The jujutsu higher-ups were wiped out.
This news shook the very foundation of the Japanese jujutsu world like a massive earthquake.
A power vacuum emerged.
Countless deeply entrenched chains of interest snapped overnight.
The entire jujutsu world plunged into unprecedented chaos and turmoil.
Seizing this opportunity, Satoru Gojo initiated his long-planned purge.
With lightning speed, he uprooted the decaying, stubborn remnants of factions that had long fallen behind the times.
...
Meanwhile.
In an unknown hideout occupied by cursed spirits.
Jogo, Mahito, Hanami, and Kenjaku—who was occupying Suguru Geto's body—were sitting together.
Suddenly.
A fleeting yet incredibly pure surge of massive cursed energy swept past without warning, so potent that it made their very souls tremble.
That cursed energy was pure and condensed, feeling like the source and sovereign of all cursed energy in the world.
Jogo, who had been talking animatedly, abruptly stopped.
Mahito, who always wore a twisted smile, had his expression freeze for the first time.
"What was... that just now?"
The volcano on Jogo's head uneasily spewed a few wisps of black smoke.
Kenjaku wore an unprecedentedly solemn expression on Suguru Geto's face.
His thousand-year-old brain frantically analyzed the nature of that power.
"Has a new King of Curses been born?" he muttered to himself.
He immediately issued an order.
"All plans are temporarily suspended."
"Until we investigate the source of this power, no member is to act rashly."
...
At this moment, Ian was completely unaware of and entirely uninterested in what was happening in the outside world.
He was having a blast, eagerly experimenting with the various cursed techniques brought by the mod.
He extended a finger and tapped the empty air.
A miniature [Blue] formed at his fingertip, distorting the space around it.
He then waved his hand back.
A crimson [Red] burst forth with a powerful repulsive force.
"Interesting."
Ian found these little tricks somewhat amusing.
Subsequently, he turned his attention to a feature that interested him even more.
[Race Switch].
With a thought, he selected the form of the Special Grade Cursed Spirit, Jogo, on the interface.
"Confirm."
The moment his mind confirmed the choice.
His body began to undergo a drastic transformation.
His skin turned into grayish-black rock, a single eye opened in the center of his face, and an iconic volcano sprouted on top of his head.
At the exact moment of his transformation.
Across the world, waves of primal fear toward volcanoes and magma, originating from the depths of human hearts, began to ripple.
This invisible, massive energy seemed to have found its new monarch, frantically converging toward Ian's location.
Ian clearly felt this power.
But after merely tasting it for a moment, he revealed a look of disgust.
'Too weak.'
'And too impure.'
'It's filled with too many boring, mortal negative emotions.'
He couldn't even be bothered to absorb it.
He simply waved his hand dismissively.
The fear energy rushing toward him was instantly dispersed like dust swatted away by an invisible hand.
...
Far away on the other side.
Jogo, who was discussing countermeasures with his companions, suddenly stiffened without any warning.
An irresistible sense of weakness, stemming from the very essence of his life, instantly swept through his entire body.
The burning volcano on his head began to rapidly extinguish at a visible rate.
The cursed energy within him leaked out frantically, like a punctured balloon.
"Jogo! What's wrong with you?"
Mahito exclaimed, having never seen Jogo in such a state.
Under the horrified gazes of Mahito and Hanami.
Jogo's already short body rapidly shrank and shriveled.
In the end, he actually became the size of a palm, limp and dying in Hanami's hand like a small action figure.
On the other side, Ian felt utterly bored after experiencing being a cursed spirit for just a short while.
He opened the interface again and switched back to his human form.
Following Ian's switch.
Jogo's completely drained power inexplicably and bizarrely began to slowly return to his body.
A few seconds later, he returned to his original state.
Jogo lay on the ground, still reeling from the shock, panting heavily as his single eye filled with extreme terror and bewilderment.
He completely failed to understand what had just happened.
It felt as if the source of his power had been casually granted and then casually stripped away by some supreme will.
This extreme fear of the unknown made the entire cursed spirit group's actions even more cautious.
For the first time, they realized.
It seemed this world had gained a "god" that they could neither comprehend nor resist.
And that "god" was currently feeling playful again.
"Being a cursed spirit is no fun."
"Next, let's turn into that interesting white-haired guy."
Ian willed it.
The [Race Switch] function activated once more.
This time, he selected Satoru Gojo.
A flash of light appeared.
His figure and facial features began to transform into Gojo's appearance.
The tall stature, the iconic white hair, and even the black blindfold that always covered his eyes were perfectly replicated.
The moment his transformation was complete.
The underlying rules of the entire world seemed to be violently pried open by an invisible crowbar.
The world lost its balance.
It was as if some supreme rule maintaining the world's balance simultaneously detected the existence of "two strongest jujutsu sorcerers."
This was an absolute paradox.
A world-level balancing mechanism was forcibly triggered.
Rumble—
A deafening roar that no one could hear suddenly echoed on the reverse side of the world.
Ancient curse users and special grade cursed spirits, who had been sealed for thousands of years or even died in various forbidden lands across Japan, began to awaken.
The layers of indestructible seals on those powerful curse users actually experienced a violent loosening at this very moment.
...
In a forbidden land suppressed within an endless dark abyss.
An ancient curse user, reduced to nothing but dry bones with purple soul fire burning in his eye sockets, felt his shackles weakening.
The countless chains wrapping around his skeleton let out groans of overwhelming strain.
"Has the opportunity finally arrived...?"
"I will definitely make today's jujutsu world suffer my wrath!"
He let out a silent roar.
...
At the cursed spirits' hideout.
Jogo, Hanami, Mahito, and the other cursed spirits clearly felt the concentration of cursed energy in the world skyrocketing at an abnormal rate.
The air itself became viscous.
Their power also rose with the tide in this surge.
This made them feel both excited and a sense of unease stemming from their instincts.
'Is there another massive shift in the world? Has another monster like Satoru Gojo appeared?'
However, Ian quickly lost interest in playing as Satoru Gojo.
He only tried it out for a moment before finding it incredibly boring.
Thus, he casually switched back to his normal state.
The world's balancing mechanism: '??? Where did that person just go?'
The surging tide of cursed energy instantly subsided.
The ancient seals that had loosened to their limits violently tightened again under the forced correction of the world's rules.
"No—!!!"
The ancient curse user in the abyss, seeing that he was only one step away from freedom, was forcefully dragged back into his cage.
His impotent rage at failing on the verge of success turned into a curse that echoed throughout the dark space.
The abnormal fluctuation of cursed energy came and went quickly.
After experiencing a brief "cursed energy climax," the entire world fell back into a bizarre calmness.
The jujutsu world, with its higher-ups annihilated, needed time to reorganize its order.
And the terrified cursed spirits chose to temporarily hunker down and wait to see what would happen.