High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2863: Chapter 1084: The Reason for Not Fearing Old Yao

If it was two years ago, when Zheng Qing just started school, hearing mysterious terms like ’timeline’, ’path’, ’time river’ hovering between sci-fi and fantasy, he might have been too excited to sleep all night.

But now.

With over a dozen classes needing time conversion every week, he has long lost interest in these concepts—of course, there is still a sense of awe, just like someone who has to work on a computer, who retains enough awe for the technology inside the computer chips, but it doesn’t stop him from feeling irritable every time he sees a computer, especially when he suffers from overuse injuries like tenosynovitis.

Probably noticing the boy’s distracted mind.

"—Phew—"

Old Yao took a heavy puff of his pipe, and looked at Zheng Qing with a bit of surprise: "I noticed that you don’t seem to be afraid of me anymore. Last year, you looked at me as if you had seen a ghost, and during classes, I didn’t really notice... but now it seems, you dare to get distracted while I talk, who knows how you’re messing with me in private."

Zheng Qing immediately sat up straight.

"No, absolutely not, I wasn’t distracted! I listened carefully to every word you just said!" he protested loudly, although he knew in his heart that what Old Yao said was not entirely baseless.

Indeed, he no longer felt frightened after knowing Old Yao’s true identity as he once did.

The main reason being the ancient demon hanging over his ear—though it was just an embodiment of its obsession—naturally made him lose some reverence towards a legendary demon, which is human instinct and not worth mentioning to outsiders.

"Having been a professor for so long, I can tell at a glance if a student is distracted and to what extent, I don’t even need these legendary eyes."

Professor Yao raised two fingers, pointing to his own eyes, then pointing at the young warlock in front, but ultimately shook his head, giving a self-deprecating laugh: "—also, being a professor for so long, when I feel students don’t understand, I unconsciously start lecturing... back then... ahem, in short, the overall progress of the Giant God Soldier project had to be moved forward due to uncontrollable factors, thus the tasks assigned to you shall also be moved forward accordingly."

He tapped his pipe, picked up a tuft of golden tobacco from his pouch, and stuffed it into the bowl, continuing slowly as he did: "... I called you in today for two matters, firstly, to tailor a war robe for you; your current rank is too low and direct contact with high-level wizard remains can easily lead to your transformation under its influence... don’t take it lightly, and don’t think I’m exaggerating. I know you’ve come across many legendary beings, even ancient ones, but it’s different with these. Those high-level wizards you previously met were alive, and could actively control their Taoist charm, or rather, those charms would avoid harming you according to their owner’s will... Deceased ones are entirely different, their consciousness may have died, yet their skeletons still maintain interaction capabilities with higher dimensions, their Taoist charm overflowing, if you accidentally touch those concepts you can’t understand, your brain will directly... boom..."

The professor exhaled a cloud of smoke that resembled a brain, roiling fiercely in sync with the word ’boom’, like a pot of boiling paste, watching which made hearts tremble.

Zheng Qing swallowed his saliva silently.

"...So, the war robe is an extremely important protective measure for you." Old Yao shoved the pipe back into his mouth, his words becoming slightly muffled: "—as for the other matter, it’s regarding that special configuration number two, in my opinion, since the identity has been confirmed, it’s not a bad idea to meet it in advance, just to have some mental preparation..."

Zheng Qing sensitively noted the phrase ’in my opinion’, indicating there were people opposing this. And one who could oppose a legendary wizard must be another legend.

Vice Principal Ruoyu? Professor Emma? Or some other legend?

As his mind raced.

He simultaneously noticed Korma was walking out with another ’Professor Yao’.

Seemingly aware of the boy’s gaze.

Old Yao, holding his pipe, directed Zheng Qing to a different direction: "Don’t look at Korma, you are different from her, she is a big wizard herself, doesn’t need a war robe, but what you need now is this..."

Zheng Qing turned around.

A huge fluffy ’cotton’ was blocking his way like a small wall, startling him into taking a subconscious step back.

"Long time no see!"

The cloud whirled, forming an old lady’s face, it was the Cloud Mother from ’Cloud Think Boutique’, just like when Zheng Qing first met her, she was wearing that monocle, and a string of beautiful calligraphic words floated before Zheng Qing along with her blooming smile: "—I always said, you would achieve great things!"

The oversized exclamation mark was particularly striking.

Nearby several black-robed wizards couldn’t help but glance over.

For some reason, Zheng Qing once again felt the long-lost sense of nervousness and shyness.

"G-Good day."

He greeted softly, naturally thinking back to that wonderful day, remembering Sepulano’s brother shouting in the shop, the dead Pig Demon, the thunder that fell from the sky, and then involuntarily recalling Thomas, who introduced him to the wizarding world, his emotions suddenly became overwhelmingly complex.

"Originally, according to the research team’s suggestion, it would have sufficed to tailor a standard war robe based on the data." Old Yao bit the pipe, smilingly watching the delicate clouds skillfully swirling and converging around Zheng Qing: "But Cloud Mother refuses..."

"Of course, I can’t agree!"

A line of bold sans-serif words almost bumped into Old Yao’s face: "—since the school has entrusted this child’s clothes to me, they naturally need to fit him. It’s been two years since he last visited my shop. I heard he went for customizations at ’Green Xifang’ and ’Ground Brush’ instead, which is really disheartening..."

Zheng Qing felt a little embarrassed.

"N-No, I didn’t go for customizations." He hesitated whether he should involve Su Shijun in this conversation.

Immediately, a line of bold characters appeared before him.

"Straighten up!"

Cloud Mother seemed uninterested in listening to his excuses, continuing to prattle on, with lines of dense small characters flying swiftly past the boy: "...what material do you prefer for the lining? I’m only responsible for making your lining. How about dragon back leather? The top layer of the back skin has uniform texture, good strength, elasticity, and malleability, and the back skin of an adult Fire Dragon easily yields complete leather blocks about two meters long with uniform thickness, perfect for wrapping you from head to toe. As for the joints, dragon belly skin is still necessary. Throughout a dragon’s life, its belly skin stretches and compresses repeatedly, with multiple size changes, so the leather tanned from it is highly elastic, though its thickness is uneven due to creasing, making it ideal for elbows, wrists, and such joints."

"I heard the second layer of dragon back leather is also good." Zheng Qing tried to offer some emotional validation for Cloud Mother, racking his brains to avoid letting Cloud Mother speak alone.

Sure enough, receiving feedback, the words output by Cloud Mother became much smoother: "Second layer leather? Second layer leather is not suitable! Although it’s soft, delicate, and pleasant in hand feel, its strength is too low, only suitable for making law books, not for lining war robes..."