The Black Stone Buddha

"Captain, do you think Ren Zenin is really as strong as the rumors say?"

"If he can truly fight Satoru Gojo back and forth, then what are we even doing around the Ryukawa family?"

Outside the Ryukawa estate, a black-clothed member of the action team lowered his voice and spoke to the bearded middle-aged man beside him.

The captain listened, then secretly kicked the new Headquarters recruit.

After that, he looked carefully around them.

When he saw that the others were all focused on the estate, he lowered his voice and said, "Do not talk nonsense about this."

"Other people may not know, but I know very well. In that Imperial Contest, Ren Zenin defeated Satoru Gojo. A friend of mine saw it with his own eyes."

"He is an heir from one of the Hundred Families and was lucky enough to attend. He could not even survive one exchange before Ren Zenin knocked him unconscious."

"Seriously?" The black-clothed youth stared at his captain in disbelief. "An heir from the Hundred Families? A Grade 1 sorcerer?"

He could hardly imagine what kind of monster could defeat a Grade 1 sorcerer of the Hundred Families so easily.

"Keep your voice down."

The captain covered the young man's mouth.

The youth made a few muffled sounds, then looked at him pitifully. Only then did the captain let go.

"Enough," the captain said. "That level of matter is not something we can take part in."

"And even if Ren Zenin truly has special-grade strength, it does not matter."

"The First Acting Chairman is here. He is a genuine top-ranked sorcerer."

"Stop wasting time. Focus your cursed energy. This is our first large-scale operation. If something goes wrong, no one can protect you."

As he spoke, he kicked the young man in the rear.

The youth smiled awkwardly, shrank his neck, and hurried back to concentrating his cursed energy.

The captain walked into the nearby shadow.

His eyes sharpened as he noticed a red glimmer no bigger than a bean in the corner.

Under the fluctuations of his cursed energy, there should not have been anything that could escape his senses.

"What is that?"

A black crow flew out of the darkness with a hoarse cry. Its red eyes flickered with a bloody glow.

"So it was just a crow," the captain muttered. "Looks like I have been too tired lately."

He had just turned to return to his post when his shoulder suddenly sank.

It was as if something had climbed onto him.

A black crow stood on his shoulder, staring at him with strange eyes.

"Go on. Get off."

The captain waved his hand impatiently to drive it away.

He was not especially superstitious, but in Japanese folklore, crows were unlucky enough to make him feel irritated.

Suddenly, black light surged in the crow's eye.

The light was very faint.

In the next instant, a large hand emerged from the crow's eye and clamped directly over the captain's head.

"Ah..."

He did not even have time to make a full sound. The terrifying hand sealed his mouth and dragged his body into the shadow.

A thin layer of mist rose around them, carrying a trace of coldness.

"Captain? Captain, are you all right?"

The young black-clothed member waited for a while and, seeing that the captain had not returned, hurried over to check.

For some reason, his heart felt uneasy.

Slap.

A large hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.

The already frightened youth screamed.

"What are you shouting for? Get back to your position."

The captain appeared behind him and scolded him.

Then he grabbed the young man's collar and dragged him away.

Behind the captain, a strange hand moved under his skin. In the blink of an eye, it had completely slipped beneath the surface of his body.

The crow cried in the air.

Black feathers fell across the sky.

Vaguely, it seemed as if an invisible hand had covered the whole firmament.

The owner of that hand revealed an evil and pure smile, as if watching a rare and entertaining play.

A bloody comedy with the Three Great Families and Jujutsu Headquarters as its supporting actors.

Inside the estate, Toji lightly tossed the stone Buddha in his hand.

It looked like an ordinary stone Buddha, yet it had drawn all of the First Acting Chairman's attention. In Number One's eyes, deep greed was hidden, like a terrifying beast opening its mouth to swallow everything.

Ren even saw the old man's body shift slightly.

"Boss, what do you say?" Toji said, catching the Buddha in his large hand.

Number One's chest seemed to tighten.

Wasting a heavenly treasure.

An irrational anger rose in his heart when he saw the stone Buddha treated that way, but his expression did not reveal it.

"This is the Gate?" Ren asked.

No matter how carefully Number One hid his thoughts, they could not escape Ren's eyes.

Ren looked at the Buddha, and deep cursed energy moved in his pupils.

His pupils shrank.

It was as if he had found a brand-new toy.

Within the plain stone Buddha, he saw an extremely terrifying and evil curse.

The curse's aura was fearsome. Even in deep sleep, it made Ren's body stiffen for an instant.

For the first time since coming to this world, Ren instinctively sensed danger.

Real danger.

A danger that could make even him fall.

It was hidden inside the stone Buddha.

If the curse inside revived, even the current Ren might find it difficult to exorcise.

"You felt it," Number One said sharply.

He had noticed the instant stiffness in Ren's body. With age came experience, and he immediately understood that this young man had seen through part of the seal on the Gate.

"Interesting," Ren said. "What is inside this?"

"A monster of this level could not have been sealed by the Ryukawa ancestor, no matter how strong he was."

"This kind of curse is not something the current era could nurture."

Cursed spirits were born from human negative emotions.

The greater the negative emotions, the stronger the curse that could be born.

Modern society was not without powerful special-grade curses, but compared with the blood-soaked Warring States era, it was nothing.

Only an age wrapped in negative emotion could give birth to such a terrifying aura.

An aura even above Nightmare.

"That is not something you are qualified to know right now," Number One said, waving a hand.

Ren clearly did not accept that.

He tapped his forehead lightly with one finger and looked at Number One with a faint smile.

"I do not remember negotiating with you. The Gate seems to be in our hands."

"Or do you think your speed is faster than my speed in breaking this stone Buddha?"

"Do you want to try?"

Ren did not know why the old man valued the stone Buddha so much, but he knew Number One was not the kind of man who would give in because he feared a cursed spirit causing chaos.

The old man who spoke of righteousness was the true self-interested one.

Benevolence and morality were simply tools to him.

If those tools stopped helping him, he would throw away those useless feelings without hesitation.

So Ren knew the old man did not truly care about protecting the stone Buddha. The stone Buddha, or the Gate as they called it, absolutely hid a secret.

For that secret, Number One had offered such generous conditions to tempt him.

Toji already knew some of the secret between the Gate and the Hundred Families, but Ren's bad taste made him want to force Number One to speak the most hidden part himself.

Number One's brows tightened. Rage rose in his eyes, and his hands trembled slightly around his cane.

He watched the scene with great interest.

No wonder Ren was his boss.

If this had been Toji, he probably would have said everything at once. How would he have had the chance to watch such a good show?

His only regret was that he had finished his beer too early. A scene like this had no drink to go with it.

"Young friend, do not go too far."

"Too far?" Ren said lazily. "You can choose not to speak."

"But this thing looks like it might ward off evil. Hanging it over the agency door should be fun."

The threat in his words was already plain.

Number One closed his eyes slightly and pressed down the anger in his heart. His teeth trembled once before he finally spoke in a deep voice.

"You should know that cursed energy is the accumulation of negative emotions. Sorcerers have marks within their bodies that can refine cursed energy from negative emotions and use it for themselves."

"Ordinary people do not have those marks. Their cursed energy leaks outward, gathering through emotion until curses are born."

"In modern society, this is basic knowledge every sorcerer must master. But in that era, when jujutsu was still being explored, even sorcerers could not control the cursed energy in their own bodies. It would flow out uncontrollably."

Ren felt a chill rise in his heart.

A sorcerer's cursed energy was far thicker than an ordinary person's.

If even an ordinary sorcerer's cursed energy leaked completely, the curse formed from it would far exceed a normal curse.

If that cursed energy merged with accumulated emotion, it would create terrifying power beyond comparison.

"You should have thought of what would happen under those circumstances," Number One said.

His voice became distant.

Endless red unfolded behind him, as if everything had been brought back to an era where death and destruction were the main themes.

War spread across the land. Corpses lay everywhere. Endless murderous intent condensed into illusory cities across the battlefield.

Blood seemed to become a long river.

It was like the Styx rising and the abyss returning.

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