After piercing Nue's heart and taunting him with words, Luo Shu immediately twisted the hilt, ensuring the blade made even closer contact with Nue's heart. Then, with a light tap of his toes against the ground, he swiftly withdrew the blade and retreated, avoiding any potential mutual destruction.
This decisive retreat left Nue, who had been preparing to unleash Onmyōjutsu, stifled with frustration, nearly vomiting blood in sheer exasperation.
Faced with Luo Shu's bizarre methods that left him no chance to counterattack, Nue felt like a scholar encountering a brute—none of his usual tactics worked against him.
Fury and frustration worsened the injury to Nue's heart.
With no other choice, Nue took a deep breath, shot Luo Shu a cold glare, then formed a hand seal and shouted:
"Yin-Yang Reversal!!"
Minagoroshi Jizō, who had been residing within Maō's Hammer after Luo Shu discarded it earlier and had been warning Nue telepathically about the illusion technique, suddenly felt a chill.
Seeing the situation unfold, Minagoroshi Jizō immediately understood what was happening and couldn't help but curse:
"Abe no Seimei, you bastard... ah—"
Before he could finish, Nue's technique activated.
In his critically wounded state, Nue swapped his condition with Minagoroshi Jizō through Yin-Yang Reversal.
In that instant, Nue's heart was instantly restored to its original state, while Minagoroshi Jizō, hiding within Maō's Hammer, was left on the brink of death.
This was a conceptual exchange of life and death—thus, even Minagoroshi Jizō's true form, Sanmoto Gorōzaemon, reached the end of his life.
Witnessing this, Luo Shu sighed in relief but kept his gaze fixed on Nue.
"So you still had a trump card!!"
Meanwhile, faced with Nue's betrayal—killing the donkey before the millstone was even removed—Sanmoto Gorōzaemon, in his dying moments, drained Maō's Hammer of its power and shouted toward Luo Shu:
"Abe no Seimei's Ascension Ritual requires those closely tied to him to descend into hell as the 'Yin,' supporting him as the 'Yang' in the living world. Then, as the 'Yang,' he must absorb the darkness from the hearts of all beings to form a second cycle of Yin-Yang opposition before—"
BOOM!
A molten meteorite, appearing out of nowhere, crashed down onto Maō's Hammer, smashing it to dust.
After this, Nue, still forming a hand seal, coldly remarked:
"I underestimated you, Sanmoto Gorōzaemon. I didn't expect you to uncover the principles of my ritual."
As Sanmoto departed to meet his ancestors, Luo Shu gave Nue a thoughtful look before chuckling.
"By acknowledging Sanmoto's words, are you trying to play on my caution, making me doubt the truth of what he said?"
Nue's expression remained unchanged as he stared at Luo Shu before calmly stating:
"I underestimated you earlier."
"Human, state your name."
"Luo Shu." He smiled faintly, then added teasingly, "Care to guess whether the me who answered you honestly has laid any traps here?"
Hearing this, Nue immediately checked his own condition, confirming he hadn't fallen victim to an illusion technique, before looking at Luo Shu with unease.
Had this been before his revival, when he was confident in manipulating all of Japan—even those pulling strings from the shadows—he wouldn't have felt this tense.
But after being repeatedly outmanoeuvred by Luo Shu's underhanded tricks, a trace of fear inevitably crept into Nue's heart.
Realising this, Nue's anger flared, and he laughed bitterly:
"You're impressive. Even Abe no Dōman back in the day never frustrated me this much!"
Luo Shu grinned in response. "So, in the end, was it because you lacked a mother that you never got beaten enough?"
Nue cast a cold glance at Luo Shu and waved his hand grandly. The remaining meteorite fragments instantly began dissolving, transforming into black sludge that merged with the rising darkness of the human heart from beneath the ground.
Under the influence of this Onmyōjutsu creation, the previously concealed Gates of Hell lit up once more, faint golden light slowly constructing the portal to the underworld.
At that very moment, Nue, who had turned the entire inner citadel of Nijo Castle—including the ruins of the Inner Citadel Palace—into a barrier, spoke coldly:
"Indeed, your illusion techniques are unpredictable. But that doesn't mean there are no forces capable of countering them."
"And the barrier is one of them!"
Nue raised his right hand, and from within the Gates of Hell on the ground, droplets of black liquid slowly rose into the air, coalescing into countless pitch-black spheres.
"Within this barrier, I will reduce everything about you to ashes!"
With a cold command, Nue swung his arm downward.
In the next instant, gravity within the barrier abruptly shifted direction.
The countless black spheres floating in the air suddenly accelerated within the confines of the barrier, reaching supersonic speeds in mere breaths, their piercing shrieks filling the air.
Unable to eliminate Luo Shu through conventional means, Nue had chosen to trap him within the barrier before launching an indiscriminate area assault.
The countless spinning high-speed spheres, like a barrage of metallic missiles, shattered everything outside the barrier's centre into fragments.
At the same time, Nue swiftly formed hand seals, immediately initiating his Ascension Ritual.
He was afraid.
Fearing that Luo Shu still harboured some lethal trump card, he chose to ascend to Demigod status—becoming a true Onmyoji capable of overturning yin and yang—even though the darkness of the human heart had yet to reach his desired threshold.
As Nue acted, the gathering darkness from all corners of Kyoto suddenly accelerated.
More and more people collapsed. Centred around Nijo Castle, traffic accidents erupted across Kyoto, with ordinary people fainting everywhere.
Screams, panic, terror, looting—all manner of violent incidents erupted.
Meanwhile, Luo Shu, who had stubbornly endured Nue's wide-range assault by exploiting the Calamity Bringer's trait of nullifying damage as long as no single strike exceeded its limit, suddenly heard a voice in his earpiece.
It was Lacus' sweet voice, laced with reluctance yet resolute.
"Shu... the numbers have reached the threshold..."
The moment the words ended, Luo Shu's eyes blazed with light.
Bracing against the impact of the high-speed black spheres, he abruptly raised his right hand.
Instantly, the positioning markers Chisato Nishikigi and Takina Inoue had placed around the inner citadel were activated.
After expending a portion of his points, Luo Shu summoned the Kusanagi Sword stored within the Hidden Management Zone and, without hesitation, plunged it into the ground before him.
The jade-white, spine-like Kusanagi Sword pierced the earth, unleashing its sealing power.
Under the might of this Demigod Rank Abyss Artefact, everything—the barrier, the spinning black spheres like missiles, even the slowly opening Gates of Hell—froze for an instant.
Seizing that fleeting moment of nullification granted by the Kusanagi Sword, Luo Shu's eyes flickered with the interface of the Divine Pantheon Reconstruction System.
After a series of large point expenditures, materials began manifesting before him.
In mid-air, the golden Phoenix Blood Essence and the black Calamity Spring Water materialised first, then fused into Luo Shu's body, rapidly enhancing his physique and expanding his capacity.
Then,
The Calamity Vessel engraved with depictions of various disasters and calamities.
The Order Wreath woven from flowers of all seasons.
The Tears of Life storing vast amounts of calamity.
The three main materials disintegrated in an instant, dissolving into countless particles of light.
Bathed in the shimmering radiance, Luo Shu took a deep breath.
And then, he began his first ritual promotion!