Gojo's smirk returned like a razor slicing through tension, and the Yuan Power he'd been condensing for this moment finally erupted. Since MeiYing had showcased her divine technique, how could he not respond in kind?
He raised two fingers toward the composed Mo Xie and muttered under his breath. "Titan's Grasp: Spatial Cage."
A violent pulse of Yuan Power detonated outward as his hand snapped into a clenched fist. At first, nothing seemed to happen.
Then—Mo Xie's eyes widened. His brows twitched, and a sharp gasp escaped his lips.
"What?!"
His body froze. His lungs stalled, caught between breath and suffocation. It wasn't ice. It wasn't time. No external pressure bore down on him, yet he couldn't move. Couldn't even blink.
It was as if the very space around him had been shackled—folded and crushed into a prison that locked him in place. Chains of invisible force coiled around his limbs and core like the grip of some ancient titan. Not a single strand of Yuan Power could circulate through his meridians. Every instinct screamed, every fiber of his being resisted—but resistance was futile. Mo Xie stood paralyzed, locked in his exact spatial coordinates, like a butterfly pinned to a wall.
Gojo exhaled, wiping the thin trickle of blood trailing down his nose. His Six Eyes glinted as he admired the film of fractured space wrapping Mo Xie in a cocoon of shimmering glass-like shards. Titan's Grasp. One of the two divine techniques he received after awakening his Earthly Titan Physique.
It was both a sealing art and an offensive spatial dominion technique—one that twisted the fabric of space itself with Yuan Power. At its core, it was the ultimate binding: escape was impossible unless one could shatter space with brute force or transcendent power.
His mastery of it was still shallow, only enough to trap someone for about sixty seconds before his stamina drained. But he didn't need a minute. He only needed a window.
And as expected, MeiYing noticed him standing at the entrance of her cave. Without hesitation, she canceled her domain and vanished in a streak of light, retreating into the wilderness.
Gojo smirked at Mo Xie's frozen expression, then turned and strode into the cave without looking back. He sprinted through the twisted labyrinth of stone and shadow, heart pounding like war drums. He had one goal—trap and kill Mo Xie. Head-on wasn't an option. A Yuan Dan Realm cultivator was still far beyond him. Strategy was everything.
But after a full minute, his steps slowed. A cold dread trickled into his heart.
Mo Xie hadn't followed. The spatial seal had worn off… yet no pursuit. His face darkened. "No…"
"Fuck!" he roared, slamming his fist into a nearby pillar, shattering it into dust. He saw through it. The bastard knew Gojo was trying to bait him. MeiYing was now the target.
Grinding his teeth, Gojo forced his focus back and scanned the interior of the cave. Blood, bone, and rotting flesh littered the ground like a slaughterhouse. The stench clawed at his senses. He turned to leave when his Six Eyes picked up the faintest shift in air pressure.
His eyes widened. Too late.
BANG!
A colossal force slammed into his back like a battering ram. He was flung like a ragdoll, his body crashing through several stone pillars before skidding across the ground in a twisted blur of blood and dust.
When he finally stopped, he was on his knees, trembling, gasping. Both arms dangled uselessly—shattered. A crimson trail dripped from his lips.
What the hell just hit him? His breath caught. No Grade Five beast could break the Earthly Titan Physique.
Something stirred in the depths of the cave. A putrid, sulfuric stench crawled into his nostrils. The ground rumbled.
From the shadows slithered a behemoth—skin jagged, scales glowing fiery crimson. Each coil shattered stone beneath it. Purple slits glared through the dark, radiating raw, ancient menace. Its forked tongue hissed with hunger.
A python. No, a monster. The Flaming Striped Python. The Overlord of the Blackwater Region. Grade Six.
Gojo's heart dropped into his stomach. He'd killed thousands of cursed spirits in his past life—but this? This made his skin crawl.
Its body was nearly twenty-five meters long, coiled like a mountain, suffocating the cavern with its girth. Its eyes blinked lazily at him—then flared with a hunger Gojo recognized too well.
It had caught the scent of his bloodline. It wanted to devour him.
"Shit…" Gojo muttered, his tone deadly quiet. "It's looking at me like I'm dessert."
There was no escape. The beast had sealed every tunnel. The only paths left were victory or death.
If this creature was connected to Mo Xie, then everything—the calm, the feigned indifference—made sense. It had been a trap from the start.
Gojo clenched his jaw. MeiYing had to survive. Either he won this suicidal battle… or the little falcon reached her in time.
Yuan Power surged. His mangled arms began to knit themselves together, flesh and bone stitching back with inhuman speed.
Titan's Resurrection. The third gift of his Physique.
Not a divine ability, but something deeper—internal.
A regenerative force that could purge any poison, repair any wound, recover from any energy backlash… as long as he kept fighting. The moment he ran out of stamina or fighting spirit, he'd lose the ability to heal. It was a fucked up version of that ruffian Hakari's Idle Death Gamble, except it didn't grant him infinite Cursed energy, or Yuan Power in this case, just ultra fast regeneration.
This meant that, if he was one shotted, he'd have no way to recover, since he can't keep on fighting. The cons were endless, but the pros were quite substantial.
This level of high speed regeneration was one thousand times faster than Reverse Cursed Technique ever could, and he wasn't exaggerating.
Immortality through combat. He couldn't stop. Not even for a moment. If his will faltered, so would his healing.
It was no god-mode cheat. One lethal blow, and he was dead. But as long as he had breath and drive, he could survive anything.
He rocketed toward the python, eyes cold and blazing. His arms surged with silver Yuan Power, forming clawed gloves of shattered space. The fabric of reality tore in his wake as he leapt —just as the python's jaws unhinged, wide as a tunnel.
A stream of boiling lava-like essence surged toward him with terrifying speed. No time to dodge. He crossed his arms and braced.
The blast hit like a volcanic eruption. He was launched like a cannonball, tearing through rock walls before slamming into the ground with a deafening crash. His skin blistered, charred black. His right arm was gone—liquefied.
He was getting cooked. Literally.
But by the time his broken body hit the floor, it was already knitting back together. Charred skin flaked off. Muscle regrew. Bone snapped back into place.
He rose, smoking, eyes gleaming. The Six Eyes caught movement—the python lunging with terrifying speed. His lips curled.
"Titan's Grasp: Spatial Cage!!"
The air cracked. The sound of mirrors shattering echoed around him. Silver shards of distorted space spiraled from his body, encasing the world in chaotic glass. The python froze in mid-lunge. Fangs bared. Inches from Gojo's face.
Frozen. Locked. Gojo smirked. "You're not that smart, are you?"
Unless one had the power to tear space apart, escaping the Spatial Cage was impossible. He lifted two fingers, space shattering at his tips.
"Riftstorm Barrage."
A/N: I made you guys wait too long. Been busy a bit. I'll throw another chapter in the mix. Just have to edit a bit so, stay tuned. But before that, can I get at least two reviews? And some powerstones? Creation is hard you know, motivate me a little.