Yin Qi Lei!

"That's not a wild boar, it's a Boar Demon. It's not startled, it's gone berserk. Calming Talismans can soothe a startled wild boar, but they can't stop a berserk one." 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, monsters mostly played the role of ferocious, bloodthirsty villains.

When Zheng Qing was little, he always thought monsters lived in caves, raising a pack of wolves, tigers, and bears, occasionally kidnapping beautiful women to cause trouble; when they were hungry, they'd catch a few traveling merchants to feast on. Sometimes, a few monsters would even argue about the best way to cook human flesh – steamed for tenderness, or stir-fried for chewiness.

As he grew older, he realized those stories were just stories from books.

Later, he followed his teacher to the Huizi Market.

After returning from the Huizi Market, Zheng Qing once asked his teacher if monsters existed in the world.

His teacher said, yes.

Do monsters eat people? Zheng Qing persisted.

His teacher said, they do.

What should I do if I encounter a monster? Zheng Qing felt the whole world turn dark at that moment.

His teacher looked at him in surprise and said, as a matter of course, "If you encounter a monster, you run, of course! You're just a weak scholar with no strength to even truss a chicken. If you don't run, are you supposed to be the Buddha, cutting flesh to feed an eagle?"

As for what monsters looked like, Zheng Qing had asked many times, and each time his teacher's answer was different.

Sometimes his teacher said monsters had green faces and fangs, were a hundred feet tall, with smoke rolling in their eyes and lava flowing from their mouths.

Sometimes his teacher said monsters were a swarm of tiny insects, endless and unkillable, very annoying.

His teacher also said that monsters looked exactly like humans. If it didn't eat you, you wouldn't even know it was a monster.

On the streets of the Four Seasons Market, Zheng Qing carefully observed the rampaging Boar Demon not far away and muttered to himself, "Monsters look pretty much like pigs! My teacher was just lying to me."

The Boar Demon roared, baring a pair of ghastly white tusks, and violently charged at a magic supplies store.

The wooden sign standing at the store entrance was directly knocked away by its charge. A giant cauldron squatting behind the sign was overturned by its tusks and rolled into the middle of the road.

Stopping, shaking the wooden debris from its head, the boar, with red eyes, charged towards the next shop.

"Does it have a brain?" Zheng Qing watched the Boar Demon rush back and forth, darting around the street, feeling that its image was too far from the mighty and violent image in his mind.

"This is a newly transformed Wild Demon, acting purely on instinct. You can think of it as brainless." Standing within the barrier, Thomas looked relaxed and casually explained to Zheng Qing.

"What is a Wild Demon?"

"The lowest level of monsters. Except for the Demon Kings within a Wild Demon pack, Wild Demons generally lack intelligence. They are just a group 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 boar just running around?" Zheng Qing felt that even a mad dog on the street would chase pedestrians and bite them; a berserk monster should at least be more bloody.

"You know we are wizards, right?" Thomas pointed to the light blue barrier above their heads and smiled, "What do you think this barrier is for?"

Zheng Qing suddenly understood.

The Boar Demon had already run to a spot not far from the two of them.

Zheng Qing could clearly see the white, milky fluid flowing from the corners of the demon pig's mouth and nostrils, as well as its fierce and brutal, small crimson eyes.

Then he saw a greasy saddlebag hanging around the Boar Demon's neck.

The saddlebag looked very familiar.

Zheng Qing squinted, carefully observing the Boar Demon with its mottled white fur.

On its bare pig's head, there wasn't a single hair, as if it had been scalded by boiling water, glowing red.

The fat on its cheeks bulged, forming layers of thick folds on the narrow pig's face, making those small crimson eyes appear even deeper.

One layer, two layers, three layers.

The excess fat between the pig's face and neck perfectly formed three distinct folds.

"This pig looks like that fat guy I met before," he said to Thomas with a smile. "That fat guy I met at Yunxiangyi and Shangyuan Bookstore, his head was like an ostrich egg, he had a triple chin, and he had a greasy saddlebag hanging from his shoulder."

Thomas said nothing; his expression became serious.

Outside the light barrier, the Boar Demon snorted restlessly, occasionally letting out sharp roars.

Zheng Qing stopped laughing.

He suddenly felt his mouth go a little dry.

He looked at the demon pig again, and a terrifying thought popped into his mind.

"That fat guy didn't actually turn into a pig, did he?" he murmured.

"It's indeed not a simple matter for a wizard to turn into a pig; it requires advanced transformation spells," Thomas's voice sounded a bit low. "But it's very simple for a wizard to be forced into becoming a Boar Demon. All it takes is for him to be bitten by a demon."

"Bitten!" Zheng Qing felt a chill run down his spine.

Outside the light screen, the Boar Demon lifted its head, sniffed, and slowly retreated.

Zheng Qing tightened his grip on the stack of Calming Talismans in his hand and cautiously shuffled his feet, moving closer to Thomas.

"Very perceptive," Thomas's tone carried a hint of amusement, but his eyes were fixed on the slowly retreating Boar Demon. "Excellent intuition. Perhaps I should recommend you for Starry Sky Academy's unrestricted free combat competition."

Zheng Qing swallowed, his face turning a little pale.

It wasn't because Thomas wanted to recommend him for that damned combat competition.

but because of the Boar Demon outside.

The Boar Demon's small, blood-red eyes stared at the two people within the light screen, snorting roughly through its nostrils. Its sharp hooves tapped on the flagstone road of the Four Seasons Market, making a thudding sound.

"Why do I feel like it can see us," Zheng Qing asked in a trembling voice.

Thomas quietly flipped through his Spellbook, remaining silent.

"Roar!" The Boar Demon let out a sharp roar, charging forward on its thick, short legs and rushing straight towards the two people beneath the light screen.

Before Zheng Qing could cry out in alarm, he saw Thomas's Spellbook float up from nowhere. The pages flipped rapidly with a rustling sound, and three Rune Characters slowly drifted out from the pages.

Zheng Qing recognized these three characters.

"Yin Qi Lei!"

A small breeze suddenly blew down the quiet street.

The breeze picked up a few leaves and slapped them against the Boar Demon.

Zheng Qing held his breath, his face pale, and stared blankly at the charging demon pig.

Its sharp tusks were even paler than his face.

Zheng Qing heard the startled screams of other Wizards not far away.

It seemed no one realized the demon pig could see through this light screen.

This light screen was one of the standard spells issued by the Wizard Alliance, ranking high among widely disseminated safety spells.

It could perfectly conceal a Wizard's aura and appearance, leaving hunting demons with no way to attack.

Countless Wizards had verified the effectiveness of this spell through their own experiences.

And now, in the eyes of even more Wizards, the two figures protected by this spell were about to face a ferocious Wild Demon.

Thomas took a deep breath, his expressionless face looking at the pale tusks not far away.

He pressed his left hand on the Spellbook, formed his right hand into a sword with his fingers together, and pointed at the demon pig, chanting sternly:

"Yin Qi Lei, before this fiend!"