High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2943: Chapter 1161: Guarding the World’s Threshold

Every conversation with the mentor leaves Zheng Qing feeling immensely benefited.

Especially this time.

How he wished this conversation could go on forever, but he knew it was just an impractical luxury.

The flowing light carried the leaf-like boat swiftly forward. The concept of time seemed chaotic at this moment, and Zheng Qing felt as though time was slipping away minute by minute, yet there was also a feeling of being like a small insect suspended in amber, eternally frozen at a certain moment.

He instinctively reached for his belt to check the time.

His hand found nothing.

Then he remembered that the silver pocket watch was currently held by his ’outside’ self, being used as a weapon in a tangled battle with another legend.

The mentor noticed his small action.

He smiled slightly.

”—In this dimension, you don’t need to worry about time.”

He seemed aware of what the young man was thinking, and after a simple reassurance, he shifted the topic back: ”However, your sensitivity to time is very sharp, which is great; it helps improve your adaptability to ’Taiyi.’ Speaking of time, it reminds me of your use of the Time Converter this semester... Don’t worry, I don’t oppose you using the Time Converter during your studies, and you haven’t violated any rules in the process. In fact, I expected you would use it more boldly, such as occasionally turning the hourglass a few times more to accompany the Little White Cat exploring other parts of the school, instead of constantly being watched by the Little Fox and studying lessons under the Cat Fruit Tree...”

At the mention of ’Little White Cat’ and ’Little Fox,’ the young wizard’s ears turned red with a flush; he tried to maintain composure and quietly argued, ”But, mentor, that wouldn’t be according to the rules.”

”That’s right, the rules.”

The mentor’s smile faded slightly, and his tone carried a hint of reflection: ”As we just mentioned, every powerful wizard has their own rules, and time is a rule that everyone observes and protects... Perhaps it’s precisely because of too much concern for ’time’ that it suppresses wizards’ ability to understand time.

I have always advocated for the Alliance to be more lenient with the rules on time travel for wizards. Because I hope that young wizards can truly comprehend concepts more important than ’changing the future’ during initial time-space entanglements... I hope these travelers aren’t merely indulging in the thrill of influencing the future.

When people talk about going back to the past, they are always worried that they will inadvertently change the present by doing something wrong; but when people are in the ’present,’ almost no one truly believes that they can completely change the future by doing something small.

If you leap out of the long river of time, unbound by the line of time, without the concept of past or future, it’s hard to resist curiosity and not anchor your focus on the ultimate ending...”

Zheng Qing nodded frequently.

Indeed, just now, since knowing this was a high-dimensional world, he couldn’t help but want to capture the fleeting lights outside, to see if a legend would fall into oblivion over Buji Island, to see the outcome of his battle with that youthful boy, to see what mistakes occurred in his thesis defense, to see where he would be in the next semester, and so on.

”...This curiosity about the ending is instinctual; you needn’t feel ashamed.”

The mentor’s voice continued in his ear: ”—But you must think more deeply. You should remember, the past is convergent, the future is divergent, and based on the concept of ’now,’ everyone has an infinite future... So, when you have the chance to see countless endings, you will eventually feel tired and bored—that too is the final destination for the majority of high-level wizards—losing interest in life, the meaning of existence gradually eroded by ’truth’ and ’time,’ because only by transcending time does your existence hold significance; only by pursuing truth can you sustain enough novelty and strangeness to continue anchoring your existence.”

”Does this mean truth is also a line of dimension?” Zheng Qing stared at the veins of the leaf beneath him, deep in thought.

The mentor nodded in satisfaction: ”Very bold conjecture, and it’s also a view held by a small group of Dimensionism wizards. If we follow this view, beyond truth lies a greater world, and wider unknowns...”

”The ’destination’ you just mentioned, is it similar to those elders in Hui Zi Ji?” Zheng Qing felt his thoughts extra active at this moment, and with a turn of mind, he connected it with the place he lived for a long time.

The mentor didn’t expect him to suddenly bring up Hui Zi Ji.

He hesitated slightly for a few seconds.

”Hui Zi Ji, ah.”

His voice held a trace of nostalgia, but immediately, that hint of reminiscence vanished without a trace. Without immediately answering Zheng Qing’s question about Hui Zi Ji, he instead brought up San You Bookstore again: ”—You can probably guess, after I leave, I’ll leave San You Bookstore to you, and you’ll become its new manager.”

Zheng Qing nodded ever so slightly.

Yet, he inexplicably thought of that small store on the pedestrian street.

D&K is located at No. 97 Pedestrian Street; San You Bookstore’s sign is No. 99. Between them is a talisman general store run by an elder named Mu Mingzi. If the mentor leaves, should he take over the middle store too and connect the three store fronts? Then, just by the appearance, it would probably be more impressive than Wandering Bar across the street.

”...This is a very heavy responsibility.”

This sentence immediately pulled the young wizard’s mind back from drifting for a moment; the mentor looked at him, his tone solemn: ”Besides storing ’San You’ books, San You Bookstore is also a Dimension Gate.”

”Dimension... Gate?” Zheng Qing tried hard to recall the little bookstore he spent a long time in as a child, comparing it to the magnificent and dazzling colors around him now, unable to connect the two.

”To describe it less rigorously, just as ’books’ are the intersection of the two-dimensional world and the three-dimensional world, the bookstore is the intersection of the three-dimensional world and the high-dimensional world. There are many such intersections in this world, temporary, long-term, permanent, because dimension lines are always in motion, high and low dimensions will always have intersections. And every time an intersection appears, a San You Bookstore will be born... The one in Hui Zi Ji is the first one; you can also understand it as the ’Ancestor House’ of other San You Bookstores. Those elders you just mentioned, though some are people who’ve lost hope and vitality, at the same time, they are guardians of Hui Zi Ji. Guarding the gateway of the world, preventing high-dimensional risks from spilling over into the ordinary wizards’ world.”