“That’s not a Wild Boar; it’s a Wild Demon Boar. It wasn’t startled; it’s going mad. A Qingxin Talisman can soothe a startled Wild Boar, but it cannot stop a mad Wild Boar.” Thomas grabbed Zheng Qing, who was eager to try, and warned him sternly, “Wizards never act rashly. Do you know what kind of monster you’re facing?”
“A Boar Demon!” Zheng Qing felt his scalp tingle.
In countless literary works, demons mostly played the role of cruel, bloodthirsty antagonists.
When Zheng Qing was young, he always thought that demons lived in caves, raising groups of fierce beasts like jackals, wolves, tigers, and bears. In their leisure, they would abduct beautiful women to torment; when hungry, they would capture a few traveling merchants for a quick meal. Occasionally, a few demons would even argue over how to cook human flesh to make it delicious—whether steaming it made it tender or stir-frying it gave it chewiness.
As he gradually grew up, he realized that those stories were, after all, just stories in books.
Later, he followed his teacher to Hui Zi Market.
After returning from Hui Zi Market, Zheng Qing once asked his teacher if there were demons in the world.
His teacher said, “Yes.”
“Do demons eat people?” Zheng Qing persisted with his question.
His teacher said, “Yes, they do.”
“What do I do if I encounter a demon?” Zheng Qing felt as if the entire world had darkened at that moment.
His teacher looked at him in surprise and said, as if it were the most obvious thing, “If you encounter a demon, of course you run! You’re just a weak scholar with no power to even truss a chicken. Are you going to be like the Buddha who cut his flesh to feed the eagles if you don’t run?”
As for what demons looked like, Zheng Qing asked many times, and each time his teacher’s answer was different.
Sometimes his teacher said demons had green faces and fangs, were hundreds of feet tall, with thick smoke rolling in their eyes and lava flowing from their mouths.
Sometimes his teacher said demons were tiny insects, impossible to kill completely, and very annoying.
His teacher also said that demons looked exactly like humans; you wouldn’t even know it was a demon unless it ate people.
On the street of Four Seasons Square, Zheng Qing carefully observed the agitated Wild Demon Boar not far away and muttered to himself, “Demons look pretty much like pigs! Teacher always lied.”
The Wild Demon Boar roared, brandishing a pair of pale tusks, and heavily crashed into a magic supplies shop.
The wooden signboard erected at the shop’s entrance was directly sent flying by it. A huge cauldron squatting behind the signboard was overturned by its tusks, rolling Dongdong into the middle of the road.
Stopping its steps and shaking off the wooden debris from its head, the Wild Boar, with red eyes, charged towards the next shop.
“Does it not have a brain?” Zheng Qing looked at the Wild Demon Boar running wildly and erratically through the street, feeling that its image was too far from the mighty and violent image he held in his mind.
“This is a newly transformed Wild Demon. It acts entirely on instinct. You could also say it has no brain.” Standing inside the barrier, Thomas looked very relaxed as he leisurely explained to Zheng Qing.
“What is a Wild Demon?”
“The lowest level of demon. Except for the demon kings within Wild Demon groups, Wild Demons generally have no intelligence. They are a pack of greedy hyenas, pursuing the pleasure of flesh and blood. Wizards are their favorite prey.”
“But there are so many Wizards on the road, why is this Wild Boar just running around aimlessly?” Zheng Qing felt that even a mad dog on the road would chase and bite pedestrians, so a raging demon should behave more bloodthirstily.
“You also know we are Wizards.” Thomas pointed to the light blue barrier above their heads and said with a smile, “What do you think this barrier is for?”
Zheng Qing suddenly understood.
The Wild Demon Boar had already run to a spot not far in front of the two of them.
Zheng Qing could clearly see the turbid white liquid flowing from the Boar Demon’s mouth and nostrils, as well as its fierce, brutal, crimson little eyes.
Then he saw a greasy satchel hanging around the Wild Demon Boar’s neck.
This satchel looked familiar.
Zheng Qing squinted, carefully observing the Wild Demon Boar with its mottled white fur.
On its bald pig head, there wasn’t a single strand of hair, as if it had been scalded with boiling water, glowing bright red.
The fat on its cheeks bulged, forming layers of thick folds on its small pig face, making its crimson little eyes appear even deeper.
One layer, two layers, three layers.
The Fat between the pig’s face and its neck squeezed out exactly three clear folds.
“This pig looks like that fat man I met earlier.” He said with a smile to Thomas, “That fat man I met earlier at Yun Xiangyi and Shangyuan Bookshop, his head was like an ostrich egg, and he also had three chins, and he was carrying a greasy satchel on his shoulder.”
Thomas did not speak; his expression had turned serious.
The Wild Demon Boar was snorting impatiently outside the light shield, occasionally letting out sharp roars.
Zheng Qing stopped laughing.
He suddenly felt his mouth go dry.
He looked at the Boar Demon again, and a terrifying thought popped into his mind.
“That fat man didn’t really turn into a pig, did he?” he murmured.
“For a Wizard to transform into a pig is indeed not a simple matter; it requires advanced Deformation Spells.” Thomas’s voice sounded a little low, “But for a Wizard to be forced to transform into a Boar Demon is a very simple matter. All it takes is for him to be bitten by a demon.”
“Bitten!” Zheng Qing felt a chill.
Outside the light barrier, the Wild Demon Boar raised its head, sniffing, and slowly retreated.
Zheng Qing tightened his grip on the stack of Tranquility Talismans in his hand, carefully moving his steps, leaning closer to Thomas.
“Very perceptive.” Thomas’s tone carried a hint of a smile, but his eyes were fixed on the slowly retreating Wild Demon Boar: “Excellent intuition. Perhaps I should recommend you for Starry Sky Academy’s Unlimited Free Combat Competition.”
Zheng Qing swallowed, his face somewhat pale.
It wasn’t because Thomas wanted to recommend him for that damned combat competition.
It was because of the Wild Demon Boar outside.
The Wild Demon Boar’s crimson little eyes stared at the two people inside the light barrier, snorting heavily from its nostrils, its sharp hooves clattering Dongdong on the flagstones of Four Seasons Square.
“How do I feel like it can see us?” Zheng Qing asked in a trembling whisper.
Thomas quietly flipped through his spell book, remaining silent.
“Aow!” The Wild Demon Boar roared shrilly, rushing forward on its four stubby legs, charging straight towards the two people beneath the light barrier.
Before Zheng Qing could cry out in alarm, he saw Thomas’s spell book float up into the air, its pages flipping rapidly, and three Talisman characters slowly drifted out from between the pages.
Zheng Qing recognized these three characters.
“In Qi Lei!”
A small breeze suddenly swept through the quiet street.
The breeze picked up a few leaves and slapped them onto the Wild Demon Boar’s body.
Zheng Qing held his breath, his face deathly pale, staring foolishly at the charging Boar Demon.
Its sharp tusks were even paler than his face.
Zheng Qing heard the startled screams of other Wizards not far away.
No one seemed to realize that the Boar Demon could see through this light barrier.
This light barrier was one of the Standard Spells released by the Wizard Alliance, ranking among the top widely propagated safety Spells.
It could perfectly conceal a Wizard’s Qi and appearance, making it impossible for hunting demons to attack.
Countless Wizards had verified the effectiveness of this Spell with their own experiences.
And now, under the gaze of more Wizards, the two figures protected by this Spell were about to face a raging Wild Demon.
Thomas took a deep breath, his face expressionless, looking at the pale tusks not far away.
His left hand rested on his spell book, his right hand formed a sword with two fingers, pointing at the Boar Demon, and he chanted sternly:
“In Qi Lei, before this fiend!”