On the morning the winter hunt began, the school's climate management department showed rare mercy and did not send down goose-feather snow. Still, to add a little challenge for everyone, a light snow continued to fall from the sky.
This light snowfall could easily be regarded as the lingering aftermath of the heavy snow at Christmas, so it did not seem too abrupt.
On winter mornings, there should naturally have been a chilly wind.
Zheng Qing had originally thought that, like the morning snow, the morning wind would soon stop. Yet even when the You Zui Hunting Team began their midday break, the light but stubborn wind and snow showed no sign of stopping, chattering and circling around them all the while.
Fine, salt-like snowflakes pattered against their faces, bringing a faint prickling pain. All five members of the hunting team, Zheng Qing included, refrained from using protective talismans or other magic, earnestly sensing the messages borne on the wind and snow.
This was a trick Deng Xiaojian had taught them during Hunting Team Training a few days earlier—within a forest, especially one with harsh weather conditions, remaining alert and conserving magic were hunters' most important principles. Close contact with wind and snow not only reduced the consumption of unnecessary supplies, but also allowed them to catch the messages hidden behind the wind, killing two birds with one stone.
They called it stopping to cook, but for the hunting team's wizards, that was hardly realistic.
They were not on an outing in the woods, nor were they conducting field exercises in one of the school's hunting grounds. They were on a real hunt. In this forest, which was full of malice toward wizards, every twig, every withered leaf, every snowflake, and every gust of cold wind seemed to conceal hostile