High School of Demon Hunting

"——A timestamp is a philosophical concept."

"In the past, wizards often categorized it under divination because diviners frequently needed to trace time’s long river, seeking overlooked information upstream. To avoid losing direction in the vast and rapid flow of time, they would usually look for clear ’nodes’ on the timeline as landmarks."

"For instance, the start of the fairy rebellion against wizards in the nineteenth century, the flames of the burning of Salem Fort; the 1939 signing ceremony of the ’Delhi Religious Peace Proposal’; or the 1945 Wizard Alliance’s 1536th Great Wizard Conference voting on the ’Wizard Behavior Management Method’... Powerful timestamps, like stars rising when a certain Legendary Wizard advances to the ancients, require no extra intervention and can be seen by wizards in the torrent of time just by looking up; weaker timestamps require magic rituals to be confirmed in the presence of many wizards through emotional resonance... and the ’firelight of Salem Fort’ I just mentioned falls in between these two."

At this point, Xiao Xiao took the chilled orange juice the sprite offered, sipped it to moisten his dry lips, and sighed contentedly.

After the afternoon awards ceremony, the young wizards of the Atonement Hunting Team fled under the curious gazes of the audience.

But disbanding right after receiving such an honor to go home seemed a bit inappropriate.

Zheng Qing decided to take everyone to the Pedestrian Street, planning to find a restaurant to celebrate the victory. However, they clearly underestimated the influence of this ’First University Special Contribution Award’. Before they could find a suitable restaurant, they were already swarmed by young wizards wanting to join the Atonement Hunting Team.

Even outside D&K, they were surrounded by journalists trying to interview them.

He had no choice but to waste a bunch of Invisibility Talismans, taking advantage of the chaos to lead everyone straight to the North District of Beta Town. At this time, perhaps only Korma’s Sakura Pub could bring them temporary peace.

Just as Zheng Qing had thought.

As the North District Great Sage, Korma held near supreme authority there. Not to mention Gini Cottage, even the entire Gu Diao Street was much quieter than during Zheng Qing’s first visit, devoid of chaos.

"And now?"

Seeing the short warlock drinking non-stop, Xin Fat Man, who was taking notes, couldn’t help anymore, snatched away his juice, and urged, "——You said wizards used to categorize it under divination, what about now?"

Xiao Xiao discontentedly stared at the juice moving away from him.

Ultimately, under the wary gazes of everyone, he obediently spoke again.

"Now it is naturally a concept of dimension."

He spread his hands, showing an expression suggesting it’s not difficult to understand: "Since the birth of dimension theory, many classical magic theories have been reinterpreted by it, including timestamps. In dimension theory, timestamps are singularities connecting low and high dimensions, possessing irreversibility, and this new theory well explains why high-level wizards who cannot perform divination can also observe the phenomenon of ’timestamps’..."

Zheng Qing absent-mindedly stared at the juice in front of him, slowly turning it.

He suddenly looked up at Xiao Xiao, "——Didn’t you just say that powerful timestamps can be seen by everyone looking up, then isn’t the Battle of the Black Prison a powerful timestamp? Is it necessary for two timestamps to exist at the same time?"

"Absolutely necessary. Because they’re not on the same timeline."

Xiao Xiao raised two index fingers, holding them parallel in front of his eyes, indicating, "Each world has its own timeline, and they are parallel to each other... Of course, if you put all the timelines of the entire universe together and look from a more macro perspective, it might also be seen as one, but that would require a very, very high perspective—ordinary high-level wizards don’t need to, nor have the capability... And different timestamps can corroborate each other. For example, the existence of our timestamp indirectly confirms the authenticity of the Black Prison World timestamp. And the two of them together are witnesses to the star that rose..."

He raised a finger to point at the sky.

No further explanation was needed. The young wizards who once participated in that great war immediately realized he was referring to the former Sea Demon King who advanced to the ancients in the Black Prison.

The little green dragon hanging on Zheng Qing’s ear swayed slightly.

Zheng Qing also shook his head, "——This explanation still has unreasonable parts. Hmm, like the star that rose in the Black Prison, that’s two timestamps on the same timeline, right? If they’re just simple markers to confirm position, is it necessary to place two different marks at the same time?"

Xiao Xiao’s eyes flickered with confusion.

Obviously, he also realized this small flaw.

"Stop this nonsense!" Li Meng interrupted the two warlocks’ difficult conversation, lying half on the table, eagerly asking, "——I just wanted to ask, did you see the names? In the air, that waxy thing had names on it!"

"What names?"

"First University?"

"Atonement Hunting Team?"

Others asked curiously, looking towards Li Meng.

"No, no, no, they’re human names!" The little witch extended a finger, poking where Zheng Qing was, "I saw it clearly, behind Atonement Hunting Team was Zheng Zha... ouch..."

She covered her forehead, looking tearfully at her cousin who just flicked her, pouting, forcibly withdrawing that nickname, "... I mean, there was our captain’s name on that ’mark’."

She sniffed.

"Really?" Zheng Qing blinked, recalling the scene in the First Hall, but was unsure.

And the others were all shaking their heads.

"Really! I’m not lying to you!"

Li Meng evidently thought others believed she was lying, immediately becoming a bit anxious, putting down the hand covering her forehead, "... What’s the point of lying about something like this?"

"Nobody thinks you’re lying." Jiang Yu patted her shoulder, signaling her not to get too excited, "It’s just that others didn’t see it. For a wizard, seeing what others can’t isn’t very rare."

"Perhaps it’s related to her identity as a Spirit Witch." Dylan slowly added.

"Others’ names might also be on it, just that everyone probably didn’t notice." Zheng Qing didn’t want to make himself special, quickly raised his juice to try to end the topic, "... In any case, this is Atonement’s honor, also everyone’s honor! Bless us from heaven, protect us with fate!"

"Bless us from heaven, protect us with fate!"

Others also raised their glasses.

"... Aren’t you going to that class tonight?" Zheng Qing, tilting his head, quietly asked Jiang Yu sitting next to him, "And what about the time conversion class this afternoon, how did you handle it?"

"Skipped it."

The witch briskly spat out two words, then smilingly raised her glass, "There’s less than a month until graduation, I suddenly realize I haven’t really skipped classes... such a college experience would be incomplete. What about you?"

Zheng Qing touched his nose.

"I asked the Gem Cat to attend for me." He felt very clever.

The witch nodded thoughtfully.

"So it means under the Cat Fruit Tree it’s just me and that Big Fox again?"

"..."