Chapter 183 : [Limitless Thousand Autumns Hexagram]
Domain combination—this was a term that had never existed before. Simultaneously expanding two special-grade level domains also sounded quite bold.
Jiang Lai's expression was very natural, as if he wasn't discussing the major topic of domains, but everyday food recipe combinations.
Gojo Satoru heard this and first tilted his head, then curved his lips, his voice cheerful: "Sounds very interesting...... Of course, why not give it a try?"
He raised his right hand, placing his middle finger over his index finger, assuming the domain expansion pose: "Should we start now?"
At this moment, Jiang Lai still had his domain open, the endless domain river's edges extending far into the distance. From the arrangement of sun, moon and stars, it was clear that the center of this domain was the navy blue-clad person himself.
Jiang Lai had originally planned to retract his domain before simultaneously expanding with the other, but after careful thought, he felt that retracting and re-expanding would consume too much cursed energy, and there would be a cooldown period in between.
Better to take advantage of his domain's stable operation now and let Gojo Satoru directly expand Limitless Void.
Moreover, operating this way, if anything went wrong, he could quickly cancel his own domain to avoid direct domain collision and injury to each other.
Thinking this way, Jiang Lai nodded: "Yes, expand directly."
Gojo Satoru's Six Eyes faced forward as he smoothly and naturally opened his domain.
"[Limitless Void]."
A void of nothingness expanded behind Gojo Satoru, tearing open a rift that devoured each other with the black and white river.
Seeing this, Jiang Lai immediately canceled his own domain, sweeping away the sun, moon and stars with his sleeve, avoiding cursed energy collision and allowing the other's limitless void to envelop everything around, including himself.
Because Gojo Satoru consciously put Jiang Lai on the whitelist within his domain, Jiang Lai didn't suffer any negative effects from within the domain.
Gojo Satoru, who had expanded the domain, floated in this world that belonged to him, his flying white hair and dazzling Six Eyes making him appear like a deity.
He gazed at his void realm, then moved to Jiang Lai's side: "Looks like it didn't work."
Then Gojo Satoru raised his eyebrows slightly, placing his hand on Jiang Lai's shoulder: "You actually directly retracted your domain and let another's domain expand? That's quite bold."
Hearing the words from beside him, Jiang Lai's eyes went half-moon as he swept the other's hand off his shoulder with his book:
"Didn't you just calmly stay within my domain? Caution is for enemies, there's no need for it between friends. I retracted it because I was worried about our domains colliding."
"Eh, what a pity. I was hoping to see whose domain was superior~" Gojo Satoru spread his hands leisurely.
Jiang Lai: "Hmm...... A challenge match staking father and son dignity?" He unconsciously picked up the [earth-moving father-son bond] meme.
Gojo Satoru: "?"
Jiang Lai: "Just kidding."
The atmosphere wasn't as tense as before now. Gojo Satoru looked much calmer, his refined profile once again wearing a smile that revealed no inner emotions.
The white-haired man retracted his domain, returning to the original ruined Kyoto scenery.
This area had been through the earlier battle, with skyscrapers long since vaporized to ash by powerful cursed energy, the ground a scene of near-total devastation.
The unconscious cherry-pink haired youth lay on the ground. Jiang Lai stepped forward to prop him against something nearby.
Although this was an illusory world, he still habitually showed concern.
Then Jiang Lai stood straight and said: "It seems expanding a domain after one side has already opened doesn't work. Let's try another method."
Gojo Satoru didn't voice doubts like "do we really want to try again?" nor did he say anything discouraging. His blue eyes blinked lightly as he responded: "Sure, but we need to wait a moment."
At this time, both were in the cooldown period after opening domains, needing to wait quietly before they could open domains again.
Gojo Satoru pulled out a small bag of sweets from his pocket and tossed it to Jiang Lai.
"What's this?" Jiang Lai asked unconsciously.
"These are the matcha rice balls you brought earlier. I unwrapped the packaging and saved one for you." Gojo Satoru said, sitting down casually on the ground with one hand resting on his knee. "Sit down and rest."
Jiang Lai took the matcha rice balls, tore open the packaging and put them in his mouth. Gojo Satoru beside him flicked his finger, and the plastic garbage instantly vanished.
Jiang Lai's movement paused: "......" Using super-strong cursed energy to destroy sweet packaging remnants—he didn't know whether to call it massive overkill or ultimate application of technique.
The wild thoughts were just momentary. His gaze fell ahead as he continued calmly contemplating the possibility of domain combination.
Just now, when Gojo Satoru directly expanded Limitless Void within his own domain, it didn't become auxiliary power like the earlier leaked cursed energy, but turned into direct domain collision like the jujutsu world's rules......
So the path of expanding another's domain within one domain didn't work.
Then switching to his original idea of simultaneously expanding domains outside, could that achieve combination effects?
But simultaneous expansion also didn't seem to have anything special to trigger domain combination.
Jiang Lai held his book in one hand, placing the spine in his other palm, lightly tapping as he pondered.
So how should they operate? Jiang Lai intuitively sensed that domain combination was feasible.
He and Gojo Satoru already had the prerequisite conditions of mutual familiarity and trust. What remained was finding that activation method.
By analogy, it was like already possessing the strength to expand domains, just lacking mastery of the simple yet crucial element of hand gestures...... Wait, hand gestures?!
In a flash of lightning, inspiration struck Jiang Lai's mind.
Domain expansion required specific hand gestures. If so, then domain combination, based on the fusion of their cursed energies, should also need specific gesture fusion, right?
Thinking this, Jiang Lai put away his book to let it float beside him again, freeing his hands before suddenly standing up.
Beside him, Gojo Satoru tilted his head slightly: "Hmm? Ready to try again?"
"Yes." Jiang Lai nodded, his expression bright and voice clear. "I have a new idea. Perhaps we can try changing the hand gestures, mobilizing the cursed energy needed to activate domains based on gesture combination."
Changing and combining hand gestures—this way, even if unsuccessful, it would only result in ineffective domain expansion, not cause domain collision like before.
Hearing this, Gojo Satoru raised his eyebrows slightly, then became thoughtful: "Sounds like it makes some sense." He clapped and stood up. "How do you want to try? I'm ready anytime."
The white-haired man's posture was casual, but his words were very steady. His lips curved up, Six Eyes brilliantly radiant:
"Anyway, with this broken situation, we don't have much retreat. Might as well try everything and break through from all directions."
"If there's a path, we'll take it. If there's no path, I'll create one." Gojo Satoru's low voice carried magnetism, containing a certain grand power as his tone fell.
Jiang Lai blinked lightly: "We will."
"......" Gojo Satoru paused slightly, then smiled. "Ah, we will."
At this moment, they stood together on the open ground among the ruins.
Kyoto's buildings and the Big Three Families' old sites had long been bombed to nothing by these top-tier combat powers. Ryomen Sukuna's Malevolent Kitchen had slashed everything on scene clean.
Jiang Lai's gaze fell ahead. The sunrise was at its peak now, the most brilliant moment of the day. Facing the sky brightened by the early sun, his heart was calm and gentle.
Since this was two people's domain combination, the hand gestures would probably be one person per half.
With this thought, Jiang Lai extended one hand, forming half of the domain expansion gesture, then turned to look at Gojo Satoru beside him.
"What should I do? Imitate yours and form the other half?" Gojo Satoru looked interested as he raised his other hand, gesturing in the air.
"Actually, I'm not sure either." Jiang Lai blinked, following his sixth sense. "But I think, to successfully deploy a domain, we should try to maintain the original gesture as much as possible."
"Mm, that makes sense too." Gojo Satoru readjusted his hand back to his previous single-hand domain expansion pose, but no longer held it in front of himself. Instead, he angled it slightly to approach Jiang Lai's half-gesture. "Like this?"
Before Jiang Lai could say anything, Gojo Satoru showed a slightly thoughtful expression and adjusted his hand gesture again.
His ring finger and middle finger positions remained unchanged, but he brought his pinkie and thumb close to Jiang Lai's raised fingers, placing them together to form a completely new combined gesture.
"Let's go with this. Under Six Eyes vision, this allows cursed energy to flow most smoothly." Gojo Satoru said.
Jiang Lai nodded in agreement. Then he looked up and met Gojo Satoru's eyes, saying: "Count down one, two, three, then activate domain expansion cursed energy together?"
"A countdown? Feels like taking a photo." Gojo Satoru smiled, his pure white eyelashes drooping slightly. "No need. You can act anytime—Six Eyes can observe your cursed energy flow. I'll coordinate when you expand your domain."
Since that was the case, he just needed to focus on himself, and Satoru would coordinate and follow along.
Jiang Lai didn't stand on ceremony, trusting Gojo Satoru's ability and choice.
The morning wind circled around the broken walls and ruins, blowing particularly smoothly across this open ground, howling as it swept and swayed his navy blue kimono sleeves and hem.
Jiang Lai calmed his mind, feeling the intuitive flow of cursed energy. His brown eyes blinked lightly as he focused his attention on the combined hand gesture where his and Gojo Satoru's hands lightly touched.
The moment his cursed energy surged, Gojo Satoru also very quickly added his own cursed energy.
Two completely different powers intertwined through the half-and-half new gesture, and everything before them began to change!
A boundless void realm suddenly expanded, as if enveloping the entire world.
Yet this void wasn't completely empty. Accompanied by unknown black and white rivers, starlight scattered down within.
Underfoot was an endless black hole with no visible bottom, overhead hung brilliant distant stars. Seemingly infinite information merged with seemingly endless rivers of time, flowing and converging into a certain eternity.
[Limitless Thousand Autumns Hexagram].
This time, they finally successfully expanded their combined domain!
Jiang Lai and Gojo Satoru stood at the center of this domain, jointly sensing the immense power of this new realm.
Without need for detailed exploration, their subconscious immediately understood this void starry night domain's function:
Combining infinite information with space-time distortion, it could maximally and most precisely reverse anything they wanted reversed—as long as their cursed energy and spirit could withstand it.
Additionally, Jiang Lai sensed something else unusual.
As [Existence], he must not form connections, always maintaining an objective heart. Every time he used space-time reversal in the past thousand years, he would accumulate [sin] due to interfering with worldly affairs, which would pile up and coil around his divine status, causing him to fall into increasingly long slumber.
A thousand years later, his space-time reversal ability had also disappeared when he used the clock for the last time.
Later, after being restored by [Origin], he could use it again to a certain degree, but would still be weakened by [sin] due to rule constraints.
But at this moment, the domain [Limitless Thousand Autumns Hexagram] that he and Gojo Satoru jointly expanded, because it included participation from a worldly person (Gojo Satoru), meant that space-time reversal actions would no longer be judged as [Existence] unilaterally interfering with worldly trajectories.
Therefore, when Jiang Lai used reversal power under this combined domain, although he would still be affected by [sin], he would no longer bear the negative effects that caused long slumber.
A flame of joy ignited in Jiang Lai's heart.
In the real world, he couldn't expand such a grand domain with power like from a thousand years ago, as he could in the Crossroads Tower.
But outside, through combined domains with Satoru, he could also use space-time reversal to the maximum degree again.
This was naturally an excellent thing, as space-time reversal played very important roles in many moments.
Beside him, Gojo Satoru floated in this void starry sea, his pair of sky-blue Six Eyes slowly blinking as he felt the combination of infinite information and limitless space-time.
This domain enveloped all of Kyoto. All of Kyoto's past seemed recoverable from the river of years carrying infinite information.
In this domain, Gojo Satoru sensed residual cursed energy from Geto Suguru. Not long ago, he had fought with his controlled close friend.
To give the other brief peace, he followed the other's wishes and killed him without hesitation using techniques—but at the moment of striking, he still felt a long-lost exhaustion and bewilderment.
At this moment, within this river of years carrying infinite information, Gojo Satoru slowly understood: the next time they met, he wouldn't need to grant his close friend death to give him true freedom.
He could precisely search through infinite information to find the very beginning, then use space-time reversal to meticulously clear away those negative effects all along the way.
Speaking of which, the scar on Shoko's face could also be healed through reversal, right?
Moreover, if this was a combined domain, the price wouldn't fall solely on the navy blue kimono-clad person.
He would no longer be just an observer of everything.
Under this domain, he could search the past, guard the present, and plan the future.
Gojo Satoru's thoughts flowed slowly in his heart.
Beside him, the black-haired youth turned his face and said with a gentle smile: "Weather the storm together?"
These simple words and natural smile dispelled the last trace of hesitation in Gojo Satoru's heart.
He swept away those swaying gray emotions, and his mind seemed to clear considerably as well.
The white-haired man straightened his back, his sky-blue pupils reflecting the magnificent waves before him.
The vast falling meteor shower that always hazily surfaced in the depths of memory was some unforgettable regret. But now, he already had a brilliant starry sky that would never fall.
Gojo Satoru's lips couldn't help but curve upward.
Those regrets, those sorrows, those gray flowing shadows all seemed to have a small box where they could be gathered, able to calmly put them down and bury them under moist, thick soil.
He opened his lips, using his usual light and cheerful tone, carrying brilliant determination, and responded: "Weather the storm together."
Accompanying these words, everything before them began to shatter like a mirror, piece by piece.
However, through the cracks, new radiance seeped in inch by inch.
True sunlight poured onto his cheek, conveying gentle warmth. On the grass of an island surrounded by flowers, the white-haired man's lowered eyelashes fluttered lightly before slowly opening.