High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1162: Chapter 224 Week 10

He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but Zheng Qing felt that Jiang Yu’s attitude towards him had grown quite poor these past two days.

During the Sunday evening meeting, because he submitted his line drawing a little late, Jiang Da Headmaster just left his homework and walked away, forcing the publicly funded student to make a trip to Professor Yi’s office to submit his assignment personally.

And then, during the first Curse Course on Monday, Old Yao arranged for male and female wizards to practice combat against each other, pairing him with Jiang Yuyan. While he was still bowing in greeting, a vicious Stun Curse struck him from across the room, knocking the warlock flat on the ground.

Luckily, they weren’t practicing the Binding Spell.

Reflecting on this scene afterwards, Zheng Qing couldn’t help but wipe away a cold sweat. Last semester, the scene where Jiang Yu used the Binding Spell against that silverback gorilla was the nightmare of many male wizards in class.

He had initially wanted to ask Jiang Yu how her investigation was progressing but under the current circumstances, he opted to wait and see, adhering to the principle of ”better safe than sorry.”

After all, he was an adult now and beginning to grasp that there are certain days each month when witches tend to be in a bad mood. Once those days passed, their tempers would return to normal.

”Around the 20th, huh...” Zheng Qing muttered to himself as he counted on his fingertips.

”What?” Sitting opposite him, Xiao Xiao looked up, apparently not having caught what Zheng Qing had just said.

At this moment, the two were sitting in a corner on the second floor of the Book Mountain Library, working on their homework. Since it was dinner time, the wizards at the other tables had left for their meal, leaving only their textbooks and feather pens to hold their spots. Thus, the surroundings were eerily silent, making any slight sound quite noticeable.

The young publicly funded student’s cheeks flushed at a visibly rapid rate.

”I, I mean, today, today is Grain Rain,” he stammered, struggling for a long while before finding an excuse that didn’t really seem like one: ”Grain Rain... I was thinking, after Grain Rain, the bugs on the island should become a lot more settled, right?”

Since the start of the term, coinciding with the end of spring and the beginning of summer, the temperature had been rising, and the Silent Forest was swarming with Insect Beasts, which brought a lot of annoyance to the Academy as well. Beneath corridors and behind houses, detestable insects would sometimes drop down, causing much distress to the students.

Choosing this excuse was quite appropriate.

Xiao Xiao, having not detected the fleeting thoughts in his companion’s head from a few seconds ago, nodded in agreement upon hearing his words.

”About right... after the spring thunderstorms, venomous insects breed, but after Grain Rain, they lay their eggs and then start to calm down a bit,” Doctor Xiao said, scratching his chin with the quill tip of his feather pen, looking out the window pensively: ”Speaking of which, your Blue Dew task and the missing bee case from last week probably have something to do with the season as well.”

Zheng Qing had already regained his composure.

”I heard the school is going to cancel this year’s Spring Hunting, is that true?” he decided to change to a lighter topic.

”Fatty did say that before, but until there is an official notice from the school, anything is possible,” Xiao Xiao retracted his gaze from the window and shrugged his shoulders. ”Last year, many claimed that the Hunting Competition was going to be canceled... but in the end, it was just postponed. It’s likely the same this year.”

”There are benefits to cancellation.” Thinking of his experiences during the last Winter Hunting, the young cost student felt uneasy. ”The woods aren’t safe... If the Spring Hunting is still held, I won’t participate this time; I’ll let the Elders lead. I’ll cheer you all on from inside the academy.”

Zheng Qing’s encounters during the various competitions served as a wake-up call. He had resolved never to compete under everyone’s watchful eye again. His first time at the Newcomers’ Race, a Big Black Cat rushed out from him and slaughtered most of the prey in the Hunting Ground; and his luck was even worse during the Winter Hunting when the timeline in his hunting area was twisted.

”Haven’t you already mastered the ’Yuan Chen Guardian Spell’?” Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses, surprised.

Zheng Qing recalled the two shadowy figures entwined with dark red flames in his mind and couldn’t help but twist his mouth into a grimace. At the beginning of last term, Professor Yao emphasized to all the students the importance of the ’Yuan Chen Guardian Spell,’ but up to now, not many in the Astronomy Class 08-1 had fully learned the spell.

Even the few who had partially learned it, like Zheng Qing, hadn’t felt the true power of the spell or understood why it was important.

”It’s hardly mastery, just a superficial understanding,” the young cost student said modestly, waving his hand to avoid his classmate from tossing a book at him. He quickly added, ”Actually, I doubt whether this spell is really that important... If it were, Old Yao would have spent more time on it.”

Xiao Xiao eyed the cost student, as if judging whether he was showing off or genuinely naive.

”In terms of learning about magic, Old Yao knows more than a hundred times what you do,” Xiao Xiao finally chose to believe Zheng Qing wasn’t showing off and patiently explained, ”Many ancient magics have various limitations during study... Perhaps, finding out the true essence of the ’Yuan Chen Guardian Spell’ ourselves is the most important part of learning this magic.”

”As for its power,” continued Xiao Xiao, his gaze wandering across the desk for a moment before settling on the belt-bound book ”Monster’s Monster Book.” Using a feather pen, he scratched the book’s spine, ”Just like this book, we have to choose the correct way to open it to truly access its contents.”

Then Zheng Qing saw Xiao Xiao’s feather pen’s quill being firmly bitten by a large mouth that suddenly appeared on the ”Monster’s Monster Book.”

”You’re supposed to stroke its spine with your finger, not a feather pen,” the cost student’s mouth twitched slightly, his tone exuding speechlessness. ”The borrowing rules are stuck on the book cover...”

Xiao Xiao expended the strength of nine bulls and two tigers to wrest his feather pen from the ”Monster’s Monster Book’s” maw; by that time, many feathers were already stripped off, making it look like a molting Fire Chicken.

”I was demonstrating for you.” Doctor Xiao wasn’t about to admit to his recklessness. ”Just like what I just did... If you only noticed the surface phenomenon, then you’re really disappointing me.”

Zheng Qing silently chuckled twice to himself and turned his head to look out the window, intending to cover up his classmate’s embarrassment with silence.

Then he saw on the small square outside the window, two wizards in white robes poking the chest of a Red Robe Wizard. Around the Red Robe Wizard, there were several students from Jiuyou Academy, but not a single one stepped forward to help.

”Isn’t that Nicholas?” Zheng Qing couldn’t help but exclaim, ”Is he causing trouble again?”

If he remembered correctly, before turning into a cat the last time, Nicholas was still hailed as ’Jiuyou’s conscientiousness’ and a ’true warrior’ by Alpha Academy, receiving praise in the newspapers for several days.

It didn’t make sense for Alpha’s people to be poking his chest at a time like this.