CHAPTER 1765: CHAPTER 509: PAUSE BUTTON

The pocket watch was Zheng Qing’s birthday gift from his teacher when he turned twelve.

Last winter hunting, the teacher once turned the hands on this pocket watch, reversed time, and saved Su Shijun’s tail; later, in Beta Town’s North District pedestrian street, the teacher’s projection also used this pocket watch to restore the half-destroyed street by Zheng Qing.

Until today.

On the Black Prison Battlefield.

A little earlier.

When the ’Forbidden Curse Tree’ in Zheng Qing’s sea of consciousness was growing wildly and sending out shoots, to accommodate the constantly overflowing forbidden curse power, the young public cost student once directed those magic powers into the Blood Symbol Bullet, Law book, and pocket watch.

As the specially-made charm gun was taken by Shallow Jin Ryoko, the effect of the Blood Symbol Bullet greatly diminished. Even though Jiang Yu later provided him with two spare charm guns, since the gun body wasn’t reinforced, Zheng Qing worried that randomly firing might cause the gun to explode, so he didn’t dare to use those Blood Symbol Bullets freely.

The magic introduced into the Law book had already merged into that slender red sky pillar after Zheng Qing ’pulled the trigger,’ collapsing the walls and protect legal formation of the Black Prison Stronghold.

At present, only this pocket watch still contains an enormous magical power that the boy can squander without worrying about accidental injury.

Professor Yao still stood at the edge of the city wall, quietly closing his eyes, energy fields surging around him.

In his ear, the low arguments of the other few deans continued to be intense; no one could persuade the other, but no one had the courage to give up everything and plunge into the center of the struggle between two semi-forbidden curses and a top legendary demon — the stronger the magic, the harder it is to fathom the release of magic power; no one knows whether breaking the balance among those high-level powers will first destroy all other weaker lives on the Black Prison Battlefield.

Thus, in this situation, Zheng Qing opened the pocket watch in his hand.

Click.

His fingertips pressed the button, and the watch case lightly popped open, revealing the transparent surface and the ticking second hand. Zheng Qing’s mind went blank; he couldn’t even tell what time it was, just recklessly raised his hand, trying to stick his fingers in like his teacher.

Up to this point, he didn’t have much hope, just casually trying.

In the sea of consciousness, the forbidden curse seed that had just sprouted a few tender buds seemed to smell a similar scent, subconsciously twitched, squeezed out a strand of forbidden curse power from the seed, and handed it to Zheng Qing’s fingertips.

Then, Zheng Qing watched as his fingertip easily passed through the transparent glass layer on the surface, landing on the second hand.

Click... Click.

The second hand was held down, unable to continue ticking, and a sound like gears jamming echoed from inside the watch, seemingly trying to tell the boy that time should flow and not stop.

Zheng Qing didn’t have time to deal with the grievances of those gears.

He was looking up, shocked, at the four corners, taken by surprise.

At the very moment the second hand stopped ticking, the entire fortress city head, the whole Black Prison Battlefield, perhaps even the entire Black Prison World, was also pressed to a halt —

Jiang Yu still had that trace of smile on her face, but now that the smile was frozen, Zheng Qing noticed the trace of unease and apprehension hidden in her brows, and the tiny bite marks on her pale lips.

Not far behind the witch, Xiao Xiao held a turtle shell, tilting his head to look to the other side, as if listening to someone speak; Blue Bird held a sword, half of the body hidden in the shadow of the wall, with a bland expression; Xin Fat Man lowered his head, one hand gripping a mortar, the other adding herbs into the mortar, several slender leaves had just left his fingertips, frozen in mid-air, leaf tip pointing down; Zhang Ji Xin clung his fist, sitting cross-legged on the ground, staring at Professor Yao’s direction with eyes shining brightly; Dylan held a small mirror and toothbrush, baring his teeth, tidying up his two beautiful little fangs.

Scenes, frames, each detail presented in Zheng Qing’s view, a massive wave of information like a flood through his eyes, flowing in, the forbidden curse seed just sprouted in the sea of consciousness accepted them all, opening five leaves, joyfully gathering every point of detail presented by the world.

Zheng Qing watched all this with wide eyes.

Sunlight and moonlight mixed together, like solidified amber, tiny dust embedded in the massive amber, little by little, densely packed, like stars scattered across the night sky.

Further away, the teaching assistant team and the witches guarding the ancient castle turned into sculptures, Zheng Qing could clearly see the wrinkles on their robes from running, could clearly see the spray of saliva from a warlock roaring, could see the glow just rising from a book held by a witch.

Looking at that glow, Zheng Qing realized for the first time that light also has a shape and length.

Compared to ordinary wizards, the big wizards didn’t perform any better.

President Sun Qi of Starry Sky Academy held his head high, with an excited expression, his shiny head became somewhat dim after time halted; opposite him in the slant direction, Alpha Acting President Tilda Strange had a taut face, lips pressed tightly, chin slightly raised, seemingly disdainful of President Sun’s proposal.

Old President Urelban of Atlas still hung his head, sitting motionless on the blue stone slab ground, almost unchanged before and after the pause in time.

Only Dean Yao, though standing in place, seemed to have long since left the city head, gone to some other place. The energy around him did not interrupt due to the pause in time, instead becoming increasingly powerful; his dark little eyes slightly squinted, with the faces of compassion, indifference, and savagery changing like a running horse lantern.

Outside the city, Mist Captain and several other great demons all looked up, gazing at the primordial yellow above, their solemn expressions carrying a touch of ferocity; below the great demons, almost no ordinary demons could be seen, and even those still struggling demon figures became faint, as if washed with water by ink painting, or as if someone was using an eraser to rub them.

Members of the Dark Council clustered around ’Taiyi,’ jointly resisting the Heaven and Earth Profound Yellow Array, with them at the center, rolling massive azure-black qi, like a huge millstone.

Profound yellow qi condensed and sank, azure-black qi surged, their energies entangled, grinding everything caught within, including the legendary demon’s eye.

At this moment, the eye of the Sea Demon King had already fallen into the eye of the ’Heavenly Earthly Mill’ formation, half of the eye ground to powder, yet it showed no struggle or anger, instead displaying peculiar joy, behind it white bones swayed like a snake tail, drawing transparent ripples in space.

Then, just now, Zheng Qing’s fingertips passed through the glass of the pocket watch, pressed on the second hand.

Everything between heaven and earth stood still.

Except for the Sea Demon King’s already shattered half eye and the happily swinging white bone tail behind it — as a legend, it had transcended the bounds of time.