Thinking it would be a long-drawn-out struggle, she called Kinji Hakari while trying to reach Tengen.
To her surprise, Tengen readily agreed to meet her.
Using Yuki Tsukumo's information, she quickly pinpointed the King of Curses' master—Ashiya Magon, the founder of the New Shadow Style.
It was really because the people at the top were terrified!
When the King of Curses first appeared, although the Jujutsu Higher-Ups took it seriously, it was only "serious" on the surface.
In reality, they didn't think much of this once-in-a-millennium Intelligent Cursed Spirit.
Their most wary target remained the unruly Satoru Gojo; they never believed this so-called King of Curses could cause any real trouble.
But the battle at the Zenin Clan woke them up.
It really struck them right in the heart!
Who are the members of the Jujutsu Higher-Ups?
Eighty percent are from the Big Three Families!
With this one move, the King of Curses had wiped out nearly a quarter of the Jujutsu Higher-Ups.
How could they not be afraid?
This was why they decisively let her through when Yuki Tsukumo requested to meet Tengen—it was a pain they felt personally!
Then, following Tengen's clues, Yuki Tsukumo rushed here without stopping, but she still came up empty-handed.
Tengen suddenly said, "Speak plainly."
Yuki Tsukumo was stunned.
"Speak plainly?"
"If it were anyone else, I believe your plain speaking would be like a light breeze to their ears; they'd ignore you or even laugh at your foolishness," Tengen said confidently.
"But Ashiya is different."
"He is a man of old-fashioned principles."
"If you want to see him, he will definitely meet you, even if his life is at risk."
"The disciples he trained are the same."
"The Zenin Clan insulted the Lord of Curses, so the Lord of Curses came alone to wipe out the Zenin Clan."
Yuki Tsukumo's lip twitched.
"But I want to kill it!"
"Wouldn't it see through such an obvious trap?"
"No, you don't want to kill it," Tengen said slowly.
"You just... want to find it."
Yuki Tsukumo suddenly understood.
She had Tengen behind her!
Tengen possessed the great barrier that covered all of Japan.
Her usual job was to maintain the barrier; if this massive barrier went unmaintained for even a single day, a great disaster would occur.
In fact, in the original timeline after Tengen was absorbed by Kenjaku, it did indeed spiral out of control.
Cursed Spirits were everywhere, and there was simply no stopping them.
Possessing such a vast barrier meant that as long as someone was locked onto by Tengen, they would be caught by Tengen no matter where they ran, unless they left Japan and Tengen's great barrier in an instant!
Yuki Tsukumo didn't need to kill the Lord of Curses at all; as long as she met the Lord of Curses, the remaining tracking work could be left entirely to Tengen.
Yuki Tsukumo licked her lips and sighed, "As expected, Jujutsu Sorcerers are all a bunch of bastards."
"Thousand-year-old Sorcerers are even bigger thousand-year-old bastards."
"You're cursing yourself as well," Tengen reminded her.
"I'm a hopeless bastard too," Yuki Tsukumo said with a complex tone.
"If it weren't for me, Suguru might have..."
"Suguru Geto had already broken down at that time," Tengen comforted.
"You were just a catalyst."
"Without you, there would have been someone else."
"In his broken state, sooner or later... he would have taken that path anyway."
"It has nothing to do with you."
"I thought you saw that clearly."
"I do see it clearly," Yuki Tsukumo let out a breath.
"Alright, I know what I need to do."
"Well then, before we lock onto the King of Curses, let's have a good collaboration for once in a long time!"
"As you wish."
The call was disconnected.
Yuki Tsukumo stared blankly at the sliding door of the grocery store, wondering how to find the King of Curses...
She had even decided that just one meeting would suffice.
When the time came, she could establish a Binding Vow—even one where she would never take action against him would be fine.
If she didn't take action, weren't there still Yuta Okkotsu and Satoru Gojo?
Any of them would do; anything was fine, as long as she could get that one meeting.
But the problem was, how to contact it?
Yuki Tsukumo thought of Kinji Hakari.
It was certain now that Kinji Hakari must have seen the King of Curses, but the issue was that he seemed to be under a Binding Vow—a Binding Vow that prevented him from betraying the King of Curses.
"But I'm not asking for intelligence, am I? I just want to meet once."
According to what Mei Mei said, even members of parliament in human society can contact it.
Why can't I?
I don't believe it!
Having reached this point in her thoughts, Yuki Tsukumo made up her mind to call Kinji Hakari.
While waiting for the call to connect, Yuki Tsukumo was still thinking about the King of Curses' ability—the ability to make people evolve.
An ability that could evolve ordinary people into Jujutsu Sorcerers and take Jujutsu Sorcerers to the next level.
It could even grant immortality.
Immortality.
Yuki Tsukumo exhaled slowly.
This was truly shocking news.
At the time, she thought it was just a smokescreen, until she met Tengen again and heard about the Immortals living in Japan from her own mouth.
Damn it, Yuki Tsukumo never imagined that in the Jujutsu world, there truly was a method for immortality besides Tengen's, and more than one at that!
But for Yuki Tsukumo, immortality wasn't the point.
The point was—the ability to evolve humans into Jujutsu Sorcerers.
She had always had an ideal.
She wanted to end the birth of Cursed Spirits!
She was never secretive about her ideas.
Back when she was active as a Jujutsu Sorcerer, she had promoted her thoughts and didn't mind them spreading.
To this end, she had thought of many methods, but they were all eventually proven ineffective or were abandoned by her for being too cruel.
And now, she hadn't expected another way to appear before her.
The birth of Curses, in the end, is because ordinary people cannot control their own Cursed Energy, allowing it to leak out in their daily lives.
This leaked Cursed Energy eventually forms Curses; these are Cursed Spirits.
Sorcerers are different; even the weakest ones can perfectly control their Cursed Energy so it doesn't leak.
In other words, the birth of all Cursed Spirits is caused by ordinary people, while Sorcerers do not give birth to Cursed Spirits.
Thus, she had this idea: make all ordinary people become Jujutsu Sorcerers.
If all humans could control their Cursed Energy, then Curses would not be born!
Unfortunately, when she proposed this method, the Jujutsu Higher-Ups simply kicked her out.
Had it not been for her status as a Special Grade Sorcerer, she suspected the higher-ups might have sent people to assassinate her.
So, what about other methods?
There was indeed one more, and it had even been inherited by someone.
That person was Suguru Geto, a Special Grade Curse User—the person Kenjaku was currently possessing.
—Kill all ordinary people and leave only Jujutsu Sorcerers.
If the children of Sorcerers did not possess the talent of a Sorcerer, kill them too.
After several generations of this cycle, filtering out the genes of ordinary people and leaving only those of Sorcerers, then Cursed Spirits would truly vanish from then on.
The theory was sound, but Yuki Tsukumo was still a relatively normal person; she couldn't bring herself to do it.
She could only look for other ways, whereas Suguru Geto had...
...accepted this theory—he really intended to kill all the ordinary people in the world!
That madman was ultimately killed by Yuta Okkotsu.
And now, ironically, the ability to end Curses was held by a Cursed Spirit itself...
Yuki Tsukumo had a dangerous idea: capture this King of Curses in secret and turn it into some kind of universal Cursed Tool, then use that tool to turn all humans in the world into Jujutsu Sorcerers and realize her ideal!
She did indeed have that capability.
The world's only Shikigami Cursed Tool was her creation.
She wasn't a Construction Sorcerer, but her theory and practical skills were second to none in the world—even Ancient Sorcerers wouldn't be her match under the same circumstances.
Yuki Tsukumo refined her plan while waiting.
First, she had to beat the King of Curses into submission, and after that...
Suddenly, the call was picked up.
A voice came through the phone: "This is the King of Curses, the Curse of humans toward humans, the Immortal Master."
Yuki Tsukumo froze.
"Is this Yuki Tsukumo-san?" the person said.
"I heard you're looking for me?"