High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1798: Chapter 19: A Few Questions

Undertaking an impossible task with the belief that one will certainly die, examples of such can be found on the Black Prison Battlefield, and Zheng Qing could easily recall many.

For instance, the multi-armed giant KOTOS, upon charging into the battlefield, sacrificed himself to summon a colossal willow tree that blocked the wizards from repairing the shattered outer fortress walls, while weaving countless spreading willow branches to create a green sea covering the Keiform Flight Land, forcibly opening a living ground for the Demon Alliance Army on the wizards’ home turf.

Then there are the Mouse Fairy Couple, who, despite there being only a trace of juice left from their body, gave their all to save her, resulting in one being completely annihilated and the other losing their physical form.

And the Sea Demon King Xiangliu, who chose to self-dismantle in order to completely devour Cthulhu. Self-dismantling sounds quite lofty, but in reality, it’s just suicide, and it must be a kind of suicide that leaves not a trace to seek a chance to live through death.

Despite these three beings being top great wizards, or even top legendary entities, they still could embrace certain death to achieve near impossible feats and ultimately succeeded. This is likely the reason for what the mister said.

”I know I was wrong.”

The young wizard honestly bowed his head, admitting his mistake.

The mister raised an eyebrow: ”Where were you wrong? What do you now understand?”

”If one’s attitude towards self-sacrifice isn’t firm enough, then it’s resolute not to sacrifice oneself.” Zheng Qing lifted his head, looked into the mister’s calm eyes, and seriously replied, ”To desire the massive power of sacrificial magic while holding onto the crafty notion of incomplete sacrifice, such a fortune does not exist in the world.”

The mister rarely spoke a coarse word:

”Destiny is a bitch, but it’s a fair one.”

While speaking, he picked an orange from the fruit platter, peeled it, took out a segment, handed it to the young man, and nodded: ”Any attempt to exploit loopholes in destiny will be met with destiny’s backlash... such as your suicide and that uncontrollably falling Pillar of Heaven. The magic on the mystical side is filled with such subjective and idealistic subtle concepts.”

Zheng Qing bit into the orange in his mouth.

He found that phrase the mister used to comment on destiny sounded very familiar.

The sweet and sour juice bounced between his teeth, the fragrance spread, giving a particularly satisfying feeling. Standing in the golden sunlight, looking at the orange peel in the mister’s hand peeled into four windmill-like pieces, thinking of the forbidden curse seed deep in his soul, Zheng Qing suddenly recalled his dreaming experience in the dreamland.

Then he remembered when he had heard that rude remark.

In the dreamland, after Zheng Qing found Zhu Si, he had once fallen asleep in a forest and had a dream in which he saw a foreign god named Hastur, dressed in a yellow robe.

At the time, Hastur intended to give the young wizard a gift, and when Zheng Qing asked why, the foreign god replied ’It’s destiny’s choice’, to which Zheng Qing grumbled ’Destiny is a bitch’.

Thinking of this, the young wizard hesitated for a moment, then carefully asked the mister: ”Mister, do you know Hastur?”

The mister glanced at Zheng Qing, seemingly knowing what he wanted to ask.

”Hastur isn’t malicious.” He made a reassuring gesture: ”In Yog’s words, ’They only pin their hopes on the future’... As to why Hastur focused on you, on the one hand, it’s because the aura of forbidden curses on you is as dazzling as the sun in the dreamland, easily catching His attention; on the other hand, Hastur divines that you’ll be of significant help to Him.”

”Me?” Zheng Qing curled his thumb and tapped his own nose, incredulous.

”Facts indeed align with his predictions.”

The mister stood up, stretched lazily: ”Your appearance propelled the development of the Black Prison war, hastening Xiangliu’s devouring of Cthulhu... perhaps you don’t know, but there was a significant conflict between Hastur and Cthulhu... much like the multitude of divergences in the wizard world, the deeps of starry sky aren’t a solid unity either, and many of their conflicts are even more intense than ours with the wizards.”

At this point, the mister couldn’t help but chuckle: ”The war that erupted in Black Prison this time is far less exciting than the strategic plays outside it. Around the vast chessboard, each player has made commendable clever moves...”

”Mister, then what meaning do our existences have?” Zheng Qing couldn’t help but interrupt the mister’s words, speaking a bit quickly: ”I mean, when legendaries or those above legendary level can calculate everything, divine everything, and can change the entire world at will, what meaning does the existence of ordinary wizards have? It’s like we’re as insignificant as dust.”

”Dust?”

The mister tilted his head and glanced at the young wizard: ”A very self-aware term.”

With that, he leisurely walked to the window, and with a strong push, opened it. The late morning breeze immediately swept into the room, lifting the curtain’s corner and stirring the flame of the medicinal candle under the ceiling.

”Can you see the wind?” the mister looked back at Zheng Qing.

”I can’t...”

Zheng Qing had just said two words when he immediately swallowed the third ’see’ and, staring at the curtains lifted by the wind, pondered: ”...maybe I can.”

”And light?” the mister changed the subject.

Zheng Qing didn’t immediately answer, his gaze somewhat confused, not understanding the meaning behind the mister’s words. In a sense, everything he saw should be light, like the golden morning rays, the white walls, the cyan smoke, and so forth. But he knew the mister’s question wasn’t merely that simple.

Luckily, the mister didn’t wait for the young wizard to fully think through.

”Meaning is mutual.”

The mister tried to use simple language to explain: ”In a dust-filled room, if you blow a breath, you can see the shape of the wind; if you open the curtains of the room to let sunlight in, you can see the form of light... Dust dances in the sunlight, showing both the form of the wind and the form of light. This is the meaning of dust.”

”Existence and meaning belong to a profoundly philosophical category for you. Before mastering enough magical theory, I don’t recommend you dwell on these issues.”

Saying this, the mister looked up at the sky: ”...like the advice from that cat. Occasionally chatting does feel nice.”

Zheng Qing immediately realized the mister was about to leave.

He still had many questions, many things he wanted to discuss with the mister.

But at that moment, he couldn’t think of any specific questions, the only scene lingering in his mind was the previous visitor of the mister, Professor Yao, being thrown out by the sprites.

”Mister,” he summoned his courage, hurriedly asked: ”Everyone says Professor Yao might be appointed as the new vice-principal of the school, is that true?”

The mister turned back, gave him a meaning-laden smile:

”Do you have any doubts?”

”No, none!”

Zheng Qing immediately denied, while exhausting his already limited intellect, slowly asked: ”I mean, isn’t Professor Yao a great demon? Making him the vice-principal of the First University, is that appropriate... Of course, I know Professor Yao is a very good professor.”

”You don’t know.” The mister stood in the morning light at the window, his figure becoming increasingly faint in the sunlight, just like his voice, fading away:

”Old Yao isn’t the kind of demon as you imagine.”

”Just like you’re not the imaginary giant bomb you think you are.”

”Any judgment, once removed from time, the largest variable, will run further and further in the wrong direction.”

”When I was young, I thought the future had countless possibilities. But as I aged, I gradually understood that life is a series of lined-up dominoes, and as days go by, these dominoes fall one by one, and we ultimately reach that predetermined future... explained through Dimension Theory, the timeline will always converge at the ends of the past and future, with the past’s end being 0 and the future’s end being 1, and disseminating countless possibilities between 0 and 1.”

”Like a gigantic, ever-undulating olive.”

”Knowing this, we will bring forth the greatest tolerance towards those countless possibilities in the process.”

Ps, the last question raised by Zheng Qing actually involves ’whether the First University is changing principals’, I feel the description is a bit implicit...