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Page 396
Su Nu grinned, revealing a malicious smile, and looked Zhou Ye up and down with great interest.
"There are some fools who don't know their own mortality and dare to wake me up."
He flexed his fingers, feeling the surging power within his body and the unfathomable presence before him.
"Since you've got some nerve, I'll let you die a quick death. I'll use you to test the mettle of this boring place."
The others behind him, including Gojo Satoru, felt a chill run down their spines. They knew better than anyone how terrible the consequences would be if this King of Curses got serious.
However, Zhou Ye ignored all his threats and showed no emotional reaction whatsoever.
His gaze was like that of a top engineer scrutinizing a problematic piece of code, filled with pure, emotionless analysis.
"The activity is very high, and the fusion degree between the soul and the host has reached 17.4%. There is a reverse erosion phenomenon, which has caused slight wear and tear on the host's soul base."
Zhou Ye's voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly, including Su Nuo's.
"The curse's structure is unstable, its energy composition is mixed, and it contains a large amount of meaningless negative emotions. Overall assessment: High-risk junk."
Su Nuo's smile froze instantly.
Scrap?
He, the strongest curse king in a thousand years, regarded by countless sorcerers as the embodiment of natural disaster, is nothing more than a "piece of trash" in this man's mouth.
After the utter astonishment came a raging fire.
"You brat...you're asking for it!"
Su Nuo laughed in anger. He was too lazy to waste any more words and directly used his strongest power to make this arrogant guy understand what true terror is.
He formed a seal with his hands.
"The field expands——"
A massive surge of magical power erupted from his body, preparing to construct the Temple of Death capable of severing and crushing all things.
However, nothing happened.
The space around him seemed to be frozen at absolute zero. The moment his magical power left his body, it instantly stagnated, becoming as heavy as a rock, impossible to construct according to his will. His domain, which he was so proud of and which he developed as naturally as breathing, was now like an appliance that had been unplugged, completely shut down.
For the first time, the rage on Su Nuo's face turned into surprise and doubt.
He couldn't understand it. It wasn't suppressed by stronger magical power, nor was it broken by some kind of spell. It was a more fundamental "prohibition" from the level of rules. Just as fish cannot breathe air, and birds cannot fly in the deep sea. In this space, his "power" lost its foundation.
"Here, I am the rule."
Zhou Ye's calm voice confirmed his guess.
He slowly stepped forward, and in the instant that Su Nuo was too shocked to move, he extended a finger and gently touched his forehead, which was covered with black lines.
There was no impact, no pain.
But in Su Nuo's perception, his entire soul, his indestructible self-awareness formed from a thousand years of killing and curses, was forcibly dragged out by an irresistible force and thrown into a boundless ocean of data composed of golden code.
His memories, from his time as a human sorcerer to every battle after becoming the King of Curses; his power, the principles of the Demon Slayer's cooking, the energy formula of fire magic; everything about him is being instantly read, analyzed, categorized, and marked.
He felt like he had become a specimen, completely stripped naked and placed on an autopsy table, every cell and every thought of his being clearly seen.
This feeling terrified him more than death itself.
Zhou Ye's voice, like a divine pronouncement, resounded directly into the depths of Su Nuo's soul. The voice was devoid of emotion, possessing only absolute coldness and neutrality, like a system notification.
"Give you two choices."
"First, accept formatting, strip away all malicious and aggressive memes, and become a pure curse energy body, merging into the Purification Project to become one of the cornerstones for maintaining the balance of the world."
Second, data deemed unrecoverable and harmful will be completely deleted.
Format? Delete?
Su Nuo's millennia-old understanding was completely overturned at this moment. He had never imagined that his existence could be defined in such a casual way.
He struggled, trying to muster even a sliver of strength to resist, only to find himself like an insect caught in a spider's web, the more he struggled, the tighter he was bound. That sea of data was his prison.
For the first time in a thousand years, he felt an emotion called "fear." It was not the fear of death, but the fear of the unknown and incomprehensible.
He looked at the man in front of him, whose calm eyes did not reflect his own image, as if he did not exist at all.
Su Nuo used all his willpower to squeeze out a few words through gritted teeth.
"What...are you?"
"An ordinary person with some strength and a little knowledge"
"An ordinary person? Even a child wouldn't believe that."
Chapter 355 Old Deng's Madness in the Old Era
Kyoto, secret meeting room of the Jujutsu Directorate.
The air was as heavy as solidified lead; the mingled scents of old wood and expensive incense could not mask the decay and panic in the hearts of those present. The mess from the last meeting had not yet been completely cleaned up, and this time, the atmosphere was even more oppressive.
In the center of the conference room, a holographic projection was repeatedly playing the same video. It wasn't the blurry image recorded by shikigami (spirits) that sorcerers were familiar with; it was a multi-angle live stream with shockingly high clarity. In the video, the cursed land of Aokigahara Forest, illuminated by three golden pillars of light, appeared as if touched by a divine hand, all filth and despair instantly purified. The top-tier hypothetical cursed spirit "Death Seeker," a terrifying existence that even the Directorate General couldn't handle, only able to classify as "untouchable," was "decomposed," "filtered," and "neutralized" in less than ten minutes. Finally, even its core soul was "guided" away by a beam of white light descending from the sky.
The entire process was devoid of bloody battles or clashes of magical power; it was more like a precise, efficient, and unquestionable "miracle construction."
"Snapped!"
An antique celadon teacup was smashed to the ground, shattering into pieces. An elder sitting at the head of the table, his hair and beard bristling, trembled slightly with anger.
"Sorcery! This is sorcery that will shake the very foundations of the nation!" he roared, his voice sharp and piercing. "What concept of purification? What Celestial Council? A bunch of cowardly rats hiding their heads and tails, using such unheard-of methods to bewitch people's hearts. They are trying to uproot our millennia-old tradition of sorcery!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than a young member in charge of intelligence rushed in, his face deathly pale.
"My lords... something terrible has happened!" His voice trembled so badly that he almost knelt on the ground. "Just now... just now the final report came from the window that was being monitored by Hisahito Itadori... the aura of Sukuna Ryoumen has completely disappeared!"
"what?!"
"What does 'disappeared' mean? Was it suppressed?"
"It wasn't suppression!" the young man cried out, his voice trembling with emotion. "The report said it felt...like a virus on a computer being...deleted directly from the code level by the administrator. It wasn't sealing, it wasn't exorcism, it was deletion! Completely erased from this world, leaving no trace of its existence!"
Suddenly, the entire conference room erupted in chaos.
If the previous "purification" demonstration made them feel threatened and angry, then the news that "Ryoumen Sukuna has been deleted" pushed them directly into an abyss called despair.
What is Ryoumen Sukuna? He is the King of Curses, the strongest in a thousand years, the most important card in their hand, and the ultimate deterrent they use to check and balance Gojo Satoru and maintain the existing power structure. They can tolerate Itadori Hisahito as a vessel living, and even tacitly approve of Gojo Satoru's protection, because they believe that Sukuna, this fierce tiger, is ultimately confined in a cage they can control.
But now, the cage is still there, but the tiger is gone.
It was easily eliminated by that organization that called itself the "Council".
"Even... even the King of Curses can be dealt with easily... what... what do we have to fight back against?"
A member of a collateral branch of the Kamo family muttered to himself, his eyes completely vacant and devoid of any fighting spirit.
"shut up!"
A furious shout, like a thunderclap, rang out. The guest elder of the Zen temple's supervisory office, an old man with one eye, slammed his cane, made of a top-grade magical implement, heavily onto the tatami mat, producing a dull, resounding thud.
"The more this is the case, the less we must back down!"
A crazed light flashed in the old man's single eye. "The more sacred their power appears, the more it reveals their hypocrisy! Behind us lies an order passed down for millennia, the dignity earned by countless ancestors with their blood and bones! Gojo Satoru betrayed us, siding with these gods of unknown origin, wanting to trample everything we have underfoot. Should we just offer our necks to be slaughtered?"
His words were like a shot of adrenaline, injected into the hearts of these old men on their deathbeds. At a certain critical point, fear transformed into a desperate, all-or-nothing madness.
“That’s right! The elder of the Zen Academy is right!”
"We must not let this millennium-old foundation be ruined in our hands!"
Looking at the crowd whose morale had been rekindled, the one-eyed old man revealed a sinister smile. He knew that the time had come.
"Since they won't give us a way out, then we'll overturn the table, and nobody will get any food!" He lowered his voice, each word seeming to be squeezed out from between his teeth.
"I propose activating the Tianyuan Assimilation Emergency Plan!"
"what?!"
"That's insane!"
The mere mention of this term sent a chill down the spines of even the most radical elders. Assimilation of the Heavenly Origin was the highest level of taboo in the world of sorcery, a suicidal, all-or-nothing tactic. Forcibly interrupting the assimilation process between the Heavenly Origin and the Stardust Body, and then reversing it, would force the Heavenly Origin's will to merge with the more than one hundred million non-sorcerers in Japan. The result would be the entire Japanese archipelago transformed into a purgatory of sorcery power, where all ordinary people would be distorted and driven to madness by the immense flow of information and sorcery power, ultimately creating an unprecedented, colossal curse that would engulf the entire nation.
"Are they insane? We've been driven to the brink!" The one-eyed old man surveyed the crowd, his voice chilling. "This is the only way we can take them down with us! Since they want to change the rules of this world, then we'll make the entire set of rules, along with the 100 million people on this land, shatter together!"
Faced with an absolute threat of death, morality and reason become worthless. After a moment of silence, one elder after another slowly nodded.
"agree."
"agree."
"That's it!"
Once the decision was made, the subsequent plans unfolded smoothly.
"Immediately contact all registered curse caster groups, including the remnants of the Panxing Cult, and tell them that our goals are aligned with theirs," the one-eyed old man ordered.
"The Directorate General will officially provide them with the original form of the top-grade cursed artifact [Prison Gate], as well as Gojo Satoru's real-time location. If they can successfully seal Gojo Satoru, they can unify the entire cursed arts world afterward!"
This is a devil's pact. In order to eliminate Gojo Satoru, they are willing to join forces with their former sworn enemy and promise a reward that would drive any ambitious person mad.
As soon as he finished speaking, another elder of the Kamo family, who had been silent all along, tremblingly took out a wooden box from his arms. The box was wrapped in layers of rune-covered cloth and exuded an ominous aura.
He unraveled the runes, revealing a repulsive cube with countless eyes on its surface.
【Prison Gate】.
The old man gently stroked the box with his wrinkled and livid hands, his eyes filled with resentment and glee.
“Gojo Satoru…do you think you can do whatever you want just because you’ve found a new backer?” he murmured, as if confiding in the cube. “Even if we drag the whole of Japan down with you, we…we will definitely bring your era to a complete end!”
……
Meanwhile, in a penthouse suite at a luxury hotel in Tokyo.
Mingming, dressed in a comfortable silk robe, was leisurely sipping a glass of expensive red wine. On the tablet in front of her, two recently received commission emails were displayed side by side.
A document from the Cursed Arts Directorate, encrypted to the highest level. It offers a perfect opportunity to assist the Cursed Arts Group in sealing Gojo Satoru, with an astronomical reward and a promise of a post-war status second only to the three founding families.
Another email came from an unknown sender named "Sky Council - External Liaison Department," signed "Kasumigaoka Utaha." The message was simpler: In the upcoming "Shibuya Theater," play the role of a "profit-driven bounty hunter" and cooperate with us to complete an intelligence delivery. The reward is ten times the Director's quote, paid in gold.
As Mingming looked at the two price lists, a truly bright light shone in her eyes, which always carried a hint of languor. She swirled the red wine in her glass, a playful smile spreading across her face.
She picked up her phone and dialed a number.
"Hey, is this Youyou? Get ready."