High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1666: Chapter 410: Dawn

With the nose ring and earring-waving totem pole no longer obstructing their way, the threat from the crazed dead trees to the young wizards suddenly increased. A dead tree branch crashed heavily to the ground beside Zheng Qing, scattering a spray of colorful sand and stones.

The splattering stones and the brushing branches left two shallow blood marks on the warlock’s cheek.

As the blood mist spread, a strange immobilization spell seemed to lock all the flowing odd colors in the withered forest; everything froze in place, even the mad trees stopped and remained still.

”Oh no, we’re doomed.”

Zheng Qing touched his cheek, seeing the faint bloodstains on his hand, he immediately realized what might happen. Muttering, he raised his charm gun, aimed at the nearest big tree and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

The talisman bullet in the Remington’s magazine, which he had just loaded, was not yet filled with forbidden curse power, but the blood-painted anti-evil talisman wrapped into the talisman bullet was inherently powerful.

A pale white light burst from the muzzle, accelerating suddenly into a lightning-like beam that instantly hit the large tree.

Silently.

The big tree crumbled into dust in the white light. The strange colors wrapped around it lost their incarnation, tangled briefly with the white light, both scattering and disappearing from the warlock’s view.

Zheng Qing felt as if a black hole suddenly appeared in an otherwise vibrant world. But soon, the strange colors in the withered forest revived, even more vigorously than before, resembling billows of flames, engulfing the black hole and continuing to advance towards the young wizards.

”I just found three effective amulets, but none are meant for these strange colors.”

Jiang Yu weighed three differently shaped jade talismans in his palm, testing each one briefly, yet the surrounding glow didn’t change at all, eventually sighing, ”These three amulets, one averts fire, another repels cold, and the third shields from demon detection; they’re clearly not what we’re looking for... And other amulets are sealed within the clothes’ hem, which aren’t easy to find at a moment’s notice.”

Zheng Qing totally understood.

”Are there any other regular talisman bullets?” The warlock returned the Beretta Double-Barrel to the witch, scrutinizing the surroundings with keen eyes: ”I have a feeling the master of this withered forest is about to show...”

In their brief conversation, the surrounding rampant unusual colors became increasingly violent. Many even transformed directly into claws and jagged mouths, menacing the circle of young wizards.

In the distance, the pit that had previously collapsed emitted, like a fountain, an almost tangible burst of strange colors, painting the entire withered forest in increasingly vivid hues.

”Yes, there are.”

Jiang Yu took the Beretta Double-Barrel, ejected the blood talisman bullet, put it in his belt, and then, with a quick flick of his hand, pulled out a box of talisman bullets from his pocket—Zheng Qing caught sight of the Martintor Alchemy Company emblem on the brass box—and the witch deftly inserted a talisman bullet into the magazine.

A pull and a yank.

The witch shouldered the gun, aimed at another thick branch suspended in mid-air, then pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The talisman bullet pierced through an enormous hand conjured from strange colors, shattering the thick branch into pieces, raining down like a stone shower, the rustling noise incessant.

The witch gave a brisk pause, with a snap and a click, ejected the empty shell from the magazine, then, with a light flick of her fingers, inserted a new talisman bullet. The whole process flowed smoothly, a pleasure to behold.

”Impressive,” Zheng Qing admired the scene unfolding before him, then recalled his own clumsy reloading method, feeling a warm flush creep onto his face.

”We were trained to hunt as children; young wizards knew so few spells, so families focused on honing our ability to use magical tools, like charm guns, rune arrays or learning alchemy potion skills,”

The witch tucked some loose locks behind her ear, smiling faintly: ”That’s how everyone is... like Tang Dun or Matthew in our class... Uh, Zhang Ji Xin is a bit different. His family’s children spend most of their time growing up learning how to take a beating. I always suspected his family’s red face came from bruises received year after year, the blood never dissipating and eventually getting passed down.”

Puff.

Thinking of Zhang Ji Xin and his brother’s appearance, and the red-faced male wizard’s daily behavior, Zheng Qing inexplicably found Jiang Yu’s guess quite reasonable and couldn’t help but chuckle.

Boom!

Along with his muffle laughter, a new white flare erupted from the Remington’s muzzle, crashing into a blob composed of strange colors, shattering it, and then continued sliding forward with undiminished magical force, smashing a few ’Tree Yaos’ struggling a dozen meters away.

The witch seemed to realize talking about others behind their backs wasn’t nice, hurriedly changing the subject.

”Where are the nose rings and earrings?” Jiang Yu stood back-to-back with the warlock, firing two talisman bullets while speaking, preparing to reload the third, and gently patted Zhu Si’s hand reassuringly.

With talisman bullets flying everywhere, Zhu Si held her head, obediently squatting by the pair’s legs without saying a word. The world in the mirror was like last night’s flower, now it had faded away with her departure, at this moment, she was but a physically unique and intelligent little witch.

She knew that not causing trouble was the greatest help she could provide the others.

”Sent back into the Merlin Medal,” Zheng Qing explained simply upon hearing Jiang Yu’s inquiry, ”The Minotaur was severely corroded by those odd colors, leaving it outside wouldn’t help... perhaps returning might find a way to suppress its curse.”

In his view, whether the flowing strange colors around, or the rapid aging of the Minotaur’s body, could only be described with words like ’curse.’

The witch nodded in agreement, reloading the talisman bullets while muttering, ”These curses are quite powerful... We’ve been completely trapped now.”

Zheng Qing touched the blood talisman bullet in his belt already charged with forbidden curse power. He did not speak, merely glanced into the distance.

The flowing strange colors veiled his sight, obscuring any view of the Black Prison’s original semblance, not to mention the black cat long gone into the night.

”No,” the young cost student softly replied: ”We are not trapped by these curses, but by that cat... until the final moment arrives, we always have another choice.”

...

”Damn it!”

The black cat slashed air blades with its paws, reducing a dead tree blocking the way into fragments, grumbling irritably: ”Tried talking nicely, asked you to make way, you wouldn’t, don’t force me... push me too far, your life will be forfeit!”

The strange colors around flowed silently, as if they hadn’t heard the black cat’s threat. But following those strange colors, several new Tree Yaos shuffled forward, swaying their branches to block the black cat’s path.

The black cat’s eyes flashed red, its air turning ominous.

Just as it was about to shout a couple of harsh words, it suddenly sensed something, stopped its pounce, its front paws stepped on a piece of dead wood fragment, and sharply turned back to gaze into the distance towards the night horizon.

Screech!!

A soft cry echoed faintly in the Black Prison, resonating in every being’s heart. At the same time, a slender line of fire tore through the night sky, with a spark even flashing momentarily in the opposite direction.

The black cat retracted its paws, solemnly watching the line of fire and the spark. Similarly, the strange colors around also froze in place, seemingly noticing the abnormal within the Black Prison.

Moments later.

Torchlight shone, a Firebird took flight.

Two Suns were rising gradually at the end of the black cat’s sight.