High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1225: Chapter 287: Above the Ancient Wizard

”Creation meeting creation could destroy the world, while destruction meeting destruction has a great chance of creating a new one.”

”It’s contradictory, but isn’t it fascinating?”

”Wizards created the forbidden curses, which have the power to destroy the world. Yet when forbidden curses meet, even the greatest contradictions seem trivial. For the first time, the many divisions within the Alliance genuinely agreed to compromise and respect their differences.”

”Under the shadow of destruction, everyone finally learned to coexist.”

”The terrifying aura enveloped the entire Wizard World, and every wise wizard knew that things couldn’t go on like this. The Grand Wizard Convention was called, and it invited all the legendary and ancient wizards who could be summoned to forge a contract—the ’Forbidden Curse Non-proliferation Treaty’—pledging that, to protect our world, any organization or individual within the Alliance is forbidden from conducting dimensional fluctuation experiments, from researching new forbidden curses...”

Hearing this, Zheng Qing couldn’t hold back any longer and interrupted the professor’s narrative, ”...If that’s the case, then how did I become a forbidden curse, Professor?! According to your previous descriptions, even third-generation curses require the concerted efforts of nine grand wizards to be unleashed! And, didn’t you sign that contract?”

Mr. Wu smiled as he listened to the young man’s questioning, waiting until he stopped speaking before responding leisurely, ”Of course, I signed the contract... however, the highest order that contract can restrict is up to ’ancient wizards’... Because of my long-term research on forbidden curses—did I ever tell you that three of the four forbidden curses sealed in the school were developed under my leadership?”

Zheng Qing shook his head, oblivious.

The professor uttered an ’oh’ and added, ”The greatest side effect or result of a forbidden curse is ’breaking the rules.’ Prolonged contact with forbidden curses has caused me to absorb many of their effects... It’s hard to say whether this is fortunate or unfortunate... because there are many rules in this world I am rather fond of, like eating or living...”

”Anyway, because of the curse, more than ten years ago, I just managed to break through the bounds of ancient wizards and walked a path far beyond that of Merlin, the Duke of Zhou, and many others in the ways of wizardry.”

”So the treaty that limits the Moon Council or other organizations doesn’t have that much impact on me.”

The professor’s tone was somewhat nonchalant as he answered, but the revelation struck Zheng Qing like thunder, leaving him dizzy and nearly forgetting his earlier question.

Above ancient wizards?!

To know, the deans of the four colleges at First University are at the grand wizard level, and the two vice-chancellors are said to be legendary wizards. As a young, state-funded student with a limited imagination, he had only dared to speculate that the professor might have surpassed the grand wizard tier, to be a legendary wizard. Yet reality proved to be far grander than his imagination.

He could no longer associate the jesting man who teased the coy ladies in the bookstore with the top-tier existence in the Wizard World.

”What... does it feel like?” the young wizard asked subconsciously. Although he did not explicitly state the subject of his question, the professor immediately understood what the young man meant.

What does it feel like to surpass an ancient wizard?

It’s something any wizard aspiring to walk further on the path of wizardry would be curious about. Like a climber at the mountain foot gazing up at the pioneers at the summit, everyone wonders what the view from the top is really like.

Perhaps those landscapes will inspire their courage at all times when they climb the mountain in the future.

”Oh, it feels a little empty.” Mr. Wu pinched his chin, hesitating, as if struggling to find the right words to respond to the boy’s statement, ”It’s like the feeling you get when you look up at the starry sky... infinitely brilliant, endlessly void.”

”But this isn’t something you need to understand right now.” Mr. Wu immediately pulled the topic back, after sketching out enough ’negative space’ for the young wizard, he continued the previous topic:

”....you already know the names of the four forbidden curses sealed within the school. So after hearing the names, what can you imagine, connecting them with the knowledge you’ve acquired before?”

Genesis, Wild, Twilight of the Gods, Dragon Han Disaster.

From these four names alone, besides being able to feel the immense magic power contained within them, Zheng Qing had no other ideas.

Just as he was about to shake his head, he suddenly remembered something he had said to Mr. Wu before.

”Professor Wu once said, different methods of concentration give birth to different forbidden curses.” The young subsidized student, drawing on some Taoist scriptures and philosophy he studied as a child, pondered, ”Does this mean that these four forbidden curses were born from different methods of concentration... and they represent four direct paths to the ’World’?”

Mr. Wu’s eyes widened slightly in apparent surprise, but he still nodded encouragingly, gesturing for the boy to continue.

Perhaps because the previously ’shattered’ thoughts had started to coalesce again, Zheng Qing felt his train of thought becoming smoother and he spoke a bit faster, ”The ’Dragon Han Disaster,’ as the name suggests, represents catastrophe, or conflict perhaps? With a simplistic philosophical view, this means the world is full of contradictions. Every contradiction has universality and specificity, and everything in the world can be analyzed as a complex of contradictions; it’s contradictions that constitute this world.”

”Similarly, ’Genesis’ should represent creation. The world is created; every grain of dust, every breath of air, every blade of grass, every person, every thought, every action, they all create history, create the world.”

”’Twilight of the Gods’ could roughly be understood as ’cycle’ or ’nirvana’? The world is a great cycle where every person, every incident plays its role within this cycle. All cycles have a beginning and an end, starting with the gods and ending with twilight. After nirvana comes rebirth.”

”As for ’Wild’,” the young wizard finally stumbled, scratching his head before speaking softly, ”Perhaps ’Wild’ assumes the world is a chaos without causality, without beginning, without end...”

Hearing this, Mr. Wu couldn’t hold back any longer and laughed out loud.

”Interesting insight, too interesting...” He lifted his hand and wiped his eyes, as if he had laughed till tears came out, ”Even though you’re still standing still, it doesn’t prevent you from traveling eight hundred li in a seated journey... The power to break rules is indeed astonishing.”

Zheng Qing didn’t know what Mr. Wu was laughing about.

But he suddenly realized what he had just said.

He had actually started analyzing forbidden spells in front of a being that transcended ancient wizards—a completely inappropriate action from any angle.

”So what about you?” Mr. Wu didn’t let Zheng Qing’s embarrassment linger, but instead asked, ”What do you think, as a forbidden curse, do you represent?”