High School of Demon Hunting-Chapter 2416 - 637: Face-to-Face Conversation

The name "Master Baoyangzi" was known to Zheng Qing.

But this was the first time they actually met.

He first heard of this master’s name during the Campus Cup freshman competition in the first semester of his freshman year. At that time, the Absolution Hunting Team won the newcomer championship but was criticized by other academies due to a certain big black cat. After the competition, the whereabouts of the big black cat became a problem. In the end, it was resolved with Old Yao’s coordination, and the big black cat was taken away by people from the ’relevant department’.

Originally, it was Master Baoyangzi who was scheduled to meet Zheng Qing and the big black cat, but due to some reason, he could not come. In the end, a young wizard with the code name "Forty-one" took the big black cat away.

That was also Zheng Qing’s first interaction with the ’relevant department’.

Later on, Zheng Qing saw the name again in the Great Arcana list published by "Magic Wand" — as the only in-school student to enter the Great Arcana list, Zheng Qing inevitably paid attention to other names on the list and quietly learned a lot about them.

The other people on the list could more or less be found in a few cutouts or photos in the "Beta Town Post" collection in the library’s reading room, but the master Baoyangzi, code-named "Judgment," had very little personal information, not even a single photo.

It was from that time that Zheng Qing began to pay attention to this name. Or, because of the special seed in his body, he was somewhat concerned about the group behind Master Baoyangzi responsible for forbidden curses at the First University.

Until the Battle of the Black Prison, when the black cat returned to Zheng Qing’s feet and turned back into a shadow, Zheng Qing vaguely learned from the fragmented memories it revealed that Master Baoyangzi was not the leader of the relevant department—although outsiders often regarded him as the ’relevant department head’, his main responsibility was interacting with the outside world on behalf of the relevant department—a more appropriate analogy would be that Master Baoyangzi is akin to the office director of the relevant department, managing internal and external coordination.

Zheng Qing originally thought he wouldn’t have any intersection with this master before graduation.

Yet unexpectedly, he saw him in person today in Old Yao’s office.

He had never heard that student applications for early graduation needed to interact with people from the relevant department. The first thought that crossed his mind was that the relevant department had discovered the ’forbidden curse seed’ inside him and did not plan to let him leave.

But immediately, he heard Old Yao’s next sentence, instantly realizing his guess was wrong.

However, that momentary intense nervousness was easily detected by the two elders in the room.

"You know me?"

The sensitivity of a big wizard’s spiritual sense was exceptionally keen, easily noticing the boy’s sudden rigid posture and the glance he sneaked, raising his eyebrows in slight surprise.

Feigning ignorance here, Zheng Qing inwardly complained.

He didn’t believe that the big wizard who had planned to take his shadow incarnation away hadn’t investigated him. At most, it was a difference between ’knowing a lot’ and ’knowing very thoroughly’.

Despite this, the young scholar still put on an honest smile and shyly said, "I’ve seen your name on the ’Great Arcana’ list... Everyone else could see photos, but it’s the first time seeing you in person, so inevitably a bit curious... Really rude of me!"

He swiftly bowed to show his apology.

Master Baoyangzi paid no mind to the young wizard’s polite demeanor, keeping his head down, flipping through two pieces of material in his hand. He didn’t avoid the boy; as Zheng Qing stood up, he easily caught a glimpse of a small photo of himself on the materials.

"Zheng Qing?" he confirmed again.

With his hands folded, the boy nodded earnestly, "That’s me."

Then the old wizard turned to look at the witch, his gaze softened somewhat, "Jiang Yu?"

"Good afternoon, Professor." Knowing the old man came from the ’relevant department’, Jiang Yu also appeared a bit nervous, her every move more regulated.

"Don’t be nervous." Old Yao, behind the office desk, likewise detected the witch’s slightly anxious aura, chuckling as he packed tobacco into his pipe and shared a small gossip: "Master Baoyangzi was quite close with your great-grandmother back then, consider him a family elder, don’t worry about him troubling you..."

"Cough cough!"

The big wizard from the relevant department coughed heavily a couple of times, glaring viciously at a certain legendary boss, completely without the ordinary reserve big wizards showed when facing legends.

Old Yao smiled, raised his pipe, put it in his mouth, and inhaled deeply, satisfied.

Poof!

The subtle sound of sparks burning tobacco suddenly became very clear, the crackling white noise carrying a soothing power, unconsciously relaxing the two young wizards much.

Master Baoyangzi took a deep look at Old Yao before taking down the law book hanging from his belt.

Zheng Qing couldn’t help but glance at the law book more—because the old wizard’s law book resembled his own, both with metal shells, only unlike his brass one, Master Baoyangzi’s was made of bronze, the metallic cover faintly showing some black patina, forming a stark contrast with his neatly groomed white beard.

"How long have you been in school?"

Master Baoyangzi’s voice interrupted the boy’s peeking, and Zheng Qing immediately collected his thoughts, remembering Old Yao’s purpose for calling him, knowing the ’interview’ had already started.

"A year and a half, after finishing next semester, it will be two years, Professor."

Zheng Qing tried hard to make his resume seem substantial, but immediately, he felt the thinness of his resume from his description and couldn’t help but add: "If counting the time I’ve been learning talisman, it’s been ten years, I started practicing Basic Runes daily since I was eight..."

Master Baoyangzi closed the materials in hand.

"Have you read ’The New Measurement Method for Time Duration’?" he asked seriously, looking at the boy.

Zheng Qing’s heart pounded; he vaguely recalled hearing Old Yao mention this name during a Philosophy of Magic class in freshman year, seemingly as one of the foundational papers of classic dimension theory, but beyond that, he didn’t know much.

"Very famous, extremely famous."

The warlock mumbled, feeling guilty and dropping his eyes, the hands he had folded in front unconsciously moved to his back, "The author is High Tier Wizard Albert, the Dimension Theory’s founder, published in 1925, that year he also published ’Upward Dimensions’ and ’The Four-Dimensional Property of Magic Power’ papers..."

"Have you read it?" the old wizard interrupted his rambling.

"No." Zheng Qing answered honestly.

"This is why I don’t recommend they use the ’Time Converter’." The old wizard with his gray beard turned to look at the dean of Jiuyou Academy, frowning: "Without systemically studying high-level magic theories related to time, barging into one of the most dangerous domains of the magical world is reckless, who takes responsibility if something goes wrong? Have you forgotten the experience of that child named Zhu Si who went into the mirror?"