The night was deep, and moonlight mixed with starlight fell, creating mottled patches of light and shadow in the forest. Long-legged mushrooms bounced out of the shadows, spewing out fist-sized light balls that erased the mottled patches, brightening the entire woodland significantly.

All around was silent; there were no beastly roars in the distance, no bird calls from the trees, no insects buzzing in the bushes, and even the leaves seemed to freeze in the wind, making no rustling sound.

This oppressive atmosphere felt very familiar to Zheng Qing, yet he couldn’t quite recall where he had experienced it before.

"How are the mask numbers arranged?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

He trailed behind the practice class teacher, trying to keep his tone relaxed.

"Of course by strength! The more powerful the wizard, the higher their ranking." Hilda boasted shamelessly, carrying a slender bamboo stick to poke and strike ahead, while the other hand lifted to knock on her mask, seemingly reminding the young assistant at her side to clearly see her ranking.

According to the sequence ’Alpha, Yi, Bing, Ding,’ this meant Hilda was only second to Acting Leader Zhang Yu among the Assistant Team, although Zheng Qing didn’t quite believe this conclusion.

He couldn’t help but mutter a quiet ’tsk’.

"Thomas is much stronger than you!"

Zheng Qing thought of the German Wizard who led him into First University, muttering while touching his own face mask, thinking of another question: "... What is the mask number on Thomas?"

"Don’t talk about such things during a mission; it’s unsafe."

After standing upright, Hilda first gave the young man a lecture, then shook the bamboo stick in her hand: "Of course, tonight here is under the school guardian array’s heavy surveillance, so it’s not so dangerous... Thomas’s current mask number is ’Geng.’"

"At present?" Zheng Qing sharply captured a limiting word, simultaneously startled as he asked: "How come? I thought he would be at least a ’Bing’..."

"That’s because he once committed a mistake."

Hilda spoke vaguely, seemingly recalling something, glanced back at the young assistant colleague with a thoughtful look: "Speaking of which, his mistake was related to a witch... you should also somewhat be cautious, witches are trouble sprites, best not to provoke them if possible... you’re still young... even if you do provoke, don’t provoke too many, one girlfriend is enough."

This sounded somewhat yin-yang, sneaky.

Moreover, this topic was slightly sensitive for Zheng Qing lately.

He pretended not to comprehend Hilda’s insinuation, looked around, and mentioned another matter: "Why is it the investigation task tonight only involves the School Works Committee and Assistant Team, with none from Trident Sword present?"

In his impression, whenever an incident occurred at school, those wizards adorned with robes embroidered with Trident Sword always appeared highly positive, especially in areas theoretically under Alliance jurisdiction outside school.

"Because Vice Principal Shi resigned." Hilda gave Zheng Qing an unforeseen answer.

"Huh?" Zheng Qing opened his mouth in confusion.

"Buji Island is First University’s Buji Island, then the Alliance’s Buji Island."

The wizard wearing a mask labeled ’Yi’ suddenly lowered their voice, like a mosquito’s whisper, almost unintelligible unless listened carefully: "Trident Sword is the Alliance’s Trident Sword, but not the school’s Trident Sword. Otherwise, do you think, why has Trident Sword’s office always been in Beta Town and never directly arranged within the school? The Alliance continuously wants to extend its hand into the school, even going as far to appoint Nud as the Trident Sword director... do you know Nud? Robert Nud... he was originally Principal Shi’s disciple, not very capable, but adept and skillful at doing things... originally, according to this trend, both sides could slowly, bit by bit, approach each other until Principal Shi left the school for the Great Wizard Conference... we assistants privately analyzed, the Alliance wants to extend into the school, the school also wants to extend into the Alliance, advancing mutually..."

This analysis was obviously more sensitive than the previous witch topic.

Zheng Qing’s opened mouth gradually closed.

He swallowed quietly.

Originally merely chatting, without expecting to delve into such profound topics with this fellow.

"What about Northern District Wizards? They’re directly involved, why haven’t they come?" Zheng Qing tried to ignore Hilda’s ’assistants’ private analysis’, aiming to make the chat slightly lighter.

"Precisely because they’re involved, it’s hard to send them, such avoidance is a regular tradition." Hilda wasn’t concerned about Zheng Qing’s cautiousness, swinging his stick to hit the bushes: "On the other hand, Northern District Wizards who can appear are indeed limited... like the situation tonight, if you want to participate in the investigation, you’d need to bring some registered wizards. Apart from Great Sage, do you think Northern District has a truly qualified wizard?"

Virtually none.

Thinking of Nicholas representing Northern District’s excellent wizard state, Zheng Qing couldn’t help but sigh deeply.

"What about Beta Town? Beta Town Management Committee hasn’t sent anyone either? They..." Zheng Qing murmured, unknowingly stepping to Hilda’s side front.

"Snap!"

Hilda’s stick struck Zheng Qing’s shin, interrupting his murmuring, Zheng Qing winced in pain, inhaling sharply and halting his steps.

"Don’t forget the task while chatting... we are here to investigate, not to play." The practice class teacher set up the classroom momentum, scolded the young assistant, and smoothly removed long-handled tweezers hanging on the belt: "Always pay attention to your feet, don’t miss any subtle anomaly... like this one... ah, here it is!"

Hilda softly cheered, using tweezers to pick up a dry leaf from the ground, lifting it to the moon, observing carefully, mumbling: "... I knew it, such matters are only possible by black wizards."

The cold moonlight fell upon the dry leaf.

Zheng Qing could clearly see a blotch like coal tar condensed between the leaf veins, emitting ominous vibes. Just a glance made one feel nauseous, wanting to vomit.

"What’s this?"

"Secretions from black magic."

Hilda took out a glass bottle, tossed the leaf inside, happily answered: "Wherever black wizards appear, frequent murders, nightmares, plagues; coal tar-like secretions, even large-scale death of flora, restless animals, can occur... you can understand it as a type of ’omen’."

For some reason, when seeing that pitch-black secretions from black magic, the only image Zheng Qing conjured was of dead ravens — this strong deja vu immediately recalled his newly discovered ’power’ not long ago.

He finally remembered another very familiar feeling tonight.

A few nights ago, he had a bizarre dream involving ravens; at the time, in the dream, he was also in Silent Forest, seeing a ring of dried ravens hanging on a scaffold.

The oppressive atmosphere of that night was identical to tonight.