High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1127: Chapter 189: Trouble Brewing

Zheng Qing’s last clear impression of the ’patrol accident’ was Sepulano lying on the ground, unconscious, being carried away in a flurry by the patrol members who had arrived upon hearing the news.

The scene was a total mess at the time.

The only sentence Zheng Qing clearly heard was ”You’ve caused trouble again!” He didn’t know who said it.

”Again”?! Last semester, the Kappa Monster came knocking on its own; during the Hunting Competition, that Big Black Cat popped up on its initiative; he was totally honest from start to finish during the Winter Hunt, so was an outsider invasion his fault too? Besides, not long ago on Silent River Bay Road, it was the Giant Toad that opened its eyes first—everything he did was self-defense, do you understand self-defense?

Zheng Qing felt very wronged but found no one to complain to.

Because along with the other patrol members who had come to the scene were several teaching assistants from the Assistant Team, a few workers from the School Works Committee, and several wizards both familiar and unfamiliar to him.

The other Hunters from the Absolution Hunting Team were taken away by teaching assistants from the Assistant Team, supposedly to go to the school hospital for a body check-up for everyone.

Su Ya and Poseidon were taken away by Su Man, the head housemaid who had rushed over from Greenhill Mansion, carrying Su Shijun’s approval note.

Li Meng and the Big White Cat were taken away by a female professor from the school, and from the undertones of the conversation among a few adjacent teaching assistants, it seemed that this professor was surnamed Jiang, hailing from the Zhongshan Jiang Family, a distant relative of Jiang Yu, thus having some connection to Li Meng.

After everyone had left, only the young public-funded student remained, shivering in the cold night wind for nearly half an hour before being taken to his office by Old Yao, who was biting on a smoking pipe—Zheng Qing noticed that Old Yao seemed to have switched to a new pipe.

It felt different from the previous visits to the office.

Today, the two Door Gods guarding Old Yao’s office were not sitting on the ground playing cards but patrolling up and down the door in a very serious, very conscientious manner instead. The weapons in their hands scraped against the door frame, sending sparks flying.

Yu Lei’s big white cat with golden eyes was no longer as lazy as usual. Its eyes rounded, tail erect, it watched every passerby in the hallway with an energetic gaze. Seeing Old Yao and the young wizard behind him, the creature even bared its teeth, revealing a few glimpses of cold light at the corners of its mouth.

”Password!”

Noticing Old Yao intended to enter with Zheng Qing, Yu Lei steadied himself in a horse stance, stretched out a hand forward, opening his fingers in a ’stop and submit for inspection’ gesture.

His colleague glanced at him uneasily, while his big white cat drooped its eyelids and swept its tail back and forth on the ground, deciding not to watch how the situation unfolded.

Old Yao glanced sideways at the Door God.

”Camellia,” he grumbled in response.

Yu Lei pulled a piece of paper from his pocket, glanced at it, and immediately stepped aside to open the door, beaming, ”That’s right, this is it... Have you changed your pipe?”

Old Yao turned the pipe upward with a bite and hummed in acknowledgment with his nose before lowering his head and entering the office.

Zheng Qing hung his head and followed the professor into the office. Faintly, he heard the two Door Gods behind him arguing fiercely about where Old Yao had put his last pipe and what the meaning of today’s password, camellia, could possibly be.

As the wizard entered, the fireflies clinging to the trellis on the office ceiling gradually awoke, their abdomens slowly beginning to flicker with milky white light, casting a bright glow throughout the room. The curtains of the office were tightly closed, and through the slender cracks of the curtains, one could vaguely make out the pitch-black world outside.

Professor Yao hung his cloak on the rack on the wall, walked behind his desk, and began reviewing documents in silence, head bowed and not uttering a word.

As soon as Zheng Qing walked in, he started talking to himself: ”I’m really stupid, I truly am. I only knew that Alpha had colluded with the Lake Bell Fishman Tribe, but I didn’t realize they would dare to come when there was a patrol. After Hemingway assigned the tasks, I went to patrol, and the other hunters in our team even helped me; I’m the leader, they all followed my orders.”

”The hunting team was doing night training, so I went on patrol by myself, back and forth several times, and nothing unusual happened. When I got back to the pavilion and was about to rest for a few minutes, Poseidon started making trouble... it’s still young and doesn’t understand, and it ran out of the pavilion. Then right outside the pavilion, Sepulano was lurking, and Poseidon bumped into him head-on, getting a big bump on its head. Sepulano also kicked Poseidon a few times, quite unreasonably.”

”Since Poseidon was born, it has been with me like a son; everyone in our hunting team cherishes it.”

Hearing this, Old Yao’s mouth twitched, but as he did not look up, Zheng Qing did not notice.

”...Everyone was outraged because it was bullied, and considering that Sepulano had previously violated school regulations, I followed the standard procedure, read him his ’rights’ several times, and demanded that he comply and surrender.”

”But he attempted to resist... I never intended to kill him. My Fu Bullets were all hand-wrapped by me; there wasn’t a single lethal Talisman among them. They were all for control – Binding talismans, Suppression Symbols, Anti-evil charms, and the like.”

At this point, Old Yao finally could not help but look up, casting a glance at the young wizard.

”You didn’t mean to kill him?” the professor said, his expression as if he had been punched, ”Don’t you know how powerful the blood talismans you wrapped are? Didn’t you just blow up a descendant of Satoguya on the Silent River a while ago?”

Upon hearing this, Zheng Qing immediately shut his mouth.

After a short pause, he once again began to mutter to himself: ”I’m really stupid, truly, I only knew that Fu Bullets drawn with blood talismans were powerful and could kill the beasts of the Silent Forest, but I never imagined they would be this terrifying. I had originally thought they would only work against demons and such...”

”If you know you’re stupid, then stop emphasizing it!” Professor Yao, unable to contain himself any longer, stood up and scolded, ”When you joined the school hunt, you killed more than half of the prey; during the winter hunt, you jabbed a hole in the Silent Forest (referring to a newly born Secret Realm); when it was time for the spring outing, you ran off leaving no trace; and on patrol, you almost killed someone... Why is it so hard to get you to behave? Why does a simple patrol always lead to such a mess!”

Zheng Qing hung his head, filled with silent resentment—What does it have to do with me, what to do with you, what does stupidity have to do with it!

Of course, silent resentment remained unspoken.

So, no matter how much Old Yao spluttered behind his desk, Zheng Qing kept his head down, quietly taking the reprimand. He had to go through the motions—might as well get it over with quickly.

Even so, he would occasionally lift his eyelids surreptitiously, glancing to see when Old Yao would catch his breath or wind down enough to take a tea break.

Perhaps with too much frustration built up inside, Zheng Qing never managed to catch Professor Yao taking a break.

It was on the fifth or sixth time Zheng Qing glanced up when he caught a glimpse in the corner of his eye, a strange shadow on the curtains behind the professor.

A twisted shadow, one that resembled a ghostly apparition.