High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 220: Chapter 144: Armour Horse_1

Long ago — roughly around the first time Mr. Wu mentioned the existence of monsters in this world — Zheng Qing asked him what to do if he encountered a monster on the way home from school.

The teacher sized him up and hummed a single word from his nose: Run.

But I can’t run fast, Zheng Qing stretched out his arms and legs and looked at the teacher in despair.

The teacher thought for a while, then taught him a talisman.

The Armor Horse Charm.

The full name of the Armor Horse Charm is the ’Rapid Armor Horse Charm’, also known as the ’Ancient Divine Travel Technique’ by modern wizards. Allegedly handed down from the great wizard Divine Travel Dashi of the Middle Ages, it allows the user to become as light as a swallow, run like the wind, and navigate mountains and seas as if walking on flat ground. Although this charm has declined in popularity in modern society where escape techniques are prevalent, it still has many loyal followers in the wizarding world due to traditional habits.

The original Armor Horse Charm is made of bamboo or tortoise shell, one part thick, two fingers wide, and three inches long. The face of the plaque is etched with the ’Cloud Crane Wandering God Figure’ by incense fire and imprinted with curses such as ’Like Flying Like Feathers’, ’Four Stallions Roaring’, ’Four Stallions Trotting’. It is then worshipped on the Wandering God’s incense table, day and night, and takes forty-nine days to finalize.

The Armor Horse crafted this way can be reused multiple times. After each use, it only needs to be re-worshipped on the incense table.

Before use, wash your hands and face, burn incense to pray, tie the Armor Horse to your leg with a hemp rope, say a spell, and you can stir the power of the quadriga.

Triple binding can further increase the power.

Legend has it that a wizard once tied eight Armor Horses to his leg at once, causing his robe to be blown away as he ran.

The modern Rapid Armor Horse Charm, after continuous refinement, no longer requires the use of tortoise shell or bamboo as a medium. Like other talismans, just ordinary yellow paper and cinnabar are enough. Of course, these simplified Armor Horses, like other talismans, have all become disposable items.

What Zheng Qing learned from Mr. Wu was not only the modern ’Rapid Armor Horse Charm’, but also the ancient ’Bamboo Armor Horse’. In his paulownia box, there are six well-crafted bamboo horse talismans that are fully presented.

However, why use a cow knife to kill a chicken?

Zheng Qing’s fingers slid over the red silk cloth wrapping the bamboo horse talisman and landed on the yellow talisman paper beside it.

He was less than a kilometer away from Lin Zhong Lake, and using the paper talisman was more than enough.

Thinking confidently, he pulled out two Armor Horse talismans from the box, tied them to his leg with tape, then picked up a handful of earth, burned incense, held the patrol team’s scepter tightly, muttered a phrase ’Four Stallions Roaring”’, and disappeared deep into the forest in the blink of an eye.

A breeze blew, whipping a few leaves.

The grasshoppers in the grass were silent for a moment, then cleared their throats and started to screech again.

”He runs so fast!” Lin Guo looked at the place where Zheng Qing’s figure disappeared and sighed with envy, ”I knew it, I should have ridden my Big Black here.”

In his heart, the black-horned goat his family raised ran just as swiftly as a wizard using an escape technique.

”Want to join him?” The old janitor leaning on his cane squinted at him.

”No,” Lin Guo shook his head quickly, looking seriously at the old man, ”As Meng said, ’Don’t challenge fate, let it guide you.’ The moonlight is too prosperous tonight, I’m still young, so I won’t do such dangerous things.”

”The kids of today are really scary.” Elder Ferna sagged his eyelids and sighed, ”At such a young age, they’re full of Confucian phrases and understanding their destiny – what’s going to happen when they grow up?”

Lin Guo squinted, smiling.

”You just stay here and tidy up these odds and ends. Don’t run around.” Elder Ferna drew a circle on the ground with his wooden cane and warned, ”Don’t leave the circle. Just clean up the items inside it and wait for us to return.”

Lin Guo didn’t say a word, just nodded vigorously.

The old janitor muttered something under his breath, turned around, and disappeared without a trace.

Not even a blade of grass was disturbed.

”Wow!” The little boy from Alpha Academy exclaimed again, expressing his admiration for the janitor’s magic. Then he lowered his head, pinched his nose, and started picking up and sorting through the scattered debris.

”There’s so much stuff, it’s gonna take a long time to clean up,” the little boy grumbled, sighing deeply.

A kilometer away from this clearing, at the edge of the Lakeside Forest, three black-robed figures stumbled out of the shadows. As soon as they straightened up, the largest wizard among the three expressed a sentiment similar to Lin Guo’s:

”We lost so much stuff. The Fishman Tribe will probably be angry for a long time.”

With that, he lifted his own hood, revealing a pair of shiny small eyes and a round face full of fleshy horizontal creases.

”Bastard!” The wizard who pulled a law book out of the clearing earlier got up from the lawn, muttered a curse under his breath, lifted his hood, and revealed a green face, ”Why was the patrol team there!”

”Unexpected.” The last wizard sat cross-legged on the ground and analyzed in silence, ”That clearing has nothing to do with the patrol team’s route tonight ... There’s no reason for them to run so far.”

”You mean, someone leaked the news?” The fat wizard squinted his small eyes, the muscles of his face twitching, his voice very low.

”It must have been that damn vampire Friedman!” The wizard with the green face waved his law book in a fit of rage, yelling, ”He knew you were in charge of the trade this semester and must have had a bad intention, sir.”

With that, he looked at the fat wizard.

The fat wizard raised his head, looked at the moon in the sky, and remained silent.

”Quit it, Commander.” The wizard sitting cross-legged on the ground interrupted his delusions, said impatiently, ”If it weren’t for you taking out the law book in front of those fishmen, maybe we could have accomplished the trade sooner.”

”Are you saying I messed up the trade?” The green-faced wizard rolled his strange eyes, revealing two pale fangs from the corners of his lips, ”Anthony, my silence is only out of my respect for Sepulano. Don’t take my politeness as an excuse for you to act recklessly.”

”If this is what is called being polite, the fishman we just met has certainly received etiquette training from the O’Brien Family.” The wizard sitting on the ground scoffed. He took his law book and placed it on his knees, ”You can only scare those fishmen.”

”Both of you, shut up!” Mike Gold Cypress Sepulano lowered his head and yelled sternly.

Anthony wiped his palm and the law book that had been on his knee disappeared.

Commander twitched the corners of his mouth a few times. Eventually, holding back his anger, he retracted his fangs.

”Both of you can go back to the lounge first.” Sepulano pondered for a moment, then slowly spoke, ”Tonight’s business is not over... I’ll go back in and take a look.”

Having said that, he disregarded his two companions and went straight back into the forest.

Commander and Anthony looked at each other but didn’t leave immediately.

They slightly increased the distance between them. One leaned against a stone pillar on the lakefront veranda, silently admiring the moon; the other remained sitting cross-legged in his original position, flipping through his notes in the moonlight.