Hoirang unleashed a formless sword strike that surged forward in a straight line.
Countless yokai caught in its path were sliced in half before they could even react.
The relentless blade continued until it finally met Ryomen Sukuna’s right hand at the very edge of its trajectory—only then did it dissipate.
“…….”
“…….”
Everyone was left in shock at the sight before them.
Even Ryomen Sukuna was no exception.
He looked at his right hand.
Of his six fingers, two were missing.
They had been severed while blocking the strike.
Though they regenerated within moments, the astonishment remained.
…This was a first.
He had never felt this way before.
A fierce thrill ignited within him.
The battlefield, which had been nothing but dull, finally came into focus.
[Did you just imitate me?]
Ryomen Sukuna’s formless slashes—
Lee Taeseong had replicated them after blocking only two.
Though his strike lacked Sukuna’s curse-infused power, it was imbued with something else.
…A singular, unwavering conviction.
To cut.
Doman, who had been watching the scene unfold, felt chills race across his entire body.
‘My eyes must be blind!’
What he saw now was beyond comprehension.
He had once dismissed Taeseong as a mere Delta-class administrator, but the man standing before him was beyond any classification.
The entity before him—brimming with nothing but malice—looked, through the eyes of an onmyoji, like the embodiment of every curse in existence, wrapped in a human shell.
Had it been “that thing,” he would have sensed death the moment he laid eyes on it.
But with Lee Taeseong—
He had felt nothing.
At first, he assumed it was because Taeseong was just an insignificant, low-ranked administrator.
But that wasn’t the case.
Taeseong’s existence was simply so vast, so unfathomable, that Doman’s unworthy eyes could not perceive its depths.
He was an abyss.
A bottomless pit.
An eternal darkness without end.
And for the first time, Doman felt relieved.
As long as Taeseong’s blade did not turn toward them, he was certain he would not die here.
From that moment on, death no longer frightened him.
Taeseong vanished.
He reappeared in the sky—
Directly behind Daitengu, who had taken flight in a desperate attempt to escape.
[Kraaaahhh!]
A pair of wings, reminiscent of a crow, erupted into blue flames.
Daitengu, flailing in midair, plummeted like Icarus soaring too close to the sun.
As he fell, Taeseong plunged Hoirang into his chest, carving out his heart.
Thud!
The fallen Daitengu lay motionless on the ground.
Holding his still-beating heart, Taeseong turned his gaze toward Xiao Yun and the other administrators.
“Haha… This crazy bastard….”
Xiao Yun let out a hollow laugh, while the others stood in stunned silence, as if lost in a dream.
“I told you, didn’t I? Our captain is a living legend. Don’t doubt him.”
“…Gi-jun, this isn’t about legends or anything like that.”
The Korean administrators could no longer keep up with reality.
They had already been overwhelmed by Taeseong’s sudden reappearance—
And now, he had instantly eliminated two Beta-class entities?
Everything they had known and believed was crumbling before their eyes.
Yet, Taeseong simply spoke in his usual calm voice.
“Xiao Yun.”
“What do you want, you lunatic?”
“You’ve lost an arm. Stop overexerting yourself and focus on protecting the administrators here.”
“And you?”
Turning his back to them, Taeseong replied quietly.
“I’m going to cut off that bastard’s head.”
With those final words, he jumped into the air, diving straight into the heart of the yokai army.
Xiao Yun, watching him go, felt it instinctively.
He could not afford to miss a single moment of this battle.
Not a single move.
Because in Taeseong’s actions, in every slash of his blade—
He would find the path to breaking through the wall that bound him.
From above, the depths of Aokigahara’s Sea of Trees appeared covered in a mass of black dots.
An uncountable number of them covered over a third of the vast forest—
Each and every one of them a yokai.
And amidst them, a single, tiny speck charged forward.
A lone man plunging into the heart of an army of hundreds of thousands—
Lee Taeseong.
Even Daji, the descendant of the legendary Nine-Tailed White-Faced Golden Fox, had struggled to survive for just thirty minutes despite wielding countless forms of sorcery.
Though Daitengu and Shuten doji’s combined assault played a role, the sheer, overwhelming numbers had been the deciding factor.
But Taeseong was different.
The dots surrounding him were disappearing in real-time.
Even from above, it was clear—
A massacre was taking place.
“So damn many of them.”
Tat-tat-tat!
Every time Taeseong swung Hoirang, Yokai fell like dominoes.
His speed rivaled that of Wairang, the wolf he had left behind to guard his team.
Unstoppable, relentless—
He tore through the battlefield like a wolf on the hunt.
A skull-shaped symbol appeared above the yokai’s heads.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Unleashing the power of Dueoksin, their skulls shattered in unison—
And an explosion of flesh rained across the battlefield.
“So this is how it’s done.”
Then, the area within a kilometer radius began to freeze.
Over ten thousand yokai were instantly transformed into ice sculptures.
“Shatter.”
At his command, cracks spread across the frozen figures—
Then, with a chilling rupture, they shattered into dust.
A blue flame flickered in Taeseong’s eyes.
Where his gaze landed, pillars of azure fire erupted from the ground beneath the yokai’s feet.
Fwoooosh!
Pillars of blue flames erupted simultaneously, forming a massive ring that engulfed a 1-kilometer radius. Like a furious wave, the firestorm surged toward the yokai.
The azure fire swelled to its limit before swallowing the yokai army whole in an instant. Those caught in the flames melted away. Some cried in agony, calling out to their king. Others silently accepted their fate. And a few felt an overwhelming reverence toward the being that was Lee Taeseong.
More than half of the yokai army had vanished.
By a single man’s hand.
It was a calamity.
Lee Taeseong fixed his gaze forward. Now, he could see it clearly. Except for a single being, every yokai in his line of sight had a skull symbol hovering above their heads.
And yet, from beginning to end, his attention remained solely on Ryomen Sukuna.
“Prepare yourself.”
Lee Taeseong sprinted. Yokai heads burst in rapid succession on either side of him.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The corpses of decapitated yokai lined up neatly in his path.
Was this how Moses parted the sea?
Though the Red Sea before him was filled with blood and flesh, the path he carved and the road ahead remained untouched.
It was as if the yokai were offering their bodies to pave a way for their king.
Ryomen Sukuna smirked as he watched Taeseong charge toward him.
[Yes, come closer. I will tear every piece of flesh from your body and devour it. And then your parents, your family, your children—I will consume them all, every last one.]
Though he was the true master of this forest, revered as king by the yokai, he cared nothing for them.
At last, Kairikunanshin, a mighty yokai, could no longer hold his tongue. A growing unease gnawed at him.
[Your Majesty, why do you not act? At this rate, the others will all perish.]
[And what of it?]
[…Pardon?]
[What does it matter to me if those insects die?]
Kairikunanshin realized he was speaking to someone who truly meant those words.
Born as the rightful ruler of the forest, he had once believed himself destined to be king. But upon encountering Ryomen Sukuna within that cursed jar, his thoughts had changed.
He had seen it—he was unworthy to be king.
Thus, he chose to serve instead.
To ensure Sukuna’s successful rebirth, he had offered countless humans and yokai alike as nourishments.
As a result, Ryomen Sukuna had emerged as an existence far beyond comparison.
But the very minions who had ensured his revival? He did not care for them in the slightest.
Kairikunanshin found this deeply unsatisfying.
The world of yokai may have followed the law of the strong devouring the weak, but surely, some debts must still be acknowledged.
At least, Kairikunanshin himself cherished his subordinates in Hyakki Yagyo (Night Parade of Hundred Demons).
It was through his efforts that all one hundred yokai in his command had developed enough power to reach at least Gamma rank.
And they, in turn, were deeply grateful for it.
[Your Majesty, but surely, there was no need to take such risks? If you had worked alongside the others from the beginning… If you had supported Shuten doji and Daitengu, this battle would have been much easier—]
Crunch!
[…Your Majesty?]
Crack. Crack.
Gulp.
Kairikunanshin’s upper body disappeared.
Sukuna had devoured him mid-sentence, irritated by his constant nagging.
A pitiful end for one once destined to be a king of yokai.
[So much for the mighty Kairikunanshin. Not much of a fuss, was he?]
The remaining Hyakki Yagyo flinched.
Under normal circumstances, they would have attacked immediately, for their lord had been slain.
But none of them moved.
Their anger at his death was drowned out by a far greater fear—
The fear that they would be next.
In the end, they were yokai.
Gratitude and resentment meant nothing before absolute power.
Step. Step.
A lone figure emerged from the distance.
He had torn through an entire army alone.
At last, Lee Taeseong revealed himself.
Ryomen Sukuna let out a joyful roar upon seeing him.
Having just devoured Kairikunanshin, his body now radiated an overwhelming aura, enough to engulf the entire forest in yokai energy.
[You have finally arrived, human!]
“……”
His chilling voice alone carried a curse potent enough to shatter minds, yet Taeseong was unfazed.
His gaze never wavered as he took a step forward.
In his right hand, the sword Hoirang glowed, drawing in countless energies—
Steel energy. Yokai energy. Fire energy. Ice energy.
A phenomenon that should have been impossible.
Yet, the hungry sword devoured it all without hesitation.
[Now, I shall—]
Taeseong stopped.
Instead of answering, he swung his sword.
The power he unleashed was beyond his limits, and the muscles in his arm tore apart completely.
They healed instantly.
.
.
.
Exactly 120 times.
Before a single second had passed, Lee Taeseong had slashed Ryomen Sukuna 120 times.
One second later.
A hundred fine lines appeared across Sukuna’s body.
