The strongest arrived

A figure in white.

More precisely, a tall man wearing a black high-necked shirt under a blue uniform, with a black blindfold over his eyes.

He appeared out of thin air right in front of Long Xi.

Having someone appear without a single footstep was no less unnerving than Nameless suddenly popping up in your face, or running into a whole mob of frenzied Endermen.

Like a ghost that made no sound when it walked...

Could you make some footsteps next time? That was terrifying...

Most people would have had some kind of reflexive reaction to a situation like this, but Long Xi was different.

That face, that outfit, that entrance-

In his previous life, he had watched this iconic scene on Bilibili over three hundred times, second only to the 360 times he had watched this guy get cut in half.

Satoru Gojo.

The strongest jujutsu sorcerer of the modern age, bearer of the Six Eyes, the perfect match for Limitless, the absolute pinnacle of Jujutsu Society.

The man at the top of the jujutsu sorcerer pyramid was now tilting his head, studying him with eyes of an unknown color beneath that black blindfold.

"Yo."

Satoru Gojo raised a hand and gave a casual wave, his breezy tone making it sound as though he were greeting a neighbor.

"That hit just now. Was that you?"

Long Xi leaned against the wall, his cursed energy recovering so quickly that practically anyone paying the slightest attention could sense it.

He perked up in an instant, too.

"...Hello."

Long Xi squeezed out the greeting, then paid him no further attention, leaving him to figure things out for himself.

Satoru Gojo did not answer. Instead, he pushed his blindfold up just a little, exposing a sliver of the corner of one eye.

Those brilliant blue eyes reflected Long Xi's image while scanning every trace of cursed energy flowing through his body.

The Six Eyes.

The ultimate sensory organs for seeing the flow of cursed energy, with observational precision down to the atomic level.

Before those eyes, all the secrets in Long Xi's body might as well have been running around naked.

His total cursed energy, the way his cursed techniques operated, and the traces left by the binding vow he had just made were all plain to see.

But another strange cursed technique made Gojo's brows draw together slightly. He was clearly struggling with it.

Satoru Gojo looked for about three seconds.

Then he pulled the blindfold back down, a smile curling at his lips. No luck... he could not make sense of it...

"Interesting."

"You have two cursed techniques... How strange. They really are two completely different techniques existing at the same time, not a copy or anything else..."

"That's amazing. One is a flame-type technique. That's what you used for that attack just now, right? Pretty powerful. It even has cursed words?"

"But the other one..."

Satoru Gojo tilted his head, as though considering how to describe it.

"How should I put this? I've never seen this type of cursed technique before."

"That's something special, isn't it? Something is continuously supplying you with cursed energy..."

"Now that's intriguing..."

"Continuously?"

"The amount each time is small, but the advantage is that it never stops."

"Even I can't see through the rest... That hardly ever happens!"

Satoru Gojo tapped his temple with his index finger, his voice carrying the excitement of someone who had discovered a new toy.

"Where are you from? Not Japan, right? Your accent's a little off."

Long Xi took a deep breath and suppressed the reaction his surprise had stirred in him. He had known the Six Eyes were special.

But who knew they would be this ridiculous?!

Even knowing how absurdly effective the Six Eyes were in the original story, Long Xi had not expected to be seen through this quickly...

Still, that did not matter...

Seeing through it did not help at all. Gojo could understand it without knowing how to improve its effects. If even its current level-one state was difficult for the world's strongest to observe, Long Xi hardly dared imagine what it would become at level two.

Still... it was time to rein in his thoughts.

This was the crucial moment. Satoru Gojo might have seemed a little frivolous, but he was undoubtedly the most influential person in all of Japan's Jujutsu Society.

So getting himself a ticket into Jujutsu High, meeting the main cast along the way, and boosting his livestream viewership was absolutely necessary!

Long Xi thought it over and decided to go all in!

"I'm Chinese."

"No documents, no legal identity, no teacher, and no registration records anywhere in Jujutsu Society."

"You're welcome to look into my circumstances, though I doubt you'll find anything~ Oh, and it's only been eight days since I first became aware of this power!"

"Could you just think of me as a tourist who accidentally got scammed by a shady broker? That would save me having to explain~"

Long Xi laid all his cards on the table in one breath. That last line, however, was purely a gamble.

He was betting that Gojo would take him in because he found him amusing.

Satoru Gojo raised an eyebrow.

"Eight days?"

"From zero to that attack just now?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"No." Long Xi shook his head. "Your Six Eyes should be able to tell I'm not lying, right...?"

Strictly speaking, it should have been one day. After all, he had spent very little time going from being able to use cursed energy to almost ramming Sukuna to death.

Satoru Gojo fell silent for two seconds.

Then he suddenly laughed, delighted, like a child who had found a rare trading card.

"Hahahaha! Eight days! Just eight days!"

"You know, over the course of their education at Jujutsu High, students are considered geniuses if they reach Grade 2 within a year."

(Megumi Fushiguro: I didn't do anything to anyone...)

"And in eight days, starting from zero, you managed an attack that could injure Sukuna in his one-finger state?"

"Sure, you brute-forced it with a binding vow, but that rate of growth is still ridiculous..."

Satoru Gojo stepped closer. Long Xi could smell a faint sweetness on him, probably lingering traces of Strawberry Daifuku.

"That cursed technique of yours that makes you stronger-what's its upper limit?"

Long Xi blinked.

"I don't know."

"Theoretically, there isn't one."

"As long as someone is watching me, I'll keep getting stronger."

The instant he said that, Long Xi felt Satoru Gojo's aura change.

It was not killing intent or wariness, but a kind of... how could he put it? It was like the look in a collector's eyes upon spotting an out-of-print figurine.

Damn, the king of figurines just got an alternate version.

"A growth-type cursed technique with no upper limit, plus an offensive flame technique, and you're already plenty crazy yourself..."

Satoru Gojo reached out and patted Long Xi's shoulder.

There was not much force behind it, but Long Xi almost lost his footing. After all, his body was currently in about the same condition as if a truck had run him over.

"That settles it."

"Starting today, you're a special-admission student at Tokyo Jujutsu High."

"I'll handle the paperwork. Don't worry about identification either. I'm the one who calls the shots on Jujutsu Society's rules anyway."

Long Xi froze for a moment.

Just like that?

No exam? No interview? No three-thousand-word application essay?

"Wait, isn't this way too casual? Aren't you worried I might be a spy or a curse user?"

Satoru Gojo put his hands in his pockets and tilted his head at him.

"If you were a spy, you wouldn't have attacked Sukuna just now."

"And even if you are one, you can't stir up much trouble with your current strength."

"But if you're not..."

For just a moment, Satoru Gojo's voice turned serious.

"A growth-type jujutsu sorcerer with no upper limit, properly nurtured at Jujutsu High, might someday become one of the forces that changes this rotten world."

"I've been looking for people like that."