Seeing Yamada choking that body, Megumi hurriedly ran forward a few steps and shouted to stop him, "Yamada-san! Please don't kill her! That's Tsumiki's body! If you kill her, Tsumiki will die too!"
Yamada turned his head and glanced at Megumi. "Shut up. Just watch from the side."
He focused his gaze back on Yorozu's face, which was flushed red from lack of oxygen. Her hands were desperately clawing at Yamada's fingers.
"You're quite proud of occupying someone else's body, aren't you?"
The ocular power of the Rinnegan erupted in Yamada's left eye. He activated one of the Six Paths abilities exclusive to the Rinnegan.
Human Path!
The ability to read, extract, and strip away the target's soul.
Yamada raised his left hand, spread his fingers, and pressed them onto the crown of Yorozu's head. Invisible spiritual power penetrated the physical skull, reaching directly into the soul level deep within the body.
Yamada clearly sensed two distinct souls within this shell: one was the sleeping, weakened Tsumiki, and the other was the ancient Sorcerer Yorozu, filled with violent Cursed Energy.
Yamada's fingers pulled backward. A soul body radiating blue light and filled with a venomous aura was forcibly dragged out from the top of Tsumiki's head.
Yorozu's soul struggled desperately in Yamada's hand. Freed from the shackles of the flesh, she felt an absolute control that was even more terrifying than death.
She realized that this man was performing a soul operation that she completely failed to comprehend.
"Let me go!"
Yorozu's soul let out a roar, the sound transmitting directly into the spiritual perception of those around her.
"Vanish."
Yamada's left hand suddenly clenched into a fist. Pure Yin Release Chakra erupted in his palm.
Under the powerful spiritual crushing, the blue soul body instantly shattered, turning into countless tiny specks of light that completely dissipated into the air.
The soul of the ancient Sorcerer from four hundred years ago, Yorozu, was completely obliterated.
As Yorozu's soul was stripped away, Tsumiki's body lost the Cursed Energy that sustained it. Her eyes closed tightly, and she fell backward.
Yamada released his right hand from her throat.
Megumi rushed forward at top speed, steadily catching Tsumiki's body before she could hit the ground. He immediately placed his fingers on Tsumiki's carotid artery. Her pulse was steady, and her breathing was even.
Without Yorozu's Cursed Energy erosion, Tsumiki had simply fallen into a deep sleep.
"Tsumiki..."
Megumi's voice trembled slightly as he held Tsumiki tightly, his eyes rimmed with red.
Yuji stepped forward and, seeing that Tsumiki was safe and sound, let out a long sigh of relief.
Toji stood to the side, looking at the unconscious Tsumiki and then at Megumi. There was no expression on his face, but his fingers gripping the Chain of a Thousand Miles relaxed slightly.
Yamada turned around, ignoring them. He called up the system panel in his mind.
Rewards from the system's settlement were being issued for killing an ancient incarnated person and for saving a key plot character by stripping away a soul.
The biggest threats within the Culling Game had already been cleared away by him. Those masterminds hiding in the shadows, attempting to use this slaughter game to collect Cursed Energy and facilitate evolution—their chessboard had been completely smashed to pieces.
...
After confirming that everything was stable with Tsumiki, Megumi gently placed her on a dry sofa in a clothing store nearby.
Yuji stood outside the store, keeping watch.
His left hand had fully regrown, and he was repeatedly clenching and unclenching his fist, adapting to the newly formed muscles and bones.
Yamada stood in the middle of the road. The spatial vortex in his right eye swirled, and a cube-shaped, flesh-colored box covered in bloodshot eyeballs fell onto the asphalt, making a dull thud.
Special Grade Cursed Object, Prison Realm.
"Toji, come over and get to work." Yamada glanced at Toji, who was standing in the distance.
Toji walked forward and drew that strangely shaped short blade from the mouth of the Inventory Cursed Spirit around his neck—the special grade cursed tool, Inverted Spear of Heaven.
"Just stab it straight in?" Toji looked down at the Prison Realm on the ground.
"Stab the center. Inverted Spear of Heaven can forcibly dispel any Cursed Technique, and the sealing rules of the Prison Realm are also a type of Cursed Technique." Yamada issued the command.
Toji gripped the handle of the Inverted Spear of Heaven with both hands, his arm muscles bulging.
He did not hesitate, he aimed the tip of the blade at the huge, tightly closed eyeball in the very center of the Prison Realm and stabbed down fiercely.
The blade of the Inverted Spear of Heaven pierced through the fleshy shell of the Prison Realm without any resistance.
The power of the rule attached to the Inverted Spear of Heaven erupted instantly. The eerie runes on the surface of the Prison Realm quickly faded, the previously tightly closed eyeball snapped open, and then the entire cube-shaped box split open from the middle, creating a huge gap.
Blinding pale blue Cursed Energy surged out from the gap, pushing away all the gravel and stagnant water on the ground.
Bang!
The Prison Realm shattered into several pieces of dead flesh.
A tall man with white hair, wearing a black Jujutsu High uniform, stepped out from the pale blue light.
He stretched lazily, his bones popping with a continuous series of crisp sounds.
Satoru saw the light of day again.
He was not wearing a blindfold. Those pale blue Six Eyes quickly scanned the surrounding environment, reading the residual Cursed Energy information in the air.
"Oh my, the flow of time inside is really a headache. I was wondering how many years it would take for those old geezers to get me out, but I didn't expect to see familiar faces as soon as I opened my eyes."
Satoru cast his gaze toward Yamada, then looked at Toji beside him. His gaze lingered on Toji's face for two seconds.
"Sorcerer Killer, you're actually here too. It seems I've missed a lot of interesting things." Satoru's tone was very relaxed.
Seeing Satoru, Yuji ran up excitedly. "Gojo-sensei! You're finally out!"
"Yuji, you look energetic. Not having had your body control taken over by Sukuna is worth praising." Satoru patted Yuji on the shoulder.
Megumi walked out of the clothing store and reported the current situation to Satoru. He recounted Kenjaku's death, the start of the Culling Game, and the process of how Yamada had just extracted an ancient Sorcerer's soul to save Tsumiki.
After listening to the report, Satoru wiped the smile off his face. "The mastermind behind the Culling Game is dead, but the game is still continuing."
Satoru looked up at the translucent black barrier in the sky. "These barriers rely on Cursed Energy nodes at various spiritual sites throughout Japan, as well as the Cursed Energy of the participants to maintain themselves. Master Tengen's barrier techniques have been exploited."
"It is almost impossible to forcibly break these barriers from the outside. Even my Purple can only create a gap in the barrier, and the barrier will immediately absorb surrounding Cursed Energy to repair itself."
Satoru analyzed the current situation, "We need to find Master Tengen and have them dispel the foundation of the barriers across all of Japan from the inside."
"Too troublesome." Yamada interrupted Satoru.
Yamada walked forward a few steps and stood at the very center of the intersection. "Going to Tengen to dispel the barriers would waste another few days. There are still many ancient Sorcerers killing people everywhere inside the barriers."
Yamada raised his head and stared at the huge black curtain in the sky. "Since it's an energy shell maintained by Cursed Energy, just erase the energy that constitutes it."
Satoru looked at Yamada, his Six Eyes operating at full capacity. "You want to forcibly destroy the Culling Game barriers? These ten barriers are interconnected and cover several major cities in Japan. If you destroy one, the Cursed Energy from the other barriers will quickly flow over to replenish it. Unless you can erase all the barriers at the exact same time."
"Then I will erase them all."
Yamada's feet left the ground, his body defying the laws of gravity, rising straight up into the sky. He flew to an altitude of two hundred meters above the ground, looking down at Tokyo below.
Six pitch-black spheres emerged from his back.
Truth-Seeking Orbs!
Yamada extended his right hand and the six Truth-Seeking Orbs on his back quickly gathered and fused in front of his palm. The black spheres underwent a morphological change, elongating and extending, eventually transforming into a giant black sword over five hundred meters in length.
The giant black sword hung across the sky of Tokyo. It did not emit any light, yet it made Satoru below feel extreme danger.
Satoru's Six Eyes could not analyze the composition of this giant black sword. He only knew that the energy on this sword did not belong to Cursed Energy, nor did it belong to the positive energy of Reverse Cursed Technique.
It was a power capable of directly erasing "existence" itself.