High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 756: Chapter 104 Week 15_1

For most students at the first high school, the fifteenth week of school seemed somewhat boring.

With the moon hunt over and the new year still a ways away, this neither early nor late week didn’t have any special traditional holidays or extra statutory holidays; there weren’t any interesting activities organised by the school or the student council; even less did they have the long-rumored beast tide swarming from the Silent Forest into the school, releasing their terror at will.

In a word, it could be described as ’plain and unremarkable’.

For the students of Astronomy Class 08-1, the only noteworthy thing for this week was that their classmate, who excelled in Talisman Studies, had mysteriously started wearing sunglasses, for reasons unknown.

A pair of large sunglasses with bone frames and pure black lenses—that young scholarship student wore them whether in class, eating, or doing morning exercises, almost entirely obscuring half their face.

More than one person had curiously asked Zheng Qing why he had suddenly started wearing glasses.

But the young scholarship student always laughed without commenting, ambiguous about the issue. On the other hand, when the few male wizards in his dormitory mentioned it, they seemed quite enthusiastic.

However, it was found afterwards that everyone’s explanation was different.

For example, Doctor Xiao claimed Zheng Qing was practicing a complicated divination technique, supposedly from Master Guiguzi’s ’blind fortune-telling’—this technique needed a deep understanding of ’blindness’ to be practiced successfully—and Zheng Qing’s sunglasses were to improve the efficiency of practicing this technique.

Whereas Xin Fat Man’s statement was somewhat similar to Xiao Xiao’s, only differing on the specific discipline.

”Brother Qing hit a bottleneck in his talisman drawing technique,” the fat man seriously explained to his classmate who asked him, ”You know, he had mastered all of the one thousand two hundred ninety-six standard runes published by the Wizard Alliance, more than most registered wizards! You see, according to the standard of the Wizard Alliance, registered wizards only need to learn a little over three hundred runes.”

”What he needs now is a breakthrough!”

”Breakthrough, you get it?”

”Even with eyes shut, he can instantly draw a standard rune! He started wearing sunglasses to gradually get used to drawing runes under low light conditions, laying a solid foundation for further breakthrough!”

Compared to the previous two Jiuyou Academy roommates, the last classmate from the Starry Sky Academy gave an even more bizarre explanation.

”He needs to change his image.” Dylan explained to a curious witch at a private circle party: ”You know, everyone at Jiuyou is a bunch of bookworms. Maybe they know the specific targets attacked by the fairy rebels who broke into the Nanjing Pavilion in late May 1645; maybe they can list the thirty-six main uses of dragon blood at their fingertips; maybe they can write three common spells in five minutes.”

”But they know nothing about ’image engineering’.”

”Few people there know whether gold cufflinks can match a gray robe, whether hanging a black-covered law book on a red belt would appear unsophisticated, or how to laugh to squeeze out beautiful decree patterns.”

”I have the honor of being Zheng Qing’s latest image planner...I think his exposure in school is already quite sufficient. What he now needs is a sense of mystery...Mystery, you know? This is where the biggest allure of magic lies!”

”You can’t establish such an image just by being cold and distant or remaining taciturn. He also needs some external little tricks. Like a pair of sunglasses.”

It must be admitted, these real and fake explanations very well diverted everyone’s attention—most of the time, people would shift from the topic of Zheng Qing’s sunglasses to whether Gui Guzi’s ’blind’ divination really existed, how to remember more than twelve hundred runes, and the differences between various divination patterns, etc.

Zheng Qing would often take this opportunity to sneak away quietly, leaving the rest of the trouble to his companions behind him.

Yes, trouble.

He now has a lot of bothersome things on his mind.

Such as a pair of bright red eyeballs, like rubies. According to the general opinion of the wizarding world, these are eyes that only full-blooded demons would have. If someone with such eyes were to stroll down the streets of Beta Town, within five minutes they would be hit with seven or eight curses and step into eight or nine traps.

Ever since he took a walk around Bell Lake with Elena last weekend and then returned to the dormitory with such bright red eyes, he nearly got cursed half-dead by the other three—luckily, the little elf sacrificed themselves to save him, standing in front of the young scholarship student and causing the others to be reluctant to hurt them. This gave him an opportunity to explain.

Next is his ’abnormal mental state’. According to both Xiao Xiao and Monk Shi Yuan, after the school hunt, Zheng Qing’s mental state had become sensitive and changeable. In traditional terms, it’s ’easily invaded by inner demons’, in modern terms, it’s ’post-schizophrenia symptoms’.

The recent experience near Bell Lake also confirmed this. In the school infirmary’s diagnostic report on Zheng Qing’s ’abnormal red-eye disease’—a professional term specially designed for Zheng Qing by the school therapists—it is very clear that his comparatively fragile mental state is the indirect cause of the disease and advises him to maintain a happy, calm and peaceful mental state as much as possible.

Although Zheng Qing has been reading the ”Many Heart Sutras” bestowed by Shi Yuan every day, the disease leaves as silk is drawn from the cocoon, and the mental damage is harder to repair than external physical wounds.

In addition, the previous ’cheating’ rumor due to winning the champion of the new student competition in the school hunting race, although it has gradually faded, there are still people from time to time who find trouble with absolution, wanting to step on them to rise; plus, Jiang Yu plans to catch the murderer who killed the kitten by transforming into a cat, this dangerous plan has also been a thorn in Zheng Qing’s heart.

Such a ’colorful’ life has bent the young scholarship student’s back.

Despite this, he pressed on headlong towards the direction of danger, not hesitating to take on a little more burden.

”How’s the investigation on your side?” Sitting in a window seat on the second floor of Book Mountain Library, Zheng Qing asked Doctor Xiao while idly looking out at the shimmering Bell Lake, ”I’ve already checked my D District 1-2 to 1-9, and haven’t found anything new...These seven rows of bookshelves are all about herbal medicine, and all the information involving ’Lin Zhong Lake’ is about the types of magic potions in the lake and the collection method.”