High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1289: Chapter 36 Untitled

After receiving the gift and being arranged a new learning plan, Mr. Wu fell silent.

Zheng Qing vaguely knew it was time for him to leave.

Then he remembered something else.

”Mr. Wu, there’s something I feel I need to tell you... Last Saturday, that is, the night I went back to sleep, I seem to have had a bit of a problem again.”

Zheng Qing was a bit timid, yet he recounted in great detail the description of his sleepwalking experience as told by his dormitory roommates. He ended with a concerned question, ”What do you think this is about? Could it be that the forbidden spell is restless... wanting to come out?”

An involuntary image surfaced in his mind—he and his companions were frolicking in the campus, throwing minor curses at each other, and then he lost control, blowing Xin Fat Man into minced meat. And then he swelled up like a balloon amidst the panicked screams of his companions until with a ’pop’, he turned into a brilliant firework in mid-air.

Buji Island would shake, the school would be razed to the ground, and a mushroom cloud would gently rise above the azure sea.

Hiss, the boy shook his head vigorously, trying to get that horrible image out of his mind.

”Where’s the magic book?” Mr. Wu raised his eyebrows, seeming a bit surprised.

Zheng Qing quickly touched the grey cloth bag at his waist and effortlessly pulled out the magic book.

Very good, that was very magical.

Mr. Wu took the magic book from Zheng Qing, amusedly ripping off the belt tied to it and the seal symbol stuck on it.

”Next time have some fish glue ready in your pocket,” Mr. Wu reminded, ”Using saliva to stick the seal symbol is a barbaric method. Even the Horseman Tribe of the Silent Forest wouldn’t do this.”

Zheng Qing felt his cheeks grow hot, he answered in a stammering agreement while opening the little notebook in his hand and noting down his first lesson note from the ’private class’ with a feather pen.

As Zheng Qing took notes, Mr. Wu slowly perused the spells in his magic book, his eyes flickering with surprise.

Although the spells recorded in this magic book seemed complex and vast, it was clear, logical, and in sequence. Obviously, it was one very powerful spell—although just one, it took up the slots of dozens of spells, filling up the whole book. Even the blank spaces on the title page were not wasted.

But what surprised Mr. Wu was not the intricate construction or the grandeur of the spell.

It was the essence of the spell.

”This is not a forbidden curse.”

Mr. Wu’s first statement concluded the verdict on the spell in the book, a conclusion that deeply relieved the young scholarship student. But the next statement made his heart tighten again:

”This is a guidance spell, like the spark before the explosion of gunpowder, the bundle of neutrons before the fission of a nuclear bomb. You can imagine it as the ’First Mover’ that does not exist in this world.”

”It’s a trigger.”

”A trigger that could induce the forbidden curse.”

”Originally, this trigger was scattered in various corners of the entire forbidden curse system... unconnected and not conspiring... only when you actually mature and have enough resilience would you slowly discover it.”

”But I overlooked something... the reason they are called forbidden curses is that they have the power to break all the rules of this world. Whether it’s the Silence Contract or some other spell.”

”The frequent reddening of your eyes is actually a sign.”

”That strand of red is the manifestation of the force deep in your soul after it has broken through its bonds. Especially since you repeatedly appear in the Time Twisting Place, it adds this variable...”

The Time Twisting Place refers to the small secret realm within the Silent Forest, which was accidentally created by Mr. Wu reversing time with a silver shell pocket watch to save Zheng Qing from the brink of crisis.

Of course, this secret realm has been destroyed by Zheng Qing’s ’self-destruction’ last time.

Time reversal is originally a major violation of the rules, so it has a mysterious influence on similar rule-breaking forces. This point, Zheng Qing slowly began to ponder after a long time.

”...I’ve gotten old, too old.”

”I always look before I leap, hesitating and indecisive. I should have realized this situation long ago...”

”This magic book,” Zheng Qing suddenly remembered a question that came up in a discussion about the origin of the magic book with Dylan a few days ago, and asked with some unease:

”This Law book was created with something ’taken from me’ by the old wizard,” he said. ”He told me it was a ’Demon Spirit.’”

At this point, the young wizard paused, cautiously glancing at the teacher’s expression before hesitantly continuing, ”How could there be a Demon Spirit in me? I mean, I’m a wizard, right?”

The teacher raised an eyebrow, ”Old Pein? He’s had dementia for more than fifty years. How could Lower Yuan Bookstores still give him work? Aren’t they afraid he’ll blow up the bookstore?”

”Don’t mind what he said about ’Demon Spirits’ and ’magic aura.’ It’s to bamboozle the laymen, that way he can make money... What was taken from you was a bit of Spiritual Machine. It’s used to enhance the Law book’s sensitivity to spells.”

Zheng Qing suddenly nodded his head—it’s just that he wasn’t sure if the teacher had told him the truth.

”What about my sleepwalking?”

”How old are you this year?” the teacher countered.

You’ve watched me grow up!

”Nineteen.”

Zheng Qing muttered internally and reminded him, ”It’s... my birthday today.”

”Wow, only nineteen,” the teacher exclaimed in admiration. ”Sorry, living for a long time has one downside—you lose sensitivity to time. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between a child you met a hundred years ago and one you met a year ago.”

”Nineteen... What a vibrant age. Full of sunlight, radiant, like the flowers of May.”

”But just like those flowers, you are no longer a little boy but not yet a man. You are just a young man. Living in the Ivory Tower, not tormented and tempered by life, you don’t feel the weight of life...”

”My life weighs one hundred and twenty-one pounds,”

Listening to the teacher’s guidance, the young public-funded student thought with a bit of resistance, ”And I’ve already suffered the hardships of life... Who else has had most of a school year filled with the school’s punitive tasks, been warned and disciplined by the school three or four times, stayed in the hospital seven or eight times, and even self-destructed once?”

Somehow, thinking of this gave Zheng Qing a mysterious sense of pride from the bottom of his heart.

The teacher, as if oblivious to the student’s inner voice, spoke on with his unchanging voice:

”...You’ve now become a wizard, a special wizard. Perhaps in a hundred, two hundred, five hundred, or even a thousand years, you’ll still look as young as you are today. But your heart will slowly age with the passage of time.”

”I hope that in the process of growing up, you will always remember this day.”

”Remember the taste of youth.”

This wasn’t the first time the teacher had spoken to Zheng Qing about life and aging. The young man’s intuition told him that there was some meaning hidden behind these talks, but he couldn’t be sure.

The only thing he was sure about—what did this have to do with sleepwalking? Was the teacher changing the subject? But wasn’t this method of diversion a bit too abrupt?

When he came to his senses, the teacher’s figure had already been engulfed in the increasingly thick white mist.

”Oh, by the way,”

The teacher’s voice came from the depths of the dense mist, ethereal as if he were not really there, ”Although understandable, sleeping during class is ultimately wrong. Stand for half an hour when you get back as punishment.”

Zheng Qing’s eyes widened, just as he was about to argue, but unexpectedly, the fog at his feet all dissipated.

Like falling from the sky, a tremendous sense of weightlessness hit him head-on.

Zheng Qing cried out, jolting awake from his sleep, and sat up like a carp flipping over.

Upon opening his eyes, Fu Lu Class had not yet ended.

The entire Astronomy Class 08-1 was staring at him, their eyes filled with teasing amusement.

”Sounds like Classmate Zheng Qing has a different opinion about the talisman I just discussed?” Teacher Zhang on the stage also looked at the suddenly standing young wizard with a smile, ”Let’s hear his esteemed thoughts.”

The classroom immediately erupted in enthusiastic applause.

Xin Fat Man was especially vigorous, all the while not forgetting to bare his teeth and make a mocking face at Zheng Qing.