What exactly is [Purification]?
In the original timeline, there was actually an ability that perfectly demonstrated what 'Purification' truly meant. It belonged to a new character introduced late in the Culling Game—an ancient sorcerer incarnated by Kenjaku. However, unlike the others, this sorcerer didn't hijack their host's body, but coexisted with them in a symbiotic relationship, much like Yuji Itadori and Ryomen Sukuna.
She called herself [Angel].
Her signature move was named [Jacob's Ladder]. Its core ability: [Technique Extinguishment].
The 'technique' in [Technique Extinguishment] didn't just refer to a sorcerer's Innate Technique. It applied to absolutely anything constructed from Cursed Energy, obviously including seals. In the original story, after Kenjaku successfully trapped Satoru Gojo inside the Prison Realm, the others were forced to find alternative solutions because Gojo had previously destroyed all the cursed tools capable of breaking the seal. The solution proposed by Tengen was to find this ancient sorcerer. And that ancient sorcerer was Angel, wielding Jacob's Ladder.
The power of Technique Extinguishment possessed the absolute ability to purify all Curses. And in the jujutsu world, the origin of every single technique is a Curse—including, but not limited to, Innate Techniques, generic barrier techniques, Cursed Energy reinforcement, and Cursed Energy manipulation.
Although it was never explicitly tested in the original narrative, theoretically, even the Limitless encasing Satoru Gojo could be extinguished!
This is the true meaning behind the Buddha's chime of Purification.
Unlike Jacob's Ladder, which required the activation of an Innate Technique, the Buddhist chime of the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] could be activated at will. Depending on the wielder's intent, the range and timing of the effect could be freely adjusted. Naturally, the closer one was to the caster, the stronger the purification. But even just being grazed by the soundwaves of the chime was enough to invoke the fundamental ability of Curse exorcism.
When Sukuna was hit by the soundwave and felt an unnatural sense of tranquility, it wasn't an illusion. The Buddhist chime literally forced the mind into a state of absolute serenity, physically preventing the generation of violent emotions. For a Jujutsu Sorcerer, extracting Cursed Energy fundamentally requires maintaining baseline negative emotions—because negative emotions are the raw fuel for Cursed Energy. By being enveloped in the Buddha's chime, a sorcerer's mind becomes so tranquil that extreme emotions cannot spark. Without negative emotions, Cursed Energy cannot be extracted. For a Jujutsu Sorcerer, this was practically equivalent to permanently sealing away their greatest combat asset!
A Jujutsu Sorcerer who cannot extract Cursed Energy... what difference is there between them and an ordinary human?
Even a completely talentless 'blank slate' sorcerer can at least reinforce their body with Cursed Energy. But a sorcerer caught in the chime couldn't even manage the most basic physical reinforcement. They were reduced to fighting with purely mundane human physicality. Even a Special Grade Sorcerer wouldn't be able to exert a fraction of their true power.
Combine that with the fact that the closer you get, the stronger the Cursed Energy purification becomes, rendering all techniques entirely useless... the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] was undeniably the absolute bane of every Jujutsu Sorcerer on the planet. No matter how devastating the Cursed Technique, it could never touch this staff.
This was the true reason why Ryomen Sukuna's [The Slash that Divides the World] completely failed to affect Satoru Gojo!
Sukuna's mind was incredibly sharp. Just by analyzing the phenomenon before his eyes and cross-referencing it with his experience fighting Angel a millennium ago, he instantly deduced the true nature of Gojo's staff.
And precisely because he deduced it, a cold sweat began to prickle down his spine.
"This is... slightly troublesome."
Sukuna knew better than anyone just how terrifying Angel's ability was. Angel had given him a specific moniker: [The Fallen]. What did that imply? It implied that Ryomen Sukuna was an angel who had plummeted from heaven to earth. This title subtly hinted at Angel's terrifying might. It was exactly because Angel was such a formidable entity that Sukuna willingly acknowledged the title of 'The Fallen'. If Angel had just been some insignificant insect he looked down upon, he never would have cared about the nickname.
In the original timeline, when Angel declared her intent to kill 'The Fallen', Sukuna eagerly revealed his identity to Yuji from within his innate domain, daring the boy to accept Angel's terms.
Contrast that with how Sukuna treated Jogo, and the difference in respect was staggering.
Angel was already that much of a threat. And now, Satoru Gojo—wielding the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey]—was exponentially more dangerous than Angel. How was he supposed to fight this?!
*THUD.*
Gojo stepped forward.
The distance between Gojo and Sukuna was over two hundred meters. Yet, with a single, light step, that distance was reduced to zero.
Gojo viciously swung the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey]. Sukuna, following his previous strategy, crossed all four of his arms to guard, bracing his legs to absorb the impact of being launched. He had no intention of engaging in close-quarters combat right now; he wanted to create distance and continue probing the weapon's capabilities.
He fully expected to be launched backward like a cannonball, just like the first time the staff hit him. But the moment the heavy metal head of the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] smashed into his forearms, a blinding spike of agony detonated in his brain. All four of his arms snapped simultaneously! He wasn't launched at all; the sheer, concentrated kinetic force instantly pulverized the bones in his arms.
"—!"
He didn't even have the chance to vocalize his pain. His shattered arms were easily swatted aside, and the head of the staff crashed directly into his face, sinking deep into his flesh.
*CRUNCH!*
Half of Ryomen Sukuna's face was instantly pulverized. His cheekbone shattered, his eye socket burst, and his brain was practically mashed into paste. A one-hit kill!
Ryomen Sukuna... died.
...Or did he?!
A shadow, rippling like a pool of clear water, manifested from Sukuna's mutilated corpse. The corpse dissolved into black ink, merging seamlessly into the watery shadow. In the next instant, a hand violently erupted from the darkness.
[Eleven Lives], minus one.
*CLANG!*
The [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] thrust violently forward. Even though Sukuna had just resurrected and hadn't fully regained his bearings, his instincts took over. He threw all four of his hands forward. The head of the staff stopped mere inches from the centerline of Sukuna's chest—not because it was blocked, but because Sukuna had used a grappling technique, wrapping his four hands tightly around the shaft of the staff.
Gojo whistled in genuine admiration. "As expected of the King of Curses. You only died once, and you've already figured out the staff's defining trait."
The completely naked Ryomen Sukuna scowled deeply. "Upon contact, even Cursed Energy physical reinforcement is instantly nullified. No... it's probably not just reinforcement. Innate Techniques, generic barrier techniques, Domain Expansion, or literally any phenomenon involving Cursed Energy—it's all completely erased. The point of contact with your staff becomes an absolute void of Cursed Energy."
This was the exact reason Sukuna had just died. For a sorcerer who prided himself on his physical combat prowess, this was an unavoidable, fatal 'first-encounter kill'! Because the Cursed Energy was actively erased, no matter how exquisite or layered the defensive technique, it was instantly shattered. Meanwhile, the wielder of the staff could still utilize standard Cursed Energy and technique reinforcement to massively boost their own striking power. A single blow from that staff, if it landed on an unexpecting sorcerer, guaranteed instant death.
Even Ryomen Sukuna was no exception!
"This is exactly why I'm confident I can kill Mahito." Gojo's lips curled into a vicious smirk. "Please, Senior God-Slayer, evaluate my method!"
If Mirokuji Kirigiri's method of deicide relied on the 'Cleaving Line' that severed gods and buddhas alike, then the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] relied purely on absolute Cursed Energy nullification! If every single drop of Cursed Energy in the world was rendered useless against Satoru Gojo, how was anyone supposed to fight him?
This was entirely different from Mahoraga. Mahoraga relied on adapting to attacks to alter the properties of its own Cursed Energy, thereby gaining absolute resistance. In other words, even Mahoraga inherently required Cursed Energy to function! But the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] completely eradicated Cursed Energy upon contact. Even if Sukuna summoned Mahoraga right now, the Divine General would be one-shot and instantly obliterated.
Under the Purifying Chime of the Buddha, all Cursed Energy vanished without a trace. This was Satoru Gojo's ultimate trump card. So what if Mahito was a god?
"ARROGANT FOOL—!" Sukuna roared.
He violently yanked the staff, attempting to pull Gojo into point-blank range. But Gojo's Six Eyes had already predicted the shift in muscle tension. Before Sukuna could pull, Gojo lashed out with a brutal front kick aimed straight at Sukuna's abdomen. Having learned his lesson, Gojo specifically angled the kick to avoid the grotesque stomach-mouth.
Sukuna possessed four eyes. Two were locked onto Gojo's upper body, while the other two tracked his lower center of gravity. This allowed him to instantly react to the kick. Before Gojo's foot could cave in his chest, Sukuna released the staff and violently leaped backward.
In the blink of an eye, Gojo vanished.
Limitless teleportation!
Refusing to be outdone, Sukuna's two pairs of hands simultaneously formed hand signs.
—Innate Technique Release.
—Mimicry Technique: Limitless!
*Whoosh.* Sukuna also vanished from Gojo's line of sight...
—Or he would have!
*CLANG!*
The Chime of Purification activated at that exact microsecond. The Limitless encasing Sukuna instantly evaporated into nothingness. And in that same moment, the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] slammed squarely into Sukuna's spine.
*CRACK!*
Accompanied by a sickening crunch, Ryomen Sukuna's spine snapped in half.
Yet, defying all biological logic, Sukuna maintained his broken-backed posture, violently twisting his head around as his hand desperately reached for the head of the staff. Gojo casually took a half-step back. Because his spine was severed, Sukuna couldn't control his momentum and crashed pathetically into the dirt. Gojo stood over him, looking down with a contemptuous smirk. His gaze was that of a giant observing a struggling ant.
He drew his leg back and delivered a merciless soccer kick straight to Sukuna's head! *BANG!*
Sukuna's head exploded like a crushed watermelon.
[Eleven Lives], minus two.
"I heard from Yuji Itadori that you had a way to revive yourself." Gojo stared down as Sukuna's headless corpse dissolved back into the rippling shadow. "This is the first I'm hearing of anyone besides Mahito possessing self-resurrection. Mahito relies on his innate ability to manipulate the soul. So... what's your trick?"
*Squelch.*
Ryomen Sukuna crawled out of the shadow for the second time.
Gojo casually twirled the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey]. This time, Sukuna had learned his lesson. He instantly pushed off the ground, launching himself far out of range.
Sukuna no longer had any desire to exchange banter with Gojo. Every single ounce of his focus, every neuron firing in his brain, was dedicated to figuring out how to slaughter this monstrous opponent.
*The [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] cannot be as invincible as it appears!*
*It extinguishes all Cursed Energy. That ability makes it peerless among Jujutsu Sorcerers. But if it truly extinguishes ALL Cursed Energy, then my resurrection shouldn't be working either! My [Eleven Lives] is an application of the Ten Shadows' inheritance ritual. It fundamentally relies on Cursed Energy! Yet the staff hasn't interrupted the inheritance ritual. Why?!*
*As long as I can find the flaw, I can turn this around!*
*What is it? What is it?!*
*WHAT IS IT?!*
*SWISH!*
As Sukuna sprinted, the head of the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] suddenly materialized right in front of his face.
Sukuna's four hands blurred into hand signs. This time, it was the absolute pinnacle of jujutsu combat, an utterly merciless ultimate attack: "Domain Expansion—"
Both of Sukuna's mouths unleashed a deafening roar in perfect unison: "—MALEVOLENT SHRINE!!"
In an instant, two types of slashes saturated the entire space. Cleave and Dismantle materialized simultaneously. Because the omnidirectional slashes spared nothing, not even the subterranean space beneath them, the white desert was instantly atomized. A blinding wave of white light expanded silently outward—the visual distortion created by an infinite barrage of slashes tearing through the very physical cage of reality, delivering unavoidable death.
In this windless world, a storm erupted. A storm of pure, concentrated severing force!
*CLANG!*
Gojo didn't counter with his own Domain Expansion. Instead, he swung the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] again. A visible, golden halo of sound resonated outward from the staff.
The apocalyptic storm of slashes collided violently with the Purifying Chime...!
...And absolutely nothing happened.
There was no world-shaking explosion. There was no violent clash of shockwaves. There was no overwhelming display of raw power.
The storm of slashes, capable of atomizing everything within the Domain's radius, crashed against the golden halo of the Buddha's chime... and quietly dissipated, like a cleansed curse. There was no grand destruction—only an absolute, divine silence.
"Impossible... It even nullifies Domain Expansion?!" Sukuna was genuinely shocked.
Domain Expansion was universally hailed as the ultimate trump card in jujutsu combat. No matter how versatile or complex a sorcerer's abilities were, the only true counter to a Domain Expansion was to deploy your own Domain. Any other countermeasure possessed massive, often fatal flaws.
No, even clashing Domains wasn't necessarily the optimal solution, because Domains didn't simply neutralize each other—they fought for dominance. When two sorcerers engaged in a Domain clash, the one whose Domain was more refined, more masterful, and more lethal would completely crush the other.
That was exactly how the Domain clashes played out between Sukuna and Gojo in the original timeline.
But now, a genuine, absolute counter to Domain Expansion had appeared.
The Buddha's Chime of Purification!
Despite being enveloped entirely within Malevolent Shrine, Gojo strolled casually forward. He didn't even use Limitless teleportation; he just walked slowly toward the stunned Sukuna. His posture was utterly relaxed, his expression perfectly serene.
Sukuna refused to believe it. Both his mouths and all four hands moved in unison. Incantations and hand signs, executed flawlessly once more!
"Scale of the Dragon." "Recoil."
"Twin Meteors."
He roared with overlapping voices: "—CLEAVE!"
[The Slash that Divides the World]!
The world-ending slash bloomed once again. But this time, it was unleashed from within Malevolent Shrine, massively amplifying its destructive output. A Domain Expansion inherently boosted the caster's Innate Technique, and the Space-Cleaving slash was no exception!
Without a shred of hesitation, Sukuna unleashed it at maximum output—the ultimate slash capable of severing the very fabric of reality!
Before the deafening boom could even register, the entire world was split in half. This wasn't a metaphor; it was a literal, physical fact.
Like a canvas sliced cleanly down the middle with a razor blade guided by a ruler, the world before Sukuna's eyes separated.
The displaced space finally detonated with a catastrophic roar. This was the phenomenon of 'spatial backflow'—the explosive shockwave generated when severed space violently crashed back together to heal itself. But how could space that had already been cleanly severed return to its original state smoothly? What began as a slash as thin as a sword's edge violently expanded through spatial backflow, tearing open a massive, apocalyptic chasm.
For a moment, it looked as though the world itself was collapsing, grinding itself into dust.
*CLANG!*
For the very first time, Satoru Gojo took evasive action.
He shifted his footing lightly. The colossal, tearing void created by the spatial backflow didn't touch him, but the trailing shockwaves rippled across the ground toward his feet. The golden halo of the Purifying Chime held strong. The World-Cleaving Slash still failed to act upon Gojo's body.
But the secondary shockwaves reached his feet.
Sukuna's eyes widened in ecstatic realization. "I see! I understand now! Your [Purification] only works on phenomena generated by Cursed Energy! It is an ability entirely specialized for nullifying Cursed Energy, but your [Purification] cannot erase normal physical phenomena!"
"Furthermore, you cannot utilize your own Cursed Energy while [Purification] is active! If you could, you wouldn't have needed to dodge that shockwave just now; you could have easily blocked it with the Limitless! The reason you were able to kill me that first time with the staff wasn't because you could use Cursed Energy reinforcement while I couldn't. You reinforced your arms with Cursed Energy *before* swinging, then canceled the reinforcement right as you activated [Purification], using the massive physical momentum to crush me!"
"Your hands must be bruised and battered right now from absorbing all that excessive recoil. But you're wearing that Kesa, hiding your wounds beneath those wide sleeves!"
"You... are using deception to fight me."
"The key lies in your ability to seamlessly toggle between [Purification] and your Cursed Energy. You've cleverly woven them together to create an illusion!"
"Your invincibility—I've completely unraveled it!"
Gojo looked deeply at him, then suddenly burst into laughter. "Incredible. Anyone else would have despaired the moment they saw the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] in action. But you didn't. You analyzed it. You deconstructed it. You searched for a way out in the depths of absolute despair, and you boldly used your own life to test your theories."
"Lord of Curses, I concede. Your reputation is truly well-deserved."
Gojo lightly pulled back the wide sleeve of his Kesa, exposing his arm. The flesh was pristine, pale, and completely unblemished!
Sukuna's pupils shrank to pinpricks. "Impossible... there's no damage... Wait, Reverse Cursed Technique! [Purification] only targets Curses! In other words, if it's Positive Energy, it remains completely unaffected within the domain of [Purification]! You... you're actually using Positive Energy to fight! Is that even possible?!"
Cursed Energy is negative energy. While it can be used to reinforce the body, it cannot be used to heal.
The mechanics of Reverse Cursed Technique involve multiplying negative energy against negative energy to create Positive Energy, which is then used to heal flesh. For a thousand years, this was the sole application of RCT in the jujutsu world.
And for a thousand years, no one had ever attempted to use Positive Energy for physical reinforcement. RCT was already an exceedingly rare and difficult technique. Even in this current era of proliferating sorcerers, there were fewer than twenty individuals capable of using it proficiently. More than half of those relied entirely on innate talent, unable to articulate or teach the process to others.
Therefore, using Positive Energy for combat reinforcement instead of negative energy... Satoru Gojo was the absolute first in history to achieve it!
*THUD.* Gojo stepped forward.
He wasn't using Limitless teleportation. He was using raw, Positive Energy-reinforced leg strength to propel himself.
Sukuna realized he could do the exact same thing. He rapidly generated Positive Energy using RCT, then channeled it into his arms, intending to use it for physical reinforcement, but...
*CLANG!*
The head of the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] ruthlessly shattered Sukuna's arms and smashed directly into his skull.
For the third time, Ryomen Sukuna's head was blown to pieces.
"Time for a pop quiz!" Gojo roared with laughter over the dissolving corpse. "How am I still able to generate Positive Energy while inside the [Purification] zone?"
Even when using Positive Energy, a Jujutsu Sorcerer must first experience negative emotions to extract negative energy. Only then can they multiply that negative energy against itself to produce Positive Energy.
But the core ability of [Purification] was to directly extinguish extreme negative emotions!
Sukuna's learning ability was indeed peerless. The moment he realized Positive Energy could be used for physical reinforcement, he immediately attempted to replicate it... but he went about it the exact same way any other sorcerer would: attempting to spark negative emotions to extract negative energy for the secondary conversion process.
But inside the [Purification] zone, he physically couldn't generate those negative emotions. How could he possibly perform the secondary conversion?
And so, he welcomed his third death.
[Eleven Lives], minus three!
"A battle between Jujutsu Sorcerers is a battle of information!" Gojo violently swung the staff, splattering blood. "Did you really think forcing me to engrave your Shrine as my third technique would grant you an informational advantage? Did you think you had me trapped? How utterly laughable! The one severely lacking in information here... is YOU, Sukuna!"