High School of Demon Hunting-Chapter 1503 - 247: Goodbye

"Wake up! Wake up quickly!"

"How could you fall asleep here? This place is very dangerous!"

A familiar yet strange voice rang in Zheng Qing’s ears, sounding somewhat anxious and restless. Zheng Qing felt a pair of small hands forcefully shaking his body: "Wake up quickly!"

He struggled to lift his eyelids.

The cold air immediately clung to his eyeballs, mixing with the mottled and leaping light, causing the warlock’s eyes to sting slightly, and he couldn’t help but close his eyes and frown.

"Ah! You’re finally awake!" That familiar yet strange voice sounded again, very surprised.

Zheng Qing’s eyeballs trembled violently beneath his eyelids.

He easily retrieved the owner of the voice from his rolling memories. It was Zhu Si. He wanted to open his eyes immediately to confirm his guess, but in that instant, he became timid.

What if Zhu Si really turned into someone with red eyes? What if she didn’t remember him? What if she still didn’t want to go outside? What if he had heard wrong?

The tide of emotion moistened his lashes, soothing the raw sting in his eyes.

The warlock finally opened his eyes slowly.

What appeared before his eyes was a canopy of a towering Joe tree, with lush branches crisscrossing, festooned with colorful vines. The pale sunlight filtered through the gaps between the leaves, falling down, while the smell unique to the forest—a mixture of decay and freshness—wafted into his nostrils.

A round-faced, brown bushy-haired little girl squatted next to his head, staring at him with big, shiny eyes, full of curiosity. In her hand, she held a small mirror, and on her knee lay an old picture book.

A few dried, lustreless Mystical Grain leaves hung on her wrist.

Just like the one on his wrist.

"Who are you? Why are you lying here?" The little witch’s voice was slightly louder, but she immediately put her index finger to her lips, her face tense with nervousness, lowering her voice: "Oh, I forgot... we need to speak quietly, there are a lot of monsters here, they eat people!"

Zheng Qing’s eyelids could no longer contain the hot liquid below, he raised his hand, covering his eyes, as tears streamed down through his fingers.

...

...

"There’s no sign of vine breakage."

"Nor are there traces of a fight."

"Could he have suddenly turned into a cat? And ran off with a passing group of cats? You know, he occasionally turns into a cat. And when he is a cat, his thoughts become very erratic..."

"I can attest to that; the last time he turned into a cat, he actually competed with Tuan Tuan for dried fish."

"Hehe, remember the time after the Spring Equinox? He got chased by a group of female cats on the Cat Fruit Tree..."

The discussion among the young hunters of the Absolution Hunting Team suddenly veered in a strange direction. Jiang Yu couldn’t help but cough twice heavily, casting a stern glance at Blue Fatty and Zhang Ji Xin who were giggling foolishly.

The two warlocks immediately fell silent.

Xiao Xiao stretched out his hand to touch the vine mat, which still retained some warmth.

"...Fine and somewhat chaotic magic power residues indicate that some magical phenomena we don’t understand have occurred here." He pulled out his notebook, flipping through it rapidly as the crystal ball floated between the rattan mat and his head, slowly rotating, its smooth facets sparkling with a five-colored radiance: "Based on these magic power residues, there’s reason to believe that this is a phenomenon peculiar to the Dreamland, and divination tests have shown that this magical phenomenon involves space-time and certain unknown principles of mysticism."

"Whoa! Space-Time Magic!" Blue Fatty slapped his belly, his face bitter: "We’re just first-year students, it’s not reasonable for us to be dealing with such advanced magic!"

"If we were outside, I could ask my brother for help." Zhang Ji Xin spoke uncertainly, his voice low: "...But as far as I know, even in the fourth year curriculum, there’s rarely any content involving space-time magic."

"Not rarely, but very rarely." Xiao Xiao corrected the red-faced male wizard’s phrasing, looking around: "Just by ourselves, there’s no way to track down the captain’s whereabouts through on-site traces."

"We can’t just leave him out there on his own." Jiang Yu was the first to reject the most likely option, but she didn’t completely close off that path: "If there’s really no other way, you guys can go back and fetch reinforcements, I’ll stay here and keep trying."

"I remember Brother Qing once mentioned that you are acquainted with his master," Xiao Xiao glanced at the witch: "And besides the Elders, the Zhongshan Jiang Family’s reputation is the most resounding among us, your chances of securing help if you go out are higher than ours... So, if someone must go out, it should be you."

"Let’s not rush to consider the last resort just yet." Blue Fatty, holding a dusty-looking dog, joined the group out of nowhere, lifting it up in front of the others: "Don’t we still have Furry Bean? It’s the best at finding people!"

Meow-wow~

The cry of Furry Bean was also lacking in confidence.

Jiang Yu tilted her head, looking at the grey-skinned dogs that had been hanging from the ’reins’ before. She saw many dogs scurrying into the void, and after a moment, some emerged from the void again, different dogs wagging their tails and whispering meows to each other, all wearing serious dog faces.

"Tracing through space-time is beyond Furry Bean’s capabilities." Xiao Xiao calmly explained: "It only has a trace of Miskatonic blood—chasing after the scent it wants to chase and briefly shuttling through space-time presents no difficulty for it, but it’s far from enough if it wants to challenge the authority of space-time itself with this trace of blood."

"Even Miskatonic itself doesn’t possess such an ability," Xin Fat Man added from the side: "It’s continuously challenging Yog-Sothoth in the hopes of reclaiming the space-time powers that Yog possesses."

"How do you know all this?!" Zhang Ji Xin looked incredulously at his two companions.

The fatty glanced at him with a hollow gaze.

"If you’d attended a few fewer seminars with your brother and discussed Furry Bean’s bloodline issues more with Brother Qing, you wouldn’t be saying that," the fatty managed to say with a tone that was a mix of sarcasm and pride.

"Stop talking nonsense!" Jiang Yu, uncharacteristically impolite, said to the wizards in an anxious tone: "We need to make a decision immediately!"

The alley suddenly fell silent.

Even those dogs coming and going in haste through the void remained quiet.

After a moment.

Xiao Xiao put away the crystal ball that had been floating and rotating above the rattan mat all this time.

"This is the Dreamland," he said seriously, holding the black-shelled notebook and looking towards his companions: "No one understands this world more deeply than the original inhabitants here."

The witch’s furrowed brows slightly relaxed.

"Elder Atar," she stated with conviction.

Blue Fatty cautiously raised his hand: "Nikita and that Three-headed Black Flood Dragon as well..."

"At best, you can count them as one Big Wizard." Jiang Yu’s eyes showed a touch of fierceness as she pursed her lips and took out a piece of jade from her pocket: "If they dare cause trouble, they can’t blame me for being rude!"

Within the jade, you can faintly see a golden charm glowing slightly.