Black Flash, Mastering Cursed Energy

Bai Cangshu pushed open the door, and the stench of corpses hit him in the face.

These bodies, dead for who knew how long, had all been hidden in this warehouse. Kenjaku had placed a technique on the warehouse so no one would notice anything unusual, sealing all curses and negative energy within.

Naturally, Kenjaku was not doing this to protect the people nearby. He had Yuji Itadori collect these corpses to cultivate cursed spirits.

After entering the warehouse, Bai Cangshu’s eyes quickly adapted to the darkness inside. Cursed spirits did not fear light, so the skylight at the top of the warehouse had not been sealed.

The corpses lay on the ground, while several cursed spirits with long hair completely covering their faces crouched in the corners.

"Woo… woohoo…"

The cursed spirits turned around. They did not speak, merely letting out whimpers before lunging at Bai Cangshu.

Kenjaku had actually misjudged one thing: the instinctive fear ordinary people felt when facing cursed spirits, especially ones so similar to monsters.

Fear was also a negative emotion, one that could serve as a catalyst for cursed energy.

But Bai Cangshu did not feel fear.

Bai Cangshu lowered his eyelids and walked toward the cursed spirits, then extended a hand.

Boom!

He threw a punch, sending a transparent shockwave visible to the naked eye flying through the air.

Bang!

The cursed spirit was instantly sent flying and slammed into the wall.

Cursed spirits were actually different from ghosts in the usual sense. They were special lifeforms with physical bodies. They could touch and kill humans, and humans could touch them in turn.

It was simply that attacks without cursed energy could not deal effective damage to cursed spirits.

Bai Cangshu frowned. That punch had done nothing. In other words, he had failed to grasp the so-called flow of cursed energy.

He had not mastered the power that made his negative emotions surge forth.

Bai Cangshu clicked his tongue and continued walking toward the cursed spirits.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Terrifying impacts rang out without end, but Bai Cangshu still could not find the feeling of cursed energy.

This was not an ability infusion granted through the Space’s recognition. Bai Cangshu had insisted on reaching out and touching cursed energy himself.

It was worth mentioning that coming into contact with cursed spirits had not completed his Spirit Contact achievement. Clearly, in the Space’s judgment, cursed spirits and spiritual entities were two different kinds of existence.

Bai Cangshu kept striking the cursed spirits’ bodies. These newly born cursed spirits were incredibly weak, and their attacks were not particularly strange. Their physical attacks were easy for Bai Cangshu to evade.

Thus, the scene turned into Bai Cangshu beating several cursed spirits one-sidedly.

A thought suddenly occurred to Bai Cangshu. There were many negative emotions, not just fear, hatred, and resentment.

A fervent look appeared on his face, and the corners of his mouth curled up.

"To be honest, you feel pretty good."

"And… you won’t break."

Bai Cangshu suddenly became interested. He usually trained his body and Martial Arts Mastery against sandbags and Iron Sand, which lacked any sense of interaction.

Now that he had these living punching bags that would not break, the desire for destruction in his heart rapidly grew.

It was an irrepressible impulse belonging to someone accustomed to fighting, accustomed to physical violence.

Just as when you clearly possessed the strength to smash a wall with one punch, seeing a fragile body could sometimes make you instinctively want to punch it.

This did not mean Bai Cangshu was a pervert or anything. It was humanity’s innate desire to destroy and attack.

When children saw things, they liked to smash them. When they saw flowers, they wanted to trample them.

There was no other reason. Destruction itself was an instinct rooted deep in human bones.

Bai Cangshu twisted his right palm and suddenly thrust it forward.

Fox Shadow Style: Rakshasa Palm!

Boom!

The cursed spirit’s body instantly curled up as it flew backward, as if it were about to be torn apart.

Bai Cangshu no longer cared about figuring out how to use cursed energy. He began treating these attacks as a form of training.

Continuously unleashing terrifying physical violence.

Inside the Itadori residence, Yuji Itadori was cleaning the house. Kenjaku, seated by the window, sensed the constant impacts coming from the warehouse and frowned.

Had he misjudged? Was this "Mercenary Tao," in the end, merely a monkey incapable of mastering cursed energy?

It was not impossible to defeat these low-grade cursed spirits entirely through brute force, but such a so-called victory was the boring sort of thing only monkeys would show off.

Kenjaku shifted his attention and began considering what other arrangements he could make if this chess piece proved unusable.

The identity of that red-robed man had always puzzled Kenjaku. In a thousand years, he had never heard of such a sorcerer.

Could he be from a family of mystic arts practitioners passed down in that ancient empire next door?

Japan’s Onmyōdō and Jujutsu Kaisen had originated early, but no one could guarantee that the ancient empire with its long history did not possess an even older, more systematic system of techniques.

As for Suguru Geto, who was currently gathering the Jujutsu World’s forces in Kyoto out in the open—

Kenjaku did not care. He wanted Suguru Geto’s technique, but it was not yet time…

Only with someone like Suguru Geto standing in the open could people like him remain hidden in the shadows.

That was Kenjaku’s philosophy for dealing with the world.

Much of the network and power had actually been deliberately arranged by him around Suguru Geto. There was no other reason: he needed a target that could make that red-robed man act again.

Only if the other party acted again would Kenjaku have a chance to catch even the slightest trace.

Compared to that, something like a nuclear explosion was merely Suguru Geto’s pointless rebellion.

If you wanted an incomparably terrifying cursed spirit born from a nuclear explosion, then have it. So long as you could stop the cursed spirit created from that Six Eyes Sorcerer, what did it matter if you became the pinnacle of Jujutsu Sorcerers for a few years, or even decades?

He wanted Suguru Geto, this genius Jujutsu Sorcerer who had fallen from great good into great evil, to become the so-called savior, to become a target in everyone’s sights.

As Kenjaku thought this, a terrifying roar suddenly erupted from the warehouse.

Buzz!

A black flash lit up in an instant, piercing through the barrier outside the warehouse.

Kenjaku slowly turned his head and looked toward the warehouse again.

The corners of his mouth rose, revealing a smile that nearly tore apart the skin of this decaying body.

"What an… undisguised desire for destruction."

"Mercenary Tao, is this the… purity you spoke of…?"

You have completed the hidden faction mission: Trial of the Millennial Sorcerer

You have mastered the special energy: Cursed Energy

Using cursed energy consumes both mental strength and energy. When mental strength and energy are too low, cursed energy cannot be used.

Bai Cangshu looked at the cursed spirit whose head had been shattered, purple blood flowing across the ground, unable to rise again.

He revealed a somewhat wistful expression.

He clenched his fist and truly felt that energy, completely different from Hamon.

If the energy produced by Hamon flowed through the blood vessels, flesh, and bones, then cursed energy was an energy flowing through a special layer between flesh and soul. That cold, tingling sensation could not be controlled by the muscles.

Or rather, controlling cursed energy could not be called "control."

Jujutsu Sorcerers were instead "commanding" cursed energy. With their will and emotions, they generated a powerful intent to achieve a certain purpose.

Cursed energy then moved accordingly.

Hamon was a positive, perceptible, tangible power that truly existed and could be controlled;

Cursed energy, however, was a negative, difficult-to-perceive power that leaned entirely toward the spiritual.

Milestone: Black Flash (Rare) progress updated. Current: 1/3

Bai Cangshu’s fierce, unrestrained punch had drawn out the cursed energy within him through his desire for destruction, perfectly synchronizing it with the fist he threw and creating an explosive attack.

Black Flash was a special phenomenon that occurred when cursed energy was struck out of the body through physical techniques.

Because cursed energy could not be completely "controlled," Jujutsu Sorcerers could not perfectly align the timing of cursed energy’s impact with a physical blow.

This resulted in two special methods of attack.

One was Divergent Fist, which occurred when the body was too strong and the punch too fast, causing the cursed energy impact to lag noticeably behind. The punch struck the target first, then the cursed energy impact dealt more severe secondary damage.

The other occurred when the interval between a physical blow and the cursed energy impact was within 0.000001 seconds. At that moment, the intense cursed energy became completely synchronized with the body, flesh and soul becoming one, producing an extraordinarily terrifying attack that slightly distorted space and turned the cursed energy black.

The power that erupted in that instant far exceeded the sum of a Jujutsu Sorcerer’s physical strength and cursed energy, reaching the power of 2.5.

It was one of the highest-level attack methods among Jujutsu Sorcerers.

Because the conditions were extraordinarily harsh, there were almost no Jujutsu Sorcerers in the world who could use Black Flash deliberately (before Yuji Itadori).

Bai Cangshu savored the sensation and threw another punch, but there was no sign of Black Flash this time.

Still, the power of that punch left Bai Cangshu utterly exhilarated.

He looked toward the other cursed spirits in the warehouse, greed in his eyes.

Knock, knock, knock!

The warehouse door was knocked on, and Yuji Itadori’s voice rang out from outside.

"Mr. Mercenary Tao, Grandpa says he needs to see you."

Bang! Bang!

A series of impacts sounded. Bai Cangshu then pushed open the door and walked out, his expression perfectly normal. Yuji Itadori looked into the warehouse and saw the patients he had rescued sprawled everywhere.

"Ah, Mr. Mercenary Tao, what exactly did you do?"

"Don’t be afraid, everyone. I’ll save you right away."

Hearing Yuji Itadori’s voice, Bai Cangshu paused. He turned back to look at the Shōnen who should have been the Child of the World, yet was now being commanded like a fool.

The corners of his mouth rose. Bai Cangshu returned to Kenjaku, and his bearing and expression had completely changed.

Bai Cangshu tilted his head back slightly, his expression unrestrained. This was not deliberate; cursed energy was simply that kind of energy.

Powerful emotions gave rise to powerful cursed energy.

Conversely, powerful cursed energy also gave rise to emotions that were difficult to suppress.

Bai Cangshu’s instincts were declaring to Kenjaku at that moment—this is what I truly am. I will not be casually commanded by you, and besides…

I am strong. It is not as though I have no chance of killing you.

"You’ve awakened. Congratulations, Mercenary Tao. You are no longer a monkey."