High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1405: Chapter 152 The Role of Gouzi

Zheng Qing’s head was under the bed, his butt sticking up high, like a little mountain.

Several sprites seemed to find this interesting thing amusing and, giggling, they landed on the ’little mountain’ with their semi-transparent wings fluttering, hopping and tumbling about in a commotion.

This tickled the warlock a bit.

He lifted his arm and scratched it while shooing away the little fellows.

”Stop it!” he turned his head with effort, trying to scold them with an authoritative tone. The sprites scattered. Then, the warlock finally managed to focus on examining the things under the bed.

But the object was dusty, covered with grime, and given the dim light under the bed, it was hard to make it out.

After studying it for a long time and confirming it was an inanimate object, Zheng Qing finally made up his mind, twisted his body, stretched his arm as far as he could, and poked the strange thing out with a brush.

This nearly made him fall under the bed.

Dylan climbed out of the coffin, ready to tidy up a bit before going to class when he happened to catch this scene.

”What are you doing?” he asked, holding a small brush, getting ready to clean his little fangs.

”Picking something up.” Zheng Qing’s voice was muffled as he replied, ”...there’s something under the bed.”

”Why don’t you use magic?” Mister Blood Werewolf looked puzzled, ”I remember you’re pretty slick with the Binding Spell... or you could just use the Mage’s Hand, that would be simpler.”

The Fat Cat lying on Xin Fat Man’s belly meowed in agreement.

Zheng Qing’s arm, holding the brush handle, froze in mid-air—he had forgotten that such a simple task could be done with magic. That’s the power of habit. Even after nearly a year at First University, he still hadn’t fully adapted to the idea of considering magic first for anything.

The dusty object had already been poked out from under the bed.

Zheng Qing let out a heavy sigh and tossed the brush handle onto a chair nearby. Only after disinfecting it would he dare to put the brush back into his Grey Cloth Bag.

”What is that thing?” Fat Man, scratching Fat Cat’s ear, asked lazily.

Zheng Qing hadn’t yet responded when Dylan answered, ”It’s a dead frog.”

”How do you know?!” Zheng Qing looked shocked.

”I have a nose!” Dylan pointed at his nose, took a sniff, then added, ”And I can tell this frog died less than an hour ago... the blood still smells somewhat fresh.”

”Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Zheng Qing felt a little disgruntled as he poked the dead flesh, carefully flipping it over. Indeed, it was a dead frog.

Its eyeballs, turned white, were half-hidden beneath its eyelids, giving off a sense of dying with lingering grievance.

”You didn’t ask me before,” Dylan replied, half-kneeling in front of the dressing mirror to fix his robe’s collar—for the sake of avoiding the mirror’s chatter, he had covered the top half of the dressing mirror with a cloth early on.

”How come it brought you a dead frog?” Xiao Xiao also got down from the bed, leaned over next to the dead frog, the Crystal Ball in his hand spinning rapidly, and a beam of white light fell from it, covering the dead frog.

”Maybe it thinks it’s a cat, and you’re a cat too, so it brought you a gift,” Fat Man suggested from his pillow, stroking Tuan Tuan’s belly.

”Like when the cats offered you tributes before?” Dylan nodded, ”Speaking of which, many cats do like eating frogs...”

Tuan Tuan made a disapproving noise.

”...Of course, those are all ordinary cats.” Mister Blood Werewolf, always smooth-tongued, didn’t want to offend the certain supremo of the dormitory, ”Real magic cats only like chicken legs.”

Tuan Tuan purred in satisfaction.

Zheng Qing felt that things were not that simple, so he frowned and carefully pondered the connection between himself, the cat, and the frog.

During this process, Xiao Xiao did not speak but instead focused intently on testing the lump of dead meat.

After testing for a while, he reluctantly nodded, ”It’s clean... it’s just a dead frog.”

This meant there was no curse or other unclean things attached to it.

Zheng Qing didn’t let his guard down and still cautiously placed a few Anti-evil charms on the dead frog.

Watching the wisps of green smoke rising from the Talisman paper, the young cost student thought for a long time and finally said uncertainly, ”Maybe it’s because I mentioned in front of it that I wanted a dead frog?”

That afternoon, when Zheng Qing left the School Works Committee Office, he kicked a stone by the lakeside and knocked a frog into the lake, casually saying, ”I want to stuff a dead frog into the on-duty Wizard’s mouth,” with Gouzi peeking close by.

After hearing the Warlock’s guess, his roommates exchanged glances.

Zheng Qing felt as though he had caught a clue.

”This sounds a bit mystical,” Dylan had already buckled his belt, ready to leave: ”...do you need me to help throw that dead frog out? It’s the middle of summer, it’s going to stink if we leave it here any longer.”

”Throw it out, throw it out.” Zheng Qing acted as if he could already smell the putrid meat, pinching his nose and waving his hand.

Dylan shrugged his shoulders, put on some silkworm skin gloves, and picked up the dead frog by its hind legs and left the dorm.

Bang.

The door to the dormitory closed behind him.

Out of the corner of his eye, Zheng Qing immediately caught a glimpse of the dusty Gouzi squatting behind the door, grinning and wagging its tail at him. The Warlock’s eyes swiveled to confirm that the other two in the dorm hadn’t noticed Gouzi’s figure.

”I want a live duck.” He raised his voice, word by word, commanding loudly: ”One, a live, duck! Duck!”

Xiao Xiao turned his head and gave Zheng Qing a look as if sizing up an idiot, then he noticed the cost student’s eyes darting around and immediately realized: ”Is Gouzi here?”

Zheng Qing was about to speak, but a glance to the side, and, ha, Gouzi had run off again.

”...It’s gone.” His tone finally returned to normal, smirking: ”Anyway, it’s free, might as well give it a try.”

In another corner of the dorm, Xin Fat Man was hugging Fat Cat, and both had started snoring. The duet of their snores, one after another, was synergistic and soporific.

”Let’s go to sleep too,” the Warlock yawned and pulled the curtains over his bed.

The lights in the dormitory dimmed.

The snoring also diminished significantly.

The Warlock gradually closed his eyes, and fragmented images in his dream began to erode his mind.

In the dream, Zheng Qing turned into a Black Cat again, only this time accompanied by a Little White Cat and a Little Fox. Together, they trespassed mountains and rivers, running towards a hazy tree shadow in the distance.

Running and running, thirsty and hungry. Little White Cat suddenly declared a craving for chicken legs, while Little Fox expressed a desire for duck legs, leaving Zheng Qing caught in the middle, with a headache. Finally, with a swipe of his paw, he decreed that whoever catches the prey would get to eat it.

Just as Little White Cat was about to raise its paw in agreement, it saw a sly grin spread across Little Fox’s face.

With a flick of its tail, it summoned a Psyduck with glossy feathers, petite eyes, and a plump body from the void, placing it before the other two cats, proudly announcing that they were eating duck today!

The Psyduck blinked its small eyes at the three salivating creatures in front of it, opened its mouth, and let out a ’quack’ of a pitiful scream.

Black Cat, annoyed by the sound, lifted its paw and grabbed Psyduck’s neck to the ground, pressing down hard.

Crack.

The duck’s neck broke.

But the screaming did not stop.

The dead Psyduck, with lifeless eyes and a flat beak opening and closing, emitted a headache-inducing screech, and the sound was getting louder.

Black Cat looked around, as its originally clouded gaze gradually cleared with the duck’s noisy cries, and the illusory dream also shattered into pieces with the commotion.

In the darkness, the Warlock opened his eyes.

Outside the curtain, a duck was squawking just like in the dream.