By evening, the sky had grown dim.
Inside the Zenin estate, one traditional lamp after another lit up, spreading warm yellow light across the solemn courtyard.
Luke and Naoya Zenin walked side by side toward the clan’s private training ground.
Naoya warmed up with light, agile footwork, his gaze full of contempt and his mockery completely undisguised.
“Honestly, I’m surprised you could make a decision like this. Someone who can’t even keep his Grade 1 Sorcerer title actually dares to challenge me.”
“Or have you finally realized how useless you are and decided to use this opportunity to get out of the Zenin clan? If that’s the case, I suppose I should praise you for knowing your place.”
Naoya’s words were harsh and cutting, but he wasn’t simply running his mouth.
He was deliberately trying to provoke Luke, hoping to discover from his reaction exactly where the confidence to issue this challenge had come from.
After all, the gap between the two of them had been obvious before this.
One was a fairly well-known Grade 1 Sorcerer in the jujutsu world.
The other was the so-called disgrace of Grade 1 Sorcerers, someone who couldn’t even reliably exorcise a Grade 1 cursed spirit.
Yet Luke had dared to wager his place in the succession and even his right to remain in the clan just to challenge Naoya.
It was far too abnormal.
Luke merely gave a faint smile.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
He calmly lowered his head and wrapped bandages around his palms.
Little by little, he adjusted his breathing and heartbeat, gradually pushing his body and mind toward their peak condition before battle.
Seeing how calm Luke remained, Naoya frowned and clicked his tongue in irritation.
“Stop pretending.”
A short while later, cold blue cursed energy flared around both of them.
The duel was about to begin.
Then a furious shout interrupted everything.
“Stop!”
Both of them looked toward the voice.
Naobito Zenin was striding over with an angry expression.
Mai followed closely behind the old clan head.
Clearly, she had secretly gone to inform him.
They weren’t the only ones.
Quite a few high-ranking members of the Zenin clan had heard that the two successors were planning to duel privately and had come to watch.
Among the crowd stood the clan’s two most prominent elders.
Ogi Zenin and Jinichi Zenin.
“Nonsense!”
Naobito’s hair and beard practically bristled with anger as he shouted,
“You dare hold a private duel without even considering my authority?!”
“As clan head, I order both of you to end this fight immediately and spend ten days in confinement!”
Naobito had always been relatively open-minded.
Even so, when he heard that Luke intended to wager his position in the succession against Naoya, he had been furious.
Even though Naoya was his biological son, Naobito genuinely believed that Luke was far more suitable to inherit the position of clan head, whether in temperament or cursed technique potential.
More importantly, Luke was the Ten Shadows Technique inheritor with the greatest chance in the past thousand years of taming Mahoraga.
If Luke were seriously injured, defeated, and stripped of his inheritance rights in this private duel, it would be an immeasurable blow to the entire Zenin clan.
Naobito was burning with anxiety.
But his obvious favoritism struck directly at Naoya’s sensitive and arrogant pride.
“Old man, enough!”
Naoya suddenly roared, eyes wide with fury.
“The future of the clan should be led by the strongest and most talented person, not decided by a single sentence from some stubborn old bastard!”
His shout actually made quite a few Zenin clan members quietly nod in agreement.
Naoya had a terrible personality, but he still had a considerable number of supporters within the clan.
Many of them believed in his creed of absolute strength and rigid hierarchy, regarding him as the legitimate heir to the old traditions of the Zenin clan.
More importantly, Naoya himself was the leader of the clan’s private armed force, the Hei.
And the entire council of elders stood on his side.
Ogi Zenin folded his arms and spoke coldly.
“No matter how you look at it, Luke Zenin’s actions over the past several months have indeed caused considerable damage to the Zenin clan’s reputation. He does need a fair and open battle to prove that he still possesses the qualifications and potential to lead the clan.”
Naobito shot Ogi a cold glance.
The old clan head understood his younger brother’s thoughts perfectly well.
Ogi also coveted the position of clan head.
Forget simply watching Luke die.
If obtaining the position required him to slaughter his own wife and daughters, Ogi Zenin would do it without hesitation.
Incidentally, Maki and Mai, who had gotten along well with Luke since childhood, were Ogi’s daughters.
Ogi was equally cold and merciless toward both of them.
From top to bottom, the Zenin clan was filled with ruthless ambition and struggles for power that had nearly stripped away all humanity.
The other elder, Jinichi Zenin, also nodded slightly.
“I don’t see much wrong with letting Luke and Naoya fight. At the very least, it’ll be entertaining.”
Naobito’s face immediately darkened.
He took a deep breath, fixed his gaze on Luke, and shouted in a low voice,
“Brat, it isn’t your time to shine yet! Don’t do something this pointless right now!”
Even at this point, the old man was still thinking about protecting Luke’s position as successor.
Luke merely smiled.
“Old man, you’re too late. We’ve already made a Binding Vow. This duel has to happen now. You can’t stop it just because you say so.”
A thick vein immediately bulged on Naobito’s forehead, and his teeth ground together.
“You—damn—brat!”
But things had already reached this point.
He knew he couldn’t stop them anymore.
Naobito forcibly suppressed his anger and quickly changed his approach.
He looked toward his son, his voice cold as ice.
“I won’t interfere with your duel. I only have one condition. No one is allowed to die.”
Naobito’s mind worked quickly.
During those decades of waiting, leaving the clan might not necessarily be a bad thing.
As long as Luke survived, there would always come a day when he returned as a true powerhouse.
Naoya, however, had nothing but the inheritance on his mind.
His confidence practically overflowed from his voice, along with undisguised contempt.
“Relax, old man. I’m not interested in killing a dog that’s already been thrown out.”
His words already assumed that Luke would definitely be expelled from the clan.
None of the other clan members objected.
Naobito let out a heavy sigh.
When he looked at Luke again, there was now helplessness and regret in his eyes.
He muttered inwardly,
“Brat… are you really this narrow-minded?”
Luke’s reckless decision to challenge Naoya to a duel with no path of retreat had honestly left him somewhat disappointed.
But now, Naobito no longer dared hope for anything more.
His only wish was for Luke to survive and leave the clan intact.
Under the eyes of all the Zenin clan’s upper ranks, a duel that would determine the future succession of the clan officially began.
Naoya looked delighted, an excited smile curling across his face.
Nothing could satisfy the arrogance buried in his bones more than defeating Luke in front of everyone and personally taking the position of heir.
“Your Ten Shadows Technique is nothing but empty show! I’ll personally crush those ridiculous delusions of yours!”
With that roar, Naoya’s figure suddenly split into several afterimages.
His speed instantly rose to one hundred meters per second.
This was Naoya Zenin’s cursed technique—
Projection Sorcery.
The user planned out twenty-four movements and completed them within one second, greatly increasing their speed.
Naobito Zenin, who possessed the same technique, was known as the second-fastest sorcerer in the jujutsu world.
In the span of a single blink, Naoya had already appeared directly in front of Luke.
The wind created by his high-speed movement distorted his face into something almost savage.
“I’ve wanted to smash that smug face of yours for a long time!”
His fist, wrapped in violent cursed energy and years of bitter jealousy, smashed mercilessly toward Luke’s face.
Seeing this, Naobito and Mai both felt their hearts tighten.
Naoya was simply too fast.
The vast majority of Grade 1 Sorcerers could only take his attacks passively, much less Luke, the disgraced Grade 1 Sorcerer who was on the verge of being demoted.
But before Naoya’s fist reached him, Luke had already captured the trajectory of the incoming strike through his superhuman hearing.
It was the sensory enhancement granted by Kamaitachi, the Word Spirit shared by the Dragon Raja Luke.
Even in the Dragon Raja world, it was an ability the protagonist had to sacrifice a quarter of his lifespan to temporarily obtain.
Luke neither dodged nor retreated.
He threw a punch straight forward and accurately intercepted Naoya’s high-speed attack.
Looking at the shock that suddenly froze on Naoya’s face, Luke raised the corner of his mouth and spoke mockingly.
“Your punch is even softer than I expected.”
It really helps the fic grow!