High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2694 - 915: Black Tree Sap

Xiao Xiao stared at the small glass bottle and adjusted his glasses.Xin Fat Man scratched his chin with the feather on the end of his pen.

Zheng Qing, however, straightforwardly picked up the small glass bottle, shook it, observed the black liquid clinging to the bottle, and then, under Zhang Ji Xin’s approving gaze, removed the wooden stopper, carefully fanned the air, and sniffed the scent wafting from the bottle.

A scent of death overwhelmed him.

Zheng Qing had never realized that death could become a scent.

It wasn’t the dry smell of coal, nor the scorching sulfurous scent of magma, and it didn’t carry a hint of putrid decay, just a pure essence devoid of vitality and life.

"What is this?" He handed the bottle to the doctor, frowning at the red-faced male wizard.

"Not sure."

Zhang Ji Xin looked a bit uneasy, yet somewhat expectant as he watched Xiao Xiao, seemingly hoping the doctor could provide a definite answer: "This was collected during the Judgement Hunting Team’s spring hunt, from the sap of a Return Soul Poplar..."

"Isn’t the sap of a Return Soul Poplar supposed to be green?"

Xin Fat Man’s curiosity was piqued as well; he put down his feather pen and notebook, leaned forward as if trying to see more clearly: "Is that Return Soul Poplar dead? Or is it parasitized by some strange insects? Or perhaps the quality of the soil and water nearby is poor?"

Zheng Qing also pulled out a feather pen from his pocket.

However, he didn’t record anything but instead dipped the tip into the glass bottle, dabbed it in the black sap, and then copied a word on a blank piece of parchment that unsettled him—

Order.

"No quality of soil and water could produce such sap."

Xiao Xiao glanced at Zheng Qing’s writing, handed the small bottle to the Fat Wizard, turned to Zhang Ji Xin, slightly correcting the Fat Wizard’s earlier conjecture: "...Is it parasitic or a dead tree?"

Parasites could be insects, plants, or other magical creatures, even unnameable creatures beyond normal magical domains.

Zhang Ji Xin shook his head, carefully responding: "Before I came, Judgement... uh, they might have already reported to the assistant team. In any case, my brother and they didn’t detect any traces of parasites in this thing. Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility of lack of expertise. The Return Soul Poplar isn’t dead; its branches and leaves are flourishing, with fresh, tender buds just sprouting. A few resilient Return Soul Poplar seeds are still crawling around under the tree... Other than the peculiar color of the sap, there were no other anomalies."

"What about the surroundings? Is everything around the tree normal?" Zheng Qing dropped the feather pen, his tone tinged with confusion: "If everything is normal, how did they discover the abnormality in the sap?"

The part of the pen tip that had just dipped into the sap already showed very noticeable signs of corrosion, and the words written with the sap had etched the parchment with black trails. A gentle shake, and the supple parchment crumbled into black ashes like carbon.

The young wizards wore solemn expressions.

Zhang Ji Xin seemed to have witnessed this before, appearing slightly more composed, yet his unease was palpable.

"At that time, Judgement was hunting a Qi Yang goat, you know, Qi Yang oil is very popular among witches and is considered top-notch prey... then Qi Qinglan’s Wind Blade struck the Return Soul Poplar, and the tree started flowing with this black sap."

Zhang Ji Xin rambled on about the origin of the black sap, paused, and then added: "Erwin noticed something off, spared the Qi Yang goat, and had the hunting team collect some black sap... As for the surroundings, according to Erwin, he didn’t find anything unusual... You should know, Erwin has werewolf blood, so if there really was something amiss, he definitely would have sensed it."

Erwin Hoffman was the leader of the Judgement Hunting Team, along with Deng Xiaojian and Qi Qinglan, all veteran third-year students who had previously helped the Atonement Hunting Team with pre-match training—especially Deng Xiaojian, who was Zheng Qing’s cousin of an old friend from Hui Zi Ji.

Listening to these familiar names, he couldn’t help but click his tongue.

"Since your brother became Lei Zhe, I’ve always thought Erwin would step down from the position of leader of the Judgement Hunting Team." Zheng Qing glanced at the red-faced male wizard and lowered his voice slightly: "They once competed for that position..."

"After Professor Emma became vice principal, Old Yao hasn’t left the school either."

Zhang Ji Xin shrugged, made a flippant comment, then seemed to realize he was being too rash, shrunk his head, glanced at the podium, confirmed the Dean of Jiu You College hadn’t arrived yet, then cleared his throat and boldly continued: "Ahem, what I mean is, if nothing unexpected happens, this should be the last time they participate in the spring hunt as hunters..."

He spoke, counting on his fingers: "Erwin, Deng Xiaojian, Qi Qinglan, Zhao Qiao... They are already third-year students this year, and by the customary rules, once they enter the fourth-year in the next semester, they basically won’t participate in school hunting teams or similar activities anymore... In fact, they have gradually let go of these responsibilities and started bringing newcomers into positions this semester."

Zheng Qing did not inquire about the next leader of the Judgement Hunting Team or the Jiu You Hunting Team.

Whoever it was didn’t matter much to him.

After all, he would be graduating from the First University in less than two months, so knowing the names of those seniors, peers, or juniors wouldn’t mean much.

The nameless sadness lasted for just a moment.

Xiao Xiao had already carefully examined the bottle of black sap and formed his own opinion: "In my view, this sap should belong to a kind of magical mutation... most commonly found in environments polluted by memes. And it’s of some kind of terrible meme."

"Like what?" Zheng Qing was familiar with the doctor’s tone and asked accordingly.

"Like when a powerful Black Wizard passed by, failing to control his own aura, causing his scattered aura to contaminate this Return Soul Poplar. Of course, his aura lost control for only a brief moment, which is why only one Return Soul Poplar was found to be eroded. But if the school is willing to invest energy in a thorough search, I believe not far from this tree, there will certainly be other victims."

Xiao Xiao slowly swirled the glass cup, his voice as light as his movements:

"Just like darkness hates light, a Black Wizard’s magic similarly despises vitality, so it converts vitality into dead silence. You’re familiar with starry sky pollution, right? This erosion is similar to starry sky pollution... except this Black Wizard seems to have just advanced and is yet unable to fully control his power. If I’m not mistaken, aside from the sap turning black, there should also be signs of roots decaying, dew clouding, stones hollowing, and other indicators near this Return Soul Poplar."

Zhang Ji Xin nodded in agreement.

He picked up his pen and quickly wrote a letter to his brother.

Watching the paper crane vanish into the classroom, he relaxedly retracted his gaze and let out a relieved breath: "Do you know? Just because of last weekend’s temporary prohibition, my brother’s nerves are extremely taut over this bottle of black sap, stirring up quite a few complaints among the ’Will’... Merlin above, let’s hope it truly is due to black magic contamination..."

"Old Yao’s here!"

The sharp and brief warning from the stick figure behind the door instantly quieted the chattering classroom.