High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1090: Chapter 152, Week 7, Wednesday

The seventh Wednesday of the second school term was April 1st, Fool’s Day.

The lunar calendar read the 6th day of the third month.

Auspicious: Weddings, Tailoring, Hairpin Ceremony.

Taboo: Funerals, Market Opening.

Sometimes, Zheng Qing felt that the Old Almanac was just too accurate. It always seemed to channel that mysterious fate, remotely controlling the fortunes and misfortunes of the world.

Just like how today was Fool’s Day, Zheng Qing’s mind was preoccupied with guarding against pranks from his companions, yet unexpectedly, the one thing that tripped him up badly turned out to be his family’s little shop.

Three days had passed since the Magic Prohibition Festival, yet the tense atmosphere on campus hadn’t diminished in the slightest. The patrolling professors and school workers had exhausted every effort to mediate between students from the two academies, but still couldn’t prevent a series of continuous brawl incidents.

Students in charge of discipline from both academies wildly deducted points from students of the opposite academy: for example, creating a breeze while walking along the corridor, considered as running and frolicking inside the teaching building, deducted points; for example, running into senior students from the opposite academy on the Lakefront Corridor and not greeting them, considered rude behavior, deducted points; and again, for example, smacking lips while eating in the canteen, damaging the honor of the school, deducted points.

In short, the discipline of both parties had reached an unscrupulous level, with imaginable reasons galore for deducting an infinite amount of points.

In just three days, numerous students from both academies had had their disciplinary scores deducted to zero. This implied that the portion accounting for five percent of the term’s final grade had already bid them farewell.

Although Zheng Qing resented Alpha Academy’s misconduct, he nonetheless didn’t want to run into trouble during this time. Thus, for the past two days, as soon as classes ended, he would call his companions from the Absolution Hunting Team to take refuge in D&K.

That little shop was located at the tail end of Pedestrian Street, rarely visited by tourists or nearby business people, making it an excellent hiding spot.

Wednesday afternoon was a class on Philosophy of Magic.

Professor Yao spent half an hour before the class sternly criticizing the foolish behaviors of students from both Alpha and Jiuyou Academies, and then spent another half an hour before the dismissal, earnestly advising everyone to set aside their prejudices and focus on the witches’ greatest enemy, the Demons.

His approach was identical to that of Professor Emma during the Tuesday afternoon Astronomy class, which made one wonder whether this was a coordinated solution devised by the professors.

Honestly speaking, Zheng Qing was a bit disappointed with the professors’ old-fashioned, uninspired lecturing style.

And he wasn’t alone in his disappointment—students who shared his sentiment could be found aplenty throughout the Academy. Everyone was a university student, an adult; they all knew conflicts were not good things. But the current situation was beyond the point where a few words from the professors could calm things down. Everyone anxiously watched a Mars circling above the powder keg, not knowing when it would drop.

And the professors, perhaps their attention was more on that mysterious mission, had not fully realized the growing anger accumulating on campus.

”Perhaps they’ve realized it, but are also at their wit’s end.” Xin Fat Man leaned over the counter at D&K, writing a commentary to refute the fallacies in ”Beta Town Post,” analyzing the situation: ”As the saying goes, ’It’s better to dredge than to block.’ Both sides believe they have the moral high ground, leaving no room to back down... Maybe only after an outbreak will there be room to maneuver.”

”I’ll just assume you’re spouting April Fool’s nonsense,” Zheng Qing shook his head, bluntly expressing his disagreement.

Xin Fat Man put down the feather pen, looked up at the young state-funded student, rolled his small eyes, and bellowed, ”Then you tell me, how should the professors handle it? Use magic to erase the memories of students from both academies so they forget about the dung by the lake, or those mesmerizing speeches? Or maybe they should just blow up Lin Zhong Lake...”

”Blowing up Lin Zhong Lake is a good idea,” Zhang Ji Xin, who was sitting in the corner playing with Fat Cat, suddenly raised his head and said with a grin, ”Those stinking creatures in the lake are almost the root of all this mess... Just right, the professors blow up Lin Zhong Lake and boom, like birds flocking to the forest, leaving the land pure and clean.”

By the end of his statement, he even hummed a little tune.

This somewhat impressed Zheng Qing.

He had always known Elder Zhang Da was tough and had a fiery temper, but he had no idea the elder was also capable of such ditties. Indeed, looks can be deceiving; one cannot know everything by mere observation.

”Nonsense,” Xin Fat Man scoffed at Zhang Ji Xin’s words, shook the ”Beta Town Post” in his hand, and raised his voice slightly, ”Is now the time to quell everything with violence? No! Now is the time for a war of public opinion! If we really flip the table at this moment, the only thing we will prove is that we’re guilty, that we can’t out-argue them!”

”Look at what those Alpha People are saying... ’The Fishman reservation is a land of freedom, Jiuyou Academy’s rude behavior is an act that disregards the rights of the Fishmen’ ’The reservation is within Jiuyou Academy, and moreover within First University... The entire operation of the university is governed by its own logic and moral standards’ ’Today they use jurisdiction to block the Fishman Tribe, what pretext will they use to block Alpha Castle tomorrow?’ and so on.”

”What are these? These are Alpha’s current all-out efforts, occupying the moral high ground to attack Jiuyou. What we can do is to fight for that high ground, or find a higher position than what they occupy. Only then can we truly look down on those white-robed individuals with disdain.”

”Good!!” Zheng Qing clapped his hands enthusiastically, applauding Xin’s argument. It wasn’t that he was slapping his own face; he was just being realistic. The Fat Man’s point of view indeed aligned better with reality.

Holding the cat, Zhang Ji Xin let out a ’tsk.’

”Talk all you want, the Fishman reservation is still within Jiuyou Academy, not within Alpha Castle,” the Red-faced Male Wizard picked his nose and with a roll of his strange eyes, muttered to the ceiling, ”Lin Zhong Lake belongs to Jiuyou Academy, to begin with, and therefore should first abide by the relevant rules and regulations of Jiuyou Academy. Just as the Doctor mentioned before, the Fishman Tribe, being guests, even if they have their own judicial authority, can only apply it internally among the Fishmen and cannot overreach and go beyond the academy’s system.”

”Bingo!” Xin snapped his fingers, rarely agreeing with Zhang Ji Xin, ”That’s the key point in my article today: any rights of the Fishmen must be within the boundaries set by Jiuyou Academy. Otherwise, if the Fishman Tribe decides cannibalism is legal, should Jiuyou Academy also uphold their right to it? Of course not...”

”Whoosh!”

A sudden violent shake of the shop door interrupted the idle chatter of the young warlocks from the Absolution Hunting Team.

Curiously, Zheng Qing turned his head toward the doorway.

A huge black sheep’s head burst through the opened shop door, with half its body charging in.

The black sheep opened its mouth. Instead of bleating, it was Lin Guo’s anxious shouting that came through: ”Quick, close the shop door, the patrol is coming to trouble you!!”