Korma stood at the spot where the three young wizards had vanished, looking down at the nondescript bluestone slab underfoot, frowning in silence.
Other than her, there wasn’t another person in sight on the street.
Although today was a Magic Banning Festival, as the Great Sage of the North District, she wielded nearly limitless authority throughout the area, easily clearing out the entire street. The neighboring streets, too, were left empty and desolate. More than ten hunting teams affiliated with the Jini Cottage patrolled outside the area she had designated, driving away anyone who attempted to approach.
Strangely yet predictably, both the Trident Sword and the First University turned a blind eye to the scene.
All around was silence.
However, in Korma’s vision, the bluestone slab at her feet was glowing with an indescribable color. It was like a volcano on the brink of eruption, with magic like molten lava surrounding bright singular points, fiercely churning beneath the slab, restless and ready to erupt at any mont to engulf everything around it.
Fei Rui lay on her shoulder, his whole body curled up beneath the witch’s silver hair, gesturing with his little claws and chattering away in her ear.
"Use so strength!"
He shouted, stamping his little feet, as if eager to act in the witch’s stead: "Even if it’s just a sandbox, it’s still a small world! The bit of magic you used earlier is like tickling it... let alone breaking the domain’s barrier, you didn’t even scratch its oily skin!"
"Do small worlds also have oily skin?"
Korma joked, her expression growing more serious, eyes tightly fixed on the bluestone, her gaze like two dazzling stars, tone edged with unease: "I think it’s safer to be cautious... did a magic node in the sandbox just extinguish?"
The quickest way to open a world barrier is to use great mana to ’anchor’ the entire small world, then leisurely break open the gateway. Only, this thod places a high demand on the quality of the small world, making it easy for weaker worlds to collapse under the effect of magic stagnation—like the sandbox Zheng Qing encountered during his freshman winter hunt. Assisted by the school’s protect legal formation, Su Shijun entered to break the barrier, rescuing those trapped, and the sandbox world collapsed swiftly afterward, leaving indelible scars on the space in that area, making it now a restricted zone by the school.
Disregarding speed, the most prudent thod is to clearly understand the magic nodes on a sandbox small world—simply as though solving a Rubik’s cube or unlocking a code—then choose the appropriate mont to sever a few magic ways without affecting the stability of all nodes, opening a passage for entry and exit.
This thod causes minimal harm to the sandbox small world and demands less from the wizard.
A Big Wizard can manage it.
Korma didn’t have the advantage of the school’s protect legal formation, but she was a Big Wizard, so she chose the second thod. However, compared to wizards who specialized in formations, her comprehension and experience in space magic were severely lacking, and even with Fei Rui’s help, she was overly cautious, worried about carelessly ’shattering’ the fragile ’porcelain’ before her.
She was well aware of the consequences of a world collapse.
She was here to save people.
Not to kill.
So, upon detecting a magic node in the sandbox extinguishing, she imdiately paused, assuming that the node’s extinguishnt resulted from her tentative attack.
Feeling the witch’s unease, Fei Rui scratched his chin.
"Perhaps."
He, too, seed unsure if a magic node had truly extinguished just now, but couldn’t admit to not noticing, so he feigned composure, waving his paw: "But don’t mind such details; that kid won’t die."
Hearing the confidence in his tone, Korma looked up in surprise, instinctively glancing around:
"How so?"
She expected to see Mr. Zheng Qing or other reinforcents skilled in space magic, but all she saw was an empty street, devoid of a single silhouette.
"I did a divination for him earlier," the plump hamster gave a rather baffling answer: "As the saying goes, bad grass grows tall, that pesky kid is very long-lived... he definitely won’t die today."
Korma rolled her eyes silently.
The discrepancy between theoretical lifespan and actual lifespan is like the distance between Dreamland and reality—not to say everything in Dreamland is illusory, but trying to understand the real world through observing Dreamland will undoubtedly yield highly variable results.
Perhaps sensing the witch’s intent to retreat.
The plump hamster tugged her hair: "Don’t start and stop when doing things. Either stay honestly in the Sakura Pub and don’t venture out, or go all out and help that pesky kid solve his current problem. Who leaves a problem half-dealt with, thinking they lack the capability, then bites their nails and heads ho?"
Though harsh, the words made sense.
Korma took a deep breath, silently reciting a piece of Heart Sutra, and upon reopening her eyes, her ten fingers danced lightly like playing the piano, scattering thin threads of light that pierced into the bluestone slab, starting to re-manipulate the magic nodes hidden beneath the rules of reality.
...
...
Zheng Qing was unaware that his reinforcent outside the sandbox had montarily hesitated.
At this mont, he stood side by side with Xiao Xiao and Xin Fat Man, stunned, watching a gigantic green snake in the world chase after three frantically fleeing large ravens.
The reason it’s three is because the big snake had already devoured two ravens in succession upon erging. When its greedy mouth opened wide, it was as if it would swallow the world whole.
The Green Snake erged from Zheng Qing’s ear.
Xiao Xiao recognized it, and so did Xin.
They had all t during the sophomore year trial, considered old acquaintances.
Only, Zheng Qing hadn’t anticipated its voluntary ergence—a mont earlier, after he shot and blasted the head of a large raven without killing it, gritting his teeth while preparing a second shot, the Little Green Snake unexpectedly slithered out of his ear, growing with the wind, transforming swiftly into a colossal creature, and in a flash, swallowed two ravens in succession.
Thus leading to the current scene.
"Do you still need this?" Xin Fat Man’s slightly awkward voice sounded in Zheng Qing’s ear.
Zheng Qing, half in a daze, turned, spotting the tiny scroll in Fatty’s palm, and chuckled: "Like heck we need it... When we discussed the plan earlier, this old man didn’t bother to give a heads-up!"
As he spoke, he accepted the small scroll, tucking it back into the grey cloth bag—this was a legendary charm awarded by Old Yao after the end of last year’s school hunting competition, while Xiao Xiao used his up during a battle with Black Wizard Walter, and Xin gave his to Linda, leaving only his ’Soft Leg Curse’ now.
Looks like it won’t be used today either.
This thought, bittersweet yet proud, flitted through the boy’s mind.
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