Chapter 435: Crystallization

The morning sunlight pierced through the thin mist, scattering amber-colored light spots across the stone-paved streets of Phoenix.

Dozens of three-story stone buildings stood in rows, arranged in an orderly fashion, their surfaces gleaming with a cold luster in the morning light.

There was excellent spacing between the buildings, and nearly ten massive plazas (playgrounds) had been set up.

This was Phoenix First Middle School, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Education.

Inside the classrooms, children of all sizes were running back and forth.

They wore crudely crafted animal-hide clothing; the boys had bells made of deer antlers hanging from their waists, while the girls wore headscarves made of animal fur.

Despite the freezing temperature, these children were infinitely energetic, leaping between desks and shouting at the top of their lungs.

They were a group of children who lacked discipline.

In the back row of the classroom, Anna, who was quietly looking at the book in her hands, seemed completely out of place.

In the past, Anna had always been considered a mischievous child; in any case, she certainly couldn't compare to her sister, Aisha.

But compared to these children, Anna realized she was actually quite well-behaved.

Of course, this was not surprising.

After all, these children were all children of commoners and had never received any formal education.

The lifestyle of their primitive tribes had forged their rugged and uninhibited personalities.

There were also a few children who would occasionally cast curious and eager glances toward Anna.

They wanted to strike up a conversation with her.

But Anna's beautiful appearance, inherited from the royal bloodline, and the temperament she had cultivated growing up in a royal environment, which was vastly different from theirs, made them feel inferior.

Furthermore, they all knew that Anna's sister was the "Office Director," one of the most powerful people in Phoenix.

More importantly, during breaks, like now, Anna would always be flipping through a book; they would occasionally glance at the content, but they couldn't understand a thing.

These many factors combined made them feel a sense of awe toward Anna, and they dared not get close to her.

Yet, the instinctual yearning and pursuit of beautiful things in children made them subconsciously draw near to Anna, wanting to find an excuse to talk to her.

Contradictory and reasonable.

"Clang—clang—clang—"

Just then, a crisp bell sound suddenly rang out from outside the classroom, spreading across the entire school.

It was clearly just an ordinary large bell, yet it seemed like a supernatural item imbued with magic, instantly silencing the school that had been noisy just a second before.

Those children who had been running around, venting their boundless energy, acted as if they had heard an alarm, each running to their seats at top speed.

In less than ten seconds, everyone was seated in their places, backs straight, hands folded neatly on their desks.

If an outsider were to see this change, they would surely be astonished.

Anna, however, was very calm.

Because scenes like this played out nearly ten times a day, and she had long since grown accustomed to it.

After another half minute or so, a young man pushed aside the heavy curtain made of animal hide and wool and walked in.

He first scanned the classroom to confirm no students were absent, then cleared his throat and said softly, "Good morning, students."

"Good morning, Mr. Seda!" all the students in the classroom, including Anna, shouted in unison.

"Today's lesson is still a projection class." Seda smiled slightly, then took a box from his bosom.

Opening the box, it contained an oval stone about the size of a palm.

Seda held the projection stone and input magic power into it in reverse.

The next moment, the silver patterns flowing within the projection stone burst into light, erupting with a dazzling radiance, just like the scene one might see after opening a treasure chest in a novel.

These rays of light intertwined, and soon vivid patterns converged in the air.

First, a blackboard came into view, with the following written in neat Ace script: "Introduction to Ace Language—Chapter Two: Writing Ace Script."

Subsequently, a middle-aged man wearing a worn-out robe appeared on the screen and began to talk eloquently to everyone.

"Students, I am your teacher, Jonathan. Today, everyone will continue to follow me in learning Chapter Two, the writing of Ace script. Let's first review the key points from the last lesson. I wonder if you have reviewed them in time after class..."

As for the children, they began to listen attentively and take notes earnestly; one could no longer see any trace of the rowdy behavior from the break.

Seda watched this scene silently, feeling quite moved.

Teacher Jonathan was becoming more and more proficient. He still remembered that when they first started recording the projection classes, Teacher Jonathan had been very uncomfortable, almost unable to speak.

About an hour later, the clanging bell sounded again.

The light and shadow floating at the front of the classroom also disappeared.

Seda put away the projection stone, solemnly placed it into the box, and then said to all the children in the classroom, "Students, class is dismissed. Hurry home and have your lunch."

"Thank you, Mr. Seda," the children said politely.

Seda nodded and slowly walked out of the classroom.

The next instant, the classroom became noisy again, and the children ran out happily, calling to their friends.

Anna, meanwhile, slowly organized her notes and the book that seemed like an incomprehensible heavenly script to the other students, placed them into a small bag her sister had given her, and then stood up to walk out.

"Anna..." She had only walked a few steps when a timid voice came from behind her.

Anna turned back to look and saw a girl who was slightly thin compared to the people of the Northern Realm, looking at her cautiously.

Anna thought for a moment and remembered the other girl's name; it seemed to be something like Per. She was not a member of the Enduring Zhenbing tribe, but an orphan taken in by the Snowfield Guardians who had been expelled by her brother.

"Is there... something?" Anna hesitated for a moment and spoke with some difficulty.

Her Ace language was still not good, which was the main reason she was often reticent.

Please, those classmates all spoke so fast and mumbled so much; how could Anna, with her broken Ace language, understand what they were saying, let alone participate?

"I heard from the instructor that your Common language is very good. I have some things I don't understand; can I ask you?"

Per deliberately slowed down her speech, seemingly afraid that Anna would be dissatisfied, and quickly added, "Teacher Jonathan, who teaches Ace language, is my instructor. If you have anything you don't understand about Ace language, you can also ask me."

After saying this in one breath, Per looked at Anna nervously, as if waiting for a verdict.

"Deal," Anna smiled.

Carrying the joy of having made a new friend, Anna had just returned to the doorstep of her home when she saw Gao De and her sister Aisha standing there.

"Brother!" She immediately let out a joyful cry and ran toward Gao De.

Gao De picked her up effortlessly.

"Sister said you came back several days ago..." Anna expressed her dissatisfaction.

"There were many things to attend to, and I really couldn't get away," Gao De explained. Facing Anna's "dissatisfaction," he quickly changed the subject: "I'm here this time to check your learning progress."

Before leaving the Northern Realm last time, he had specifically set aside time to compile the "New Standard Runology" and gave it to Anna.

Anna was currently the only person besides him who had come into contact with the Six Laws of He Xi.

The Six Laws of He Xi focused on understanding.

Anna, firstly, had not received relevant education before, so her thinking had not yet set, and she had good receptivity to these laws that subverted tradition.

Secondly, her talent points were originally placed in this area, so she had almost no obstacles in understanding them.

However, the new runology was essentially just using calculations to simplify much of the workload in runes, equivalent to updating tools.

But rune knowledge was still the foundation, which was indispensable, equivalent to raw materials.

If you wanted to manufacture finished products (rune arrays), no matter how advanced the tools were, how could you do it without raw materials?

Anna's talent in calculation had already been verified, but her talent in runology was still unknown.

This required time to verify.

Therefore, Gao De and Anna had agreed that when he returned next time, he would check her homework.

And he certainly hadn't forgotten.

Anna raised her eyebrows and hummed.

She even brought her textbooks to school, which showed how hard she usually worked, so naturally, she was not afraid of Gao De's assessment.

"It seems you are full of confidence," Gao De laughed.

"Yes!" Anna said firmly, hugging her chest: "Brother, these Six Laws of He Xi are just too useful, ten thousand times better than the rune modulation my previous teachers talked about!

Fortunately, because I wasn't a magic user yet, I couldn't continue learning runes, otherwise, I would be like my sister, wasting so much time on these rigid things and ending up learning nothing..."

Upon hearing this, Gao De silently glanced at Aisha, who was standing to the side.

It seemed that this seemingly very capable Office Director had talent in runology that was the exact opposite of her sister's.

However, seeing this, Gao De was already almost certain in his heart that Anna's talent in runes must not be bad, otherwise, she wouldn't be so confident.

"Stop, stop, stop. Don't be so smug yet. Don't fail the assessment later, or you'll be embarrassed," Aisha quickly interrupted Anna's "exposing."

The originally chattering Anna immediately quieted down.

It was clear that she was still very much in awe of Aisha.

One hour later.

Facing Anna's wide-eyed gaze and Aisha's attention, Gao De nodded silently.

"Passed the assessment."

He had anticipated that Anna's rune talent would be good, but he never expected it to be so good that it could rival her talent for calculation.

A dual genius.

This made a certain idea in Gao De's heart even firmer, and the look he gave Anna was filled with light.

But considering Aisha was on the side, Gao De chose to restrain his praise.

Gao De shook the Green Vine Spirit Dew in his hand.

Ding-dong, ding-dong.

A crisp ding-dong sound followed, and the translucent green liquid rose and fell with golden light spots.

"Lady Fuluola, how is it?"

"Still missing six medicinal properties," Fuluola said, frowning.

"Lady Fuluola, no need to worry. Just keep looking slowly. This matter is not urgent. Even if we can't find them in the end, it doesn't matter; it's just an attempt," Gao De comforted her.

"~" Fuluola still frowned tightly.

The little person had always been very competitive.

"I am preparing to drink the Green Vine Spirit Dew. Lady Fuluola, you should have remembered all the medicinal properties that compose it, right?" Gao De asked again.

"Of course, Lady Fuluola is very smart!"

"I naturally know that. After all, besides Lady Fuluola, who else would have the ability to deduce a formula directly from a magic potion?" Gao De sighed sincerely.

At the Ocean Festival, after the magic potion master's demonstration of blending potions, Fuluola had revealed the remarkable nature of her talent in blending potions:

She could distinguish all the medicinal properties in the raw materials and could precisely perceive the state of the magic potion during blending, knowing how much dosage of raw materials needed to be added to become the final finished product.

At that time, Gao De was thinking that according to this principle, if he gave Fuluola a bottle of magic potion, she should also have a way to determine what kind of raw materials were needed to blend this bottle of potion and how much dosage to add.

That is, deducing the formula from the finished product.

At that time, it was just a guess.

After returning to the Northern Realm, Gao De used the Green Vine Spirit Dew as a test subject and let Fuluola try to deduce the formula.

The result was that she really could do it.

Relying on her talent, Fuluola could accurately identify at a glance which medicinal properties the Green Vine Spirit Dew was composed of and what the proportion of each was.

So, just finding the raw materials that possessed these medicinal properties was equivalent to deducing the magic potion formula for the Green Vine Spirit Dew.

It was just that there were limitations.

She only provided the medicinal properties, not the specific names of the raw materials.

And distinguishing the medicinal properties possessed by the raw materials was her talent, which others could not replicate.

Therefore, to find the raw materials that possessed these medicinal properties, Fuluola could only look through them slowly.

Undoubtedly, the efficiency was extremely low.

According to Fuluola, the Green Vine Spirit Dew was composed of nine medicinal properties.

And so far, only three of them had been found, which were contained in the Icefield Moss, Snow Velvet Root, and Ice Marsh Insect, respectively.

*Must establish a raw material sample library to facilitate Fuluola's future decoding of magic potion formulas, * Gao De thought secretly.

Of course, this was a matter for the future, and the priority was not high for the time being.

After sending Fuluola away, Gao De also left the room and headed to the core spiritual land of Phoenix, where the Enduring Zhenbing Bingyu Wutong was located.

There were many things to do upon returning to the Northern Realm this time, but the most important one was his rank advancement.

The magic power concentration of the core spiritual land, with the rank advancement of the Enduring Zhenbing Bingyu Wutong and its effect of gathering magic power, was also slowly increasing.

Although there was still a long way to go before reaching a sixth-rank spiritual land, the magic power concentration had already increased by a large margin compared to before.

If there were a magic power measuring instrument, he thought the magic power concentration value here would definitely exceed 25,000.

Such magic power concentration, for advancing to the second circle, was actually already overkill; it was more than enough.

Su Su Su Nai Fa, bearing the 【Snowstorm】, was already waiting here.

"Sorry to trouble you," Gao De nodded slightly to Su Su Su Nai Fa.

"You are too polite, my King."

She was to "protect the Dharma" for Gao De, so that Gao De would not encounter external interference during the advancement process.

A first-circle magic user advancing in rank, protected by a fourth-circle magic user.

Such treatment, even among those noble children, few had.

Coupled with the assistance of a top-tier rank advancement magic potion, Gao De had immense confidence in his own rank advancement.

Sitting cross-legged under the Enduring Zhenbing Bingyu Wutong, he reviewed the key points of rank advancement in his mind, and after confirming there were no omissions, he took out the Green Vine Spirit Dew.

Without any hesitation, he drank it all in one gulp.

The cool medicinal liquid with a plant-like sweetness entered his body and fell toward the mana pool in his lower abdomen.

Gurgle, gurgle!

The majestic but gentle medicinal power spread rapidly, like adding oil to a fire, instantly making the 60 drops of liquid mana in the mana pool boil.

Just like a clear pool exploding with thousands of ripples when a stone is thrown in, the gurgling sound mixed with the crisp sound of bubbles bursting, making Gao De's eardrums ache.

And the moment the medicinal power reached the mana pool, the "Qingmu Changsheng Jing," which he had long since known by heart, had already begun to operate.

The liquid mana cultivated by the "Qingmu Changsheng Jing" was a bright, verdant color, which happened to have some similarities with the Green Vine Spirit Dew.

In fact, it was not just similar; the two belonged to the same category.

Under such a connection, Gao De's absorption of the Green Vine Spirit Dew was exceptionally good.

The medicinal power continuously merged into his liquid mana, causing the original verdant color to change toward a deeper emerald.

The first hurdle of advancing to a second-circle magic user, mana crystallization, began!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 436 =====