Chapter 116: Forced to Go Public

Before the dust had even settled, Etsuku Yuta had already stood up from the pile of rubble.

The movements were slow, even somewhat slow. He braced himself with his left hand on a crooked piece of concrete, pulling himself out of a pile of grayish-white construction dust.

Looking up, those tired, always weary eyes stared with a hint of dejection and disdain at the man who had suddenly appeared opposite them.

But it was this very gaze that made the person facing him feel a sudden tightness in their heart.

This young man is very strong!

A section of his right sleeve was scorched because the beam of light had just grazed past his right shoulder without touching his skin. Thirty centimeters—a precise calculation by his brain.

His gaze drifted slightly downwards; the damaged clothes bothered him. He should have tilted his head a little further to the side.

Yi Gu switched the knife that the Yue people had forged for him to his left hand and stretched his right shoulder.

The scorch marks on the cuffs scattered in the wind, like black petals dissipating.

Shi Liulong stood several dozen meters away, hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, tilting his head and grinning at him. His distinctive pompadour stood out conspicuously in the clear sky.

Is this guy an ancient sorcerer? But why is he dressed like that...?

"Oh, you actually dodged it?"

Shi Liulong's voice was loud, carrying a natural, unadorned surprise, followed by joy.

Seeing that look in his eyes, Yi Gu knew that the other party was coming for him.

"Looks like I made the right choice. Let's look forward to it."

Yi Gu remained silent, his gaze momentarily passing over Shi Liulong and landing on the other areas behind him.

Above the sky, a vaguely visible figure is 'floating' as if it were in the ocean. The 'exposed' figure is using the sky as a bed and drifting in the void.

With keen eyesight, one could even see that she appeared to be completely naked.

Yi Gu felt no ripples in his heart. On one hand, he was no longer the innocent boy he was six months ago. On the other hand, as a sorcerer, he felt that the reason why the other party was so unceremoniously 'displaying' his body was probably because of something special... probably because of the spell.

The other party was clearly watching this area, and they seemed poised to make a move...

In addition, there were two other fluctuations of magical energy. The massive bodies of the cursed spirits were clearly visible, but they did not approach; they were merely circling around, suggesting they had owners.

I can't sense any presence from them, and they haven't shown themselves... Are they planning to sit back and reap the benefits...?

Yi Gu withdrew his gaze and looked back at Shi Liulong.

He took a deep breath and switched the knife from his left hand back to his right.

"If I may ask, you're not the kind of person who can achieve reconciliation through words, are you?"

His voice wasn't loud, and his tone had a slightly submissive quality, but it exuded a very strong presence.

"Are you interested in forming an alliance? I want to help the ordinary people here, and I would be very grateful if you could help."

Shi Liulong raised an eyebrow, just for a moment, and then a grin spread across his face.

"interesting."

He pulled his hand out of his pocket, interlaced his fingers, and pushed it forward, making a cracking sound from his knuckles.

"My life is perfect. I have enjoyed strength, beauty, and life in general. But I still signed a contract with Lu Suo because I have only one goal: I am not satisfied. I have finished the feast of my life, but there is one thing I am not satisfied with: there is no final 'dessert'."

"..."

Yi Gu probably understood what he meant.

"Young man, what's your name?"

"Ergu Yuta!"

"Hello, Yigu, my name is Shiliurong. If you want me to help you, that's fine, but only if you're the 'dessert' that satisfies me."

"I see, I understand. I'll do my best."

He couldn't see anything in the man's eyes other than sincerity. Since that was the case, the task at hand was simple. Although he hated pointless battles, the current situation was special, so he would make an exception this time.

"Hahaha...Very good, come on, Yigu!"

As the man laughed, the front of his pompadour hairstyle lit up, undoubtedly indicating the gathering of magical power.

The air above his head began to distort, not because of the heat, but because the density of the curse energy had become so great that it began to interfere with the refractive index of light.

"They're here."

Countless azure-blue cursed grenades were fired.

Yi Gu began to run and dodged the attack just before it hit him.

A line accurate to the centimeter, connecting the present and the next second.

An attack swept over his head and landed on a building a few dozen meters behind him. The top floor of the building had been sheared off, and red-hot steel bars and molten concrete flowed out of the cut and down the exterior wall.

Yi Gu did not look at that building.

His left shoulder slumped, his right leg stepped back, and he swung his knife upwards, not at Shi Liulong, but at the artillery barrage blocking his right side.

The instant the blade collided with the beam of magical energy, Yi Gu twisted his wrist. He inserted the blade into the edge of the beam, like inserting a knife into the seam of a piece of cloth, and then flicked it upwards.

The shelling was deflected, veering from the right side of Yigu to above his head, then from above his head to the sky behind him, exploding hundreds of meters in the air like a colorless firework.

There's no need for any magical power; the sheer strength of the weapon is enough to deflect magical power of that precision.

This is "Dojigiri Angang," the first weapon forged for him by Senior Yue Ren, and also the most suitable and favorite one. It is sturdy, durable, and sharp. It has been continuously nurtured by his enormous magical power until now, and it is a weapon that is in no way inferior to a top-grade magical weapon.

Shi Liulong's eyes lit up.

He could easily understand such simple information, and he felt no dissatisfaction, since having good weapons was not considered a violation of the rules.

"Looks like you own a good knife."

Yi Gu did not answer. His feet had already left the ground, and his body was like a spring that had been compressed to its limit and suddenly released. The transition from stillness to extreme speed was so fast that even his own vision experienced a one-frame delay.

The image of Yi Gu reflected in Shi Liulong's pupils magnified, from a blurry outline dozens of meters away to a dark shadow more than ten meters away, and then to a knife three meters away.

Shi Liulong, his lips curling into a wild grin, did not retreat.

His right hand clenched into a fist, the surface of which was covered with a thick, white layer of incantation, and he punched towards the blade of Yi Gu.

The moment the fist and knife collided, a visible shockwave exploded in the air, shattering the windows on the roadside and pushing the overturned bus away.

Yi Gu's knife stopped, and Shi Liulong's fist also stopped. Under the collision of massive density of curse power, the two men's fists and knives did not even make direct contact with each other. They stared at each other for less than a tenth of a second, separated by the blade and the surface of their fists, before exploding.

Feeling a sharp pain in his arm, Shi Liulong stared blankly at his wounded arm. Before he could even marvel at the sharpness of the weapon in the boy's hand, Yi Gu had already charged forward once more.

Shi Liulong, a powerful figure who dominated an era, can be accurately described as a "tank," possessing the greatest single-shot power output of magical energy and a powerful body.

Normally, attacks from top-tier cursed spirits cannot harm his body, but now, a teenager has managed to injure his fist in a fistfight with him.

It's not just the weapon that's impressive; the power of this curse is in no way inferior to my own. That's amazing!

"I'm starting to like you, Yigu..."

Gripping his airplane nose, Shi Liulong unhesitatingly unleashed his maximum power of cursed energy.

A beam of magical energy, several meters in diameter, hurtled towards Yi Gu. Yi Gu responded directly, channeling magical energy into his weapon and activating its special effect. A massive energy sword aura collided with the magical energy cannon, "Ice Sand Shockwave."

With almost no resistance, the energy sword energy sliced ​​the shockwave in two.

The explosion occurred in Shi Liulong's wide-open eyes.

Ota District——

Urajima, Kugizaki, Junpei, Chika, and Hikari were dispatched to this area to cleanse the cursed spirits.

The five worked together seamlessly, and even Shunping, the weakest among them, gradually gained experience in fighting cursed spirits with the help of the others.

Especially when there are mostly ordinary people around, it is a test of their strength. Even though everyone is quite strong, they have to be tense throughout the whole process.

They haven't reached the level where they can completely dominate the battle, and since arriving at the battlefield, they've hardly rested at all. Now they're both exhausted in terms of physical strength and magical power.

Even so, the cursed spirits continued to crawl out of the walls and sewer grilles.

Huzhang's breathing was heavy, but he was still full of strength. After all, there was a group of people squatting on the steps behind him: the elderly, children, pregnant women... These people were the source of his strength.

"Kudoshin, the east side is cleared out!"

"The voice of Kugizaki Nobara came through the communicator, with the rough, powerful sound of someone wielding a weapon. Her axe had just smashed the head of a level two cursed spirit.

"The west side is almost done too."

Shunpei's voice followed, a little softer than Kugisaki's, but he pronounced each word clearly. Despite being surrounded on all sides, he remained calm and composed, showing that he had clearly grown a lot.

The jellyfish shikigami floated in the air behind her, its tentacles hanging down like transparent fishing lines.

The tentacles wrapped around the ankle of a cursed spirit, and the poison was injected through the tentacles. The cursed spirit's body went limp as if its bones had been removed, and it collapsed to the ground. Although it was still twitching, it could no longer move. Then came Shunping's easy finishing blow.

I have found a fighting style that suits me.

"There are more to the north, and they smell of blood; there might be living people there."

Due to the special nature of the procedure, the bloat is very sensitive to blood, a characteristic that has greatly facilitated the team's rescue operations during this period.

"Blood Piercing" drew an arc in the air, severing the bodies of the three cursed spirits that pounced at the same time.

The purple liquid gushed out, was washed away by the rain, and gathered into tiny streams on the ground.

Hiroshi Nichiro remained silent.

He stood at the front of the crowd, his back to them, facing the street blocked by cursed spirits. He held his referee's hammer in his hand, changing its shape at will to eliminate the cursed spirits blocking his way.

After clearing a space to allow people to pass, he straightened his tie, which was damp from the rain and stuck to his chest.

Then he turned to look in another direction.

"Another huge wave is coming."

Huzhang looked up. Something was moving beyond the rain curtain.

A black, surging mass, like a mudslide.

They surged from the end of the street, crowding the entire road, the sidewalk, and every inch of foothold. Countless small cursed spirits, like waves, were dripping with a black, thick liquid that looked like blood but wasn't.

"This quantity..."

Kugizaki's voice was a little tense. She took a half step back, lowered her center of gravity, and adopted a posture that allowed her to both attack and defend.

"That's far too much."

Shunping added his own remarks, but he and his jellyfish did not back down; they just looked nervous.

The jellyfish's tentacles spread out like an inverted umbrella, and the poisonous mist slowly spread in the rain. This was a new skill he had figured out, an development of his "poison" techniques.

Tiger Staff didn't speak. He simply took a step forward, assumed a horse stance, and clenched his fists, ready to meet the attack.

There's a shortage of manpower everywhere right now, so they have to rely on themselves to clear these things away as quickly as possible.

However, the next moment!

A sudden change occurred—

As if struck by some immense, unseen force, the wave of cursed spirits vanished without a trace in an instant, leaving the group of people who had been on high alert stunned.

It actually killed him with a single blow...

who is it?

The attack came from behind us...?

Just as they were bewildered and at a loss, a pleasant voice suddenly came from behind them.

"Hey, handsome guys and beautiful ladies, looks like you need some help."

Upon hearing this beautiful female voice, which they had never heard before, the first emotion that arose in everyone's hearts was not joy, but rather—panic.

I turned my head instinctively.

Who?

Why did you suddenly appear behind me?

Why can't I sense any aura at all?

Are they enemies?

"..."

The latter seemed to have no hostility and did not take any further action, but instead waited for everyone to turn around and look at her.

The next moment, a beautiful and charming white-haired woman appeared in everyone's sight, smiling at them.

Wearing a strapless top and hot pants, her beautiful figure was faintly visible.

A beautiful and youthful older sister makes a grand and glamorous entrance.

The moment she lowered the hand that was holding her hand forward, it became quite obvious that the attack just now was launched by her. In the silence before anyone could react, what a terrifying presence she was.

Everyone who saw the face was stunned, and their first reaction was surprisingly consistent.

What a nice view!!??

Her figure, her looks, and even her women's clothing were impeccable, leaving everyone present momentarily stunned.

They don't seem hostile; are they allies?

So beautiful. What? Who looks like someone...? Is this a relative of Gojo-sensei?

This guy's presence is completely undetectable...

Seeing everyone's different expressions, the beautiful woman was secretly delighted. Just as she was about to step forward and reveal her fabricated identity, she was interrupted by a somewhat bewildered but direct voice.

"Gojo-sensei? What are you doing here? Did you defeat Sukuna?"

"Huh?"

"Huh...?"

Gojo Satoru, who was just about to put on a dramatic performance, froze, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.