle was already nearing its end, and he was stunned by Toji’s fighting style.
Even though he hadn’t seen Yukio fight, the huge number of corpses on the ground and Yukio standing there completely unharmed formed a sharp contrast.
‘What kind of monsters are these?’
When Yaga Masamichi saw the finger, he stopped caring about hiding anymore and revealed himself.
“Wait.”
Toji and Yukio exchanged looks.
Yukio smiled.
“I thought you weren’t going to show yourself.”
Yaga Masamichi was shocked.
He didn’t expect even this kid, who didn’t look that old, to have noticed him.
“Sorry, you two.
I didn’t appear earlier because you were fighting, and I was worried about interfering.”
Toji tossed the finger casually and said, “You only came out because you saw this, right?”
“Judging by your clothes, you’re from Jujutsu High, aren’t you?”
Yaga Masamichi didn’t hide it.
“I’m a teacher at Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical High School.
My name is Yaga Masamichi.”
“This finger is a cursed object.
It’s very important to us.”
Yukio curiously asked, “What kind of cursed object is it?”
Yaga Masamichi hesitated.
“This is confidential information from Jujutsu High.
Sorry, I can’t leak secrets to outsiders.”
Toji didn’t care.
He tossed the finger to Yaga Masamichi and pointed at Yukio.
“In a few years, can this kid join your Jujutsu High?”
“This finger as tuition shouldn’t be too much, right?”
Yaga Masamichi looked at the finger in his hand, then looked over Yukio again.
Only now did he notice that neither of them had any cursed energy at all.
After hesitating briefly, he said, “Sure.
No problem.”
The corner of Toji’s mouth lifted as he smugly said to Yukio, “See?
Bringing you along was the right choice.”
Yaga Masamichi said to Yukio, “Let’s exchange contact information.
It’ll make things easier later.”
After chatting a little more, Toji and Yukio left.
Looking at the temple that had become a complete wreck, Yaga Masamichi finally reacted.
“Crap, I forgot to set up the curtain.”