High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 266: Chapter 190 Shadow of the Time God_1

When Zheng Qing, short of breath and draped in his school robe, arrived at the dock on the lakeside, many figures had already gathered there.

Red, white, blue, yellow, gray, black; the six coloured robes were chaotically scattered across the dark green lawn, reflected in the color of the distant indigo blue of the lake, like a slowly unfolding painting.

Zheng Qing squinted his eyes, searching for familiar faces.

Soon, he saw Lin Guo standing next to the old man, Ferna.

They were almost standing in the center of all wizards, surrounded by several assistants in black robes.

”Excuse me, excuse me,” Zheng Qing apologized repeatedly, squeezing through the crowd, drenched in sweat, to stand beside the old janitor.

The old janitor was standing with his back to him, intently listening to the arguing assistants.

”Could there have been a mistake?!” Hilda’s voice sounded anxious: ”Such a hasty mobilization of the patrol team, isn’t it somewhat rushed? These students...”

As he spoke, he fiercely waved his hand backwards, casting a shadow over many of the figures, including Zheng Qing.

”Are these students prepared at all?” His face turned slightly red, with tiny beads of sweat lingering on the tip of his nose, shining against his brass nose ring, reflecting a vague patch of light onto his nostrils.

”This is the First University, and they are its students.” Thomas was standing in the shadow of the old janitor, rendering him somewhat inconspicuous. Contrarily, his utterance was unequivocal and vehement, like a jab straight to the heart, instantly piercing the oppressive atmosphere: ”If the patrol team can’t handle this, what else can the wizarding world expect from us?”

Such a statement was already very stringent.

Even Hilda, who was strongly opposed, silenced and was left speechless.

”What are they arguing about?” Zheng Qing leaned in towards Lin Guo’s ear and whispered: ”Why have we been summoned?”

Lin Guo, still slinging his small backpack over his shoulders, didn’t reply, only gestured to Zheng Qing to remain quiet and keep listening.

Zheng Qing obediently closed his mouth, attentively listening to their argument while subtly adjusting the position of his belt.

He ran a bit too hastily just now; his robes were somewhat disheveled.

”There’s no mistake, all the time in that area has been drained,” a mild voice took over, bridging the rift among the assistants: ”Professor Yi just sent a message, he, Professor Li, and Professor Montreya have already sealed off the scene.”

Zheng Qing quickly glanced over at the tall assistant, but couldn’t see his face. He only noticed his graying hair and smooth forehead.

”Did they catch it?” Hilda hurriedly asked: ”Mr. Yu, what did the professors say?”

”As with Ferna’s earlier conjecture,” the tall wizard known as Mr. Yu bowed slightly to the old janitor out of respect: ”Apart from some traces eroded by time, they didn’t leave even a shred of envelope.”

Chuckle, Ferna lifted his chin and laughed gruffly: ”After seeing such things a few times, you’ll gain experience... You’re still young, so you didn’t catch their tails.”

This sentence was loaded with suggestions.

The black-robed assistants immediately turned their gaze towards Ferna.

”Do you mean,” although Hilda was still the first one to hurriedly ask, he tactfully added a honorific: ”you caught their tails?”

Ferna didn’t respond, he simply reached into his grey robe pocket, took out a transparent glass bottle, and held it up.

The glass bottle was thumb-sized, with a wide mouth and a round shape, sealed with a red cork. The bottle neck was tied with a few thin ribbons, each finely drawn with talismans.

The bottle contained many transparent particles the size of rice grains.

Under the sunlight, these transparent particles shimmered with alluring seven-colored lights.

”Though May is also old now, it has four legs and runs a bit faster than me, catching some of their young,” the old man said, stretching his hand into his pocket again and pulling out a piece of smoky black flesh, handing it to the old hunting dog sprawled on the ground.

The old hunting dog grumbled in contentment, as its tongue rolled up to lap the fist-sized meat into its stomach.

Zheng Qing stared blankly at the glowing particles. Suddenly, he felt a sense of satisfaction, as if life was fulfilled in an instant.

He knew that something about the feeling was very wrong, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

”What’s this?” A surprised voice called out from the crowd.

Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who had noticed the anomaly.

”Chronos’s pet, the eye discharge of the Candle Dragon, the illegitimate child of Helios and Selene.” Hilda stared at the glass bottle and recited, as if chanting a poem, ”Sudden ye, choke ye, the alternation of life and death of creatures.”

Chronos, Helios, Selene, these tongue-twisters, Zheng Qing had no recollection of them.

However, he knew a little about the Candle Dragon.

Legend has it that it’s an ancient dragon living in the north, giant-sized and seemingly immortal. When it opens its eyes, it’s day, while closing its eyes brings night. Its breath brings winter and exhale summons summer. Some people also call it Zhu Jiuyin.

As for the shadow of the Candle Dragon, Zheng Qing smirked, how would he know such obscure information.

Maybe Xiao Xiao’s notebook had this information.

However, Doctor Xiao was pondering a new love poem in his dormitory at this moment and had no interest in laboring by the lake at noon.

”Why can’t they just speak plainly.” Zheng Qing gave Mr. Assistant Teacher a glance, grumbling internally.

As if hearing everyone’s thoughts, the old man Ferna began to explain, ”This is a kind of magic creature’s egg. This magical creature has a shocking connection with time and sustains itself by absorbing the time of other creatures. Creatures that have their time stolen rapidly age... so they were called ’Shadow of the Time God’ by ancient magicians.”

Zheng Qing’s eyes widened, he’d guessed the implications behind the old man’s words.

”Theoretically, these magical creatures should live in the depths of the Silent Forest, far from the wizards,” Thomas supplemented, ”but at noon today, we discovered traces of their activity in our academy, the center of wizard activity.”

”If nothing unexpected happens, we can close the recent case of magical creatures being attacked on the lakeside of Bell Lake.” Hilda finally ended the explanation with a succinct sentence, ”They are most likely... almost certainly the culprits.”

A gasp arose from the crowd.

All-at-once, a noisy ruckus broke out, everyone straining to move forward, eager to see the culprit up close.

”What are they called!”

”These eggs look so beautiful, can I buy them in the market?”

”Has the culprit escaped?”

”What is our task, to catch the culprit?”

”This is terrifying! I don’t want to age!”

Ferna, the old man, reluctantly lifted his wooden staff and thumped it on the ground.

”Buzz...”

The cobblestone road seemed to turn into quicksand for a moment and students stumbled, falling to the ground.

”Silence!” The old worker roared gruffly, ”Maintain discipline!”

The crowd immediately became much more orderly.

”Many of you may not be familiar with these creatures,” the old man’s grim expression looked over everyone, ”but it’s fine, soon Professor Dorag from the Magical Creatures Research Institute will give everyone a simple training.”

”Your task, after the training ends, is to follow May and search the deep woods for the source of these ’eggs’.”

”Only by finding their nest, can we end this chaos.”

”Remember its name...”

”Sand Hour!”