When Locke's mad smile entered Jogo's field of vision, the shadow of death instantly wrapped around his body. The cold pierced his bone marrow, making him freeze in place, unable to move at all.
When truly faced with the threat of death, he realized that he was actually no different from those humans—still afraid, still wanting to retreat.
But soon, he noticed that the face of the other party was different from the one he remembered. This wasn't Nishida Kagetatsu, but another person.
"Nara... Locke?"
"It seems your intelligence isn't bad. Is someone helping you?"
Faced with Locke's question, Jogo did not answer. Instead, he was filled with rage. Only one thought remained in his mind.
Hanami... they never took us seriously at all!!
The flames of rage began to burn across his body, flickering together with the shadows.
"You bastard! Call Nishida Kagetatsu!!"
Completely despised, Jogo was furious and roared sharply at Locke. He suddenly concentrated an ultra-high-temperature cursed flame capable of burning everything in his palm, wrapped in a fierce wave of heat.
Faced with Jogo's flames, Locke simply casually pulled out his hand and raised it upward.
Suddenly, a shadow spike appeared five meters in front of him, and the sharp shadow directly cut the approaching fireball in half.
The uncontrolled flames spread wildly to both sides, and the scorching aftermath rolled out in a fan-shaped radius of five hundred meters behind him, burning everything in its path into scorched white earth.
Facing the air distortion caused by the high temperature, Locke brushed the white ash from his shoulder and said to Jogo with surprise:
"Yo, not bad. You still have some skill. I underestimated you."
Seeing that the other party had easily blocked his killing strike, Jogo couldn't help but become vigilant and remembered that his task was to buy time.
Locke's eyes swept over the two cursed spirits before him, and he already felt that something was wrong in his heart.
Recently, he had encountered special-grade cursed spirits with independent wisdom one after another. Anyone with a functioning brain would know that Jogo and his group considered each other comrades, so it was impossible that they hadn't recruited other special-grade cursed spirits.
In other words, unlike the original situation where there were only four special-grade cursed spirits, their number had at least doubled.
But he had carefully investigated the surrounding two-kilometer radius and confirmed that there were only two special-grade cursed spirits here—Jogo and Hanami. And the other party had announced his arrival with such a noisy entrance. Their behavior was truly abnormal.
This wasn't the posture of someone seeking revenge, nor was it about sealing him. It was more like wanting to die, or... buying time.
To confirm the suspicions in his heart, Locke was ready to conduct a test—using his most precious comrade.
"By the way, when Nishida Kagetatsu went to eliminate a cursed spirit a few days ago, he encountered a special-grade cursed spirit symbolizing earthquakes and natural disasters. What was it called... Wave Fat?"
Hearing the words "Wave Fat" in his ears, the blue veins around Jogo's single eye instantly bulged. His hands clenched tightly, his knuckles white, and he struggled to suppress the rage surging in his chest.
After all, he had sent Wave Fat to test Kagetatsu, but in the end, he was the cause of Wave Fat's tragic death. Not even his name was remembered.
But what made him even angrier was that Locke only gave him a thoughtful look for a moment, then smiled, waved his hand, and said without a care:
"It seems that's not the name. Forget it. It doesn't matter. She died so quickly, there's no need to remember her name. But I do remember that she looked very... ugly."
Very... ugly?
Jogo's teeth were nearly ground to pieces. The crater above his head frantically spewed magma and black smoke, and every violent eruption directly released the anger in his heart.
Are you kidding me!
When he thought that it was his own choice that had caused Wave Fat to end up like a stray dog on the roadside, easily kicked to death, and that in the enemy's heart, she had left only an ugly, insignificant trace, the rage in Jogo's heart could no longer be suppressed. It boiled over with incredible force.
"You bastard! You bastard! How dare you despise us like this!"
"I'll kill you! I'll definitely kill you! Since you won't let Nishida Kagetatsu come out, then be prepared to die!!"
Releasing a powerful flame that exploded backward, Jogo turned into a rocket, staring with his bloodshot single eye, and charged at Locke with unstoppable speed.
"Let me! Remember her name well! Her name is Wave Fat!"
Seeing that his provocation had successfully exposed the other party's true intention, the real body hiding in the shadows immediately switched positions with the shadow clone a thousand meters away and instantly rushed toward Tokyo Jujutsu High School at full speed.
But the distance between the two schools was too great. The shadow clone of the Shadow Flow already had distance limitations, and the shadow clone transformed by chakra had to rely on shadow connections—a thousand meters was already the limit of his control.
Only at this moment did Locke fully understand—the other party had been trying to lure the tiger away from the mountain from the very beginning. The real target was clearly Tengen, who was at Tokyo Jujutsu High School.
The two locations were nearly 400 kilometers apart. Fortunately, he hadn't switched to the Nishida Kagetatsu character card, otherwise, it would have been impossible to return in time using only his feet.
Thinking this, Locke no longer hesitated and immediately summoned a shikigami.
A giant bird with a human face and a wingspan of hundreds of meters appeared in the world, carrying him into the air and soaring toward Tokyo Jujutsu High School.
"Fucking Kenjaku, don't let me catch you. If I catch you, I'll eat your tasty fruit!"
At the same time, the shadow clone, which retained only 50% of its power, took a deep breath in response to Jogo's attack. His right hand was instantly coated with Armament Haki.
His figure suddenly shifted. He narrowly dodged the opponent's flaming fist and struck Jogo to the ground with a backhand blow, causing the surrounding earth to sink six meters deep.
Jogo, dripping from one hand, suddenly spat out a mouthful of purple-black cursed blood and turned his head in disbelief, but his attention was drawn by Locke's playful smile.
"Crazy?"
At this moment, the long-time Flower Emperor suddenly appeared in the sky above Locke, wrapped in cursed energy, and fell from the sky, smashing down with a fist.
Jogo also took the opportunity to break free from the grip. Flames and cursed energy erupted simultaneously, and they attacked together, trying to strike Locke.
Locke looked indifferent. He extended his arms and executed the Flowing Water Rock Smashing Fist. His body swayed and spun like soft water, gently deflecting all the fierce power of the two combined.
In the next second, his fist suddenly clenched, and a fierce force burst outward. With a shock, Hanami and Jogo were sent flying.
Staggering back dozens of meters, Jogo suddenly coughed up a mouthful of black blood mixed with broken teeth.
Hanami immediately looked at him with concern, his voice anxious:
"#¥#...&& (Are you alright?)"
"I'm fine, Hanami. We need to be careful. Although this guy isn't Nishida Kagetatsu, he might be a very strong opponent... about as strong as twenty Sukunas."
Seeing that the other party was still ready to fight, Locke glanced at his character panel and the popularity points he had earned during this time, and suddenly had a good idea.
He was seen smiling and looking at the two special-grade cursed spirits, slowly saying:
"Oh, you guys... have you seen my prime?"
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