Free Web NovelChapter 2735: Chapter 956: Abnormal Cat Transformation
Perhaps because they were holding Souls that did not belong to them.
The bodies of the Gem Cat and the White Jade Cat suddenly swelled by a full size, growing from something small enough to sit in the palm of a hand into something just a little bigger than a clenched fist.
The newly Awakened White Jade Cat seemed not to have yet recovered the feeling of being a Wizard. It looked just like a real Little White Cat, arching its back as it squatted on the sleeping Witch’s hand, a low rumbling sound coming from its throat as it warily sized up the extremely tall figure standing by the bed. The Magic Power spilling off its body formed a hazy halo at the edges of the jade, like a ring of fur puffed up in fright.
Compared to the White Jade Cat, the Gem Cat’s behavior was much more unusual.
Zheng Qing woke from his sleep and took only a few seconds to accept the reality that he had turned into a cat—or rather, he had long since gotten used to being a cat. He stretched with practiced ease, his spread paws stepping on the soft bed, then yawned hugely and, just like a real cat, lazily wiped his mouth.
"How do you feel?"
A Legendary Wizard’s inquiring voice sounded at the bedside. Old Yao was holding a pipe, head lowered as he looked at the two little cats on the bed. Zheng Qing noticed that there was no tobacco in his pipe, and it wasn’t lit, yet he could clearly smell a faint trace of smoke.
"Doesn’t feel much different from when I usually turn into a cat."
The Gem Cat twitched its ears, walked all the way up along its main body’s chest, and finally crouched on his own chin, curiously observing the sleeping boy: "—Wait, why do I still remember so clearly what happened before I fell asleep? Didn’t you say that when a body double is active, it would forget a lot of the main body’s memories?"
"Obviously, you’ve already forgotten that I used the word ’probably’ when I said that."
Old Yao clicked his pipe and patiently reminded the black cat: "And you’ve also forgotten that I said Wizards are not all the same. Some Wizards with strong minds can clearly remember everything that happens in their dreams as well as after they wake up."
The Gem Cat froze at his words, the paw it had lifted hovering in midair for a few seconds.
The Professor did seem to have said something like that.
But the memory was hazy, indistinct, just like one’s recollection of a dream after waking up. The only difference was that dreams grow more and more blurry after you wake, whereas Old Yao’s words, once he reminded him, seemed to become faintly clearer and clearer.
Perhaps this was what it meant to have a strong mind?
He put his paw down, a little uncertain.
Then he remembered another question.
"There’s something I don’t quite understand, Professor."
The Gem Cat sat down with his tail neatly coiled, raised his other paw in a very proper manner, and looked up at that figure which, in a cat’s eyes, was incomparably tall at the bedside: "—If after turning into a cat I wander around and play like a real cat, how is it supposed to rest in my place? I remember you said that the most useful part of the Art of Body Transformation for us right now is that it can rest on our behalf, right?"
"And you mentioned the word ’uniqueness’ in class."
Another clear, pleasant voice suddenly rang out, startling the black cat so much that he instinctively tensed up. When he turned his head, he was astonished to find that the speaker was actually the White Jade Cat. At this moment she was strenuously using her two front paws to press down the two corners of her notebook, flipping through the notes she had once taken. Without even lifting her head, she added, "You said, ’A Wizard’s identity possesses uniqueness and is not affected by temporal factors.’ That is to say, who I am at this moment is who I was at that moment. Doesn’t this mean that I remain awake both before and after Transformation? Wouldn’t such continuous wakefulness put tremendous pressure on the mind? How could it count as resting in our place?"
Having spoken, she raised her head and looked at the Professor of Transformation Technique with eager eyes.
The black cat hastily nodded along, feeling that every sentence the White Jade Cat said hit him right in the heart.
Old Yao removed the pipe from his mouth and first greeted the Little White Cat with obvious good humor: "Awake? How do you feel? Hmm, from the depth of that question, I’d say you’re feeling pretty good."
The White Jade Cat nodded in agreement.
"I was a little muddled at first... now I’m awake—extraordinarily awake."
As she spoke, she scooted forward a couple of steps, sat on her notebook, and frowned like a real Witch as she carefully analyzed: "This feels completely different from when I usually turn into a cat... Although there’s a slight distortion in cognition, I can clearly recognize that I am Jiang Yu. Just as you said before, no matter what I look like right now, I am still me."
"Very good."
The Professor raised his brows, looking slightly surprised yet not at all unprepared: "You two have both successfully crossed the hurdle of ’cognitive障碍.’ In what I previously taught you about ’Cognitive Interference,’ the most important thing—’an individual’s Cognitive Thinking Pattern’—is exactly this... It is crucial for successfully performing the Art of Body Transformation. Ordinary Wizards often experience cognitive Chaos at this step. Even those who have practiced the ’unification method’ need to go through repeated Transformations multiple times before they can rein in the scattered consciousness that has wandered away and truly become clear-headed again. The two of you succeeded in one try—good, very good."
He did not stint in his praise in the slightest; his satisfaction was written all over his face.
"Professor, is Jiang Yu able to speak right now because of the influence of ’uniqueness’?"
Listening to the two of them exchange all sorts of technical terms, the Gem Cat only felt his head spinning, but he couldn’t show his ignorance in front of the White Jade Cat. To avoid looking like an academic deadweight, he squeezed a term out of his shriveled, walnut-sized brain and asked tentatively.
Old Yao put the pipe back in his mouth and pondered for a few seconds.
"You can use ’uniqueness’ to explain it, but that wouldn’t be precise enough."
He frowned, as if thinking about how to explain this complex issue to an idiot clearly: "—A word more appropriate than uniqueness is ’focus.’ Because she is sufficiently focused, she has preserved her own Cognitive Thinking Pattern intact; she hasn’t mistakenly taken herself for a cat, so she can still speak. By contrast, in the usual Transformation Technique that ordinary Wizards perform, because it requires altering the individual’s Cognitive Thinking Pattern, they accept their new identity after Transforming, and therefore cannot speak. The beauty of Magic lies in such subtle details... As for Student Jiang Yu’s other question."
The Professor removed the pipe from his mouth—Zheng Qing had no idea what the point was of him always holding a pipe with no tobacco and no fire—and tapped it against the side of the bed.
"You think that because you’ve remained awake the whole time, your mind would be very tired?" He shook his head, not directly refuting her, but instead asking in return: "Then think about it—you’re busy all day, and at night you dream all night long. When you wake up, do you feel exhausted or refreshed?"
"Dreaming all night is exhausting." The Gem Cat had plenty of experience in this area.
"But it doesn’t seem to have a great impact on your daytime energy." The White Jade Cat hesitated, then added.
"That’s exactly it."
The Professor raised the hand holding the pipe and slightly slowed his speech: "I’ve already emphasized that the process by which you control your doubles is similar to dreaming... and dreaming doesn’t impose any extra burden on your mind. Whether or not you dream is not the key to distinguishing the quality of sleep. Good deep sleep may come with dreams; poor shallow sleep may be dreamless.
On the other hand, when you use the body double to act, your physical body—bearing no mental burden at all—receives a thorough, ’empty-out’ type of rest, which in turn feeds back into and nourishes your mind.
The dual transformation between body and mind is like the head and tail of the Yin and Yang Fish, always in a state of infinitely approaching and interacting, with no rigid boundary between them."
