High School of Demon Hunting-Chapter 2463 - 684: The Seven Deadly Sins’ First Meeting After the New Year
The candles hanging upside down quietly burn under the ceiling.
They cast a twisted, skeletal-like black shadow.
Withered potted plants sprout a few green shoots.
Yet it’s unclear if they correspond to the end of winter, or early spring outside.
The black cat sits in the center of the oval conference table.
Drooping its ears, curling its tail, squinting its eyes, it stares at the greenest shoot in the potted plant, listening to the stiff, monotonous dialogue coming from the alchemical sound device, lost in thought.
This is the secret meeting room of the Seven Sins.
It’s also the first full meeting of the Seven Sins after the New Year.
Compared to the previous meeting, the biggest feature of this meeting is that all members of the Seven Sins have turned into animals—the only one who hadn’t transformed last time, Demon Lucifer, has now turned into a bat about a foot in size, with a golden trumpet-shaped sound device hanging around its neck, and its small black eyes appear even more dull and indifferent.
Upon first seeing the room full of animals, the black cat couldn’t help but ponder whether the name Seven Sins, which sounds quite unreliable, ought to be changed to something safer, like ’Transformation Study Group’ or ’Transformation Seminar.’ However, that might diminish their prestige, and the demons likely wouldn’t agree.
After an unknown amount of time, when the black cat was somewhat drowsy and nearly forgot where it was, the discussion in the conference room finally quieted down.
It raised its eyelids, briefly surveying the serious expressions of the little animals.
"Have you reached a conclusion?" The black cat stretched its paws, arched its back, did a big stretch, and yawned, asking, "Are you taking this commission or not?"
The tears forced out by its yawn gathered at the corner of its eyes, making the cat’s vision a bit blurry.
Regarding a commission by a mysterious client offering a generous bounty for Zheng Qing’s flesh, hair, or movement trajectory, the black cat had presented this at the start of tonight’s meeting.
Unsurprisingly, it immediately sparked a strong reaction from the demons.
Among the agreeable, some were enticed by the handsome reward, while others were interested in the reputation of the Seven Sins.
For instance, the red fox Mammon by the conference table, acting as the embodiment of greed, found it nearly equivalent to killing him to abandon such a job worth hundreds of jade coins; likewise, the newly appeared blood bat tonight, as the proud Lucifer, clearly stated that since the Seven Sins have accepted the job, they can’t abandon it due to fear, or it would severely damage their reputation in the underground market.
It must be said, compared to the black cat, this blood bat seems to be a more qualified ’Sin Bearer.’
Meanwhile, those opposed to continuing this task had very compelling reasons.
Some argued that Zheng Qing is not just an ordinary student now but is already hired as a teaching assistant at the First University, and gathering biological information or movement trajectories of First University staff on Buji Island is akin to courting death.
Others emphasized Zheng Qing’s relationship with a certain Upper House Member of the Moon Council, reminding everyone that this task might be related to internal conflicts within the council. The Seven Sins, just a small secret society in the First University, shouldn’t, and can’t bear the consequences of getting involved in such big trouble.
One particularly clarified the difficulty in tracking Zheng Qing’s movements, a task not feasible for a small group like the Seven Sins.
"Someone already attempted this around Halloween last year."
Within the conference room, another cat, codenamed Leviathan, Miss Jealous, lazily shared a piece of information circulating only within a small circle: "After his relationship with Su Councilor was exposed, there were waves of people wanting to teach him a lesson—naturally, we still doubt whether his relationship with Su Councilor is as close as he claims..."
Upon hearing this, the black cat genuinely wanted to refute, as it had never boasted about its closeness with Su Shi Jun, such rumors were purely the result of public imagination.
Yet considering the environment, it forcibly suppressed this impulse, merely squinting its eyes to listen carefully to the Persian Cat’s revelations.
"... After his relationship with Su Councilor was exposed, Su Councilor’s fervent admirers began an all-around investigation of the young cost student. But aside from publicly known information and half-true-half-false rumors, no one could get more reliable, secret content—such as Zheng Qing’s birth details, family background, and address; his mentorship in Talisman Studies and off-campus relations—nor the essence of his other special attack method besides talisman.
You should have heard, last year one night, Zheng Qing severely injured Sepulano, meaning Augustus, our current Augustus. The school convened an emergency hearing for it. But until now, except knowing he wounded Sepulano with a charm gun, there’s nothing more specific that can be investigated.
Critical information about him appears deliberately erased, completely unable to be deduced by diviners—we hired not one but several Great Divinors for this task—none could calculate a thing.
So ultimately, all we could do was use his name to give him a few nightmares. It’s rumored a student hit him with a heavy blow one night, but nobody admitted it, whether true or false is naturally unknown..."
"I can confirm it’s true."
In the conference room, the black-and-white spotted wolfdog’s voice was gloomy and piercing: "He was roughed up while wrapped in a sack, nothing more. The Wandering Wizard had a little role in it, and thus that night the Wandering Bar was wrecked by Su Councilor..."
Upon hearing the previous part, the black cat was already bristling.
Not because it wanted to immediately confront Leviathan and Samael, but because it had never imagined there was involvement from a Great Diviner behind last year’s incident!
At that moment, it truly appreciated Doctor Xiao’s suggestion to accept this task. Otherwise, it would definitely miss these hidden pieces of information related to itself.
In the face of such a fearsome shadow looming overhead, getting whacked or having nightmares seemed exceptionally mild, to the point where the black cat couldn’t even muster up anger.
"Those Fu Bullets," from behind the conference table, the red fox, code-named Mammon, the Greedy Gentleman, brushed his whiskers, his eyes flashing with cunning: "As for Zheng Qing severely injuring Sepulano with those Fu Bullets... It’s quite problematic."
"Do you need to emphasize that?" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
The Persian Cat shot the red fox a glance, responding grumpily: "Everyone knows those Fu Bullets are problematic. Almost as if he wrapped them himself... Of course, of course, I know that’s impossible. It’s just a metaphor. But you ought to know, such high-powered Fu Bullets have always been under the Alliance’s control. And according to our investigation using off-campus resources, all powerful Fu Bullets registered in the Alliance have clear ownership and usage records, ruling out the possibility of a diversion to any enrolled student.
Do you realize what this means?
It means Zheng Qing has a ’smuggling route’ none of us are aware of, allowing him to make deals with high-tier Fu Bullet creators to obtain forbidden Alliance items—the kind of information that, once secured, can easily earn a hundred jade coins—so, does anyone still think this matter is easy?"
The conference room remained silent for a long time.
Until a white-skinned black-flowered pig reluctantly raised its trotter.
"Since magical means can’t obtain his movement line, what about direct tracking?" Beelzebub smacked his lips, flicking his big ears: "After all, he’s still a student at the First University, his activity likely restricted to inside and outside the campus... isn’t it simpler to find someone to snag his schedule and study room whereabouts?"
