High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2739: Chapter 960: The Last Day of April

On Friday night, neither Zheng Qing nor Jiang Yu had any extra classes.

However, after dinner, he did not transform into a cat early as usual to go to the Cat Fruit Tree for a date, but instead focused intently on his homework and small tasks.

This surprised his two roommates quite a bit.

Until it was time to go to bed.

Setting down the bed curtains, Zheng Qing counted out five Nightmare Dolls, stuffed them under his pillow, then drank a potion made with Sour Date Seeds instead of Sloth Brain, and took a deep breath, closing his eyes contentedly.

The Death and Life Water is a powerful sleep Magic Potion, capable of putting the drinker into a death-like slumber, while using Sour Date Seeds instead of Sloth Brain makes it milder, preventing one from sleeping like the dead.

Zheng Qing did not suffer from insomnia.

He took this improved sleeping Magic Potion on Old Yao’s advice—Legendary Wizards always find alternative ways to provide effective magic shortcuts for inexperienced young wizards, like this improved Death and Life Water, which can help young wizards extend the time of their Art of Body Transformation, deepening their comprehension of this magic through reinforced practice.

After closing his eyes.

Just a few seconds later, Black Gem Cat’s once confused eyes slowly became profound next to the pillow.

It blinked its eyes, feeling something hard underneath it, and looked down to see an open notebook. Under the moonlight leaking through the curtain’s seam, Black Gem Cat scanned through the notebook’s contents with a quick glance and nodded slightly.

The open notebook contained a ’memorandum.’

Recording things to do after transforming into a cat.

Theoretically, the transformed body would forget many memories of the original body. Although in previous practices, Zheng Qing felt that the Black Gem Cat hadn’t forgotten anything—according to Old Yao, that’s a common trait among mentally strong wizards—he still listed a memorandum before sleep just in case, to prevent forgetting important tasks and really ending up just playing with his tail like a cat in the room.

The first item on the memorandum was to go to the Cat Fruit Tree.

Zheng Qing felt even without this memorandum, he couldn’t possibly forget this matter.

It wiped its paws on the pillowcase, closed the notebook, and jumped laboriously over the sticky covers—no easy task for a cat, as each step made it want to collapse and roll around immediately.

The canopy of the Six-pillar bed seemed somewhat heavy for a cat the size of a fist.

When it lifted the canopy, a bright light met its eyes.

Today was Friday, the last day of April, and the seventeenth day of the lunar March. Just past the full moon, the moon was still round, so the moonlight was bright and clear, making the whole world appear like daylight to the Black Gem Cat.

Jumping out the window, a soft evening breeze arrived, during the late spring season, the gentle wind and fresh air filled with the vitality and energy of the spring-summer transition made the Black Gem Cat want to howl at the sky.

But it ultimately was not a real beast, but a cat with a sense of civic responsibility.

So, it merely flicked its tail, quietly and swiftly disappearing into the night along the rugged mountain wall outside the window.

...

...

After the black cat slipped out the window.

Room 403 remained in silence.

For a long time.

A voice mixed with sigh from the Fat Wizard came out of the darkness.

”I originally thought he had changed his ways. Whew.”

Perhaps due to sleep, the Fat Wizard’s voice carried a slight snore, extremely sleep-inducing: ”Whew—I thought he wouldn’t wander at night until graduation... whew whew... As the saying goes, a leopard can’t change its spots, whew.”

”He’s a cat, not a dog.”

Xiao Xiao lay in bed, correcting the Fat Wizard with closed eyes: ”Besides, if your Spiritual Sense was just a bit stronger, you would have realized the one that just ran out was a cat, while our teaching assistant friend is still lying in his bed...”

”Doesn’t sending the body out to play count as playing?”

”That’s not for sure.”

The sound of a clear turn came from Xiao Xiao’s bed: ”—Danghag discussed for hundreds of years and never thoroughly clarified the legal boundaries between the body and the original... whether he’s playing or not, what does that have to do with us... now, shut up and sleep! We don’t have a transformation to serve as our energy potion for tomorrow morning!”

Owo!

Tuan Tuan on the desk voiced a howl in agreement.

The Fat Wizard still had other thoughts, but ultimately didn’t speak them out, merely mumbled two vague phrases and, turning over, quickly sank into a dream.

...

...

The Black Gem Cat didn’t immediately run to the Cat Fruit Tree after slipping out the window.

Since the incident last week, Zheng Qing knew the school had secretly dispatched guards for him. However, during the usual ’work hours,’ he didn’t mind the guards watching him 24/7.

But not tonight.

Tonight was private time, not suitable for spectators.

So, after exiting the window, the Black Gem Cat immediately perked its ears, widening its eyes to carefully observe any suspicious spots around. From what he learned from Hilda, the Wizard Guards of the Guard Team only hid in shadows during the daytime and rarely revealed themselves, with less strict requirements at night.

Because the night was the best shadow.

However, to a feline creature, there wasn’t much of a difference between day and night, especially with such a good moonlight tonight.

Sure enough, it only took a short time for the Black Gem Cat to notice an anomaly between the paulownia trees not far from the Dormitory Hill. The tree’s ’breathing sound’ was far louder than a tree should have been.

It cautiously tossed a small stone under the tree.

The tree’s ’breathing’ stopped abruptly, and a Grey Robe Wizard appeared next to the stone, did a quick check, then signaled safety towards two opposite directions.

The Black Gem Cat celebrated silently, praising its own wit, holding its breath and tucking its body low, quietly and without a sound sneaking past the three posts of the guards using the surrounding thickets and weeds.

Without causing any unexpected events.

If there were elective courses like ’Stealth’ or ’Concealment,’ it thought its rich practical experience should easily earn it a few credits.

This slightly regretful thought flashed in the Black Gem Cat’s mind and it quickened its pace slightly, running towards the direction of the Cat Fruit Tree.

The night was still long with the moon high in the sky.

...

...

Zheng Qing felt he slipped out of the guards’ encirclement with his tail between his legs, without a word.

But the Grey Robe Wizards responsible for his guard tonight felt he passed under the paulownia tree with his tail high, strutting.

”Don’t we need to send someone to follow that cat?”

The Grey Robe Wizard in the paulownia tree watched Black Gem Cat’s silhouette gradually fade into the night, couldn’t help but look towards tonight’s Guard Team leader, Master Ernest: ”In case it encounters any accident—”