High School of Demon Hunting

"Transcendence is a concept completely contrary to intuition. In order to understand these issues, you first have to let go of the idea that ’I can understand what transcendence is.’

The Shadow Cat curled its tail, squatted in place, and stretched out its two front legs, with two furry little paws spaced far apart, as if located at the two ends of a long river:

"Just like the ancient Wizards of our world, who are truly high-dimensional beings, Their true forms, besides existing in the present world, also grow and extend along the time dimension, existing not only in the present but also in the past and the future. As their names suggest, they travel upstream along the long river of time, the closer they are to the world’s birth, the older they are in the concept of time, and thus the more powerful... Here I need to emphasize one point, it’s not that the older ones are more powerful, but that the more powerful ones are older."

The last sentence was somewhat awkward and also a bit subtle.

While the Black Cat was pondering, the Shadow Cat turned the topic back to the few questions he had just raised: "You asked, what’s the relationship between collecting the essence of different worlds and transcendence? Then I need you to think from the position of a true transcender, when one day in the future, you have become the oldest being occupying the source of time, looking downstream, what are you now?"

The Black Cat lowered its head and popped out a claw, drawing line after line on the ground:

If it transcends in the future, then after tracing back, the current self becomes the future self; the actions now seem determined because of the transcended self, yet appear uncertain.

He inexplicably recalled before the school started, in Old Yao’s Office, the lesson Master Baoyangzi gave him and Jiang Yu about ’the asymmetry of the time dimension’—the past belongs to the converging and determined low-dimensional; the future belongs to the diverging and uncertain high-dimensional. According to this logic, there’s no reason for the ancient ones to give up the high dimension on the time line to occupy the low-dimensional territories, right?

Different concepts conflicted in his mind, growing more chaotic the more he thought, until his cat face unknowingly twisted into a knot.

For a long time, the Shadow Cat didn’t receive an answer from the Black Cat and couldn’t help but shake its head in disappointment.

"What I want to tell you is, if you truly transcend in the future, then now you are surely on the road to transcendence. In other words—once a high-dimensional life is born, it will inevitably be born. Because its existence naturally locks in this result."

Perhaps to accommodate the Black Cat’s thinking, the Shadow Cat slowed its speech and looked serious: "This is not a passive fatalism, but a reversal of cause and effect, just like Odin’s sacred spear ’Gungnir’, because it inevitably hits the target, it is shot out... In fact, it’s very difficult to comprehend the existence and common sense of high dimensions with low-dimensional thinking, or rather, what you consider ’destiny’ is just part of its body.

Back to the original question, what is the relationship between collecting the essence of different worlds and transcendence? The answer is ’combination.’

Each two-dimensional world has a distinct and unique essence, such as love, justice, passion, adventure, fall, despair, gore, hope, etc., they are the entirety of the two-dimensional world, but only a small part of a three-dimensional individual—They can be a strand of emotion, a concept, or a drop of blood, a cell—countless two-dimensional essences interwoven in a proper way can truly combine into a more complete person in higher dimensions."

Like a lightning bolt piercing through the fog.

The Black Cat suddenly awoke.

"So, for high-dimensional beings, the ’self’ of low-dimensional individuals is incomplete self." He muttered, forcing himself to forget the time theories Baoyangzi had taught and focus on the little characters in comic books and the true person in reality.

"Bingo! You really are me!" The Shadow Cat gestured a furry paw at him.

"Since the low-dimensional self is incomplete, why did you mention maintaining the concept of ’self’ before?" The Black Cat asked confusedly.

"Because neither I nor Doctor Chen Ang is truly two-dimensional life."

Discussing this concept, the Shadow Cat did not avoid anything, frankly admitting his identity: "I used to be your shadow, equivalent to a part of you; Doctor Chen Ang cut his soul into hundreds of thousands of parts... Experimental subjects like us, before entering the two-dimensional world, inherently have ’self’ existing. It’s just that other Reincarnators, including Chen Ang, after dimension reduction, consciousness will immediately transform into the thinking of two-dimensional life, leading to ’self’ disappearance—Hmm, making an inappropriate metaphor, it’s like an ice sculpture of a little man melting into a puddle of water, already without a human shape—Chen Ang later tried to mold the water back into a little ice sculpture man, but you should have seen that he wasn’t very successful."

"You succeeded." The Black Cat pondered.

"Yes, it’s because of the forbidden curse seed. As I mentioned before, the forbidden curse seed is a very ’solid’ concept, enough to withstand dimensional changes and maintain independent existence."

Saying this, the Shadow Cat raised a paw and pointed at the moon in the sky: "If the two-dimensional world is the Earth beneath us, then the forbidden curse seed is like the moon. I live on the moon, overlooking the entire world, the Earth underfoot changing one after another. Like a solid anchor, anchoring my ’self’, allowing me to remember who I am after drifting through one world after another... This is very difficult... very, very difficult. Can you imagine the terrifying sense of tearing to a normal consciousness after experiencing worlds fundamentally different like Harry Potter, Pirate King, Big Sword, Zhu Yanzhi Blood, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, etc.?"

The Black Cat instinctively licked his paw, and then reacted, spitting repeatedly.

The Shadow Cat seemed not to notice the Black Cat’s embarrassment at this moment and kept his head up, gazing at the sky as the moon slowly descended, with a few traces of lost feelings on his face.

"Since you’re not worried about losing yourself, and can plunder enough essence... why didn’t you follow the lab’s plan, transcend in the traditional way, but choose the ’Evidence by Force with Dao’ instead?" The Black Cat thought of another puzzling question.

"That path was too boring, too far, and too slow."

The Shadow Cat withdrew his gaze, proudly lifted his chin slightly: "H.G. Wells said, every great advance in natural knowledge involves the absolute rejection of authority. I’m the cat that denies authority!"

The Black Cat persistently asked, "So, how exactly did you ’Evidence by Force with Dao’ then?"

The Shadow Cat blinked, turned his face away, suddenly raised a paw, and pressed it on the feather pen writing diligently on the parchment, his tone somewhat hesitant: "Do you want to hear the truth or the falsehood?"

"There’s still falsehood?" The Black Cat was shocked.

"Hmm, the water here is too deep."

The Shadow Cat’s furry paw pressed firmly on the feather pen with immense pretentiousness: "If you want to hear the truth, I can continue to tell you all kinds of concepts and ways about transcendence, talking for three days and three nights is no problem..."

"What’s the falsehood then?" The Black Cat suddenly felt a sense of being deceived.