56: Chapter 56 Time Reversal, the Two Supreme Beings' Fight for the Person

The tail end of Director He Jin's "Holy shit!" still drifted in the air.

On the shield in Su Bai's left hand, the silver grains of sand inside the hourglass resumed their slow flow.

Director He Jin slumped against the wall, his face covered in soot, his glasses askew on the bridge of his nose, and the hem of his military shirt completely untucked from his trousers. In a tone that suggested he was still questioning his life choices, he muttered, "Six bullets, two smoke grenades, three flashbangs—all triggered in the exact same frame. This isn't a battle; it's an execution—"

"Alright, alright, stop muttering."

Deputy Commander Xiao Hongyan waved her hand to cut off his rambling, then turned to Su Bai.

Unconcealed excitement burned in her amber eyes.

"Time Stop. The practical combat effect speaks for itself—even though Director He Jin is just a logistics officer, his stats after being suppressed to Level 19 are definitely not low. You didn't even land a single direct blow; just your basic mobility plus a Time Stop beat him to a pulp. This data is more than enough."

"What do you mean 'just a logistics officer'—" Director He Jin tried to protest.

"Shut up and write your report."

Director He Jin shut his mouth.

Su Bai breathed a sigh of relief. He looked down at the soul gem on the back of his hand—its purple glow was stable and soft. For his first real combat, the mana consumption was within a controllable range. Time Stop had used up about a third of his mana pool. Not too extravagant.

Then he noticed something.

Li Qingyue had been silent this entire time.

It wasn't the kind of silence that said, "I have nothing to say." It was the kind where the brain is processing a piece of mind-boggling information and temporarily has no spare capacity to speak.

She stood less than a step away from Su Bai.

Her crimson eyes stared straight at the hourglass on the shield in Su Bai's left hand.

She stared for a full five seconds.

Then she reached out.

"Let me see?"

Huh, the cute Ms. Li Qingyue didn't seem to know how to act spoiled... Her tone was actually so forceful!

Su Bai extended his left arm. Li Qingyue didn't touch the shield; she merely hovered her fingertips a few centimeters above the hourglass. Her Rank 9 Mental Power transformed into an extremely thin thread, probing into the interior of the miniature hourglass.

Then her pupils contracted.

"This—"

Her voice was extremely low, as if she were afraid of waking something up.

"The structure of this hourglass—it isn't simulating the flow of time."

Su Bai blinked.

"What do you mean?"

"It means that it is the Law of Time itself."

There was a hint of shock in Li Qingyue's voice. It wasn't shock at the Law of Time itself, but shock that Su Bai could directly wield the very symbol of the Law of Time!

She looked up.

In her crimson eyes, the slowly flowing silver grains of sand inside the hourglass were reflected.

"The law of space and the pure Law of Time are two different concepts. Although I am the founder of space-time theory, the core of what I master has always leaned toward the spatial side. Space Folding, space leaping, space compression—these are things I can manipulate at will. To me, time is a derivative dimension of space—I can indirectly slow down the passage of time by warping space, but that is a highly energy-consuming secondary effect that requires the assistance of the universal balance to achieve. Even my means of longevity are not purely realized through the Law of Time."

She paused.

"But this hourglass is different. It isn't some 'derivative dimension'. It is time itself—materialized as an hourglass on your shield. When the sand flows down, time moves forward. When the sand stops, Time Stops. And if—"

Her voice choked up for a beat.

"If the sand flows backward—"

She didn't finish.

Because she didn't even dare to speak that deduction aloud.

Su Bai finished it for her.

"Then time will flow backward, rewinding."

Instantly.

The entire room fell silent.

Li Qingyue's expression froze.

It wasn't an exaggeration. It was literally frozen—on that porcelain doll-like little face, every single muscle from her eyebrows to the corners of her mouth stopped moving.

"—What did you say?"

"I said, if the sand flows backward, time will rewind. This is one of the basic functions of this hourglass—Time Stop is only the first step. My current mana pool isn't large enough, so I can't use the rewind function for now. But theoretically—"

Su Bai thought about his phrasing.

"I should be able to rewind at least thirty days."

Logically speaking, Su Bai actually possessed Akemi Homura's complete abilities, since he was modeled after her. However, the current Kyubey was only a Rank 1 card after all, and the rules of this world were somewhat different; the world of Madoka leaned more toward...

Silence.

A silence even more absolute than a Time Stop.

It wasn't because no one wanted to speak.

It was because everyone had simultaneously lost the ability to formulate words.

It was Deputy Commander Xiao Hongyan who broke the silence.

"Thirty days???!"

She completely blew her top, her pitch rising at least three octaves higher than usual.

"You're saying—you can turn back time by thirty days?"

"Theoretically. Right now, my mana is insufficient, so I can't use it. But once I rank up..."

"Insufficient mana is not the point!!"

Deputy Commander Xiao Hongyan's voice exploded directly in the reception room. She grabbed Su Bai by the shoulders, the light burning in her amber pupils no longer just "excitement"—it was sheer madness.

"Do you know what rewinding time by thirty days means?! An army group is ambushed by the Abyss and completely wiped out—rewind thirty days, know the ambush location in advance, and turn the tables to fight a war of annihilation! A city is captured by the Abyss—rewind thirty days and evacuate all civilians ahead of time! A 9th-tier Supreme falls in a duel—rewind thirty days and fight again!! This isn't magic!! This is fucking—fucking—"

She couldn't find the words.

Li Qingyue found them for her.

"—The authority of a god."

Her voice was very soft, but every word sounded as if it were squeezed out from beneath a layer of ice.

"Among the Rank 9 laws, the time branch is the most difficult to touch. The space branch can rely on talent. The elemental branch can rely on piling up materials. The soul branch can rely on bloodlines. But time—it isn't something you can touch just by having good talent. The Law of Time never actively chooses anyone. It waits there, waiting for that person with luck so heaven-defying that they scoop it up in a way even time itself couldn't predict."

She took a deep breath.

"And you, a Level 19 Rank 2 Card Creator, used an hourglass to pack it in."

"This isn't a Rank 1 card. This is the complete Rank 9 Law of Time."

She turned her head, her gaze lingering on Su Bai's face for a full three seconds.

"That person you made a wish to... Akemi Homura. Who is she?"

Su Bai was taken aback for a moment.

He suddenly realized that Li Qingyue wasn't just pressing for details—she was confirming something. Confirming whether there was indeed a precedent in this world of someone controlling time with a mortal body.

"Akemi Homura—"

Su Bai weighed his words.

"Is a Magical Girl. She was originally just an ordinary girl—in poor health, cowardly in character, and unable to do anything. Later, at a certain point in time, she made a wish—wanting to start over, wanting to protect someone. The ability she obtained was Time Reversal. The upper limit was also thirty days. She used an hourglass just like this one."

He didn't say, "This hourglass came from her," because there was no need. Li Qingyue already understood.

"An ordinary girl, Time Reversal, an hourglass..."

Li Qingyue chewed over these words in her mouth.

Then she let out an extremely soft laugh.

"So that's how it is. The concepts your Kyubey Card can extract are not limited to weapons—they also include the abilities of other Magical Girls themselves. And the Law of Time, in your system, is something that can be triggered by 'making a wish'."

She looked up.

"Then theoretically—as long as someone with enough karmic destiny makes a wish to Kyubey to 'want to control time'—"

"—another time-controlling Magical Girl can be created."

Su Bai finished the sentence for her.

The entire room fell silent once more.

This silence was longer than any before. Because everyone realized one thing—this wasn't just Su Bai's individual ability. This was a new system that could be replicated, mass-produced, and written into the very first section of the first chapter of Card Creator textbooks.

Deputy Commander Xiao Hongyan leaned against the window. The heel of her combat boot tapped gently against the windowsill. Her expression was no longer one of mere excitement—it was the calm, suppressed, yet ready-to-explode fanaticism of a professional soldier realizing the birth of a weapon capable of rewriting the history of warfare.

"Director He Jin."

"Here—yes, ma'am."

"Add an entry to the risk report. Put three asterisks on all the previous entries. This one—"

She paused.

"Give it five asterisks."

"Five asterisks?! Isn't that—isn't that a warning level that has never existed before?!"

"Then it exists starting today."

Director He Jin opened his mouth.

Then he lowered his head and began writing furiously on the report.

Deputy Commander Xiao Hongyan turned back. Her amber pupils locked onto Su Bai.

"Su Bai."

"Present."

"I now formally propose, in my capacity as the Deputy Commander of the 3rd Army Group—"

She took a step forward.

Her combat boot made a crisp clicking sound on the floor.

"—to invite you to enlist with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Name your monthly salary, materials are yours to use freely, and you'll get an independent research lab with an entire platoon assigned to you! Mass-produce as many of your cats as you want. You can take your pick from three times the inventory of the military warehouses."

"And—"

She took another step, ending up less than half a meter away from Su Bai.

"I will personally be your first tester."