High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 709: Chapter 57 Starting Week 14_1

When I was a child, a year felt as long as a lifetime.

In my memory, it seems like I always had time to play in the courtyard and feel as if I was forever sitting at a desk doing homework that I could never finish-- long winter vacations, long summer vacations, long periods of time that seemed never-ending.

But as I grew older, time seemed to pass faster and faster.

One hour, two hours, one day, two days, one week, one month, one year, time flowed by in a blink of an eye.

The older I got, the stronger this feeling became, as if ’a certain existence’ had set a constant acceleration rate in our minds, quietly stealing our time without us even realizing it.

Just like right now.

After the old professors disappeared, the joyful times left for the young students were swiftly slipping away. It seemed like just a blink of an eye, two weeks had already passed. With the calendar now at the tail end of November, this was Zheng Qing’s 14th Monday at this university.

The feeling of winter was becoming clearer and clearer.

The cold wind howled through the campus, brazenly releasing the power of winter. The Paulownia trees on either side of the bluestone path had become bare except for a few scattered withered leaves left on the branches, shivering in the cold wind. There were no birds, no insects, even the tree elves had retreated deep into their tree holes, hiding in their warm nests, lazily dozing off.

In such weather, even the Fishmen in Lin Zhong Lake were too lazy to emerge from the water and collect things accidentally dropped into the lake by students.

The mood of Moon Hunting had completely disappeared from Jiuyou Academy—bright banners, direction signs, faded flags, and the once pruned bushes into odd shapes were all gone. Not to mention the traces of the hunting party of the month before, even the traces of last Thursday’s Thanksgiving are almost invisible now.

’A dream of a thousand years, oblivion of spring and autumn!’ Xin Fat Man leaned on the back on his desk, moaning lazily with a long sigh: ’Perhaps the reason why the immortals of the past would say such words is because their ’time acceleration’ has reached a shocking level... one night in our perspective, is a thousand years in their eyes!’

’Interesting thought.’ Zheng Qing muttered, lowering his head to compare the answers of the homework on both sides, casually said: ’You, a wizard of German variety, wouldn’t stop talking about immortals... it’s strange... also, Fat Man, didn’t you write the character ’jiu’ in ’jiu wood’ wrong! It should be next to the character for wood, not the character for speech. Even the pronunciations are different! It’s a hilarious mistake.’

He was referring to the classroom assignment left by the Spellcasting teacher last week.

Although Old Yao wasn’t here, the new Spellcasting teacher still continued Old Yao’s teaching plan, teaching the young wizards of Astronomy Class 08-1 a spell, a mutated form of the ’Binding Spell’ -- ’There is ’jiu’ wood in the south, covered with tangled vines(leilei).’

The main teaching approach for this year’s Spellcasting class was to understand a basic spell and then learn the construction principles and transformation mechanisms of these spells through their development, mutation, extension and expansion. This was very helpful in understanding the essence of spells.

But because the old professors left midway, during the last two classes, everyone was somewhat confused. As a result, homework seemed to become more difficult and Zheng Qing believes that, except for a few exceptional students like Liu Fei Fei, Jiang Yu, Xiao Xiao, and Matthew, most students in the class completed their homework by consulting each other.

Including himself.

’You can’t even copy spells correctly, what else can you do!’ Zhang Ji Xin seized the opportunity to mock Fat Man, then turned to Zheng Qing: ’Have you taken on any tasks from the school’s work committee recently?’

’Catching mice?’ Zheng Qing finally lifted his head from his notebook, raised his eyebrows: ’Who has time to catch that dirty thing! I can’t even finish my daily homework.’

For some reason, ever since the school’s work committee issued a notice to catch mice two weeks ago, more and more mice started to wander around the campus -- Lakeside Forest, Lakefront Corridor, Pet Garden, and morning exercise field, et cetera. Zheng Qing fully believes that if the security of the Book Mountain Library wasn’t so strict, their substantial collection of books would be severely depleted within a week.

’You’re a cat and you don’t catch mice, isn’t that neglecting your duty?’ Zhang Ji Xin said, then nudged Dr. Xiao, who was taking notes on the other side: ’Doctor, what if we change our hunting team training plan this weekend to catching mice... it could also subsidize the team’s expenses. We always hadn’t prepared winter gear for hunting, I think it’s a problem.’

’What?’ Xiao Xiao like he had just woken up from a dream, lifted his head, looked blankly at the red-faced male wizard, paused for a few seconds before he reacted, muttered vaguely: ’Oh, the hunting team training...you should talk to him, he’s the team leader.’

As he spoke, he pointed to Zheng Qing sitting next to him.

Unable to hold back, Zheng Qing leaned his head closer to Xiao Xiao’s notebook: ’Are you writing a love letter? You’re too focused!’

’Thud!’ Xiao Xiao quickly closed his notebook, accidentally causing his glasses to skew: ’We’re still students! Can you focus on studying and not think about all those messy things all the time...’

The young publicly-funded student was startled by the slightly excited doctor and unintentionally leaned back.

By the time he pulled himself together and straightened up, Dr. Xiao had already flipped open the Spellcasting textbook and started to review the lesson with a disgruntled face. The young wizards silently exchanged glances, their faces showing a hint of teasing.

If nothing went wrong, Dr. Xiao was indeed writing a love letter. Although he dared to confess his feelings to Mister Sima in public, he’s actually a very sensitive guy.

’Ahem.’ The young publicly-funded student stirred his throat, glanced at Xiao Xiao’s notebook, eventually sighed in regret, turned to Zhang Ji Xin: ’Elder Zhang Da’s first suggestion is rejected... the hunting team is for hunting demons, not for catching mice.’

’As for the winter clothing issue, it can be discussed at the next hunting team meeting.’

’Money is not an issue. The spoils from the freshman competition still have a lot left, enough for all of us to get a new set of Dragon Scale Hunting Clothes... granted, if we are to participate in a hunting competition.’

Just as Zhang Ji Xin raised his arm, ready to high-five with Xin Fat Man and cheer, he heard the precondition that Zheng Qing added and immediately hesitated. He turned his head and looked at the publicly-funded student: ’What do you mean? Participate in what hunting competition?’

’I mean, if there’s a hunting competition we’re participating in this winter, then we’ll consider the winter clothes. If we don’t need to participate in any hunting competitions throughout the entire winter, what’s the use of buying a set of Dragon Scale Hunting Clothes?’

Zheng Qing raised his index finger, shaking it slowly back and forth in front of the two.