Chapter 136: I

“We actually escaped from the Special-Grade Cursed Spirit’s domain!”

“That Wen Shengzai—he’s mastered even a simplified domain, and just a simplified domain is this powerful! Just who in the world does he belong to?”

After escaping from Hanao’s domain, the group looked around at the devastated surroundings and only then, with trembling hearts, realized they had truly broken free from that Special-Grade Cursed Spirit’s domain.

Not long after their escape, Hanao—whose injuries had been fully healed by his technique “Life Absorption”—and Shengzai, exhausted from depleted cursed energy, appeared before them.

Seeing Shengzai before him, Hanao was stunned, for Shengzai’s strength far exceeded his expectations.

The opponent was merely a first-year student at Tokyo Jujutsu High, yet he had already gained the power to escape from Hanao’s domain.

Such talent and ability caused Hanao, who had originally shown no killing intent, to now regard Shengzai with unmistakable hostility.

Among Special-Grade Cursed Spirits, Hanao was arguably the gentlest in temperament, yet he had a feeling that if Shengzai were allowed to continue growing, he would one day become their greatest enemy.

Yet just as Hanao was about to unwrap the cloth from his shoulder, revealing a massive bud blooming there and preparing to go all out, he seemed to receive some message, cast one long look at Shengzai, and turned away without hesitation.

Seeing Hanao turn and flee without a second thought, Toge and the others prepared to chase after him—but were stopped by Shengzai and Tohru Aoi.

Not only was a Special-Grade Cursed Spirit extremely dangerous and they were no match for him now, even if they were at full strength, forcibly holding him back would not be easy.

As for why Hanao retreated without hesitation, the reason was simple: barely minutes after his departure, Gojo Satoru and Aoi An and the others arrived on the scene.

The purpose of this invasion by the Special-Grade Cursed Spirits was to steal the other two fingers of Sukuna.

Thanks to Shengzai’s warning, the one assigned to steal Sukuna’s fingers—Manjiro—failed to succeed and nearly got killed by Gojo’s arrival.

Had Gojo not noticed the Special-Grade Cursed Spirit here using domain expansion to drag Toge and the others into his domain, and rushed over fearing for the students’ safety, none of the invading Special-Grade Cursed Spirits would have escaped.

“Shengzai, are you all okay?”

Seeing that everyone on Shengzai’s team was injured but no one was missing, Gojo and Aoi An breathed a collective sigh of relief.

The enemy in this invasion had clearly come prepared; they were stretched thin fighting on two fronts and had no capacity to spare. Although they had preserved Sukuna’s fingers and other Special-Grade Cursed Objects, if the students had been harmed, they would have suffered a total defeat.

“I’m fine—just exhausted from using a simplified domain to break open his domain expansion, which drained most of my cursed energy.

As for my injuries, I’ve already treated them about seventy percent with Reverse Cursed Technique. Unfortunately, I’m not skilled enough yet to heal others like Teacher Kuroi.”

Shengzai’s utterly vainglorious words instantly silenced every other student from both the Kyoto and Tokyo branches.

To be honest, their survival was largely thanks to Shengzai—and even more astonishingly, this guy had mastered Reverse Cursed Technique, one of the most difficult techniques to control!

If this counts as “unskilled,” then what the hell are we? Just filler students in the jujutsu world?

The Tokyo and Kyoto branch students were stunned, and so were the Kyoto branch principal Rokujirou and Aoi An.

They knew full well that Gojo had previously revealed Shengzai and Kuroi had only been studying Reverse Cursed Technique for a week!

In just one week he mastered Reverse Cursed Technique—the most difficult cursed energy manipulation technique—and he’s already using simplified domains? Are you even human?

Beyond his power, Rokujirou and Aoi An also knew that the reason they had uncovered the enemy’s true intent and prevented the theft of the Special-Grade Cursed Objects was because Shengzai had sensed something was wrong from the start.

In short, without exaggeration, the reason Sumi’s plan failed this time was almost entirely due to Shengzai alone.

“Don’t be too discouraged. With your talent and strength, you’ll surpass that Special-Grade Cursed Spirit soon enough.

And you’ve already earned great merit this time. I’m sure your application for promotion to Grade One Jujutsu Sorcerer won’t face any major obstacles.”

“Am I right, old man who’s practically in his coffin?”

Gojo first patted Shengzai on the shoulder to comfort him, then turned to Rokujirou, whose face had darkened, and demanded bluntly:

Rokujirou was a member of the Jujutsu High Council and held immense authority—including control over Jujutsu Sorcerer promotions.

Previously, even though Shengzai’s strength met Grade One standards, he couldn’t be promoted directly because he lacked the required merit.

But now things were different: the High Council could pretend ignorance over Shengzai’s two prior defeats of Sukuna.

But this time, during the invasion of Jujutsu High, Rokujirou had witnessed Shengzai’s actions with his own eyes.

Though they didn’t know what Sumi and the others intended to do with the Special-Grade Cursed Objects, if they had succeeded, the consequences would have been unimaginable. In this incident, Shengzai was unquestionably the greatest hero.

Even if the Jujutsu High Council tried to suppress him, Shengzai would now be undeniably promoted to Grade One Jujutsu Sorcerer.

With this chaos, the exchange event could no longer continue, and Rokujirou left in high displeasure with the Kyoto branch.

What Shengzai hadn’t expected was that before the Kyoto branch departed, Aoi An—their advisor teacher—would approach him voluntarily.

She offered warmly: “I’m also a jujutsu sorcerer from Sendai. If one day you ever consider transferring to the Kyoto branch, the doors of Kyoto Prefectural Jujutsu High will always remain open for you.”

Aoi An knew poaching students was improper, but she couldn’t help it—Shengzai was her hometown friend, and he was simply that outstanding.

In power, talent, character, and intellect, Shengzai far outpaced all his peers. Who wouldn’t want a student like him?

Besides, Tokyo branch already had Gojo Satoru and Oguro Uta. Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu High and Kyoto Prefectural Jujutsu High were sister schools of equal standing, yet over the years, Kyoto branch had been completely overshadowed.

Since Tokyo branch didn’t lack geniuses, what harm would it do to let Kyoto branch have one?

(End of Chapter)