High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2060: Chapter 281: Gan Ning

The facts proved that the dream Zhang Ji Xin had in the Divination class was a very standard prophetic dream.

That night, when Zheng Qing returned to the dormitory, he received a paper crane sent by the red-faced male wizard, confirming the intention of the school hunting team to cooperate with Absolution in the finals.

Thus, the ball was kicked to Zheng Qing’s feet.

That evening, the young cost student turned restlessly on his six-pillar bed, unable to sleep, carefully weighing the pros and cons of which ally to choose—vertically joining forces or lateral alliances, this issue was not any easier than survival or death.

In other words, the choice of this matter actually decided the ’survival’ or ’death’ of the Absolution hunting team in the finals.

The next morning, Xiao Xiao, getting up for early class, was startled by Zheng Qing’s dark circles.

”Are you sure you want to go to early class?”

The diviner of Absolution poked his captain’s grey face, a bit worried: ”If you go out like this, I feel you might collapse and die somewhere... did you have a nightmare last night?”

”What?”

Zheng Qing looked at Xiao Xiao in a daze, only reacting after a while: ”Oh, not that... it’s about whom Absolution would cooperate with... we know the people from the Fringe Hunting Team, but they are somewhat weak... On the flip side, considering how weak they are yet still made it to the finals, it shows they’re lucky... Brother Xin said, many of the final winners in the hunting competition rely on luck... but the concept of luck is too vague, can’t be measured, who knows if they have used up all their luck getting to the finals!”

This way of thinking, so stereotypically complex.

Xin Fat Man was also awakened by their discussion and barely opened his eyes, hearing this, and couldn’t help but interrupt: ”Since you’re so torn, why not choose the school hunting team? At worst, we come in second...”

”At worst?”

Zheng Qing weakly laughed twice: ”That’s the best result, if we can even come in second... cooperating with a hunting team we normally have no interaction with, leaving aside teamwork or trust... the simple fact of them being strong and us weak is a big problem... what if we encounter trouble on the road and they push us out to take the fall and then escape themselves?”

”You could sign a contract in advance?” The Fat Wizard tried to patch up his suggestion.

”Ordinary contracts are not very binding, and it can’t be excluded that those experts from the school hunting team have ways to circumvent the contract; more advanced contracts are too wasteful, it’s just a school hunting competition, no need to lose our pants.”

Saying this, Zheng Qing paused, rubbed his face, and then continued analyzing: ”...and I’ve heard that the experts in the school hunting team have bad tempers, how can you be sure they are willing to sign a contract with us? Stepping back, even if they are willing, we also have to consider that cooperating with the school hunting team might cause joint attacks from other hunting teams... the bigwigs from the school hunting team may be able to retreat unharmed, but what about us?”

The latter question is indeed very tricky.

The school hunting team is indeed the most powerful hunting team at the First University, but that doesn’t mean it’s invincible, including teams like Jiuyou and Alpha; every year during the Campus Cup, the hunting teams from the four academies rack their brains trying to defeat the school hunting team, and there is no shortage of successful cases—even many students in the school think that defeating the school hunting team is something more worth bragging about than winning the Campus Cup.

Cooperating with the school hunting team means Absolution would be under constant attack from other strong teams.

”This won’t do, that won’t do, make your own decision then.” The Fat Wizard listened, his head spinning, leaned back and started snoring again in no time.

Zheng Qing took the hot towel handed over by the sprites, wiped his face hard, and immediately felt much more awake.

Xiao Xiao gave his captain a sympathetic look, glad he didn’t have to make the decisions: ”It’s really hard...the key is, we still don’t know what clues the Fringe or school hunting team have obtained... If neither of them is a ’spoon,’ it would be even more troublesome.”

The young cost student whimpered in agreement.

The diviner tightened his belt and confirmed one last time: ”Since you’re not going to early class... are you going to class in the morning? Do you need me to help you take the day off, so you can catch up on sleep in the dorm in the morning?”

It’s Wednesday today, and the first class in the morning is Magic History, taught by Sima Yangyun, Zheng Qing believed Xiao Xiao could definitely get a leave slip for him.

”Forget it, skipping class during this period is not good.”

The young cost student finally shook his head: ”At worst I’ll use a Wakefulness Charm...um, if I nod off in class, cover a bit for me... don’t let Sima deduct points.”

With the help of the Wakefulness Charm and Xiao Xiao, Zheng Qing indeed didn’t doze off in Magic History class. But even magic, when it comes to resisting drowsiness, will experience diminishing returns.

In the afternoon’s magical zoology class, Zheng Qing ultimately succumbed to the Sleeping Insects’ innate magical power.

Whoo, whoo.

He snored sweetly, vaguely dreaming of riding a gigantic black cat, wielding a charm gun, chasing a few blurry monsters in the Silent Forest. When he saw the monsters’ silhouette in the distance, he raised his charm gun, pulled the trigger hard, and the talisman bullets shot from the gun not only didn’t smash the monsters but instead circled back in mid-air, heavily hitting his own arm.

Hiss!

The young cost student felt as if his arm was about to break and hissed in pain, finally waking up from his dream, looking around, to realize he was still in class and what was poking his arm was not a talisman bullet but the tip of Jiang Yu’s feather pen.

On the podium, the lecturer of magical zoology, Gan Ning, slightly smiled at the just-awakened warlock, seemingly not minding at all that a student was dozing off in his class.

Zheng Qing awkwardly smiled, sneaking a glance at the witch beside him.

The witch had a stern face, sitting upright in her seat, seriously taking class notes—even though today’s class was teaching about the old rubber sap of the three-headed dog.

Unlike the professor of Divination, the lecturer of magical zoology taught in a rule-abiding manner, strictly following the syllabus scheduling pace, without digressing, even though because of the school hunting party during this period, the students had encountered many magical dream creatures on the field. He didn’t talk much more in class, as robotic as reading out the dull content in the lecture notes:

”...Facing a three-headed dog, an instrument or a small piece of bread are very effective tools, they can both maximize the diversion of attention from all three heads... The difference lies in that music can make a three-headed dog become enchanted, while a small piece of bread can cause its three heads to fall into a dispute... Just as the saying goes ’The spoon of the compass, when thrown to the ground, its base points south’.”

”Traditionally, most people think that in ancient times, wizards used the ’compass’ for directional pointing and divination... But modern wizard theory has overturned this view... Many pieces of evidence indicate that a ’compass’ is more like a collection of concepts, both the manifestation of the complex concept like ’star signs’ in reality and representing some kind of principle that wizards follow in practice... ’Setting the compass to correct the morning and evening’ in this phrase, ’correct the morning and evening’ refers to correcting one’s position and clarifying one’s guidelines, rather than simply indicating direction...”