High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2420: Chapter 641: Basic Principles of Time Conversion

——Time is an objective existence.

——Time has an asymmetry in the magic dimension.

The tip of Zheng Qing’s feather pen hovered over these two conclusions, feeling like there was a thought in his mind that was almost complete but seemed blocked by a thin, resilient membrane that prevented it from emerging.

After all, he had only truly been involved in the Wizard World for a little over a year, and although he was outstanding, his foundation was not solid. Many common concepts familiar to young wizards from various clans were somewhat foreign to him, and thus it was difficult for him to make connections or spark inspiration.

If he couldn’t integrate his understanding, he had to find a ’stone from other mountains.’

A stone from other mountains can be used to polish jade.

The best stone Zheng Qing thought of was Su Shijun’s two-dimensional evolution experiment—projecting phenomena from the High-dimensional world into the Low-dimensional world, and then using the accumulated experience from the Low-dimensional world to help understand the changes in the High-dimensional world—this experimental approach could actually be applied in many areas.

Just like now.

While the pen tip lingered on those two conclusions, a very appropriate ’reference’ appeared in Zheng Qing’s mind—movies. More precisely, movies played on a computer with a media player.

To people in the real world, movies are undoubtedly a Two-dimensional world.

And in this Two-dimensional world, time does objectively exist; its existence is demonstrated by the progress bar on the player. Within the scope of the movie’s time-space, everything is definite—from the movie’s start to finish, every frame, every piece of dialogue, every scene—it’s all definite. To the movie, time and space are very real existences; they just extend in different directions in different dimensions, essentially no different.

From this perspective, the Two-dimensional world is indeed easier to understand the true meaning of ’time’s objective existence’ compared to the High-dimensional world.

As for the asymmetry of time in the magic dimension, it is relatively subtle but not hard to find—for instance, the natural ’one-way movement’ characteristic of time’s passage in movies; the inherent asymmetry of the player’s progress bar’s left and right sides; the past of a new movie (under natural conditions) is observable, while its future is unobservable; etc.

Furthermore, the ’time flow rate’ experienced by each character in the movie is different. All time revolves around the ’most important’ character, while unimportant characters sometimes aren’t even allocated a single frame.

With this ’stone,’ when Zheng Qing reconsidered the concept of ’Time Conversion,’ the situation became very clear. He just needed to drag the slider on the progress bar, moving it from any point on the right side to any time node he wanted to visit on the left, and time would be reset.

In relation to a movie, the mouse that drags the progress bar slider from outside the screen is like a force from ’a Higher Dimension.’

The real world doesn’t have a mouse cursor hovering over the river of time and space.

So, to perform ’Time Conversion,’ the only force that can be borrowed is the one from the future, a Higher Dimension relative to the past.

”...Albert creatively solved time’s plasticity in ’The New Measurement Method for Time Duration.’ To understand with the perception of a Low-level Wizard, time’s plasticity is demonstrated by its ability to be bent.”

Master Baoyangzi extended the pointer and drew a thin long line in the Void: ”You can assume this long line represents a materialized timeline... Under the effect of external forces, this line bends, and bends again... When its bending reaches a certain level, you’ll discover it forms a closed loop... Because time has the characteristic of ’one-way movement,’ this line will still continue forward along its original direction after forming a closed loop...”

Zheng Qing stared a little dazedly at the straight line that had made a knot halfway through in the Void.

If he guessed correctly, that ’knot’ is the reset timeline, independent of the normal timeline yet attached to it.

Master Baoyangzi’s pointer tapped at the intersection of the ’time knot’ and ’timeline,’ slightly intensifying his tone: ”This point is the ’Paradox Point’ mentioned by Bach Zavier Master—during a journey of time reset, if travelers return to the past and kill their grandparents before their father is born, the ’Paradox Point’ activates, disrupting the connection between the ’knot’ and the ’timeline.’

This will cause the ’time knot’ to detach from the timeline, floating solitary outside the timeline. In simpler terms, this ’time knot’ and the ’knot’s people’ are exiled outside time-space, trapped in a chaotic time-space.

Of course, the ’Grandparent Paradox’ is the simplest and easiest-to-understand paradox among all ’Paradox Points.’ The reason for mentioning this concept is to warn you, after entering the reset timeline, do not attempt any changes. Because any change might cause the ’time knot’ to detach from the ’timeline’... and lead to you being completely lost in the chaotic time-space.”

The horror of getting lost in a chaotic time-space doesn’t need explanation; you only need to know that even if a Legendary Wizard doesn’t keep an eye on you at the moment when the ’Paradox Point’ activates, it would be difficult to find your traces among the noisy signals.”

Zheng Qing instinctively looked up at Old Yao sitting at the office desk.

The reason for choosing such a high-risk class in Old Yao’s Office today was that Old Yao was a genuine Legendary Wizard.

At this moment, noticing the young wizard’s slightly grateful gaze, the headmaster of Jiuyou Academy elegantly puffed out smoke, revealing a pleasant expression.

”That’s the basic concept; now we’ll make some simple inferences based on these concepts.”

Baoyangzi put away the pointer, his gaze fiery as he looked at the two young wizards before him, his voice suddenly becoming lofty and distant: ”Bending time requires Powerful Magic. Where does Magic Power come from?

From the asymmetry in the ’time dimension.’

Normally, Magic flows from the High-dimensional to the Low-dimensional. But the direction of the timeline’s progression is from Low-dimensional to High-dimensional retrognostic. This means we just need to leverage the notable asymmetry in the ’time dimension’ with Magic Power to borrow Powerful Magic from the future High-dimensional to bend the timeline.

The larger the curvature, the stronger the required Magic Power.

Powerful Magic will greatly increase the time acceleration.

So, when a ’time knot’ forms, a extremely Powerful Magic surges around it. This Magic is both a barrier and a bond.

This barrier can protect the time knot.

This Magic can accelerate the time flow rate within the time knot.

You think you returned to the past and then came to the present at ’normal’ time, but this is an illusion. In reality, you experienced all of the ’reset’ at a very fast time flow rate.

Reflected in reality, it’s when you return to the past, then slowly move along the timeline to the ’present,’ only a moment, or even less time, has passed in the original ’present.’

Perhaps one second, you disappear in front of your companion, the next second, you appear behind them, and during this second, you’ve already experienced several days, months, or even years more than your companion.

Under accelerated time flows, as long as you don’t make any changes to the already closed timeline, you won’t harm the ’Paradox Point’ and can safely avoid the Bach Zavier time-space storm.

In short, using Magic Power to leverage the asymmetry in the ’time dimension,’ thereby bending the timeline; due to single direction, time will return from the future to the past with varying curvature—this is the basic principle of Time Conversion.”