High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1850: Chapter 71: Glorious Skulls

”Damn it!”

The fat man cursed as he put away his blood-drenched silver knife, tore off his silk gloves, and tossed them onto the bloodied captive in front of him: ”Couldn’t it have been just a few minutes later?”

Before his words had settled, a ripped talisman paper floated down beside him, landing on the ogre’s corpse.

A sudden blue flame, thin and faint yet exceptionally intense, spread rapidly around the talisman paper, covering the entire ogre in an instant, reducing its body and those silk gloves to ashes in the blink of an eye.

The fat man turned his head to see Zheng Qing holding another talisman paper and looking around.

”Are there any other corpses we haven’t burned?”

The Absolution Hunting Team Leader sounded a bit anxious: ”Ogres have keen noses; we must clean this place thoroughly before they get too close!”

”Relax, take it easy.”

It was the previously more agitated fat man who instead comforted Zheng Qing: ”Ogres can smell blood from miles away, not to mention if there’s a two-headed ogre among them... It’s almost impossible to completely isolate from five minutes away. We can only rely on the Monitor’s array.”

Jiang Yu’s calm voice suddenly echoed in their ears: ”Odor isolation is no problem, but the illusion array isn’t completely set up yet... Do you have any corpses left unburned? Using corpses as the array’s base could make the illusion affecting the ogres more realistic.”

”No, they’ve all been burned.”

The main hunter of Absolution Hunting Team chimed in apologetically: ”I just checked again; the cleaning is very thorough... Will the ogres’ heads do? They hung a bunch of preserved ones in the main tent, looking like artwork.”

When Zheng Qing arrived outside the main tent, he saw Li Meng leading a one-eyed crow, looking around and strutting outside the tent.

The one-eyed crow had a ruby-like eye on its forehead, and its body was plump, resembling an old hen. One leg had a copper ring, from which a thin chain stretched, with the other end held by the little witch.

Before Zheng Qing could speak, Li Meng couldn’t wait to boast: ”This crow looks better than your little snake! My sister found it while checking the land energy at the edge of the camp!”

The one-eyed crow tilted its head, staring at the young cost student, without a sound.

Zheng Qing always felt its gaze was somewhat sneaky.

”Isn’t this crow called Xiao Hei?” The warlock stopped and smiled.

Li Meng’s eyes lit up, she punched her palm: ”I knew I forgot something... Yes, you’ll be called Xiao Hei from now on!”

The one-eyed crow tilted its head, slightly spreading its wings, shaking its body, still silent.

”What will you do with your Xiao Bai?” Zheng Qing joked. Xiao Bai was Li Meng’s pigeon, not on good terms with Poseidon. The two little creatures often fought when they met.

The little witch apparently hadn’t thought about such distant issues and instantly had a headache, but quickly, she shook the chain, waving her hand: ”Hey, it’s no problem... I can still afford to keep two birds.”

Zheng Qing didn’t doubt this at all.

He murmured, complimented her a couple of times, and watched the little witch continue proudly walking the bird. Eventually, he shook his head, lifted the tent’s curtain, and went inside.

Unlike the wizards’ tents, the ogres’ tents didn’t have space magic enhancements, so even the largest tent in the camp still felt cramped and dimly lit. The small space carried a faint stench and burnt odor left by the ogres whose necks were twisted and burnt to ashes earlier.

The dark fire pit was filled with grayish-white embers, interspersed with a few charred black bones; the bedding was made of soft cattail and beast hides, but now only some dirty cattails remained, the beast hides having been taken by Xin.

The entire tent was extremely simple, without exquisite decoration or dazzling gemstones. The only thing that could denote the tent owner’s identity was the totem pole standing in the center, carved with primitive patterns layered one after another, unexpectedly creating a bizarre intricate beauty.

With the light cast by ’Little Star’ wandering across the tent’s top, Zheng Qing saw the ogre heads Zhang Ji Xin mentioned.

Those ogre heads were only the size of fists, dark and shriveled, like dried green walnuts. They were woven together with the dirty hair from the back of their heads, resembling a string of black garlic.

”They were originally hanging in the gap behind the totem pole, so they weren’t noticed during the first sweep.” The red-faced warlock explained to the team leader while weighing the string of ’garlic’.

The tent’s curtain lifted again, a breeze brought in a fresh scent, making Zheng Qing’s nose feel much better.

”Are these ogres’ ’Glorious Skulls’?”

Jiang Yu, who had just walked into the tent, immediately noticed the string of heads Zhang Ji Xin was holding, and exclaimed: ”I thought only tribes with hundreds of ogres would have such things?”

Being called ’Glorious Skulls’, naturally, wasn’t a title ordinary ogre heads could covet. In ogre tribes, only the most powerful ones, those having had the chance to challenge the tribal leader but failed and died on the spot, had their heads picked by the ogre shaman to become Glorious Skulls.

The older and more orderly tribes had more Glorious Skulls. They were not only symbols of tribal glory but also powerful magic artifacts that could help the tribal shaman cast strong black magic curses.

Upon hearing Jiang Yu’s judgment, the expressions of the two male wizards instantly became serious.

Zheng Qing reached out two fingers, pinched the chin of one ogre head—not worried that these stitched-mouthed shriveled heads would suddenly bite, but out of a sense of ’cleanliness’ and ’caution’—and moved it under a Little Star, carefully examining it for a moment.

”Why?” He suddenly asked, seemingly without reason.

Both companions understood his intent—why did such a small tribe have so many Glorious Skulls? Why didn’t the ogres use this string of skulls during Absolution Hunting Team’s raid? Where was the ogre shaman managing the skulls? If the two-headed ogre was the tribe’s shaman, why didn’t he carry these Glorious Skulls with him?

So many questions swirled in the head of the Absolution Hunting Team Leader that he suddenly regretted not leaving a couple of tongues alive.

”Let’s not think too much about it; first deal with those returning ogres and then worry about other things.” Zhang Ji Xin decisively stopped Zheng Qing from pondering too much on this matter and turned to Jiang Yu: ”Can these heads be used?”

He referred to using these ’heads’ to enhance the array set up by the witches.

”They should do.”

Jiang Yu wore silk gloves, hesitantly grabbed a Glorious Skull, and scrutinized it: ”These heads have been magically preserved, filled with a peculiar ogre magic power... Theoretically, they should outperform the effect of ordinary ogre corpses.”