High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 316: Chapter 240: Soul Baptism_1

The feasts of the magicians were no more spectacular than those of ordinary human life.

They could always conjure interesting novelties however, such as troll elves dancing in grass skirts, siren banshees singing high in mid-air; magical snowflakes fluttering all over, and gently tapping the ground, harmonizing with petals falling in a beautiful symphony.

But to Zheng Qing, all of these held no appeal.

The absurd dances of the fairies could not mask their crude and impolite manner, the strong scent of the sirens couldn’t conceal the hidden hint of fishy smell, and even the floating magic snowflakes - if caught by hand - would instantly be transformed into a puddle of cold water by the warmth of one’s palm, disappearing through the crevices of their fingers.

Not to mention all those rigid protocols, clichéd sayings, and complicated rules.

All of them were secret recipes to wear down the sharp spirits of young wizards.

Rather than these, Zheng Qing was more interested in the headmasters of the university.

Having been at school for nearly a month, he had yet to meet the headmasters. Even those deans who often made the newspaper headlines were merely names to him.

Sources said these big shots would all make an appearance at the opening ceremony.

Less than half an hour remained before the start of the ceremony.

Senior students from the four colleges, researchers from several institutions, teaching assistants, lecturers, professors, and even the old campus maintenance staff who walked all trembly, began to enter in order.

According to tradition, everyone had their own place.

The professors stood on the protruding terrace of the highest floor on the side of the auditorium. Wearing black robes, they gathered in small groups, chatting and laughing leisurely.

The positions of the teaching assistants and lecturers were slightly lower, along with the researchers, they stood in a semi-enclosed gallery beneath the terrace.

Students were arranged according to their grade levels, from high to low.

Veteran fourth-year students stood in the fourth-floor corridor, while third-year ones were on the third floor, and so on. The freshmen of the 08 class could only honestly stand in the circular corridor on the first floor.

Compared to the staff, the students looked much more restrained.

Whether they were senior students or newbies, all were cautious, for fear of being caught infringing any rules by the patrol team and having their credits cut.

The patrol team consisted of student council members and some campus staff. They patrolled quietly between each floor’s corridor, carrying stiff clipboards, ready to catch any troublemakers and punish them.

”Did you hear any strange noises?” Zheng Qing suddenly raised his head, looking around in confusion, and nudged his companion.

The little fox nestled in his arms also pricked its ears, its eyes wide and round, and its fluffy tail stopped waving.

”Noise?” Xin Fat Man scratched his fluffy head, squinted his eyes, and looked very confused: ”Except for the noises of birds and dogs... I don’t hear anything else... and the grunt of that little pig.”

The others also appeared puzzled.

”Seems like there is some strange noise...” Li Meng frowned, trying hard to listen, her little face flushed: ”It sounds familiar...”

”What sound did you hear?” Xiao Xiao had a sudden realization, quickly flipped open his notebook, and asked eagerly.

Zheng Qing tilted his head, finding it difficult to describe.

Just as it sounded like waves rolling, rain falling; you can find many onomatopoeic words to describe these scenes, but language is always too poor and pale to accurately describe their essence.

”I really should learn more magic language,” Zheng Qing grumbled, his facial features wrinkled together: ”I find that magic language is more precise in description, and easier... vaguely, it’s a bit like the birds singing in the morning; also a little bit like the sound of drizzle hitting tree leaves during plum rain season.”

”I don’t get it. Those sounds you described are completely different...how can they be the same?” Xin Fat Man looked skeptical.

”Just like the sound of sunrise and sunset, and the sound of stars crying.” Li Meng rattled off incongruous comparisons with her fingers.

”The sunrise has a sound?” Zhang Ji Xin could not help but interject: ”And stars crying, are you sure you didn’t cry yourself to sleep in your quilt, thinking it was a ghost?”

Li Meng glared at him, didn’t speak, just turned around, and delivered a swift kick to the leg of Zhang Ji Xin.

Zheng Qing could not help but laugh.

He found that the little witch was becoming increasingly prone to kicking people, wondering who she had been learning from.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but turn his head to look at Jiang Yu.

Jiang Da Headmaster was standing with his arms crossed, eyebrows slightly furrowed, tapping his fingers thoughtfully. His concentrated expression made one want to take a second look.

”Quiet.” Xiao Xiao raised his brush to stop the argument among his companions, also calling back the thoughts of the distracted scholarship student.

Zheng Qing turned his head back, surprised to find wisps of pale white mist had started to float out into the auditorium’s high ceiling.

The sirens and fairies who were originally dancing and singing in the central hall were now nowhere to be seen.

Even the clusters of light swirling in mid-air had one by one, gone out.

All that remained was the pitch-black above their heads.

Like the profound cosmos, it was serene and everlasting.

A flame as small as a bean began to flicker in this pitch darkness.

Zheng Qing’s eyes widened.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The drum beats seemed to resonate from the bottom of his heart, the small flame trembling with each beat.

With just a few gentle thumps, it had completely captured Zheng Qing’s attention.

A short and intense musical phrase, clearly marking the beginning of a pause.

The thin mists, with the upbeat beats and fiery rhythm, swirled, vibrated, spread, and transformed into one mysterious pattern after another.

Staring at these patterns, listening to the music gradually flowing in his ears, Zheng Qing’s vision suddenly filled with vivid scenes.

The desolate universe, pitch-black, devoid of any signs of life.

A small blue planet, like a grain of stagnant sand amidst the starry ocean, quietly spun in its own orbit.

A circle represented a year, a year after year.

There was no beginning, no end.

Just as a bolt of lightning pierces through dense fog, a spark of life burst forth from the infinite dead silence.

The music in his ears abruptly broke off, as if silenced by shock!

Then hesitatingly, the tentative sound of a flute crept in;

intermittent sounds from the trumpet, the flute, the bass viol, and the big drum, voiced their exploratory sounds.

His field of vision expanded infinitely; Zheng Qing’s perception seemed to instantly rush into the smallest of cells.

The music of a piano, accompanied by heavy chords and a lingering bugle call, fully showcased the feeling of time flying by.

Cells rapidly divided; from single-celled to multicellular, plants to animals, swimming in the sea to crawling on land, the history of imagined life evolution rushed by in fast forward, unspooling rapidly before Zheng Qing.

The music became more and more intense, more and more rich, and the scenes that appeared before Zheng Qing’s eyes became more and more vibrant. A surge of life’s emotion slowly welled up from his heart, filling it with an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

Suddenly, his view was pulled back, and an eerie sense of threat shattered the previous tranquility and peace.

A huge meteor, carrying a trail of burning flames, grazed past Zheng Qing’s nose and slammed heavily into the blue planet that had just nurtured life. Rising smoke, violently shaking crust plates, desperate fleeing creatures.

The music once again fell silent, Zheng Qing distinctly felt the calm before the storm.

Then, short and intense strings, strong and decisive beats, one stronger than the other, one wave higher than the other, an unstoppable ferocity!

Zheng Qing knew this was life venting its rage.

Only when the blue planet slowly returned to tranquility did the music gradually dim with it.

The music at this moment was no longer as rich yet intricate as before but clearly displayed two or three themes,

Bass violins, cellos, left helpless, echoes lingering; violins, trumpets, eager to take a leap, constantly challenging; pianos, big drums, interspersed with other instruments Zheng Qing couldn’t identify were woven together, the musical range expanding continuously, changing more unpredictably in transition, the rhythm increasingly complex and varied.

Running animals on the ground, swimming fishes in the sea, soaring birds in the sky, bush-swarming insects, humming flies in the meadows, the struggling faces of countless creatures appeared instantaneously before his eyes.

Then, abruptly, it stopped.

Everything before his eyes vanished instantly, returning to the magnificent grand hall.

Zheng Qing blinked hard, allowing his brain to slowly adjust to the sudden slackened rhythm. Then he looked blankly into mid-air, why did it suddenly end? What about humans? What about the creatures that came after? What did those three themes represent?

The hall was utterly quiet as if the intense music had just been his hallucination.

A moment later, a humming sound erupted, quickly spreading from the first floor to the top floor.

The noise was filled with regrets and yearnings.

”Finally, you have felt it,” Xiao Xiao put her glasses back on again, a hint of frenzy evident in her eyes: ”The Sound of Life! The Baptism of the Soul! The Feast of Freshmen at the First University!”

”It’s the legendary purification of your soul through the impact of music and images, allowing you to fully experience the greatness and extraordinary nature of this world, letting you directly confront the mysterious primal source of the world.”

”Incomparable...” Zheng Qing fondly recalled the music just now, savored it, and marveled at it.