High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2953: Chapter 1171: An Alternative Use for the Avatar Technique

The little leaf boat glided lightly across a stream of flowing light.

In a flash, the gurgling sound of water entered his ears, and before his eyes lay a scene of dazzling colors. Zheng Qing could only vaguely feel the trickle of flowing light weaving and surging around him, almost solidifying into substance, as if it were a real river.

With another flicker, the little boat seemed to merge with countless streams of light simultaneously. In just an instant, Zheng Qing felt countless ambiguous images rushing toward him, some scenes showing a Silent Forest ablaze with roaring flames; others filled with starlight over Buji Island; and others where vast purple energy surged from the horizon, drowning the red, black, and silver starlight.

Each scene was so real, yet each was so illusory.

The little boat flickered for the third time, and Zheng Qing felt his body suddenly plummet. The floating sensation vanished, as if someone drowning was pulled out of the water and, after the near-death hallucinations faded, could breathe fresh air again; or as if suddenly stuffed into a leather bag, unable to breathe, with the crushing reality like a thick layer of armor, wrapping his once clear and transparent thoughts layer by layer.

Two completely opposing feelings of contradiction filled his consciousness simultaneously.

Making him unable to hold back from falling to his knees, retching violently, with tears and snot flowing freely.

”—Much better than my first return from the high-dimensional world,” the familiar voice of the gentleman sounded in the boy’s ear, greatly comforting his mood at the moment: ”Back then, I passed out completely... How is it? Does it feel familiar?”

Familiar feeling?

Zheng Qing was slightly taken aback, suddenly recalling the scene when he was thrown off a plane during freshman orientation. The mood of that moment was exactly like this one, the only difference being that he didn’t throw up back then.

The boy was in a daze.

The little boat had already come to a silent stop.

Suspended above the familiar cave and the exquisite altar.

Like at San You Bookstore, the time and space here seemed to be frozen at a certain moment. Zheng Qing, suspended above the altar in a peculiar S-shaped pose, bowed, with eyes blank; the azure dragon looked excited, its slender tail raised high; and the Leviathan’s embodiment, curled up in a ball, was stopped mid-air with a bewildered face.

Zheng Qing’s thoughts wavered slightly.

Beyond the stone cave, images of the Cloud Sea World immediately appeared before him.

The tilted world was filled with dense cracks from sky to earth, like Blood Symbol Bullets leaving spiral-patterned spatial traces in the air. A delicate youth lifted a large hammer much taller than its own body, while the enormous Taiyi staggered, teetering and tottering in mid-air.

”What should I do?”

Zheng Qing’s consciousness finally detached from the lengthy and tedious dialogue earlier, returning to the intense battleground, then remembered the stalemate in front of him, unable to help but glance back at the gentleman: ”—I seem to be unable to defeat Leviathan.”

”Too polite.” The gentleman remarked unceremoniously: ”You’re not unable to defeat it; you’re being overwhelmed by it...”

”But in front of the altar...” The boy felt a bit dissatisfied.

”The embodiment of Leviathan being fiercely beaten near the altar is R’lyeh’s obsession embodiment.” The gentleman shook his head: ”If an ancient one’s embodiment can’t defeat the embodiment of a Legendary Wizard, that would be an oddity.”

The young wizard was left speechless.

Looking around.

Time and space remained stagnant.

”Did you just pause time?” He deftly changed the subject, shifting away the awkward emotion.

The gentleman corrected: ”Strictly speaking, we haven’t fully left the high-dimensional perspective yet... In the high-dimensional world, time flows non-linearly, and we are currently staying in a slice of time. Similarly, because of our stay, countless different possibilities increase every moment in the future. Unless correctly converged, these different possibilities could form an uncontrollable backlash against your future.”

”—Shouldn’t we leave quickly then?” Zheng Qing suddenly felt a bit restless.

The gentleman asked rhetorically: ”Have you thought of how to deal with Leviathan?”

”No.”

The young wizard’s face froze momentarily, then he honestly shook his head: ”Taiyi, after all, is tough and durable, and Leviathan said it won’t kill me... If I just hold on, it’ll eventually pass, right.”

His honesty was enough to make someone want to hit him.

The gentleman was slightly speechless.

After a while, he reorganized his question: ”You need to seriously think about how to escape Leviathan’s suppression without me.”

Zheng Qing sniffed, and his gaze finally fell on the Law book in Taiyi’s hand that had not yet been used. He hesitated for a moment: ”...Perhaps I should open that book? But I remember you said if I detonate too many times, I would lose myself. I don’t know if Taiyi using a Forbidden Curse will...”

”Recall your lessons.” The gentleman interrupted his increasingly uncertain voice.

”What?” The boy was puzzled.

”Every lesson at the First University had its reason for existing. Now, recall what you’ve learned, from the principle of equivalent exchange, to the law of magic power conservation, and to the principles of Dimensionism and convergence... Finally, what can you remember?”

Zheng Qing was silent for a moment.

His brain spun rapidly.

”Art of Body Transformation.”

He finally linked all the courses he’d taken this semester and softly gave the final answer: ”—A soul cannot be divided, but it can be transformed from one form to another. In the ’interpretive transfer’ theory of mysticism, non-human intermediary beings can bear the backlash of magic rituals. This means, a transformation...”

The gentleman nodded with satisfaction, reached out, and a fist-sized Hei jiao was pulled from the void.

The Black Gemstone Cat looked around bewildered, noticing that the hand grasping it belonged to the gentleman, it immediately shrank its head, curled its paws, and tucked its tail tightly between its two hind legs, appearing exceptionally well-behaved.

”The book, please.”

The gentleman extended his hand again, and the white Law book that Zheng Qing held on the altar flew into his hand like a homing bird.

”Watch closely, I will only demonstrate once.”

The gentleman reminded Zheng Qing, pressing the Black Gemstone Cat onto the open book pages, as if generating an invisible vortex within the book, gently tugging a faint Aura from the Black Gemstone Cat, absorbing it inside.

The Black Gemstone Cat’s once lively eyes slowly turned vacant.

Soon.

Accompanied by a light ”snap.”

The Black Gemstone Cat vanished, leaving only a pitch-black gemstone in the gentleman’s hand, which now bore a very clear crack, evidently losing the ability to once again hold the Art of Body Transformation.

A faint sense of loss welled up in Zheng Qing’s heart.