Jiuyou Academy's dean, Professor Yao Xiaomi, noticed Zheng Qing using a Blood Talisman Bomb a moment or two earlier than Old Man Hemingway did.
That was because he had left magical marks on both Zheng Qing's rune gun and the Blood Talisman Bomb—so long as both were activated at once, Dean Yao would react immediately.
Old Man Hemingway had to wait until the talisman bomb left the barrel before judging its power, while Dean Yao knew the instant the trigger struck the bomb's casing. The distance from the chamber to the gun muzzle was the moment by which Dean Yao reacted slightly sooner than Old Man Hemingway.
Of course, the reason he had left those magical marks was not because Yao had developed a habit of peeping and wanted to make a move on the fresh young meat at his own academy.
He merely wanted to prepare for the unexpected, giving their dean a little buffer time before a certain young publicly funded student caused even greater trouble. Ever since the end of that winter break, when Zheng Qing had taken a stroll along the Silent River and blown up a Descendant of Sato Guya, Professor Yao had made up his mind that he could not let the kid keep fooling around.
This time was fine; it was only a descendant of that fellow Sartogua. Sartogua was separated from the school by a hundred and eight thousand worlds, so even if it came rushing over, it could not make much trouble.
But if Zheng Qing had blown up not a Descendant of Sato Guya, but the descendant of some Great Demon, or some wastrel among alien envoys, was the Wizarding World supposed to join this young wizard and demon in starting World War Three?
Thus, the instant the Blood Talisman