High School of Demon Hunting-Chapter 367 - 36 A Few Small Issues About The Community_1

The hustle and bustle of customers in and out of Green’s Grocery didn’t bother the two young freshmen of Jiuyou Academy deep within the store.

Dr Xiao was always engrossed in his notebook, sketching and jotting down, seemingly incapable of diverting his attention to anything else.

Zheng Qing, on the other hand, was leaning against the sales counter, removing shorthand quills one by one from "Christmas tree", dipping them into the ink nearby, and testing them patiently.

This meticulousness in purchasing eventually triggered Dr Xiao’s impatience.

"It’s half past twelve now, and there’s only an hour and a half left before the afternoon classes," Dr Xiao looked up and urged, "You must remember we have a club founding meeting at noon... I’ve notified the others for twelve forty-five, meaning you have fifteen minutes left to buy your shorthand quill and get back to the dorm."

"Other people?" Zheng Qing’s mind didn’t follow the conversation as the doctor had intended, his attention naturally shifted to another direction, "Who else did you notify? Is it Mr Sima? What did Mr Sima end up saying to you...?"

This question hit a nerve for the doctor.

His face blackened immediately.

"The fat guy in the dormitory, Dylan, Zhang Ji Xin from our class, Blue Bird from Stardust Academy, Lin Guo from Alpha Academy," Xiao Xiao grunted and answered carelessly, "and the little monk, Shi Yuan, from Atlas... He couldn’t make it today because of other matters, but he agreed to sign on the founding draft of our club."

"So many people!" Zheng Qing exclaimed in surprise, shorthand quill halfway in the air, "I mean, we’re just starting a small club, it’d be enough to get into the school hunting party... is there a need for all these complicated procedures?"

"It seems like you really haven’t paid any attention to this issue," Xiao Xiao pronounced bluntly, with an extremely displeased tone.

Zheng Qing scratched his head awkwardly and defended himself, "We only discussed this last night..."

"According to the Club Union’s regulations, any club established in The First University must include members from all four academies. This not only aligns with the purpose of the Club Union itself but is also the ’unity’ ethos promoted by The First University," Xiao Xiao explained patiently despite his sigh, "And, all members who start the club must be present during the admissions hearing..."

"Sounds pretty complicated," Zheng Qing sighed repeatedly and put the brownish-yellow feather quill back into the tree, scrutinizing the various other colored quills while shaking his head, "If I knew this earlier, I would’ve just joined any club..."

"What’s even more important is time," Xiao Xiao didn’t dwell on the club’s founding conditions and shifted focus to another matter, emphasizing, "Time management and scheduling... if nothing goes wrong, the school will hold the opening ceremony for Moon Hunting on Friday. We must submit the application today and urge the Club Union to answer as soon as possible, so that we can have the admissions hearing on Wednesday. That way, we’ll have one additional day to plan for the Moon Hunting event."

"Sounds like a lot to accomplish in a short period," Zheng Qing fingered the quills on the treetop, then suddenly looked up intrigued, "I’m more curious about why Lin Guo agreed to this... Didn’t we share our ultimate aim of forming this new club with him?"

"If you are referring to participating in the Newcomers’ Hunting competition, then yes, I’ve conveyed that," Dr Xiao replied casually, "He didn’t express any objections."

"He actually agreed!" Zheng Qing’s view of Dr Xiao changed instantly, "I thought you just had more knowledge, I didn’t expect you to be so eloquent... I assumed Lin Guo wouldn’t involve himself in anything relating to demons or hunting after that patrol incident."

"It’s not that I’m persuasive... In fact, I didn’t have to say much. That was Lin Guo’s own decision," Xiao Xiao shook his head, admiration evident on his face, "Even though his age is relatively small, his determination to grow is far stronger than most adult wizards in this school..."

"Determination to grow? If he truly is determined to grow, he should abandon that ridiculous timeline," Zheng Qing disagreed and shook his head. Having finally made up his mind, he tugged a green feather quill from the third branch of the ’Christmas tree’, dipped it in the inkwell, carelessly tossed it onto the piece of paper next to it and performed a magic spell.

The green feather pen immediately began to dance a graceful waltz, leaving behind a string of beautiful handwriting in the blank areas — handwriting that curved with each stroke and looked like blooming flowers with each character.

After struggling for a moment, Zheng Qing finally shook his head and gave up on the elegant green feather.

"While the Huanghu feather pen may be beautiful, it isn’t suitable for a fast-paced notation scenario," Xiao Xiao, standing aside, casually suggested, "Perhaps you should choose a blue bird’s tail feather... Oh, Lin Guo’s timeline, I remember you mentioning the very unique time line... Perhaps he’s already buried Saturday’s incident deep within his memory, and so he can rid himself of those negative effects."

Zheng Qing once again plucked a red feather pen from the branch and sighed at his words, "I must admit, this special ability to alter one’s time line can be incredibly useful at certain moments... but it also implies a tremendous risk."

The idea of disrupting time in one’s consciousness and rearranging it according to the urgency of events, having control over one’s own world, seemed quite impressive.

However, it was only after relearning concepts like dimensions and dimension lines in Professor Yao’s Philosophy of Magic class in the morning, did Zheng Qing finally notice something amiss about Lin Guo’s notion of time.

"As per the theory of dimensions, we are all information accumulations made up of countless dimension lines, with the time dimension line threading through our life from start to finish," Zheng Qing put the red feather pen back, switched to a blue one, drew several intersecting thin lines on the paper, and explained, "Although our memory’s timeline belongs to the category of ’virtual dimensions’ in some sense, this doesn’t mean we can break and rearrange it at will."

"Are you referring to the transformation effect of ’virtual dimensions’ between ’non-dimensions’ and ’real dimensions’?" Xiao Xiao raised an eyebrow, his tone slightly serious.

"Bingo!" Zheng Qing gestured in the air and watched as the blue feather pen left a string of clear and neat regular script on the white paper, nodding repeatedly, "Consciousness will eventually affect reality... We live in this magical world, and we should not be uninformed about its dangers... Maybe I should find an opportunity to talk to Professor Yao about this."

"Lin Guo is a student of Alpha, and a genius that the school pays attention to... Is there need for you to go out of your way to remind the dean of Jiuyou Academy?" Xiao Xiao shook his head in disapproval.

"What if they indeed haven’t noticed?" Zheng Qing retorted, finally making a decision, he waved at the little sprite sitting at the tip of the ’Christmas tree’, "Tomorrow I need to go to Professor Yi’s office, perhaps I can mention it to him then."

Xiao Xiao, without a rebuttal, closed his notebook.

The little sprite at the treetop had almost fallen asleep from waiting. Seeing the customer wave, she finally perked up, her wings shivered, and she slid down the tree.

"Hehe!" Humming a happy tune in her thin voice, she laid out the long papyrus order form in front of the customer, then scrutinized the shorthand pen that Zheng Qing had chosen, quickly putting a mark somewhere on the form.

Before he could react, there was a flash before his eyes, and a bundle of blue feather pens bound up with multicolored silk thread appeared on the order form.

"Your change, one silver and five copper coins." The witch with the conical hat reappeared before the two young people in a blink of an eye, smiling as she extended her open palm.

Zheng Qing shrugged, and struggled to pull out a large handful of copper coins from his grey cloth bag.

"I forgot to bring silver coins." He smiled sheepishly, placing the copper coins one by one on the counter, forming a long line.

Xiao Xiao quietly stepped back a few steps, losing himself in the bustling crowd of the general store.

The witch in the pointy hat took a deep breath without saying a word but continued to wear a kind smile on her face.