Gojo felt his breath leave his lungs.
But it wasn't from pain or exhaustion.
It was something else, something wrong.
The air around him twisted. It was no longer air as mortals knew it but an incomprehensible fabric of layered spatial folds, folding in on themselves like a kaleidoscope of reality.
A weightless sensation seized him, as if gravity and form itself had abandoned him. The world was shifting.
He saw it, or more accurately, he couldn't, because his vision was filled with patterns that shouldn't exist.
Subliminal light, bending dimensions, infinite planes that overlapped like shattered glass suspended in fluid. It was the fourth dimension made visible to someone who should never have seen it.
His eyes darted instinctively back to the arena. Through the layered veil, he could still glimpse the third dimension, his home plane where Su Qingshi and Li Tianheng stood frozen in confusion.
The audience's gasps, the distant murmurs of the elders, the sunlight gleaming off stone and steel, it was all there, yet impossibly far away.
Crouching down, Gojo pressed his palm to the ground. And his hand passed through it.
There was no resistance. No texture. As if matter itself no longer acknowledged his existence.
"I'm... not in the same reality anymore," he muttered.
His Six Eyes, now enhanced beyond anything he'd ever known, flickered with terrifying clarity. He saw through layers of space. His physical body, or what was left of it, had ascended into a state between worlds. He was no longer part of the third dimension, and could not interact with it.
And then, from the fog of distortion, a figure emerged. A man stepped forward, but no ordinary man, this one bent light and matter around him with every footfall. Silver hair flowed like mercury, cascading over broad shoulders. Regal robes of pure silver glistened with arcane symbols that shimmered in and out of perception.
Gojo didn't need to see his face.
He knew.
'Prepare… you shall understand soon.'
The voice boomed not in the space around him, but in his mind. It echoed endlessly, reverberating through his skull until it felt like his thoughts would split apart.
Before Gojo could speak, the figure vanished.
And then came the memories.
A wave of fragmented recollections crashed over him like a tidal wave, visions not his own, memories of a life he never lived, or perhaps once did. Gojo gritted his teeth, clutching his head. Reincarnation, forgotten truths, identities that refused to stay buried. It was enough to drive anyone insane.
"This reincarnation nonsense is really gonna be the end of me," he groaned, staggering to his feet.
But he didn't fall.
Instead, he reached into his dantian, calling forth the deep reservoir of Yuan Power. The energy responded instantly, swirling out in a radiant mixture of blue and purple, like twin galaxies orbiting his arm. He inhaled deeply, steadying himself.
And then… he tugged.
He pulled at the folds of the dimension around him, and it responded like pliable glass.
Cracks formed where his arm moved, spreading like fractures across a frozen lake. Reality itself split, as if some higher power had taken a blade to the air. A rift opened in the third dimension.
On the arena floor, Li Tianheng's instincts flared like wildfire. His eyes widened as the air behind him ruptured with an eerie screech, and a long, pale hand reached out from within the crack, inches from his back.
The crowd erupted.
Those with advanced perception stood to their feet. Some gasped, others screamed. Even the elders leaned forward in disbelief.
Gojo was doing the impossible.
But then, his body trembled. A sharp cough escaped his lips, spraying blood onto the warped space around him. Maintaining form in this realm, existing between dimensions, was draining him faster than any technique he had ever used. The Yuan Power that sustained him flickered.
The layered folds of space began to reject him.
They cracked and snapped, struggling to contain his presence.
With one final gasp, Gojo stumbled forward, and burst back into the third dimension, folding planes shattering behind him like stained glass.
"How did he do that?!"
"Did he just vanish and reappear?"
"Is he… a god?!"
Gojo ignored the voices. His Six Eyes had tracked the passage of time. Three minutes. That's how long he'd remained in the fourth dimension.
And yet, to those outside, it had barely been moments.
Still crouched on the cracked stage, he rested his chin on one hand, thinking deeply even as wounds across his body closed instantly. His regeneration, part of the Voidforge Titan Physique,wes more powerful than ever. He could feel it now. The final layer had awakened something monstrous.
He looked up.
The world had changed.
He could see not only energy, but density, matter, mass, and dimensional gaps. His perception had expanded to encompass the very architecture of reality. Before, such calculations would've overwhelmed even his formidable mind. Now, they came easily.
He chuckled.
"This… this is just the beginning."
With just a thought, Yuan Power surged across his body. What once required complex formations or divine incantations now obeyed his will alone. And more than that, his Yuan Power didn't just manipulate space. It frayed the boundaries between dimensions.
That was the secret.
The third dimension was composed of infinite two-dimensional planes. Gojo's Yuan Power didn't just bend them, it severed their connections and threaded a path into the fourth.
He stood.
And then turned to his stunned opponents with a tired smile.
"Let's finish this… yeah?"
Su Qingshi and Li Tianheng remained frozen.
But the pressure radiating from him, it changed. Gojo's presence now phased in and out of reality, like he existed across multiple planes at once. He drew not just on internal strength, but on the laws that governed existence.
"I will not let you win, Chen Zhen!"
Li Tianheng roared, fury burning in his eyes. His twin beasts echoed his rage, unleashing powerful battle cries.
From the left, the serpentine monster lunged, fangs bared. From above, the massive ape dove, its lightning-cloaked fist descending like divine punishment.
The stage shook.
Gojo didn't move.
Not at first.
His hands remained in his pockets. Only when the attacks were about to land did he breathe in, and exhale.
He understood now. His Yuan Power didn't cut. It frayed. It unraveled the seams between realities.
Gojo raised one hand.
And brought it down.
A sharp line split the air from his palm to the serpent, reality unzipping in a clean arc. But this was no ordinary slash. It didn't just sever flesh, it severed space. The serpent didn't bleed it was split across dimensions, its halves phased out of sync, collapsing into themselves.
The crowd was silent.
Even the elders stopped breathing.
Gojo chuckled. "Can you see this, Sukuna? With the technique you ended me with… I'll stand at the top of this world."
Then came the ape's fist, roaring with lightning.
Gojo lifted his hand again and time froze.
The beast halted mid-strike, its body caught in a spatial lock. Inches from Gojo's face.
He waited.
And then, with a clenched fist, he shattered it.
The cage of space collapsed inward, folding in on itself violently. The ape was crushed in a burst of gore and dimensional energy, its death echoing like thunder.
"…That's more like it."
In the stands, Xiao Wusheng stood silently. He nodded once, his silhouette fading into the distance.
"You bastard!" Li Tianheng howled. His prized beasts, gone in a blink. His pride, shattered.
He charged but Gojo moved first.
Reality cracked.
He vanished.
Faster than Li Tianheng could blink, Gojo was there, except he was hidden in multiple overlapping layers of shattered space.
A hand emerged from a rift followed by a crushing wave of blue and purple slammed into his chest, causing a huge shattering to occur.
His chest caved in and shattered, and his body catapulted, to the edge of the stage unconscious.. The impact shattered ribs and flung him across the arena like a ragdoll. His unconscious body landed with a heavy thud at the edge.
Only Su Qingshi remained. She hadn't even raised her sword.
The space beside her cracked, and Gojo stepped out casually, hands still in his pockets.
"Instant teleportation?" the Sect Master muttered.
"More like unstable mastery of a divine technique," the First Elder grunted, exhaling a puff of smoke.
Su Qingshi met Gojo's eyes, and her legs buckled.
"I… I give up," she whispered, and collapsed to her knees.
Silence.
And then...eruption.
The audience thundered with cheers, voices raised in awe and celebration. Gojo finally let himself drop, exhaustion sweeping over him. He coughed violently, blood staining his robes.
But a warm arm caught him.
MeiYing stood by his side, supporting him gently.
"I looked cool, right?" Gojo muttered with a cocky grin.
She rolled her eyes. "Idiot."
But she smiled.
"The Outer Court Tournament is over!" a voice roared. "Rankings will be posted shortly, but let it be known! The Council of Elders officially crowns Chen Zhen… King of the Outer Court!"
The cheers became a storm.
And at the center stood one man bloodied, smiling, radiant.
The legend had taken his first step.
---
A/N: This whole arc and the previous one was so exhausting. Thank God it's over. I wish I had a Patreon or something so you guys could read ahead, unfortunately I don't. Tried creating one, but it didn't work. But I've not given up on it.
I'm currently writing the 70th chapter of this fic, so those worried if I'm dropping it should calm down..
I said I was going to reach 300 chapters minimum.
So stay tuned. Also I've noticed a reduction in interactions, comments, reviews and powerstones. Guys let's do our best. Regards..