Chapter 160 (Patreon)

Kobe.

Satoru Gojo was exorcising the cursed spirits scattered throughout the city when a chilling surge of cursed energy erupted dozens of kilometers away.

“This cursed energy...”

Whoosh!

An invisible slash tore through the city in an instant. Protected by Infinity, Gojo remained suspended in midair, completely unharmed.

“I heard the last of my fingers is in your possession.”

Sukuna approached at an unhurried pace before stopping opposite Gojo.

“Your information is surprisingly accurate.”

Gojo raised one of Sukuna’s fingers.

“It’s right here. If you want it, come and take it yourself.”

“You have a death wish, brat.”

The instant Sukuna raised his hand, another invisible slash came down.

Gojo slipped aside, but the city behind him was not so fortunate. With a deafening tearing sound, several high-rise buildings were cut cleanly in half.

“You certainly know how to make a mess,” Gojo remarked, glancing at the devastated city.

“You’ll end up just like those buildings soon enough.”

Gojo lowered his black blindfold, revealing the brilliant blue of the Six Eyes.

“You seem to be mistaken about one thing, so let me make this perfectly clear...”

His piercing gaze settled upon Sukuna.

“You’re the challenger here.”

Sukuna stared at him for a moment before laughing in disbelief.

“Don’t overestimate yourself, brat.”

“The challenger? You must be delirious if you’ve forgotten where you stand.”

Sukuna settled into a fighting stance.

“I’ll kill you first, reclaim the last of my power, and put the sorcerers of this age back in their place.”

“Then relax. I’ll make sure I kill you and bring this pointless farce to an end.”

Cursed energy surged throughout Gojo’s body. Despite the overwhelming presence radiating from Sukuna, not a trace of fear appeared on his face.

He remained as composed as ever.

Whoosh!

Both figures vanished.

Clouds of dust erupted throughout the city as the surrounding buildings collapsed one after another. It looked less like a battle between sorcerers and more like a clash between two monsters.

Sukuna’s invisible slash crashed into Infinity.

Despite its terrifying force, the attack slowed to a halt before it could touch Gojo. Even Sukuna’s slash could not break through the neutral Limitless.

Sukuna pointed one hand at Gojo and murmured softly.

“Dismantle.”

The next instant, a massive invisible slash surged toward the heavens, cleaving through the earth and tearing open the sky.

Everything standing in its path was obliterated.

Gojo’s eyes narrowed slightly.

A scarlet gleam bloomed at the tip of his finger.

In an instant, the entire world seemed to be dyed red. The space around Gojo began to distort as he moved his hand, unleashing an irresistible burst of repulsive force.

“Cursed Technique Reversal: Red.”

The surrounding buildings were the first to disintegrate beneath its power.

Neither Gojo nor Sukuna retreated a single step.

At that moment, Sukuna shot through the blinding light and appeared directly in front of Gojo, an invisible slash already prepared in his hand.

Without the Six Eyes, even Gojo might have failed to notice him in time.

Sukuna’s fearlessness bordered on madness. If their cursed energies collided at such close range, the resulting force could easily engulf them both.

“Impressive... Domain Expansion!”

“Domain Expansion.”

Gojo was the first to expand his domain. A heartbeat later, Sukuna formed a hand seal of his own.

Unlimited Void versus Malevolent Shrine.

Both were open-barrier domains.

With neither domain enclosed within an outer shell, Unlimited Void did not immediately shatter beneath Malevolent Shrine’s attacks.

They were evenly matched.

The sure-hit effects of Unlimited Void and Malevolent Shrine collided, canceling each other out.

“How can you expand a domain without closing its barrier?” Sukuna asked, unable to hide his confusion. “Sorcerers of this era should almost exclusively use closed-barrier domains.”

Even a thousand years ago, only exceptionally skilled sorcerers had been capable of manifesting an open-barrier domain.

In the modern age, where jujutsu had declined so drastically, such a feat should have been nearly impossible.

“Who knows?”

Gojo wore the effortless confidence of someone who had already secured victory. He had no intention of explaining his abilities to Sukuna.

“Maybe that’s simply the difference between a genius and everyone else.”

“A genius?” Sukuna scoffed. “Only a frog at the bottom of a well would call itself that.”

He poured even more cursed energy into Malevolent Shrine, attempting to crush Unlimited Void in a single push.

Bang!

Both domains shattered simultaneously.

In the end, however, Sukuna gained the slightest advantage. One final slash swept across Gojo’s throat.

It had bypassed Infinity!

Even Gojo froze in surprise for an instant.

He immediately channeled reverse cursed technique into the wound and healed his neck.

At that exact moment, sinister cursed energy enveloped him.

While Gojo was still using reverse cursed technique, Malevolent Shrine suddenly manifested once more, covering the surrounding area.

Sukuna smiled faintly, his hands maintaining the seal.

Countless slashes instantly rained down upon Gojo!

When it came to the raw performance of their techniques, Sukuna held an overwhelming advantage.

His slashes formed a dense and deadly web around Gojo.

Even the sky itself was torn apart.

The earth was mercilessly carved to pieces.

Gojo endured the relentless storm of slashes while continuously restoring his body with reverse cursed technique. Then, in an instant, he appeared directly in front of Sukuna.

He planted his palm against Sukuna’s chest and released a point-blank Red.

Boom!

Sukuna was blasted several thousand meters away.

Given a brief moment to breathe, Gojo finished restoring his body with reverse cursed technique before deploying Simple Domain around himself.

At the same time, Sukuna kicked off with enough force to rupture the air.

In less than a second, he had already returned to Gojo’s side, accompanied by the descending slashes of Malevolent Shrine.

This time, however, Gojo’s Simple Domain neutralized the domain’s sure-hit effect.

Although he no longer had to expend cursed energy dealing with the sure-hit slashes, Gojo had already consumed far too much during the previous exchange.

As a result, Sukuna now held a slight advantage in close combat.

Pfft!

Invisible slashes blossomed across Gojo’s body, leaving countless bloody wounds from his face to his torso.

Sukuna watched as Gojo struggled against his attacks.

“How dull.”

Despite the blood covering his body, Gojo made no attempt to heal himself.

Blue formed in his hand.

Sukuna immediately tried to create some distance, but Blue’s immense attractive force locked him firmly in place.

“You’re not getting away.”

Boom!

Blue’s pull dragged Sukuna into the surrounding buildings. Shattered concrete and twisted steel collapsed over him, burying him beneath the wreckage.

“Attraction?”

Before Sukuna could react, the rubble swallowed him completely.

As Blue’s attractive force continued to intensify, more and more debris was drawn upward.

Eventually, an enormous sphere of compressed rubble appeared in the sky above Kobe, with Sukuna trapped at its center.

Gojo immediately formed another hand seal.

“Cursed Technique Reversal: Red.”

Hummm!

A colossal sphere of scarlet cursed energy expanded between Gojo’s hands. Its radius alone was nearly twenty meters.

Crimson light washed across the entire city.

Every cursed spirit within range trembled before a battle that had already surpassed all common sense.

Gojo raised the enormous Red above him, a fearless smile appearing on his face.

“Still think I’m... boring?”

He hurled Red downward, straight toward Sukuna, who remained trapped inside the massive sphere.

Boom!

A thunderous explosion shook everything in the surrounding area.

A vast section of the already-devastated city was completely flattened.

Gojo’s cursed energy erupted toward the heavens, forming a towering pillar of red light at the center of Kobe.