High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 778: Chapter 126 Mouse’s Warning Trick_1

Anyone would instinctively infer that when a cat is chasing a mouse from a far distance, the cat holds a beef against the mouse. This conclusion has nothing to do with any moral and ethical consideration, but pure instinct and logic.

Hearing Ding Dang Ears’ question, the black cat awkwardly averted her gaze, remained vague for a few seconds before devising another way to shift the topic. ”How interesting what you just said, haha... tell me, how did you discover me? Is it some sort of mouse magic?”

Despite not being a pedigree mouser, Zheng Qing was still confident in her ability to conceal herself, especially considering she even paid the price of a poor-quality Fu Lu.

It’s improbable that a little mouse could casually see through the magical effects of the Fu Lu!

Ding Dang Ears didn’t immediately respond to the young public-financed student, instead, she stuck the long twig she had been fingering from under her groin into the mouth of the tree hollow. Holding up the black cylinder towards the sky at an angle, she stretched her paw back underneath her again and began digging skillfully.

While fumbling, she contemptuously said to the black cat, ”How did I find you? That’s a joke... I need to use magic to find you?”

”Those two red eyes of yours, even a square away they’re blinding me. What cat runs around following others so openly, eyes wide open as if they’re afraid of not being seen!”

The black cat silently lowered her eyelids.

Oh, right, she forgot her eyes were a bit abnormal at the moment - maybe next time she shape-shifts, she could try wearing sunglasses? The young public-financed student vaguely remembered that in Harry Potter, after Professor McGonagall transforms, there seems to be a circle resembling glasses around her eyes. By rights, since that book had won the Wizard Alliance’s Nonfiction Literary Award, that small detail might not have been altered by the censors and is still valid in this world.

With this thought, the black cat finally mustered some energy to face Ding Dang Ears’ challenge again.

”I didn’t follow you!... This is all a misunderstanding!”

Faced with Ding Dang Ears’ doubt, the black cat naturally denied her own behaviour, emphasizing repeatedly that it was all just a coincidence.

”Whatever...” shrugged Ding Dang Ears, finally retrieving a small black stone and a smooth iron piece the size of a fingernail cover from her groin.

”Clack! Clack! Clack!”

The Mouse King held the small black stone and hit it against the iron piece producing a string of golden sparks. Only then did Zheng Qing realize that the stone the mouse was using was a flint. Moreover, quickly enough, she came to know of its use.

With inertia, the golden sparks drew a beautiful arc, finally landing on the finger-thick black cylinder. In the blink of an eye, a wisp of smoke rose from the black cylinder, followed by the crackling sound of a fuse burning.

”What the hell?! What have you lit?!” The black cat, instinctively took a few steps back, carefully watching the cylindrical object from which the smoke was getting thicker.

”Like I said, it’s a hazardous product!” Ding Dang Ears covered her ears and with a whoosh, retracted into the tree hollow.

”That’s not what you called it earlier!” Listening to that mouse’s explanation, the black cat was filled with countless complaints, wanting to voice them all, but didn’t know where to start.

”Shoo...”

The bright orange fireworks accompanied by a sharp whistle, flashed before the black cat’s eyes and shot towards the sky - not, the firecracker couldn’t reach the sky, but was blocked by the branches of the banyan tree above the black cat’s head.

”Boom...”

The crisp and loud explosion, under the suppression of the branches, became muffled and dull, as if someone had censored the sound with a lid at the time of the explosion.

The black cat was about to mock Ding Dang Ears for setting off a failed firecracker when an unexpectedly noisy noise rippled above her head.

”Tweet! Tweet! Chirp! Chirp! Cheep! Cheep! Caw! Caw! Coo! Coo!”

All kinds of bird-calls exploded above Zheng Qing’s head, as if the birds were holding a grand concert. However, the black cat felt no appreciation for the sounds at the moment, only a tingling sensation on her scalp.

If there was any animal in the academy that Zheng Qing was scared of, it would be, aside from the octopus in the Book Mountain Library, these ”little birds” that nest in the school forests - any other creature, be it pets from Pet Garden, tortoises and water buffalos from Lakeside of Bell Lake, or Ferna’s old dog named May, the black cat thought she could easily deal with.

All she had to do was become a bit bigger, or even bigger.

But these little birds were different.

Unlike the ’scientific method of distinguishing birds’ that Zheng Qing had learned over a decade ago, when wizards studied birds in the magic world, they not only had to distinguish the different natural species but also patiently analyze their ’lineages.’ For instance, judge whether there are marital relationships among different birds or whether they’re distant relatives beyond five generations, whether they have related families or sworn siblings, etc.

According to what the public-financed student knew, among the parrots in the reception hall of the Nine Realms Academy Office Building, there were a group of mynas as their relatives, who even formed related families with wild birds in the Silent Forest who loved dancing and stealing food.

As the saying goes, ’there are intimate brothers in war and fathers and sons on the battlefield.’ Once these birds in the academy got into trouble they loved to swarm together in large quantities, using quantity to overwhelm quality. Even if they weren’t able to win, they would still hover and make noise around your head all day, or drop a few warm, slimy ’bombs’ - for these creatures with short intestines, bird poop is their sharpest weapon besides claws and beaks.

It’s even more trouble than a bee’s nest.

And now, Zheng Qing was encountering such trouble.

Upon sensing the power of the firecracker, Ding Dang Ears let out a sharp laughter, her head shrunk and she completely disappeared into the tree hollow under the banyan tree. Before bolting, she conscientiously pulled at the tree bark either side of the hollow, re-covering the freshly dug opening.

The black cat, cursing silently in her heart, turned tail and ran.

Only, no matter how fast she ran, she couldn’t outrun these birds flapping their wings about. That was another reason the black cat hated the bird group - unbeatable and unescapable. These birds all flew higher than the others, even if she jumped from the wall or the top of the tree, she might not be able to reach them; and because they fly in the sky, their vision is wide, making it hard for a black cat on the ground, no matter how agile, to evade their surveillance.

Luckily, it was getting late now, and Zheng Qing was covered in black fur, which provided good cover for her retreat.

However, when she returned to the dormitory, her originally clean black fur was still smudged with a few patches of warm, steaming bird poop.