It’s already past three o’clock in the morning.【】
The noisy lakeside fell into silence again.
The bugs in the grass say hello intermittently to pass the boring time at night. Because there is no competition from other sounds, the tunes of these bugs are particularly loud in the quiet night.
In the square in the distance, some silent figures can be vaguely seen rehearsing formations.
According to the elders of the patrol team, those people were members of the school hunting team and were training at night.
After Zheng Qing heard this statement, he secretly smacked his tongue.
He never thought that any activity in life was more important than snoring, nor did he think that practicing formations in the middle of the night was a wise choice, nor did he expect that the so-called hunting team in everyone's mouth would be so hard.
Fortunately, he is not a member of the hunting team and does not need to care about those guys who are working hard in the middle of the night.
Tonight's patrol mission is almost over.
His only thought now was to roll back to his six-poster bed, hold a pillow and meet Duke Zhou.
Tomorrow he would have to help Elena with her talisman lessons. Zheng Qing yawned and followed the old school worker feebly.
Shortly after Professor Yi left with the injured kappa, old man Verne did not let everyone rest early as everyone wanted, but instead assigned many new tasks to the patrol team.
The sophomore students, led by the old hunting dog May, followed the planned patrol route and completed the set patrol goals.
Several junior and senior students stayed at the spot where the kappa accident occurred and continued to search for any corpse-eating beetles left in the forest. To this end, the patrol's only gas-dead wind lantern was also given to this team.
Team.
The remaining two freshmen were busy on the grass beside the lake with the old school workers.
Old man Verne took out a wooden stake from the wooden basket at hand, smashed it into the bushes beside the bluestone by the lake with his fist, and then tied two live buckles on the wooden stake.
Zheng Qing had seen this technique before from an old hunter in the mountains.
"Are you making a rabbit trap?" The young public-funded student couldn't help but ask, "Why don't you use magic?"
"Magic and spells are not all wizards have." The old man took a breath, stood up with Zheng Qing's help, and sneered: "As for rabbits... those stupid rabbits in First University still need to be tricked? You hand me a carrot,
Those idiots will jump around and follow you... In the future, if you go to the Silent Forest, these idiots will definitely be eaten up on the first day!"
"It looks like a trap to me too." Lin Guo shouted not far away.
Because of his young age, he didn't need to work with the old man, so he took this opportunity, and this young genius from the Alpha Academy was wearing silk gloves and cooking several fat corpse-eating beetles in the test tube and mortar.
These bugs are Lin Guo's reward.
Because in the insect-catching battle not long ago, this little wizard who was good at alchemy took out a bottle of 'insect-killing agent' from his schoolbag and numbed a large number of corpse-eating beetles. The old school worker was happy for a moment, nodded and divided them.
Give him a few bugs.
As a highly toxic organism, the use of corpse-eating beetles on the campus of First University is strictly restricted. From the use application process, to the identification of use qualifications, to the reporting of experimental records, the terms and conditions are very complicated.
If a freshman wants to complete these steps and apply for a few bugs from the school's "worm garden," I'm afraid three or two months have passed.
Only this kind of corpse-eating beetle caught in the wild has some room for accommodation because it has not been registered in the school.
In principle, the higher the freshness of the alchemical raw materials, the better.
There was plenty of moonlight tonight, and the lakeside was bright enough to carry out simple operations, so while he had some free time, Lin Guo began to dissect the insect beetles, collect corrosive fluid, and do some preliminary treatments for the insects.
"It's just a trap." Old Man Verne picked up the wooden stick at hand, plucked it among the grass, and continued walking along the lake shore: "It's just a trap for water ghosts and fish wives. Recently, the fish men in the lake have been compared.
I'm lazy and didn't do much to deal with those water ghosts. Several students complained that they saw water ghosts pulling their oars while rowing... Our patrol team needs to help eliminate the pests."
"Why are there water ghosts in the lake?" Zheng Qing couldn't help but asked curiously: "As far as I know, no one has died in the lake."
"But someone died in the river." The old man's tone became a little deeper: "Linzhong Lake is connected to the Silent River, and the school's defensive formation can block the gentleman but not the villain... Those water ghosts all know that the school is safe, follow the water flow
Just came in."
"Are many people dead in the river?"
"Every day, those magicians who cross the Silent River and go deep into the Silent Forest are pulled into the water by water monsters every day." The old man sighed: "It's all sin... The life of the magician is also a life."
Lakeside fell into silence for a while because of this somewhat heavy topic.
The gurgling lake water rubs against the bluestone of the embankment, making a refreshing sound.
Zheng Qing suddenly remembered the dispute between the old school worker and several professors not long ago, and related to the old man's current behavior, he suddenly asked: "Catching water ghosts...or fish wives, is it related to the kappa bitten by the bug?"
"
"Sharp little guy." Old Man Verne glanced at him and muttered.
Although he did not make any positive comments on Zheng Qing's inference, his attitude obviously explained a lot of problems.
"Why?" Zheng Qing pondered, recalling the group of corpse-eating beetles that were put into bottles, and speculating on the meaning behind the old man's behavior.
The only clue is the relationship between the kappa and the water ghost or fish wife.
Apart from the fact that they are both aquatic creatures, Zheng Qing could not find anything in common between the water ghost and the kappa.
But the fish wife is different.
It is said in ancient books that there is a fish that is dry, and it is called a fish woman. When the wind blows from the north, the sky is full of springs, and the snake turns into a fish, which is called a fish woman.
It means that there is a kind of fish that is half dry, half human and half fish, and its name is fish wife. Only when the Xun wind falls from the sky and the spring water flows, the snake can turn into a fish and become a fish wife.
Regardless of how the fish woman was born, the half-withered shape alone is very similar to the kappa whose half body was chewed off and whose skin and flesh were dried up.
"Dry, dry," Zheng Qing murmured, trying his best to find those remote memories in his mind, guessing: "Did that kappa want to turn into a fish woman, but failed?"
Old man Verne laughed heartily.
"The idea is very novel," the old man said, leaning on his wooden stick, and his voice shook the quiet lakeside: "Young people, you just need to be more imaginative..."
Zheng Qing knew that he must have guessed wrong, and couldn't help but blush, and was speechless.
Lin Guo was packing up fresh alchemy materials not far away.
Suddenly, he ran back in a panic and shouted in a low voice:
"Not these bugs!"
"What?" Zheng Qing suddenly raised his head, and a bright light seemed to flash through his mind.
"It's really incredible." Old Man Verne nodded appreciatively.
"That kappa was turned into a mummy, and then most of its bones and flesh were eaten away by corpse-eating beetles." Lin Guo said quickly: "I have been wondering just now, what kind of corpse-eating beetles can turn corpses into mummies?
…Nothing at all, it’s not even recorded in the big encyclopedia.”
"Could it be that he escaped from the laboratory?" Zheng Qing smiled hard and tried to find other possibilities.
"This is a primitive corpse-eating beetle deep in the silent forest." Lin Guo, wearing deerskin gloves, raised the milky-white, struggling insect in his hand with a serious expression: "It's not a test subject."
Zheng Qing was silent.
"It's been a troubled time." Old Man Verne did not explain Lin Guo's doubts. He just sighed and looked up into the distance.
Zheng Qing felt sad in his heart.
First it was the kitten whose eyes were gouged out, and then it was the kappa who was sucked into a mummified corpse.
This school doesn't seem to be as safe as it is rumored to be.