High School of Demon Hunting

"Shame! What a shame!"

"Really, it’s like hanging oneself with bare buttocks—utterly shameful!"

"Such a big guy, baring his butt in front of ladies! Letting them see! Ugh! Disgusting! I knew to avoid people when changing clothes at three! If you have such a fetish, at least don’t strip in front of acquaintances! Go to the woods and find a bunch of Goblins, perhaps? They lie through their teeth, and no one believes them... But in front of a witch? And a high-order witch? You’ve shamed the entire Buji Island!"

"Didn’t you say you know the Transformation Technique? Why didn’t you turn into a cat then! Aren’t you quick at turning into a cat? No one in school cares about a bare-butt cat!"

"Still claiming to be pure? Hah! Just one word, scum!"

"You’ve definitely lost face!"

"Vulgar! Sleazy! Filthy!! Simply inhuman!"

A group of blurred faces surrounded Zheng Qing, spinning quickly and closing in, pointing at him, shouting insults, spitting out foul-smelling spit.

Each figure would suddenly grow larger when speaking and shrink back when silent, like a spectrum function after a Fourier transformation.

"No, I’m not, I didn’t..."

Zheng Qing shouted as he jolted awake from the dream, drenched in cold sweat, with those blurry faces’ roars still echoing close to his ears. He instinctively looked around. The sky outside the window was slightly lit. Dylan hadn’t returned yet; its coffin lay open on the bed, its wide-open mouth silently mocking at the ceiling. Tuan Tuan and Xin Fat Man’s snores rose and fell in a lulling symphony; Xiao Xiao’s tent, however, was quiet.

The boy tugged at his pajamas, wiped the sweat off his forehead, and turned his head, only to find a fist-sized little thing crouching beside his pillow, staring at him with shining eyes.

It gave him a start.

Noticing the warlock’s gaze, the little thing leisurely raised a paw and waved it.

"Awake?"

The Black Gem Cat tilted its head, lowered its voice, and spoke with a curious tone: "Had a nightmare? What kind of nightmare? I seemed to hear you say ’I’m not’ ’I didn’t’... What does that all mean?"

Zheng Qing sat up straight, with a calm expression.

"Nothing much, just I dreamed of being falsely accused of being a Black Wizard."

He had never realized his mind could be so sharp; then he shifted the conversation to regain the initiative: "...When did you return?"

"I’ve been back for quite a while now; I even slept through a cycle." The Black Gem Cat flicked its tail and glanced at the pillow beside it: "Ah, are the heads of those Nightmare Dolls still there?"

Zheng Qing touched the dolls under the pillow.

The heads were all still there.

This meant the earlier nightmare was not a malicious attack, simply a case of ’what you think about during the day, you dream at night.’ Thinking of this, he breathed a slight sigh of relief and then recalled the task he had arranged for the Black Gem Cat before going to sleep.

"You came directly back from the North District, didn’t you?" He was somewhat worried that this dumb cat would wander off to the Cat Fruit Tree before going home, and the sly Big Fox or White Jade Cat might suspect something.

"Naturally!"

The Black Gem Cat, for once, played smart, proudly patting its chest with a loud thud: "You know me well, with things like going to the Sakura Pub, listening to people talking about your streaking incident..."

Thud!

The Black Gem Cat’s voice abruptly stopped.

A pitch-black gemstone, with a hint of surprise, rolled off the bed, hitting the floor with a crisp sound.

The hand sign Zheng Qing held in mid-air was still trembling slightly, and he felt cold sweat once again breaking out on his chest and back, regretting why he didn’t dismiss the Art of Body Transformation earlier—he could have used the simplest and most direct way to find out the Black Gem Cat’s activities that night, instead of foolishly listening to it airing its dirty laundry.

It must have been the shock from waking up from a nightmare that caused the brain to malfunction!

He consoled himself in this way, completely forgetting that a few seconds ago he had been inwardly praising his quick thinking.

With the dismissal of the Transformation Technique, the Black Gem Cat’s experiences of the day flooded into Zheng Qing’s mind. He had to sort through for a while before picking out its conversation with Korma.

Unfortunately, he had to experience a much stronger surge of ’embarrassment’—this was the Black Gem Cat’s reaction after hearing the Sakura Pub owner mention someone streaking.

Zheng Qing had to use a Calm Heart Talisman to refocus on the task at hand.

On Thursday afternoon, in the Giant God Soldier project team’s conference room, a short briefing on special configurations by Doctor Duzem left Zheng Qing understanding less than thirty percent. This was a blow to him, making him worry about whether he truly had the capability to continue taking on the Giant God Soldier’s subsequent testing tasks.

Moreover, he wanted to verify an earlier suspicion—why did Professor Montreya and Doctor Duzem try to persuade him to abandon the project one after the other?

This was the reason for the anticipated visit by the Black Gem Cat.

The lack of specific instructions for the Black Gem Cat was because he believed that a Big Wizard like Korma could easily deduce his thoughts.

However, the outcome of the conversation somewhat exceeded expectations.

He had not anticipated that his role as a candidate for the Giant God Soldier, including Korma pushing out Professor Montreya, would be related to Mr. Zha.

Is this Mr. Zha’s arrangement, or merely the school’s wizards kissing up to Mr. Zha?

Zheng Qing did not know.

He felt a headache from thinking too much.

A slight rustling sound snapped the boy out of his deep thoughts.

Returning to his senses.

He only then noticed that the snoring in the room had somehow dwindled to just one—the faint snoring, likely from Fatty Cat Tuan Tuan—he inwardly felt something was not right, and was about to sneak back under the covers to pretend to sleep when he suddenly heard Xin Fat Man’s curious voice.

"Mr. Zha, did you streak yesterday? When did this happen?" The Fat Wizard’s tone was still somewhat groggy, as if not fully awake from sleep, but his gossiping enthusiasm was already burning brightly.

Compared to that, Doctor Xiao was fully awake.

"—According to the timeline, it should have happened after he was taken away by that Northern District Witch." Just from the sound of the voice, Zheng Qing could picture someone pushing their glasses with their hand: "The current question is, how many witches did he streak in front of? Did any warlocks see it? Have those two found out about it?"

The threat was obvious.

Zheng Qing gritted his teeth, got up, pulled open the curtain, and forced a smile.

"What streaking, just someone accidentally saw a few abs." He downplayed it, striving to maintain the fragile friendship between warlocks: "—Doctor, Fat Brother, what do you two want for breakfast?"