High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2501: Chapter 722: Days Under Pressure

The culprit that caused Zheng Qing to fall to the ground was residual fluid left by a few Water Foxes after fighting, covering an area of about a square foot, as if someone had accidentally spilled a glass of water on the ground, leaving marks that didn’t alert Zheng Qing.

The Water Fox is also known as ’Yu’, a type of supernatural creature with a fox’s head, turtle shell back, shell body, and three legs. Adult specimens are approximately the size of a human palm, entirely black and skilled at manipulating air currents. They’re often found in places rich in water vapor. The renowned ’hidden sand projection’ is its talent magic skill. Being attacked by the Water Fox’s sand causes fever, convulsions, headaches, and, in severe cases, magical disorder, making it a very dangerous creature.

Similar to the spider known as the Qinling Ancient Zither, under normal circumstances, Water Fox should not appear on campus.

”Perhaps since it’s close to the start of Spring, there are more bugs?” Zheng Qing, getting up from the ground, forced a smile, trying to comfort the Witch.

Today is Thursday, and two days later, Saturday is the start of Spring, so the yang energy has already begun to rise in recent days, temperature is warming up, spring thunder claps, everything sprouts, the whole world is burgeoning with life—and under such a backdrop, a few rare bugs showing up at the school seems quite plausible.

It’s just that the probability of these rare bugs being encountered by the same student on the same day is very low.

Thus, seeing the Warlock’s smiling face, Jiang Yu was quite speechless: ”Do you believe that yourself?”

Zheng Qing was silent.

To ease the Witch’s worries, he obediently went to the school hospital to receive an Anti-Curse Blessing.

Perhaps because both were on alert, or perhaps because Zheng Qing reactivated the Invisibility Talisman, or perhaps those three earlier accidents really were just accidents.

In any case, on the way to the hospital, Zheng Qing didn’t encounter any more danger.

Since there were classes in the evening—Zheng Qing had a session of ’Cloud Sutra Study’, while Jiang Yu had a class on ’Laws and Systems Under the Moon’—upon confirming Zheng Qing’s blessing at the hospital, Jiang Yu quickly left, greatly easing the Warlock’s mental stress.

In the evening, after the Cloud Sutra Study course ended, Zheng Qing returned to the dormitory, just catching his breath when a white Paper Crane sharply knocked against the window of room 403.

Tap, tap, tap!

It perched on the window frame like a woodpecker, seriously and earnestly pecking at the glass.

”Tuan Tuan!”

Zheng Qing shouted weakly once.

The Fat Cat twisted its rear, burying its head deeper into its paws, pretending not to hear a certain someone’s voice. However, the few Sprites hanging on its back actively flew up to welcome the Paper Crane into the dormitory.

The white Paper Crane spread its wings like a swan, circling once in the small dormitory, elegantly landing on Zheng Qing’s shoulder, pecking at his earlobe, then opened its body, lightly falling into the Warlock’s hands.

It was a receipt from the School Works Committee.

The letter primarily provided a simple feedback on the situation in the small grove in the afternoon.

The good news was, there were only a few strands of web left by the spiders named ’Qinling Ancient Zither’ in the forest, merely a dozen or so, which wouldn’t cause further impact on the environment.

Zheng Qing and Jiang Yu encountering them was truly hard to say if it was good luck or not.

The bad news was, the spiders that left the webs hadn’t been found, and it was unknown whether they were still in the academy—of course, follow-up capture work would be done by the school’s Divination Group in cooperation with the School Works Committee, and results should come soon.

Lazily, Zheng Qing checked ’very satisfied’ at the end of the receipt. The letter folded itself back into the white Paper Crane, flapped its wings, and leisurely left the Warlocks’ dormitory.

”Have you ever tried checking ’unsatisfied’ in the evaluation?” The Fat Wizard who had been pretending to be dead suddenly came to life, looking excitedly at the young student on scholarship.

Zheng Qing rubbed the piece of black jade in his hand, silently repeating the Activation technique’s skill, ignoring him.

”It’s said that if you check ’unsatisfied’, the Paper Crane’s chance of having an accident halfway is quite high.” Xiao Xiao, for some reason, also found interest in this topic, adjusting his glasses, mentioning a rumor he had heard: ”You know, Wizards have very strong empathy, especially for something like a Paper Crane with ’ambiguous existential meaning’... Very few are willing to let them die due to a complaint.”

”What is ’ambiguous existential meaning’?” Zheng Qing was curious about this unfamiliar term.

Meanwhile, Xin Fat Man instinctively began to refute Xiao Xiao’s view: ”It’s not us letting them ’die due to a complaint’ or ’having an accident halfway’, why should we take on this moral burden?”

Xiao Xiao first answered Zheng Qing’s question.

”So-called ’ambiguous existential meaning’ means that because the Paper Crane carries the Wizard’s ’message’ and ’thought’, it has more value in existence. To some extent, it can even be considered a variant of the Wizard’s ’Thought Entity’—a special kind of magic projection—which is very different from other Alchemical Life forms.”

At this point, Xiao Xiao paused, then added: ”Of course, these are concepts I’ve summarized. The Alliance and the Great Encyclopedia don’t have this kind of discourse.”

As expected.

Zheng Qing silently rolled his eyes, leaning back to lie on his bed, continuing to rub the piece of black jade in his palm. He had been curious earlier; when he was previewing the Art of Body Transformation, he hadn’t seen the ambiguous magical concept of ’ambiguous existential meaning’ in the books.

”As for pressure,” Doctor Xiao turned his gaze to the Fat Wizard, his attitude suddenly becoming aggressive: ”All pressure is self-imposed. Whether moral, real, or environmental. There is no distinction between active or passive... Specifically to Paper Cranes, it’s like a cup or a plush toy, you can throw it away as you wish, why imagine it as alive, recalling its fragrant past lying on a sofa in a garbage heap instead? This excessive empathy is an illness that needs treatment!”

The Fat Wizard blinked, turning to Zheng Qing, silently using his mouth to ask ’what triggered the Doctor’.

Zheng Qing was not a worm in Xiao Xiao’s stomach, how could he know—but guessing it might be Sima Yangyun had an old doll or similar item he wanted to throw away but didn’t want to, passing on the dilemma to Xiao Xiao, making him a bit irritable.

Though, the ’all pressure is self-imposed’ words the Doctor Xiao just mentioned were something Zheng Qing had different views on.

In Zheng Qing’s view, all his pressures were given by others.

Whether it was being forced to become the nominal Qingqiu Nephew, being forced to graduate early, or being cursed by Nameless juniors.

Thinking of curses, Zheng Qing’s hand paused slightly in rubbing the black jade, then took out another Ruby Ring—this was the identity ring of the Seven Sins, and in the afternoon, he received confirmation from other Devils that the gathering would proceed as usual tomorrow night.