High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 586: Chapter 255 Awaken_1

”The decorative style of the small church at Hunting Ground Number One clearly imitated the design of the first hall.

The iron-grey floor, on which zigzagging silver lines and numerous hollowed-out characters are engraved, somehow creates a sense of peace for those standing on top of it.

The ceiling is as deep as the night sky, desolate and lonely, with only some tiny groups of glowing orbs as decorations, clustered together like fireflies on a summer night or migrating glowworms, leaving trails of milky light.

And, of course, the towering pillars surrounding the church.

Compared with the first hall, however, there are no archways behind the pillars of this small church, nor are there walls with long mural scrolls, or higher levels of walkways above the hall.

Of course, the freshmen Hunters from the four schools rarely notice the decorative style of the hall. All of them are focusing on the pre-match inspection that is currently taking place.

The names on the roster are arranged alphabetically.

So no one found it strange when Andrew Taylor was the first to be called up. But it did attract everyone’s attention because the young Taylor heir had just embarrassed a senior officer of the Hunting Committee. Everyone was waiting to see how the veteran officer would deal with Andrew next.

As expected, the Taylor heir received some very special ’attention’ at the first stop.

To be precise, he was very strictly inspected.

The hunting attire of the Ouroboros Hunting Team is a silver-grey dragon leather jacket. The slightly gleaming surface and the touch of brown creases pump the jacket full of a unique hefty feeling but also pose a significant ’contraband’ risk.

Stripping off his leather jacket and cap, the young werewolf let the veteran officer, with a grim expression, poke around on his body with a slender metal stick. The officer left no hole on his body unchecked, from his nostrils to his ears and even his mouth. Just as if he regretted not being able to poke each and every hole the werewolf had.

Meanwhile, a few other officials from the Hunting Committee eagerly waited nearby. It seemed they were waiting for Andrew Taylor to finally lose patience amidst this form of inspection so they would have sufficient reason to escort the young heir off the premises.

Although the young werewolf looked clumsy and was a bit hot-tempered, he did display a high intelligence appropriate of the nocturnal nobility he was born to during this crucial moment. Not caring about the stick poking about on his body, he even took the opportunity to make a funny face at his Ouroboros teammates while the invigilator was distracted.

Because of the time constraints, after forcibly removing ten rings from the fingers of the young werewolf, the elderly student officer finally had no choice but to let him pass.

”Next!” With a gloomy face, he reopened the roster in his hand: ”Anna Winter... you go to the side for your inspection. The witches’ inspections are handled there.”

Saying this, he raised the stick in his hand, pointed at a curtained area not far behind him.

At the entrance of the camper, a round-faced, short witch was tiptoeing, trying hard to see what was going on in this area.

”At this rate, it will take about half an hour for us to queue.” Zhang Ji Xin frowned, calculating: ”Blue L, Xiao X, Xin X, Zheng Z, Zhang Z... apart from Bluebird who is relatively ahead, the rest of us are almost at the back.”

”Do you think I will be treated differently like the little Taylor wolf... you see, I was questioning just now as well.” Seeing the third male student being released quickly, Xin Fat Man couldn’t help turning his head to Xiao Xiao and asking quietly, ”Doctor, do you know that Hunting Committee officer up there?”

”Xin Xiangbian, from Lingnan, Alpha School ’06 student, Deputy Director of the Alpha School Student Union Supervision Department, tends to be radical, has anti-wealth tendencies. He is good at cultivating herbs and has strong skills in alchemy. He used to be the deputy director of the 3A club.”

”Used to?”

”Not anymore... He is from a poor family, only gained the admiration of Sir Friedman through his innate talent. After becoming the deputy director of the 3A club, however, due to various reasons, he ended up squandering many of the club’s resources and was eventually thrown out. Even though it did not constitute embezzlement, he was ultimately expelled by the Duke.”

”Is the Alpha Student Union really that desperate?!” Xin Fat Man humphed gloomily.

”I was always wondering why the professors were not in charge of the inspection... even if they asked a few teaching assistants to help, or temporarily transferred a few researchers from the research institute, it would have been better than these veteran students!” Zhang Ji Xin also couldn’t help complaining: ”Is the Hunting Committee out of their minds?!”

”The Freshmen’s Hunting match only serves as a derivative of the ’Academy Cup,’ it’s not the major event, so naturally it’s not that strict. Besides, recently there has been a shortage of teaching staff in the school so it’s perfectly normal that they were not assigned for this task.” Xiao Xiao replied calmly without so much as a second glance at the scene, ”Besides, with what happened last night, they are probably busier...”

An accident occurred last night in an experimentation lab at the first university. Although the campus newspaper did not take the trouble to publish an extra issue detailing the accident this morning, they managed to squeeze in a snippet in the news section confirming the incident.

Just as Xiao Xiao predicted, this incident has likely further depleted the limited staff at the University. It may be the reason why the freshmen’s hunting competition is being overseen by senior students today.

”Or... we could just give up on the Hunting Team... I don’t want to have that metal stick poked around on me.” Xin Fat Man suggested quietly, ”After all, our team leader is still in a daze...”

”Planning to give up? That’s good news.” A sudden voice rang out behind Xin Fat Man.

He quickly turned around to see Matthew Karen speaking.

The Karen Hunting Team was dressed in a vintage English style, everyone in uniform ivory-colored tweed suits, knee-high boots, with soft felt hats and small deer-skin gloves. They looked exceptionally elegant.

In comparison, the dark red college uniform of the Absolution Hunting Team looked much more plain.

Behind Matthew was Elena and the other members of the Karen Hunting Team.

”What’s wrong with him?” The gypsy witch took a few quick steps, passing Matthew to come first to Zheng Qing’s side. She lifted his eyelid to have a look, and asked in a low voice.

The hunters of Absolution looked at each other, and finally Zhang Ji Xin coughed, giving a vague explanation: ”Some things happened last night, so he took some sleep potion. He might have taken a little too much...”

”What kind of medicine did he use?” The gypsy witch continued to ask: ”Barbiturates? Tranquilizers? Triazolam? Or Qiyong? Mai Dong? Cypress? Dragon bone? Fo-ti vine?”

Before the hunters of Absolution could answer, she continued to ask: ”Has he seen a healer? Why didn’t you go to the school hospital?”

”He has seen the school’s healer. They said it was just a bit of mental exhaustion. He just needs to rest, and they didn’t give us any medicine... So we didn’t hospitalize him.” Zhang Ji Xin chuckled, scratching his head, and looked helplessly at the other team members.

Xiao Xiao looked down at his notebook, while Xin Fat Man gnawed on his finger while looking at the inspection by the Hunting Committee not far away; Blue Bird closed his eyes, as if lost in thought. Not one of them responded to his plea for help.

Elena frowned, her face still somewhat unsatisfied, but before she could speak, a state-funded student who had been leaning on Zhang Ji Xin began to twitch slightly, and his eyelids fluttered.

This small abnormality immediately attracted everyone’s attention.

”He’s awake?” The chief hunter of Absolution called out in surprise.

”Mist grass! We called him the whole morning to no avail. Someone just came to greet him and he’s awake... This is too unfriendly!” Xin Fat Man’s focus was always different from others’.

Elena’s face turned slightly red, pretending not to hear the implication in the fat man’s words. She quickly and gracefully stepped back to stand behind Matthew again.

The young Blood Race from the Karen family pursed his lips and said nothing.

”This isn’t magic,” Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses, a puzzled look in his eyes: ”The healer said that according to his mental depletion, he needs to rest for more than twenty-four hours... Why did he wake up so early?”

”Thud!”

Zheng Qing broke away from Zhang Ji Xin’s support, staggered to his feet, opened one eye, and suddenly looked up at the ceiling.

”Danger!” He said in a hoarse voice, issuing a soft warning.

”Danger?” Xin Fat Man laughed and slapped the man’s shoulder: ”Indeed it’s dangerous... You weren’t fully awake, and we almost thought we wouldn’t be able to pass the hunting team inspection!”

”There’s danger.” Zheng Qing mumbled, still looking at the ceiling with just one eye open, the very eye that had been red due to congestion.

This time, everyone with sharp senses, including Xiao Xiao, Nanjian, Elena, and Matthew didn’t need to agree. They all looked up following Zheng Qing’s gaze.

It was as if to respond to their gazes, the group of fireflies hovering under the ceiling suddenly went out, plunging the entire auditorium into darkness.

There was silence for a few seconds, followed by an uproar.

Soon afterward, a strange, cheerful voice rang out in the darkness, echoing in the auditorium, muffling everyone’s noise:

”Ladies and gentlemen!”