High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1365: Chapter 112: The Final Class

When it was Zheng Qing’s turn to wash his hands, it was already over half an hour later.

The Mulan Soup in the copper basin was still steaming slightly, just like it was when it was first brought to the lectern. The white magnolia flowers tumbled with the vibrant cattails and mugwort leaves in the clear Noon Water as if they were swimming fish.

At the lectern, Professor Li was emphasizing the point of not confusing ’Noon Water’ with ’Dragon Boat Festival Water’.

”...Let me emphasize once again, Noon Water is well water collected at noon during the Dragon Boat Festival; Rootless Water generally refers to precipitation; Dragon Boat Festival Water is not related to the previous two types of water for medicinal use at all; it pertains to a large-scale, continuous, torrential rainfall. You must clearly understand the differences between these three.”

”In the final exams of 2007, a student from Starry Sky Academy, Liu Xiaoyue, confused ’Noon Water’ for ’Dragon Boat Festival Water’ in the test paper. For an essay question that was worth twelve points, six points were deducted for this mistake! Because Noon Water played a critical neutralizing role in that particular potion... That error nearly caused him to fail the entire paper!”

”Everyone must remember this lesson well...”

Zheng Qing pricked up his ears and listened to the professor droning on and on about these cases, smirking to himself. At the end of the term, professors always revolved around similar topics, constantly reminding the lower-grade students not to repeat the mistakes made by their senior peers with such examples.

But the effectiveness of this method was questionable.

Because often, when repeated too much, the correct answers are forgotten, and inadvertently, those impressively incorrect answers would be written down.

The Mulan Soup in the copper basin looked scalding hot, yet it was actually quite nice.

Zheng Qing guessed that the water temperature was at most forty degrees. The steam bubbling up was probably the result of some medicinal ingredients in the basin reacting magically with the Noon Water.

”...It’s just a dog that’s learned to imitate a cat’s meow; it’s really not that rare.” Xin Fat Man muttered quietly. He was now rolling up his sleeves, crowding together with Zheng Qing, Xiao Xiao, and Zhang Ji Xin in front of the basin to wash their hands.

Zheng Qing was still holding a grudge about the dog on the Cat Fruit Tree that had pretended to be a cat.

”Indeed, not rare at all. I know of a dairy cow named ’Police Chief’ who specializes in barking like a dog. Sounds quite convincing too.” Zhang Ji Xin agreed, while he lathered his wet hands with soap, scrubbing out a handful of foam.

”Just keep an eye on it,” Xiao Xiao gave his final judgment. ”If there is a problem with it, it will slip up eventually. Just have your cats keep a watch.”

”Speaking of which, how is your brother’s campaign going?” Zheng Qing meticulously cleaned his fingers as he casually asked Zhang Ji Xin.

”Super boring.” The warlock with the red face shrugged his shoulders, looking somewhat disheartened: ”Nothing thrilling at all. I mean, I have to follow him to those endless symposiums, listening to guys not much older than us discussing topics that are incredibly sleep-inducing... But at those symposiums, I can see a lot of Hunters, including alumni like Albert Hettris Jin of the Alpha Turtle Shell, and Flamenco De of the Firebird.”

”Flamenco De?” Xin Fat Man’s bar of soap nearly slipped out of his hand and fell: ”The best Auxiliary Hunter in last year’s World Cup?”

”Exactly.” Zhang Ji Xin’s face showed a faint, proud smile: ”He really likes to wear that exaggerated pink cloak made of feathers, as reported in the newspapers... But I always thought he seemed nice, with an infectious smile.”

”Can I invite him for a cup of tea?” Fat Man rubbed his hands, his face breaking out into an obsequious smile, looking very much like a steamed bun that’s just been opened: ”Elders, we’re from the same Hunting team, helping me is helping yourself...”

”Students who are washing their hands, please pay attention, it’s still class time!”

On the podium, Professor Li tapped the blackboard with a slender teaching stick, producing a ’pop pop’ warning sound: ”... those who want to chat can do so after class.”

The four young wizards hiding in the back corner of the classroom immediately quieted down.

Zheng Qing washed the foam from his hands in the Mulan Soup three times as fast, then wiped his hands dry with the white towel hanging on the edge of the copper basin. He then smiled amiably at the little sprites that were floating midair.

The sprites called out ”Hehe” as they cheerfully dragged the copper basin away from that corner.

Zheng Qing finally turned his attention back from the idle chat among the boys to the classroom, where Professor Li had moved from classic mistakes in past final exam questions to the more specific craft of Magic Potion preparation:

”Last week in the lab, I noticed that some students began cutting cinnamon twigs without thoroughly moistening them, resulting in uneven and thickly cut pieces... If you do this during the practical exam at the end of the semester, you’ll pass only if you have been particularly diligent in your daily offering of incense!”

”As the saying goes, in preparing herbs, three parts lies in the knife work and seven parts in the moistening process. Moistening the herbs is more challenging and tests the level of Magic Potion preparation more than cutting them. Now, who can tell me the various methods of moistening herbs?”

The witches sitting in the first row all raised their hands in unison.

Xiao Xiao was on the same wavelength as them.

Zheng Qing and Xin Fat Man, among others, also hesitated briefly before raising their hands—within a short period, most of the classroom had their hands raised. In contrast, those who didn’t raise their hands became somewhat conspicuous under this atmosphere.

On the podium, the Professor nodded in satisfaction, looked around, and finally fixed his gaze on Nicholas, who was in another corner: ”Nicholas, please answer this question.”

All students turned their heads in unison to look at their classmate, who had already become a Northern District Wizard. Zheng Qing had some concerns in his eyes, but he saw Liu Fei Fei’s eyes were full of confidence, and he couldn’t help but smile to himself.

Nicholas took a deep breath, slowly stood up, closed his eyes, and began to answer:

”There are traditional methods of moistening herbs and special methods of moistening herbs.”

”The traditional methods use either rootless water or deep well water as the base, with common techniques including sprinkling, rinsing, soaking, floating, and saturation. Different methods have different requirements; for example, in the soaking method, the water level must be one inch above the herbs to be considered adequate.”

”Different special moistening methods use different bases, including alcohol moistening and other Magic Potion moistening; there are also special methods like steaming moistening.”

”To check the effects of moistening, one can use methods like squeezing by hand, bending, pinching with fingers, piercing, splitting, and so on.”

”Herbs that require moistening treatment include rhubarb, white peony, angelica, knotweed, yam, and the cinnamon twigs you just mentioned, Professor. In some cases, Turtle Shell and Beast Bones also require moistening treatment...”

”That’s enough, that’s enough... One hundred sleepy, one hundred sleepy.” Professor Li smiled and made a gesture for Nicholas to sit down: ”With such an answer, if you can’t pass the advancement exam, I’ll bet that no one in the class will!”

A round of enthusiastic applause broke out in the classroom.