In the distance, a deep and lodious roar resonated from behind the clouds, gradually growing louder, like the rumble of thunder, reaching the ears of the young wizards.
Zheng Qing lifted his head to look at the sky.
The swirling mist suddenly split open into a narrow crevice, from which a nacing dragon head erged, swaying from side to side, loudly calling out. Then, the second dragon head, followed by the third, erged. In just a mont, a massive dark green three-headed fire dragon tore through the mist’s bind, spreading its wide wings, and slowly descended. The strong wind blowing from it made the surrounding flags and the wizards’ robes flap audibly. As Zheng Qing followed the direction of the dragon’s descent, he saw a towering Fallen Dragon Rock.
"Who is that, so ostentatious!" Zheng Qing couldn’t help but blurt out. When he and Jiang Yu landed on their creature, Damao, they didn’t cause such a big commotion—the juvenile little furry dragon perhaps found the surrounding dragon forces too frightening to utter a sound upon landing, let alone stir up such a strong gust of wind.
Upon hearing Zheng Qing’s exclamation, Jiang Yu glanced up without a second thought and replied, "It should be the tropolitan Blair Family."
"Are you close with them?" Zheng Qing asked curiously.
"Not close, but isn’t Blair Family’s emblem hanging on the saddle and tack of the three-headed fire dragon?" the witch answered truthfully, leaving the boy speechless—he had seen the flag too, but the artwork on it seed no different from most of the patterns around the hunting ground to his eyes, making it impossible to deduce which emblem belonged to which family.
"No wonder the school offers ’Emblem Studies’."
The young teaching assistant let out a small sigh, feeling increasingly out of place with his surroundings, and unexpectedly began to miss his painful and monotonous study life at First University.
Perhaps because the spring hunt was about to begin.
Not long after the Blair Family’s dragon descended, another dragon’s roar echoed from behind the clouds, followed by a third, then a fourth. They landed one after another on the ’Fallen Dragon Rock’ prepared by the organizers in advance— which to Zheng Qing felt like fingers reaching up towards the sky, those stone mounds abruptly raised at the valley’s edge—raising their necks, watching each other with heads held high, ready to pounce at any disagreent.
This restless atmosphere spread, mixing with the increasingly heated energy in the valley, soaring, like a giant hand stirring the mist in the sky into increasingly tumultuous rolls.
"Do the wizards from the prominent families all co on dragons?" A familiar inquiry ca from beside him.
Zheng Qing subtly glanced in that direction.
It was a young warlock wearing a clean black robe—the use of ’clean’ to describe it was because besides being clean and tidy, the robe had no other distinct features, neither being a high-grade custom from Green Xifang or Ground Brush, nor bearing any organizational or family emblem.
This must be a companion brought by soone qualified to attend the spring hunt, he mused internally, his gaze falling next to the young wizard, unexpectedly seeing a familiar emblem.
The nine fluffy fox tails spinning into a circular emblem, symbolizing the Qingqiu Su Family.
He imdiately sucked in a small breath, not even seeing clearly the owner of the emblem, instinctively bowing his head.
"Don’t worry, Su Councilor didn’t co today."
Jiang Yu seed to have anticipated the warlock’s reaction, chuckled softly, leaned close to his ear, and whispered words of comfort: "That young girl should be a relative of Su Councilor... The fox girls of the Qingqiu Clan have always liked to invest in potential stocks within the Alliance who have a clean background yet lack significant connections, hoping to gain the support of a Dao partner in the future."
The witch’s voice carried a delicate fragrance into Zheng Qing’s nostrils, but instead of feeling his usual fondness, he rely felt a shiver down his spine.
"...Not necessarily."
A clear and pleasant female voice answered almost simultaneously from the other side, evidently replying to a companion’s question: "You could say riding dragons is a choice for most wizard families, which is why this area is called ’Fallen Dragon Rock,’ but besides dragons, other ans of transportation appear at the hunting ground too, like the Black family prefers giant bats, the Miyamoto family has a ship that traverses the void, the Gongsun family raises a zombie earth dragon of unknown age, and the Dumbledore family has carriages, Tiann Zhang family has flying cranes, Shushan Tang family owns flying boats, and so on... however, their landing spots are not in this Fallen Dragon Rock area."
"Wow!" The warlock in the clean black robe quietly admired, with a hint of envy in his tone: "I wonder when I can have my own dragon..."
"I believe in you!" The clear and pleasant female voice imdiately encouraged, just hearing it, Zheng Qing felt as if he saw a little fox shaking a small fist, cheering for her companion.
He couldn’t help but touch his earlobe, imagining whether the little green snake living in his ear might one day grow wings and soar the skies with him, behind him...
"It’s ti to set out!"
Jiang Yu’s voice interrupted the young warlock’s daydreams, quickly pulling him back from the haze of wild imagination to reality. The witch took his arm and led him toward the edge of the valley: "Before the opening ceremony, I’ll introduce you to so friends... Keep your spirits up, don’t let the paparazzi catch you looking sneaky."
Zheng Qing fought the urge to activate the invisibility talisman tucked in his belt.
"There... are there reporters here?" He tried to make his tone appear relaxed, but as soon as he spoke, he could hear the stiffness and fear in his own voice.
"Of course," the witch glanced at him with a slightly mocking smile on her face: "Rember Little William Blair? I just saw him chatting with Ms. Pulitzer. I believe both of them are very interested in you."
Not to ntion Ms. Pulitzer, who serves as a senior comntator for the Beta Town Post.
As for Little William Blair, Zheng Qing has very vivid mories—one could say, his most direct catalyst for attending this year’s Shanglin Garden Spring Hunt was last winter when Mr. Blair published a comntary titled "Su Shi Jun’s Lover Identity Exposed? We Analyze the Related Reports" in Beta Town Post. At that ti, Jiang Yu had read it thoroughly before him and three other companions, then casually invited him to this year’s Shanglin Garden Spring Hunt.
What else could he say?
He could only happily agree!
Thus, upon hearing the na ’Little William Blair’ at this mont, Zheng Qing’s first reaction was—
"Ah, please give a cup of iced hot cocoa, thank you!"
He forced himself to remain calm, waved at a sprite gracefully flying past them, requesting a drink without any thought— or to say, he simply wanted to shove sothing into his mouth right now.
The sprite in the white uniform tilted its head, stared at the warlock for a few seconds, then finally clapped hands, handed him a steaming cup of cocoa, and tossed in two ice cubes.
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