Chapter 56 "Is it Lai?"

After agreeing to the reboot, Gojo Satoru asked again: "So, this is why those people from the Supervisory Board came to you? They want to use your abilities?" He frowned slightly, and a cold aura was revealed in his words.

Jiang Lai paused, reviewed it in his mind, and replied: "That's about it. But it's more than that."

He combed his hair and spoke slowly.

"Kaguya said that they had made a prophecy that mentioned the words Six Eyes, Clock, and Restart. Judging from what Yuukawa did to me just now, their attitude towards [the Clock] is to use it first, and if they can't use it, they will destroy it, and the decision to destroy it was very quick."

"From this perspective, my help to their cause is definitely far less than my damage to their cause - they are afraid of my misfortune, so they are eager to find and destroy me."

Gojo Satoru's expression was unclear. He stopped laughing as usual and said in a low voice:

"…This time, they were able to find you because of me, right?"

According to the prophecy, a "clock" that can reverse time and space will appear beside them, and they followed their own way to find the unique Lei.

If Lai hadn't gone to make friends and get to know himself, Jie and others, he wouldn't have faced any danger or paid any price.

"This kind of thing is not the fate of meeting each other, but the schemes of those evil people." Jiang Lai soothed slowly, and after half a second, he smiled again, "However, in order to confuse them better, maybe I will change my style after restarting."

Gojo Satoru tilted his head slightly.

Jiang Lai continued: "Back to the question of the prophecy, from what I can see so far, that part probably means that Wu Neng can go back in time through the [clock] and restart the world again - but they don't want this to happen."

Gojo Satoru raised his eyebrows, looking wanton: "If it happens again, I'm prepared. I will definitely pull out those guys in the dark."

"It's like this, you and the Regulatory Commission are definitely not on the same page, so they are afraid of the strongest rebirth." Jiang Lai blinked, "After all, only those who have made good connections have the memory of time travel, and they can't judge whether the world has been restarted."

"The information gap is our advantage. After the restart, we should try not to expose this fact. We should paralyze them on the surface, and slowly get to the bottom of it in secret and find their lair."

“Okay.” Gojo Satoru agreed reluctantly, and said with a long tone, “Since you say so, I will tolerate them for a while longer—until they are completely rooted out and it’s all over.”

The conversation ended here. At this moment, Gojo Satoru's heart was already ignited with anticipation for a better future after the restart.

They both stayed quiet for a while, watching the last rays of sunset slowly fade away and the sky above them become dotted with stars.

Then Jiang Lai said, "Then let's start over."

"How should we do this?" Gojo Satoru asked, tilting his head.

Jiang Lai took a few steps towards Gojo Satoru. He stood in front of him and said with a gentle smile, "Come on, stretch out your hand."

"..." Gojo Satoru raised his eyebrows slightly. He obediently raised his right hand and looked at the young man with black hair and brown eyes.

The navy blue figure gently guided Gojo Satoru's fingertips to rest on his left heart.

There was a flash of surprise in Gojo Satoru's eyes. He frowned and was about to say something.

However, Jiang Lai spoke before him: "The dial that goes back in time is here. I will guide you to infuse the magic power and move the hands."

"Dirty?" Gojo Satoru pursed his lips, his eyelashes fluttering like a fan, "Why is it here? This place is——"

"Don't worry, I do exist, and my life structure is different from yours." Jiang Lai said with a smile, "The so-called dirty heart is just a symbolic meaning."

Is this true? Is the so-called dirty heart just a symbol?

Gojo Satoru stared at the person in front of him with his blue eyes. At this moment, the other person's heart was still shrouded in mist, and he could vaguely glimpse the flow of light, like the occasional ripples of phosphorescence in the deep ocean.

Although he couldn't see what was inside, Gojo Satoru could feel that there was something different in his heart.

He was silent for a while, then whispered, "You'll be fine, right?"

"Didn't you just witness me being stabbed in the neck? Even if I was treated like that, I would be fine." Jiang Lai smiled, "So don't worry."

"..." Despite this, Gojo Satoru still felt inexplicably restless. He took a deep breath and dispelled the unnecessary emotions.

Jiang Lai took Gojo Satoru's hand and signaled him again: "Come on, concentrate and infuse the magic power."

After a moment's hesitation, Gojo Satoru placed his fingertips on the heart of the person in front of him and slowly injected powerful cursed energy into him. He focused his attention and used his unique six eyes to look at him intently.

As the cursed power was infused, the floating mist gradually dissipated, revealing a round dial that was dark and deep, indescribable, with dazzling golden hands engraved with complex runes.

As I breathe, it seems to beat rhythmically like a heart, as if it has life.

Jiang Lai guided slowly: "Do you see it? Next, use your hand to turn it counterclockwise."

"Wait, how should I use my hands to--" Gojo Satoru suddenly stopped talking. At this moment, he suddenly understood something.

The six eyes can see through the extraordinary things in the body, but if you want to really touch it with your hands, you must break through the layers of flesh and blood that are blocking it.

Jiang Lai's eyes were gentle: "It's okay, Wu. This is just a human body structure, don't feel psychologically burdened." He prepared his own vertical technique in his mind.

"..." Gojo Satoru pursed his perfect lips straight. He didn't want to do this, but there was no other way.

So he could only combine Jiang Lai's words and comfort himself in his heart that the other party would be fine and they would be able to meet again the next day.

The white-haired young man exhaled, and his fingertips covered the curse power, cutting into the chest very smoothly. Warm blood slowly flowed out along the wound, and the extremely real scene, as if he had killed his friend, made him tremble.

Although the black-haired, brown-eyed young man had a gentle expression and a calm look in his eyes, he could also sense the trembling of the navy blue figure suppressing the pain. So he tried to keep his hand movements as steady as possible to reduce more unnecessary damage.

Gojo Satoru's hand went under his left chest, reaching the dark and mysterious dial, and his index finger touched the golden needle. He stabilized his cursed power and turned it counterclockwise.

“Click.”

It felt like a mechanical touch, carrying with it a huge resistance. Gojo Satoru concentrated his mind, increased his spell power, and moved the pointer counterclockwise one notch. The black dial under the golden pointer surged like the tide.

Gojo Satoru's heart began to beat like a drum, and a rare feeling of nervousness flowed through his body. He didn't know whether this involuntary nervousness was a kind of sixth sense of uneasiness about his friend, or an eager anticipation of restarting the past.

“…How many notches should I move counterclockwise?” Gojo Satoru asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

"Keep trying until you can't move forward anymore." Jiang Lai smiled gently.

Gojo Satoru exhaled again, calmed himself, stared at the dial, concentrated all his strength on his fingertips, and moved the hands counterclockwise.

"Crack. Crack. Crack—"

The golden pointer was pushed backwards one by one under the external force, and the unknown runes carved on it burst into dazzling light under the entanglement and collision of the cursed power. Gojo Satoru half narrowed his blue eyes and did not give up even a little bit in the face of huge resistance.

Then, as the inky dial rotated counterclockwise, pure black liquid began to drip slowly as if it was melting. An unknown force swept up a powerful shock wave, and everything around began to distort.

Gojo Satoru could hardly tell whether the flowing warm liquid was his friend's blood or the liquefied dial. The black and red liquids blended together, inseparable.

Amid the tremors, the beach of fusion liquid seemed to come alive, wriggling and condensing on the ground.

Jiang Lai caught a glimpse of the liquid on the ground, and in that instant, a certain scene from the past flashed through his mind -

In the main story timeline, in the alley, in the mist, there is a mysterious black liquid fox curse spirit. It surrounds him like a cub, speaking in stuttering voices, revealing its hunger.

...Was this cursed fox born from one's own body due to the karma of reversing time?

So that's why it yelled "hungry" to itself and was able to accurately recognize itself as the "clock"? That's also why Xia Yujie didn't sign a master-servant contract with it, and treated it more like a friend?

Then this Möbius strip is also closed.

Since it is produced from the karma of the [Clock], the Liquid Curse Fox may have the ability to reverse time like shrinking water.

For example, you can reverse a certain part of someone's time little by little, which is equivalent to eating away the constraints little by little.

The hands moved counterclockwise, and the piercing pain caused by violating the laws of the world gradually became numb. A smile flashed across his eyes, and Jiang Lai whispered:

"I promised Jie-kun that I would return a gift to him. I'll ask Wu to help deliver it to him."

Gojo Satoru vaguely heard Jiang Lai's message. He had too many questions to ask, but time was limited. Thousands of words finally turned into a sentence:

"Hey, Lai, I said, you promised to get back together, you won't break your promise, right?" He couldn't help but confirm again.

The rune light carved on the golden pointer grew brighter and brighter, and the light that could not be looked at directly grew to infinity. In the six eyes, the white light twisted and swallowed everything.

“…Rai!! You promised!!” Gojo Satoru didn’t hear a reply, so he raised his voice subconsciously. He shouted loudly in the endless white light, “You can’t——”

"I remember." The familiar voice was like a breeze, brushing past my ears, "See you tomorrow."

——【Vertical - Time Travel】.

The golden white light expanded to cover the Six Eyes, and no more information was fed back.

Then there was no other sound in the world except the sound of the hands turning backwards.

After a brief moment, Gojo Satoru raised his blue eyes, and the six eyes began to feed back information again.

The scene before my eyes has completely changed.

Checkered ceilings, wooden closets, dessert posters, huge floor-to-ceiling windows - this is the college dormitory.

Gojo Satoru suddenly sat up from the bed. His face in high school was reflected on the glass window. He pinched his face and it hurt.

...It actually flowed back? ?

He immediately reached for the phone on the bedside table. The time was 2006, the day after he returned to school from the Star Plasma mission.

Gojo Satoru stared at his phone for two or three seconds, using this brief moment to organize his thoughts.

Then he noticed the black liquid fox curled up sleeping on the quilt.

Gojo Satoru: “…”

He froze.

A few seconds later, Gojo Satoru stood up, put on his clothes, grabbed his sunglasses and put them on.

He wanted to carry the liquid fox out, but after thinking for a moment, he decided to leave the fox on the quilt and walked out of the dormitory alone with big strides.

At the moment he walked out, the door of the next room opened and a boy with a bun-like haircut walked out.

The two looked at each other from a distance, and seeing their friend's younger face again made them feel dazed for a moment.

"...Jie, you have the same weird Liu Hai as you did ten years ago. But you are not that good-looking now."

"...Yes, you have changed a lot, from sunglasses to bandages, you don't mind the hassle of tangling those things."

After complaining instinctively, the two reacted quickly.

"you……?!"

"you also--"

Without saying anything, they knew each other was a second-round player.

"Ah...it's really as Lai said. Those who make good connections will have the memory of going back in time." Gojo Satoru scratched the back of his head with one hand and walked out with swaying steps.

At this moment, he felt a little relieved. Since this sentence was true, then Lai's "see you tomorrow" was also true.

"Rai?" Xia Yujie's body froze for a second, his eyes were a little complicated, "...was it Lai who did it?"