Purity

Mercenary Tao had lost?

Lilith was caught off guard. Before she was struck, she had already seen the Black Ghost, but she had been too slow to react and was heavily wounded.

When Mercenary Tao later helped her evade the missile’s direct blast zone, she had felt as though they were fighting side by side. That was why she had warned him while tending to her injuries.

But she had not expected Mercenary Tao to seem as though he had already been taken down by some ability in that brief instant.

Millennium Worm pulled his mask back up. Cursed Speech was indeed a powerful ability, but it also came with many side effects.

First, this technique was passive. Without restrictions, every word he spoke would become Cursed Speech, needlessly consuming large amounts of cursed energy and easily harming allies by mistake.

Second, this ability inflicted an enormous backlash on its user. The stronger the Cursed Speech used, or the stronger the target it was used on, the greater the backlash he would suffer.

Millennium Worm had therefore purchased an exclusive item from the Goddess to limit this side effect. The mask he wore was called the Exclusive Item: Cursed Speech Seal. While wearing it, he would not produce Cursed Speech.

Correspondingly, once he removed it, the effects of his Cursed Speech would be enhanced.

"Watch out, boss! Mercenary Tao’s heartbeat has returned!"

Millennium Worm’s gaze sharpened. Mercenary Tao’s fallen body froze in midair, then slowly dissipated.

The next moment, a tremendous force appeared before him.

Mercenary Tao stepped forward as though blinking through space and arrived right in front of him. Millennium Worm reacted just as swiftly, instantly raising both hands and crossing them before himself as he lowered his center of gravity.

Bai Cangshu’s Spiral Internal Force remained contained without erupting. When his palm touched Millennium Worm’s crossed arms, it seemed utterly powerless.

Millennium Worm’s expression changed as he felt Mercenary Tao’s palm pass over his arm.

The next moment, the Spiral Internal Force exploded.

Bang!

Millennium Worm toppled backward. Violent force burst across his cheek, rattling his brain and plunging his vision into darkness.

Bai Cangshu had fully mastered Sensen no Sen. In close combat like this, he could disperse the Rakshasa Palm to pass through a defensive stance, then gather half a Rakshasa Palm at the last moment and strike the opponent’s face.

He pressed his advantage. His outstretched right palm pulled downward, grabbing the collar of his staggering opponent and yanking him back. It completely ruined the man’s balance while also preventing him from leaving his attack range.

His right fist bent, and his muscles bulged in an instant.

Creak—

At the instant his body drew taut like a greatbow, Bai Cangshu’s eyes flickered. Intense killing intent appeared as a Black Ghost emerged behind him, its scimitar-like hand slashing toward him.

Normally, IBM, the Black Ghost, could not be seen by non-Ajin. However, ordinary people could observe it when it revealed killing intent during an attack, or when the target’s emotions became extremely intense.

As Bai Cangshu confirmed that Lilith’s intelligence had been accurate, he also determined his strategy for the rest of the battle.

Clang!

IBM’s slash was effortlessly caught. Bai Cangshu turned and unleashed his strength, directly gripping IBM’s hand blade and flinging it through the air at the staggering Reincarnator.

Boom!

An explosion erupted directly before Bai Cangshu.

As Bai Cangshu’s eyes shifted, he saw that the man who had been struck also had strange mouths on both hands.

Deidara’s Kekkei Genkai, Explosion Release?!

Sent flying dozens of meters away, Bai Cangshu’s body was charred black, and his ribs were clearly visible. Yet he merely wiped the blood from his face, and his injuries had already begun rapidly healing.

"What a coincidence. A battle between two undead-type Reincarnators, ha…"

Bai Cangshu’s tone rose. That single exchange had begun to excite him.

There was no doubt that the Reincarnator in the black trench coat before him was quite capable.

Millennium Worm also rose from the ground. He squeezed his throat, then a flash appeared in his hand. He raised a pistol and cleanly fired into his head from beneath his jaw.

Bang!

Blood and brain matter sprayed out. His body seemed about to collapse, but after merely swaying twice, his consciousness had already recovered.

At the same time, he removed his mask. The throat ruined by using the extreme Cursed Speech command "die" also recovered along with his resurrection.

Seeing that Mercenary Tao had already noticed his other ability, he no longer bothered concealing it and instead spoke directly.

"My luck is pretty good. I obtained Ajin bloodline, then acquired the Innate Technique of Cursed Speech, along with a self-destructing Kekkei Genkai… I’m quite hard to deal with."

By revealing his abilities, Millennium Worm imposed a "Binding Vow" upon himself, granting the effects of his Jujutsu Kaisen an additional boost.

The Jujutsu Kaisen system was likewise an ability system with certain "mind-over-matter" characteristics. Using a Binding Vow in a situation like this was extremely fitting.

Bai Cangshu understood the man’s little scheme and shook his head with a smile.

"Knowing that I’ve seen through you, you reveal your abilities in advance to increase your own strength…"

"Very clever."

"But…"

Bai Cangshu blinked once. In his field of vision, the man in the black trench coat before him had also been marked by a ring of red radiance.

"But?"

Millennium Worm responded, his voice carrying a questioning tone.

Yet he had already controlled his IBM to approach the injured Lilith. Since he had failed to instantly kill Mercenary Tao with Cursed Speech, and had realized that Mercenary Tao not only possessed High-Speed Regeneration but also a certain degree of immortality—

Millennium Worm was already prepared to engage Mercenary Tao in a drawn-out battle and wait for reinforcements to enter the field.

He knew very well that since Mercenary Tao had violated the Iron Rule, those Title-level Reincarnator teams that considered themselves above all others and intended to divide up this world’s resources would never let Mercenary Tao go.

They would not place all their hopes on him.

"But your purity isn’t enough…"

Bai Cangshu spoke with a hint of regret in his voice.

The other man was undoubtedly an outstanding Reincarnator. Whether it was his ability combinations or combat mentality, even after falling into a disadvantage in hand-to-hand combat, he had controlled the Black Ghost in advance to cooperate with his Explosion Release and prepare a counterattack. Even after realizing that his abilities had been exposed, he had immediately used the Binding Vow characteristics of Jujutsu Kaisen to turn a disadvantage into an advantage.

Yet it was precisely because he was so "clever" that it further proved his impurity.

A Jujutsu Sorcerer who was so rational could never reach the ultimate extreme.

Millennium Worm curled his lips into a mocking smile.

"Someone like you is probably one of those people chasing some kind of limit or purity. How boring."

He clasped his hands together and casually kneaded them a few times. White clay took the shape of missiles.

He loathed the "randomness" of the space, and he loathed people like Mercenary Tao even more—people who had clearly gained powerful abilities through good fortune, yet insisted on finding all sorts of reasons to claim that it was their own strength.

Why should a Reincarnator pursue such things? With nothing more than a sensible ability combination, one could become powerful enough!

As Chakra circulated, he tossed several missiles resembling clay toys. Their explosive power was beyond imagination.

Naturally, the missiles were not aimed at Mercenary Tao.

But before his raised hand could fall, Mercenary Tao seized it. The other man moved as fast as a ghost. Even as Millennium Worm analyzed Mercenary Tao’s combat power, he had already used the Substitution Technique.

He broke free, and his substitute immediately exploded.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

On the other side, his missiles also exploded in front of the female Reincarnator. Yet a blue-white barrier appeared before her, and she was not killed outright.

"You wanted to distract me by attacking that woman. You wanted to stall for time…"

"You deliberately shaped the clay into missiles because you wanted to cover for the person hiding a kilometer away and launching rockets?"

Bai Cangshu exposed Millennium Worm’s thoughts one by one, shaking his head.

"Don’t you understand yet? I’m not an opponent you can fight with such a half-baked mindset."

Bai Cangshu was in no hurry to activate Instant. He greatly enjoyed fighting Reincarnators with this kind of potential.

"Fine. How about you kill that woman, while I kill your two subordinates? Then we can fight to our hearts’ content afterward."

The smile on Bai Cangshu’s face grew increasingly cruel. Then he raised his foot and lightly tapped down, his body vanishing like the wind.

Wind God Leg!

Millennium Worm’s heart jolted. He no longer dared continue pursuing Lilith and immediately pressed his earpiece.

"Retreat, now!"

"Ah!"

"Boss, Mercenary Tao found us…"