High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1903: Chapter 124: The Unruly Shadow

Although it was already late autumn, the large windows effectively blocked the cold wind from outside. After being patiently filtered through the glass, the sunlight falling on the desks was still as warm and lazy as in summer, making one instinctively squint their eyes.

In the entire classroom, besides Zheng Qing, only Jiang Yu and Li Meng belonged to the Astronomy Class 08-1.

Other classmates in the class were from Jiuyou Academy and three other academies. Looking around, the four-colored robes seemed to blend seamlessly yet distinctly fill every corner of the classroom. Under the sunlight, they resembled the colorful lights in front of a barber shop, shimmering with a mesmerizing hue that could put one to sleep.

Although only halfway through class, Zheng Qing felt as if an eternity had passed. Yet at the same time, the faint fragrance emanating from the witch sitting next to him gave him a sense of time passing in the blink of an eye.

Besides the aforementioned conflicting feelings, there was also the intermittent distraction — the teacher’s snippets of words on the podium, the trivial matters of the hunting team outside the classroom, the mouse people in the shop, the shadow under his feet, and so forth. All these seemed like bricks, stacking one after another on Zheng Qing’s back, firmly trapping him under the heavy pagoda.

Just as Zheng Qing was about to fall asleep completely, a thumb-sized transparent glass bottle appeared under his nose. Inside the bottle was a clear emerald green liquid, with many tiny bubbles suspended within. Those bubbles remained motionless in the liquid, as if frozen.

The two fingers holding the glass bottle were slender and jade-like, with skin as white as snow, exuding a charming amber sheen in the sunlight.

”Energy Potion.”

Jiang Yu, without lifting her head, explained in a quick, soft voice: ”It’s made by the pharmacist at home, can improve focus, reduce mental fatigue, relax the mind... and has a slight effect of restoring magic power... Stretch out your hand, either will do.”

Zheng Qing obediently extended his hand.

The witch gently tilted the bottle, pouring a drop of the energy potion onto Zheng Qing’s wrist: ”You can wait for it to take effect naturally, penetrating the blood vessels under the skin of your wrist, or you can sniff it directly, which works faster.”

The warlock immediately raised his wrist to his nose.

A healing coolness washed over him, like walking barefoot on a blue stone slab road after a morning rain in midsummer, with the scent of earth and greenery filling the air, and magical power teeming with vitality throughout the world.

At this moment, only one word came to Zheng Qing’s mind: invigorating.

He immediately began to analyze the scent he was experiencing: ”Lemon oil, mint, sage... and bold hemp? I always thought bold hemp was used for making anesthetics and magic-enhancing potions.”

”Impressive.”

The witch finally paused her feather pen, tilted her head to look at Zheng Qing with a hint of surprise in her eyes: ”Few people can smell the scent of bold hemp... only a little was used, utilizing its stimulating effect on magic power.”

This kind of expression and tone was very satisfying.

Before he could think of a reserved yet modest remark to quietly praise himself, Li Meng, who sat on the other side of Jiang Yu, sneezed loudly and glanced at Zheng Qing with a disdainful look.

Her annoyance was understandable.

If she were the one daydreaming in class, her cousin would only reach out with two fingers, using the oldest method to regain her attention, never wasting precious magic potion.

The little witch dared not blame her cousin’s preferential treatment and could only choose a more subtle way to express her dissatisfaction.

Zheng Qing had long been accustomed to the little witch’s low-key protests.

”Not impressive, not at all.”

The young student kept waving his hands, ignoring Li Meng’s dissatisfaction while trying to act humble: ”Spending a long time with Xiao Xiaodai, you gradually remember all sorts of strange knowledge...”

At this point, the warlock’s voice abruptly stopped.

Out of the corner of his eye, he was horrified to discover that his shadow had somehow slipped into a cheeky pose, draped over Jiang Yu’s shadow, making some indecent gestures.

Due to the class being in session, no one noticed this anomaly for the time being.

The boy forcefully averted his head and shifted his shoulders, trying to separate the two shadows, but this only made his shadow more audacious — Zheng Qing dared to bet with the little green snake in his ear, that this shadow was definitely doing it on purpose.

”Is there a problem?” Jiang Yu immediately noticed the warlock’s odd behavior, and the feather pen, which had just been lifted, paused again in mid-air with concern.

”No!”

Zheng Qing almost shouted this word, only to realize he was still in class, forcing himself to hold back the exclamation. The airflow circled in his throat for a while and turned into a short dry laugh:

”No... no problem, I just thought what the teacher said just now made a lot of sense! It’s like something they once said, ’Violating the rules of nature inevitably entails a corresponding cost,’ and the use of the word ’nature’ in this sentence is just perfect.”

Although using ’perfect’ as a descriptor, when Zheng Qing uttered the word ’nature,’ he couldn’t help but glance at his shadow, with a voice laden with great resentment, almost gritting his teeth.

The witch nodded slightly, agreeing with a nod, then, to the warlock’s full-hearted prayer, as he wished, pointed the feather of the pen towards the direction of the blackboard, signaling him to focus on the lecture.

This meant she wouldn’t be looking around anymore.

Zheng Qing silently let out a sigh of relief, yet felt a slight disappointment. If his shadow hadn’t been fooling around, he would’ve loved to chat a bit more with Jiang Yu.

This different attitude towards the class in contrast to how Zheng Qing usually felt during lectures — if it were Xin Fat Man or Doctor Xiao sitting next to him, there would inevitably be more conversation to disperse the dull classroom atmosphere.

Unfortunately, it was Jiang Yu and Li Meng sitting by his side now.

Perhaps realizing their antics lost their main audience, Zheng Qing’s shadow instantly slumped down like a slug, lazily lying flat, occasionally twisting itself into a pretzel, at other times branching its head into seven or eight forks, resembling an ink-colored octopus.

Whoosh!

Zheng Qing decisively stood, yanking the heavy curtains to cover the bright sunlight from outside. The shadow from the curtain fell, completely engulfing Zheng Qing’s shadow.

The Magic Potion Class lecturer on the podium nodded slightly, undisturbed by the warlock’s abrupt action, instead turning to call on a student sitting in another corner of the classroom:

”...Do you have a question?”

The student Gan Ning referred to was none other than Zheng Qing’s old acquaintance, Andrew Taylor from Alpha Academy, the young clan leader of the Quebec Werewolf Clan, and a well-known wealthy individual. It was rumored that in his effort to join Sepulano’s circle, he donated over a hundred jade coins to the Xiang Qi Club.

Upon seeing his figure, Zheng Qing instinctively recalled being stopped by Lin Yan in front of the library last week.