High School of Demon Hunting

”Auspicious day and Chen Liang!”

”Mu Jiang rejoices in the presence of the Emperor!”

”Holding the Longsword with a Jade Earring!”

”The resonance of qiuqiang sounds, full of splendor!”

...

The enormous skeletal giant dresses in lavish attire, a Longsword at its waist, looking up to the heavens, facing the descending cascading Primordial Qi. The Bone Relic on its forehead emits a soft clear light, dividing the world into two distinct layers with the Primordial Qi, like two giant millstones grinding everything in the universe.

Beta Town.

Pedestrian Street, inside San You Bookstore.

The Yellow Flowered Cat lay at the edge of the teacup, staring at the reflection of two colors on the calm water, listening to the melodic chant of the skeletal giant and feeling the confrontation between the Heaven and Earth Profound Yellow Array and ’Tai Yi’, much like needles facing each other’s tips. After a long while, it twitched its tail, its whiskers at the corner of its mouth twitching with a hint of disdain:

”What... at this level, they dare claim mastery of a Forbidden Curse?”

”Really gave me a scare!”

”The Dark Council truly is a group of inexperienced folks... if what you claim is a Forbidden Curse, then wouldn’t that Black Cat from the authorities also count as a Forbidden Curse?”

”In some sense, that cat indeed is a Forbidden Curse.”

From not far away, Mr. Wu’s voice emerged muffled beneath the book page lying over his face: ”Originally, it left the Two-dimensional World relying on a Forbidden Curse... Of course, its Forbidden Curse belonged to the Two-dimensional World.”

”There’s no comparison at all!”

The Yellow Flowered Cat loudly retorted: ”How can a paper cat compare to a real cat? Essentially, it’s a shadow, it ultimately turned back into a shadow!”

It referred to the incident when the Black Cat and the Druid High Priest from the Dark Council perished together on the Black Prison Battlefield, and the Black Cat transformed back into a shadow under Zheng Qing’s feet.

Mr. Wu lifted his head, reaching for the book on his face, as though intending to remove it.

However, after his fingertips brushed the book spine for a moment, he eventually abandoned this idea, instead speaking in a profound tone: ”Once you’ve seen the scenery from above, it’s hard to return to that low, narrow world... It, having surpassed dimensional constraints, won’t forever remain under someone’s feet.”

”So much nonsense.”

The Yellow Flowered Cat flicked the tip of its tail impatiently, its gaze returning to the calm surface of the teacup’s water, its whiskers twitching at the corner of its mouth: ”To be honest, the claim from those fledglings of the Dark Council about holding a Forbidden Curse gave me a shock... turned out to be a dud... hey, even the Divination Group organized by the school didn’t account for this, it was utter chaos, you should’ve seen Zhuge’s stunned little eyes! I always thought he was expressionless.”

”Actually, their spell is quite commendable, it already touches upon the true vein of Forbidden Curses.” The bookstore owner replied slowly: ”Though in terms of power, it is far weaker than a real Forbidden Curse, it surpasses that Black Cat considerably, already posing a threat to a Legendary Wizard... If certain improvements are made to its Spell Formula, perhaps a new Forbidden Curse might emerge in the world.”

”What do you think their spell’s convergence principle is?” The Yellow Flowered Cat became slightly intrigued.

This time, the gentleman was silent for a slightly longer moment.

After a while.

The owner of San You Bookstore gently responded: ”Perhaps it’s ’Divine clarity’.”

The statement was hard to understand, especially for a cat.

The Yellow Flowered Cat flicked its ears, patiently asking: ”What do you mean?”

”To transform and condense, existing in transformation; to promote and execute, existing in communication; divine clarity resides within the person.” Mr. Wu explained unhurriedly: ”The Dao of Heaven is above form; the desires of people are below form; the confluence of causes is divine, able to measure heaven and earth above, and bring salvation below... this is the meaning of ’Divine clarity’.”

The Flower Cat took quite a while to react.

”You mean to say that the folks from the Dark Council condensed a Forbidden Curse from a bizarre concept of ’God as omniscient and omnipotent’?”

Its eyes widened, the slender pupils filled with disbelief: ”Are you sure this isn’t a Forbidden Curse from Atlas Academy? Or are you unsure and just fooling me?”

”I indeed don’t know.”

The owner of San You Bookstore admitted candidly: ”I only sensed the aura belonging to ’God’ in that spell. After all, that spell already carries many characteristics of a Forbidden Curse, unseen, unspeakable... Ordinary methods of observation are completely ineffective against a Forbidden Curse, ordinary rules can’t bind it... this is why the school’s Divination Group didn’t account for this variable in the initial plan.”

”Haven’t you surpassed ancient wizards already? Don’t you have any ’not ordinary’ means of observation?” The Yellow Flowered Cat screeched.

The response it received was the snoring resounding once again from beneath the book.

This gave the Flower Cat the urge to grab something and hurl it over.

Just at that moment, its spiritual consciousness suddenly sensed something, causing it to instinctively tilt its head and glance out the window—behind it, the snoring from the deck chair abruptly ceased.

The bookstore suddenly became much quieter.

Tilting its head for a few seconds, the Yellow Flowered Cat slightly exerted its hind legs, leaped to the window, and pressed its face against the glass, gazing sidelong at the small D&K shop next to Zheng Qing.

At the shop entrance, two mice clad in green vests clutched their heads, rolling on the ground and shrieking.

Amidst the squeaking, the forms of the mice, originally only fist-sized, continued to swell: ten centimeters, twenty centimeters, fifty centimeters, a meter, a meter and a half, and in a short time, the two mice had gained the stature of short wizards.

Simultaneously, their fur rapidly retracted into their follicles, revealing pale gray skin; their skulls, previously elongated, began to round; the round ears on their heads silently slid down to the sides of their skulls, the ear flaps elongated—in other words, the little fellows were gradually shedding their mouse form, becoming more human-like.

In more traditional terms from the wizard world, they were undergoing ’magical transformation’.

The Yellow Flowered Cat’s ears twitched, its gaze crossing past the two ’transforming’ mice to the distance. At the end of the Pedestrian Street, a group of two-headed Ogres were waving enormous wooden clubs, herding a pack of Houdou, shouting and laughing while smashing shops on both sides and recklessly setting fires.

Occasionally, those Ogres would drag some charred bodies from the fire, unafraid of the heat, tearing them into pieces on the spot and devouring them.

The Yellow Flowered Cat noticed a few Ogres’ eyes also noticed the curled-up small figures in front of the D&K shop, sniffing vigorously.

It hesitated for a few seconds, its tail like a long snake slowly curling towards the door.

”Think it through.”

Just as the tail was about to exit, the owner of San You Bookstore had to remind from the deck chair not far away: ”If you act now, you’re not just saving two mice.”