High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2102: Chapter 323: Burn Zheng Qing Da Parade (Part 2)

Two orange fireballs crisscrossed in mid-air, tracing elegant arcs like a deformed cross, or perhaps like a sharp pair of scissors.

The firelight fell.

A roaring fire instantly rose from the woodpile, illuminating the previously dim grounds to daylight, the dark red light dancing, reflecting off the bizarre masks like an impressionistic watercolor painting of mottled oddities.

The crowd gathered around the woodpile suddenly dispersed outward, leaving an extremely obvious open space between the woodpile and the people.

The drumbeat of ”Dong Dong” sounded from somewhere, causing the bonfire to tremble rhythmically.

Accompanied by the ancient and strange chant, a group of figures with fluffy tails appeared hand in hand, circling the bonfire, performing the ancient Witch Ritual dance.

The black cat’s eyes widened instantly, it couldn’t help but step forward, almost tumbling off the tree.

Then, it realized that those figures with fluffy tails were not fox race wizards, but merely disguised like everyone else tonight.

”Is it really this grand?”

The black cat couldn’t help but doubt reality — although it was mentally prepared in various ways, it initially thought tonight was just a masquerade revelry by fanatics.

Not this, a ceremonious speech and solemn blessing dance filled with an undeniable sense of ritual from start to finish.

”Grand?”

The Sin Bearer tilted his head to glance at the black cat: ”It’s always like this every year at the Halloween celebration... It was originally more popular between Atlas and Alpha, but this year, with the addition of Jiuyou and Starry Sky, it’s much livelier... But speaking of grandeur, it’s far less than decades ago... back when professors of the academy participated in Halloween! Alas, these days, no matter the festival, its essence is fading.”

The black cat didn’t pay attention to the few complaints from the wizard next to it.

It concentrated on the distant leaping firelight and the silhouettes dancing within it, very curious about how this ceremony would proceed.

While pondering, the wizard wearing the Xiezhi mask suddenly raised his voice and shouted, ”Bring the offerings!”

”Bring the offerings!!”

”Bring the offerings!!!”

The melodious voice traveled far into the deep night, resonating as if more than one wizard spoke at once, with a voice like a great bell.

The eerie and ancient chants around the bonfire grew more intense, causing the flames to blaze higher.

The black cat instinctively tucked its tail between its hind legs, arching its back, flattening its ears, watching the unsettling scene in the distance with vigilance.

The wizard wearing a white mask discreetly noted the black cat’s reaction, speculating about its identity — although the professor had recently advised him to keep a low profile for a while and not to provoke any relevant departments or the young wizards in those two hunting teams, this black cat was not included in the advice.

”As expected.” The black cat muttered softly.

The Sin Bearer snapped back to attention, his gaze returning to the bustling site, seeing four tall wizards carrying a huge wooden frame slowly entering from the side, with the crowd parting like a tide on both sides, leaving a wide path.

On the wooden frame, a tall scarecrow was tied, with a comical carrot nose and obsidian eyes, wearing a half-black, half-white hat and dressed in a plain white robe, with two signs hanging on the front and back of the robe; the front reading ’Sacrifice’, the back ’Zheng Qing’.

”As expected?” The Sin Bearer savored the phrase, his gaze returning to the black cat beside him: ”You seem to know that Zheng Qing wasn’t going to be the offering tonight?”

The black cat’s ears perked up suddenly, twitching.

”Hehe,” it chuckled dryly: ”After all, it’s the First University... it’s fine to mess around with customs, but going too far is certainly not allowed. I think the school wouldn’t permit burning a promising student alive in front of everyone... this is the First University, not the Inquisition.”

Boom!

The sudden burst of red light from afar interrupted the brief dialogue on the old locust tree. When the man and cat looked back, they found the scarecrow had already been thrown into the bonfire, raising red flames several stories high.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but while the flame burned, the black cat felt a slight prickling sensation all over, as if getting sunburned while shirtless under the scorching sun in midsummer.

Sparks flew everywhere, the atmosphere at the ceremony site nearly reaching its climax. On a tall wooden platform, four wizards dressed in four-color Institute robes raised their law books in unison, their voices thunderous:

”The procession begins!!!”

Boom!

As if in annotation to the statement, the roaring bonfire flared up once more, raising several towering flames, while around the bonfire, the crowd cheered and leaped, suddenly accelerating their spinning pace, splitting into four teams, each led by a wizard holding a burning scarecrow high.

Colorful spell lights continuously arose from the teams, transforming into spectral apparitions of strange shapes and varied hues.

The phantasmal apparitions swirled above the crowd, shrieking and dancing wildly, dragging long trails of magic light behind them, eventually crashing headfirst into the burning scarecrow at the team’s forefront. For each specter that hit, an excited cheer erupted from the crowd.

The black cat didn’t need to look closely to determine what was written on the signs hanging on those scarecrows’ chests.

”Heh, burning one isn’t enough!”

It muttered and mumbled, its expression becoming increasingly subtle, although it was hard for others to detect the slight changes on a black cat’s face in the dark of night.

After the procession circled the largest bonfire on the plaza a few times, it transformed into four fire dragons, advancing in four directions, with one coming toward the black cat. Unsurprisingly, this was likely the team belonging to Jiuyou Academy.

Sure enough, within the approaching team, the black cat saw many familiar figures.

For instance, the guy at the front of the team holding a burning scarecrow, whose burly figure was more than double the height of others, his pale blue skin shimmering purplish-red under the firelight, with an excited voice echoing like thunder:

”Burn him!”

The fat wizard held a torch high, filled with righteous indignation, surrounded by cheering crowds, all chanting ’Burn him’ as they moved toward the academy.

The black cat snickered repeatedly, contemplating whether to tuck a few nightmare charms under the fat man’s pillow when returning or have Furry Bean fetch his assignments and dump them into Lin Zhong Lake.

Three short little witches hand in hand darted in and out of the crowd, each holding a scarecrow with its head removed, occasionally screaming the slogan ’Burn him’. They wore fox masks, with fluffy tails trailing behind, though one tail was real, and the other two were fake.

The black cat twitched its ears, finding it unsurprising to see these three little girls at such an occasion, the only surprise being they didn’t drag Lin Guo into it.

This inexplicably comforted the black cat — after all, there were still people not participating in such a silly, ridiculous procession.