Within the same Sequence rank, the difference between the strong and the weak could still be enormous — and one of the most critical factors was the tier of Transcendent knowledge a person had mastered.
Take Sequence 8 as an example. The bare minimum requirement for advancing to that rank was "comprehending introductory-tier Transcendent knowledge," and the vast majority of newly promoted Sequence 8 Transcendents sat precisely at that level.
Some Sequence 8 Transcendents, however, had already mastered foundational Transcendent knowledge and were quietly laying the groundwork for their eventual push to Sequence 7.
And then there were the rare few — the ones in a million — who had brushed up against intermediate Transcendent knowledge far ahead of schedule, standing only two Ascension Rituals away from Sequence 6.
In short: within any given Sequence rank, a practitioner's mastery of Transcendent knowledge could span as many as two full tiers. Rare as it was, though — the word "unthinkable" wouldn't be an overstatement.
After all, the Continent of Enlos had no tradition of "suppressing your cultivation to polish your foundation — reckless breakthroughs will damage your path." Whether through Meditation or spell research, the goal was always to touch deeper Transcendent knowledge and break through to a higher Sequence. The moment a Sequence rank increased, one's affinity with the laws would improve alongside it — Meditation efficiency rose, the mind sharpened, energy became more abundant — and only then, when returning to shore up foundational gaps, would the effort pay double dividends.
This created a natural tendency: the instant a Transcendent grasped the next tier of knowledge, gathering Ascension materials and preparing the Ascension Ritual shot straight to the top of their priority list. Generally speaking, only the truly unfortunate — those trapped deep in some Folded Space or a desperate dead end with no way out — ever found themselves in the awkward position of their Sequence rank lagging behind their comprehension.
Li Fei was clearly not that kind of unfortunate soul. Grace and Lilith had both arrived at the same realization: her aptitude was simply so extraordinary that she hadn't been able to prepare her Ascension Ritual in time — the deeper Transcendent knowledge had come to her on its own, as naturally as water finding its level.
The fact of it was almost absurd. Low-Sequence Ascension Rituals weren't particularly difficult, nor did they take very long. Neither of them could fathom what kind of terrifying natural talent it would take for the pace of comprehension to outrun the pace of advancement.
In that moment, the awkwardness between Lilith and Grace dissolved just long enough for them to glance at each other — and in each other's eyes, they found the same stunned disbelief.
At last, Lilith processed the staggering information. She reached up and manually closed her jaw, which had fallen open without her noticing, and said in a flat, slightly muffled voice:
"Lilith. Sequence 7. Light Shepherd. Mastered… foundational Life Magic."
The Cleric Pathway — Sequence 9: Cleric, Sequence 8: White Cleric, Sequence 7: Light Shepherd — the textbook information flickered through her mind in a flash.
At the same time, Li Fei noticed that Lilith's tone had been slightly off. Part of it, she suspected, was simple embarrassment — the unflattering comparison had made her self-conscious. But the other part? As a woman who understood the feminine heart with professional precision, Li Fei suspected she was holding something back.
A dishonest little troublemaker. Looks like an in-depth bonding session will need to happen sooner rather than later — time to pry that mouth open.
The corner of the stepmom's lips curved upward, a flicker of amusement crossing her face.
"Grace. Sequence 8. Single. Mastered foundational Chaos Magic and Introductory Scouting."
Grace shared her own basic information in turn.
A special class!
Li Fei's brow arched. Grace's class was clearly rare and obscure — almost certainly tied to her inherited lineage.
The name of the class reminded her of an ancient card game that had never gone out of fashion on the Continent of Enlos. The deck contained fifty-one cards divided into three different colored suits, each suit holding seventeen cards numbered one through seventeen. The rules were similar to the poker variant known as "Triple Draw" — each player held three cards and compared hands, with a Single being the lowest, a Pair ranking above it, followed by a Straight, a Flush Straight, and at the apex, three cards of the same number forming what was called a "Golden Smile."
"What's your Sequence 9 class?" Li Fei leaned forward, curiosity plain on her face.
They were all among their own people in the private box — the courtesan queen had absolutely no qualms about fishing for private information.
"Lucky One," Grace answered without hesitation, not even pausing despite her limited familiarity with Lilith.
"The Lucky One Pathway, then…"
Li Fei nodded.
A coherent series of classes that could be developed deeply was collectively called a "Pathway," and Pathways were typically named after their first class — the Witch Pathway, the Cleric Pathway, the Druid Pathway, and so on.
Grace's Pathway, as the name made abundantly clear, was bound up with fortune and luck. It paired perfectly with her Chaos Marksman lineage.
Lilith lowered her head, her peripheral vision drifting to her own bronze brooch, then to the silver brooches on her two teammates' lapels. A wave of frustration and dejection washed over her.
Two freshmen — and in terms of Transcendent knowledge, they already matched her, their senior.
She could already glimpse the future in which she was left far behind.
Losing to Li Fei was one thing. But Grace surpassing her so effortlessly? That was harder to swallow.
The once-simple wish — to live quietly as a cleric, to keep her mother from worrying — had begun to waver. And that woman's words came drifting back to her…
"Lilith?"
Li Fei waved a hand in front of her stepdaughter's face, pulling her back from her reverie. "Spacing out is a bad habit, you know."
"Ah, sorry…"
Lilith's cheeks flushed pink, her wandering gaze giving away the faint guilt stirring inside her.
"So — any objections to my live-in training camp plan? Two days to wrap up personal matters, then everyone moves into my place. It'll help us coordinate as a team, build chemistry, and get to know each other better. I can provide all the potions and sparring partners we'll need for training."
The stepmom leaned in close to her ear, voice low and coaxing: "The house is quite large. When training wears you out, you can sleep right there…"
Lilith's face went even redder.
She was thinking about her first kiss again.
Understandable circumstances aside… this stepmom was dangerous. Living together with her — absolutely not!
Lilith had fully intended to refuse. But Grace accepted far too readily.
"Alright," Grace said with a nod — and as she did, she reached out and took Li Fei's hand. Her palm was cool and faintly damp with sweat, silently confessing the anxiety roiling beneath her composed surface.
She knew exactly who she would be seeing there.
She had a genuinely good impression of Qin Zhihua — that gracious, cultured, warmly gentle Eastern woman. Not to mention that they had once fought side by side through life and death. By any measure, that made them comrades.
But she had gone ahead and… with her girlfriend…
Grace closed her eyes. A moment later, she opened them again. The shame and guilt in her pale blue irises hardened into quiet resolve.
This was a step she couldn't sidestep no matter what. She had made up her mind to face the wronged party — and to carry the weight of a long-term relationship with Qin Zhihua going forward.
Something's going on between these two!
Lilith's twin tails twitched like the ears of a cat on high alert.
She shot a glance at their intertwined hands, then turned a withering glare on Grace.
You shameless, improper woman!
How dare you flirt with my… stepmom like this? The sheer audacity!
Defending my dear mother's love life — that is a duty Lilith will not shirk.
In that instant, a series of images cascaded through her mind: her mother raising her alone through ten years of hardship, holding everything together with quiet endurance, waiting faithfully for the return of her other mother, and firmly turning away every man and woman who had ever come calling — never once considering remarriage.
And then: Lady Annie's face — gaunt and worn before she met Li Fei — set against the sweet, lingering smile that had been living on her lips these days, cutting through Lilith's heart like a blade.
But whatever the reason, Lilith found one for herself — a reason to join the live-in… well, the training camp. Even if it was a sour, grudging reason:
"…I'm coming too."
She followed it up with a ferocious glare aimed squarely at Grace — the universal message being: I will be watching you like a hawk — like a tiny kitten curled up in its owner's arms, hissing and swiping at a big golden retriever.
Grace: …
Having just begun to peel back the layers of the witch's true nature — and struggling to make peace with that chaotic essence — Grace forced out a stiff, rigid smile in Lilith's direction.
Learning to coexist with other wo—
Li Fei felt a pang of sympathy. She tightened her grip on Grace's hand, using warmth and steady pressure to soothe the poker-faced young woman's heart.
— God above, how does one actually get a girlfriend to genuinely, wholeheartedly accept another girlfriend's existence — not just "I can't leave her, so I'll grudgingly tolerate the others"? Following Tingbao's road wasn't an option. Tying one pair of wings in a knot was manageable, but tying two pairs… hmm. I, Li Fei, must forge my own path.
— Margaretkins, I finally understand those wishy-washy, [indecipherable] dense protagonists. As long as you keep things ambiguous and never poke through the paper window, you can use "friendship" as cover and have everyone together with a clear conscience… but I'm not that kind of person!
Lost in the tide of her own thoughts, the courtesan queen found herself at a genuine impasse. Evidently, her current mastery of The Art of Tea had yet to yield an answer to this particular dilemma.
After a moment, she filed the question away alongside "to hell with the lifespan theory" in the mental drawer labeled: Long-Term Research Projects.
The immediate priority was convincing Zhihua-jie — within two days — of the following development: "We've barely spent one night living together, and yet, here I am, darling, already about to bring home two new little sisters."
"Haah…"
Silence settled over the private box. In that moment, all three of them — each lost in their own thoughts — let out a sigh at exactly the same time.
Inside the Dean's office.
A white-haired old mage, beard and temples equally silver, sat bolt upright behind the desk beneath a tall pointed wizard's hat.
His name was Herbert. Li Fei's very first spell class after enrollment had been taught by this high-Sequence, encyclopedically learned figure — and he had been the first to notice the anomaly in Li Fei's affinity with the laws, though he had rationally concluded that the Dean must have used some technique to mask the special-recruit student's true aptitude, so as not to make her too conspicuous a target.
In truth, Herbert had only taught Li Fei that single class. A presence of his caliber was perfectly suited to serve as the Academy's "deep reserve" — content to accept the resources the institution provided and spend his days buried in a Folded Space or a mage's tower, refining his spells. Long-term teaching was simply not something that occupied his schedule.
Yet in the decades since he had stepped into Sequence 3, he had never once stopped insisting on personally teaching the very first spell lesson to every incoming freshman class. For close to two centuries without exception. This steadfast habit had earned him the unanimous respect and admiration of the faculty, and his reputation within the Academy stood very high indeed.
Just how high? Consider it this way: even the Vice Dean-elect Melodia, the Dean's heir apparent, was not safe from having the Dean casually annotate her personnel file at any given moment with "unique and authoritative" remarks; and even though the red "✗" marks filling the Teaching Ethics column of Melodia's personal file outnumbered the tattoos on Chief Constable Kalida's thighs, not a single soul in the Magic Academy dared breathe a word about it.
Herbert, by contrast, had received only one unsatisfactory evaluation in nearly two centuries of teaching. His punishment had been to stand watch over the Magic Library — during which time he was free to read through a vast trove of precious knowledge. A public reprimand that was, in private, a reward.
The reason for that unsatisfactory mark: Herbert had, in broad daylight at the Academy's front gates, publicly killed a bright-eyed and ambitious young teacher. That teacher had once been his proudest student, a pupil of grandmaster caliber — and before his death, had used his position to coerce several female students, driving one of them to take her own life.
Of course, in those days, the female demon lord had yet to emerge onto the stage, and nothing resembling legal recourse existed.
"Master Herbert, what brings you here?" Nicole produced a fresh teacup and poured him a serving of black tea.
"Thank you."
The rigidly proper Herbert lifted the teacup, took a sip, and set it down. "My recommendation: elevate Li Fei's student rank to Gold."
"Oh?"
Nicole's lips curved. "Isn't that a bit fast? As things stand, only the 'Twin Stars' and a select handful of upperclassmen hold that distinction. In past years, it wasn't at all unusual for the entire Academy to go without a single Gold-ranked student. Awarding it to a freshman so hastily would surely invite no shortage of gossip — people accusing their Dean of playing favorites."
Herbert spoke slowly:
"Your conduct and contributions, Dean, are not so easily tarnished by idle rumor. And Li Fei's aptitude is more than worthy of exceptional treatment."
He paused, and when he continued, his voice carried something almost like reverence:
"Special recruits come every year. Grandmaster-caliber talent does not."
"The Twin Stars have made their name. The Southern Wastes' War Goddess has carved out a fearsome reputation. The Knight's Ridge Little Sun rises ever brighter. The female demon lord's infamy has spread from Loxibrook to the Dwarven Imperial Court — there is not a soul who does not know her name."
"Even the Witch Covens are stirring, reaching their claws toward the Holy See. The new generation's Grey Witch abducted the Holy Maiden Emnesia and walked away without a scratch…"
"Extraordinary talents are appearing without pause, one after another. I have a feeling — perhaps an age of brilliance, a constellation of stars all burning at once, is about to dawn."
"And in the not-too-distant future, I fear there will be a cataclysm — something that overturns the four-thousand-year stalemate of perpetual conflict without outright collapse. We would do well to prepare in advance."
As he spoke, something moved in Herbert's eyes — a surge of divine light and arcane script, distant and dispassionate, like the gaze of a god sifting down through mortal time, capable of peering through it to glimpse the shape of things to come.
Nicole listened in quiet attention. High-Sequence powerhouses had already begun to touch upon "divinity" — no one could afford to dismiss a prophecy that fell from their lips.
"Now, two new stars have risen into the sky, and the feeling within me grows stronger still… The teaching resources we have been accumulating for so many years — perhaps the time to draw upon them has finally come."
"I hadn't realized Master Herbert held Miss Grace in such high regard as well."
Nicole's smile deepened, her fingertip lightly brushing the braid resting on her shoulder. "But as for the matter of raising Li Fei's student rank…"
"I agree."
The Vice Dean-elect, who had been listening in silence from her corner of the office, offered her perfectly fair and impartial opinion.
"If her aptitude surpasses even the Twin Stars, why not simply give her a Crystal-grade evaluation?"
The visiting Vice Dean from the other academy opened her mouth — and doubled the fairness and impartiality on the spot.
Chloe, strictly speaking, had no business interfering in the Magic Academy's internal affairs. And given her particular relationship with the courtesan queen, she should by rights have recused herself from any evaluation concerning Li Fei. But having devoted herself wholeheartedly to combat since childhood — a quality that, charitably described, was called "pure of heart," and bluntly described meant she couldn't make friends, had never worn a skirt, and was a thoroughly introverted straight-arrow who had no idea how to read a room — she simply didn't register any of those considerations.
And so Chloe said exactly what was in her heart.
The situation had taken on a faint air of mutiny against the Dean. With any other three people in the room, Nicole might have smiled very graciously indeed.
But given that the three present were respectively: a veteran teacher who had spent the better part of two centuries pouring himself into the Magic Academy and never pulled his punches; a frank, straightforward, and easily-managed-in-romantic-matters older beauty; and a socially oblivious, introverted young woman with zero talent for navigating subtext — the Dean let out a mildly pained sigh and threw up her hands:
"Raw aptitude alone isn't enough."
"Gold rank requires a performance noteworthy enough to turn heads. Diamond rank requires a contribution or achievement significant enough to be written into the school's history…"
"Writing it as we speak."
Melodia chimed in helpfully: "Reached Sequence 9 less than half a month ago, already has mastered Transcendent knowledge in two affinities, and at least six or seven spell…"
— To be precise: three affinities. Plus a foundation in swordsmanship, and no small degree of Qinggong.
The image of Li Fei sparring with Yusura flashed through Nicole's mind, and the smile that spread across her face turned unexpectedly warm.
She understood Melodia's enthusiasm perfectly well — but undermining the Dean like this was simply not acceptable. It spoke to a fundamental lack of hierarchical awareness. A complete failure to show proper respect toward her as Dean.
And disrespecting the Dean — why, that was tantamount to rebellion!
Such brazen impropriety. A stain upon her teaching ethics. A stain, truly, upon her teaching ethics.
"In that case…"
After fixing Melodia with a long, warmly meaningful look, Nicole raised her somewhat reluctant proposal with an expression of carefully performed difficulty.
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