High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1766: Chapter 510: After Time Paused

After time stopped.

The bony serpent tail still swung unknowingly several times, but the ripples in space it stirred seemed to be smeared with glue, solidifying behind it.

It wasn’t until then that the half-broken eyeball realized what had happened. Boundless blood-red color instantly seeped from its angry eyes, turning into a red cloud, and the slender pupil constricted as if a pitch-black crack had split open on the red cloud.

”Who is it?!!”

It roared furiously as if urging the ’Heavenly Earthly Mill’ to continue its operation.

Thunderclaps exploded in the deathly silent world, and with time frozen, the sound was endless. Yet, ’Xuan Huang’ and ’Tai Yi’, those entities not yet fully transcended, did not hear the Sea Demon King’s urging—or perhaps they did, but were unwilling to obey the Sea Demon King’s orders, choosing not to contend with the concept of time stop and naturally ’paused’.

Just like that.

Time paused for a second.

Or maybe three seconds, or even five seconds.

The Sea Demon King’s eyes flashed, and the long narrow pupil on the red cloud brazenly swept in all directions, quickly noticing the young wizard on the inner castle’s battlements, holding a pocket watch with his fingertip pressed on the second hand.

It roared again, the remaining half of its eyeball squeezed shut, and a crescent-shaped pitch-black ripple suddenly appeared on the inner castle wall, crashing down on the young wizard’s head.

Zheng Qing saw it all.

Yet he had no ability to evade.

From within the pocket watch, the originally stored magic power was depleted in an instant, and then began to draw on the newly birthed magic power within Zheng Qing, guided by the pull of a coexisting aura.

His fingertip seemed glued to the watch face as the newly birthed forbidden curse power trickled into the pocket watch like water. Simultaneously, the forbidden curse seed within him absorbed the world’s feedback information flow, swaying its leaves while the tender stem grew taller with each breath.

However, the speed of germination and growth was nowhere near the pace of magic power loss.

Almost at the same moment the forbidden curse magic power was depleted from the pocket watch, the magic stored by the seed within Zheng Qing was also consumed to the point of exhaustion in the blink of an eye.

But the activated pocket watch, like a greedy gluttonous beast, did not slow down its absorption due to the seed’s depletion of magic power. Instead, it intensified, beginning to extract even deeper power.

The newly elongated tender stem withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the joyfully dancing leaves became crumpled as if scorched under a fierce sun. A mighty turmoil stirred within his soul lake, his soul groaning under the frantic extraction, seemingly about to collapse at any moment.

Zheng Qing had no doubt that once all the magic power within the forbidden curse seed was sucked away by the pocket watch, the next to suffer would certainly be his soul.

But at this moment, he had no strength to think about what would happen next. The intense headache brought by the depletion of magic power felt like someone was chiseling Zheng Qing’s skull, sprinkling salt and chili powder inside while violently stirring with a stiff-bristled brush.

For a moment, he had not even the strength to scream, barely hanging onto the pocket watch’s magic power so as not to collapse to the ground like a pile of mush.

At that moment, the black ripple launched by the Sea Demon King appeared overhead of Zheng Qing.

At this moment, not to mention dodging, Zheng Qing did not even have the energy to close his eyes in fright. He gaped as the black ripple approached, feeling the powerful magic within, even finding some hope for it to come down quickly and end his current suffering.

Boom!

Five-colored fireworks blossomed above his head, and a gigantic collision sound resonated from the inner castle battlements. A slightly familiar but somewhat strange witch’s voice followed:

”Well done, young man.”

The five-colored brilliance finally burst forth from that black hole-like tunnel, transforming into a large hand, blocking the Sea Demon King’s wrathful attack, saving the distressed young man: ”Also... let me borrow your pocket watch.”

Along with the voice, a small five-colored lotus flower fell straight into the pocket watch. As it descended, the lotus flower trembled, scattering a sprinkle of crystal-clear pollen over the young warlock’s head.

The lotus fell into the pocket watch, and Zheng Qing’s fingertip, which had been glued to the surface, suddenly released, causing his entire body to collapse like putty onto the ground.

He struggled to keep his eyes open, watching as the five-colored glow rose from the pocket watch, maintaining the time-stopping spell, and then a soft shout emanated from the five-colored lotus, transforming into a rainbow light aimed at the distant half eyeball:

”This ends here!!”

”Five Elements Seal!!”

Perhaps the witch said more, but Zheng Qing could no longer hear. The five-colored lotus’s pollen nourished his soul and the seed deep within, dispelling the intense headache from before. With this sudden relaxation, the young wizard’s head tilted, causing him to faint on the battlement.

...

...

”Don’t even think about helping it.”

Silver Serpent World.

The Great River.

On the deck of a small boat.

Elder Ruoyu stood next to the Dark Council’s chairman, giving him a warning glance and a reminder: ”Remember our agreement... your council still has many members.”

Though separated by a small world, every scene from the Black Prison Battlefield was clearly reflected in the eyes of the two Legendary Wizards. If the clash between ’Xuan Huang’ and ’Tai Yi’ was within their expectations, then what followed—an eyeball’s sudden appearance, a pocket watch stopping time for the entire Black Prison World—exceeded their calculations.

It’s why they abandoned their chess game, shifting focus to the Black Prison Battlefield—to constantly update new information, refining the divination model’s data, a skill every divination wizard must master.

So, when the Five-Colored Lotus followed the Sea Demon King out of that ’black hole’, intending to seal the Sea Demon King’s last remnant, Vice Principal Ruoyu, based on real-time divination conclusions, immediately cautioned the Dark Council Chairman standing beside him, preventing his interference in the two other legends’ battle.

”Relax, relax, I’ve been keeping my head down on the boat.”

Under Elder Ruoyu’s stern gaze, the chairman of the Dark Council raised his hands, with six fingers dancing in the air like he was playing the piano. He chuckled twice:

”Actually, you shouldn’t focus all your attention on me... of course, I know, I’m quite a big variable... but perhaps because you’ve spent too long at school, your vision is limited to that small plot of land.”

”You only see me as a variable, without noticing a more direct, and even more unexpected threat on the battlefield... ho ho ho ho...”

Elder Ruoyu’s face changed, he swiftly turned back to look at the battlefield, fingers quickly calculating. However, before he could finish his foretelling, he abruptly sighed and loosened his bony fingers from within his robe sleeve.

Because even without calculating, one could see what happened.

Two pitch-black tentacles burst from the hard cocoon, reaching into the air: one blocked the rainbow light spawned from the five-colored lotus, the other fell onto the remaining half of the Sea Demon King’s eyeball.

Chomp.

A big mouth filled with fangs split open at the tentacle’s tip, swallowing the half eyeball and the bony serpent tail trailing behind.

Crunch crunch.

The battlefield echoed with the sound of that big mouth’s vigorous chewing.