High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2324: Chapter 545: That Same Pebble

In the first semester of freshman year, during the time Zheng Qing had just started school, he was inundated with so much magic knowledge daily that it caused the forbidden curse seed deep in his soul to start piercing through its shell, gradually showing signs of sprouting.

In reality, this manifested as more frequent headaches for him and occasional blood clots appearing in his eyes.

At that time, Zheng Qing still didn’t know the true cause of his headaches, so whenever his body had any anomalies, he would frantically seek the school’s help, from the library to the school hospital, and to various professors.

After multiple diagnoses, the big wizards at the school concluded that Zheng Qing’s ’head condition’ was a ’calamity,’ a side effect brought on by Zheng Qing’s ’Witness’ talent, so they taught Zheng Qing ’Transformation’ to evade the calamity.

Of course, after analysis by Mr. Wu, Zheng Qing realized that the school professors teaching him transformation to treat his headaches was purely a lucky mistake, using the wrong theory to achieve a correct result.

Similarly, he actually did not possess the wondrous divination talent of a ’Witness.’

It was only because of the existence of the forbidden curse, which would allow Zheng Qing at a certain moment, when he had a strong inner wish, to briefly possess a talent he most deeply desired — this talent stems from the essence of the forbidden curse, as the curse itself holds information about an entire world, anything the world possesses would manifest through the forbidden curse on some level.

However, this talent is temporary, one-time. To experience a specific talent anytime, Zheng Qing needs to completely master the forbidden curse within him, perhaps only then it’s possible.

Additionally, if Zheng Qing has a strong desire to possess the Witness talent, theoretically, he can experience the ’Witness’ talent again, but according to Mr. Wu, the various magical talents in the wizard world are as countless as stars, trying to acquire a specific talent is like fishing for a specific patterned pebble in the ocean, theoretically almost impossible.

Yet, as Mr. Wu repeatedly emphasized, the forbidden curse possesses the power to break every ’impossible.’

So, more than a year later, in the darkly lit small hotel in the North Beita Town district, a drunkenly muddled young cost student accidentally fished up the same pebble he once fished before.

Tap, tap.

The crisp sound of footsteps pierced through Zheng Qing’s body, continuing forward.

The burning pain gradually faded, his memories became increasingly clear, Zheng Qing knelt on one knee on the ground, panting heavily, and raised his hand, unsurprisingly saw the light blue translucent skin, saw the gleaming bones beneath the skin, interlaced muscles, slender blood vessels, and the white blood flowing within.

Then his gaze went through his palm, seeing the owner of the ’tap tap’ footsteps — it was a wizard draped in a thick cloak and wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Although the moonlight was bright, the wizard was shrouded in the shadow of the hat and cloak, making it impossible to see anything clearly.

Zheng Qing struggled to stand up, wanting to circle to the front of the wizard for a clearer view.

The next second, the unfamiliar wizard’s hand dropped to his waist, pulling out a thick law book and opening it. This move immediately stopped the anxious diviner in his tracks.

Whoosh!

A pale yellow spell light rose from the law book, accompanied by a gentle spell voice under the moonlight:

”The insects fly and fall, Sharing Sweet Dreams with You!”

A few sleeping insects buzzed and landed in the ears of the Gu Diao statue on the gate tower in the spell light, and in just a blink, the originally vigilant alchemical creature guarding the entrance to Gu Diao Street closed its round eyes, falling asleep.

Zheng Qing never knew alchemical creatures could also be affected by sleeping spells.

After hypnotizing the guard, the figure draped in the black cloak did not step across the gate tower but instead stood with his hands bound in the shadow between the gate tower and the wall corner, patiently waiting. This time, Zheng Qing finally mustered the courage to stand in front of the cloaked figure, but he was immediately disappointed to find that the guy was wearing a Raven Mask under the hood.

The mask had a small number ’No.3.’

The boy tried to take off the mask, but like trying to grasp the moon in water, even as he plunged his hand into the brain of Crow No.3 and stirred it around, he couldn’t move a single hair, let alone pull off the mask on his face.

Thankfully, this confrontation did not last long.

Soon, a Northern District wizard wearing a fine robe hurried out from Gu Diao Street, and a trace of surprise appeared on his face upon seeing Crow No.3.

Zheng Qing couldn’t tell who was more surprised between him and the other.

For he suddenly realized that he recognized this Northern District wizard — of course, not by name, but before he slept, he had seen this Northern District wizard drinking juice and chatting with companions in the Sakura Pub — then another thought popped into his mind, could the Atonement Hunting Team’s previous speculation be true? Is the Northern District wizard really closely linked to these Ravens?

Having participated in many hunting competitions, Zheng Qing strove to suppress the excitement in his heart and didn’t immediately attempt to wake up to capture the Northern District wizard, instead staying beside the two, silently gathering information.

”I reminded you not to come here!”

Underneath the hat of the fine robe revealed a plump male wizard’s face, devoid of hair, eyebrows, or beard, and though his voice carried a hint of annoyance, his face still smiling brought about a cold feeling deep within.

Crow No.3 said nothing, silently staring at him, the air filled with a light chill.

Zheng Qing stood between the two, looking left, looking right, feeling very intrigued, not knowing which of them was more insidious and vicious. But the following words from the plump Northern District wizard enabled him to immediately form an opinion.

”No more, can’t get anymore!”

The Northern District wizard dressed in a fine robe finally initiated the concession, with a tone touched by pleading, quickly explaining: ”Since she came, more and more Northern District people joined the Wizard Group she established, and already nobody wants to sign such demanding contracts. The batch of ’goods’ I handed to you last month was the last surviving batch, originally intended to be sold to the Black Pharaoh Brotherhood to bolster their mummy army...”

”When did you start playing the ’mutual consent’ game?” came the cold mechanical mockery from under the Raven Mask: ”I’ve never known that the biggest slave trader in the Northern District has to consider whether the other party agrees when selling slaves?”

”This isn’t a question of agreement or disagreement!”

The plump Northern District wizard raised his hand, revealing the finger adorned with a ring embedded with a ruby, his voice touched by irritation: ”Now all good ’materials’ from the Northern District have joined her Wizard Group. A single sleeping insect is no longer enough to resolve issues that a binding spell and soft leg spell combined can’t solve... I do have a batch of old, weak, and disabled ’materials,’ but the question is, do you want them?”