High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2429: Chapter 650: Time Sand and the New Class Schedule

The wooden box was palm-sized, purple-red in color, with straight grain, a fine texture, and bare on all four sides without any decoration or magic runes, resembling an ordinary jewelry box.

Zheng Qingyuan thought he would see a pocket watch upon opening the box.

But what appeared before his eyes was an hourglass.

The hourglass lay quietly on the red velvet cloth, with ochre wooden bases at both ends. The bases were connected by three slender black columns, engraved with dense spell runes, as fine as mosquito legs. Two water-drop shaped transparent glass globes were clamped in the center of the three columns. One was empty, while the other was filled with uniformly grained translucent sand.

”The contents inside are Time Sand.”

The professor’s voice sounded in the young wizard’s ear: ”Time Sand is actually the fossil of sand time worm eggs. You’ve seen the sand time worm eggs in The Land of Void, right... Using their fossils to bear the Power of Time is most appropriate... The quantity of these Time Sand has been meticulously calculated by the relevant departments, neither a grain more nor a grain less... Do you see the engraved spell runes along the edges of the top and bottom bases? Each time you invert the hourglass and recite the spell on the base’s blank side, you can reverse three and a half hours of standard time.”

Zheng Qing resisted the urge to flip the hourglass in his hand.

It was then that he caught the sight of Jiang Yu holding an identical Time Converter, and curiosity rose within him: ”Professor, if we both turn this hourglass at the same time, what will happen?”

”Theoretically, two ’time knots’ would occur.”

Old Yao took a drag from his pipe, calmly exhaling two smoke rings entwined together: ”Due to the independent nature of time lines, you and she would enter different time knots and eventually return to the same time line... But as I often emphasize in class, magic is a very exquisite art, any subtle change can lead to completely different outcomes. You should have seen many times in your freshmen curse class, the probability is very high that when two people simultaneously cast a Binding Spell, the flying vines would tangle into a dead knot.”

Zheng Qing understood that this was Old Yao subtly reminding him not to do so.

”Professor, do we need to practice now?” The witch’s pleasant voice rose again, holding the hourglass cautiously, she asked: ”If I turn the hourglass and only let one-seventh of the Time Sand leak out, and then flip it back, does that mean time will only reverse for half an hour?”

Phew—

Old Yao took a heavy drag from the pipe, blowing out a thick cloud of smoke, his eyebrows knitted into a frown.

”Absolutely do not do that.”

His expression was serious, and his tone was stern: ”You lack the subtle control ability of a high-level wizard, unable to precisely measure how much Time Sand you let slip... and since both sides of the hourglass have completely the same time conversion capability... this means you could easily get trapped in a time maze, to put it simply, you’re likely to fall into chaos during the repeated inversion of time. I don’t expect you to have much profound insight in the process of using such a high-level alchemical item, I just want you to be steady and not cause any accidents...”

As he spoke, he pulled out two rolls of parchment from the drawer, tore off the ribbons, and unfolded them in front of the two young wizards.

”...These are the application materials you just signed this afternoon, you still remember, right.”

The professor’s eyebrows remained tightly knitted, and he shook the parchment with a rustling sound: ”The user must remain invisible throughout the time travel process; they can only operate within the reported range and according to the reported route; any activity outside the reported range, once discovered, will result in the cancellation of student registration and referral to the Danghag Criminal Court, with the initial sentence generally being over ten years... These terms were explained to you at that time, and a time conversion of less than three and a half hours also counts as ’deviation from the reported range’... Any other questions?”

The two startled young individuals shook their heads in unison, nervously cradling the hourglass in their hands, fearing at any moment that the sand might accidentally spill to the other side.

It seemed a bit of an overcorrection.

”It’s okay not to recite the spell.”

Old Yao noticed their cautious demeanor, a flicker of helplessness in his eyes, took the hourglass from Zheng Qing’s hand, and demonstrated a turn with a gesture: ”See? If you don’t recite the spell, the Time Sand won’t fall... this matter... when I don’t talk about it, you don’t pay attention; when I slightly mention it, you all get frightened like quails!”

His voice paused here, then he snorted two puffs of smoke with sparks from his nostrils before speaking again: ”As for the practice Student Jiang Yu just mentioned, I personally believe it’s unnecessary. As I said earlier, these two Time Converters are foolproof operations, with your level, you can get started directly... of course, for safety’s sake, tomorrow when you use it for the first time, I’ll be there to supervise... Tomorrow’s first period is still my Curse Course, don’t bring the wrong textbook!”

Zheng Qing promptly placed the hourglass back in the wooden box with care, then unfolded his new class schedule.

After a brief glance, he discovered that compared with what he submitted, Old Yao had modified five courses— Thursday afternoon was a new course called ’Art of Body Transformation’, considering his current grasp on Transformation, Zheng Qing felt this course should not be difficult; and Friday morning’s ’Spirit charms and treasure charms’ was replaced with ’Making and maintenance of talisman soldiers’, which Old Yao had mentioned previously, so it didn’t surprise him.

What did surprise him were the three classes scheduled for Saturday afternoon and evening; Old Yao had removed several courses from the talisman category Zheng Qing had chosen as electives, replacing them with ’Introduction to Dimension Theory’, ’Convergence Principle’, and the ’Abus Duo Conjecture.’

Just by these course names, it was clear what they pertained to.

”Does the school even offer courses like this?” Zheng Qing couldn’t help but look up at the professor behind the desk, without any concealment of the astonishment in his tone.

He had thought that knowledge related to Forbidden Curses would be strictly sealed off by the relevant departments.

”It’s not just that students choose courses; courses also choose students.” The Jiuyou Academy’s headmaster looked deeply at the young funded student: ”Sometimes, it’s not easy for a course to pick a student that meets its rigorous requirements, so be sure to cherish the last half-year of study and life at school...”

Then his gaze shifted to the witch beside him, and he changed the topic: ”You have received the new schedule, from Monday to Thursday, you have five periods a day, from 8:30 to 11:30 in the morning, whereas others would have one class, you need to attend two;

From 2:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon, likewise, where others have one class, you have two;

From 6:00 to 9:00 in the evening, others rest, but you still need to attend one more class, this class does not require using the hourglass.

Friday afternoon is a practical class, and to avoid injuries affecting time conversion, you have only one practical class on Friday afternoon, and you can rest more in the evening.

Saturday is five classes a day, the same as Monday to Thursday.

Student Jiang Yu has two more classes on Sunday because you have six fewer credits than Zheng Qing.

This adds up, and you need to use the Time Converter eleven times a week, each converting three and a half hours, totaling thirty-eight hours and thirty minutes, complying with the application material requirements... That’s the basic situation, is there anything else that needs supplementing?”

He raised his eyelids, his gaze scanning the faces of the two young wizards. Meanwhile, the two young wizards both sighed in unison and shook their heads again in unison.

Things were already so dire, what else could possibly be needed!