High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1226: Chapter 288: The Beginning

Zheng Qing didn’t feel like he was a spell.

But since the professor had said so, raising a question as well, then as an excellent student who had struggled in the exam-driven education system for over a decade, he naturally began to analyze himself according to the professor’s suggestion.

”I’m not smart, have an average appearance, indecisive, and feel that almost anything is fine. I like a plain and simple life. I think about getting a cat but worry about shedding or random defecation; I’m slightly skilled in talismanic arts, all thanks to your tutoring.”

At this point, Zheng Qing paused.

Suddenly, he remembered his experience from last semester when he participated in the student council interview.

Then, he had conducted a similar self-analysis in front of a student council member. And now, that self-evaluation involuntarily resurfaced in his mind, as if it was deeply etched in his heart:

”I’m used to staying in familiar scenery, chatting with familiar friends, eating familiar foods, living in a familiar rhythm, doing familiar and unchanging tasks.”

As he spoke, he seemed to realize the crux of the matter and quickened his pace slightly: ”...when it comes to personality, I have a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder. For instance, I take the same route to the library, step on the same tiles, make sure my step count is the same as the previous day, and use the same stall in the bathroom... If we go by the principle that ’the countenance is a reflection of the heart,’ then the factor influencing all my choices should be the ’Convergence principle’ that you, sir, asked about.”

”The Doctrine of the Mean? No, no, the world cannot be that way... Conformity, obsessive-compulsiveness, familiarity...” The young, sponsored student muttered to himself with his head lowered, fingers intertwined, feeling like he was only a paper-thin distance from the answer.

But it was precisely that thin layer of paper, firmly pasted in front of Zheng Qing’s eyes, preventing him from seeing the truth.

As the old saying goes, at the end of a powerful crossbow’s range, it cannot penetrate through the simplest of cloth.

”That’s enough,” the professor took out his pocket watch, checked the time, and finally interrupted the boy’s confusion, consolingly saying, ”The hardest thing in this world is to know oneself, and it has been so for five thousand years. On this point, you are no worse than anyone else.”

”One should not worry about others not knowing one, but rather about not knowing oneself.”

”He who examines what he upholds and analyzes where he comes from and inspects where he finds peace, how can such a person be hidden?”

”To know oneself, is it not?”

Zheng Qing listened to the professor’s teachings, head still hung low, inexplicably feeling dejected.

Fortunately, the professor did not dwell on this topic for long but directly provided the final answer: ”It’s ’Order,’ the principle constraining your forbidden spell is ’Order.’”

The student suddenly looked up.

”Order.” He savored the word, it felt great. Order is good, I like order, he told himself inwardly.

”Do you know the most basic concept from Dimensionism, ’dimensional strings’?”

”1.616 x 10^-35 meters.” Zheng Qing immediately provided the precise figure, which was emphasized by Professor Yao in ’Philosophy of Magic’: ”Established by Grand Wizard Planck in the year 1900.”

The professor nodded, ”Order is the most significant and clearest characteristic of the dimensional strings, yet at the same time, it’s the hardest to converge. Sunrise and sunset, spring, summer, autumn, winter, love and hatred, family and tribes, and so on—if one is wise enough, it’s easy to perceive the existence of ’Order’ in our environment, but extracting ’Order’ from these ’existences’ is a difficult task.”

”By comparison, extracting the ’Contradictions’ between things seems easier. That’s why the first forbidden spells created were based on ’Contradiction,’ not ’Order.’”

The professor didn’t elaborate on how to extract concepts like ’Contradiction’ or ’Order’ from reality. Zheng Qing suspected that even if the professor explained, he wouldn’t understand.

But it didn’t prevent him from noticing a contradiction.

”But isn’t the forbidden spell ’Primordial’ of Jiuyou Academy based on the concept of ’Chaos’?” Zheng Qing felt his mind was insufficient: ”Is the world both ’Chaos’ and ’Order’?”

”That’s why the world is ’Contradictory,’” the professor chuckled helplessly: ”In fact, this is not contradictory... We can start from any point to observe this world, but that does not mean the world can only be interpreted from that one point.”

”Have I been a forbidden spell from birth?” Zheng Qing couldn’t hold back any longer and asked the question he cared about most. If he had been a spell since birth, what was the difference between his past eighteen years and Truman’s?

’The world is a lie,’ this thought emerged abruptly in his mind, and he wondered whether he could also construct a forbidden spell from this perspective.

If he were truly living in Truman’s world, perhaps ’Illusion’ would be a more suitable convergence principle for him than ’Order.’

These wild thoughts flashed through his mind and were gone in an instant.

The professor’s answer let him exhale a heavy sigh of relief.

”Of course not,” the professor lifted his eyebrows in surprise: ”Although your physical condition is somewhat special... you were undoubtedly born as a person, not a spell.”

”When did I...” the young sponsored student mumbled, implying when he had ’become’ a spell.

”At first, it was only an accident.” The professor paused, then corrected himself: ”It started when I began teaching you calligraphy... Actually, it began when you started practicing the Talisman Scrolls I gave you.”

”You remember your childhood headaches, right?”

Zheng Qing immediately nodded.

”As I told you before, your spirit was too active, but your physical constitution was weak. To borrow an inappropriate metaphor, you were like a skyscraper made of paper—impressive on the outside, hollow inside, heaving and collapsing at the slightest breeze. Most ordinary people, on the other hand, are brick houses—ordinary on the outside, ordinary on the inside, common but stable.”

”You were in agony with your illness. Coincidentally, I had just made a breakthrough from the constraints of ancient wizards, gaining a deeper understanding of Talisman art and Order.”

”I initially only intended to paste a layer of Talisman paper on the outside of your ’skyscraper’ to reinforce it. But during the process, I discovered your talent for talismans was not bad... In not too long a time, you had learned all the Basic Runes, even faster than Xiao Shihui.”

”I thought that was a bit of a waste.”

”You know, with your original qualifications, you had no chance of participating in the entrance exam organized by the First University. You were only slightly better off than those Tricksters in the North District. Most people like you might be taken in by some declining Magic School and inherit some old traditions. That’s all.”

”So, I made a little adjustment to my plans.”