The world had fallen silent. A vast ocean stretched across the entire land—no wind, no waves, just an eerie stillness.
From time to time, strange creatures would leap from the water, the splash they made the only sound breaking the silence. It only served to deepen the sense of solitude.
What was once a massive boulder had become a towering mountain that pierced the clouds.
Sōjun Minamoto lay on the grass at its summit, the sky seemingly within reach.
The sight of the sun and moon sharing the sky was uncanny. In the center of the starlit sky, a White Bone Tree stood, its branches holding seventeen tiny figures who giggled softly…
To those beings, the world felt far too empty. But to Sōjun Minamoto, it was already a bit too small.
The laws of physics no longer applied here. Everything now operated according to the fundamental rule of Blessed Energy.
At a deeper level, the driving force behind this world was none other than Sōjun Minamoto's own will.
He sat up, a wisp of gray mist curling around his fingertips.
Gazing at the mist, he fell into thought.
By now, he understood this non-physical realm to be a newly formed world. The mist was a symbol of that.
Its space had been compressed again and again, yet it couldn't be dispersed. Eventually, it had no choice but to spread around him.
But it could no longer interfere with Sōjun Minamoto's senses—his Mahoraga Ring had fully adapted.
Normally, once the mist had fulfilled its role, the world would have fully taken shape, and the mist would naturally dissolve and flow to where it belonged.
But Sōjun Minamoto disrupted that process, stepping in and taking the mist's place.
And so the mist... became lost.
He held out his hand and gestured.
All the mist gathered toward him. The thick fog compressed into a few strands, turning into gray, crystal-like segments suspended midair, never touching the ground.
This substance, whether faced with positive or negative Cursed Energy, instinctively avoided it. It didn't look special, but the very fact that it clearly repelled Cursed Energy was, in itself, a kind of power.
He stared at the fragments, soon losing himself in them...
...
Time in the non-physical world was paradoxical—both precious and cheap.
When he finally came to, he had no idea how much time had passed. The vast ocean had turned to fertile land, teeming with life, with creatures now beginning to explore the land.
Though the sea level had dropped slightly, it now covered a larger area. Overall, the system had reached equilibrium.
Scanning the surroundings, he saw that the spirits once nestled in the tree had flown off. In other corners of the world, three more White Bone Trees had appeared.
He reached out, absorbed the floating crystal segments, stood, and walked down from the sky as if on solid ground, stepping onto the ocean's surface.
As he wandered along the sea, his thoughts turned to the fusion of positive and negative forces.
Positive and negative—naturally, he thought of yin and yang. From there, his mind drew connections to the Taiji symbol.
His method of fusing Cursed Energy and Blessed Energy was rooted in this concept. The mist could serve well as a [boundary].
But to fuse the two, they first had to coexist. He had already tried every method he could think of. Yet every time they touched, the result was mutual cancellation. No fusion—just dissolution.
That's where the mist could play a role.
Right now, his body was completely devoid of Cursed Energy. All of it had been poured into the blue ocean. This non-physical world was cut off from the outside—at least in terms of Cursed Energy.
Otherwise, even the external balance mechanisms would have followed him in.
That meant the emotional pathways he'd constructed—those that produced Cursed Energy from positive and negative emotions—couldn't transmit here.
Fortunately, he had more than enough Cursed Energy to begin with. The new life forms could supplement the rest.
Sōjun Minamoto glanced at the endless ocean, then turned away. Shichizai followed silently beside him.
Suspended in the air around him were numerous Cursed Energy Sources—items he had brought with him when he entered this realm.
Now, fusing these sources was trivial. The complicated prerequisites had long been eliminated. After just a few steps, the current batch had already been integrated.
Eighty-nine shimmering lights now flickered across his body.
The number was precise. The original Cursed Energy Sources, along with those collected by the medical division, totaled eighty-three. He then forcibly added six ancient cursed artifacts to bring it to exactly eighty-nine.
This setup was based on traditional Chinese medicine's acupuncture system—or rather, the concept of unique, sensitive points in the human body where diseases manifest and treatment is applied.
Roughly 720 key points exist, alongside countless minor ones. But he didn't need to activate them all—only the vital ones.
Over time, the number of vital points in his evolved body had greatly decreased. The remaining eighty-nine were those that even humans couldn't avoid.
So, the number matched.
Acupoints were just a concept—so were Cursed Energy Sources. Both were intangible, almost ethereal.
But with perfect self-control, he could identify those "points."
This time, he would empty all the vital points, then use them as nodes to spread throughout his entire body, unifying it into a single, complete Cursed Energy Source.
The process would naturally take time. But with the differing flow of time between this world and the outer one, it felt like he had more than enough.
And if he wanted to speed things up, he only needed to integrate more Cursed Energy Sources. He'd already accounted for this. Once his body was fully unified, it would be time to leave. At that point, the ancient sorcerers on Kenjaku's side would be enough to fill in any remaining gaps.
With that thought, Sōjun Minamoto activated the Reverse Cursed Technique, continuously washing the Cursed Energy Sources inside him with positive Cursed Energy, altering their nature—turning negative into positive.
The goal was to make his body a vessel for positive Cursed Energy. Shichizai would represent the negative aspect. Their fusion would create a truly perfect individual.
However...
Even as Sōjun Minamoto cleansed the Cursed Energy Sources, he couldn't help but ponder: true fusion was immensely difficult. Positive and negative energies only canceled each other out—finding a balance seemed nearly impossible.
He stepped forward across the sea, casually scattering the crystal fragments.
They turned back into mist, curling softly around his breath.
With each breath Sōjun Minamoto took, the world trembled.
"Inhale—exhale—"
A deep, resonant breath echoed from the ends of heaven and earth, and the first gust of wind stirred the surface of the sea.
The mist was drawn into the Cursed Energy Sources. Now cleansed, they were empty, allowing the mist to settle calmly inside.
Once all eighty-nine Cursed Energy Sources had been filled with mist, Sōjun Minamoto began to slowly draw in Blessed Energy. As the orbs filled halfway, the mist remained calm.
At three-quarters full, the mist began to stir.
By the time they were four-fifths full, the mist showed signs of leaking.
Shichizai approached, placing a hand on his shoulder. Black lines began flowing into the Cursed Energy Sources, sealing the other side and pressing against the mist along with the Blessed Energy.
Shichizai's body started to blur, becoming ethereal—until it completely merged.
"It's at the limit."
A sense of crisis rose in Sōjun Minamoto's heart. He released the pressure on the mist. Shichizai, who had already merged, reappeared at his side.
This was only the appearance of fusion. A layer of mist still separated them—they hadn't truly fused.
More research was needed.
Sōjun Minamoto turned toward the Shikigami. They were both inhabitants of this world and his test subjects.
Back then, he had offered the first hint of positive emotion to the non-physical world, setting it on a path toward the unknown. That marked the beginning of its development.
From one came two, and from two came three. Sōjun Minamoto became the origin of this world—the point above the singularity.
With all the time in the world, he could afford to slowly explore the path to balance.
...
Meanwhile, in the real world—Mount Fuji.
The climbing season had ended, and all mountain trails were closed. Yet a lone figure stood at the summit, clad in a raincoat and leaning on a hiking staff... looking every bit the ordinary tourist.
He stood at the rim of the volcanic crater, but his gaze was fixed skyward. Between strands of hair, a grotesque suture line could be seen across his forehead.
Following his gaze, high in the air, floated a pulsating egg-like object—beating with a steady thump, thump, like a heart.