Relationships are not good.

It could be a personal grudge, or a public feud.

Zheng Qing always considers himself to be kind-hearted, rarely initiating arguments or conflicts at school.

Strictly speaking, he only had a fight with Arthur·Ness when he first entered the academy, ran into disputes with the Fishmen of Lin Zhong Lake, and accidentally injured Sepulano badly—if conflicts aren’t limited to student status, he also had a brief dispute with Professor Trudeau from the 2006-2008 Great Arcana Sequence’s ’World’.

Apart from that, he dare to swear with Furry Bean’s paw that he has no other personal grudges.

As for those who secretly stick little grass figures or draw circles to curse him, join bonfire parades shouting ’Burn Zheng Qing’, send him explosion charms and roaring letters, and those who frequently come knocking to challenge him to duels, they all fall under ’public grudges’ in Zheng Qing’s mind.

The so-called public grudge naturally differs from a personal feud arising from individual interests.

The biggest and most widespread ’openly hating him’ type mostly comes from those who are fond of Su Shijun—both warlocks and witches—and considering the grand display during last year’s Halloween bonfire parade, Zheng Qing has reason to believe these people have formed some vague religious belief, worshiping Su Shijun as an idol, and religious fanatics can do anything.

If one day in class, Li Meng suddenly comes to his desk, pulls out a small knife and stabs it straight into his stomach, Zheng Qing would not be surprised at all.

"Your division of ’public grudge’ and ’personal grudge’ is too random." Xiao Xiao sat cross-legged in his tent, rubbing the Crystal Ball in his arms, mocking his roommate’s analysis: "Take Li Meng for example, if she really stabbed you one day, I doubt it’s out of ’public grudge’, it’s more likely ’personal grudge’."

Heh.

In the tent across the study desk, the fat wizard who was stroking his cat couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

Zheng Qing suddenly remembered Li Meng’s other identity besides being a fanatical follower of Su Shijun, and his face lengthened instantly. Tonight he hurried back to the dormitory from the Seven Sins’ meeting room, hoping his companions could help him figure out who among his classmates might be one of the seven devils.

"Also,"

Xiao Xiao looked up, adjusted his glasses, glanced at the black cat squatting on the desk, slightly emphasizing: "You have another ’personal grudge’, probably because it was so long ago you forgot it... remember Andrew Taylor?"

"Of course, the little wolf cub from the Taylor family."

The black cat tilted its head, immediately recalling the image of the glittering, plump warlock from Alpha Academy, his expression puzzled: "We got along fairly well, didn’t we? When Duke Milton went wild at D&K, didn’t he help us? Now he’s the leader of the Ouroboros Hunting team... Oh, I see what you mean, that he might be close enough to Sepulano that he possibly..."

"You should have asked the therapist to prescribe some ’Barfi Brain Awake Potion’ when you were discharged this afternoon." The diviner interrupted someone’s fantasy, calmly teasing the black cat: "If you had a bit of memory, you shouldn’t have forgotten that Andrew Taylor once scratched you with a thorn-effect ring during practice class."

Before Xiao Xiao’s reminder, Zheng Qing had really forgotten this incident.

Just like how he had long forgotten whether his fingernails had hangnails a few months ago, or whether his breakfast was tofu pudding or soy milk a few days ago. Being pricked till bleeding, a common occurrence in the Mortal World, did not leave a profound impression on the self who had just entered the Wizard World over a year ago.

Perhaps only those who grew up in the Wizard World would pay special attention to such things.

"Ah! Oh!"

The black cat widened its eyes and mewled for a moment, thoughtfully twitching its ears: "So, you’re suggesting that Andrew Taylor could be one of those devils? Who do you think it might be? ’Gluttony’ Beelzebub? As a pig, it does resemble Andrew’s physique... But the other, ’Wrath’ Samael, transforms into a wolf that resembles a dog, in a sense, it’s closer to Andrew’s ’bloodline’."

The doctor quietly listened to the black cat’s rambling analysis, gradually rotating the Crystal Ball.

After a while, he shook his head slightly.

"With insufficient clues, it’s impossible to calculate an accurate choice, even narrowing down a vague option is difficult." As he spoke, he wrapped the Crystal Ball in the blanket and stretched expansively: "If there’s nothing else, you should just get back to your tent... don’t you have to go out tomorrow?" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

The black cat gazed wistfully out the window.

Tomorrow was Saturday, the day of the Shanglin Garden Spring Hunt, just the thought of this made its paws itch.

But before it had a chance to speak, the fat wizard’s voice came from behind.

"Remember to take some interior photos of Shanglin Garden for me... and if you’d write an article about the Shanglin Garden Spring Hunt, that would be even better; the campus newspaper hasn’t published such a piece in a long time." Xin Fat Man’s head emerged from the tent, his gaze landed on the platter on the desk: "Also, what do you plan to do with that puddle of blood?"

He was referring to the Amber on the platter.

As one of the ’Sin Bearers’ of the Seven Sins, Zheng Qing was responsible for task-related settlements, so he brought those two pieces of Amber and several balls of tissue back to the dormitory.

Xiao Xiao also slightly raised his voice, solemnly reminding his roommate: "While it’s one thing to join that secret society under a hidden identity to gather information, handing over your blood to unknown wizards is a different matter..."

"Am I that foolish?"

The black cat rolled its eyes skyward, extended its paw into the platter, fiddling with the two pieces of Amber, pressing one: "These strands of hair are useless, they can be directly burned when melting the Amber. But this drop of blood..."

Its voice gradually trailed off.

This drop of blood seemingly had other uses.

Earlier in the year, Zheng Qing became the ’Arms Supplier’ for the Trident Sword, providing Blood Symbol Bullets, five bullets per month, each valued at one hundred and fifty jade coins, allowing him to earn seven hundred and fifty jade coins monthly. He had already delivered the charm bullets for March, but has not drawn those for the next month. Currently, the blood within this piece of Amber could at least support him in drawing one talisman.

One talisman equals one hundred and fifty jade coins, enough to offset his loss.

After secretly retaining the devil’s submitted materials, he needs to pay sufficient bonuses out of his own pocket to feedback to those devils. Based on the mysterious client’s reward, this less than ten milliliters of blood in the Amber can at most exchange for one hundred jade coins, something Zheng Qing can easily cover with charm bullet profits.

As for whether the Trident Sword can detect the subtle differences between ’aged blood’ and ’fresh blood’ in the creation of talismans, that’s outside Zheng Qing’s concern.

Which Charm Gun doesn’t misfire a couple of times in its lifetime?