High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1778: Extra Chapter 12: Time is an angle

”Why didn’t you stop me?!”

”Such a big trouble, are you shameless enough to involve me?”

”I’ve been taking care of your kids, your bookstore, your school, isn’t that enough? And you want me to take the fall for you? Where’s your conscience? Do ancient wizards have no heart?”

Yellow Flowered Cat’s indignant voice made the small bookstore buzz, waking up the two newborn Mouse People under the blanket. They hadn’t yet realized what was happening, only sensing a fierce aura exploding outside the thin blanket, so they shivered underneath, not daring to move.

Flower Cat looked at the trembling blanket beneath it, getting more and more irritated, suddenly having the impulse to claw some blood marks onto Old Wu’s face.

It turned around and glared viciously at the bookstore owner, a fierce gleam flashing through its narrow pupils.

On the lounge chair, Mr. Wu still had a book covering his face, seemingly napping, but his right hand suddenly raised an index finger, which he waved at Flower Cat: ”A gentleman uses words, not claws... If you scratch, there’ll be no fish treats for you.”

”I’m a damn cat! Not some truffle mushroom!”

Yellow Flowered Cat replied irritably, its tail raised high like a flagpole, or perhaps a spear ready for charge. It stared wide-eyed at the bookstore owner and asked again, ”Why didn’t you stop me just now?”

If the answer displeased it, even at the risk of no fish treats, it would charge over and scratch the owner’s face bloody.

”Better to channel than to block, obstruction isn’t the best way to solve problems.”

The gentleman explained in his usual manner: ”I thought this could give you a deeper understanding of the River of Destiny and time... which will be very helpful for your legend progression.”

Hearing the words ’legend progression,’ the Flower Cat, poised to pounce, was momentarily stunned. Its high-raised tail drooped down, dusting the thin blanket beside it. The originally trembling blanket visibly calmed down, and from beneath it came the small snores of two Mouse People.

”The River of Destiny and time?”

Flower Cat repeated the bookstore owner’s words, its chubby feline face wrinkling into a frown: ”How so? My choice to save or not save them can affect that thing?”

It still vividly remembered, not long ago on the Black Prison Battlefield, when the Sea Demon King progressed, that giant, gurgling river extending from the distant void to the entire Black Prison; that river engulfing all life, brimming with dreamlike magic power.

Of course, most importantly, those bright stars above the river, the gaze of each Ancient One scrutinizing the world.

”How do you perceive the River of Time and Destiny?” the gentleman countered.

Flower Cat hesitated for a moment.

”A river... a very long and wide river?” It answered with a hint of uncertainty.

”What shape is time?” the gentleman continued to probe.

”Time?” Flower Cat was losing patience, flicking its tail, hesitating a bit before muttering: ”Isn’t time a line of dimension? The book says so... If it’s a dimensional line, then naturally it should be linear.”

Speaking, it extended a claw and scratched a long mark on the nearby bookshelf: ”See, like this line.”

Though unable to see the gentleman’s face behind the book, Yellow Flowered Cat could clearly sense the gentleman shaking his head.

”Blind belief in books is worse than having no books... Such an understanding is too narrow and cannot support your step into legend.”

Mr. Wu’s voice buzzed from under the book, as if hundreds of bubbles collided with each other: ”You must know, this world is not static; every life, every tree, even every stone, their every choice and change results in different consequences.”

”For example, if a stone rolls to the left, it blocks an anthill, forcing the ants to dig a new hole in another direction, and that new hole happens to be at the weakest part of the riverbank, causing the dam to collapse, killing thousands.”

”Imagine if the stone had rolled to the right, or the worker ants had chosen a different direction, wouldn’t the world be different?”

”Time starts from a point, like a spring deep in Tanggula. It trickles, tiny and weak. Every human decision, every choice, instantly creates a new branch in this small stream.”

”One point branches into two streams, one stream into two, three, four new streams, and then new streams keep branching into newer streams... What does that resemble?”

”Like a net.”

Yellow Flowered Cat squinted its eyes and nodded thoughtfully, conjuring an image of a huge, seemingly endless, three-dimensional net, where each node has subtle connections with others. This net stretches from the very distant past, blooming like a giant speaker flower; the distant past is thin and small, while the present and future are dense and large.

”Very good.”

The bookstore owner put away his index finger and gave a thumbs-up, praising Flower Cat before continuing: ”As time goes on, more branches form, and the net is woven tighter... small in the past but large in the present, thus forming a river-like shape.”

”Ultimately, it’s still a river.” Flower Cat pouted.

”Wrong. A river is just a facade; if you wish to leap out of it, you must see through appearances to its true nature... What is its essence?”

”A branching stream?”

”Exactly right. Thus, time is an angle, starting from a point, different choices being the sides, forming an open yet stable structure... As each ’side’ of a choice extends to a certain point, it becomes the starting point of new time, repeating the previous story, branching into two sides again. One follows after another, like ropes... or you could call them ’threads.’”

”Threads are the pulse of time’s development.”

”In a certain sense, Tindalos Hounds live in a more real world than most wizards, and Miskatonic’s experiments are more radical than most professors at the school have conducted.”

Tindalos Hounds are creatures living in angular discontinuous time, while Miskatonic is their ruler. Yellow Flowered Cat remembered that Zheng Qing had a dog with Tindalos Hound blood, always finding it peculiar but never expected Mr. Wu would hold them in such high regard.

But these were not its main focus.

”What does this have to do with those two Mouse People?”

Yellow Flowered Cat finally emerged from the endless sea of knowledge, tugging at the question that initially puzzled him: ”What does it have to do with you not stopping me? And, if time is an angle, then what does the dimensional theory’s time line mean? Could there be two forms for one time?”