High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 660: Chapter 8 - Storytelling by the Wandering Wizard_1

Participating in the Hunting Challenge, besides striving for honor, there’s also a chance to obtain significant material rewards.

For example, the blood, flesh, eyeballs, even the bones of demons, and so on, are all requisite materials for wizards to conduct magic experiments or cast certain spells, and are widely popular in the world of wizards.

Zheng Qing, in the Freshman Challenge, had collected a large batch of demon ’materials.’ He’s not required to hand all of them over to the school. After registering with the Hunting Committee, he only needs to pay a small management fee and he can keep most of them for himself. This also applies to the formal competition for the ’Academy Cup’. It means a great deal of gold beans.

This is also why the Hunting Challenge receives enthusiastic attention at the university, almost every student who has a bit of ability will attempt to become a hunter, joining a hunting team.

After all, if they want to proceed further in the path of wizards, ample material support is definitely needed. Not every talented individual comes from influential families, free from material concerns.

From this perspective, the wandering wizard’s speculation about Zheng Qing’s purpose is not without reason.

As the largest gray market in Beta Town, the Wandering Bar has gathered a plethora of big and small information brokers who exchange various news they have obtained about the top university.

As the manager of this market, the wandering wizard can naturally and effortlessly access some background information about Zheng Qing, a Level 08 publicly-funded student at Jiuyou Academy—like he originates from the common world, lacks reliable background, is short of gold and silver, etc.

Being short of gold and silver suggests that when Zheng Qing gets a large amount of demon materials he doesn’t need at present, he would promptly trade them before their expiration date for hard currency in the wizarding world. Compared to the school’s rigid purchase prices, the Wandering Bar can offer much more flexible prices.

”If you’re worried that I will lower the price, that’s completely unnecessary,” the wandering wizard misinterpreted Zheng Qing’s refusal as a negotiating tactic and immediately spoke: ”Recently, the tide of the Silent Forest has been somewhat severe, and the prices of many basic spellcasting materials in Beta Town have risen a lot. If you sell the materials you gained from the Freshman Challenge to me, you will definitely get a satisfactory number...compared to the school’s purchase price, it should be about 30% higher.”

Upon hearing this, Zheng Qing gasped.

Xiao Xiao had already estimated before that the batch of demon materials he got from the hunting ground should be worth about a hundred jade coins, conservatively speaking. According to the wandering wizard, it would increase by 30%, almost amounting to thirty jade coins!

Thirty! That’s enough to pay the tuition fees for three publicly-funded students!

With a hundred and thirty jade coins, Zheng Qing estimated that he might almost be able to lease a small shop in Beta Town himself, and sell his own talismans—rather than having to give the Wandering Bar a cut from every talisman he sells, like now.

In just the blink of an eye, the young publicly-funded student was contemplating from those demon materials, to opening a store of his own, to deciding on a store name, to contemplating if he should go public after expanding the business, and if he did, whether he should choose Frankfurt, New York, or London—he was certain it would not be Shanghai.

”Ideal companies would never choose to go public in Shanghai,” the young wizard muttered, shaking his wine glass.

The pale yellow liquid hung a series of thin layers on the transparent glass wall, which under the influence of gravity, gathered into a droplet, and slowly trickled down the edge of the glass. The brilliant brilliance scattered into the air as the wine glass swayed, leaving behind the strong wine and fragrant aroma.

”What did you say?” The wandering wizard seemed to not comprehend what Zheng Qing had just muttered and couldn’t help but ask.

”Nothing!” The young publicly-funded student immediately turned red, but it was unclear if it was due to the alcohol or the embarrassment of his privacy being probed.

Taking a pause, Zheng Qing suddenly remembered his purpose, ”I mean, I’m really not here to sell things. I came to ask if there’s a way to suppress the rumors that are flying around at the school, and if there is, what would be the fees...”

”Rumors?” The wandering wizard was taken aback, hesitated for a moment, then asked: ”You mean the rumors about you guys cheating?”

Zheng Qing pulled a long face and nodded in agreement.

”Why do you want to stop that?” The wandering wizard seemed somewhat puzzled, ”Could it be that the rumors are true?”

”Of course they’re not!” Zheng Qing widened his eyes, and his voice raised a bit, ”That’s precisely why we need to ’bust the falsehoods’! If we don’t say something, wouldn’t it imply that we have a guilty conscience! By that time, the false accusations would be turned into truth by their gossip!”

Looking at the agitated young wizard, the wandering wizard couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows.

”Ah, youth, always so spirited.” The old wizard sighed sentimentally, then quickly changed the topic and started talking about something completely unrelated: ”I once heard a small story, found it quite interesting, and couldn’t resist wanting to tell you about it.”

Zheng Qing glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. It was still early, and he still had almost two hours before his appointment with Jiang Yu. So, he nodded, indicating that he’s ready to listen carefully.

”This story is related to the number one university and the Beta Town Post.”

”You know, Jiuyou Academy and Alpha Academy have been at odds for a long time. Those conflicts may be big or small, but they always make people on both sides feel unpleased.”

”One year, the Beta Town Post was going to do a special feature on academic atmosphere construction, so they sent a reporter who graduated from Alpha Academy to Jiuyou Academy for interviews.”

”The members of Jiuyou Academy Student Union’s External Relations Department, upon hearing her purpose, became a bit nervous, unsure about what the Beta Town Post truly meant. After discussing amongst themselves for quite a while, they ultimately hoped that the reporter would praise them in her interview.”

”So, the external relations department spent a lot of funds, inviting a famous fairy singer to hold a music festival in the school, and arranging grand banquets three times a day, preparing all kinds of rare fruits, seafood delicacies, and nourishing soups, and before the reporter left, they also prepared a generous souvenir, fearing their hospitality wouldn’t be adequate.”

”This reporter was quite interesting, too. She accepted all the hospitality from Jiuyou Academy. Even the souvenirs—you sent, I accepted.”

”But after going back, she boldly wrote a piece titled ’Why such extravagance—a record of Jiuyou Academy Student Union’s corrupt and twisted styles of decaying morals.’ In the article, she listed in detail the actions of Jiuyou Academy trying to win over public opinion, corrupting conscientious public intellectuals with sugar-coated bullets to manipulate public opinion, finally asserting that Jiuyou had morally decayed, and their academic ethics were tarnished.”

”After the article was published, Dean Yao of Jiuyou Academy was enraged. The big and small bosses of the External Relations Department of the Student Union were swept clean from top to bottom, and even the Vice-Chairman in charge of external affairs received a severe punishment.”

”This is an issue with the Student Union now, if they had simply received the reporter in a humble manner, they certainly wouldn’t have run into this issue.” Zheng Qing couldn’t help but comment.

”So, nothing would have happened if they had just simply received her?” The wandering wizard, tilting his head, gulped a large amount of wine: ”Naive! This isn’t the end of the story yet...”