Chapter 10: Little aunt

The afternoon sun hung high, casting a golden hue over the vast compound. Sukuna moved slowly, hands tucked behind inside his kimono, white robes billowing slightly with the breeze.

“How dull… How endlessly dull. Is this the pace at which this world crawls? I thought cultivation worlds were supposed to be a lot more fun than this. When do the tournaments begin, anyway? There’s always some grand tournament in places like this... Is no one worth fighting in this realm?”

He scoffed to himself, stepping through the courtyard arch without noticing the large, engraved plate hanging just above it ‘Xiao Lingxi’s’.

He came to a stop in the middle of the courtyard, letting his eyes trail across the distant pavilion and neat flowerbeds. Then came the shouting.

“You there! Stop right where you are!” a voice barked. Heavy footsteps quickly followed.

Sukuna turned his head slightly, barely interested, as two guards clad in deep-blue uniforms strode into view.

“This is a restricted area!” one barked. “What business do you have here? You trying to sneak around the Young Lady’s courtyard, huh?”

The king of curses stared at them as if they were insects buzzing too close to his ear. He said nothing the tilt of his head and the curl of his lip were more than enough to communicate his disdain.

The shorter of the two guards clenched his fist. “You bastard... courting death?”

Without waiting for a reply, he drew his blade. “Let’s teach this mongrel some manners! Rising Tide Slash!”

The sword glowed faint blue as the guard swung upward from beneath, attempting to cleave Sukuna from hip to shoulder. But before the blade reached him, Sukuna had already tilted his head back slightly, letting it pass by without so much as brushing his clothing.

‘Why is he shouting?’

The other guard, his right fist coated in a faint jagged rock-like energy, lunged in. “Colliding Fist!” he shouted, swinging with full momentum.

Sukuna leapt to the side casually, his expression finally shifting to amusement.

“Hooo~ How interesting.”

The guards came at him in tandem, their footfalls almost cracking the stones of the courtyard as they poured more profound energy into their techniques. The noise drew attention fast.

From inside the building, Xiao Lingxi stepped out in alarm, her brows furrowed having been awakened due to the commotion. “What the hell is happening here!?”

The sight that greeted her froze her mid-step.

Sukuna’s foot connected with the rocky-fisted guard’s torso. The guard’s eyes widened in disbelief as the world turned sideways and was propelled away. He slammed into the stone wall across the courtyard with a thunderous crash, his body embedded deep within it, groaning faintly.

Before the dust settled, Sukuna appeared in front of him again too fast for the eye to track and drove a punch straight toward his gut.

But the remaining guard with the blade was already on the move, slashing downward with a roar.

Sukuna didn’t flinch.

He raised his forearm and blocked the sword directly metal met flesh and to everyone’s astonishment, the blade didn't even leave a scratch.

Xiao Lingxi gasped, her eyes wide. ‘What is he...? That wasn’t body reinforcement... it was something else entirely.’

Before she could call out to stop them

Sukuna grinned. His cursed energy surged outward like a silent scream.

A blink of a moment later, hundreds of thin, merciless slashes exploded across the sword-wielding guard’s body. The air trembled as the guard staggered back, his blade shattering into glittering fragments that rained around him like glass. Behind him, a large tree was cut down into a thousand splinters diced so finely it collapsed silently into dust.

Xiao Lingxi’s breath caught in her throat.

Both guards lay motionless on the ground, groaning but still alive if only barely.

Sukuna stared at them in silence before sighing heavily. “Is that it? How boring...”

He turned toward Xiao Lingxi, eyes glowing slightly. “Did we wake you?” he asked, his tone smooth and condescending, as if speaking to a nosy neighbor woken by a mild commotion.

The courtyard was deathly still.

The breeze shifted, carrying the faint scent of blood and dust. And Sukuna smiled.

————

Xiao Lingxi stood still, her eyes locked onto the unconscious bodies of the two guards sprawled across the courtyard stones. Her heartbeat hadn’t settled yet. It wasn’t the defeated guards that had her breath caught in her throat it was him. The boy. The boy with no cultivation, just like her Xiao Che.

‘And yet... how did he do that?’ she thought, her lips parting in silent disbelief.

Her gaze rose slowly, and just as her eyes found him again, a sudden voice whispered behind her ear, making her stiffen:

“So you’re the little aunt, huh?”

Her blood ran cold.

She hadn’t seen him move. No ripple of presence, no whisper of profound energy. Nothing. Just empty air… and then he was behind her.

Her eyes widened.

‘How… How the hell did he get behind me…?’

Even her profound sense hadn’t detected a shift.

The voice came again, softer, but filled with a sardonic amusement.

“You can turn around now.”

Her body, previously locked by the jolt of fear, suddenly responded as if it had received permission. She turned and there he stood, an arm’s length away. His face calm, his expression unreadable. The dark tattoos that trailed along his body shimmered faintly, as if amused themselves.

“We haven’t been properly introduced.” His voice was calm and firm. “Name’s Sukuna. Pardon the boring show… I was taking out your trash.”

Xiao Lingxi blinked. Her throat tightened but she forced a huff of defiance through her nervousness.

“Hmph… My name is Xiao Lingxi,” she replied with a shaky voice, trying to muster poise.

Sukuna’s lips curled into a faint smirk.

“Your grandfather was called off. Something about an important sect meeting. Sounded dreadfully dull.”

He rolled his neck like a bored cat after a nap.

“Oh...” Lingxi’s voice trailed off. Her shoulders drooped, and suddenly her aura dimmed like the final ember of a fire. Her face fell not gently, but like a brittle leaf snapped from its branch.

Sukuna cocked his head slightly.

‘What now?’ he thought.

She bent down slightly, bringing a hand to cover her face as a silent tremble ran through her frame.

“Xiao Che’s wife... saw us,”she whispered through her hands.

Sukuna’s brow lifted.

“Huh?” he muttered, blinking twice.

Lingxi slowly looked up at him with a broken expression.

“She saw me sleeping with him... She came in to cover him with a blanket, but I was already there... beside him...”

Her voice quivered, and shame dripped from every syllable.

“She’s married to him. And yet... he spent the night with me. She saw it.”

Sukuna looked at her for a good minute then he let out a long sigh through his nose.

“Tch… Based on that woman’s personality and her reluctance toward her new role. I highly doubt she even cares who sleeps with Xiao Che.”

Lingxi blinked. “You… you think so?”

There was a fragile flicker of hope behind her eyes.

Sukuna nodded lazily and crossed his arms.

“I’m almost certain. Even if she did see, she wouldn’t tell anyone. To begin with, she wouldn’t even think in the… hmm, in the direction you’re thinking of. She's too bound by responsibility and self-denial for that.”

Xiao Lingxi’s eyes softened, her hands falling from her face. She gave a gentle smile, a genuine one this time.

“You’re… a lot nicer than you look, y’know?”

Sukuna frowned. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

She giggled softly, placing a hand over her mouth.

“Nothing, nothing at all.”

Just as she opened her mouth to say more

“Little aunt! Little aunty! Are you already—?”

Xiao Che’s voice came echoing from the corridor, and he appeared moments later with a light breakfast in his hands. His eyes widened slightly upon noticing the scattered, beaten guards and his little aunt standing in the middle of the chaos.

“W-What happened here?! Are you alright, little aunty?! Were you attacked?!”

He rushed to her side, setting the tray down on the stone railing.

Lingxi quickly turned to look back—

But Sukuna was already gone.

She blinked and looked at the wall where the guard was embedded. The cracked stone remained. The slashes on the tree behind. But not even a trace of the one who had caused it all.

Xiao Che’s voice pulled her back.

“Little aunt?”

Lingxi turned back to him, her voice calm.

“I’m fine. Nothing happened. I was just meeting our guest…”

She looked off into the courtyard again.

And a chill ran down her spine.

Sukuna.