Chapter 55: The Fall of the Goblin Cursed Spirit
The Goblin Cursed Spirit's body suddenly underwent a mutation; its originally meter-tall, scrawny frame expanded wildly like it was being inflated, blue veins bulged under its green skin, and muscles swelled and hardened at a visible rate.
In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a three-meter-tall monster resembling the Hulk, its shoulder width nearly filling the temple's corridor, and every muscle was as taut as steel, completely shedding its previous frail appearance.
Rin's eyes narrowed slightly.
He hadn't expected this Cursed Spirit's Cursed Technique to be able to freely alter its body shape. Not only could it enlarge muscles, but it could also precisely control and strengthen specific parts, which was more troublesome than a simple burst of power.
Before he could give it more thought, the Cursed Spirit moved.
It violently swung its right arm. The already thick arm tripled in size again, its forearm turning into a "sledgehammer" that smashed toward Rin with a whistling wind. The airflow, wrapped in Cursed Energy, scraped a shallow groove into the ground, and even the surrounding skeletons were knocked askew.
"Just in time to test your limits."
Instead of retreating, Rin advanced, his right fist instantly enveloped in black and red Cursed Energy.
He threw a punch against the "sledgehammer." The moment fist and arm collided, a loud "bang" erupted in the air. A shockwave rippled out from the two of them, causing the temple's wooden pillars to snap and tiles to clatter down.
In the next second, Rin was sent flying backward by the massive impact. His feet carved two deep grooves into the ground before he landed steadily on the steps outside the temple.
The Cursed Spirit didn't fare any better either. It was sent flying backward, slamming heavily into the dilapidated back wall of the temple. With a "rumble," the earthen wall collapsed instantly, burying the Cursed Spirit in rubble and wood chips under a cloud of dust.
Rin brushed the dust off his clothes, his eyes now clear with understanding.
The clash just now had allowed him to fully gauge the Cursed Spirit's strength. The core of its Cursed Technique was "Cursed Energy-driven muscle transformation." The first full-body expansion was an all-around physical enhancement, while the second arm augmentation was a localized burst of power.
However, this enhancement had a clear drawback: while power increased, speed and reaction time dropped significantly.
Based on its strength, this Cursed Spirit was only slightly stronger than Suguru Geto's [Cursed Spirit], having reached the "Special Grade" level, but not by much.
Just then, the sound of stones shifting came from the ruins.
The Cursed Spirit leaped out from the pile of rubble. Its green skin was covered in dust and blood, and the right arm that had been broken earlier healed at a visible rate. Its twisted bones "clicked" into place, returning to normal in an instant.
However, the way it looked at Rin was no longer arrogant; it was filled with caution. That punch just now had made it realize that the youth before it was definitely no "brat."
"So what if your physical techniques are strong? It's not like you have powerful jujutsu as well, right?" the Cursed Spirit comforted itself internally.
It was convinced that Rin was a "physical technique specialist." As long as it avoided close-quarters combat and relied on area-of-effect attacks, it would win.
Just as the thought crossed its mind, the Cursed Spirit suddenly spread its arms. Both arms expanded simultaneously, and its ten fingers closed in on Rin like a giant cage, attempting to trap him in the middle and crush him with brute force.
But just as the two massive hands were about to touch Rin, the Cursed Spirit suddenly let out a scream of agony.
Those two arms, originally as thick as iron pillars, disintegrated without warning the moment they touched the Cursed Energy surrounding Rin.
First, the green muscle fibers were shattered as if by an invisible force, peeling away from the bone in shreds and chunks. Then, the dark purple Cursed Energy lost its restraint, mixing with flesh and blood to turn into a spray of blood rain.
Some even splashed onto the hem of Rin's training uniform, but the moment it touched the Cursed Energy on his body's surface, it was silently evaporated, leaving only a faint fishy smell.
The entire process was so fast that there was no time to react.
The attack that had carried the momentum of breaking wind became scattered fragments of flesh and blood in the blink of an eye. Only the bare shoulder bones remained on the Cursed Spirit, with dark purple blood still gurgling from the stumps, forming a macabre echo with the blood rain falling in the air.
"This... is jujutsu?" The Cursed Spirit's pupils shrank as fear instantly seized it.
It never expected that Rin would not only be physically powerful but also possess such a bizarre offensive jujutsu.
Only now did it understand that Rin's calmness wasn't "arrogance," but that he had never taken it seriously from the beginning. The "Special Grade" strength it took pride in was nothing but a joke in his eyes.
"Run! I must run!" Fear flooded the Cursed Spirit's reason like a tide.
Ignoring the agonizing pain in its shoulders, it turned to flee. But after taking only one step, it found Rin already standing in front of it. In those few short seconds, Rin had closed the distance between them, moving so fast he left afterimages.
Rin's right hand formed the shape of a Revolver, and black-red Cursed Energy condensed at his fingertip into a tiny pellet, aimed at the Cursed Spirit's abdomen.
Before the Cursed Spirit could react, it heard a soft cry like the whisper of the Grim Reaper:
"Revolver."
"Bang!"
A crisp gunshot echoed across the wasteland.
The Cursed Spirit's world suddenly went deaf the moment the gun fired. All sound seemed to be cut off by an invisible hand, leaving only dead silence.
Immediately after, a light sense of weightlessness enveloped it. There was no pain, no impact—only a trance-like state of detaching from its body, as if its soul were being pulled from its heavy skin and slowly floating toward the sky.
Its perspective rose uncontrollably, first passing Rin's calm, expressionless face, then going over the broken eaves of the temple, until it could see birds flying across the distant wasteland.
But in the next second, this upward force suddenly vanished, and its perspective began to slowly fall like a withered leaf blown by the wind.
It strained to turn its eyes toward Rin, but there was no complete picture in its sight. Only next to Rin's feet stood a familiar green object.
Those were two thick legs, still wearing the pants that had been torn during the fight. The cuffs were stained with gravel and dust. Further up was half of the same green torso, with the residual warmth of dark purple Cursed Energy still at the cross-section.
The Cursed Spirit's consciousness was like a stone thrown into an icy lake, finally erupting with a belated storm. That wasn't anything else—it was its own lower body.
It was the legs it had just used to support itself and try to escape, the waist and abdomen it had reinforced countless times with Cursed Energy.
And it itself was left with only the upper half of its body, falling toward the cold ground.
Its body slammed heavily onto the ground. Its massive frame shrank at a visible rate, eventually returning to its original meter-tall, scrawny form. Only a head and half a chest remained, twitching slightly.
Rin looked down at the dying Cursed Spirit on the ground. The opponent was left with only half a body. After losing the support of Cursed Energy, its green skin was shriveling at a visible rate, and its breathing was so faint it was almost imperceptible.
This was the best time to subdue it—it had no ability to resist, and there was no need to worry about any complications.
Cursed Energy had already gathered at his fingertips. The subduing rune of [Cursed Spirit Manipulation] flickered faintly in his palm as he prepared to take this Cursed Spirit with a special technique under his command.
But just then, a voice as thin as a thread suddenly entered his ears, as weak as a candle in the wind:
"Wh... why?"
Rin's movements came to a sudden halt, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.
He hadn't expected that even at this point, this Cursed Spirit could still speak.
He looked down and saw the Cursed Spirit gazing up at the gray sky. Its eyes, which had been eerily bright, were now unfocused, reflecting the broken clouds. Its tone held no anger, only a profound bewilderment and unwillingness.
"Why can you be so strong..." The Cursed Spirit's voice was intermittent, every word seeming to exhaust its last bit of strength.
"I clearly... worked so hard for so long... hiding in the sewers eating rats, relying on low-level Cursed Spirits to catch humans... just three days away... three humans short... from becoming a Special Grade... but in front of you... I'm so powerless..."
Its gaze slowly turned toward Rin. In the remaining faint light in its eyes, there was a longing for "strength" and a despair over "failure."
Facing this belated question, Rin did not answer. He simply raised his hand again. The pale blue Cursed Energy runes suddenly lit up, spreading along the ground to the remains of the Cursed Spirit—the subduing ritual of [Cursed Spirit Manipulation] required no extra explanation.
Watching the pale blue Cursed Energy runes flowing from Rin's fingertips draw closer step by step, the Cursed Spirit's tense body suddenly relaxed. Its remaining torso, which had been twitching slightly, completely lost the strength to struggle.
It slowly closed those eyes that had once been eerily bright. Its long eyelashes cast fine shadows on its green skin. Its tone was full of relief, yet hidden within was a bit of self-deprecating helplessness:
"I'm really sorry... In the end, I couldn't even make you use your full strength."
The voice was very soft, like wind blowing through withered grass on the wasteland, carrying the melancholy of complete surrender.
It remembered the days it spent hiding in the sewers gnawing on rats, the caution it exercised when controlling low-level Cursed Spirits to hunt, and the ecstasy it felt when it touched the threshold of "Special Grade." But all of that had become a joke in front of Rin.
Its desperate struggle didn't even earn it the right to be taken seriously by the opponent.
The moment the Cursed Energy runes landed on its remains, the Cursed Spirit gave one last soft sigh. Its consciousness was like smoke blown away by the wind, completely dissipating into the dust of the temple.
There was no "why." This was reality.
Rin knew in his heart that his current strength was forged through countless life-and-death training sessions, the talent of copying jujutsu, and the weight he carried at all times. But even so, in this world, there were still many people who could deal with him.
Let alone a mere Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
As the last rune merged into the Cursed Spirit's body, the subduing ritual was fully completed.
But just then, Rin's brow suddenly furrowed, and a deep sense of confusion rose in his eyes. The rating feedback from the Cursed Spirit clearly showed "Grade 1," rather than the "near Special Grade" he had previously sensed!
This wasn't right.
In the moment he was thinking, there was a soft "click," and a black object fell out of the Cursed Spirit's shriveled chest, rolling onto the gravel ground with a crisp clinking sound.
Rin looked down, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
The object was about the length of an adult's index finger, entirely black, with twisted and eerie patterns carved on its surface like coiled venomous snakes or burning flames. Even when stationary, it emitted a faint, evil Cursed Energy. That aura was cold and overbearing, carrying the pressure of an ancient ferocious beast. He would never mistake it.
That was a sukunas finger!
So that was it.
Rin instantly understood all his doubts. The "near Special Grade" pressure he had sensed earlier wasn't the Cursed Spirit's own power at all, but came from this Sukuna's Finger. The "thing" it had mentioned that would make it "no longer afraid of Jujutsu Sorcerers" was exactly this finger.
From beginning to end, it had only been borrowing someone else's power to dream of being a "Special Grade."