High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 678: Chapter 26: Lower Yuan Festival_1

Despite a slight flaw near the end, the closing ceremony, in general, went without any major problems. In the coverage of the school journal, everything remained peaceful and harmonious.

Of course, external newspapers such as the ’Beta Town Post’, always hold a bias towards the top universities, especially Jiuyou Academy. It was widely known that they loved to exaggerate minor issues and cause unnecessary panic, hence there was no need for further elaboration.

Though the hunting party has concluded, the ferocious and greedy eyes of the demons etched a deep impression in Zheng Qing’s mind. Even though the academy’s follow-up investigation suggested that because of the direction of the wind, the spectators in the Jiuyou Academy grandstand naturally attracted the covetous gaze of the demons. The young scholarship student had a feeling - if Old Yao hadn’t deterred those demons, they would have charged forward and torn him into pieces first.

This was based on a wizard’s most basic instinct.

”They would also rush up to tear other wizards apart.” Zheng Qing tried to reassure himself this way, but he knew that was his way of self-consolation - it wasn’t the first time that the demons had looked at him greedily. He definitely had a problem.

Considering this, Old Yao’s suggestion resurfaced in his mind: to go seek Professor Montreya and ask him to perform a check-up.

”Sigh.” Pondering over this, the young scholarship student couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh. Although he felt a pressing urgency deep inside and he wanted to deal with this matter immediately, it just couldn’t be done today.

Because today was Ghost Festival.

”Taishang San Guan Jing” cites ”Heavenly Official grants blessings, Earthly Official absolves sins, and Water Official dispels disasters.” Correspondingly, there are the traditional festivals of Upper Yuan, Mid Yuan, and Lower Yuan in the wizard world.

Theoretically, during the Upper Yuan Festival, lanterns would be lit and prayers offered for blessings; during the Mid Yuan Festival, the gates of hell would open, and all kinds of ghosts roamed the earth; during the Lower Yuan Festival, a vegetarian feast offerings was held to resolve disasters and commemorate the deceased. However, in practice, wizards didn’t really have a high sense of awe for certain existences in the starry sky, so the feeling of ceremony for the three Yuan Festivals wasn’t very strong — the only time wizards paid a little more attention was during the Mid Yuan Festival when the gates of hell opened.

Of course, just because the sense of ceremony was not strong didn’t mean there weren’t many taboos.

Since the three Yuan Festivals fell on the full moon days (around the 15th day of the lunar month), just when many Eastern wizards performed ancestral worship, and also when beings from the Under the Moon Convention like werewolves and vampires revealed their true nature, coupled with the fact that on these specific days, there were always a few voyeuristic gazes from the depths of the starry sky directed at this world, as a precaution, the top universities scheduled a holiday and the whole academy took a day off.

However, even though it was a vacation, since the craziness of certain creatures was hard to control on such days, to prevent accidents, the school didn’t allow students to go out at will, especially at night.

”What are you sighing about again? Want to go out? You’ve only been in the dormitory for a morning! And we still have an entire day to get through!” Xin Fat Man’s voice came from the balcony, sounding somewhat schadenfreude.

Even though he also had to stay in the cramped dormitory, he at least had a separate space.

Relying on his giant size, the fat man almost filled the entire balcony all alone, and since no one wanted to squeeze with a sweaty geek, they let him occupy it — only Fatty Cat could ignore the fat man’s aura, and lie on his head leisurely, swaying its tail without any pressure.

”Old Yao said the teaching assistants will come for a room inspection today. If you don’t want to lose points, better behave.” Xiao Xiao looked up from his book, warning Zheng Qing with a look.

”Lose points? Our Zheng doesn’t care about that!” The fat man’s sour voice came from the balcony.

Zheng Qing just chuckled and didn’t respond.

Indeed, he had already earned numerous course credits in class as well as through club invitations and practical experiences. A few days ago, during the Freshmen Challenge, he won quite a lot by betting on course credits — all in all, his cumulative course credits had nearly reached fifty. With his current score, most student-accessible places in the academy had opened their doors to him.

This was a considerable score for a freshman who had been attending Jiuyou Academy for just over two months. Especially considering that he needed just one hundred course credits to move up from the freshman year to the sophomore year, his current score was more impressive.

”I wonder how Dylan is doing in the hospital.” Since he had started speaking, Zheng Qing didn’t want to bring down the mood any further, so he brought up a new topic and began to chat with the other two.

”What else could he do! Eat when it’s time to eat, drink when it’s time to drink, sleep when it’s time to sleep!” The fat man was munching on something on the balcony, making loud crunching noises and sounding rather disgruntled: ”You’ve been there as well, he’s living the good life!”

”These days aren’t so comfortable for them.” Zheng Qing raised his arm, looking at the little elf swinging on his finger, he spoke softly: ”Especially, you know, his bloodline isn’t so pure.”

The dormitory suddenly fell silent again.

This made Zheng somewhat regretful — he was just reflexively retorting the fat man, and he absolutely did not intend to bring up such a sensitive topic.

”If Dylan could find his inner self, he wouldn’t be suffering this much.” Fat Man’s voice came back from the balcony again, although his expression couldn’t be seen, Zheng Qing could hear some unusual heaviness in his voice: ”...just like me. If I could truly find inner peace, I wouldn’t have lost my Blue Giant state during that critical moment on the hunting ground.”

The atmosphere became heavier in the dormitory, and the young scholarship student was forced to try to steer the conversation elsewhere.

”Speaking of the hunting match, do you guys know where Blue Bird went? I seem to have seen less of him lately.” Zheng Qing tried to make his tone sound more upbeat: ”What do you think, is he in love?”

Upon saying this, he couldn’t help but imagine the cold swordsman in love, and couldn’t help but chuckle.

However, Xiao Xiao’s response rendered his laughter abrupt.

”He’s fallen in love with his sword.” Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses, and glanced at the young scholarship student in silence: ”Because in the Freshman Challenge, when he faced the attacking Wolf King, he retreated, he didn’t stand his ground with his sword... so he lacks conviction now. According to people from the Starry Sky Academy, he is practicing sword-fighting relentlessly now.”

A swordsman practicing sword-fighting, of course, does not literally mean to whet his sword with a whetstone.

”But didn’t he come with us to see Dylan just a few days ago?” Zheng Qing insisted on asking.

”How did you think he looked that day?” Xiao Xiao asked back.

Zheng Qing remained silent.

On the recollection, Blue Bird looked pale that day, as if he hadn’t rested well, and his state wasn’t so good.

”Simply because his sword backed off in the face of danger...” The young scholarship student took a long breath, wanted to say something, but eventually found himself speechless.

This kind of thing is indeed not an outsider’s place to comment on.

After several exchanges, the atmosphere in the dormitory became more oppressive, which greatly annoyed the young scholarship student who originally planned to lighten the mood.

Until a paper crane flew in from outside the window.