High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 674: Chapter 22 Moon Hunting Wrap-up_1

November 11th.

Tuesday.

The fourteenth day of the tenth month in the lunar calendar.

Auspicious for worship, blessing, market opening, travel.

Unfavorable for burial, digging wells, real estate purchase.

This is Zheng Qing’s eleventh Tuesday since he joined the school, and his first complete Moon Hunting. From October 17th to today, including Saturdays and Sundays, a total of 26 days, the Jiuyou Academy 2008 ’Academy Cup’ hunting competition is about to end today.

Despite counting the days, this year’s Moon Hunting days are a little shorter than previous years. The time is still not quite a full month. This is because of the disturbances near the school, as well as the unpredictable circumstances. Tomorrow is the Festival of Lights (Underworld), and according to regulations, the school will take a day off. Some classes in Atlas Academy will hold a disaster relief conference. Many wizard families will also worship spirits and pray for the Festival’s water official to solve their troubles, while the Wizard Alliance has a tradition of forbidding hunting, halting executions, and postponing execution dates.

Thus, because today is an auspicious day for prayer and blessings, the school has designated it as the end of this year’s Academy Cup hunting competition.

Because of this, today’s morning divination class has been cancelled.

The closing ceremony of the hunting competition is scheduled for nine-thirty in the morning. After morning classes, instead of returning to his dormitory, Zheng Qing slipped quietly into the Book Mountain Library, found a shady and undisturbed corner, and began studying the methods of making Fu Bullets.

Since last weekend when he returned from Su Shijun’s lab, Zheng Qing was bombarded with endless questions, curiosity, and unfounded speculation - after all, apart from Zheng Qing, there seemed to be no other male student who has had the privilege of being ’graced’ by the beautiful Su multiple times.

Yes, Xin Fat Man used the word ’graced’ in front of Zheng Qing.

If there weren’t other curious onlookers, Zheng Qing would have made Xin pay dearly for his words.

But with so many curious students, Zheng Qing eventually had to explain. Therefore, he made up some plausible reasons, like ’two-dimensional experiments’ and ’shadow accidents’.

Even though these reasons would pass an investigation, and the real reason Zheng Qing entered Su’s lab was true to some extent, not everyone who heard this explanation took it as truth.

In order to escape these annoyances, Zheng Qing has started to exaggerate his behavior from the previous week: rushing to class as soon as the bell rang, heading straight to the library after class, heading to a quiet corner of the Lakeside Forest to eat lunch, and sneaking back to his bed once everyone was asleep, dragging out time to diffuse their curiosity.

If he were not the publicly-funded student of Jiuyou Academy and captain of the Absolution Hunting Team who has to attend the school hunting closing ceremony, Zheng Qing would not even want to attend today’s morning ceremony.

Nine o’clock in the morning.

Zheng Qing took out his pocket watch, checked the hands on the silver dial, and sighed deeply.

Time, the concept that leaves people feeling helpless. No matter if you’re an ordinary person or a wizard, you can’t escape the ticking of the hands on the timepiece. It’s said that once a wizard reaches the grand wizard level, they can manipulate time, but that’s just a story for a young and sponsored student.

He put away his pocket watch, dragged the stack of textbooks on the table into his grey cloth bag, and ran out of the Book Mountain Library.

During the morning workout, Doctor Xiao had already saved him a seat.

Nothing too early or too late. Just on time.

The closing ceremony was still held at Hunting Ground No. 1.

When Zheng Qing arrived at the ceremony, the stands were already filled with spectators including students from all four academies, guests with invitations, and the distinguished persons on the podium.

Su Shijun should be sitting on the podium.

On his way to the Jiuyou Academy Stand, this idea uncontrollably popped into Zheng Qing head. He also felt a bit irritated. He was busy avoiding other people’s attention in the morning, and he even forgot to go to the Pet Garden to fetch Poseidon, which had been clamoring to watch the spectacle for a long time. He didn’t know if Poseidon might tell Su about this during his next visit to the Qingqiu Club.

With these confusing thoughts, listening to the inspiring tunes of the Speaker Flowers, Zheng Qing finally managed to squeeze through the crowd and find his seat.

This place was a bit quiet compared to the rest of the stands, as the Speaker Flowers behind these seats had been stuffed with cotton. The members of Absolution Hunting Team were currently engaged in a quiet conversation.

Zheng Qing inched over quietly, listening in on their conversation stealthily. They were discussing the final outcome of the brawl between the Jiuyou Academy and Alpha Academy.

More accurately, Xin Fat Man, who was currently acting as the campus journalist, was disclosing some yet-to-be-announced ’insider’ information to his teammates.

”.....The professor’s joint committee held three closed-door meetings finally concluding that we had nothing to do with what happened on the hunting Ground.” Xin Fat Man was whispering in a secretive tone: ”Supposedly, the professors confirmed that there was something causing disturbances in the stands during the game...”

”Something? Disturbance?” Zhang Ji Xin was cracking his knuckles and twisting his neck impatiently, ”Why beat around the bush? Just come out with it!”

”If you’re in such hurry, why don’t you say it!” Fat Man immediately retorted to Elder Zhang.

”But,” Xiao Xiao interrupted their argument, asking doubtfully: ”Who would cause disturbances at a student’s hunt? What benefits did they derive from getting two academies to fight each other?”

”Who knows.... Some Wizards are already not right in the head from conducting too many experiments. Also, considering the Silent Forest is surging with activity, who knows what strange things might slip in through the river route?” While munching on peanuts, Xin Fat Man vaguely added: ”Of course it can’t be ruled out that someone was truly fishing in troubled waters...According to school enforcement, there were many students who lost their things during the brawl between the two academies.”

”So, it means, the professors are not sure whether the disruption was caused by a wizard or a magical creature from the Silent Forest?” Xiao Xiao, while biting onto her pen, summed up.

”Bingo!” Fat man produced a dull snap with his greasy fingers.

”You have still not mentioned what the final punishment was!” Finally not able to bear it anymore, Zheng Qing asked.

The members of the Absolution hunting team turned around surprised and saw their captain.

”Yo, isn’t this our Team Captain Zheng...Why are you not on the podium sitting with the beautiful Su, instead hiding in this remote corner?” Xin Fat Man, munching on peanuts, asked cheerfully.

”Stop talking crap.” Zheng Qing squeezed him out annoyed, took a seat, and then asked, ”What was the final resolution for the two academies dismissal of curses?”