High School of Demon Hunting-Chapter 374 - 43 Mules’ Law_1

Professor Yi sat behind his office desk.

Page after page, with great patience, he leafed through the pile of documents that Old Yao had brought to him.

Occasionally, he lifted his head to scrutinize the young scholarship student seated across from him.

Professor Yao was quietly enveloped in dense smoke – whether it was a peculiar effect of his pipe, or a spell cast by Old Yao, the blue-white smoke swirled about him and within a radius of several feet, not a single tendril strayed.

Zheng Qing sat upright on the chair, gripping his knees with both hands. His spine was straight as a ramrod. Even in the dimly lit room, the two badges hung on his chest sparkled brilliantly.

Maintaining such a formal posture was very tiresome, very tiresome indeed.

But, to leave a good impression on the sternly serious Divination professor seated across from him, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and endure.

The seconds and minutes ticked away.

When the small elves changed the cup of hot tea on the office desk for the third time, Professor Yi finally set down the documents in his hand, took off his glasses, and rubbed his slightly swollen eyes.

Immediately, a warm, steaming towel was brought by the elves and put on the professor’s face to relieve his fatigue.

"Very interesting... indeed, very interesting." Professor Yi’s voice sounded rather muffled with the towel on his face, yet the curiosity and excitement in his voice were perfectly clear, even through the cloth.

This left the young scholarship student deeply puzzled.

He didn’t know what the Divination professor found so interesting.

"This is why I brought him to see you... I didn’t even mention it to Emma." Old Yao, biting down on his pipe, muttered indistinctly, his voice full of laughter. "Speaking of which, his talent could prove useful... I remember you were quite good at force field manipulation, so I’ve left him in your hands."

Professor Yi pulled the towel away from his face, threw it to the little elf, and stared at Old Yao with a burning gaze. He asked in a low voice, "No need to explain... I know you’re after my personal notes."

Professor Yao immediately broke into a violent cough that sounded like he was about to vomit up his lungs.

Zheng Qing turned his head anxiously and glanced at him.

Old Yao waved his hand repeatedly, signalling that he was fine.

After a while, he sucked in several breaths, straightened himself and rasped out a laugh, "About the information concerning him... Aren’t you curious?"

"Have you verified it?" Professor Yi immediately retorted.

"Yes, I’ve verified it... I’ve done it several times." Old Yao waved away the dense smoke in front of him, shaking his head. "Apart from a familiar aura, there was nothing else to see... why don’t you give it a try? I’ve already let him witness his own dreams... there were only some vague fragments... didn’t even catch a glimpse of his garment. If not for the wizard council’s strict control over the Truth Serum..."

Professor Yi, seated behind the office desk, let out several loud coughs, interrupting Old Yao’s uninhibited ramblings.

Listening to the senseless dialogue between the two professors, Zheng Qing felt a headache coming on.

His intuition was telling him that there was more to their conversation than met the eye.

"The fragments can only reveal certain possibilities... and these possibilities are linked by a single clue." The Divination professor turned to look at Zheng Qing, pulled a deck of Tarot cards from a drawer, washed them smoothly, and slowly warned,

"If you can’t find a clue, no matter how many fragments you see, they are all illusions... Absolutely do not attempt to touch these fragments... Mmm, before formulating an official therapy plan, we’ll run a small test."

Zheng Qing stared blankly.

The professor’s words seemed to have some philosophical truth in them, but they were too vague for anyone to grasp.

"Draw one."

Several dozen Tarot cards floated in front of Zheng Qing. Professor Yi gestured for him to draw.

The young scholarship student finally breathed a sigh of relief – at last, he could understand what the professor was saying.

Without hesitation, Zheng Qing immediately pointed at one of the cards in front of him.

Instead of letting him see the card, Professor Yi immediately scooped up the entire deck of Tarot cards and sternly said to Old Yao, "Since it involves his clue... I’ll make the extra effort."

"Sure thing, sure thing," Old Yao said, nodding with a beaming smile.

Professor Yi once again turned his gaze toward Zheng Qing.

"I’ve gone over the detection data that Old Yao provided and accepted his conclusion. You are indeed a Witness," said Professor Yi, his voice feeble, completely different from when he lectured in classroom. Zheng Qing needed to strain his ears not to miss every single word.

Zheng Qing had no choice but to concentrate and pray he didn’t miss the important points.

"But, witnesses vary... just like the world harbors no two identical leaves."

"Divination places particular emphasis on these subtle differences."

"Are you curious about why your dean would choose a professor like me, who specializes in divination, to develop your treatment program?"

Zheng Qing nods involuntarily, then quickly comes to his senses, fervently shaking his head.

Apparently detecting the teasing smile on his professor’s face, he forcibly explained: "Professor Yao mentioned that you’re an authority in the field of thought fields..."

"In this matter... it has little to do with thought fields." Professor Yi cut off Zheng Qing’s explanation and countered: "What do you know about witnesses?"

"A witness is a particular occupation in divination..." Zheng Qing frowned, rummaging through his scattered, pathetic memory, selling it after repacking: "Hmm, they’re better at acquiring divination elements in dreams... uh, they can acquire segments of the past, or the present, or the future from dreams... depending on the strength of their ability, the richness of these fragments varies... oh, and the dream fragments of the witness can be presented as court evidence."

A deep chuckle echoed from behind, from Old Yao.

Zheng Qing’s face immediately reddened.

This information was mostly learned from Professor Yao, some he’d even lifted straight from the old man’s narratives.

The original speaker being behind him did inevitably invite some laughter.

Professor Yi didn’t seem to notice the young wizard’s embarrassment, and further explained: "Although what you’ve said is not bad, it’s not accurate... The dream fragments that serve as court evidence have to be extracted from memory and uploaded into a special container for display. Any form of memory extraction spell brings a certain degree of harm to a wizard’s mind."

Zheng Qing shuddered in fear.

Though he wouldn’t mind playing Conan · Holmes for a moment, he wouldn’t accept it if such a small honor were to come at the cost of damaging his mental health.

Professor Yi’s voice became somewhat serious: "So, you must understand one thing... gain and cost, or success and price, are equivalences. If you want the truth, you have to pay the same price."

Zheng Qing quietly swallowed his saliva.

"Your headaches are part of this price."

Zheng Qing immediately pricked up his ears.

"Like I mentioned in class before. Divination is an act of stealing the secrets of heaven. All things in the world operate naturally, and interpersonal interactions produce their own causes and effects. Divination seeks the laws of operation and the reasons behind causes and events."

"According to Mules’ Law, the degree of an information disturbance is proportional to the ease of acquiring the information... meaning the more easily the information can be obtained, the less severe the information disturbance."

"Hard to understand?"

"Let’s put it this way, take a fireball spell for instance; its power is proportional to the spell’s backlash. The stronger the spell, the more powerful the backlash; the weaker the spell, the weaker the backlash."

"In the theory of information unification, a spell can be seen as a method of acquiring information; the spell’s backlash can be seen as the degree of information disturbance... The easier it is to obtain the information (the weaker the spell), the less the degree of information disturbance (the weaker the backlash)."

"Your headaches are triggered by biological stress reactions caused by information disturbances."

"It’s easier to understand that way, right?"

Zheng Qing bulged his round eyes, working hard to resist the idea of passing out completely.

"Divination is a form of magic, and it also strictly follows Mules’ Law... I have mentioned this more than once in class... Never tamper with the threads of fate lightly, no one knows if the thread behind them is the Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads."

At this point, Professor Yi seemed a little disinterested.

He snapped his fingers, and the delicate starry sky above him suddenly burst into brilliant light, illuminating the previously dim office considerably.

The professor pulled a notebook out of a drawer, placed it in front of Zheng Qing, and ordered: "This notebook is the reason Old Yao sent you to me."

"Diviners have seized the most information in this world, so the information disturbance they experience is the most intense."

"Every tradition of a divination school contains methods to resist information disturbance."

"In the eyes of any wizard, these are their secret arts."

"But this is the First University. This notebook belongs to all diviners at the First University... I am just keeping it on their behalf... then choosing the right person to pass it on to."

"Of course, giving you this notebook doesn’t mean you’ll become the heir to the diviners at the First University."

"You are given this opportunity only because you are from the First University, a very special student."

"You simply have this qualification."