High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1014: Chapter 76: Flying Crane

Zheng Qing arrived under the Cat Fruit Tree five minutes before 3:00 p.m.

So he hid ahead of time behind a bush not far from that large tree, cautiously surveying his surroundings, hoping to spot the one who had left paw prints on that note.

With the school year approaching, students gradually returned to the academy and their pets reappeared on campus, the Cat Fruit Tree had shed its holiday desolation, now flourishing with ’Cat Fruits’ once again.

However, this year, there had been slight shifts in the positions among the cats in the tree branches.

For example, last year’s small ragdoll cat had, in just a few months’ time, grown from about a foot long to over a meter in body length and presumably over ten kilograms in weight. Zheng Qing wouldn’t have recognized it if not for those round expressive eyes which had remained the same.

The change in size had influenced the ragdoll cat’s position on the Cat Fruit Tree — moving it from a lower spot to a higher one, where the sunlight was more plentiful and the air was fresher.

Another example was the former leader of the cat group, the Norwegian Forest Cat. Compared to last year, it had gained a scar on its face, which made it look a lot tougher than before.

Zheng Qing scrutinized the scar a few extra moments, highly suspecting the Forest Cat’s owner must be a student of Starry Sky Academy. Only a student from that academy would consider a scar on a pet’s face a badge of honor rather than erasing it with Magic Potion.

The Forest Cat’s spot hadn’t changed much from last year. Yet, from Zheng Qing’s observations, the big cat had been eyeing covetously the prime spot in the Cat Fruit Tree — Zheng Qing’s ’Throne’ — as if the past few months had revived its courage to challenge Zheng Qing.

However, the cat currently sitting on the ’Throne’ was not Zheng Qing transformed into Big Black Cat, but a little white cat.

The white cat was not even a foot tall, light and frail, with neither sharp teeth nor formidable claws, seemingly just a typical domestic cat. Yet it comfortably rested in the best branches of the Cat Fruit Tree, lazily napping as if completely indifferent to the envious eyes of the Forest Cat and other big cats nearby.

This was entirely thanks to the massive deterrent Zheng Qing had previously imposed on the cat group.

A borrowed authority, that was all it was.

Hidden in the bushes, Black Cat’s gaze shifted from one furry ball to another, carefully examining every movement to ascertain if any cat had surreptitiously sent him that paper crane.

But apart from seeing some cats lick each other or hunt bugs, there was nothing unusual.

Even their naptime postures had hardly changed from the previous year.

This greatly frustrated the Black Cat.

After observing for nearly ten minutes and confirming there was no way to identify the sender, Zheng Qing finally decided to show himself and see if the sender had any other requests.

He stretched his front legs forward, raising his bottom, and yawned a big lazy yawn.

Then he flicked his tail and started crawling out of the bush.

With each step forward, he grew larger and his presence more intimidating. Accordingly, his strides grew longer. In just seven or eight steps, Black Cat was already standing under the Cat Fruit Tree.

By then, his size resembled that of a black panther.

Black Cat looked up, inspecting his subordinates in the Cat Fruit Tree with a scrutinizing gaze. After a long ponder, he finally squeezed out a ’meow’ — benefitting from his thickened skin, he could now freely transform between cat and human.

As for mimicking a cat’s meow, after all, that was trivial.

No one saw it anyway.

Cats of all sizes on the Cat Fruit Tree were roused by the sound, and they all stood up, tucked their tails between their legs, flattened their ears, laid down their bodies, and obediently meowed in response to the leader’s call.

Compared to the other cats, Xiao Bai was much calmer.

She squinted her eyes, sizing up the Cat Leader under the tree.

Unlike the other excited cats, her focus wasn’t on the arrival of the Black Cat but on the color of the Black Cat’s eyes.

As a white cat with a wizard’s soul, she was very confident in her memory.

She remembered clearly that the last time she saw that Black Cat, it had a pair of bright red pupils—Xiao Bai was quite impressed by this because she once thought it was a Demon.

But now, she stared at the Black Cat under the tree, and its black pupils narrowed into a line.

The eyes of the Black Cat had indeed turned black.

This had not surprised her—or rather, ever since she had sent out that Paper Crane not long ago, she had foreseen this situation arising—Xiao Bai narrowed her eyes, a hint of danger flickering in her gaze. She clearly remembered sitting on the Black Cat’s head last semester, and also clearly remembered the scene where she and Li Meng had walked down the shaded path and scooped a Black Cat into their embrace.

This made her feel an urge to pummel the Black Cat.

Hold back, Jiang Xiaomao kept repeating this word in her mind, silently hinting to herself that as long as she pretended not to know, no one else would know about those embarrassing incidents.

A series of proofs in her mind had threaded through these color-changing eyes, causing Xiao Bai, amidst her annoyance, to add a touch of suspicion to her sentiments.

If the Black Cat really was Zheng Qing transformed, why could he change size freely? This completely contradicted the magic theorem! Could he be a Druid?

Zheng Qing had no idea what the white cat was pondering.

Feeling that the intimidation effect had been achieved, and the Norwegian Forest Cat and other Big Cats had obediently settled down again, the Black Cat shook its fur satisfactorily and shrunk its body back to about a meter tall.

Then, with a few steps of a run-up, he lightly climbed up the Cat Fruit Tree to his ”throne.”

”Ahem.”

The Black Cat coughed twice, signaling Xiao Bai that she could move over, as the throne was only for the Cat King to lie on.

Xiao Bai glanced at him sideways, with no intention of getting up, but just shifted her body sideways a bit, leaving half the space for the Black Cat.

The Black Cat shook its whiskers—not sure if it was an illusion, but when Xiao Bai glanced at him just now, he vaguely felt a tingling on his scalp—but looking at Xiao Bai’s petite figure again, the Black Cat finally decided it must have been an illusion.

It must have been because he stretched and pulled a muscle earlier, he comforted himself in his heart.

Seeing that Xiao Bai didn’t plan to move over, the Black Cat finally, purring, lay down on the remaining half of the throne like a Cheetah, raising his head and majestically surveying his surroundings.

Damn, he still hadn’t seen the identity of the letter sender.

The Black Cat irritably tugged at his ear, yet his body remained motionless, maintaining the demeanor that a Cat King should possess.

He had a feeling that he was probably going to lie here doing nothing all afternoon.