High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1232: Chapter 294: Leaving

In a pure white world, a narrow and crystal-clear path of light stood out strikingly.

This path of light seemed to begin from nowhere and ended in the unknown, but what could be seen were two figures slowly advancing upon it—one not very tall, quite plump, with graying hair, whose large black robe hung on him without any sense of elegance. The other also not tall, of average build, wore a bright red robe, the second most conspicuous color in this Land of Void.

Their silhouettes trembled and blurred against the stark white backdrop.

But their voices resounded through this world with remarkable clarity.

”Master, how did this path come to be?”

”When we find our direction and begin our journey, the path naturally appears.”

”Master, why is it that by following the path laid by the Sand Time Worm eggs, we can leave the Land of Void?”

”Because the Land of Void is a realm of consciousness, and time is the most stable anchor for consciousness. Sand Time Worms pursue time itself. What we see as a tiny path laid by the Sand Time Worms is actually these creatures attaching to the ’framework’ of the Land of Void. It’s by following this framework that we find the nodes of the Land of Void.”

”And after we find them? Master, how do we get out?”

”We are wizards. We wield magic.”

After a pause, the question and answer echoed again in the empty world:

”Master, you said I am the fifth forbidden curse... what is this curse called?”

”Aren’t you called ’Zheng Qing’?” The master’s voice sounded surprised, as if he found the boy’s question quite absurd.

The boy coughed awkwardly.

”Ahem,” he offered in a low voice, ”...I just thought that compared to ’Genesis’ or ’Wild,’ the name doesn’t have much grandeur...and it doesn’t sound like the name of a forbidden curse either.”

The master burst into hearty laughter:

”Grandeur has always been about the vessel, not the name. If you have enough power, you can call yourself ’Clown’ and still devastate a city. If you lack power, even if you rename yourself ’Long Aotian,’ you would only add a bit of humor to people’s dinner conversations.”

These words were quite comforting.

Zheng Qing pondered for a few seconds, not quite sure how to respond to the master’s words, when another question surfaced involuntarily in his mind—this feeling was passive, as if a tiger were forcing it out from behind:

”Master, is there a name for surpassing the realm of ancient wizards?”

”There is, but it’s not appropriate for you to know,” the master mused for a moment, then added, ”However, you can refer to me as ’Master’; the character ’Master’ depicts piercing through the heavens above ’wizard,’ with humanity remaining below. My students used to like calling me that.”

”Master, why did you choose to settle in our neighborhood ten years ago?”

”I burned a turtle shell, and the divination guided me. As wizards, we cannot take divination results at face value, but we must never ignore them.”

”Sir, do demons also possess forbidden curses? What are their forbidden curses called?”

”There are two, one is called ’Apocalypse,’ and the other is called ’Divine Song’... Of course, those are names they chose for themselves. Very poetic... Because it was the fallen wizards of Atlas who took the method of curse convergence, the naming inevitably carries a certain sanctimonious tone... I prefer to call them ’Famine’ and ’Purgatory.’”

”Some within the Wizard Covenant believe that ’Famine’ does not encompass the entirety of ’Apocalypse,’ but those demons have only managed to decipher this single cursed spell so far. I think their analysis is quite reasonable.”

”’The Apocalypse of Famine’ believes that the essence of the world is hunger. This is a land of starvation. The earth greedily absorbs rainwater, trees greedily soak up sunlight, commoners hunger for food; wizards hunger for knowledge; demons hunger for flesh and blood. Relatively speaking, demons are the most ravenous of them all, they even consume wizards... thus they can easily extract the concept of ’hunger’ from the world’s origin.”

”In many ancient magic potion formulas, I have seen humans... Wizards also ate people,” Zheng Qing couldn’t help but express his view.

”And so ancient magic gradually fell into decline,” the master did not deny the young wizard’s words but simply emphasized, ”Modern magic is built on the foundation of dimension theory... there are no more decent wizarding families that consume human flesh.”

The statement was sound, but Zheng Qing couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

”The Divine Song of Purgatory’ considers this world to be sinful, and only souls that have been refined through the Seven Sins can achieve purification and return to God’s heaven... Doesn’t that sound somewhat ironic? A band of demons clamoring to help wizards escape from sin.”

”It’s not strange.” Zheng Qing spoke with feeling, ”The more loathsome a person is, the more likely they are to put on make-up before doing loathsome deeds, to make themselves look a bit fresher. The United States did the same before dropping thermobaric and incendiary bombs, the New York Times did the same before distorting their reports, and white men did the same before slaughtering Indians. For thousands of years, there has been nothing new under the sun.”

The master turned his face slightly, looking at the young wizard with a touch of surprise.

”It’s good that you can see this,” he patted Zheng Qing on the shoulder and then shook his head, ”but your answer also shows that you haven’t completely left your old world behind. This isn’t beneficial for your development in the wizard world. There are five weeks until the end of this term’s examination, and I will choose an appropriate time to give you some supplementary lessons.”

Supplementary lessons? Zheng Qing had not yet recovered from the shock of this term when the master suddenly stopped.

He placed a hand on the young wizard’s shoulder and asked in a deep voice,

”Do you have any more questions... up to now?”

The young man bowed his head, pondering for a moment, and it seemed as though all of his questions had been released from his mind, leaving a blank space.

He lifted his head and shook it, ”Not for the moment.”

The master’s face revealed an approving smile, ”That’s good... as I said before, this is an unknown territory, and as long as there is unknown, one will be bound by this world. Since you have no more questions for now, it is time to leave.”

Before the words had finished, a vast expanse of mist quietly emerged around the two of them, and within moments, it submerged their figures in the white expanse.

Just like more than ten years ago, the first time they entered Hui Zi Ji.

The master held Zheng Qing’s hand, leading him into the thick fog.

Behind them, the narrow path paved with Sand Time Worm eggs flickered a few times and then disappeared from sight. Except for the white mist, the Land of Void returned to its empty state.

Void of any life, void of any change, it had always been so, since ancient times.

Only from within the mist, the fading, indistinct sounds of their footsteps could faintly be heard.