With the Summon Moonlight Wolf spell crystal now in hand, could a Summon Phoenix spell really be that far off?
Li Fei carefully tucked away the two crystals containing the spell frameworks for Summon Moonlight Wolf and Terrain Awareness, then bid a reluctant farewell to Teacher Melodia. She hadn't originally wanted a buff spell — but after weighing her options again and again, the sheer practical value of Terrain Awareness was simply undeniable. Swamps, snowfields, wastelands — any number of chaotic terrains lost their edge against someone who had mastered it. With that spell alone, any number of mercenary squads would surely welcome her with open arms.
"After class, remember to go find Lady Nicole — she'll handle the arrangements for your Sequence 9 advancement."
Melodia rose from her chair and walked Li Fei to the door.
The mature, full-figured teacher — who stood nearly half a head taller than Li Fei — had a vivid flush across her face, and her brilliant golden hair was damp with sweat, strands of it plastered against the corners of her lips. She looked exactly like someone who had just finished a strenuous workout.
"Thank you, Teacher."
Li Fei produced a small handkerchief and tilted her face upward slightly, dabbing away the beads of sweat on Melodia's forehead. Even through the cloth, she could feel the steadily rising warmth radiating from the teacher's skin.
Only after Li Fei had waved goodbye and departed did Melodia drift back to her chair in a daze, burying her blazing face deep into both palms.
...
"Ling'er, are you ready?"
Qin Zhihua stood before the entrance of the apothecary. Her hair, freshly washed and combed, was pinned up in twin flat buns. The white dress she wore — embroidered with peach blossoms — swayed gently in the evening breeze, casting a long, graceful silhouette against the setting sun. She was the very picture of elegant poise.
"Coming, coming!"
Su Ling'er came trotting over with a medicine case in hand, hurrying toward Qin Zhihua.
Just yesterday, the young mistress had promoted her to the role of personal attendant. Su Ling'er had exchanged her neat and practical shop uniform for a soft yellow liuxian skirt. Now her days consisted of waiting on Qin Zhihua's every need — yet her meals, lodging, and allowances matched those of the household steward, and her wages were more than ten times what she had earned waiting on customers all day.
Per Qin Zhihua's instructions, apart from accompanying the young mistress on medicine deliveries every two or three days, Su Ling'er devoted all her remaining time to studying the arts of massage, cooking, and other skills befitting a personal attendant.
Su Ling'er had never harbored much ambition, and had always gone along with whatever life brought her way. She accepted the change in her circumstances with a contented heart.
"Zhihua, where are you going?"
A woman in a richly embroidered gown appeared at the doorway without warning, smiling pleasantly as she asked.
"Sister-in-law, I'm going to deliver medicine," Qin Zhihua replied with a dip of her head.
"The reject-batch potion appraisals?"
The woman smiled. "That little business venture seems to be quite popular with the clients. Our dear little Zhihua is surely going to make an excellent wife for the young heir of the Kong family someday."
Qin Zhihua's body went rigid.
"Oh, by the way — I looked over the Spell Contract you signed. The one responsible for the appraisals is someone named Li Fei, yes?"
The woman's tone took on a meaningful quality. "The courtesan Zhihua has taken a fancy to seems to share that exact name."
Qin Zhihua lowered her gaze and said nothing.
"Zhihua, I've read some of the verses that hostess wrote as well — she has genuine poetic talent. To have made a name for herself in that kind of establishment, she must have a measure of beauty too. I simply hadn't imagined she would also have the skill to appraise potions."
The woman moved to Qin Zhihua's side and took her hands with an almost fervent warmth.
"If Zhihua truly has her eye on this girl, there's no need to hold back — simply buy out her contract and bring her home as a companion. With the Qin family's means, a small expense like that is nothing at all."
"And if she conducts herself properly from then on, there's no reason she couldn't follow you into the Kong household on your wedding day as a chamber attendant. Should she be fortunate enough to be taken as a concubine, a life of wealth and comfort would be guaranteed — for a woman of that background, that would truly be a heaven-sent stroke of fortune."
"What does Zhihua think?"
The veiled sting in every word was not lost on Qin Zhihua for even a moment.
She forced out a faint, strained smile. "There's no need for that…"
"Very well — whenever you're in the mood, we can revisit it. But errands like these are exactly what servants are for."
The woman cast a brief glance at Su Ling'er. "Off you go."
"Um…"
Su Ling'er hesitated, stealing a quiet look at the young mistress.
Qin Zhihua's slender, pale fingers clenched tight — then slowly opened again. For the first time in her life, the urge to shout rose inside her, raw and sudden. But a canary that has spent its whole life in a gilded cage — its neck bound by the chains of propriety since childhood — could hardly bring itself to defy its elders so easily.
Qin Zhihua lowered her head. Her voice, when it came, was quiet and distant.
"Ling'er, go ahead."
"Yes, Young Mistress."
Su Ling'er bowed and took her leave.
"Come now, Zhihua — keep your sister-in-law company over tea."
The woman took Qin Zhihua by the arm, and gently, with a light touch, drew her back up into the rooms above.
...
"My head is spinning."
The amber light of the setting sun poured through the wide, gleaming classroom windows. At the front of the room, a white-haired instructor was holding forth in an expansive lecture on spell theory and casting technique. Li Fei sat rubbing her temples with the expression of someone who had completely lost the will to live.
The first spell lesson of the new term naturally covered the most foundational material. Judging by the focused, attentive expressions of her classmates, the instructor's teaching was clearly no small feat. But the Special Enrollment student with zero Aptitude simply could not understand a single word the man was saying.
Li Fei had come to a realization: anything that touched on the fundamental nature of Transcendent power was, for her, an utter waste of time to sit through. What actually had value for her were the objective, factual descriptions of spells, combat skills, Classes, Transcendent items, Transcendent creatures, and combat tactics.
And so it was that, on only the second day of term, the new student representative had already formulated a plan to skip class — attending only the lessons that were useful to her, and spending the rest of the time studying languages and grinding EXP. Wasn't that a far better use of her hours?
The problem is that the timetable was set by the Academy in advance, with useful and useless lessons scattered throughout. I'll need to go to Mama Nicole first and ask her to rearrange things — consolidate all the worthwhile classes into the morning hours…
With that plan settled in her mind, Li Fei made one last desperate attempt to follow the instructor's lecture on the off chance that something might click — but by the time the final class of the day ended, she still hadn't absorbed a single thing.
"You seem to be in low spirits," Irena said, turning to look at her with genuine concern.
Before Li Fei could say anything, Irena offered her comfort without prompting.
"This material really is a bit too basic for you — there's not much point in sitting through it. But the teacher has to account for the other students too, so the pace has to stay measured."
"Sigh… I never thought I'd live to discover the hardships of having too high an Aptitude."
Li Fei naturally arranged her expression into the wistful, world-weary look of someone lonely at the top, then rested her head on Irena's shoulder.
"You've had this problem before, haven't you? How did you deal with it?"
"Self-study. And when I hit something I couldn't figure out, I'd go to Mama or a teacher separately."
Irena smiled, her tone carrying a touch of suggestion. "As your big sister, I'd be more than happy to offer my little sister some one-on-one guidance."
Li Fei was tempted for a moment — but quickly brought herself back to earth and declined with a polite smile.
"I'll try self-studying first. If there's something I genuinely can't work out, I'll come ask you."
— Absolutely not. One-on-one tutoring? The fact that this lady has zero Aptitude would be exposed in about three seconds flat.
What Li Fei didn't notice was that the white-haired instructor at the front of the room was watching her — brow furrowed slightly, his ancient, deep-set eyes carrying a flicker of puzzlement.
News that both of this year's Special Enrollment students possessed Grandmaster potential had spread through nearly half the Academy in the space of a single afternoon. Even this Sequence 3 elder mage had caught wind of it.
Within his field of vision, the world was alive with peculiar lines, patterns, and symbols — the visible traces of the Laws at work. The souls of his students shimmered and glowed, each one drawing in those fragments of the Laws at its own pace, some faster, some slower.
What held his gaze, however, were the two strikingly beautiful girls seated side by side at a window in the back row — laughing and talking softly, so absorbed in each other that they hadn't even noticed a strand of grey hair and a lock of black had quietly tangled together between them.
What puzzled the old mage was not when they were getting married, but the extraordinary sight before him.
The grey-haired girl was like a raging, churning vortex — ceaselessly devouring fragments of the Laws in an unbroken torrent. It was a quality of Aptitude that surpassed even what the elder mage himself had possessed in his youth, back when he too had borne the title of "Grandmaster potential."
The black-haired girl, by stark contrast, was his complete opposite. She existed as an insulator — a beautiful, almost illusory pocket of empty air. The densely woven Laws flowed around her, or passed straight through her, before rushing onwards, unfailingly, to dissolve into the grey-haired girl's soul.
This was what zero affinity for the Laws looked like. In one sense, being this thoroughly devoid of Aptitude was itself a rare sight — after all, you could pull any random person off the street, and however poor their Aptitude might be, however far they were from the Bronze-grade threshold for enrollment, it was still uncommon to encounter someone so completely, utterly bereft of even a single trace of talent.
If he had stumbled across such a person on the street, the old mage might have spared them a glance or two — but for this phenomenon to manifest in a Special Enrollment student who was the talk of the entire Academy was genuinely perplexing.
I see… her true Aptitude must be so monstrous that the Dean not only sealed her records but also prepared a Transcendent item to block all attempts at observation — to keep others from growing wary. Perhaps her Aptitude is even higher than Irena's? Truly, the next generation never ceases to surprise…
The brief confusion resolved itself quickly into a tidy, reasonable conclusion. The old mage took one long, measured look at Li Fei, then turned and walked out of the classroom.
...
Outside the Dean's office, Li Fei drew a slow, deep breath and arranged her expression into one of solemn, tragic resolve — the look of a champion knight charging at a black dragon to defend the castle behind her, fully prepared to give her life for the cause.
After all, the star courtesan knew perfectly well: if she didn't properly show her filial devotion, there was no way Nicole would agree to rearrange her timetable.
She hadn't even finished steeling herself when the door swung open on its own.
Nicole was seated behind her desk. Two cups of freshly brewed red tea were already steaming on the surface between them. Those vivid blue eyes looked straight at Li Fei, her smile knowing and warmly elegant — with just a touch of playful mischief — the very image of Irena:
"The tea is already poured. Are you going to come in, or not?"
Li Fei stepped carefully into the office, locked the door behind her, forced a smile, and said:
"Well — I have a favor to ask."
"Oh?" Nicole blinked.
...
Half an hour later, Li Fei was slumped on the sofa, her skin flushed pink, her whole body radiating a faint warmth as if steaming from the inside, saturated with the rich fragrance of red tea.
"From now on, you only need to come in for morning classes."
Nicole dabbed the corner of her mouth with a tissue, unhurried and deliberate.
"Thank you, Mama. I'll take my leave."
Li Fei hauled herself to her feet with some effort, her legs trembling faintly.
"No rush."
Nicole asked, "You're ready to advance to Sequence 9 at any time now, yes? Have you thought about which Class you want?"
"Not yet. Though I'm planning to dual-cultivate Chaos-alignment magic as well."
Li Fei sat back down. "Any suggestions?"
"The safest route would be to choose 'Druid' at Sequence 9, and 'Ignisar' at Sequence 8."
Nicole offered her recommendations without hesitation. "Both Classes have real depth worth developing… Shaman is also a solid option…"
Li Fei listened carefully and made note of each one.
"In any case, think it over carefully and let me know once you've decided. I'll take you to collect the corresponding secret potion and Ritual knowledge."
Nicole reminded her, "And if you have any Transcendents you trust, it's worth consulting them too — there are always rare and powerful Classes that even I don't know about."
Understood. I'll send a message to my best friend later.
Li Fei nodded, rose, and took her leave.
"Good, Mama. See you tomorrow."
...
Annie Teresa was peeling an apple with an absent, distracted air, glancing over at the clock every so often.
"Ah—!"
She let out a sudden, pained cry. The fruit knife clattered to the floor with a clang, and a thin, clean line of red appeared across her slender index finger.
"Are you alright?"
Lilith, who had heard the noise, came hurrying into the kitchen in her slippers.
"I'm fine," Annie said, managing a stiff smile.
"Lucky I'm here."
Lilith muttered under her breath and took her mother's hand. A moment later, a sphere of pure white light bloomed — and when it faded, the cut on Annie's finger had vanished without a trace.
"Our Lilith's spellcasting is getting more and more impressive," Annie said, her smile softening into something genuine, her hand resting on her daughter's shoulder with quiet warmth.
"It was just a tiny cut," Lilith said, her face going red. She turned her head away in mild embarrassment, her twin-tails swinging with the motion and brushing lightly against Annie's arm.
"The tomato beef stew is done. Let's eat."
Annie Teresa glanced at the clock one more time, wrestled her swirling emotions firmly back under control, and produced a smile.
"Mm." Lilith gave a muffled sound of acknowledgment. From the corner of her eye, she watched her mother moving about the kitchen, and her expression grew complicated.
A full half-minute passed before she finally drooped her head, her voice dropping to something barely above a whisper.
"Um… the thing is… if you have someone you like, I won't — I won't object."
Annie's hand paused — then she resumed serving the rice as if nothing had happened.
"Don't talk nonsense. Go wash your hands and come eat."
"I'm not a little kid anymore!"
Lilith raised her head, her voice climbing. "Since last night, you've been completely out of it. And normally when I get home, dinner is already on the table — tonight you were clearly waiting for someone."
"And yesterday I saw you two — mmf — mmf—!"
Annie went scarlet. She pressed her hand firmly over her daughter's mouth and held it there until Lilith was on the verge of rolling her eyes back before finally letting go. Then she proceeded to act as though absolutely nothing had occurred, continuing to ladle out the rice — though her eyes had taken on a distinctly guilty quality.
Lilith's lips pressed into an aggrieved pout. The two of them stood in the kitchen in silence.
"Stop worrying about it."
After a long moment, Annie let out a slow sigh. Her gaze grew distant and quiet. "Focus on your studies at the Academy. I'll handle everything else."
"Oh…"
Lilith puffed out her cheeks, several things clearly struggling to get out — but she held them back.
Then — a knock at the door.
"Mrs. Annie? Are you in?"
A slightly nervous voice slipped through the gap under the door and reached the ears of both mother and daughter.
Annie's breath caught in her throat. Before she could even gather herself, Lilith had already taken a step toward the door with the focused energy of someone marching into battle.
"I'll get it!"
____
________________________________________
🌸 Help Love Bloom!
Our girls need a little push... and you can help!
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉