Free Web NovelChapter 2730: Chapter 951: You’re No Longer an Egg
Zheng Qing was no stranger to ghosts.
Whether it was the milky-white phantoms roaming the school grounds, or the higher race from the Moon Council, or the vengeful spirits that once madly attacked the Black Prison alongside demons, this magical life caught between life and death was something he had long been accustomed to.
Describing his feelings towards such a life as ’desensitized’ would not be an exaggeration.
But ’having seen’ and ’having intimate contact’ are two different concepts — much like how a young man can always spot pretty witches on the road, but to have an intimate encounter with them belongs to a different kind of story.
Therefore, when he suddenly found an Infant Spirit perched on his shoulder, Zheng Qing couldn’t help but be a bit startled.
Yet, it was merely just a bit.
After the initial shock, his first reaction wasn’t to flick it away, but to be amazed that this little thing could stable itself on him for so long! Ever since his relationship with Su Shi Jun was exposed, he had been wearing protective amulets year-round to avoid being cursed stealthily — ordinary undead couldn’t easily get close, let alone silently perch on his shoulder.
Moreover, in light of the recent ’abduction incident’, Zheng Qing had consciously increased the types of amulets on himself after returning from the campus hospital, and the grey-robed member of the School Works Committee who communicated with him at the hospital had explicitly informed him that out of safety considerations, the school would arrange for a series of guards to secretly protect him.
Even under such layers of protection, having such an ’unclean’ little thing attached to him was inevitably surprising.
"Is this really a ghost?"
The young assistant instinctively asked.
The owner of the Greenhill Mansion brushed the long hair dangling by her ear, snorted with a laugh: "—How fresh! If outsiders knew that the assistants at the First University couldn’t even recognize ghosts, they’d probably start doubting the condition of our school now."
Though she said that.
But after the witch’s gaze swept over the Infant Spirit, she unconsciously took a closer look at Zheng Qing, with a flash of Elder Ruoyu’s words in her mind— his relentless string of catastrophes was the backlash from bearing magical gifts.
Was this Infant Spirit also one of the backlashes?
Whew!
Once she came to her senses, she noticed that at some point, Zheng Qing had taken out a spire-bottomed glass bottle and was pointing its mouth at the Infant Spirit. Light blue magic power surged from the bottle, resembling a long rainbow or the tongue of a eave dragon, and with just one sweep, it whisked the translucent Infant Spirit into the bottle.
Corked with oak.
Wrapped in Yellow Talisman.
The whole process flowed effortlessly, revealing a high degree of competence in dealing with such situations.
"—I take back what I just said."
Su Shi Jun praised lightly while clapping her hands softly: "If outsiders saw your handling technique, surely they wouldn’t doubt the school’s teaching quality."
Zheng Qing, holding the spire-bottomed glass bottle, scratched his head a bit sheepishly.
"I just used a regular ghost-capturing method to try it," he spread the bottle in his palm, offering it to the witch: "Never expected it would really trap it... How do you think it managed to perch on me?"
The implication being whether this was an accident or an incident.
"Hard to say."
Su Shi Jun stepped forward two paces, her tall figure almost dimming Zheng Qing’s view; she lowered her head, not taking the bottle, but observed the pearl-colored fog swirling within: "Even the heavenly net may have leaks... just like Uncle Sistanda spends every day in the Hundred Herb Gardens eliminating pests but still can’t fully rid of cockroach presence; without proper investigation, you can’t rule out any possibility."
While speaking, thoughts of Elder Ruoyu once again surfaced in her mind, causing a hint of displeasure in the witch when she snapped back to reality.
"—What do you intend to do with it? Hand it over to those guards outside?" she pointed to the railings outside the window, Zheng Qing followed her gesture and gazed into the garden, full of spring beauty, yet no human figure in sight.
But this didn’t prevent him from understanding the witch’s meaning.
"You noticed?"
His expression turned a bit embarrassed, yet carried a tinge of hidden, boyish joy — after all, not every student gets to enjoy the privilege of having guards dispatched by the school, not even the professors do.
"Just as conspicuous as fireflies in the dark night."
The owner of Greenhill Mansion found the boy’s reaction intriguing, giving her a truly novel experience, she laughed with arched brows: "Five people in total, a standard hunting team, a mix of high-level and mid-level registrations, all elite... they don’t seem to have any intention of hiding their whereabouts from me. I’m sure they’d be more than happy to assist you in investigating the origin of this Infant Spirit."
In response, Zheng Qing was equally confident.
"What do you think?"
He cradled the spire-bottomed glass bottle, feeling the thin layer of Yellow Talisman on the bottle, as well as the slender magical power meandering across the talisman paper, and naturally sought the opinion of the Big Wizard in front of him: "Should I hand it over to them?"
Facing the warlock’s inquiry, the witch didn’t provide a direct answer.
"That’s precisely the reason I came to find you today."
She stowed her smile, earnestly looked at Zheng Qing: "I believe after the incident on Saturday, you should have a renewed understanding of your own position. Not to mention that you now have four children—"
Zheng Qing was caught off guard by that number.
A hint of conflict flickered across his face.
But the witch didn’t give him much time to ponder:
"—Graduation is two months away, don’t continue seeing yourself as an ordinary student anymore, and stop handling these matters with student-like thinking. I’m confident you’ve heard similar words before."
She pointed at the spire-bottomed glass bottle in Zheng Qing’s hand, her tone growing increasingly stern: "Right now, you’re like a mature fire dragon that has shed its skin thrice, covered in tough scale armor and thorn-like sharp spikes, yet trying to wrap yourself in the soft skin of a hatchling and claiming you’re an unhatched egg— this mentality is perilous, and it might lead you to misjudge situations— just like the matter with Thomas; seen from a student’s perspective, you weren’t wrong at all, but from an assistant or higher perspective, your response was pretty poor. When facing similar dilemmas, you chose to reject accepting responsibility, opting instead to be a hatchling curled within its egg. Or let me put it bluntly: regarding the kidnapping incident, are you fearless or indifferent?"
Zheng Qing clutched the bottle tighter, remaining silent.
Upon self-examination, even lying on that cold experimental table, he hadn’t felt a significant degree of genuine fear towards Thomas or the nearby Nikita.
Supporting this ’indifferent’ mindset was the gentleman from the San You Bookstore, the forbidden curse deep within his soul, and even the fearless experience of having visited the Land of Void.
After stripping away the layers, how much of it was truly his own?
Su Shi Jun placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder: "—Both inside and outside the school, many are content to watch you drift aimlessly, but I am not, ever since the night our destinies were closely linked through shared vital energy, I don’t hope for you to alter your destiny, but I wish for you to genuinely grasp it."
