High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1349: Chapter 96 The Wise Are Not Confounded

By the time he said the last sentence, the two had already circled back to the front of the floor mirror.

Sir stopped in his tracks and touched the surface of the mirror with his hand.

A dot of light blossomed from the endless darkness, the starry sky receded, the world spun around, and in just a moment, the mirror reflected the billions of years of world history.

Volcanoes, glaciers, blue-green algae, trilobites, dinosaurs, upright apes, caves, stone tools, shells, bronze, jade, pyramids, the Great Wall, legions with long spears, knights covering the hills and fields, shadowy axes flickering in palaces, laughter and curses in the marketplace, crisscrossing alleys, ships amidst raging waves, writhing gears, billowing steam, lightning-fast automobiles, bustling traffic, rockets breaking through the atmosphere, and then again a starry sky.

It was like a cycle.

It seemed like just a moment, yet also as if a very long time had passed.

Countless ordinary yet extraordinary images clearly reflected into Zheng Qing’s eyes, causing him to involuntarily hold his breath.

Sir’s voice arose from a far-away place, resonating directly with his heart’s lake:

”...All that is extraordinary is nurtured within the ordinary. Never let the ordinariness and chaos before you confuse you.”

”Like a foreign general being assassinated, a few old men catching a cold, a handful of locusts crawling out of the mud after a storm, the stock market suddenly halting and falling, an earthquake on the other side of Earth... and so on. These extraordinary events are so distant from you that your ordinary and common life seems almost unchanged.”

”Until the storm stirred up by the butterfly’s wings hits you on the head.”

”You sit by the shore, watching the terrifying waves, holding a diary in your hands, recording today’s dull and dreary life. You think this ordinariness is eternal.”

”Until the next big wave surges up and drags you into the seabed.”

”You finally surpassed the ordinary...”

”It’s just a moment’s affair.”

”Do you still remember what happened during the Big Snow last winter? You were at the Lakeside of Bell Lake as well.”

”That was an event worth recording in the history of wizards, but the Wizard World was as peaceful as ever. For you, at Bell Lake that day, there was only the Big Snow and a pair of cold lips...”

Zheng Qing furrowed his brow, deeply pondering every word Sir had said, without feeling the slightest embarrassment or blushing at the last example mentioned by Sir.

”You mean,” he weighed his words very carefully, answering attentively: ”You hope that I can pay attention to the subtle and ordinary matters around me?”

”No,” Sir shook his head: ”I only want to tell you not to be confused by everything you see.”

”A knower is not confused.” Zheng Qing repeated the four words Sir had said before, just like all the well-performing earnest students in class.

Sir smiled, and repeated as well: ”A knower is not confused.”

”Then how should I become a ’knower’?” Zheng Qing asked a concrete question.

”This requires extended learning and a wealth of accumulation.” Sir did not give a specific method, but he gave two examples: ”You can start from two small perspectives... like yourself, like First University.”

”Myself?”

”How do you see that Forbidden Curse Seed within yourself?”

”I...” Zheng Qing was momentarily at a loss for words—headaches, Demons coveting, the Moon Council’s longing; that seed had brought too much trouble for Zheng Qing. But at the same time, that seed had also given him great courage in many matters.

”Somewhere between liking and not liking,” the Warlock finally gave such an answer.

”Like or dislike?” Sir shook his head: ”Those two words are too superficial. To be precise, you don’t hate that power, on the contrary, you really like it. But because you don’t understand it well enough, you are afraid.”

Fear.

Zheng Qing chewed over the last word his mentor had given, and surprisingly found it very fitting for his own state of mind. He feared the trouble this power could bring, feared he couldn’t control the power and would cause trouble for others.

”I am just... just...” he muttered, unsure where to begin.

”There is no shame in that,” the mentor consoled, ”The control over the unknown is the eternal pursuit of humans. On this level, you are just an ordinary wizard.”

Self-analysis is always very difficult.

”What about First University?” Zheng Qing shifted to another ’small angle’ proposed by the mentor, trying to make the conversation a bit lighter: ”What do you think should be done about the contradictions within the school?”

”How to deal with it?” The mentor gestured with his hand, as if drawing a large circle: ”You see the contradictions between the academies, but I see everyone sitting together, drinking tea, and chatting.”

”Before the four academies were established, each year, more wizards died in the struggle for beliefs than those who perished in the hunting grounds, even more than those who died in the wars against demons.”

”Now, the dean of Jiuyou sits here, the dean of Alpha sits there, Atlas and Starry Sky’s folks are also sitting down... Each side takes actions based on their own methods and needs, and in the end, they are all sitting together.”

”Focus on the main contradiction and its primary direction.”

”As long as the goals are the same, Jiuyou does not harm Alpha, and Alpha does not harm Jiuyou. They have the same enemy, demons; and the same pursuit, the New World.”

”It’s within control when Jiuyou occasionally criticizes Alpha, and Alpha rebuts Jiuyou. Such belief conflicts are permissible and necessary.”

Zheng Qing felt a flash of insight.

He felt a sudden clarity in his heart.

The problem that had troubled him for a long time found its direction of solution in just a few words from the mentor. Indeed, at the end of the day, the contradictions between Jiuyou and Alpha are just internal matters of First University.

Thinking of this, Zheng Qing instantly recalled the rumors circulating within the school.

”Mentor, who do you think between Vice Principal Shi Hui and Vice Principal Ruo Yu could become our new president?” This question had been discussed by many students in the school.

No one could persuade those who held differing opinions.

”New... new president?” The mentor blinked, seemingly a bit caught off guard.

”Suppose, just suppose,” the student said cheerfully, then glanced around and whispered, ”Everyone actually knows that the president has been absent from the school for a long time, and at the last opening ceremony, they even used a stand-in...”

The mentor took a serious look at the student.

”I think today’s lesson was a complete failure,” he commented.

Zheng Qing was somewhat baffled.

The mentor sighed and did not explain his critique but seriously answered the student’s question:

”To evaluate someone’s ability to manage a school, you must look at how they handle uncertainties, not how they handle certainties. From this perspective, Lady Shi Hui, even Professor Yao, are more qualified than Mr. Ruo Yu, the Duke.

But a school is not a country, and a president is not a politician—indeed, we need to refer to political tactics to some extent to manage affairs, but more so, we need a mentor who can teach and educate.

So, next semester, Lady Shi Hui will probably gradually step back from the day-to-day management of First University... She will enter the Mage Alliance and assume the position of president at the Great Wizard Conference. Professor Yao will take over Lady Shi Hui’s position and become your new vice-president.”

This statement contained a wealth of information.

The warlock’s eyes gleamed.

”Then will Mr. Ruo Yu become our new president?” Zheng Qing pressed on, already contemplating whether or not to tip Xin Fat Man about the news—but he doubted whether the fat man would have the courage to publish this unsubstantiated news in the Campus Newspaper.

”Ruo Yu? No, no, he is only suitable for being a vice-principal.”

The mentor shook his head gently, his tone kindly: ”He lacks flexibility in handling matters, and he is too lenient with the Moon Council, he doesn’t have what it takes to be the president of First University.”