High School of Demon Hunting

"I don’t even know if meeting you today is a good thing or a bad thing."

This was the first sentence Old Yao said after the office door closed.

Zheng Qing and the Shadow Cat exchanged glances, both startled by this remark—weren’t legendary wizards supposed to be ’all-knowing and all-powerful’? Throwing such a heavy statement at them right away, wasn’t he worried about crushing their fragile little necks!

The little dragon hanging from Zheng Qing’s ear lifted its head even higher.

Old Yao circled around the desk, walked to the tall redwood bookcase, holding a pipe in his hand, letting the pale blue smoke disperse bit by bit without taking a puff for a long time, seemingly hesitant.

Especially when he saw the bluish figure hanging from Zheng Qing’s ear; his expression became even more cautious.

"Spit it out if you have something to say, otherwise—"

The Shadow Cat’s last two words were forcibly blocked by an invisible force. It paused before murmuring again, "I mean, since the cat is already here, don’t hem and haw, it’s not like you at all!"

Old Yao didn’t speak immediately but continued to pace in front of the bookcase.

Pacing for quite a while.

Until Zheng Qing was almost about to fall asleep on the couch, he finally frowned and slowly asked a question: "—Suppose, I say ’suppose’... Suppose you had an evil weapon, would you destroy it or use it?"

Zheng Qing suddenly became alert.

But after pondering carefully, he was stunned to find that this was indeed a classic Hollywood movie question. A good person ends up with a powerful evil weapon and then absolutely has to destroy it; Zheng Qing previously used to ridicule such plots quite a bit.

Sure enough, before he could speak, the Shadow Cat impatiently exclaimed.

"What a joke! I’ve only ever heard of hearts having good and evil; since when do weapons have good and evil?" The Shadow Cat waved its paw, declaring confidently: "Weapons are tools, and tools have no thoughts... Well, tools are just tools!"

Halfway through its speech, it finally remembered that in the wizard world, some weapons really do have thoughts, so it worked very hard to correct its answer.

Professor Yao’s gaze fell on Zheng Qing.

The young man hesitated for a few seconds.

Finally, he shook his head.

"I don’t know."

He answered honestly, "If we go by my previous thoughts, as long as the person using the weapon doesn’t do bad things, it’s fine. But in the magical world... we have no way to confirm whether the weapon has been corrupted by forces from higher dimensions, whether it might have a mental impact on its user. So, the answer is I don’t know."

This is an ambiguous answer.

Zheng Qing originally didn’t expect this answer to get Old Yao’s approval.

Unexpectedly, the other nodded comfortingly: "That’s fine, this answer is fine. This question ends here. Just remember your answer."

He let out a long sigh, and the hesitation on his face dissipated considerably.

Is that it?

Zheng Qing looked puzzled—was it just to ask such an innocuous question that he called him and Cat Thirteen here late at night? All you can say is that he truly deserves to have taught philosophy of magic.

He muttered in his heart.

Old Yao’s voice appeared in his ear again.

"Don’t think this question is insignificant."

The professor shook the pipe in his hand, stuffed it into his mouth, and took a deep breath: "—huff—Let me ask you a question: do you know what the saddest thing in life is?"

"Living while money vanishing?" Zheng Qing answered without thinking—the answer comes from a Spring Festival Gala skit, probably his last impression of the gala in life.

The Shadow Cat gave him a disdainful glance.

The little dragon tilted its head, pretending it didn’t know the guy hanging on its ear.

Zheng Qing regained his composure, cleared his throat with slight embarrassment.

Old Yao didn’t laugh, instead nodded quite approvingly: "Hmm, what you said is indeed quite sad, but not the saddest. The saddest thing in life is regretting throughout your entire life. Regretting things you’ve done, regretting things you could have done but didn’t. Especially the latter—being able to do something but not doing it is even more sorrowful than doing it wrong—like once having the chance to become a legendary wizard, yet forfeiting due to moral or ethical constraints... this heart demon will haunt you forever."

Without the Gem Cat, there wasn’t an idiot in this room.

Whether it was Zheng Qing, the Shadow Cat, or the little blue dragon, their expressions turned serious simultaneously. Because the professor’s last slightly abrupt example didn’t seem like baseless conjecture.

But the question is, he’s already legendary, why bring it up like that?

Or maybe he wasn’t talking about himself?

The Jiuyou Academy’s dean didn’t mind the intermingling gazes between the person, cat, and dragon, instead lowering his head, packing golden tobacco shreds into the pipe while speaking to himself: "You, child, were raised too properly, too much with ’courtesy’, whether in love, study, or anything else, always looking forward and backward, timid and careful, living like an old man at such a young age..."

"He’s not lacking in impulsiveness at all." The Shadow Cat croaked mockingly, glancing at Zheng Qing.

The young wizard on the couch shifted uneasily.

Not knowing why the conversation suddenly turned towards him.

After packing the tobacco, Old Yao raised his head and looked seriously at the young man: "—Actually, living in this world, sometimes we don’t need so much order, so many rules. Sometimes, we need a bit of impulse. Replacing logic with emotion, intuition instead of deliberation to help you make a decision... In this university, everyone is at an age for growth, speaking adult words, exchanging adult greetings, pretending adult maturity, feigning they’re not the snot-nosed kid they used to be. But actually, apart from biological maturity, real psychological ’maturity’ doesn’t truly exist in this world. A person being ignorant is normal, while being mature is against their nature, distorting oneself, abnormal. Ordinarily, who doesn’t want to be happy forever, to be a carefree child? Not possible and it doesn’t want to be.

He rambled on and on, making Zheng Qing increasingly confused as he listened.

Until the end, Old Yao changed the subject lightly: "—Oh, there’s another thing, let me give you a heads up so you don’t daydream all the time and focus on your studies. You must remember, you’re still a student now, graduating from school successfully is your most important task at this moment."

Zheng Qing perked up.

Finally understood what the old man was saying.

But he rejoiced a little too early.

Old Yao’s next sentence threw him back into confusion: "—After a while, when the Edge Academy is established, there’ll definitely be providence tribulations erupting; it’s a fundamental law of magic. The school has personnel responsible for these, so you don’t meddle unnecessarily."

Zheng Qing stared blankly.

The Shadow Cat, on the other hand, asked the question that had just drifted through his mind: "—What tribulation?"

"Providence tribulation."

The answer to this question came from the little blue dragon hanging from Zheng Qing’s ear, its eyes flashing with strange colors, explaining unhurriedly: "Simply put, the school is definitely going to run into trouble."

Jiuyou Academy’s dean nodded his thumb towards it, expressing his stance.

ps, stop it Azule, there’s not a single word in the stockpile... everything has its limit, right~!