Chapter 1846: Chapter 67: Eyjafjallajökull
When they set off the next day, Li ng was still sowhat unhappy.
She still didn’t want to deal with those stinking ogres.
“Didn’t sleep well last night?” Zheng Qing looked at the gloomy little witch and waved a hand in front of her eyes, “Hey, stick close to your sister later, and don’t get distracted… Ogres have a good aim with stones, watch out for your head!”
The little witch gave him a lancholic glance.
“Last night I had a dream,” she glanced around, deliberately lowered her voice, making it sound ethereal due to its shifting nature, “a terrible, terrible dream. I saw death, ravens, withered big trees…”
“You don’t have the talent for witnessing, right?” Zheng Qing interrupted the little witch’s murmuring to confirm.
Li ng pretended not to hear the warlock’s skepticism, continuing in that dream-like tone, “Only distancing oneself can avoid death… The raven’s cries mingle with wind-blown sand, barren, desolate, piercing right into my lungs!”
Zheng Qing didn’t understand how the word ‘dry’ could be connected to ‘piercing’, just like he couldn’t figure out if Li ng’s strange mood this morning was simply due to her dislike of ogres or a subtle rebellion against her cousin’s will.
The young cost student sighed heavily, brushing off a few cobwebs stuck to the little witch’s shoulder.
“Firstly, no one is going to die.”
He said confidently, “We’ve been here long enough; you should realize by now that the school’s previous warnings were just to scare us. Secondly, I’ve been to the Dreamland too, and I can tell you, there are beautiful sceneries and frightening stories but they are as fragile as soap bubbles. Finally, truly important things happen in the real world, when we’re awake.”
Saying this, he pulled open the tent flap, a wave of morning chill hit them both, causing them to shiver in unison. Zheng Qing hunched his shoulders, giving the little witch a glance, and added:
“For example, right now… Feeling more awake?”
“Thanks, much more awake.” The little witch replied stiffly, sounding exceedingly polite.
Outside the tent, the Absolution Hunting Team’s diviner was already burning a small pile of dry grass in a pit at the edge of the camp. The pale smoke mingled with the light morning mist, exhibiting a lively distort.
Jiang Yu stood clutching the law book behind Xiao Xiao, observing carefully the shapes rising from the smoke. Her shoulders were wrapped in a large red and black plaid shawl, her long hair tucked inside, and the early sunlight brushed orange marmalade-like across her hair tips and the shawl.
Zheng Qing couldn’t help but sniff the air.
The witch glanced back, nodded at the warlock, then gestured for Li ng to stand beside her. Zheng Qing followed nonchalantly.
Li ng took a couple of steps and suddenly stopped, tilting her head towards Zheng Qing, “You don’t believe in my dream, but you have faith in the grass he burns?”
Is there any comparison between the two?
Zheng Qing resisted the urge to retort, pondered for a mont, and finally, under Jiang Yu’s puzzled gaze, coughed lightly and vaguely answered, “A great wizard once said ‘The strong do not succumb to destiny, but let destiny revolve around them’, I think it makes sense… We shouldn’t bow to the intimidation of dreams but shouldn’t ignore the warnings of fate either. Being more prepared never hurts.”
“I’m not strong, just a weak little girl.”
The little witch apparently had no faith in practicing the maxims and proverbs of ‘great wizards’, pointed at the pit, “Like Four-Eyes there?”
“You should call him ‘Doctor’ or ‘Doctor Xiao’.” Zheng Qing patiently corrected her.
“What is the Doctor up to?” Xin Fat Man, belly protruding, toothpick in hand, squeezed out of the tent swaying, making his way over, “Weren’t we supposed to leave by seven? It’s already six fifty.”
“The elders went scouting in advance,” Xiao Xiao, still crouched by the pit, replied without looking back as he poked the grey ashes inside the pit with a slender straw, “If you got up a bit earlier and ate faster, you wouldn’t ask such stupid questions.”
Ignoring the dissatisfaction in the Doctor’s tone, the Fat Man crouched by the pit, examining the ashes with interest. He picked up a straw, poked it into the ash, then frowned, “Bones? You’re doing smoke divination?”
“Not exactly.” Xiao Xiao finally turned around, looking at the Fat Man—his pupils had completely disappeared, leaving only trembling whites:
“This is an ancient divination thod, using burning Cao herb, sandalwood, or applying essential oils, etc., to stimulate the wizard’s senses, capturing so fleeting visions. It’s more accurate than bone or smoke divination, but it also demands higher divination skills.”
“So, wizards mastering this divination thod can never properly enjoy a spa, right?” Zheng Qing’s mind weirdly wandered off, instinctively holding a mont of silence for Doctor Xiao.
“What’s a spa?” Li ng curiously kicked Zheng Qing.
Zheng Qing’s eyebrow twitched, forcing a laugh, “Oh, in the mortal world, a body-and-mind benefiting treatnt… Nothing compared to wizards’ magic potion concoctions.”
Jiang Yu lowered her eyelids, carefully examining the smoke from the burning Cao herb, never participating in the idle chit-chat.
“Have you noticed any risks?” Zheng Qing shifted the topic, decisively turning everyone’s attention to the team diviner, “You’ve been watching here for a long ti now?”
“Not yet…” Before finishing the sentence, Xiao Xiao suddenly fell silent, stood up.
Other young wizards also followed his gaze.
A streak of green fla suddenly leapt up before the young wizards. As the fla dispersed, a finely shaped green bird flapped its wings, singing rrily, “Discovered the Ogre Tribe, about five hundred ters west of the foot of Eyjafjallajökull…”
“Eyja what?” Zheng Qing looked at the others in confusion.
“Eyjafjallajökull…”
“Eyafyadla…”
Xin Fat Man and Xiao Xiao spoke the words simultaneously, with very similar pronunciations but significant differences in length. The Fat Man glanced at the Doctor and gestured to let him explain.
“Don’t make repeat that word.”
Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses; his eyes, previously pupil-less, had returned to normal, revealing clear black and white pupils, “… Eyjafjallajökull, originally the na of an ice cap volcano in Iceland, initially aning ‘island, mountain, glacier’, but because the term’s pronunciation is too vague and complicated, many people can’t pronounce it, so after the last exploration, I used it here.”
Saying this, he followed the montum, using the straw in his hand to sketch a few lines, drawing a simple map: “As you know, that slope is polluted by starry sky, producing naless distortions, causing ordinary wizards to easily beco muddled, have difficulty expressing themselves, etc., if entering unprepared… Therefore calling it ‘Eyjafjallajökull’ is just perfect.”
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