High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1407: Chapter 154: One Dog Forms a Pack

The night was unbearably long, so lengthy that it felt as if time had stopped flowing, especially when you are eagerly anticipating a certain outcome, that sense of duration becomes even more profound.

After Zheng Qing issued the task, he originally wanted to go back to sleep, but found that with the ’sense of anticipation’, his spirit was in a state of excitement and he found it hard to truly fall asleep. It was not until he waited with hope for more than an hour, and Gouzi did not show up, while the clock hands had quietly swept past midnight.

The young wizard knew that he could not wait any longer.

There were classes tomorrow.

He used two sleep symbols, which finally freed him from the myriad of thoughts swirling in his mind, and he fell deep into sleep.

The effects of magic are always satisfying, and when Zheng Qing opened his eyes again, daylight had broken and faint chirping of birds came from outside the window, while the thin curtains fluttered leisurely in the breeze, creating a crisp and refreshing sight.

Zheng Qing stared at the canopy of the bed for a few seconds, then gathered his thoughts and abruptly pulled back the curtains.

There was no one in the dormitory.

Nor was there any sight of Gouzi.

From Xin Fat Man’s bed came the usual uneven snores, Sprites in twos and threes hung outside Zheng Qing’s curtains, disturbed by his pulling of the curtains, making faint Hehe sounds; some lively Sprites were already flapping their wings towards the washroom to prepare hot towels and plain tea for the rising warlock.

Following Zheng Qing in uncovering the curtains was Xiao Xiao.

Rubbing his eyes, he yawned enormously and squinted searching for his glasses on the desk.

After putting on his glasses, he glanced in the direction of Zheng Qing’s bed. The young cost student had just shoved his head under the bed. He seemed to be searching for something, but soon retracted his head, clearly disheartened.

Obviously, he found nothing.

”Just like what Fat Man said yesterday, you had too high expectations of it,” Doctor obviously knew what Zheng Qing was looking for, muttered under his breath.

The snoring from Xin Fat Man’s bed abruptly stopped, then the sound of turning over came from the curtains, and the snoring resumed.

”After all, it’s just a dog.”

Zheng Qing remembered the last words Fat Man said yesterday and let out a deep sigh.

...

...

Wednesday morning was a Philosophy of Magic history class, and the afternoon was Professor Old Yao’s class.

Compared to the simple promise with Gouzi, Zheng Qing had more important matters to tend to—like the daunting Philosophy professor and the upcoming finals and ever-increasing academic load.

Busyness and labor always erode one’s space for fanciful thoughts, and by the time Zheng Qing came to his senses again, the third day of the sixteenth week had silently slipped away.

Throughout the day, not once did Gouzi hide in a corner secretly spying on him.

When Wednesday evening came, as Zheng Qing and his companions dragged their weary bodies from the library en route to the dormitory, Xiao Xiao brought up the matter.

”You didn’t fuss over that dog today, did you?”

”Indeed, I did not see it.”

”Could it be that the task you arranged yesterday was too dangerous, and it got captured and cooked by that unfamiliar wizard?”

”That’s none of my business.” The young wizard thought about that terrible possibility, and his mood immediately soured. He paused before whispering, ”This is the First University... there shouldn’t be such terrible wizards here.”

Just like how the world of common people occasionally sees a few perverts, the Wizard World also has a small cluster of wizards who dislike small animals, and take pleasure in torturing and killing them.

”It might not necessarily be a wizard... Have you forgotten about the Little White Cat that got its eyes gouged out last year?” Xiao Xiao reminded, ”That Faceless Demon might still be hiding somewhere in the school.”

That statement made Zheng Qing think of Jiang Yu.

”That was just an accident.” He muttered, his steps growing heavier.

People who talk about accidents often end up encountering accidents themselves. This is not metaphysics, but a theory seriously discussed in the Philosophy of Magic class. Zheng Qing soon put this theory into practice.

When the group returned to the dormitory and just pushed open the door, they heard a shrill scream from Hehe inside. Zheng Qing froze for a second, then hurriedly rushed in.

He saw a cluster of Sprites fluttering in mid-air, their wings flickering, forming a cluster like a light green cloud. Beneath the cloud lay a strange black-robed wizard.

This wizard wasn’t lying down by choice.

Both his wrists, both ankles, the collar of his robe, and other vital parts, were each fiercely bitten by a scrappy dog, and a Fat Cat sat on his face, with its tail bunched up, blocking the wizard’s mouth—if the wizard unluckily opened his mouth, and the Fat Cat ’conveniently’ relieved itself, the scene would be too horrible to even think about.

”What happened? What’s going on?” Zheng Qing asked repeatedly while swiftly walking towards the wizard, with several Talisman papers secretly clutched in his hand.

”Poof!” Another scrappy dog suddenly appeared before him, sitting and merrily sticking out its tongue, its tail wagging rapidly.

Zheng Qing immediately halted.

His gaze wandered for a moment between this dog before him and several other scrappy figures, eventually confirming that they were all the same dog, only their figures had become somewhat fainter compared to last night, as if the difference between rich ink and light ink.

”Clones?” Xin Fat Man leaned forward and whispered in conjecture.

Zheng Qing seemed not to hear his guess, as he realized something even more unusual—the dog did not run away in front of the strange wizard.

”It’s not clones... It’s more like the same dog, briefly traversing shadows across different times and spaces,” Xiao Xiao mentioned, his hand unknowingly holding his Crystal Ball.

The Crystal Ball shimmered with countless fine lines of light, crisscrossing like a vast net of light.

Seeing Zheng Qing’s inquiring eyes, the Doctor pointed at the light net on the Crystal Ball and simply explained, ”Our dormitory, or rather, the small area where the dog appeared, has a slight disorder in time and space... This indirectly confirms its identity.”

The lineage of Miskatonic, a guest from Tingdalous city, a Hunter capable of traversing the rivers of time and space to hunt its prey. Perhaps due to its diluted lineage, its abilities in time travel and hunting instincts are much reduced. However, this does not diminish that ’trait.’

”A dog in packs,” Fat Man admired, attempting to get closer, but immediately, several scrappy dogs leapt out of the void, blocking his path, baring their teeth and emitting threatening growls from their throats.

Xiao Xiao pulled Fat Man back.

”Theoretically, gaps in time-space are infinitely vast; even a second can be infinitely subdivided,” Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses and simply explained, ”This also means it can summon countless ’selves’ from the gaps in time and space... as long as magic power and mental strength can support it.”