Bang! Bang! Bang!
Inside the vast cavern, the air shook violently as two figures clashed again and again. Their bodies crossed at blinding speed, fists and limbs colliding in midair as shockwaves rippled outward with each impact.
Every punch landed like a hammer strike.
Every kick carried enough force to shatter stone.
Every exchange was a direct contest of raw power.
Humm—
The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit was sent flying backward by a heavy kick. Yet even while still airborne, it showed no signs of panic. Instead, cursed energy surged wildly around its body as it brought both palms together.
A brilliant orange-yellow sphere began to form between its hands, swelling rapidly as the surrounding air distorted.
…Kamehameha?
Shinji barely had time for the thought—much less to complain—before his instincts screamed.
He dodged.
The next instant—
BOOM!
The energy blast tore through the cavern floor like paper, drilling straight down and obliterating everything in its path.
With the ground beneath him collapsing, Shinji had no foothold left. He dropped instantly, falling into the lower level below.
The cursed spirit gave chase without hesitation.
The moment Shinji landed, he twisted his body mid-fall and swung his blade downward with full force!
The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit raised its left arm to block. There was no attempt to defend fully—it made the decision instantly.
Sacrifice.
Slash!
The arm was severed cleanly, spinning away as blackened cursed blood sprayed through the air.
At the same time, the cursed spirit opened its mouth unnaturally wide.
Sero—
…No. Wrong series.
BOOM!
A compressed sphere of cursed energy erupted point-blank.
Shinji was blasted straight down into the stone floor like a cannonball, his body smashing through layers of rock before finally slamming to a halt.
Thud…
Dust and debris rained down.
The cursed spirit landed smoothly above him, feet barely stirring the rubble.
At the site where its arm had been severed, cursed flesh writhed violently. Cells surged and twisted, knitting together at terrifying speed.
In the blink of an eye, a brand-new arm regenerated.
Without pause, both hands pressed forward once more. Massive amounts of cursed energy poured outward, compressing violently as the orange-yellow sphere reappeared—larger, denser, and far more unstable than before.
It intended to erase its enemy completely.
Just from the violent fluctuations alone, it was obvious—this attack was several times stronger than the previous one.
If struck directly, there wouldn't even be a corpse left behind.
With the level of "immortality" Shinji and Hidan possessed, they'd probably be sent straight to go serve their evil god in person.
"Ha!"
The cursed spirit unleashed the attack.
The terrifying sphere shot forward at extreme speed, tearing through the air with a shrill scream.
It's over.
The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit was absolutely confident.
But the instant it fired—
Was also the instant it exposed its greatest weakness.
Ambush Strike!
The Shinji who should have been obliterated by the blast suddenly vanished—
—and reappeared directly behind the cursed spirit.
He crossed the distance in an instant.
This was the Piercing Shadow Strike he had been enduring, suppressing, and saving ever since entering this cavern.
All for this exact moment.
The cursed spirit's four eyes widened in shock. They twisted wildly as its body contorted with everything it had, desperately trying to evade.
Too late.
Slash!
The two-meter-long Executioner Blade swept upward in a brutal arc.
From between the legs—
Through the waist—
Straight up to the head—
The blade cleaved through everything in its path without resistance.
SPLASH!
The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit split apart.
Literally.
"Heh… huff…"
Shinji stood there, blade lowered, chest heaving violently as he forced his breathing back under control.
That earlier "verbal blast" had done real damage.
If not for Scarlet Scale Surge · Load activating alongside his Immortality, he would have already lost the ability to continue fighting.
Special-Grade Cursed Spirits were monsters.
Their mastery and flexibility in controlling cursed energy were on a level that ordinary fodder couldn't even dream of approaching.
But—
It wasn't over yet.
The cursed spirit's four eyes suddenly shifted.
It suddenly slid across its skull, crawling unnaturally along bone and flesh until they repositioned themselves on the back of its head—locking firmly onto Shinji.
At the same time, grotesque changes unfolded across its body.
From the two severed halves, thick sprouts of cursed flesh burst outward. They stretched and twisted like living rubber clay, writhing through the air before forcefully pulling themselves together.
Squelch.
Being split in two meant nothing.
As long as its core remained intact, the cursed spirit could endlessly consume cursed energy to regenerate itself. No injury—no matter how severe—held any real meaning.
To truly eliminate it, there were only two possible methods.
The first: unleash a single, overwhelming attack capable of completely annihilating its core.
The second: drain its cursed energy until regeneration became impossible.
The first option sounded simple in theory—but in practice, it was absurd. Aside from the cursed spirit itself, no one knew what its core even was, let alone where it was located.
Worse still, in moments of extreme danger, it could even temporarily relocate its core to avoid fatal damage.
As for the second option—
Competing in stamina with a Special-Grade Cursed Spirit?
That was nothing short of suicide.
Fortunately, Shinji had never expected that single slash to kill it in the first place.
So while the cursed spirit focused on regenerating, Shinji was already moving on to his next step.
Calmly, he planted the Executioner Blade upright beside him.
Then—
Crush.
He clenched two blood packs in his hands.
They burst instantly, the blood flowing outward under his control, twisting and shaping itself in midair.
In less than a heartbeat, twin crimson blades formed.
Crimson Blood Manipulation · Blood Blades!
The blood condensed into razor-sharp outlines, while the blood within spun at extreme speed, creating a drilling force that vastly amplified their lethality.
Thud! Thud!
The moment the blades fully formed, Shinji drove them mercilessly into the cursed spirit's back.
Before it could even react, he was already moving again.
Two more blood packs—crushed, shaped—
Thud! Thud!
This time, he buried them deep into its waist.
If the cursed spirit possessed kidneys, they would have been completely shredded by now.
By this point, every blood pack Shinji carried had been used.
Without the slightest hesitation, he drew his blade across his own wrist.
Fresh blood surged out violently.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
One blood blade after another stabbed into the cursed spirit's body—its chest, abdomen, shoulders, spine—each strike accompanied by an agonized roar.
The cavern echoed with its fury.
Yet by the time Shinji had embedded eighteen blood blades throughout its body, the cursed spirit had already finished regenerating.
Its strength returned in full.
With a snarl, it swung a massive fist.
Shinji was sent flying.
Crack—
As his body smashed through the cavern wall and vanished into a cloud of debris, a sharp sound echoed from his arm.
Even with both arms crossed defensively, he hadn't been able to withstand that terrifying force.
His bones had cracked.
Crash… rumble…
Shinji climbed out of the rubble, brushing dust and fragments of stone off his clothes as though this were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
The bald, four-eyed cursed spirit, however, felt something was wrong.
Uneasy.
Confused.
Because the moment it tried to pull out the "weapons" embedded in its body—
They vanished.
No—
They hadn't disappeared.
They had liquefied.
The blood blades melted instantly, dissolving into fluid and seeping deep into its flesh, flowing through muscle fibers and cursed pathways alike.
The cursed spirit's instincts screamed danger.
It tried to force the foreign substance out.
But in less than a single breath, all of its wounds had already healed shut.
Perfectly.
Which made things… awkward.
After a brief pause, the cursed spirit decided it didn't matter.
Whatever that substance was, it couldn't be too threatening.
Poison?
It wasn't afraid of poison.
So it chose the simplest solution.
Kill the human.
Just as it stepped forward, the young man across from it suddenly spoke.
"You're not seriously thinking I was trying to poison you, are you?"
Shinji's tone was light, almost amused.
"The first few blood blades did contain toxins," he admitted casually. "But they were never meant to work on you. And judging by your condition now, I can tell—otherwise the poison would've kicked in already."
He smiled.
Relaxed.
As if the battle were already over.
As if the outcome had long been decided.
The cursed spirit didn't fully understand his words—but it understood enough.
Its steps slowed.
This time, it was cautious.
It wouldn't give its enemy another opportunity for an ambush.
Then—
It saw Shinji bring his hands together, forming a strange, unfamiliar seal.
His smile widened.
"Let me show you," Shinji said softly, "what the most vicious 'poison' really is."
"Crimson Blood Manipulation — Extreme Technique · Blood Deception!"
----
20 Power Stones= 1 additional chapters.