High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2695 - 916: Week 9, Midterm Exam

First came the dream, then the fire meteors, omens, disappearance, death, then the black tree sap.Bad omens one after another, seemingly unrelated, yet each connected to a certain word in a shadowy way, causing anxiety and sleeplessness.

At night, Zheng Qing lay in bed, looking through the balcony’s small view of the night sky, seeing stars flickering in the black background like silent, watching eyes. Even with his eyes closed, he could feel those cold stares, turning over like needles on his back, growing increasingly restless.

He held onto the nightmare doll, worrying and overthinking, not even knowing when he fell asleep.

But when he woke up, the doll’s head was still nicely attached to its neck, making him feel slightly better. As they say, a good morning sets the mood for the whole day.

Xiao Xiao, who did morning lessons with Zheng Qing, was the first to notice his good mood.

"Is there something good happening?"

After morning lessons, heading to the teaching building, the doctor curiously pinched his fingers: "You seem exceptionally cheerful today... Is it Jiang Yu? Su Councilor? Or those three Great Elves?"

His words were quite pointed.

Zheng Qing’s face immediately turned sour.

"Why can’t it be because I found the source of the black tree sap?" he replied stiffly.

Xiao Xiao pursed his lips.

"Because I know you too well." He shrugged, explaining with some boredom: "If it were something like that, you’d have boasted before morning lessons... Only when it’s about those Witches would you be secretive, self-pleased."

Zheng Qing couldn’t tell if this was good or bad.

But he felt he needed to prove his innocence.

"It has nothing to do with them."

The boy emphasized deliberately, pausing before coming up with an appropriate response: "It’s simply good mood... Don’t know if you’ve felt it—walking on a sunny day, tripping over a small beautiful gemstone—that’s what I feel right now."

Xiao Xiao looked up at the sky, then at the ground.

Today’s sun wasn’t particularly bright, and there were no gemstones underfoot, but there were several sneaky Grass Spirits peering from the bushes, seemingly hoping for a passing student to drop some food.

"That’s just a metaphor!"

Zheng Qing evidently noticed the doctor’s look and was speechless: "You could understand it as you needing to take midterms, while I don’t, hence I’m happy... That kind of happiness, understand?"

Just like how nothing excites Stellarians more than bloodstains on the ring, nothing resonates with Jiuyou People like exams.

"Ah yes, you don’t need to take midterms."

Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses, glancing at the Warlock beside him: "Though I don’t know what’s worth celebrating... Maybe you should get used to this difference sooner."

Mentioning the word ’difference’.

Zheng Qing instantly felt a bit melancholic.

The sense of ’disconnection’ from graduating early became increasingly apparent.

On nights when classmates rested, he was in class; when classmates participated in Spring Hunting, he was in class; when classmates prepared for midterms, he was still in class.

Even though they were in the same academy, same classroom, even same dorm, these two months made him feel strongly like being in a Parallel World.

Perhaps noticing the Warlock’s restlessness, the gemstone cat crept out from his sleeve, climbing up his shoulder, then biting his ear.

"Don’t mess around."

Zheng Qing tilted his head, dodging the licks of the gemstone cat, unable to resist rubbing his ear—whether it was an illusion or not, he felt a faint pressure in his eardrum when the gemstone cat approached. The sensation vanished after he rubbed his ear.

"Let’s seize the moments of happiness while we can." Coming back to reality, the young assistant mumbled, recalling the thoughts before sleep last night: "... Bad omens one after another, you’re the Diviner, you should understand better than me what fire meteors, dreams, black tree sap symbolize."

The diviner from Yuzui Hunting Team slowed his pace, seriously looking at him.

"What do you want to do?" he asked straightforwardly.

Zheng Qing waved his robe sleeve, irritably brushing against the roadside wild shrubs: "...Don’t know. No clear idea yet. But I feel that things can’t continue like this, just like when I formed Yuzui, I didn’t have long-term ideas..."

"If you don’t have ideas, don’t think."

Xiao Xiao interrupted his captain’s stream of consciousness, rarely giving a precise suggestion: "If you feel aimless, unable to find a goal, then don’t consider the goal... Focus on what’s within a meter in front of you, concentrate on what’s tangible and real."

"Tangible?" Zheng Qing glanced around within a meter’s radius.

Just as Xiao Xiao did a few minutes ago.

"I mean your early graduation."

The short Warlock rubbed his forehead, feeling Zheng Qing’s childish move was much like a child: "For a Diviner, spotting countless bad omens daily is normal. But discovering omens doesn’t mean you find evil... Because evil exists forever, never disappearing, only hibernating briefly, like corpse-eating beetles beneath forest humus in winter, they revive after thunder and spring rain... Those crows are the same. Their every move leaves bad omens on the timeline, we don’t need to deliberately focus too much on them. On the other hand, if your Charm Gun blows up a crow’s head, would it help you graduate early?"

"What does this have to do with my graduation?" Zheng Qing felt Xiao Xiao’s words jumped too far.

Xiao Xiao spread his hands.

"Then what do those crows have to do with you? You don’t need to mind them, the same way you don’t need to care about Spring Hunting and midterms."

At this point, he took off his glasses, squinting at the misty sun, suddenly let out a sigh: "Actually, I have some bad intuition..."

"What intuition?" Zheng Qing became uneasy—it’s rare for the doctor to say such things.

"Your obsession will lead Yuzui to face a crazed, powerful Black Wizard like Walter. That’s not demon hunting, it’s courting death." Xiao Xiao put his glasses back on properly, not looking at Zheng Qing but at the road ahead: "Of course, I know my light-hearted persuasion is unlikely to have any effect... According to Destiny’s trend and principles of mysterious convergence, your paths will continue to intersect with those crows until the destiny-apt result occurs."