High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2316: Chapter 537: Da Ya Moss Sprites

The night breeze sighed through the forest, carrying scents of pine needles, dragon dung, and blood.

Zheng Qing felt a wave of irritation and looked toward the edge of the forest.

The boundary between the moonlight and the woods was shrouded in shadows; a tall mill leaned to one side, resembling a staggering drunkard in the night. Further away, the faint song of a few robins could be heard from the apple trees, which, having lived alongside the dragon grounds and helped elder Fire Dragons rid themselves of parasites, had developed a degree of immunity to the dragons’ presence, livening the blood-soaked solitude of the area.

”Those are the remnants of the Fire Dragon’s struggle.”

Vas Eagle noticed the Hunting Team Leader’s gaze fixed on the mill and explained simply, ”The one that died was an adult Romanian Longhorn Dragon, naturally hot-tempered... When the sprites attacked, it frantically spewed dragon breath in every direction... and destroyed that mill.”

As he spoke, he shrugged and added, ”Because Fire Dragons are ill-tempered, structures like mills on the dragon grounds are prone to damage, which is usually expected, but damage of this extent is quite rare.”

”Why build a mill on a dragon farm?”

”When mixing fine feed, crops like chestnuts, acorns, and corn need to be ground into powder... Fire Dragons are primarily carnivorous, but occasionally, when they’re sick or young, their appetite wanes, and they need finely made feed. I used to love competing with Little Dragons for chestnuts; the ones they ate were marinated in honey and tasted fantastic!”

Because Lin Guo liked dragons, Zheng Qing had some knowledge of wild drace class habits from exposure but was hearing these artificial dragon-rearing techniques for the first time, finding them immensely fascinating.

Crunch.

A crisp cracking sound came from underfoot.

The young cost student looked down and saw several long, rib-like bones crushed into pieces beneath his feet. These bones appeared to have been scorched by dragon flames, like charred branches after a wildfire, even the fracture points were entirely black, seemingly fully carbonized.

His gaze tightened, nudging those rib bones slightly with his toes.

Soon, beneath a small pile of ashes, he found a shrunken, fist-sized scorched skull, its blackened eye sockets occupying most of the skull, staring directly at the young hunter, making him feel rather suffocated.

”Are there any surviving sprites?” Zheng Qing withdrew his gaze and asked softly.

”None.”

Vas Eagle shot a brief glance at the skull and answered with certainty, ”So far, the hunting ground has not even found a sprite with a complete corpse.”

Under the mask, Zheng Qing frowned, squeezing the white jade in his hand.

This Jade Bead was equipment provided by the Trident Sword, similar in effect to a scrying mirror, but it was used to detect whether the other party was lying. Upon meeting Vas Eagle, Zheng Qing had immediately pulled out the Jade Bead and recited the spell ’Spot on the white jade,’ but till now, no blemish had appeared on the white jade.

Theoretically, this meant he wasn’t lying.

Of course, this didn’t guarantee the truthfulness of what was said—revealing partial truth, or taking certain magic potions or using certain spells beforehand, could also circumvent the effect of Spot on the white jade.

”Mr. Zha, Doctor, come take a look at this remains.” Dylan’s voice suddenly came from within the mask, a hint of excitement tinged with confusion.

Dylan’s area was checked on the eastern side of the incident site.

He found a somewhat intact sprite remains; based on the scene, it could be inferred that this sprite was avoiding the Fire Dragon’s breath at that time, with a sturdy oak shielding most of the dragon flame’s power, so the body hiding behind the tree was relatively intact, but the lower half outside, like most of the tree, was charred to coal by the dragon flames.

Even with that, its upper half was severely burned, looking like a steaming lobster, with a bizarre orange-red color.

”Is this really a Da Ya Moss sprite?” Zheng Qing examined the twisted muscles, ferocious face, and fiery skin on the sprite’s upper body, unable to hide his surprise.

In his impression, sprites in Britannia were mostly blue and grey, with a few being green. Red sprites only appeared in a few highland areas like Deccan, Colorado, and Colombia.

”Based on the skeletal structure and palm print, it should be correct.”

Xiao Xiao crouched down to scrutinize the remains closely, his flat cat mask nearly touching the sprite’s skin. Without glasses, his raised finger grazed the edge of the mask and then unobtrusively landed on the sprite, poking here and there with a mumble:

”... In the magical creature kingdom, under Chordata, we have the Sprite class, the Flight order, and the Elf family, the Sprite genus, and the Britannia subgenus. There are only two kinds of sprites: the Cornwall County Pixie and the Da Ya Moss sprite. Compared to the Cornwall County Pixie, the Da Ya Moss sprite has larger eyes, smoother skin, and a few scales on its wrist, reportedly due to a blood relation with the Naga... Although this has never been acknowledged by the Naga tribe.”

As he spoke, he used a long pair of forceps to carefully turn over the sprite’s wrist, indeed uncovering several semicircular scales.

Like the skin, those scales had also turned bright red.

”They look nothing like the sprites I raised.” Zheng Qing listened to the Doctor’s ’Magic Popularization,’ recalling the sprites still in his dorm, worrying about their well-being over the past few days.

”Of course not.”

Xiao Xiao finally raised his head, casting a disdainful glance at his captain, ”One’s from Chordata, the other’s from Alchemy Creature Kingdom; fundamentally different... Didn’t you take magical zoology?”

This comment had the potential to expose his identity.

Zheng Qing instinctively glanced at Vas Eagle, only to find he was keeping a respectful distance of more than a dozen meters to avoid interfering with the Trident Sword commissioners’ work.

Upon noticing Zheng Qing’s gaze, he cheerfully waved.

”... The sprite’s drained of all blood; this isn’t something dragon flames can accomplish.” Xiao Xiao’s voice pulled the young cost student’s attention back, ”But there are too many black magics capable of this; the starry sky’s, the shaman’s, the voodoo’s... There’s a book in the library, ’My Days at Trident,’ which discusses a case in Lagos where a Trident Sword agent mistakenly attributed a Wicca black wizard’s case to voodoo practitioners, causing quite a stir...”

”Lagos was originally a traditional Voodoo stronghold, so such mistakes were hard to avoid,” Dylan commented.

”Hence, I hope Absolution doesn’t commit a similar error today, blaming other black wizards’ crimes on the Wicca,” Xiao Xiao replied calmly.