High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1074: Chapter 136 Secret Meeting

A colorful caterpillar wriggled its chubby body along a slender, dried twig, quickly reaching the end of the branch. Not far behind it, a dozen red ants were lined up neatly, marching in sync, slowly closing in on the caterpillar.

It was as though one could hear the clanging footsteps of the ants and their synchronized chants.

With no path ahead and pursuers behind, the caterpillar lifted its front half, desperately turning its small head around, but aside from the slightly whining wind, it received no other information.

Click-click-click.

The steps of the ants drew even closer, and the caterpillar, no longer harboring any hope of luck, curled its head under, tucking its entire body into a ball, then slackened its grip and plummeted straight from the slender twig to the ground. A string of red ants was left behind, poking their heads downwards, their antennas flailing wildly.

”Sigh.”

Elena witnessed it all and heaved a deep sigh, half of her face obscured by her cascading hair, making it difficult to discern her demeanor or expression. At her feet lay a bamboo basket she had previously used for collecting mushrooms and wild vegetables.

”Why the sigh? You don’t strike me as one to mope over the changing seasons,” a sudden voice emerged from the deep shadows of the forest, and a figure breezily appeared before Elena.

The Black Cat, hidden not far away, held its breath and fixed its gaze.

It was Korma, the deputy chair of the student council and the owner of Gini Cottage, who had hired Zheng Qing and others to work over the winter break. Seeing a familiar face, the Black Cat immediately relaxed, and the strange unease in its heart lessened considerably. At the same time, it finally understood where that familiar scent it had smelled earlier had come from.

Upon hearing Korma’s query, Elena did not answer but instead asked softly, ”What is it?”

”A Big Mouse, seemed to have been chasing the insects when it passed by here... almost let it escape,” Korma replied casually, tossing something bloody and mangled.

The Black Cat’s heart tightened, its breathing grew even more subdued, not daring to twitch its ears.

What Korma had thrown was a Big Mouse wearing a Red Vest, which Zheng Qing had seen before in the procession of the Rat Immortal. According to the Ears Brother, such vests were a mark of honor acquired only by the most capable in the Mouse Clan.

And now, such a distinguished and capable Big Mouse was casually discarded in the dirt, thrown away as if worthless. Just turning the thought over in his mind, Zheng Qing understood the situation.

Elena and Korma must have met earlier, but their encounter was accidentally disrupted by a Big Mouse. The two women had chased it here, where Korma had taken the lead and ultimately killed the spy, then returned to continue meeting with Elena.

Realizing this made Zheng Qing even more disheartened.

Unquestionably, the topic the two witches were discussing must have been extremely important, so important that they needed to meet away from others, to the extent that even a well-connected third party who witnessed it had to be eliminated.

Recalling the ’Magic Power Transfer Array’ Korma had mentioned to him and Xiao Xiao during the winter, along with the potential targets for magic power plunder, Zheng Qing felt that the witches’ discussion must be related to that matter.

But what baffled him was why Elena got involved in this matter? She was neither born in North Beta Town nor a Trickster, and even though her academic performance was slightly poor, she still held the status of an official student at First University. There was absolutely no reason for her to participate in Korma’s dangerous plan.

As his thoughts were in disarray, two witches in the forest had already begun discussing how to dispose of the corpse.

”This must be a member of the Rat Immortal’s clan,” Elena frowned, looking down at the dead mouse at her feet, somewhat flustered, ”I don’t have any corpse powder or corpse-eating beetles with me... How do you plan to handle this? Don’t tell me you plan to just bury it here or throw it into the Silent River.”

The black cat perched in the tree couldn’t help but twitch its ears.

Elena’s behavior was slightly surprising to him, nowhere near her usual delicate demeanor; she nonchalantly suggested four ways to handle the body, sounding quite skilled. But then he thought, who doesn’t have another mask? He himself had been terrified by demons in private, but in front of Elena, he always played the big tough wolf with a tail.

Perhaps this was the difference between a Witch with a lineage and a Witch like himself with no solid background? The black cat comforted himself, hidden in the tree.

”No need for such trouble,” Korma chuckled lightly, plucking a tiny red ant from the slender branch in front of him and said, ”Not to mention these little creatures could completely devour the mouse’s bones... just these rampant Five Venomous Insects alone wouldn’t let this little mouse’s corpse be. The Mouse Clan has no idea what nerve they’ve hit, but they’ve been relentlessly hunting those bugs that have just surfaced from underground, now both sides are very fiery.”

Elena stared at the red ant crawling around Korma’s fingertips, saying nothing.

Perhaps she had already figured out the nuances, so she was not overly surprised.

The red ant wandered on Korma’s fingertips for a while and couldn’t find a way out. The Witch’s eyes showed a trace of impatience and with a flick of her finger, she flung the red ant to the ground, and by coincidence, it landed on the dead mouse.

The red ant had just escaped its dilemma, dizzy and disoriented, when it was suddenly hit by this giant piece of pie, suddenly overjoyed. It opened its jaw-like mandibles and yanked a strip of mouse flesh, then stumbled towards the distance, seeming to go for reinforcements.

Not far from it, including the two witches and a black cat, all watched the little ant’s adventurous ordeal without blinking, motionless.

It wasn’t until the figure of the little ant disappeared into the depths of the bushes that the witches began to speak again.

”I’m like this caterpillar, only struggling in despair,” Elena said, pointing at the caterpillar that had earlier fallen from the branch, then pointed in the direction where the ant had disappeared: ”You are like those ants, cold and relentless.”

Korma shook her ponytail behind her head and shook her head repeatedly.

”Bad analogy,” she clearly disagreed with the Gypsy Witch’s words, ”After the caterpillar forms a cocoon, it can turn into a beautiful butterfly. And the ants? After they finish gnawing the Big Mouse, does someone’s piss kill them in their holes?”

Her words were somewhat coarse, but the spirit of resilience was very apparent.

Elena couldn’t help but chuckle, ”First, the caterpillar I mentioned isn’t a caterpillar, but the seed of Return Soul Poplar, which can’t turn into a butterfly; second, even if I made you a caterpillar, you probably wouldn’t accept it... with those burdens from Gini Cottage, you can’t turn into a butterfly.”

Korma’s face finally fell.