With the old magician leading the way, he took the time to ask questions, “You are not a native of Providence City.”
“Yeah,” Xi Wei answered.
“What’s your name? I forgot to register you properly.”
Xi Wei seemed to be shaken by this sudden question. It took half a day before he replied, “Xi Wei.”
The old magician nodded in his heart and made a note to register him.
The registration area for young children was not far away and the person in charge was a woman in her twenties. It looked like her work had just been finished, and she started packing up to leave.
The old magician greeted her with a sigh, “Tassia.”
Tassia looked up with a gentle smile, “Master Clark, why did you come?”
Clark lifted his staff, which was also used as a wand, and pointed it at Zeno behind him. “This little guy is going into the kindergarten class, I came to take him to do the talent test.”
Tassia was amazed. Master Clark was an earth magician at the Magister level of the nine-level power system. The nine-level power system had a name for each step: first was Magic Apprentice, then Junior Magician, Intermediate Magician, Senior Magician, Magister, Great Magister, Sage, Deity Forming, and finally Deity. Master Clark may not have been a top-notch magician, but he was still a respected figure. It was indeed rare for him to go out of his way to actually register a child.
You must know that out of every one thousand ordinary people only one will have magical talent, and most of those people will never progress higher than Magic Apprentice. There were very few that could successfully become true Magicians.
How could a Magister such as Clark come to personally register a kindergarten student?
With such curiosity, Tassia moved her eyes in the direction Clark’s staff pointed. Standing there was little Zeno, who was full of energy and fighting spirit.
The small child looked at Tassia with eyes filled with hope. Although Zeno’s face was yellow and thin, and there was no hair, but from ‘her’ outline, ‘her’ foundation was not bad. Tassia retrieved her distracted thoughts and bent down, gently asking Zeno, “Little girl, what’s your name?”
Zeno had already grown numb to people misinterpreting his gender, so this time the only thing on his mind was the idea of entering Providence Academy. He simply answered, “Zeno”
“Then let’s go do the talent test first.”
Tassia nodded to Clark, saluted, then took Zeno into a nearby darkroom.
Unlike the teenager’s test, the children’s test does not use such a crude, direct method. Instead they utilized some additional items such as crystal balls that were used by dark magicians.
However, the crystal ball was only used to test spiritual strength. Right now Tassia needed to do a comprehensive talent test. Originally, average children could do simple things, but since Zeno was brought here by Master Clark himself, as well as the fact that registration was basically over, Tassia, who wanted to be on the safe side, decided to do a more detailed examination.
Meanwhile, the people outside had no clue what was going on in the darkroom. Clark decided to sit in what used to be Tassia’s seat and began to flip through the new student’s information for this year. While reviewing it, he looked for people who could possibly enter Providence College in the future. It was a pity that there were lots of magical talents, but their characters were not that good….
The time the test took was unexpectedly long. Clark had already turned to look at the door of the darkroom and sat motionlessly.
He was just a bit puzzled. Meanwhile, someone else was becoming more and more anxious.
Xi Wei had not moved since the beginning. After three minutes he started looking at the darkroom. Now, his eyes were fixed, staring at the entrance to the darkroom. His fists were unconsciously clenched, and his subconscious mind was filled with regret.
As a high-level magician, Clark could not miss noticing Xi Wei’s anxiety. He decided to start up a conversation to divert his attention.
“Xi Wei, where is your hometown?”
“Ye Sa City.”
Clark was stumped. He felt that the city sounded a bit familiar, but the old magician had not paid attention to worldly affairs and did not know such a city existed. In fact, before the plague demon massacre, out of everyone from the Big Six1 who could guess how many people actually knew that such a city existed?
“You don’t have to worry about your little sister, I think Tassia gave her a detailed examination, and so it will take longer.”
Xi Wei was silent, not realizing that subconsciously he believed a little bit of what Clark said.
The time passed by in silence until Tassia suddenly called out, anxiously, from the darkroom, “Master Clark!”
Clark had just used his cane to stand up when Xi Wei rushed pass him into the darkroom. The panicked Tassia opened the door and ran straight towards Clark.
Through the darkroom door, it was clearly visible that the room was in a huge mess. The ground was littered with crystal ball fragments, and Zeno was sitting blindfolded in a chair with a blank face, oblivious to what was happening.
Xi Wei almost habitually walked towards Zeno but he restrained himself. He calmly turned to look at the old magician.
Tassia tried to look dignified as she snuck over to whisper something into Clark’s ear. Clark seemed to be quite surprised. He rubbed his staff for a while, lost in thought. He eventually waved to Xi Wei, “Xi Wei bring the child back to the college with me today, cultivating that child’s spiritual strength can no longer be delayed.”
Xi Wei did not say anything, he just walked into the darkroom full of debris, ripped the black cloth off from Zeno’s eyes, then thrust his rough hand in front of Zeno.
“Walk.”
Although Zeno was unsure of the situation, his trust towards Xi Wei had become instinctual. Also, the fact that he was able to hold hands with the protagonist again made Zeno extremely happy, so he did not hesitate to grab Xi Wei’s fingers and prepare to jump down from the chair.
Before he could jump, he was suddenly thrown up into the air.
Xi Wei had grabbed him with one hand and effortlessly threw him onto his back. Carrying Zeno, he walked with Clark and Tassia towards Providence College.
Zeno cautiously went towards Xi Wei’s ear to ask softly, “Baba, do you forgive me?”
“You walk too slowly.”
Zeno’s eyes moistened. Although Xi Wei still paid attention to him, he really intended to wash his hands of caring for him.
Providence College was not far from the registration office. They stepped on the snow-covered ground and entered the Big Six’s best school, the legendary college.
Some people may ask; the status of the temple came from the absolute power of the two Goddesses, so what power did Providence College rely on?
Well you see, the founder of the Providence College was also a Deity. At the end of the last era, together with Xia Zuo2, he saved the Princess of Asil3, who was later nicknamed the Goddess of War.
Getting back on track, the second Clark entered the college he took the two kids straight to the transmission array, which showed just how anxious he actually was.
Providence College was enormous. If you wanted to walk across the entire college, who knew how long it would take. Fortunately, when using transmission arrays, getting from one side of the college to the other only took a matter of minutes.
After stepping out of the transmission array, the scene in front of their eyes was completely different. It was no longer the bone-chilling cold and white snow of winter, but instead a small, independent courtyard. The courtyard was warm as spring, the scenery was pleasant, and the air was fresh. Walking back and forth in the yard, there was a fair-skinned, beautiful maiden who was lost in thought.
Seeing the transmission array light up, the girl paused her steps with a frown and then she glanced coldly at the newcomers. After seeing it was Clark, her eyes flashed with a look of contempt that she quickly suppressed. She then asked, with a noble and inviolable posture, in a somewhat arrogant manner, “Clark, why did you come here?”
Clark was obviously very respectful to the girl,”Miss Belle, I have something important that I need to tell the principal.”
The girl named Belle was very cold when she answered, “My father went to look for the elders at the temple. Come back tomorrow.”
Clark was unable to get through, so he had no other choice but to return.
The transmission array in the yard flashed again, and the four guests left.
At this point, a middle-aged man’s voice came from inside the house, “Belle, who’s outside?”
Belle replied, “No one, father.”
Zeno was in a state of high tension from the moment he saw Belle.
This beautiful girl was not as sacred as she seemed. She was a pretty sister, but she was also a real femme fatale. What was even more terrifying was that she would become the Light Saint!
In the ending of “Curse”, this sister was the one who took the lead in planning to betray Xi Wei. Her purpose was to seize the Stone of Destiny and become a new god.
Belle was the only daughter of the current Principal of Providence College. She was amazingly talented and owned the title of the First Beauty of the Big Six. She had a collection of thousands of pets, and enough self-confidence and pride to fill the whole capital, but her heart was far too vicious. She was willing to do anything to reach her goals.
Thinking of this, Zeno could not help but sigh. In the original plot, Xi Wei did not encounter Belle at Providence College. That was because soon the temple would select their priestess and Belle was elected with absolute certainty. Therefore, they did not meet until later in the story.
Zeno’s existence had truly created a butterfly effect that was messing up the plot. Nevertheless, Zeno had more important things to think about than this overly arrogant woman.
Since they could not see the principal, Clark could only bring them back to his place. At this time, it was already quite late. Clark pushed open the dormitory door where he lived and lit the magic stone on the roof.
The light was warm and painted the room in a yellowish tint; it was a good match for Clark’s earth magic.
Clark sat down at the table in the living room and his expression became serious. “Kids, I believe you know this matter is a bit unusual. Although we are not able to see the principal today, we can only follow the waves of fate. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but before I start talking, I need to determine something. How much do you know about the condition of your sister?”
Xi Wei looked at Clark, his face shrouded in darkness. In fact, he did not know anything. Although it sounded a bit ridiculous, he really did not know.
Clark sighed sorrowfully. “The child’s talent is excellent. Her darkness magic affinity and spiritual talent is at an unprecedented level. Unfortunately, without the principal’s personal teaching, her left eye may never be restored4.”
- I believe the Big Six are a bunch of highly prominent colleges/institutions, we should find out more about them later. I’ll put a better explanation here when I find out more. ↩
- Reminder: Xia Zuo is Xiao Wu’s idol, and one of the first martial artists on the continent 100 years ago ↩
- Princess Asil is Xia Zuo’s wife ↩
- Reminder: Zeno’s left eye went blind when he was kidnapped back in the first arc ↩