High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1322: Chapter 69: Quanke Comes

The annoying inspection didn’t last long.

Although the goldfish guard had poor memory, it was responsible enough. After confirming the identities of several guests, it released a large bubble, allowing them to enter, then pushed the bubble with its tail into the pond.

From the outside, the pond looked clear and shallow.

But once the bubble fell into the pond, Zheng Qing felt like he was in a high-speed elevator—the transparent bubble walls flashed with lights and shadows, slender fish, oval scallops, and sideways crabs, all glimmering with colored magic halos that dazzlingly blurred his vision until he had to close his eyes.

When Zheng Qing felt the bubble shake slightly and reopened his eyes, a deep blue world was before him.

It was as if he were at the very bottom of the sea, yet he could still see the brilliant Milky Way above.

This contradictory and novel feeling left the young wizards rooted to the spot for a moment, only looking up and admiring the magnificent and magical scenery of nature.

”Spring Guest welcomes you,” a large blue-black crab, waving its huge pincers with magic bouquets held within, rasped in a voice like a brush scouring wood, low and rough, ”...Newcomers, don’t stand in the doorway, you’re blocking the way for other guests.”

Zheng Qing snapped out of his reverie, quickly grabbed the witch, and hurried away.

Unlike the bustling Pedestrian Street in Hui Zi Ji, Four Seasons Pavilion, or Beta Town, Spring Guest’s market lay underwater, which gave it two distinct features—high humidity and dim light.

Although the organizers used a huge bubble-like barrier to keep the Market from making direct contact with seawater, thus creating an air-filled world for land-dwelling guests to shop comfortably, it was ultimately an aquatic world. For the health of the aquatic life, the humidity inside the market was particularly high.

Zheng Qing felt like he was spouting water like a whale with every breath he took.

As for the dimness, the market organizers replaced natural light with plenty of magic light to compensate well for this limitation.

Fist-sized luminous pearls were embedded in the coral trees all around, shining brightly; glowing octopuses climbed freely on the bubble walls, shedding orange or white light that changed with the water temperature and their mood; and on both sides of the streets, owners of stone shops lit candles and oil lamps, attracting every passing customer.

The aquatic life used different oil lamps than the terrestrial wizards.

Wizards on land preferred to use precious marine oils like whale oil, shark oil, and Jiao oil as fuel. In contrast, the magical sea beings ingenely used equally rare oils like pig oil, monkey oil, and giant oil as fuel.

Roughly made black candles in low stone houses struggled to burn, their flames bright red, occasionally bursting with gold sparks and making slight crackling noises.

Everyone’s face seemed covered by a thin veil of black gauze, mysteriously deepening their aura.

Unlike the noisy and bustling markets above ground, the underwater market resembled the fabled ghost market, so quiet it raised goosebumps. Zheng Qing felt like each step they took was like walking deeper into mud, the humidity and silence oppressively suffocating.

”This place can’t always be this quiet, right?” His lips barely moved as he questioned his two companions in a mosquito-like voice—then he saw two businessmen exchanging goods in the ancient method of arm folding and finger pinching.

Jiang Yuyan gave his shoulder a comforting pat.

Little Fox in Zheng Qing’s arms struggled fiercely, trying to break free and frolic outside. The young scholarship student had to find a rope to tie it to his wrist, lest it sneak away when he wasn’t looking.

”Behave!” the Warlock whispered irritably, ”This isn’t school... be careful, or the Yan people might catch you and make a fox fur coat!”

”Its size is too small to make a fox fur coat... at most, it could make a hat,” Xiao Xiao kindly corrected.

These terrifying descriptions finally made Poseidon settle down a bit.

Of course, what probably calmed it down more was the small octopus it held in its claws.

As they passed a coral tree just now, Zheng Qing saw this glowing octopus climbing up a branch, so he picked it off and gave it to Little Fox as a toy.

Little Fox played joyfully, but Mr. Octopus was quite annoyed— the light emanating from its head had turned from creamy white to a bright red, like a flow of molten lava.

The luminous red light illuminated the nearest shop, where a fresh green hairy tortoise shell hung from the stone lintel, its slender green fur undulating slowly in the moist air as if still alive.

Peeking his head in, Zheng Qing saw it was a shop that specialized in selling turtle shells.

With just a glance, he saw longevity tortoises, sea turtles, mud turtles, old turtles, alligator turtles, tide turtles, pentagon turtles, and many other distinctly featured turtle shells, stacked up in piles inside the shop. A tall fishman was anxiously looking at a large scale in his hands.

Seeing a customer peeking, a flicker of happiness crossed the fishman’s eyes, and he tossed the scale weight, hissing, ”Need some turtle shells? For divination, medicinal purposes, or array engraving, we have all sorts available, priced per piece, fair to all! The cheapest one for one copper!”

The young student laughed apologetically twice and swiftly retracted his head.

”You could buy some,” Zheng Qing glanced at Xiao Xiao, who was always by his side, and suggested, ”The turtle shells here are very cheap... Don’t you prefer to use turtle shells when you do your divinations?”

”At home, it’s free,” Xiao Xiao’s goatee perked up as he replied with unusual brevity.

Zheng Qing uttered an ’Oh’, his eyes already drawn to the next shop. He surveyed everything that was distinctly different from the ground level with great interest.

A short, shriveled elder wizard was jumping up and down in front of a slender merman, shouting, ”... it’s robbery! Last year, a foot of shark silk was only three beans and five coppers, how could it become five beans this year?”

The merman raised his hand and pointed at a blackboard hanging in the shop.

It read, ’Due to the La Niña phenomenon, the eastern ocean has unusually cooled, causing a significant reduction in the 08-09 annual production of shark silk. This price change has been verified by Spring Guests, with no price gouging involved.’

The shriveled old wizard’s eyes swiveled around, and he muttered, ”What if I buy over a hundred feet, could you spare me ten shark pearls?”

It is said that shark pearls, pearls formed from mermen tears, are used extensively in many magic potions and are priced more than double that of ordinary pearls.

Zheng Qing had never seen such a haggler, and he couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

The mermen don’t deal with wizards often, but that doesn’t mean they’re foolish.

”No!” the shop owner, selling shark silk, finally spoke up firmly, denying, ”At a loss!”

Her voice was clear, with a melodious charm akin to a small singing bird.

”Nine pearls?”

”Eight pearls... seven should be fine, right?! Last year when I bought some, you spared me five, it’s so expensive this year, giving two more shouldn’t matter!”