On the circular arena, Nicole was addressing the students and faculty of both schools, her topic being the upcoming exchange event.
The rules themselves were nothing special — first- and second-year students would be randomly paired into teams and fight for supremacy. The rest was the usual boilerplate: "friendship first, competition second," "show us your best," "fair and impartial," and so forth.
Only when it came to the prizes did Nicole tease them a little, smiling as she promised there would be a "surprise."
Li Fei listened with half her attention, her gaze drifting to the lower-year students from the War Academy.
They stood arranged in two formations — hands clasped behind their backs, legs shoulder-width apart, every spine ramrod-straight, like rows of hardy pines. The bodies of warriors who had set foot on the Transcendent path radiated an abundance of heat, like two hundred furnaces burning at once; the roiling tide of their blood and vitality merged into a single blazing wave, raising the temperature of that small corner of the arena by a noticeable degree.
By comparison, the young mages and mage-ladies of the Magic Academy were thoroughly steeped in the free-and-easy spirit of petty bohemianism — enough to make the scholarship student worry about her school's future.
Standing apart in front of those two formations were one young man and one young woman. Li Fei couldn't precisely sense their Sequence level, which meant they had clearly surpassed Sequence 9.
The young man had sharp brows and bright eyes — the kind of handsome that registered even if your tastes ran in a completely different direction. He resembled a certain award-winning actor in his youth, the one always photographed playing with water guns at the beach. His brown hair was parted down the middle and combed to perfection; his streamlined pale-gold armor gave him an air of dashing, graceful elegance.
The young woman wore her hair in a clean, close-cropped cut and was dressed in a cloth-armor vest. Defined muscle traced the contours of her arms, and her gaze was sharp and fierce, radiating a heroic energy.
"Barring any surprises, those two are probably the opponents I'll need to watch most carefully... ah, right — and him."
Li Fei let her gaze linger briefly, then slid it sideways to take in Klein, who looked thoroughly unremarkable, before finally settling on the dazzling, impossible-to-ignore presence.
It was a beauty with cascading silver hair and a beauty mark beneath her eye. Her eyes were closed, and she carried herself with a distant, ice-cold grace.
Flawlessly white angel wings were folded forward, wrapped around her upper body like a cloak. Below that was an exquisitely crafted silver battle-skirt; her legs were luminously pale as jade, as though faint points of light shimmered across them — yet most of that was concealed by silver battle-boots that gave off the cold gleam of metal.
Melodia stood at her side. The statuesque older beauty was a full head shorter than her, but Melodia's vivid, mature face was commanding enough to hold its own — keeping her from being reduced to a mere backdrop for the angel.
Li Fei's gaze finally came to rest on that gleaming golden halo.
As the saying goes, practice brings true knowledge — and after several rounds of hands-on field experience, she had come to realize that thing would make an excellent handhold...
As if sensing the profane stare, the angel's eyes snapped open. A divine and imperious cold radiance emanated from her golden pupils — the gaze of a deity, vast and indifferent — and her aura crashed down like a collapsing mountain and a surging sea, making Li Fei's heart seize and her very soul recoil in primal terror.
Fortunately, the Vice Dean recognized her. A faint smile touched the angel's lips, and the pressure vanished in an instant — as if it had been nothing but an illusion.
The courtesan patted her chest to settle her nerves, first shooting the angel an accusatory glare, then licked her lips, broke into a smile, and — with the parting of those glistening lips — sent a silent greeting to this regular patron who never missed a chance to visit the Golden Kumquat Tavern:
"Chlo-é."
Nicole's address didn't last much longer. The real event was soon upon them.
"Then, before the drawing ceremony, let's have two small warm-up bouts first.
"I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the young generation can do."
As Nicole stepped down from the podium, she cast a meaningful glance at Li Fei, then offered an encouraging look to Grace, who had not long ago caught up on her path.
The area surrounding the arena had been open ground, but the moment Nicole finished speaking, a rumbling tremor rolled through the earth, and rows upon rows of seats erupted from the soil. The faculty stepped in to guide students and visiting guests to their pre-arranged positions, filling the seats that now encircled the arena.
"Haa..."
Li Fei exhaled slowly to settle her nerves, then stepped onto the arena. Bathed in the eyes of the crowd, her expression was focused and calm, the noise below washing over her unheeded.
"She's gorgeous..."
"Is it too late to transfer schools?"
Most of the voices came from the War Academy students, awestruck by the beauty of their rival school's star pupil.
By contrast, the Magic Academy students had mostly seen Li Fei before. They wore expressions of quiet pride — watching their scholarship student hold the entire crowd's attention with her appearance alone filled them with a vicarious sense of glory.
See that? A distinguished mage-lady should have a distinguished face to match!
Grace, meanwhile, kept her eyes fixed unwaveringly on Li Fei — her gaze resolute, carrying with it a quality of relief, as though she had just arrived at some quiet, internal decision.
A transparent film of water enclosed the arena, and on all four sides, light screens shimmered into existence, projecting every detail of the arena's interior in crystal-clear definition.
Once everything was in place, a single point of light descended slowly from the top of the water membrane.
Li Fei held one hand behind her back, the other gripping her staff [Quietsong], its tip angled toward the ground, as she waited quietly for the light point to fall.
She knew her combat spellcasting was still rough around the edges.
But the official exchange tournament was still more than half a month away — there was time to improve. Today was an exhibition match. She could afford to be clever about it.
The instant the light point touched the ground, a crisp crack rang out — like shattering glass — and Li Fei blinked sideways, sidestepping in textbook fashion to evade any possible incoming attack, while snapping her wrist and reciting a precise, fluid incantation:
"Cito LumenLupus"
The Silencing Earrings shortened her casting preamble; the Quietsong staff added a flat 40% to her casting speed on top of that. Beyond those, her Witch bloodline and Meditation technique both carried their own bonuses to casting speed.
In barely a second, two Moonlight Wolves had been summoned forth, howling as they lunged toward Grace.
Only then — as if finally reconnecting after lagging out — did the poker-faced young woman react, drawing her bow and nocking an arrow, magic condensing into the arrowhead in a scintillating gleam.
By the time the first Moonlight Wolf was shot down and burst into motes of light, Li Fei had already completed her second incantation.
The summoned creatures that came surging toward Grace this time were three adorably dainty little fairies.
In the gap between volleys, Li Fei also cast Terrain Awareness on herself.
Barely a few seconds into the exchange, whispers were already rippling through the audience below.
"They're putting on a show — and not even trying to hide it."
"The short-haired one is throwing the match..."
"Even if you want to hide your cards, you can't make it this obvious."
No one admitted to either of the two great academies was a fool. Basic powers of observation were a given.
Li Fei's casting speed was admirable — but what was the point of casting Terrain Awareness on herself? With that time and mana, wouldn't another summoning spell be worth far more?
As for Grace — she hadn't pressed for the initiative at the start, hadn't applied any pressure, just stood there like a post, letting her opponent cast freely and without interruption. Her acting was genuinely terrible.
Both of them had stumbled out of the gate, and their "poor" performance drew furrowed brows from several teachers — disappointed and dissatisfied with the two much-anticipated scholarship students.
The Dean alone remained serene and unruffled, her signature warm smile absent — not because she was displeased, but because she didn't believe Li Fei would make such an elementary mistake when she clearly understood that "embarrassing the academy would make the Dean very unhappy."
The performance on the arena continued. Li Fei summoned a parade of strange and varied creatures in quick succession — Children of the Jungle, giant bullfrogs, all charging toward Grace with a cacophony of bellowing croaks — while layering herself with a rotating assortment of buff spells.
"Alex, what do you make of it?"
A muscular young man nudged his friend in the ribs with an elbow, grinning mischievously. "I mean, the short-haired one is pretty too, but the Isle Angel is just on another level altogether..."
He was relaxed and unbothered, not paying attention to the match itself at all — just commenting on the two girls' looks.
"Thirteen."
Alex offered a calm, sunny smile, declining to answer his friend's question, his gaze still locked on the two figures in the arena.
This handsome young man was the War Academy's scholarship student from the previous year, and one of the lower-year student representatives who had stood at the very front of their formation moments ago. His pale-gold armor was clearly no ordinary gear — it had none of the bulkiness of standard plate, flowing instead with a refined, seamless elegance.
"What's there to even look at? Those two aren't going all out at all." his friend said breezily.
"Sixteen... Daniel, this is an exhibition match. Holding back is only natural. But even so — this is an outstanding exhibition match. Enough for a discerning eye to glimpse the remarkable aptitude of both young ladies."
Alex shook his head, his gaze never leaving the arena.
"Uh..."
His friend gave the arena a skeptical look.
The scene was still the same — Li Fei casting spells in a baffling, seemingly mana-wasteful sequence, one after another; Grace dispatching the relentless wave of summoned creatures with effortless ease.
"What is there to see in that?"
Daniel couldn't help asking.
"Nineteen."
Alex answered earnestly: "Judging how powerful a mage truly is requires weighing many factors — equipment, reaction speed, total mana, spell combinations and transitions... but the single most decisive factor, and the hardest one to improve, will always be Sequence level and spell repertoire. After all, learning spells is no simpler than grasping Transcendent knowledge itself."
"And Miss Li Fei — according to what we know, she entered Sequence 9 no more than a month ago... yet she has already cast twenty-five — no, twenty-six distinct spells."
"No way."
The words hit like a bucket of cold water. As Alex's voice faded, Daniel felt a chill crawl across his scalp.
He turned, jaw slack, and it finally hit him — every single spell Li Fei had cast was completely different from the last.
As a general rule, if a new student could demonstrate three to five spells at an exchange event, that was considered respectable. In the grand scheme of things, first-years were filler.
It wasn't until second year — with around ten Tier-1 spells and two or three Tier-2 spells under their belt — that a student could be said to have any real combat capability. As for top scholarship students, they generally advanced to Sequence 7 and could wield Tier-3 spells.
But Daniel had attended last year's exchange event. He knew the truth firsthand: even the Magic Academy's scholarship students, showing up for the exchange in their second year, carried a total spell repertoire of only twenty to thirty spells.
Realizing that, a creeping chill began to rise from somewhere deep in his chest.
The chaotic, seemingly orderless casting continued on the arena.
Yet as spell after spell took shape, Daniel's mind began to blur — as if the world had grown subtly, unsettlingly unfamiliar.
It was precisely then that Alex's voice reached him again:
"Forty."
"Hssss —"
When Li Fei cast her thirtieth spell, the whispering had already died. Even the slower students had been nudged by their neighbors and snapped to attention.
At the fortieth, the audience below erupted again — the atmosphere blazing with heat.
"Ahhhh, Fei-bao is amazing, I'm in love, I'm so in love."
"I want Fei-bao to tackle me with Vine Growth~"
The scholarship student's ever-growing fan club was carrying on like fanatics at an idol concert, making all kinds of strange noises.
"Hssss, that casting speed... hssss, that spell repertoire... hssss, her mana — isn't it going to run dry?"
"Gifted beyond belief — mastering 45 spells at her age. What's she going to be capable of in the future?"
"It's 46 now."
"You're all miscounting — I clearly have 48."
Arguments broke out over the exact count of Li Fei's spell repertoire, every face in the crowd green with envy.
Daniel let out a long breath of amazement himself, clapping Alex on the shoulder.
"Terrifying... so this is what a grandmaster-tier talent actually looks like. I'm genuinely jealous of you freaks."
"No."
Alex shook his head. "Even a young grandmaster's learning capacity shouldn't be this... excessive."
"You're serious?"
Daniel's heart lurched. He trusted Alex's judgment — after all, the man happened to have a Sequence 2 headmaster for a father.
The Bai Mansion.
The warm-up match from the Magic Academy was being "broadcast" live on a light screen — Bai Mengtian's idea, her reasoning being that "watching Fei-bao get beaten up or beat someone else up is equally entertaining. Mama loves it."
Clearly, though, she'd been wrong. It wasn't that it failed to entertain — it was that all desire to watch had evaporated entirely.
"A heavensent genius."
Bai Mengtian's adoptive mother, city lord Lady Elizabeth, gazed at the figure on the screen with open, undisguised admiration — the look of a mother-in-law who had found exactly the daughter-in-law she'd been hoping for. Except for a certain steaming quality in her expression, more like a youthful stepmother sizing up a soft little rabbit of a stepdaughter well within arm's reach — which came across as decidedly odd.
"Tingting, when you first crossed into Sequence 9, how many spells had you mastered after half a month?"
"Forty-eight," her biological daughter answered, cutting in before anyone else could.
Bai Mengtian's cheeks puffed up. She abruptly rose from the bed, dressed herself, and walked straight toward the bedroom door.
"Tingbao, what's wrong, Tingbao? Come back, we were just getting to the good part."
Kalida, who had taken the day off, called after her teasingly.
"Diligence builds mastery, idleness erodes it. Starting today, I'm training for one hour every day," Bai Mengtian muttered sulkily.
"It's alright, Tingting — even if you're a little bit behind her, you'll always be the best in Mama's eyes." Elizabeth's gaze was full of doting warmth, but the words themselves were pure fuel to the fire.
After all, this adopted daughter of hers had displayed an almost incomprehensible level of talent from the time she was small — a source of both delight and endless headaches for Elizabeth. Even scouring the annals of myth and legend, it was nearly impossible to find a comparable figure who could serve as a measuring stick, let alone a source of inspiration and challenge.
She glanced again at Li Fei on the light screen, and her smile deepened.
Well. Now she had one.
Bai Mengtian didn't respond. She muttered something under her breath — something along the lines of "I was never actually slacking, my talent is simply peerless throughout all of history" and "but that little wretch is absolutely cheating."
"Shall we continue?" Kalida asked softly, one hand resting gently against the city lord's biological daughter's cheek.
"Mm."
...
When Li Fei launched a Fireball, the entire arena erupted.
Every student on the grounds shot to their feet.
"Did I just see — a Fireball? Ha, of course, I get it now — it must be some new Nature-alignment spell that looks just like Fireball. Ha. Ha ha ha..."
"Someone's lost their mind. Carry them out."
"Too fast. Far too fast."
The students stared at the peerlessly striking figure on the arena with expressions of complicated awe — a suffocating, almost despairing weight settling over their hearts.
Grasping the Transcendent knowledge of a particular alignment was merely the prerequisite for learning its spells — much like how geometry and algebra are both branches of mathematics, yet even students of similar talent will each have their own strengths and weaknesses. As a rule, they would work with their teachers to identify the spells that best suited them, gradually building up their repertoire, and in time, cultivating a mature, self-sufficient spell system.
But even with resources like spell crystals available, mastering spells was an arduous and winding road. Add to that the time and energy consumed by combat drills, knowledge study, and preparing for advancement rituals, and it became virtually impossible for a low-Sequence mage to accumulate too large a spell library.
Typically, only mid-to-high Sequence mages — operating from a position of breadth and depth — could effortlessly absorb large quantities of low-tier spells. Even prodigies of exceptional talent could theoretically manage it, but they never lingered long at the lower Sequences, so the number of spells they gathered remained naturally limited.
And how long had Li Fei even been at Sequence 9?
According to publicly available reports, just over a month ago, Li Fei had been a working girl with zero knowledge of Transcendent matters.
The restaurant she used to work at had even been interviewed. Aunt Roslyn had given a vivid, warm account of how, despite hardship and difficult circumstances, Li Fei had used her intelligence and diligence to help the restaurant's business flourish, earning the praise of every customer — and how, saving every coin she could, she had bought books and read them under lampposts late at night...
And now, in the span of just a few dozen days, Li Fei stood before the eyes of the world in full, breathtaking bloom — not only displaying a staggering spell repertoire, but revealing an introductory command of Transcendent knowledge from two separate alignments. That kind of talent was almost too extraordinary to be real, the sort of thing that would have seemed fantastical even in the mythic age four thousand years ago — something too miraculous to believe.
"Sixty-six Tier-1 Nature-alignment spells, and one Chaos-alignment spell..."
Alex — whose gaze had never once left the arena — looked almost regretful when Li Fei finally stilled. "Talent unmatched across the ages."
"Her casting speed and total mana pool are both at least a full tier above any ordinary Sequence 9 — no question about it!"
Daniel buried his face in his hands and let out a groan. "First time in my life I've felt genuinely frightened by a Sequence 9 mage-lady... what do you think?"
"Three years... no." Alex's hand closed around his sword hilt, his eyes burning with a bright and fierce battle-hunger. "If it's her — a year, maybe a year and a half would be enough. Once she reaches the middle Sequences and has a complete spell system behind her... I'll fight her."
"That's so like you... though you're not wrong. A mage-lady at the low Sequences really doesn't have much combat power yet."
Daniel shook his head with a rueful laugh, equal parts accepting of and envious toward his friend's easy confidence.
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