High School of Demon Hunting

The calendar flipped to the eighth week, and the second semester of the first academic year was already half over.

The midterm exams arrived on schedule, accompanied by drifting catkins and flowers vying for attention in their beauty. The mood of most students in Jiuyou Academy was in stark contrast to the brilliant sunshine and lovely springtime outside the windows.

It seemed as if a sudden chill of late spring had set in, leaving everyone feeling cold inside and out.

At Jiuyou Academy, exams were the primary way for students to earn credits—even though the weight of mid-term exams in the final assessment of the academic year wasn’t very high. Yet, for first-year students, it was still an affair worthy of attention.

Furthermore, for senior students, credits were no longer just the essential capital for campus life but also a necessary resource for advancing to official registered wizard status.

Every official registered wizard had an essential difference compared to ordinary wizards, and this difference was realized through a ritual.

Most first-year students were vague on the specifics of this ritual. However, through half a year of being steeped in the academy’s culture, they’d learned that students were required to prepare and complete the advancement ceremony on their own, and the key materials and resources had to be exchanged safely and completely through the school.

But the school was surprisingly stingy in this regard, willing to trade these resources only for credits.

Hence, abundant credits were a formidable barrier lying in front of every student who desired to become a registered wizard.

Since these were just mid-term tests, the professors didn’t make it too difficult for everyone; all the exams were arranged as pop quizzes during class time.

Old Yao’s Curse Course was the first big class every week, and the prelude to the mid-term exams would start here.

As usual, Old Yao meandered into the classroom, swaying his head and humming a tune. But after entering, he couldn’t help but feel puzzled. The usual disorderly scene was gone, replaced with every student sitting upright at their seats, brows furrowed and faces grim as they flipped through textbooks and notebooks on their desks.

Some nervous students even clutched Law books, softly familiarizing themselves with spells and praying that the test wouldn’t involve any practice content.

”Did I assign any particularly difficult homework last class?” the professor asked in surprise as he walked up to the podium, opening his own notes to see what last class’s assignment had been.

”Isn’t this class for the midterm exam?” Jiang Yu, situated in the classroom’s first row and also the monitor, had to take on her responsibilities at the moment and whispered a reminder to the professor.

”Midterm exam?” Old Yao’s hands, flipping through the notes, froze in mid-air.

He blinked his dark eyes and, after a moment, gave an awkward smile, ”Oh, right, the midterm exam... Hmm. Yes, that’s a thing.”

With this, even someone as slow on the uptake as Zheng Qing realized that the professor seemed, probably, maybe, had forgotten about the midterms.

A low, unsettling murmur of unrest spread through the classroom.

”Ahem,” Old Yao cleared his throat twice and slightly raised his voice, ”Hm... Let’s temporarily schedule the midterm for the latter half of the term. For now, let’s open our textbooks to page one hundred eighty-nine. We discussed some characteristics of blessing-type spell formulas in writing last class; we’ll continue with that topic this class.”

With that, he gestured for Jiang Yu to come forward.

The witch walked to the side of the podium, looking puzzled.

”Hmm, this part of the content is quite simple; you should know it all,” Old Yao said with a smiling gaze to Jiang Da Headmaster, instructing in a soft voice: ”Go to my office, on the right corner of the desk, there’s a stack of exams... bring them here, we’ll use them for the test.”

Jiang Yu nodded seriously in agreement.

Not many overheard this conversation, but Li Meng, sitting next to Jiang Yu, heard everything loud and clear. She didn’t have the good manners of her cousin; she was quite talkative. Within ten minutes, the whole class knew.

As it turned out, it wasn’t just one professor who had forgotten about the midterm exams.

Professor Tesla, responsible for the alchemy course, had no concept of midterms at all. When he heard the monitor mention it during class, he looked astonished, took out the study plan, furrowed his brow, and read through it. In the end, he snorted disdainfully.

”A waste of time!” That was the old professor’s only comment on the midterms.

Of course, while professors could express their disdain for the midterms, that did not mean they would ignore the school’s rules and regulations. After scoffing at Jiuyou Academy’s method of teaching, the elderly gentleman discarded the school’s educational plan and left with a flourish.

He left his graduate students in charge of the midterm affairs for Astronomy Class 08-1.

The young teaching assistants, who had all been through this themselves, ignored the hopeful looks from the students, chuckled happily, and strictly carried out the tasks of in-class assessments.

Each student had to submit a proposal report on ”The Distribution and Dynamic Preferences of Wizard World Energy Measurement Method – Spiritual Particle Concentration in Three-Dimensional Space”, although no one quite understood the meaning of these terms, everyone felt it sounded very impressive.

Of course, not all professors were as casual in their attitude as Old Yao or Professor Tesla. Some adhered strictly to the school’s examination system, handing out test papers, setting up examination rooms, appointing invigilators; this caused many students to groan in misery.

For example, the Fu Lu Class, Astronomy Class, and Magic Potion Class.

Among them, Professor Li Qihuang posed the most difficult questions.

A paper with thirty-two questions, he mixed in a variety of subjects including herbs, magical plants, the formula for the thirty-fourth standard hallucinogenic potion, and key considerations for the visionary practice of Samādhi Fire—an aspect they had not yet learned—making Zheng Qing’s head swell and eyes glaze over. After one class, his fingers ached from copying so much on the paper that he could hardly stretch them.

”Why can’t everyone choose a simple and fast way of testing like Professor Yi?” the young state-funded student complained loudly to his classmates, sipping flower juice from his cup.

In spring, with flowers blooming everywhere, a drink made from nectar and floral fragrances was currently popular on campus. After classes and meals, it was common to see many people gather together, sipping away.

”If your partner was Nicolas or Elder Zhang Da, you would know that Professor Yi’s midterm was anything but simple,” Xin Fat Man grumbled, sipping his flower juice, responding indignantly to the young state-funded student’s complaints.

Professor Yibu Zi’s Divination Class midterm was of the practical type.

He asked everyone to predict a designated student’s midterm score and provided the necessary mediums for the task.

Zheng Qing’s partner was Xiao Xiao—a surefire way to score points. The young state-funded student didn’t even waste a bit of his magic power; he directly filled in ’one hundred percent’ in the divination conclusion section, then copied the standard answer from the textbook for the divination process.

”This is a sign of my trust in you,” the young state-funded student answered Doctor Xiao’s skeptical look.

”No, you are just lazy,” Xiao Xiao painstakingly worked through the divination of Zheng Qing’s exam score and ultimately filled in a hundred percent in the conclusion section as well.

Nothing could be funnier than this.

”You didn’t have to work so hard,” Zheng Qing said proudly, analyzing the situation: ”If you had a little confidence in yourself, you should have known that my ’divinated’ conclusion is absolutely correct... this means that my divination is completely right, and that I can get full marks... why bother with the crystal ball, turtle shells, or old grass calculations?”

”I can’t stoop to your level,” Doctor Xiao retorted with a cold laugh.

Besides the subjects mentioned above, other exams were hardly worth noting.

For history class, Sima Yangyun required each person to submit a ten-thousand-word outline of human history, based purely on what they had observed and read.

Zheng Qing also took up Fishman Language as an elective, and the midterm for this course was rather bothersome, focusing on translation of Fishman Language. The young state-funded student had to endure the stench in the classroom, listening to a young fishman on the podium squeaking away for an entire lesson.