High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1224: Chapter 286: Four Forbidden Spells

The outside world was in a complete mess, but The Land of Void remained, as always, peaceful and serene.

Zheng Qing sat cross-legged on the ground, a hand propping up his head, the other drawing circles in the dirt as he pondered in silence, his expression calm:

I am a forbidden spell.

So, I will blow myself up.

Hmm, is that why I’m going to explode? It feels like a reasonable explanation... bullshit!

After drawing several circles, the young cost student finally couldn’t hold back and jumped to his feet, shouting, ”Sir, you should find a more reasonable explanation... How on earth did I become a forbidden spell? I have a birth certificate... I celebrate my birthday every year... My blood is red, I can get sick, medicine makes me better... You know all this!”

His words were somewhat incoherent, but his central idea was very clear.

That is, he was a human, not a spell.

Mr. Wu pinched a peanut but did not immediately answer the boy’s confusion. Instead, he countered with a question, ”What is a Forbidden Curse?”

”A Forbidden Curse is...” Zheng Qing uttered four words before realizing he knew very little about Forbidden Curses, with only a vague concept provided by Old Yao in his ”Philosophy of Magic” lectures.

But that didn’t stop him from repeating those vague terms to Mr. Wu: ”...A Forbidden Curse is turning the concept of ’World’ into a form of magic through ’convergence’... Because the movement state of the dimensional threads releases a tremendous amount of energy when going from high-dimensional to low-dimensional, and absorbs a tremendous amount of energy when going from low-dimensional to high-dimensional... ’World’ is a very large, very large collection... To describe the world, one must use convergence to simplify this collection... In other words, a Forbidden Curse is the magic embodiment of the world, or the universe.”

As usual, the warlock’s explanation of Forbidden Curses was scattered and disorganized.

Mr. Wu didn’t fuss too much over the boy’s choice of words or sentence order. He knew that for a young wizard just shy of a year into school, having a basic understanding of Forbidden Curses was an impressive feat. Many wizards don’t even have a clear concept of what a Forbidden Curse is, knowing only that it’s an incredibly powerful curse.

”While not entirely precise, the general idea is correct,” the professor nodded, lifted the teapot, and sipped lightly: ”So, how do you think a Forbidden Curse manifests?”

”Through a spell, of course,” Zheng Qing did not grasp the depth of the professor’s question and replied confusedly: ”Like the Binding Spell, you copy it into a Law book, and then recite the spell... Just like that.”

”What sort of Law book can withstand the Spell Formula of a Forbidden Curse?” Mr. Wu continued to inquire.

”Dragon Skin-treated ones?” Zheng Qing ventured.

”Soul,” Mr. Wu answered: ”Only a pure and vast soul can bear the imprint of an entire world. To use an inappropriate analogy, do you know about fantasy authors? When they write, they imagine a beautiful and fantastic world in their minds. Their worlds all operate according to the laws and trajectory they have established—whether there is Qi, whether there are magical beasts, whether mages wave Magic Wands or use Spells, how Magic Towers are constructed, whether eating sweet potatoes can replenish magic, which species can interbreed with dragons, and so on—In a way, they possess the shadow of a Forbidden Curse.”

”The Forbidden Curses in reality are more precise and rigorous than the worlds imagined by authors.”

”Because wizards needed to converge all aspects of the real world, all laws, operational principles, and fundamental constants into a finite body of information.”

”Even if the convergence is extremely tight, the enormity of this information still exceeds everyone’s imagination.”

”When the first Forbidden Curse was born, the school assembled a Legendary Wizard, eighty-one Big Wizards, and three hundred and sixty-five top-tier Registered Wizards to just barely record that Spell.”

”When the Spell was cast, over four hundred wizards needed to carry out precise movements according to very strict formation requirements to invoke the Forbidden Curse... Any single wizard’s error could result in a powerful backlash. During the experiments, the school lost no less than ten Big Wizards, and several dozen excellent Registered Wizards suffered foundational damages, never able to advance further.”

At this point, the speaker paused for a moment, picked up the teapot and took a sip of tea, then let out a deep sigh, his gaze drifting into the distance as if he were reminiscing about that period.

Zheng Qing quietly swallowed, wholly engrossed in the tale.

”I remember Old Yao... I mean, Professor Yao said that different methods of convergence gave birth to different Forbidden Curses,” he recalled a bit of knowledge he had learned.

The speaker nodded and then waved a hand, ”No hurry, no hurry... There’s plenty of time, let’s take it step by step... Given the principle behind the birth of a Forbidden Curse, the first one, also known as the first-generation curse, was named ’Genesis’, signifying the power to create a World. That Forbidden Curse belonged to Alpha Academy at the time.”

”In the process of exploring Magic, the most disheartening thing is not having a direction. It’s like being surrounded by Fog. You seem to be able to walk in any direction, but you’ll never know what lies beyond the Fog: an insurmountable mountain, a pitch-black Abyss that’s unfathomably deep or perhaps a blue sea, a clear path.”

”Anything is possible.”

”But once there’s a direction, and with a clear marker in view, walking along that path becomes much easier. With the success of Alpha Academy, Jiuyou Academy soon gave birth to its own Forbidden Curse, ’Wild’, but like the first Forbidden Curse, ’Wild’ was also a first-generation curse, requiring the cooperation of hundreds of wizards for its release.”

”With the first generation, naturally, there would be a second and third generation.”

”Alpha always moved faster in these matters. Not long after the ’Wild’ was born, Alpha Academy, in conjunction with Atlas Academy, created the second-generation curse, also known as the First University’s third Forbidden Curse, ’Twilight of the Gods.’”

”Compared to the first-generation curses, the second-generation not only intensified the power of the Forbidden Curse but also had the significant advantage of reduced complexity in casting it, requiring only forty-nine Big Wizards to work together to unleash the power to destroy Worlds.”

”Then, Jiuyou Academy together with Starry Sky Academy broke away from Alpha’s constraints, and by enhancing the Law book and combining it with Rune, they developed the third-generation curses, as well as the First University’s fourth Forbidden Curse, ’Dragon Han Disaster.’ Dragon Han Disaster had been simplified to the point where only nine Big Wizards needed to unite to cast it.”

”During that time, the greatest pleasure for the new generation of wizards was to find abandoned Worlds in the vast void and then report them to the school... The school would reward them with a vast amount of precious knowledge and materials. And those abandoned Worlds would serve as laboratories for the school’s Forbidden Curses, being destroyed over and over again.”

”Even the true Divine Spirits couldn’t stop us.”

”The Starry Sky was silent before us.”

”We had opened Pandora’s box.”