High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1940: Chapter 161: Inside the Xi Suxing Formation

The Friday of the third week of September is July 30th on the lunar calendar, right at the end of the month. A sliver of a waning moon hung in the eastern sky, casting down a thin, dim moonlight that fell on the shrubs between the hunting grounds, making the shadows in the night appear even denser.

From the distance came a sound that didn’t belong to this piece of night.

A white-headed old man pulled its head out from the curled leaves of the scroll tree, cautiously stretching its slender neck to look in the direction the sound was coming from — this is a grass elf, somewhere between a shrub and a member of the chrysanthemum family, possessing a slender body like a reed stick and fluffy dandelion-like fluff. Their heads are hidden in that white fluff, like a lush head of white hair, thus they are called ’white-headed old men’ by the wizards.

White-headed old men are social creatures. When one sticks its head out, tens, if not hundreds, of white-headed old men have been startled awake. These grass spirits stretch their necks, open eyes as small as black beans, and uniformly look into the distance.

Then they saw a gleam of light appear in the shadows of the night.

When it first appeared, the light was very small, only the size of a rice grain. Over time, from far to near, the light continually grew larger, from a rice grain to a soybean, then to a fist, a bowl mouth, and a car wheel. The rounded light spot kept deforming as it moved, with the light pulling in all directions like a blazing flame.

”Faster! Faster!”

”They’re almost catching up!”

From within the flames came the shouts of young wizards: ”Stop wasting effort, just run with a first-rank battle array... a second-rank isn’t that simple! We’ve tried several times, hasn’t it always been a waste of magic power?”

Behind the flame, a group of creatures, like galloping horses, roaring like rolling black clouds, came rushing in as if to engulf the flames.

”Didn’t you say they look like dogs?”

A young wizard roared from within the ’flame’, raising the law book in his hand and continuously casting three softly varied Soft Leg Curses: ”I am a Dark Yellow Horse!”

”I Ma Hui Tui!”

”I’m a Dark Yellow Horse!”

Several pale yellow spell lights shot out from the law book, falling before the rolling black clouds and momentarily halting the ’horses’.

”Not the wind rises!”

”Final Wind and Smog!”

Two more spells flew out from the ’flame’, a whirlwind mingling a black-yellow dust storm that completely swallowed the shadows of the ’horses’.

”In a normal state.”

Then another wizard took a moment to shout back to the first wizard’s question: ”In a normal state, Getrassi looks like a dog... but if it has malice towards someone, like right now, it will change into another form. Many elves have such abilities!”

”This is the least elf-like elf I’ve ever seen.”

”Compared to these mules, I prefer Ninfus.” A voice grumbled like thunder: ”Even the small sprites of Cornwall County are cuter than them... maybe only Fence Fairies are worse.”

While speaking, the ’flame’ did not stop.

Instead, it swept past the white-headed old men like a gust of wind.

The grass elves, long awakened, screamed, the white fluff around their necks suddenly standing on end. As slight magic power flowed, a night wind swept up from the void, lifting the white-headed old men like a heap of snow stirred by a fierce winter wind, soaring upwards to escape to higher ground.

The shrill cries of the white-headed old men sounded like hundreds of birds singing in unison, piercing and smooth, startling the ’flame’ that was escaping like wind. The flame came to a halt, revealing a semi-transparent orange-red envelope beneath the flames, as well as the shadows of seven young wizards within the envelope.

They were the seven young wizards of the Atonement Hunting Team.

”What was that?”

The captain of the Atonement Hunting Team instinctively pulled out his charm gun, glanced at the ’dandelions’ that flew away, and then quickly and vigilantly looked at the shadows among the trees where the ’dandelions’ had been, his finger on the trigger, sounding quite rattled: ”Who’s there!”

”No one, just a group of startled white-headed old men.” The diviner of the Atonement Hunt interrupted their captain’s slightly overreacting response disdainfully, warning: ”Also, put away your charm gun... do you know how much this hunting ground costs? Selling your little store ten times over wouldn’t cover it!”

”I reminded him,” Zhang Ji Xin muttered quietly, uneasily tugging at his gloves: ”My brother told me that just the construction cost of this hunting ground requires nearly five hundred jade coins, not to mention the introduction of prey species and the school’s fines...”

”Doesn’t sound too expensive.” Jiang Da Headmaster interrupted the red-faced warlock’s babbling in a light-hearted tone.

This remark even left Dylan, who by all accounts was quite wealthy, in silence.

After a brief moment of awkwardness.

Xiao Xiao’s voice sounded again from the ’flame’: ”How much longer do you plan to dawdle here? We’re already not familiar with this Xi Suxing formation; once we stop, we can’t even draw out the fire energy!”

The Xi Suxing formation was the battle array used by the seven hunters of the Atonement Hunting Team, a small formation subordinate to the twenty-seven star formations. Once deployed, it could manifest a layer of fire-attributed envelope outside the battle array. For a hunting team that had mastered this formation skillfully, the envelope could even take the form of a house fire pig.

But for beginners, if the battle array could generate a flame-like envelope outside without needing to mind its form, that would already be quite fortunate.

Like the Atonement Hunting Team, where the envelope generated by the Xi Suxing formation outside was almost shapeless, barely a cluster of burning, crooked flames.

Upon hearing Xiao Xiao’s words, before Zheng Qing could speak, Xin Fat Man thoughtfully turned to look back: ”Speaking of which, we’ve been staying here for quite a while... where did those Getrassi go?”

Hearing this, the expressions of the others became serious.

The dust storm raised by magic in the distance was gradually dissipating, but the shadows of the Getrassi, which had been swallowed by the dust storm, had vanished without a trace, as if everything before had been their illusion.

”The rain passes, the rodents go away!” Jiang Yu was the first to turn his law book, setting up a protective array outside the battle array with an alarm function.

Then Xiao Xiao and Dylan, one in front and one behind, cast a Lighting Spell and an Exploration Spell:

”Hou Bi Xiao Xing, three and five in the east!”

”Appropriate of the Four Directions, Clearly Visible!”

Seven to eight chariot-sized orbs of light rose like candied hawthorn from the battle array, scattering at a certain height and, in an instant, illuminating a few square miles.

At the same time, an invisible wave of magic spread from the hunting team as the center, expanding in all directions. Within the wave’s range, every grass and tree, every insect and scale, was clearly reflected in front of Xiao Xiao’s crystal ball.

A faint, life-filled green surfaced on the crystal ball, giving an assurance-like feeling, indicating that within the surveillance range, no risk elements were detected by magic.

Seeing the surroundings calm and stable, the young wizards within the battle array simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief.

”I still can’t figure it out,” Xin Fat Man scratched his head, the bluish hue on his skin slowly fading, full of confusion: ”How did those Getrassi suddenly become so formidable? Aren’t they just a bunch of dog spirits?”

Furry Bean, squatting by Zheng Qing’s foot, meowed in agreement twice, equally puzzled on its dog face.