High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1527: Chapter 271: Dog Catches Mice

No one can survive an explosion like that.

Perhaps a Big Wizard might.

”He must have perished along with those demons.” Zhang Ji Xin’s flushed face took on a hint of purple, faintly pulsating with an emotion called ”admiration”: ”A true warrior, unwavering battle spirit in the face of death, and an unyielding determination to oppose evil... Great and glorious! If he were in my family, such an act would earn him a place in the ancestral shrine, enjoying incense from future generations.”

Perhaps he thought the greatest glory in this world was to enjoy the incense offerings in the Zhang family’s ancestral shrine.

Jiang Yu bit her lip uneasily.

Although she had a good relationship with Zheng Qing, she still felt Zhang Ji Xin’s ”sentiment” was somewhat off.

”The captain is impressive, but he isn’t the kind of person you’re describing.” Compared to her, Xin Fat Man was much more casual, immediately commenting, ”I suspect he knew he had a way to resurrect, and that’s why he decided to die so decisively...”

”It might not necessarily be resurrection,” Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses, slowly rotating the crystal ball in his hand, pondering aloud, ”The spatial barrier within Dreamland is famously fragile. With such a large-scale explosion, it’s entirely possible to have created a few spatial vortices on the spot... Maybe the captain didn’t die, but was sucked into a vortex and ended up in an otherworldly realm.”

This is the favorite trope in the Wizard World’s youth reading materials—wizards stranded in other realms using magic to conquer entire worlds, discovering the inheritance of a nameless elder wizard and leveling up instantly, becoming a Legendary Wizard who then dominates everything, and so on.

All Xiao Xiao did was merge the young wizards’ fantasies with a bit of reality. Moreover, this was Dreamland, where the line between fantasy and reality was naturally thin.

Seeing the conversation veer once more into the unknown, Jiang Yu finally couldn’t hold back and interrupted the wizards’ rambling.

”The most important thing right now,” she said, turning to Xiao Xiao and slightly increasing the intensity in her tone, ”is to determine whether he’s alive. Out of all of us, your divination skills are the most advanced. Have you seen anything?”

The Hunting Team’s diviner had been staring at his crystal ball for quite some time.

”Uncertain.” Xiao Xiao didn’t offer false hope to comfort her and answered honestly, ”Strong magic effects are interfering with the divination results. It’s difficult to distinguish how much in those distorted images pertains to reality versus how much belongs to the peculiarities of this world.”

This world is Dreamland.

Dreamland’s specialty is fantasy and falsity.

The witch let out a small sigh, her gaze scanning the surroundings: ”Where’s Furry Bean? Where did it go?”

She wanted to use Furry Bean to locate Zheng Qing. Much like how, in a desert, sometimes relying on an old trail horse was more reliable than casting a ”Fixed In The Middle” spell. Compared to sophisticated magic techniques, at times, the most traditional and primitive magical methods were more trustworthy.

Xin Fat Man regained his senses and glanced around as well.

”It was just here,” he blinked, then his voice suddenly carried a trace of excitement: ”Could it have found the captain’s tracks? Furry Bean? Furry Bean!!”

A dusty gray figure suddenly darted out of nowhere, tripping as if it had stumbled over a threshold—head first, it plunged into the charred ashes.

But in an instant, it pulled its head out of the ashes, shook its dirty little head, and happily wagged its tail at the young wizards.

”Meow!” It let out an energetic cry.

Jiang Yu squatted down and took out a handkerchief, wiping off the soot that had smudged the dog’s head.

”Did you find him?” she asked softly.

The dog’s wagging tail drooped, and its voice softened along with it: ”Meow.”

The witch stroked its ears gently in a comforting manner, pursuing her question: ”Then what were you doing just now?”

”Meow meow!” Furry Bean’s tail pointed straight toward a spot at the boundary between the charred plain and the Enchanting Forest, and it meowed repeatedly. However, limited by its scarce vocabulary, the young wizards were left puzzled, unable to grasp what it was trying to convey.

”Why don’t we go over and take a look?” Zhang Ji Xin, as the Hunting Team’s Main Hunter, demonstrated enough courage and decisiveness at that moment.

The group arranged into a small Four-symbol Formation and followed the dog, gradually approaching the area.

There, the young wizards saw densely-packed, thin fungi, as well as numerous fallen, dying trees. Their trunks bore greenish-white moss, upon which were a series of tiny footprints.

”These are Zu Ge’s tracks.” Xiao Xiao crouched before the series of tiny footprints, carefully examining them for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

”Meow meow!”

Furry Bean squatted before a crevice formed by intersecting tree branches and the ground. It turned its head back to look at the young wizards and called twice, lowering its body to stretch its paw inside, trying hard to scratch at something.

The forest floor’s layer of humus had been scraped into a shallow pit, looking rather untidy.

Jiang Yu opened her Law book and began chanting in a low voice: ”Binding Spell!”

From the void stretched out a few vines, dangling down as they attempted to latch onto the fallen tree. But the crevice between the tree and the ground was too narrow—the thicker vines couldn’t fit through, and the thinner ones couldn’t lift it up.

”Is there something inside?” Fat Man, somewhat slow on the uptake, pulled out his Law book, glanced at the fallen tree, scratched his head, and stuffed the book back into his watch before rubbing his hands together.

”Let me handle it!” he hollered, stretching as he prepared himself. His body turned a glowing blue, rapidly expanding like an inflatable balloon. In moments, Zhang Ji Xin’s head could barely reach his kneecaps.

A gigantic hand descended from above, grasping the massive fallen tree as though he were picking up kindling, lifting not only the fallen tree but several other dead ones that were connected to it.

Falling moss and fragmented wood chips scattered into the air, temporarily obscuring the young wizards’ view.

Taking advantage of this, a brown figure hiding beneath the tree shot outward in a blur.

But it paid too much attention to avoiding the young wizards and completely overlooked the dusty gray dog—even if it had noticed, and even if it attempted to evade, it wouldn’t have escaped Furry Bean’s claws in such an open area.

Moments later.

As the swirling dust settled and visibility returned.

Jiang Yu saw the dusty gray dog squatting at her feet, its paw firmly pressing down on a slender brown tail—tail attached to a rather dejected Enchanting Mouse.

”Pat pat pat.” The Enchanting Mouse raised its tiny paws, patting its chest in an expression of indignation.

”What’s it saying?” Zhang Ji Xin rubbed his chin, puzzled by Zu Ge’s display of interpretative dance: ”I recall this is how they communicate. Isn’t that right?”

”I don’t understand.” Xiao Xiao caught Jiang Yu’s questioning gaze and decisively shook his head: ”My knowledge of foreign languages is limited to the real world... My grasp on Zu Ge’s language is no better than yours.”

”Funny thing is, you might not believe me,” from above, the Blue Giant’s rumbling voice echoed: ”I think it’s trying to say it’s on the captain’s side... Because I just saw the captain, and there was a pack of these little brown guys around him.”