A Bizarre Adventure That Begins in Jujutsu Kaisen

Xia Youjie opened his eyes wide and quickly adjusted his visual focus in the dim light.

Immediately, his gaze was drawn to the enormous shadow on the ceiling with an extremely strong presence—"Eating Rat King"—as if drawn by a magnet.

He observed it intently, and after a moment, he "openly plotted" in front of it:

"It is a product of all humanity's loathing for rats, fear of disease, anxiety about survival in slums, and guilt over collective inaction... It should undoubtedly be classified as a Special Grade!"

"It gives me a strange sense of familiarity." Theo rested his chin on his hand, the one not holding the sword, lost in thought. "Aren't cockroaches and rats, things that everyone in the world hates, particularly prone to giving birth to top-tier cursed spirits?"

"Probably. Collective fear among humans is most likely to give rise to powerful cursed spirits."

The more widespread and primal the fear, the more stubborn and "robust" the curse it breeds.

So, are you planning to subdue it?

"No thanks." Theo waved his hand dismissively, his face showing undisguised disdain. "My goal is Ganesha anyway. This cursed spirit is ugly; I don't really like it. You're the one for me?"

"No problem." Xia Youjie was quite happy. "The more top-grade cursed spirits, the better. Not to mention this type, which looks particularly good at swarm warfare and can transform ordinary rats. It has high strategic value."

Before the words were even finished, the black rats, like oil that had come to life, surged towards the two people at the entrance from all directions.

Before the rat swarm even arrived, the intense, almost tangible aura of curse and putrid stench already pressed down like an invisible wall.

Xia Youjie flicked his right hand, and the three-section staff of "Youyun" cut through the stagnant air, making a sharp sound as it broke through the wind.

At the same time, he clenched his left hand in mid-air, and two completely different waves of magical energy tore through space and descended.

The figure of "Tamamo-no-Mae incarnate" appeared like smoke and illusion in the left front.

It unfolds a simple domain, an invisible barrier covering an area with a radius of ten meters. Within this area, the rats quickly become emaciated, as if their life force has been drained, their fur falling off and their skeletons exposed.

Simultaneously, he descended in "Transformation into Taira no Masakado," gripping swords with both hands, twisting his waist, and unleashing a powerful kasaya-zaki.

The blade, wreathed in cursed power, slammed into the ground, carving a trench more than half a meter deep.

The shockwave spread outwards, and the rats within a four-meter radius of the slash trajectory were blasted into a blurry blood mist and shattered bones before they could even scream.

At the same time, a stable spatial passage unfolded beneath Xia Youjie's feet, and hundreds of giant centipedes surged out like a tide, engaging in a fierce battle with the rat swarm.

The sounds of carapaces rubbing together, rats hissing, and limbs breaking were incessant.

"Spirit Manipulation Technique" can enhance the magical power of the controlled spirit.

This is essentially a derivative application where the sorcerer uses the spell power that should be used to enhance their own power to channel it into the cursed spirit through a spell connection.

If the spirit itself also possesses a certain level and can autonomously enhance its magical power, then the magical power infused by the sorcerer from the outside will be superimposed on its internal power, achieving a two-stage enhancement like "dual-drive from the inside and outside".

Even a third-level cursed spirit that was originally mediocre can have its attack power temporarily boosted to a terrifying level that is enough to break through the defense of a top-level mage under such superimposed enhancement.

Using them to deal with these rats, whose strength is far inferior to that of a level three cursed spirit, is more than enough.

But the number of rats was simply too great.

Mumbai has a population of tens of millions, and the number of rats in such a filthy place must be well over a million.

The cleared area was quickly filled with swarms of rats that followed.

They crawled out from every crack in the walls, ceiling, and drainpipes, as if the entire underground space were a living organ secreting rats.

Xia Youjie's "Wandering Clouds" has transformed into a black whirlwind.

The first section of the staff swept horizontally, smashing seven or eight giant reinforced rats that pounced at the waist.

Taking advantage of the momentum, the third section of the stick suddenly springs out as the wrist flips, using the whip-like effect to strike the giant rat that pounces down from the side and above, precisely piercing its skull.

His movements were precise and efficient, each strike accompanied by the dull thud of bones shattering.

The rat carcasses piled up around him, only to be trampled into mud by their kind.

Xia Youjie is more accustomed to dealing with larger creatures.

Aside from the Extreme Strike, he had no other wide-range moves and was not well-suited to dealing with these swarming creatures that were much shorter than a wheel.

Sweeping attacks are most effective against swarms of rats; stabbing and vertical slashing attacks have much smaller ranges.

If it works well, then use it more often.

Xia Youjie spun around and swept his staff horizontally, the wind from which sliced ​​down all the rats in the fan-shaped area in front of him like a sickle, clearing a space.

Then, he stuffed a dozen low-level cursed spirits into the vortex and launched them like rockets, instantly clearing the ground within a radius of twenty meters.

As the distance drew closer, "Eating Rat King" remained hanging upside down from the ceiling, "gazing" at the battlefield with its empty eye sockets.

But then Theo did something that made Xia Youjie's eyes twitch – he actually lay back!

Behind him, the golden shikigami "World" silently appeared, its knees slightly bent and its arms outstretched, using precise mechanical structure to support a temporary humanoid "chair" in mid-air.

Theo leaned against it casually, even crossing his legs, as if the bloody battle before him was nothing more than a tedious drama.

"Since you're already here, don't just stand... no, lie down and watch!"

Xia Youjie swept away three giant rats that pounced at him with a stick. He caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of his eye and almost lost his breath.

The rat swarm's attacks came wave after wave, and even he felt the pressure from the continuous drain on his resources.

"The rat swarm is endless, so we should capture the king first, shouldn't we?" Theo seemed to have just woken up, slowly rising from the void. "I'll help you catch it."

He moved his neck and wrists, and his joints made a slight cracking sound.

The next instant, the curse power flowed at high speed, as if traveling through fiber optic broadband, and evenly covered the entire body.

Then, Dio took a step forward—

boom!

He left a clear footprint in the ground beneath his feet, then vanished from the spot, leaving only a ripple of air that sent the approaching rats flying through the air.

The relentless horde of rats surged forth like waves cleaved by invisible blades, rolling, breaking apart, and disintegrating to both sides.

The wind pressure generated by moving beyond the sound barrier alone is enough to crush a mouse in its path into mincemeat.

Upon reaching directly beneath "Eating Rat King," Theo unleashed a burst of magical power from the soles of his feet, causing the ground to shatter violently. He soared into the air like a cannonball, slashing horizontally with his greatsword.

However, the moment the blade touched the "Eating Rat King," the cursed spirit collapsed into countless rats like a fluid, falling like a filthy downpour.

Immediately afterwards, the swarm of rats quickly gathered and merged dozens of meters away, reforming into the distorted form of the cursed spirit.

Dio remained unfazed, precisely stepping on the "surface" formed by the airflow in mid-air to propel himself into a second leap.

His movements were fluid and effortless; his figure left a blurry afterimage and a short sonic boom, like an elusive gust of wind, and he reappeared in front of the newly reconstructed "Eating Rat King"!

At that very moment—

Another enormous, terrifying mass of cursed energy suddenly appeared in everyone's perception.

It's Ganesha!? He's here too?!