High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1369: Chapter 116: Lost in the Gallery

There’s an old saying at First University, ”One can always find Jiuyou students in the Book Mountain Library, see the Alpha Club in the lounge, encounter injured Starry Sky Academy students at the hospital, and hear Atlas’s prayers under the sculptures of Divine Spirits.”

This phrase vividly summarizes the individual traits of the students from the four academies.

But gradually, as time passed, this phrase saw new developments.

”One can always find Jiuyou students lost amid the long corridors of bookshelves in the Book Mountain Library, see the Alpha Club throwing parties in the lounge, encounter Starry Sky Academy students fighting in their hospital beds, and hear Atlas students praying to unspeakable entities.”

In these sentences, the added predicates aptly describe the risks that students from the four academies face under their respective traits. For example, the pursuit of faith by Atlas students might lead them to be tempted by Evil Gods; similarly, Starry Sky Academy students’ obsession with victory means they won’t give up fighting even on their sickbeds—even if it’s just with playing cards.

And Jiuyou Academy students, in the quest for knowledge, can easily lose themselves in the sea of knowledge.

Zheng Qing got lost in the library.

Again.

He was only there to return the ”Yunluo Nine Seals” and incidentally find a few more books to help with his final exam review.

But as he walked out of the maze of bookshelves with ”Final Exam Total Review - High Score Breakthrough,” ”Talisman, Divination & Magic Script, First Grade Knowledge Recitation and Key Points Analysis,” and ”First Grade Magic Potion Study Guide and Detailed Exercise Analysis” in his arms, his gaze unconsciously skimmed over the bookshelf beside him.

Then he saw a book titled ”Half-Month Talk - On How to Become a Top Student in Two Weeks,” and couldn’t resist setting down the practice books, sitting on the floor, and eagerly starting to read.

The book provided a wealth of examination methodology, such as not to choose the first response you think is correct in multiple-choice questions; memorize several templates a week before the short-answer questions; and if you’re not proficient in the Spell being tested in the Magic Practice exams, then you must pay extra attention to details—like ensuring proper etiquette before casting, clear and loud chanting of the Spell, and neat and smudge-free writing of the Spell Formula—so that even if you end up turning a Binding Spell into fireworks, the supervising teacher may give you a few extra points for the effort.

Zheng Qing, of course, was not so bad as to be unable to cast even a Binding Spell.

But the various examination methods mentioned in this book gave him an eye-opening, revelatory feeling.

For a few minutes, he even felt the urge to challenge Liu Fei Fei or Doctor Xiao. He felt that if there was an exam in front of him right now, by using the methods taught in ”Half-Month Talk” plus his own knowledge, getting excellent results would be a cinch.

As he stood up, rubbing his sore thighs, and put ”Half-Month Talk” back on the shelf, another book, ”Handwritten Notes - Lei Zhe’s Classroom,” caught his attention.

Like this, one book, two books, three books.

When Mr. Octopus, acting as the librarian, swung his eight fists, waking up the young cost student lost in various ’shortcuts,’ ’secrets,’ and ’tricks’ from his fantasy, an hour and fifteen minutes had already passed.

There was less than half an hour left before the start of the afternoon elective class.

”I’ve only been here for a bit over an hour!” The young cost student covered his swollen forehead, grimacing as he complained, ”According to the rules, even freshmen are supposed to trigger an alarm only after vanishing for an hour and a half...”

Mr. Octopus opened his mouth and sprayed out a string of standard Song-type characters, but because there were too many words, Zheng Qing only caught a few bolded keywords: ”...entrusted by a companion... must apply in advance... earlier than the standard regulation by a quarter of an hour...”

At last, the librarian sprayed out several large, ornate letters: ”This is the fifth time you’ve gotten lost in the library... Can’t you just walk along the shelves properly?!!”

The dots below the question and exclamation marks were nearly bigger than Zheng Qing’s head.

Perhaps these words had exhausted all the ink in Mr. Octopus’ belly, for from the moment he started dragging the warlock away to when he threw Zheng Qing out of the bookshelf maze, the librarian hadn’t said another word to Zheng Qing.

Xiao Xiao was already standing at the library exit, holding a book, and quietly watched as a certain cost student clumsily fell face down on the ground.

”You have nineteen minutes left until class starts,” reminded the Doctor.

Zheng Qing scrambled up from the ground hastily, without even bothering to dust off his robe, grabbed the textbook Xiao Xiao had taken out for him, and rushed towards the direction of the teaching building, while complaining, ”It’s not my fault... blame the school, why would they build a library like a maze?”

”Because knowledge is what most easily causes one to lose oneself,” Doctor replied calmly.

This response made Zheng Qing feel bored, and the tuft of hair on his head drooped listlessly amid his hair, refusing to perk up no matter how the warm breeze teased it.

After catching his breath for a few moments.

”How did you know I would get lost inside?”

”Because you lack conviction.”

”Heh.”

Xiao Xiao ignored Zheng Qing’s snort and countered, ”Do you know the maxim in front of the library? The one carved on the marble.”

”Conviction is the compass that navigates the ocean of knowledge.” Zheng Qing immediately replied, then looked at the Doctor with self-satisfaction, ”Who wouldn’t know such a thing? I was just trying to adopt the Giant’s way of thinking.”

Saying this, he briefly told Xiao Xiao the story of a Griffin Giant.

The reason for the brevity was because he assumed the Doctor already knew the story. Indeed, after Zheng Qing breezed through the tale, Xiao Xiao let out a mocking laugh.

”Before the Griffin Wizard possessed the disposition of a Giant, he first accumulated the ability to become one... You think you are learning how the Giants think, but that’s merely wishful thinking... First University has a very large, very large library, with books from ants to Giants, but not both ants and Giants are fit to read those books. One must know one’s limitations.”

”I get it, I get it... Nobody understands these philosophies better than I do,” the young cost student waved his hand, then, in one motion, pushed up the tuft of hair on top of his head, ”Eat as much as your belly can hold, right... I’ll manage just fine.”

”No, you don’t know,” Xiao Xiao bluntly pointed out the truth, ”Once or twice, maybe you could use ’lacking precision’ as an excuse... But four, five times, that’s willful offense. To see the micro in the macro, if you can’t handle even the small things before you, how can you expect to properly use the Giants’ eyes?”

”That’s called ’high-level overview’,” Zheng Qing panted, quickening his pace a bit, ”Looking down from high above, things become clearer. Large frameworks are easier to understand than small structures... pant, pant... Just like the squabbles between wizards, only with a macro understanding of the conflict between nobles and commoners can one comprehend the subtle atmospheres between the clubs in our school.”

Xiao Xiao muttered a couple of words under his breath but ultimately did not continue the conversation.

The teaching building was now close at hand.