"Cleanup complete!"
"Clear!"
"Safe!"
Azure Birds no larger than fingernails landed one after another on Zheng Qing's shoulder, opening their beaks to relay the reports from Zhang Jixin, Dylan, and Lan Que.
Xiao Xiao hugged a crystal ball and sat cross-legged within the triangular spell formation formed by Zheng Qing, Jiang Yu, and Fatty Xin. He lowered his head to inspect the hunting grounds the team had already cleared, judging whether Roaming Hunters needed to be sent out to investigate again—though, hearing the suspicious sounds from beneath his hood, Zheng Qing strongly suspected that he had accidentally fallen asleep.
In the blink of an eye, the three-day winter hunt was nearing its end.
Today was the final day of the winter hunt.
The skies had cleared, though the ground remained blanketed in deep snow. Against the snowy field, the crystal-clear ball appeared especially pristine, and even the scenes reflected within it seemed unusually clean, as though every branch, every dead leaf, and every snowflake had been scrubbed spotless.
The intermittent wind and snow had left a deep impression on the young wizards participating in the hunt. They could hardly wait to return to their warm lounges, brew a cup of black tea with three heaping spoonfuls of sugar, or make themselves a steaming mug of hot cocoa to make up for this calm and dull winter hunting exercise.
For the You Zui Hunting Team, aside from the giant Human-faced Rat they had encountered on the first day, there had been no other prey of any real difficulty. Zheng Qing had reason to suspect that the rat was among the strongest monsters in the entire winter hunting grounds.
There had been no scares, no regrets, and naturally, not many surprises either.
The entire winter hunt had proceeded by the book, bland