Chapter 527: Crystallization

Morning sunlight pierced the thin mist, casting amber patches across the Phoenix stone pathways.

Dozens of three-story stone buildings stood in orderly rows, glinting with a cold sheen in the morning light.

They were spaced with excellent distance between them, and nearly ten large plazas (courtyards) had been laid out.

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

Inside the classroom, children of all sizes ran about.

They wore rough-hewn leather garments; boys hung deer-antler bells at their waists, girls tied headbands of animal fur.

Despite the freezing temperature, these children radiated boundless energy, leaping and shouting between desks.

They were a group of children with very little discipline.

In the last row, Anna, quietly reading a book in her hands, stood out as utterly out of place.

In the past, Anna had always been seen as a mischievous child—unquestionably no match for her sister Elsa.

But compared to these children, Anna realized how well-behaved she truly was.

Of course, that wasn’t surprising.

After all, these children were all commoners’ offspring, never having received any formal education.

Their rough, unrefined personalities were shaped by the lifestyle of primitive tribes.

A few children occasionally cast curious, eager glances toward Anna.

They wanted to strike up a conversation with her.

But Anna’s exquisite features, inherited from her royal bloodline, and her demeanor, cultivated in the royal environment and utterly unlike theirs, filled them with feelings of inferiority.

Moreover, they all knew that Anna’s sister was the “Office Director,” one of the most powerful figures in Phoenix.

More importantly, during breaks—like now—Anna always sat reading a book. When they stole a glance at its contents, they understood nothing at all.

All these factors combined made them deeply reverent toward Anna, too intimidated to approach her.

Yet children’s innate longing for beauty drove them unconsciously closer to Anna, seeking any excuse to speak to her.

Contradictory, yet reasonable.

“Ding—ding—ding—”

At that moment, a clear bell rang from outside the classroom, echoing throughout the entire school.

Though merely an ordinary bell, it seemed imbued with magic, instantly silencing the school that had been noisy just a second before.

The children, who had been sprinting everywhere to vent their boundless energy, now rushed to their seats as if hearing an alarm.

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

Anyone witnessing this transformation would be astonished.

Anna, however, remained perfectly calm.

For this scene played out nearly ten times daily; she was long accustomed to it.

After another half-minute, a young man pushed aside the thick door curtain made of leather and wool and entered.

He scanned the classroom once, confirmed no student was absent, then cleared his throat and said softly: “Good morning, everyone.”

“Good morning, Mr. Sied!” all the students, including Anna, chorused in unison.

“Today’s lesson is still Shadow Lesson,” Sied smiled, then pulled a box from his chest.

Inside the box lay an oval stone, about the size of a palm.

Sied gripped the Shadow Stone and reversed the flow of magic into it.

The next instant, the silver patterns within the Shadow Stone blazed with brilliant light, radiating dazzling brilliance like the treasure revealed after opening a chest in a novel.

These rays wove together and quickly coalesced into vivid images in midair.

First, a blackboard appeared, inscribed neatly in Es script: “Introduction to Es—Chapter Two: Writing Es Characters.”

Then, a middle-aged man in a worn robe appeared in the image, beginning to speak at length.

“Students, I am your teacher Jonathan. Today we continue with Chapter Two: Writing Es Characters. Let’s first review the key points from last lesson—did you review your notes after class?”

The children, meanwhile, listened intently, taking careful notes—nowhere could one see the slightest trace of their earlier rowdiness.

Sied watched silently, feeling a deep sense of emotion.

Teacher Jonathan had grown increasingly skilled; he still remembered how awkward Jonathan had been during the first recording sessions, nearly unable to speak.

About an hour later, the bell rang again—ding-ding-ding.

The floating projection in front of the classroom vanished.

Sied carefully packed the Shadow Stone back into its box, then addressed all the children: “Class is dismissed. Hurry home for lunch.”

“Thank you, Mr. Sied,” the children replied politely.

Sied nodded and slowly walked out of the classroom.

The moment he left, the classroom erupted once more into noise—children called to friends, laughing and racing out.

Anna, however, slowly organized her notes and the book that looked like ancient scripture to the others, placing them into the small bag her sister had given her, then rose and walked out.

“Anna.” She had taken only a few steps when a timid voice called out from behind.

She had taken only a few steps when a timid voice called from behind.

Anna turned to see a girl, slender by Northern standards, watching her with cautious eyes.

Anna thought for a moment and recalled her name—something like Per—she wasn’t of the Frostblood Clan, but an orphan taken in by the Snowguard who had been expelled by Anna’s brother.

“Is there... something you need?” Anna hesitated, speaking with slight awkwardness.

Her Es was still poor—that was the real reason she often remained silent.

Come on, all the other kids spoke so fast, jabbering away—how could Anna possibly understand them, let alone join in?

“I heard from my instructor that your Common Tongue is excellent. Could I ask you about something I don’t understand?”

Per deliberately slowed her speech, fearing Anna might be displeased, and quickly added: “Teacher Jonathan, who teaches Es, is my instructor. If you have trouble with Es, you can ask me too.”

After speaking in one breath, Per watched Anna nervously, as if awaiting judgment.

Carrying the joy of making a new friend, Anna saw Gao De and her sister Elsa standing at the door as she arrived home.

With the joy of making a new friend, Anna arrived at her doorstep and saw Gao De and her sister Elsa standing there.

“Brother!” she cried out happily and ran to him.

Gao De swept her up in his arms.

“Sister says you came back several days ago...” Anna expressed her displeasure.

“I had many things to attend to, couldn’t spare the time,” Gao De explained, quickly shifting topic to deflect Anna’s complaint: “I’ve come to check your progress.”

Before leaving the North, he had specially devoted time to writing “New Standard Glyphology” and given it to Anna.

Anna was currently the only person besides him who had access to He Xi’s Six Laws.

He Xi’s Six Laws emphasized understanding.

First, Anna had never received prior education in this field, so her thinking remained unformed and receptive to these revolutionary laws.

Second, her innate talent had always been directed toward this area; she grasped them with almost no difficulty.

Yet new glyphology merely streamlined glyph-related work through calculation—it was merely an upgraded tool.

Glyph knowledge remained the foundation, indispensable—like raw materials.

Even the most advanced tool cannot produce finished products (glyph arrays) without raw materials, can it?

Anna’s talent for calculation had already been verified, but her talent in glyphology remained unproven.

That required time to confirm.

Thus, Gao De had made a pact with Anna: he would inspect her progress upon his next return.

He had not forgotten.

Anna raised an eyebrow and grumbled.

She brought her textbooks to school every day—clearly she had worked hard, and had no fear of Gao De’s test.

“Yes!” Anna crossed her arms firmly. “Brother, these Six Laws of He Xi are incredibly useful—far more useful than any rune modulation my old teachers ever taught me!”

“Of course!” Anna crossed her arms firmly: “Brother, He Xi’s Six Laws are so useful—ten thousand times better than what my old teachers taught me about glyph tuning!

Thank goodness I wasn’t a mage back then, so I couldn’t continue studying glyphs, or I’d have wasted as much time as Sister did on these rigid things, and learned nothing in the end...”

Hearing this, Gao De glanced silently at Elsa beside him.

It seemed this highly capable Office Director had a talent for glyphology entirely opposite to her sister’s.

Still, seeing this, Gao De was already nearly certain: Anna’s glyph talent must be exceptional—otherwise she wouldn’t be so confident.

“Stop, stop, don’t get ahead of yourself,” Elsa interrupted quickly: “Don’t end up failing the test and looking foolish.”

Anna, who had been chattering nonstop, instantly fell silent.

Clearly, she still held deep respect for Elsa.

Facing Anna’s wide-eyed gaze and Elsa’s attention, Gao De nodded silently.

Facing Anna’s wide-eyed gaze and Elsa’s watchful eyes, Gao De nodded silently.

He had anticipated Anna’s rune talent was decent, but he never imagined it could rival her computational talent.

He had expected Anna’s glyph talent to be good—but never imagined it could rival her calculation talent.

This solidified a certain thought in Gao De’s heart, and his gaze toward Anna shimmered with light.

This solidified a certain idea in Gao De’s mind; his gaze toward Anna now glowed with pride.

But mindful of Elsa’s presence, Gao De restrained his praise.

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

A clear tinkling sound rang out, and the semi-transparent green liquid rose and fell with golden specks.

Clear chimes rang out as the translucent green liquid rose and fell, flecked with golden specks.

[101] “Lady Flora, how is it going?”

“Six more properties are still missing,” said Flora, frowning.

“Lady Flora need not rush—take your time. This isn’t urgent. Even if you ultimately can’t find them, it doesn’t matter; it’s merely an experiment,” Gao De soothed.

“~” Flora continued to frown.

The little one has always been fiercely proud.

“I’m about to drink the Green Vine Spirit Dew. You’ve memorized all its constituent properties, Lady Flora?” Gao De asked again.

“Of course! Lady Flora is brilliant!”

“I naturally know that. After all, who else but Lady Flora could possess the ability to deduce a formula directly from a potion?” Gao De sincerely marveled.

At the Ocean Festival, after the potion-mixing demonstration by the alchemists, Flora revealed the remarkable potential of her innate talent in potion-making:

She could identify every single property within raw materials and precisely sense the state of a potion during mixing, knowing exactly how much of each ingredient to add to achieve the final product.

At the time, Gao De had wondered: if given a finished potion, could she determine what raw materials were needed and in what quantities to produce it?

That is, reverse-engineering the formula from the finished product.

It was only a guess then.

After returning to the Northern Frontier, Gao De used the Green Vine Spirit Dew as a test subject and had Flora attempt to reverse-engineer its formula.

The result? She could indeed do it.

With her innate talent, Flora could instantly and accurately identify which properties composed the Green Vine Spirit Dew and their exact proportions.

Thus, simply gathering raw materials possessing those properties amounted to deducing the potion’s formula.

But there were limitations.

She could only identify the properties, not the specific raw material names.

Identifying which properties resided within raw materials was her own talent—no one else could replicate it.

Therefore, to find raw materials possessing these properties, only Flora could slowly examine them herself.

Needless to say, the efficiency was extremely low.

According to Flora, the Green Vine Spirit Dew consisted of nine properties.

So far, only three had been found: those contained in Ice Plain Moss, Snowdown Root, and Ice Marsh Worm.

I need to establish a raw material sample library, to make it easier for Flora to decipher potion formulas in the future, Gao De thought silently.

Of course, that’s a matter for later—its priority is currently low.

After seeing Flora off, Gao De left the room and headed for the Phoenix Core Spiritual Site—the location of the Ice Jade Wutong.

Many tasks awaited him upon returning to the Northern Frontier, but the most important was his Ascension.

The magical energy concentration at the Core Spiritual Site had been slowly increasing, aided by the Ice Jade Wutong’s ability to gather magical energy.

Though still far from reaching the sixth-rank spiritual site level, the concentration had already risen significantly compared to before.

If a magical energy meter were present, the reading here would surely exceed 25,000.

Such magical energy concentration was overkill for ascending to the Second Ring—more than sufficient.

Su Nai, bearing the [Blizzard], had already been waiting there.

“Thank you for your help,” Gao De nodded slightly to Su Nai.

“Your Majesty is too kind.”

She would guard him during his Ascension, preventing any external interference.

A First Ring mage ascending to the Second Ring was guarded by a Fourth Ring mage.

Such treatment was rare, even among noble heirs.

Coupled with the top-tier Ascension Potion as an aid, Gao De had absolute confidence in his Ascension.

Sitting cross-legged beneath the Ice Jade Wutong, he mentally reviewed the key points of Ascension once more, confirmed there were no omissions, then took out the Green Vine Spirit Dew.

Without hesitation, he downed it in one gulp.

The cool, sweet-plant-infused liquid entered his body and settled into his magical energy pool in the lower abdomen.

Gurgling! Gurgling!

Vast yet gentle medicinal power spread rapidly, like oil poured onto fire, instantly causing the sixty drops of liquid magical energy in his pool to boil.

Like a stone cast into a jade-green pond, sending countless ripples exploding outward, the gurgling mixed with the crisp popping of bubbles, vibrating painfully against Gao De’s eardrums.

The moment the medicinal power reached his magical energy pool, the “Green Wood Eternal Life Scripture,” long memorized, began to activate.

The liquid magical energy cultivated by the “Green Wood Eternal Life Scripture” was a bright emerald green, closely resembling the Green Vine Spirit Dew.

In fact, it wasn’t merely similar—they were essentially of the same origin.

Under this affinity, Gao De absorbed the Green Vine Spirit Dew with exceptional efficiency.

The medicinal power continuously merged into his liquid magical energy, shifting its emerald hue toward a deeper, richer emerald green.

The first stage of ascending to the Second Ring: Magical Energy Crystallization begins!

(End of Chapter)