High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2925: Chapter 1144: The Cost of Youth

”Bang!”

The muzzle of the charm gun in Taiyi’s hand lit up with a glimmer of pure white spell light.

Leviathan frowned slightly, tilted his head, and a charm bullet as large as a cannonball suddenly exploded near his ear. Just as the flickering spell light was about to fully blossom, a rift akin to an abyss suddenly appeared, swallowing the charm bullet.

That was a big mouth.

Zheng Qing watched the giant beast’s shadow suddenly appear behind Leviathan, and his already tight-knit heart grew even tauter. He was familiar with that giant beast; during the Battle of the Black Prison, it had once torn open the World Crystal Wall with a single bite, almost directly consuming a small piece of the Black Prison World. It was nothing unusual that the charm bullet entered its belly without sparking at all.

However, he did not regret reigniting the battle.

Indeed, Leviathan was quite right—he couldn’t beat him, and it seemed the best solution in this game was to honestly play a ’sit-tight war,’ staying put until something else outcomes—but after two years in the Hunting Ground, Zheng Qing knew better: never to follow the enemy’s wishes on the battlefield.

Following the enemy’s wishes may not harm him, but it undoubtedly benefits the opponent.

As the saying goes, ”Strive for the best gets the middle, strive for the middle gets the lowest, strive for the lowest gets nothing.” If you aim to get by from the start, you’re likely to get a poor result.

On the altar.

Leviathan and his real body shadow were vividly projected before Zheng Qing, showing each detail true to life. Zheng Qing could see even the tiniest expressions—though that fellow didn’t have much of an expression. The altar displayed all images captured and sensed by ’Taiyi.’ Rather than fighting an epic battle from the giant’s viewpoint, it was more like he was dressed in steel battle dress, dueling alone on an audience-less stage.

”Most unwise.”

Leviathan, with his indifferent and delicate face, looked at Taiyi’s chest, speaking with an ancient well-like calmness: ”—But you are too young. I should have expected you’d make such a choice.”

As he spoke, the giant beast shadow behind him opened its large mouth, showing rows of sharp teeth.

The response to him was Remington and Colt Python, spewing charm bullets one after another.

Only after emptying the magazine did Zheng Qing let out a slight breath, and with little confidence, he threw out a thought, trying to carve out a third battlefield beyond magic and physics: ”—What I do has nothing to do with age, although indeed, I am very young. It’s more a result than a choice. A result I inevitably face after accepting ’Taiyi’. Specifically, a result of the rule of ’cause and effect’.”

His slightly weak thought did not cause any harm to the opponent; quite the contrary, Leviathan’s attack approached because of this distraction.

Bang!

A giant hammer appeared suspicion-evoking before Taiyi and struck heavily at his belly, then the shrill whistle of the hammer breaking the air echoed above the Cloud Sea.

Taiyi staggered back in the Cloud Sea.

On the altar, clad in metal battle dress, Zheng Qing sat on the bluestone slab in the same posture, his hand brushing chaotically over the altar where projections of mountains stood; outside, at the same position, several genuine mountain peaks were smoothed by Taiyi’s hand.

Not giving him any time to react.

Leviathan, initially at a great distance, suddenly disappeared and reappeared directly above Taiyi, deftly grabbing the long handle of the hammer that had been flung away, then swinging it down toward Taiyi’s head. The whole process was straightforward and precise, without any error.

”Stop!”

The young legend roared, opening the silver pocket watch once again, freezing time. But unlike Primordial, which was completely frozen in time and space, this time, Leviathan’s lifted arm only paused in mid-air, then a thin layer of black flame ignited around him, instantly burning through the space-time confinement, momentarily halting the hammer with accumulated energy, then heavily pounding downward.

Boom!

With that moment’s gap, Taiyi narrowly rolled to the side, dodging Leviathan’s heavy blow. However, the Cloud Sea world beneath him wasn’t so fortunate, the powerful strike from the Legendary Wizard landed firmly upon it, severing countless earth veins, cracking the earth, boiling the earth qi. Zheng Qing watched an abyssal ravine appear before him and sincerely doubted that the entire world was split in two by Leviathan.

Curiously, he was distracted by a memory from long ago, a Philosophy of Magic class where Old Yao demonstrated the Theory of Silence with a piece of paper and two ants, recalling that famous conclusion: the intensity of active individuals within a certain space-time dimension is inversely proportional to the world’s longevity.

Put simply, in a world, the stronger the active individuals, the shorter the lifespan of the world.

Just like now.

The originally calm and complete Cloud Sea World, now faced the possibility of crumble and descent into the Ruins, within less than a day.

Beyond the altar.

The huge head of the azure alien dragon poked out from the white mist, looked at the young wizard on the altar, and seemed to guess his thoughts from his slightly dazed aura, chuckling lowly: ”—Feeling the conflict between reason and reality? Wizards love adopting the empirical approach, resulting in young ones often overlooking the cruelty of war, only seeing the ’cool’ aspect between life and death. Little do they know, in war, ’cool’ is always linked closely with ’cruel’... Behind every successful kill lies countless permanent and profound harm, and numerous cruel outcomes.”

Zheng Qing took a deep breath.

Blocking out distracting noise around him.

Began frequently pressing the second hand of the silver pocket watch, tearing the complete timeline into a fragmented pattern, while the two charm guns kept shooting charm bullets one after another, without a pause.

Pure white spell light was like stars in the night sky.

Each blossomed open.

Leviathan dodged many, ate many, but due to the erratic time interference, some ’lucky ones’ still fell on him. Within breaths, his humanoid body became ragged.

Just as Zheng Qing felt the victory scale slowly tipping in his favor, a sense of joy arose within.

Boom!

Outside the Taiyi control center altar wall, with intense energy fluctuations, another Leviathan strolled in, dragging his hammer.

”You... you...”

The young wizard on the altar looked at the ragged shadow before him and then at the real entity beyond the altar wall, utterly tongue-tied, unable to speak a word.

However, the uninvited intruder that had just come in finally showed a change in expression from his previously indifferent look, his mouth slightly curling: ”—Just like I said, you’re too young.”