Chapter 22: Collecting Books

Chapter 22: Fetching the Books

Walking down the wide corridor, spacious enough for a game of badminton, Wen Ying peered at Beros secretly, estimating the degree of his anger. Judging from his speculation, someone as proud as Beros must be fuming after being sent to stand outside as punishment.

After much pondering and failing to come up with a good solution, he let out a soft sigh and quickened his pace to walk alongside Beros. He said sincerely, "I'm sorry."

Beros didn't respond.

Wen Ying clasped his hands together, "I was wrong. I promise you that I won't use the Burning Flame recklessly in the future." He genuinely felt that he had brought misfortune upon Beros. If he were in Beros' shoes, he might just give himself a beating later.

Demons born and raised in the Realm of Magic seemed to have short tempers and leaned towards physical confrontations.

Wen Ying touched his cold nape and cautiously suggested, "How about I pluck some more feathers from the Evil Bird for you to make... a pendant or something?" He glanced at the long black feather hanging at Beros' waist, unsure what kind of feather it was, but it somehow had a metallic texture.

Beros finally spoke, turning his gaze to look at Wen Ying with an expression as if he were looking at an idiot. He seemed exasperated, "Did Aruda really mess up your brain?"

Confusion appeared on Wen Ying's face.

"Hanging the feather of a bird demon on your body signifies that you like that particular bird demon, and it is also a token of affection given by the bird demon," explained Beros.

Wen Ying: "!!" Damn it!

He was dumbfounded. The demonic realm had too many bizarre customs. Their ears were off-limits, and their wings... Wait. Wen Ying asked nervously, "Can't my plucking his feathers be considered another form of teasing?"

He had already been accused of harassment by that tiger demon once.

Beros snorted softly and turned his head condescendingly. "It's not teasing, but a provocation."

"...That's a relief."

Beros added leisurely, "Avian demons use their wings for mating. They place great importance on them."

Wen Ying fell silent. The guilt and shame he felt were quickly overshadowed by the frightening images in the stone of terror. He thought the Wicked Bird's bald spot wasn't large enough and muttered softly, "Granny must need more feathers..."

As he muttered to himself, Wen Ying glanced at the feather hanging from Beros' waist and asked out of curiosity, "Do you like avian demons?" Beros was a hellhound; did he like birds? Well, it didn't seem impossible. Dogs seemed less likely to pounce on birds than cats.

Beros had never met such an ignorant demon. There was even a hint of disbelief in his tone when he replied to Wen Ying, "You don't even know about the Black-Winged Great Peng?"

Wen Ying instinctively shook his head.

"It's a renowned powerful magic beast in the Demon Realm," Beros was on the verge of rolling his eyes at Wen Ying. "What's on my waist isn't a token of affection, it's a symbol of strength!"

Beros felt that he hadn't conversed this much with weak demons in all the recent years combined.

Wen Ying scratched his cheek and forced a sheepish smile.

Beros looked at him and said in a sarcastic tone, "Feel free to use Flame Incineration. Mine isn't as weak as that. The flame that Feng Luo claims could be extinguished by a mere breeze definitely isn't mine, so there's no need to worry about being suspected. Feng Luo's accusation of sabotage would only hold if you were truly that weak."

Wen Ying thought it was better for Beros to remain silent. He suspected that Beros might have some trace of the Malefic Bird's bloodline within him.

It was rare for someone to be this foolishly absurd. Beros rarely bothered with weak demons, but in the corridor, other demons who saw a seemingly powerless demon beside Beros were dumbfounded.

"Hey, look ahead, isn't that Beros? Who's the one next to him? I've never seen him before."

"I've had people check out photos of all the offspring from the current generation of high-ranking demon bloodlines, and I don't recall seeing that demon."

"Hmm... Why do I feel that guy looks pretty weak?"

"I remember! It's the white-skinned demon again. It must be that Demon Mirror!"

"Damn it?! Did Berlos get possessed?!"

"How could that Demon Mirror rank first without any notable qualities?"

"I heard he got lucky, stealing points from severely injured demons."

Beros suddenly stopped and addressed the group of demons behind him, “Shut up, you’re being too noisy.”

The demon who had been speaking fell silent immediately, and the corridor was suddenly quiet.

Wen Ying tried to feel touched, but Aruda had mentioned that Beros disliked disturbances. That fleeting emotion vanished. Based on his impression of Beros, the demon wasn’t helping out of kindness; he genuinely found them bothersome.

Wen Ying let out a weary sigh, coincidentally arriving at the book distribution area. He shifted his focus. Beros had led the way this entire time, and now he headed straight for the line of demons already forming.

Peering into the queue, Wen Ying caught a glimpse through the glass window of mountains of books piled inside. His eyelids started twitching uncontrollably. Looking back at Beros, he noticed the demon wasn’t queuing. As soon as Beros approached, the other demons automatically stepped back, their emotions ranging from excitement to fanaticism, fear, and even a hint of awe. None seemed indignant or resentful about being bypassed.

Beros entered and emerged with two trolleys loaded high with books. Stunned, Wen Ying wondered how many books there were.

Approaching, he picked up the thickest one, titled 'Basic Demon Plants.' He then grabbed a few others, scanning their titles: 'Basic Herbology,' 'Basic Potion Brewing,' 'Harvesting Studies,' 'Basic Potion Recipes.' These stirred a mix of fear and eagerness in Wen Ying. However, titles like 'Ancient History of the Demon Realm,' 'Modern History of the Demon Realm,' 'Common Knowledge of Demon Realm Regions,' 'Geography of the Demon Realm,' and 'Demon Realm Cities and Economy' were nightmares waiting to happen.

A nightmare from scratch, with utter darkness before one's eyes.

There were also lessons on how demons could disguise themselves as humans, several volumes of related content, and discussions about the vulnerabilities and strengths of exorcists. Wen Ying finally understood what had been bothering him. It seemed that His Majesty the Devil had imported the mountain of books and sea of exams education method from the human world, without paying heed to the human world's emphasis on relieving students' stress. Instead, the Devil was adding pressure.

When Wen Ying and Beros entered the classroom pushing their carts, Muershi happened to sneeze. He had been receiving inexplicable glances, both subtle and obvious, from his demon classmates. He touched his face in confusion, unable to figure out the reason.

Many of them seemed to want to say something but held back, their expressions teasing, much like when they watched a spectacle. Hadn't he just been kicked out through the glass window by Feng Luo? Why were these demons taking such pleasure in his misfortune without saying anything?

Indeed, there were some demons who couldn't resist the urge to tell Muershi about his bald wings, but they were quickly silenced by the demons beside them.

No way! How could the matter of Muershi's bald wings only be witnessed within this classroom? Most of them had been pranked by Muershi before, and now they wanted nothing more than for him to be the center of attention for even more demons.

Whose audacity had dared to pluck out a piece of the Wicked Bird's wings? This was akin to spitting on the Wicked Bird's face and rubbing it back and forth, not to mention making it impossible for the bird demon to find a mate from its own clan unless the feathers grew back.

Hiss, was it Feng Luo or Beros? It should be Feng Luo, right? Beros would have just resorted to brute force if he wanted to strike, not play such tricks on Muershi. Their homeroom teacher was truly ruthless.

Many demons were never satisfied with merely watching; those with good camera angles took out their phones and started snapping pictures.

The devil world had smartphones. His Majesty the Devil had kidnapped some technical talents from the human world and, after some tinkering, managed to create these devices. As long as one input their own magic power, they could access the internet.

Feng Luo allowed them to take their photos for a while before he approached and collected all their phones with an icy expression. "Using phones is prohibited within the school grounds. I'll hold onto these for now. If you bring your phones to school in the future, hand them over to me, and I'll return them to you after school."

The Demon Realm was different from the Human World, and there were still dangers lurking about. To ensure the safety of the students on their way home, the rules regarding phones in this school deviated from those in human schools.

Wen Ying pushed a cart full of books into the classroom and was surprised to see the demons in the back row holding smartphones. It was as if a country bumpkin had just entered the city. The Demon Realm actually had smartphones? Apart from being amazed by the existence of phones, he was also astonished that His Majesty the Devil King had enforced the same phone ban as in human schools.

Beros gave Wen Ying a glance, condescendingly explaining, "That's a mobile phone. It became popular in the Demon Realm last year."

"Can mobile phones be used for scanning payments?"