Early spring is originally not the season for spiders to be active.

Other insect beasts that serve as their food have not fully awakened from deep within the soil, so most spiders should quietly stay in stone cracks and tree holes, hiding in thick webs, waiting for the waking of insects, for the weather to become warmer before coming out.

But the First University is ultimately different from the outside world.

The abundant magic power keeps this campus lively even in winter, therefore, when Zheng Qing and Jiang Yu strolled through the woods, troubled by strands of webs hanging from the branches, they found nothing amiss.

At most, Zheng Qing had to walk slightly ahead, wielding a long twig in his hand, to scatter the light fluffy white shapes above his head, ensuring the witch behind him wouldn’t be disturbed—of course, for a wizard, there are easier methods, but at this moment, nothing shows sincerity better than ’doing it yourself’.

Until suddenly, a crisp collision sound of jade came from Jiang Yu.

Ding! Ding!

The girl walking behind suddenly grabbed the warlock.

"Wait!"

Her tone carried a trace of caution, without any explanation. The two merely exchanged a glance, and Zheng Qing immediately understood the meaning in her eyes, abandoned the twig in his hand, and quickly reached for the law book hanging on his waist.

Just in case, he also drew out the Colt from the grey cloth bag—even though he felt there was no chance of needing to use a charm gun within the campus.

"Clearly visible in all four directions!"

The waves of detection magic spread in all directions, with the two young wizards at the center. The active magic power made those webs hanging in the branches flutter uncertainly, but according to the magic feedback, everything around was peaceful, with no abnormalities.

The small spring wind traveled through the willows, swaying the slender branches. The birds hidden in the treetops sang softly, and the insect beasts lurking under the bushes rustled as they crawled, none displaying signs of alarm.

Zheng Qing brushed aside a few strands of falling webs, looking towards the witch.

Faced with the boy’s puzzled gaze, the witch silently pointed to the warning jade decoration hanging from her belt—only to see the jade beads on the jade ornament moving autonomously, colliding with each other, producing crisp sounds.

"Is this a warning decoration?"

Zheng Qing scrutinized, glancing at the witch, suspecting it was because she walked faster.

"Yes, and no. I don’t like the warning decoration, so I asked someone to modify it into a warning jade ornament." The witch seemed to guess the implication of the boy’s words, slightly intensifying her tone: "If there’s danger ahead of me, it will give a certain warning... though I’m not sure what the specific danger is."

Bang!

A few shriveled pine nuts fell from the sky, landing at Zheng Qing’s feet.

The noise was small, but at such a moment it caused both young wizards to take a step back, the law book in their hands glowing with spell light, spells ready to launch.

But when they looked up, Zheng Qing only saw a twin-tailed squirrel with glossy fur crouching between the tree branches, staring vigilantly with its small, pitch-black eyes at the young wizards passing below. Atop its head, a dried pine cone was perched, with half of its pine nuts picked out, leaving a series of tiny, dark holes like a hive without bees.

In the midair, it seemed a raven cried out, mocking the tense atmosphere within the woods.

"Could it be that your warning magic is too sensitive?"

Zheng Qing pointed at the shriveled pine nuts, chuckling dryly, while the witch’s doubtful gaze wandered between the squirrel and the warning decoration, showing a hint of uncertainty.

Walking another ten steps, still nothing unusual, though the webs hanging from the trees grew denser, making one start to wonder if there might be some dangerous poison spiders lurking nearby.

Hoo!

Zheng Qing habitually swung the new twig in his hand, clearing the webs blocking the path. However, this time he didn’t feel the resistance of the twig wrapped in webs, instead, he felt a lightness in his hand. Before he could react, he heard the witch’s startled cry in his ear, followed by a powerful pull at his waist, dragging him back forcibly.

"It’s the Qinling Ancient Zither!"

Jiang Yu’s slightly anxious voice reached Zheng Qing’s ear: "A very rare type of spider, its webs change according to the surrounding environment’s magic power intensity, the stronger the magic, the more resilient and sharp the webs... a very, very dangerous creature! How could such a thing exist in the school?"

No need for her to emphasize ’very’ twice.

Zheng Qing looked at the smooth broken end of the twig remaining in his hand, as well as the few broken pieces lying on the ground, and felt a cold sweat on his back.

Not far ahead, about a dozen crystal-clear webs dangled from the branches, gently swaying in the wind. It seemed that if he breathed a little harder, he could blow them away, but having actually touched them, he realized how dangerous they were.

"Ge Zhitianxi."

Zheng Qing summoned a slender vine, cautiously advancing.

One, two, three, the first few webs were ordinary spider silk, easily snapped by the vine. When it reached the fourth web, the vine barely connected with the silk, with a slight pull, it snapped into several segments, dropping to the ground with a series of plops.

Both young wizards involuntarily inhaled sharply.

"The committee members will surely scold again."

Zheng Qing swallowed a small mouthful of spit, touched the thick vines tied at his waist, turned to Jiang Yu, showing a hint of gratitude: "If you hadn’t pulled me back just now..."

"Even if I hadn’t noticed, you probably wouldn’t have had any problems."

Jiang Yu also regained her composure, tapped her law book, retracting the vine bound around Zheng Qing’s waist, exhaled lightly, and said half-jokingly: "Did you forget how rough-skinned and thick-skinned you are now? I doubt those Qinling Ancient Zither webs could do more than cut a few hairs or tickle you..."

"For wizards, every piece of hair is important... What do we do now, should we notify the school?" Zheng Qing didn’t casually thank the witch, rather, he discussed the follow-up plan with her.

"Of course, we should notify the school first."

Jiang Yu looked up at the sky, flipped her jade hand, and a lifelike green bird appeared in her palm. After whispering a few words to it, the bird spread its wings and vanished from their sight with a swoosh.

"Just realized," Zheng Qing twirled the twig in his hand, watching the direction where the bird disappeared: "Do you think communication methods like paper cranes and green birds... count as activation techniques?"

"Yes." Jiang Yu tightened the hair at the back of her head, her tone returning to its initial lightness: "But just like how goblins have dragon clan bloodlines, the ’liveliness’ that paper cranes, green birds, or the portraits on the walls show, is entirely different from the duplicates we need."