"In my view, this is quite an impressive sight!"
Casually flinging the Third Mizukage aside to let him use Water Release to land on his own, Hii Kōri sneered as he burst his cursed energy, transforming it into a blue-black demonic lance that impaled the tower of corpses.
The crushed fragments of corpses, imbued in the flames of cursed energy, transformed into sharp blades shooting outward in all directions.
It is often said that everything in this world is not fire, but ice.
Dynasties become pages of history. The sun will eventually extinguish. The universe, sobbing in nearly eternal darkness, will eventually return to "nothing."
No matter how talented, no matter how brilliant a person, all traces of them will gradually fade away.
But Hii Kōri felt that this world was a blazing fire.
Ninjas and ordinary people alike everyone is burning, doing their utmost to burn hotter, bright enough to illuminate everything they hold dear.
And likewise, after death, they continue to burn that fire of resentment.
Even when they burn out completely, reduced to white ash, they rise up and fling themselves into others' eyes, making those who brought them to this state pay the price.
Isn't the scene before us the best proof?
Hii Kōri could see many characteristics of Kirigakure on those corpses: the clothing of the Land of Water, Kirigakure forehead protectors, children whose bodies had been distorted by curses...
They cursed and reviled in harsh voices befitting corpses, with voices as rough as grinding sand, as if their deaths would be meaningless unless they dragged the living who entered here down into the dust.
"But this is also a metamorphosis. Rather than the real dead, they're just cursed spirits trapped in a cage mixed with obsession and curses, unable to escape."
Clearly, these "revived" dead were merely minor cursed spirits manifested under the influence of the cursed womb, their strength fluctuating between Grade 4 and Grade 3, with few even reaching Grade 2.
And the cursed womb born from the accumulated curses of the entire Kirigakure couldn't possibly be only this level.
As for the Third Mizukage? Wish him luck.
Ninjas are far less durable than jujutsu sorcerers. Lacking effective means to attack cursed spirits, the Third Mizukage would probably have a hard time dealing with them.
But since he could see them, and with ninjutsu at his disposal, he wouldn't die to small fry like these.
"Well, that makes things simple—"
When his body landed on the "ground" made of piled corpses, the sensation was unexpectedly soft.
It was a thick "carpet of flesh" formed from rotting and semi-rotted bodies.
Hii Kōri's feet sank into it, filthy black blood and mucus splashing up, the air filled with a sweet rancid.
But he paid it no mind.
"Come, curse with me!!!"
Hii Kōri charged forward, blue-black cursed energy rushing from his body. His hands folded in front of him, he violently bumped through the cursed spirits in his path, turning them into a foul blood mist. Then, unsealing the scrolls on both wrists, he swung his arms out, scattering over a hundred various cursed tools.
The Spirit Thread Nerves extending from his hair suddenly lengthened, twining around each cursed tool. Brandishing weapons filled with cursed energy, he cleared out every cursed spirit within reach, caring nothing for loss, in the midst of his exhilarated shouts.
Like a speedboat cutting across the sea, the rotting flesh accumulated on the ground even kicked up two waves behind the dashing Hii Kōri.
Red.
Crimson. Scarlet. Blood-red.
As far as the eye could see, nothing but a desolate, desolate red.
Cursed spirits in the form of the dead, unafraid of death, surged forward endlessly, almost covering the sky.
The rich, nauseating stench of blood mixed with the foul odor of rot, condensed into a sediment of sighs, profoundly and intensely dyeing everything on this wasteland beyond fading.
Looking from afar, the scattered evil bones resembled mountains of brilliant red flowers.
Then, a raging storm swept across this field of red.
"HAH—!"
The roar of the Special Grade sorcerer in his Cursed Tool Domain tore through the air like a massive thunderbolt, fiercely piercing the murderous battlefield.
The figure wrapped in blue-black cursed flame charged through, instantly carving a bloody trail through the swarm of firefly-like crimson eyes.
Even though the tools he held were merely ordinary cursed tools made during idle experiment time, they had no trouble dealing with Grade 3 or 4 cursed spirits.
But under such intense combat, with such rough usage, the cursed tools that had just crushed over a hundred cursed spirits in an instant began to fail.
Tossing aside a cursed tool already shedding fragments, the discarded short club still shot through over a dozen cursed spirits like a meteor, finally pinning a Grade 2 cursed spirit to the ground.
With years of accumulated Yang Release, Hii Kōri's physical condition had unknowingly surpassed those two "Heavenly Restriction" fighters, reaching the point where he could take ninjutsu head-on without injury.
Combined with his near-constantly active Reverse Cursed Technique, he was now the undisputed number one in the ninja world in terms of defense and endurance.
So, he had no "techniques" to show these small fry.
In just over thirty minutes, the over a hundred cursed tools he had thrown out were all used to scrap by Hii Kōri.
The next moment, he raised his right hand and slowly closed his fingers.
There were no hand seals. No complex movements. It was the simplest and most direct action: a punch.
BOOM!!!
The fist of the current wielder of the world's strongest body struck the nearest cursed spirit. The spirit, which had the form of a Kirigakure genin, was instantly crushed into dozens of broken pieces of flesh.
Then, the pieces of flesh, stained with Hii Kōri's cursed energy, shot through even more cursed spirits behind him, leaving them mangled.
Create a cursed energy barrier in front of the target, then smash the barrier and the enemy behind it to pieces with one punch.
Of course, swapping the cursed energy barrier for a chakra barrier worked just as well.
That was the principle behind the technique he was using now.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The second punch, the third punch, the fourth punch—
Hii Kōri, weaving through the sea of cursed spirits, moved with smooth grace. One could even say he was enjoying this opportunity to freely unleash violence and cursed energy.
Clearing cursed spirits in large areas with his crushing fists, cutting them down with his Spirit Thread Nerves, the blue-black cursed flame even trailed a long wake behind him. Wherever he passed, cursed spirits vanished like scorched earth.
But the cursed spirits seemed endless. As far as the eye could see, the boundless wasteland was piled high with corpses. Even killing like this, there was no sign of them retreating.
This was the decisive difference between these cursed spirits and the ones Hii Kōri had known in his previous life.
Even worms low-grade cursed spirits below Grade 4, not particularly lethal—would scatter and flee when they realized an enemy could kill them.
But these cursed spirits seemed utterly devoid of reason, possessing only pure killing intent and resentment: resentment toward the living, and resentment toward the fact that they themselves were "alive."
"Phew—"
But so what? If they wanted to die so badly, Hii Kōri was happy to oblige.
Black sparks ignite.
Cursed Energy Maximum Output: Black Flash!
In the moment when the margin of error between the impact and the cursed energy surge is less than 0.000001 seconds, space distorts, and cursed energy glows with black light.
Stepping into that "zone" once again, the black lightning extending from Hii Kōri's fists exploded.
Not even "shattering" or "dispersing"—all cursed spirits within a fan-shaped radius of several hundred meters simply disappeared cleanly in the light of the Black Flash.
A vacuum was forcibly torn into this mountain of corpses and sea of blood, this altered Innate Domain of the cursed womb.
Then, the next moment—Black Flash! Black Flash! Black Flash! Black Flash! Black Flash!
Riding that momentary sense of omnipotence, bathed in black light, the jujutsu sorcerer revealed a clear smile, transforming into a black lightning bolt, once again swinging his space-distorting fists.
The striking power of a Black Flash is the normal output to the power of 2.5. However, the "normal" here does not refer to a non-Black Flash state, but rather the strike immediately preceding this Black Flash.
That is to say, if one can land Black Flashes continuously, the power of each subsequent strike is multiplied.
And what Hii Kōri had just landed was—
Six consecutive Black Flashes!
The seemingly endless cursed spirits were almost wiped out in an instant. Within this demonic realm of corpses and blood, only a few remnants remained in the direction behind him that he hadn't noticed.
But Hii Kōri paid no attention to such trivial matters.
Six consecutive Black Flashes was a rare experience even for him. To use that momentary omnipotence merely to clear away these small-fry cursed spirits would be far too wasteful.
A waterfowl skims across the water's surface, its talons dipping in and then instantly withdrawing, ripping the endless, clear water. Fish swim through water plants swaying in the current, occasionally blowing tiny bubbles.
Hii Kōri seemed to stand upon this mirror-like, boundless water surface, gazing at the shape of his own soul.
The Golden Crow Jade Rabbit Shaka Palm—his second cursed technique, which could turn talent and inspiration into an embryo, negating all that is "impossible" and "nonexistent"—returned.
And then came the essence of Technique Reversal.
Unlike the pure application of using the positive energy generated by multiplying cursed energy to perform the Reverse Cursed Technique for healing, Technique Reversal is the technique of infusing this positive cursed energy into a technique to produce a different cursed technique.
The most familiar example is Gojō Satoru's "Red."
"Technique Reversal—"
Hii Kōri slowly raised his hand and s
wept it through the air.
Positive cursed energy instantly poured into his cursed technique circuit. The cursed technique, almost synonymous with "possibility," was thus reversed.
"—Left-Hand Path: Great Treason - Enchanted Insect Curse."
The left-hand path is heresy, sorcery. Great treason refers to rebellion against the state or sovereign. And the enchanted insect curse is... a curse.
After the death of Isonokami no Maru, the Minister of the Left during the Nara period, Prince Nagaya not even a consultant was promoted to Senior Counselor, second only to the Minister of the Right, Fujiwara no Fuhito.
Fujiwara no Fuhito's sons, the four Fujiwara brothers, who were too young to yet participate in politics, therefore were hostile to Prince Nagaya. Later, when someone secretly reported that Prince Nagaya was learning sorcery to overthrow the state, they submitted false accuses that drove Prince Nagaya to his death.
Afterwards, the four Fujiwara brothers died of smallpox, believed to be the curse of Prince Nagaya's restless spirit.
The cursed technique named for this was the polar opposite of the possibility-exhausting Golden Crow Jade Rabbit Shaka Palm: a technique that gathers into one's hand every possibility of the things it touches.
Targeting this now-emptied "Innate Domain" with this technique, using the connection between the Innate Domain and its body, Hii Kōri could lock onto the position of the still-unmanifested cursed womb.
The Third Mizukage.
Or rather, what had once been the Third Mizukage, but had long been swallowed by something born from his own riddled heart—a Special Grade cursed spirit that had not yet manifested.
"Ha... just as I thought."
Hii Kōri reached up and swept back the hair from his forehead, revealing a knowing smile.
The behavior of these cursed spirits was unusual in itself—even accounting for differences between worlds, it was almost inexplicable.
But if one regarded all these cursed spirits as a single entity, the whole matter became easy to understand.
Because they were merely the outflow of the still-unborn cursed womb—part of the "curse of Kirigakure."
Crossing the sea of corpses, passing the river of blood, climbing the mountain of bones.
The remaining cursed spirits continued rushing at Hii Kōri, only to be casually swatted into blood mists.
Then, he reached his destination.
Within a radius of about a hundred meters, not a trace of flesh could be seen. In its place was a smooth, mirror-like black water surface, just like the "body of water" Hii Kōri had jumped into when entering this place.
The Third Mizukage—no, to be precise, whatever had once been the Third Mizukage—was kneeling in that black water mirror.
His body and clothing seemed to have fused into one, like porcelain, covered in cracks. Beneath the cracks, not a trace of flesh could be seen—only a bottomless void.
His chest, along with his neck and face, had splintered apart. Empty within.
"You've come."
The "Third Mizukage" slowly stood, facing Hii Kōri, and asked.
"Have you found the aggregate of that curse?"
Having lost his throat, his voice was strange, like the hollow echo of speaking into a cracked porcelain bottle.
"Yeah, I've found it. Unfortunately, your final plan to cause me trouble won't get a chance to succeed either."
Hii Kōri stopped beside the black water surface, took out a herbal cigarette, placed it between his lips, and lit it with Fire Release.
"That's... good... good."
The "Third Mizukage" stumbled forward two steps, his shattered chest collapsing further. "Though I'm frustrated... can't let... personal desire... hinder the village's development..."
Hii Kōri could see the curses of the entire space converging toward the "Third Mizukage," into the void within his body.
"Mm-hmm. No rush. It'll be over soon."
The "Third Mizukage" nodded, then sank powerlessly into the water like a cicada's discarded shell.
The next moment, that pool of black water surged as if a boulder had been thrown in, sending up a huge splash.
At the same time, the cursed energy reaction rapidly climbs to its peak.
The cursed womb... metamorphosis.
Special Grade Cursed Spirit: Kūbō.
Descends.