It felt as though she had run a hundred miles without rest, every muscle aching, every bone protesting. Even breathing required effort.
Yet beneath that exhaustion, she could feel sothing new.
Sothing stronger.
Sothing that had finally changed.
Lana could clearly feel that she had already broken through to the Earth Rank.
A steady, profound energy flowed quietly within her ridians, far denser than before, like a deep river running beneath still ground.
Wanting to test it, she lifted her hand and prepared to snap her fingers, intending to summon even the faintest trace of mystical energy.
Before she could do so, Mr. Crow, who had been dozing beside her with his head tucked beneath his wing, suddenly woke up.
"Stop."
His voice was sharp enough to make her pause mid-motion.
Lana turned toward him, puzzled. "What happened?"
Mr. Crow shook his head and hopped closer.
"It would be better if you did not use your mystical energy for the next day."
Lana frowned. "Why? I already broke through."
"Your body absorbed the Earth-grade resources," Mr. Crow replied patiently, "but the essence has not fully integrated yet. It still needs ti to circulate through every part of your being. If you forcefully use your power now, you might destabilize the foundation you just ford."
Lana’s brows knitted together. "I really wanted to see the effects..."
Mr. Crow gave her a stern look.
"You may want to rush, but you should also rember the consequences of impatience."
Lana exhaled slowly, her excitent cooling as reason returned. She shook her head and muttered,
"I keep having these impulsive thoughts lately."
Mr. Crow observed her for a mont before mumbling,
"Maybe it is because you have been sleeping too much these days."
Lana imdiately rejected the idea.
"No. Because of that accidental break in my schedule, I was finally able to clear my mind and cultivate faster. It cannot be because of sleep."
Still, she did not dwell on it for long. After getting ready, she headed toward the university.
Inside the classroom, Lana took her seat and began flipping through her textbooks.
The faint rustle of paper and the distant murmur of students filled the air.
Then she sensed a shadow looming over her desk.
When she looked up, she saw the curly-haired girl from yesterday, her hair styled into a bun, standing in front of her.
Rim looked down at Lana, her gaze sharp and evaluative.
"So you reached the Earth Rank," she said, nodding slowly. "It seems you are not as weak as you pretend to be."
She smiled faintly. "Can you defeat students in this classroom now?"
Lana did not even look up again. She lowered her gaze and continued reading, completely ignoring her.
Rim’s expression stiffened.
’She is pretending to be calm,’ Rim thought irritably. ’She must be scared sitting among truly talented people.’
"After all," Rim continued aloud, "Shadowridge University may have a reputation, but it does not produce the strongest students."
Lana remained silent.
Seeing no response, Rim glanced sideways at another student, who imdiately understood and spoke loudly.
"A student like you should not waste ti talking to a coward," the student sneered.
"She probably used so despicable thod to even secure that exchange position. Otherwise, why would soone who barely reached Earth Rank be chosen?"
Rim nodded as though the explanation made perfect sense.
"Perhaps she slept with that head teacher... Axel."
The mont the na left her lips...
Smack.
A sharp sound cut through the classroom.
Rim’s head snapped to the side as a stinging pain spread across her cheek. She looked up in disbelief to see Lana standing there, eyes cold enough to freeze the air.
Rim’s face twisted with fury. "Did you just slap ?!"
Lana nodded calmly. "If you feel pain on your cheek, then yes, I did."
Rim pointed at her, trembling. "That is assault! Violence! I will have you thrown behind bars!"
Lana simply took out her phone and waved it lightly.
"Go ahead. I will submit this recording as evidence of your repeated provocation and slander."
Rim froze.
She had not expected Lana to be prepared.
Taking a deep breath, she forced her expression back into composure.
"You are quite clever," she said slowly. "Since you are so capable, you should at least prove it through a fight."
Lana sat down again, completely uninterested.
’If I still do not understand what she is trying to do, then I would be a fool,’ Lana thought.
Rim had been provoking her nonstop to force a duel.
It might appear harmless, but Lana knew better.
Rim was the type of person who could defeat opponents far stronger than herself, like those favored protagonists in stories who always triumphed against impossible odds.
Lana had no intention of risking her life for soone else’s sche.
Seeing Lana’s indifference, Rim clenched her fists and glanced toward Shelley, who blinked twice in response.
Understanding the signal, Rim suddenly changed her tone.
"Since you do not wish to fight," she said, "I will not trouble you anymore."
Lana silently breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the matter was finally over.
But that very afternoon, a topic began trending on the university forum.
Posts spread rapidly, claiming that the exchange student had obtained her position through disgraceful ans and was too cowardly to even accept a duel within the Mystic Cultivation Departnt.
Rumors multiplied like wildfire.
The more they spread, the more exchange students from other departnts heard about it. By the fourth day, anger had already begun to simr among them.
That evening, as Lana was leaving the university, she suddenly found herself surrounded by her own university students.
Several exchange students ford a circle around her.
"We need to talk," one of them said firmly.
Lana felt a headache forming at her temples. She replied calmly, "I do not wish to discuss anything."
Tonyo, who had recently learned that Lana was a mystical cultivator, stared at her in shock, and beneath that shock, envy quietly burned.
He had already convinced himself that everything being said about Lana must be true.
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