Chapter 476: Final Relaxation Before the Joint Exam
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 476: Final Relaxation Before the Joint Exam
After enjoying the breakfast Sister Bai had prepared with love, I flopped back onto the bed to rest for a while. Last night, Sister Bai and I had stayed up far too late exploring the mysteries of Body Cultivation anatomy. It had been, shall we say, a bit too intense, and I’d exerted a lot of energy. Even if it was just a one-off thing, I had to make sure my body recovered properly.
Standard magical Recovery Spells and Healing Spells didn't quite cover this kind of "conditioning."
Luckily, Sister Bai had taught me some self-adjustment techniques related to Body Cultivation this morning—the kind that could rapidly restore one's state without depleting one's underlying foundation.
Before long, bolstered by the replenishment of nutrients and fluids and the circulation of my Body Cultivation power, I felt completely revitalized!
I even had the fleeting, delusional confidence that I could go another round of whatever happened last night without breaking a sweat.
"Recovered already?"
"Of course~ I’m in great shape. It was just one night of fierce battle, after all," I said breezily, though my heart was filled with an indescribable sense of satisfaction and joy.
"Then hurry up and take a shower. You wouldn't want people to figure out what you were up to last night the moment you step outside, would you?" Sister Bai caught my hand just as I was about to pull on a fresh set of clothes and pointed toward the bathroom.
"Ugh... fine." I took a quick sniff. My Body Cultivation sense of smell, which I’d grown accustomed to, suddenly heightened. It was the scent of me and Sister Bai mingled together—heavy and... stimulating. Even just a whiff brought back memories of our "intense exploration" from the night before.
In truth, I didn't actually need to shower. With my mastery and derivation of the Cleaning Spell, cleansing my body and eliminating odors were basic functions.
However, the act of bathing was something that, in a way, could never be truly replaced by magic.
"Don't look so reluctant. After you wash up, take a good soak to let your body fully relax. Or... do you want me to join you?"
"Yes, please!"
"Alright then, but you'll have to wait a moment." Sister Bai gave me a doting look before suddenly stripping the sheets and bedding from the large mattress where we had spent our wonderful night.
Seeing her "cleaning up the battlefield" like that made me blush. Looking at the "masterpiece" we had created together was a very different experience when viewed in the cold light of day.
Soon, I was in the bathroom, fully enjoying the pleasure of the warm water cascading over me.
Halfway through my shower, the bathroom door suddenly creaked open.
"Huh? Sister Bai... what are you..." Seeing the door open, I instinctively tried to cover myself. Under my subconscious interference, the warm steam billowed up like a pillar of Holy Light, completely blurring the line of sight. But as soon as I realized it was Sister Bai, I let my guard down.
"I saw you dawdling in here. You're so clumsy, just standing there letting the water hit you. Did you already forget how I taught you a girl should clean herself?"
"Eh? I didn't... no, I did... Sorry, Sister Bai. I let you down. I can't believe I forgot something so important. I'll need you to give me a hands-on lesson..."
"Well, I suppose I have no choice then..." Sister Bai stepped into the bathroom, her clothes already replaced by a bath towel. She walked into the thick mist, the vapor blurring her form and concealing her knowing smile.
"Let's start by cleaning your hair and maintaining its quality. Honestly, Xiao Han, do you never pay attention to these details? A girl should treat her own things better. It’s no exaggeration to say that hair is a girl's life, you know?" Bai Yu gently ran her fingers through my wet, silver-white hair, treating every inch as if it were a precious treasure. She meticulously applied the best treatments without a hint of impatience. In her eyes, after the battle of the previous night, the girl before her belonged to her completely. There was nothing wrong with taking exquisite care of what she loved.
* * *
"Phew~ I never thought time could pass so pleasantly and quickly."
By the time we finished our bath and handled a few other trifles, it was already noon. Half the day was gone, and I was now having lunch with Sister Bai.
There was no persistent daily meditation, no constant body tempering, and no non-stop research into spells.
I was throwing myself wholeheartedly into relaxation and enjoyment.
There was no time limit; we just soaked until we were satisfied. One of the greatest tragedies of life is being unable to focus while studying, having misgivings while playing, and thinking about when it will end while relaxing.
I had completely abandoned that kind of anxiety and internal friction. What ended my enjoyment wasn't a pre-set schedule, but a heartfelt sense of eighty percent satisfaction and twenty percent self-discipline. Humans are naturally hedonistic; excessive indulgence often stems from an uncertain mindset about future pleasure, a sort of preemptive compensation.
When that psychological need is soothed and the future is planned, that uncertainty vanishes. Even with just twenty percent self-discipline, it’s enough to regulate one's needs for satisfaction and one's lingering attachment to a "gentle land."
"Sister Bai, do you know what the academy’s arrangements are for the Joint Exam? Even if it's just the freshman year, there must be over ten thousand of us. How are we all going to get to the Bobapus Archipelago?"
"We'll use a large-scale permanent Teleportation Spell temporarily set up by the academy, of course. It’ll be a direct point-to-point teleportation into a False World that blankets the Bobapus Archipelago. That way, we avoid clashing with the tourists there."
"Whoa... just how big is the Bobapus Archipelago anyway? Our academy alone has ten thousand students. If I remember correctly, even though there are only about twenty academies this time compared to that exchange competition, can a single archipelago hold over two hundred thousand people?" I asked worriedly. That was... over two hundred thousand people! That’s basically the population of a small city.
Then again, considering the area the Witch Academy occupied—an entire Magic City—and thinking about the ten years' worth of students currently enrolled, the graduated seniors who stayed behind, and the Transcendent Mentors... it didn't seem quite so exaggerated.
"Xiao Han, you're overthinking it. Not every academy is qualified to recruit over ten thousand students per year. For top academies, recruitment is about quality over quantity. As for those small, bottom-tier Transcendent Academies, their recruitment numbers are strictly limited and controlled."
"After all, people who enter a Transcendent Academy have essentially left society and rarely return to the Ordinary World. But the Main World needs a population to function. Transcendent Academies can't just drain the pond to catch the fish. Even for the Three Top Academies, the recruitment number is usually only in the thousands."
"As for the other Transcendent Academies that are overshadowed by the top three, aside from our Witch Academy which doesn't play by the rules, none of them dare to exceed a few thousand. Some extremely rare Transcendent Academies have a very small reach and only recruit a few hundred people a year."
"Oh? Is that so?"
"Xiao Han, did you not look into any of this before? When you were choosing your schools, there should have been... well..." Bai Yu had started to say that there were annual summary books detailing the recruitment requirements and grade cutoffs for Transcendent Academies and ordinary universities. Normally, families would order one to help plan their child's future.
But then she remembered Xiao Han's past...
"I didn't~ Thanks for telling me all this, Sister Bai." I was the first to break the awkward silence. I was trying to let go of the past, trying to face it without flinching.
However, the place where I had spent the majority of my life and memories since coming to this world could still easily tug at my emotions.
In summary, when I was filling out my school applications, I really didn't have many channels to get that information. The grade cutoffs I could find online were from the previous year; I couldn't access the current year's cutoffs for Transcendent Academies. For ordinary people, the only way to get information on Transcendent Academies was through specific institutions that released the data collectively, and not just anyone was qualified to access it.
But looking back now... everything turned out far beyond my expectations. Heaven knows what a surprise Teacher Ji Niang’s phone call was for me. Thinking back, I can't believe I wasted so much time talking nonsense; I should have just said yes immediately.
"But even so, that's still a terrifying number of people. Can the Bobapus Archipelago really hold them all?" I asked again.
"Xiao Han, you really should look at a geography book. If you knew anything about the world map, you'd know how big that place is. Radiating out from the largest central island, Bobapus Main Island, there are thirteen affiliated islands. There are also eight periodic reefs that emerge with the tides. The main island alone has a fully developed urban infrastructure. Although it relies on tourism as its backbone, it’s self-sufficient to a certain extent..."
I listened to Sister Bai’s introduction of our destination while searching for information about the Bobapus Archipelago on my phone. It matched what she was saying. Using such an archipelago for a multi-school joint practical test was indeed... extravagant.
I also noticed that the Bobapus Archipelago was located on a volcanic belt. Hmm... that made the formation of underwater volcanoes very plausible.
After lunch, Sister Bai suggested we visit a market spontaneously organized by several clubs. I wouldn't have even known such a place existed if she hadn't mentioned it.
Since this was a final exam—and a rare Multi-School Joint Exam at that—the demand for supplies was huge. The Joint Exam didn't have many restrictive rules; Alchemical Items were allowed, though nothing too "broken." Of course, the value of truly broken Alchemical Items was beyond what a student could afford anyway, so the lack of regulation didn't actually matter much.
At this stage, even though freshmen had many ways to gain power, there were still ordinary students using ten-digit Mana Sources and small spellbooks with minimal consumption to fight. Their strongest move might be the spell solidified on the chest badge of the Witch Four-Piece Set they received at enrollment.
Don't think the gap is small; the difference in value between a small spellbook and a basic spellbook with even a tiny bit of consumption is massive.
In the Witch Academy, where power is relatively easy to grasp, a spellbook is a symbol of strength and a manifestation of "exchangeable" value.
Perhaps... this was one of the reasons why Sister Bai, who had climbed her way up from being an ordinary student, valued money so much. In the Witch Academy, having money really does give you a massive head start—at least in terms of acquiring power.
After browsing for a while, I picked up some very interesting spellbooks and small spellbooks, which I contentedly added to my Myriad Methods Bookshelf.
The feeling of filling my own spell library based on my own interests was far more satisfying than getting random spellbooks from competitions or even the ones Tan Han had given me.
Sister Bai also mentioned that the Great Library of the Witch World—the one guarded by the Primal Witch herself—contained countless spellbooks. Witches could use Mana Sources to trade for any spellbook there, provided it existed.
This made me yearn for that place. Never before had I wanted to become a Transcendent Witch so quickly.
However, it was clear that having only been at the Witch Academy for half a year, I hadn't yet encountered the true method of advancement. I only vaguely knew it involved Mana Sources, life levels, and so-called "subjects."
It seemed that Teacher Ji Niang, Teacher Lina, Dean Mei, Dean Bev... they had all tacitly avoided mentioning these things to me. Even Teacher Ji Niang had only touched upon it in a broad, macro sense, without any details.
It was as if advancing to a Transcendent Witch too quickly wouldn't be good for me. But that was just my guess.
Perhaps mastering a craft at the academy really was that important.
I spent the rest of the afternoon accompanying Sister Bai.
If it were the old me, I would have felt that this was a complete waste of time.
But the current me would push back against that thought. If I continued to plan my life by the second like I used to, being busy with a bit of everything, I’d deserve to be busy for a lifetime. Witches have great energy and can go days without sleep, but that energy wasn't meant to be squandered like that.
Once that mindset takes hold, even reasonable rest creates a sense of guilt. Why should a person subject themselves to such cruel self-domestication?
Only after freeing myself from that did I understand what true, spontaneous freedom felt like.
The saying "time is money" isn't wrong. If I were "poor" in life, gaining free time would be like a destitute person suddenly receiving a massive fortune. But if I didn't even know how to spend that money once I had it, how tragic would that be?
It would be as ridiculous as the way I used to get a block of free time and have no idea what to do with it.
Using time is just like spending money. What counts as "spending a little to achieve a lot"? What counts as "extravagance"? What counts as "value for money"? What is "charity," what is "investment," what is "entrepreneurship," and what is "paying to suffer"? When you look at the time of your life through a different lens, it’s like a door to a new world opens.
And right now, I was spending the "money" of my time to build the hall that Sister Bai and I were walking into together, to sublimate the bond between us.
I used my logic to harness my emotions, letting them act as a compass to point my way. I integrated my sensibility into my instincts, letting my most primal heart choose how to nestle against Sister Bai’s.
Trust seemed to skip the gathering of evidence over time, just as thought skips the translation of language, linking us together... ordinary and common, yet great and needing no proof. This was the sense of security Sister Bai gave me—pure and without a single trace of filth.