Chapter Seventy-Eight: An Interlude from Another World

Near his aunt’s house

As usual, Lu Mingfei arrived at the space-time node and focused his senses. After long training and the improvement of his mental strength and control, his perception of space had become much sharper, making it less difficult to pierce through the fabric of reality.

Still, in most cases, Lu Mingfei was unable to break through the world’s barrier; after all, it was the wall between worlds, not something to be breached lightly. Even at its thinnest, it should have been insurmountable under normal circumstances.

“Hey, the barrier feels so thin today!” Lu Mingfei’s eyes suddenly lit up, and a broad smile blossomed on his face.

The world he stood in and the world on the other side were now so close they seemed nearly pressed together. Yet, even with them this near, Lu Mingfei wasn’t confident he could breach a large area.

Nevertheless, there was progress!

His strength had grown, and the distance between the two worlds had lessened. It was only natural that the range of his breakthrough would be greater than before.

Let’s give it a try!

A will, concentrated, can pierce the world!

He exhaled softly.

Standing beside the world’s node, his golden eyes burning brilliantly, Lu Mingfei slowly raised his hand and pointed his fingertips at the weakest point he’d sensed. Channeling all his spiritual power into his authority, he whispered, “Break the world.”

His words became a spell, further empowering his authority. The aspect of his power linked to space relentlessly pressed against the world’s barrier.

Crack!

A series of crisp, shattering sounds rang out as the barrier began to split and crumble. A rift, as large as a basketball, gradually took form. This, for now, was the very limit of what Lu Mingfei could achieve with his strength and luck combined.

A rift the size of a basketball—countless times larger than the pinprick it had been before. The black gap was dangerous, but Lu Mingfei only smiled at it. His gaze wasn’t that of one facing peril, but of someone glimpsing hope, a bright future.

Yet, even though the rift was larger, it was still far too small for a person to pass through. Lu Mingfei was nowhere close to being able to traverse worlds.

Fragments of space, razor-sharp and deadly, lined the edges of the rift. If he were careless enough to let one of those shards cut him, or if a fragment got lodged in his body, he could hardly imagine the extent of the injury or how long it would take to heal—if healing was even possible.

I can’t take that risk.

Lu Mingfei sighed inwardly.

The next moment, chaos erupted.

A slash burst from the other side of the world with blinding speed, slicing toward Lu Mingfei as he stood before the rift. He dodged swiftly, but the attack still grazed his arm, tearing his sleeve and leaving a bloody mark. Drops of crimson welled up and trickled down.

Danger!

Lu Mingfei stared at the rift, his wound closing rapidly in a matter of seconds. If not for the torn sleeve, no one would have noticed he’d even been cut.

Since his awakening, Lu Mingfei had inherited the Dragon King’s regenerative powers—healing from ordinary wounds in an instant, though not quite instantly.

But this time, the wound had closed almost immediately because—

“Damn it, what are you doing, dear brother!?”

Lu Mingze burst out in a panic, hastily pouring his power into Lu Mingfei’s body, afraid that the attack from the other world would kill him outright.

He hadn’t expected Lu Mingfei’s attempt to break through the world would open such a wide rift, nor that an attack would come from the other side. Lu Mingfei’s abilities had surpassed his expectations.

“Immortal.”

Lu Mingfei gave no answer, relying only on the instinct in his blood to trigger a spell.

In an instant, a pale golden power cloaked his body, even covering his clothes. Though the spell he used was called “Immortal,” it differed greatly from the orthodox technique.

Normally, the “Immortal” spell would reinforce the user’s body to the strength of titanium alloy, able to punch through bulletproof steel.

But Lu Mingfei’s “Immortal” was different. It was more as though he wielded a power named Immortality, wrapping that energy around himself. He did this by instinct, not yet noticing the difference, his attention still fixed on the far side of the rift.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

A barrage of slashes rained down, dense as a fisherman’s net. Lu Mingfei’s golden eyes flashed, dodging at his utmost speed, but the attacks were so thick that even he couldn’t avoid being brushed by them.

He turned his head and looked at the edge of his robe, struck by the attacks—now glowing faintly gold, completely undamaged. His expression began to shift.

Growing careless, he let more attacks strike his body, but none could harm him.

“Huh?”

Lu Mingfei gradually stopped moving. He stared at the rift, at the attacks pouring through, and stopped bothering to dodge. After all, they couldn’t even scratch him.

But soon, a new sense of danger swept over him. A slash infused with spatial power shot out of the other world, crashing into him at terrifying speed.

Ding—

Still, it couldn’t break his defense.

Though the attack was strong enough to sever the world, the pale golden light of immortality glowing on Lu Mingfei’s body was on a higher plane, making him immune to the blow.

“What a flashy trick.”

Lu Mingfei strolled to the edge of the rift, rubbing his chin as he watched the attacks rain down, utterly indifferent to the slashes and the spatial blades.

But then…

His patience began to wear thin. He could see it now: on the far side of the world, some brainless fly was attacking him. The attacks were too weak to matter, yet their persistence was intensely annoying.

It was infuriating!

If slashes were what he received, slashes he would return!

“Spell—Judgment.”

On the other side of the rift—

“How remarkable, Satoru Gojo. I doubt I’ll ever forget you.” Sukuna gazed at the bisected Gojo, a winner’s smile slowly spreading across his face.

He turned to look at Kazuyuki Shikigami, who seemed poised to descend from the sky onto the battlefield at any moment, and with arrogant amusement said, “I’m in a fine mood now—don’t disappoint me.”

Crack!

Suddenly, the sound of the world shattering drew everyone’s eyes. It came from where Gojo had been cut in half—more precisely, from the cross-section of his severed body.

A black rift opened, bizarre and sinister. It seemed that as Sukuna’s attack cut through the world, someone on the far side had answered it. Forces from both sides, striking at the same point, joined to open a passageway between worlds—linked directly through the cross-section of Gojo’s body.

“What is that? Some kind of technique of Gojo’s?”

Sukuna’s eyes narrowed in confusion. He didn’t understand why a black rift had suddenly appeared on half of Gojo’s body, nor why a powerful presence lurked beyond.

But he shrugged it off, a smile curling his lips. “How interesting.”

Kazuyuki, who had been poised to rush Sukuna, now paused and watched the unfolding events. Perhaps Gojo’s transformation was some final trick—his own moment had not yet come.

Swish!

Sukuna raised his hand and sent a slash at the rift, striking toward the other world.

The rift absorbed the attack without reaction, remaining perfectly still.

“My curiosity grows. What on earth is on the other side? Something that excites me, I think. How very interesting.” Sukuna murmured, his grin widening.

He activated Reverse Cursed Technique, his wounds closing and his strength returning. More and stronger slashes hurtled toward the rift, culminating in his proudest world-severing attack.

Then—

“Spell—Judgment.”

A voice like a king’s decree resounded in everyone’s ears. From Gojo’s cross-section, the earth split and crumbled on a massive scale. The destruction itself was not the judgment, only its harbinger.

Boom!

Invisible force tore the world apart—a power beyond jujutsu, a mere prelude to the true attack, yet it already turned the battlefield upside down.

The onlooking sorcerers fled in panic. They didn’t know what was happening, but the threat was unmistakable—danger at its most extreme had arrived.

Facing it head-on, Sukuna’s mouth twisted. “Hey now, isn’t this a bit much?”

He could feel it—the presence from the other world had set him as the target. No matter where he ran, there was no escape. Now, flight was meaningless.

The world shattered under invisible might, then miraculously reassembled, forming an ultimate slash that spanned earth and sky—a blade so vast it seemed to blot out the sun.

This was the ultimate judgment—Lu Mingfei’s full-strength judgment, powered as well by Lu Mingze, who lent his own strength in worry for his brother. This was the judgment of a fully matured Dragon King, a force capable of crushing worlds.

The slash fell.

Judgment descended.

Heaven and earth collapsed, all things perished.

Sukuna, always in search of satisfaction, was finally sated. His body was obliterated, his soul annihilated by judgment.

Perhaps in this life, and his past, he had never beheld such a beautiful strike. Under the Dragon King’s judgment, not even his last resort remained. This was the grandest burial the world had ever seen.

Oh, what a magnificent funeral!

To be laid to rest by a Dragon King from another world—what an honor, what a glorious fate!

And perhaps, if he could still think, he would apologize that he’d failed to force the great Lu Mingfei to use his full power. Ah, such a beautiful being! So mighty—who, he would wonder, had taught such a one about love?

(End of chapter)