High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1723: Chapter 467 Eating Your Own Wizard

”You have ceased to be the same as wizards.”

Su Shijun corrected bluntly.

Shallow Jin Ryoko glanced at the witch, disregarding her rudeness, and waved her hand to conjure a mirror before her, inspecting the delicate face in the reflection, along with those crimson eyes:

”Later, I realized this too... I gouged out my own eyeballs, and they indeed turned red. So I also began to believe that I had fallen. But actually, at first, I hadn’t truly fallen... Do you know the first reaction of a Merlin Medal recipient turning into a demon?”

The purple-haired female demon showed an odd smile, softly answering:

”It’s suicide.”

”But at the time, I was in the Black Prison. The desolate, magic-power-deprived Black Prison. I didn’t want my corpse to be defiled by those filthy things after dying. Hence, I decided to eliminate ’them’ myself.”

”’Them’!” Zheng Qing vaguely sensed that this term didn’t refer to the demons in the Black Prison — that was unrealistic — and this thought sent a chill through his heart.

It’s as if sensing the warlock’s intense momentary psychological turmoil.

Shallow Jin Ryoko tilted her head, looking at Zheng Qing, with a charming smile: ”Yes, them... I decided to eat myself. This way, the corpse wouldn’t be tarnished by the perverts in the Black Prison.”

The warlock heard the black cat swallow loudly.

The fox tails behind Su Shijun ceased wagging for a moment, carrying an air of solemnity. It was a mark of respect from a Big Wizard to the young witch who once opposed destiny.

Perhaps it had been a long time since Shallow Jin Ryoko chatted so much with a wizard, showing great interest, tirelessly describing the process of ’eating oneself’:

”...The hardest part is the first bite. Because you’re eating yourself. Plus, I’ve partially transformed into a demon, showing strong rejection towards other flesh aside from wizard flesh.”

”I must admit, the Black Prison helped a lot in this regard. In this barren world, many great demons survive by drinking lava when thirsty, eating bone meal when hungry, and ordinary demons do not have much room for pickiness. Compared to the hunger and thirst of magic power deprivation, demons’ rejection towards ordinary flesh seems insignificant and fragile.”

”Moreover, ’I’ also helped ’myself’ a lot... After all, at the time, I was psychologically still a wizard, so when eating, ’I’ would mistake myself for eating a wizard. This was very beneficial.”

”After overcoming the aforementioned difficulties, the rest was merely persistence. Do you know what my first bite was of?”

”Eyeballs.” The black cat raised a paw and quickly responded.

The purple-haired female demon looked surprised: ”Bingo! How did you know?”

”You just said that you gouged out your eyes.” The black cat slightly raised its chin, seemingly a bit proud, but more light of contemplation sparkled in its eyes: ”Looking at it this way, your logical thinking ability weakened a lot after turning into a demon... And then? It’s not difficult to eat one’s eyeballs alone, nor some of one’s flesh... But to eat oneself cleanly from head to toe is extraordinarily difficult.”

”At that time, I didn’t think that much.” The demon’s eyes flashed with rare confusion: ”After all, it was a struggle before death, I just ate bite by bite... But until I had eaten myself completely, I found that I was still alive.”

”That’s impossible.” Zheng Qing mumbled the shared inner voice of everyone present.

Just like a person can’t throw themselves into the sky, it’s impossible for someone to eat themselves head to toe cleanly. The most contradictory point, where did the flesh that was eaten go? If it entered the organs, what happens when the organs are also eaten?

”They entered into my soul.”

Shallow Jin Ryoko replied to the biggest doubt of everyone but clearly, didn’t know why her consumed flesh would integrate into the soul: ”...The only thing that could be confirmed is, after I consumed myself completely, a certain bind unexpectedly vanished, and I was no longer as repulsed by wizard flesh.”

”Indeed. Since I’d already fallen, why not fall even further? Since I’ve eaten a ’wizard’ — in other words, if I can eat myself, what other wizard is there that I cannot eat?”

”And so, I drank blood, ate flesh, swapped bodies more frequently than socks, when I saw a little wizard, my first thought wasn’t how to transform them but where to eat that was most appetizing... Even Sujade, that old bone, couldn’t compare.”

”Then I ascended.”

The purple-haired female demon murmured, exposing an expression neither crying nor smiling:

”...In this world devoid of daylight, a world where the footsteps of the God of Death were louder than the breaths of prisoners, I ascended. I diligently undertook experiments, recited spells, painstakingly completed tasks, killed demons — all these couldn’t shatter the shackle, which suddenly disappeared after I was abandoned by everything and then forsook all things... Isn’t it ridiculous?”

No one found it ridiculous.

So, no one responded to the demon’s question.

Everyone simply looked at her with a gaze filled with sorrow and determination, just like she once looked at the blood-red eyeballs in her own palm.

”...Until today, standing beside this red-eyed black cat, beside you, a red-eyed little wizard, I suddenly realized, maybe indeed it wasn’t me who fell... Instead, it was those filthy, portly judges of Danghag that had fallen. Just because I saw the reality they strived to hide, I was thrown into the Black Prison.”

Zheng Qing tried to tilt his head to the other side, avoiding the purple-haired witch—or rather, the purple-haired female demon—whose gaze was chilling and slightly mad.

”What reality?” He attempted to divert the demon’s attention.

The demon raised her head, gazing through the pale green barrier at the colossal figures in the air, her eyes filled with mockery: ”Wizards and demons were never essentially different... Werewolves, vampires are such, you are such, the black cat is such, I am such, they are such.”

”Among those who eat people, from ancient times to the present, there’s always been some. Only some who eat flesh are branded as heretics; some not only eat flesh, they eat hearts and souls...”

”Now!”

Su Shijun’s soft shout echoed in Zheng Qing’s ears. Suddenly, before his eyes, a huge fox tail swept over, and he felt his body being wrapped by a gentle force. Instantly, he was lifted off the ground, passing through the pale green barrier.

In a blink of an eye, the images of Shallow Jin Ryoko, Su Shijun, Jiang Yu, the two teaching assistants, and the others vanished from his sight.

Zheng Qing returned to the battlefield.

In front of him, besides a black cat, there was only the barrier isolating everything, akin to an overturned jade bowl-like shape. In his ears, Su Daxu’s last voice echoed:

”Leave the matters inside to me.”

”You and that cat definitely won’t be possessed... So, stay far away.”