From Wizard Apprentice to Conqueror of Myriad Worlds

Legend has it that a certain Wizard, pestered to no end by reviewers from two different journals, finally lost his patience. He filed a complaint with a council Wizard from the academy’s administration, demanding the right to submit anonymously.

The council Wizard adopted the suggestion and gave the heads of both journals a stern reprimand.

From then on, the system of submitting under a pen name was established.

That story took place about eighty years ago.

Hearing the Witch Spirit’s words, Mo Ning realized the academy was still using this system.

He had always preferred to keep a low profile and disliked having his name in the spotlight.

So, without a moment’s hesitation, he made his choice. "I choose to submit under a pen name!"

The Witch Spirit immediately asked, [Please choose a pen name.]

Mo Ning’s gaze fell upon the great, ceaselessly flowing river outside the floor-to-ceiling window. He answered casually, "Let’s go with ’The River Flows Eastward’."

[Pen name confirmed.]

As soon as the voice faded, "Mo Ning" and "Serial No. 7-118-256" on the paper’s cover seemed to be gently wiped away by an invisible hand.

Immediately after, the words "The River Flows Eastward" and "First Level Apprentice" quietly appeared, the script so neat it looked as if it had been there all along.

Watching this, Mo Ning instantly realized that the Witch Spirit’s intelligence was by no means low.

It hadn’t written his status as a "newcomer" on the cover—if it had, the paper’s publication would have likely caused a small sensation.

A newcomer, enrolled for less than ten days, submitting a paper to the academy’s journal—if news of that spread, it would attract countless curious gazes.

But using the false identity of a "First Level Apprentice" made him completely inconspicuous.

The Witch Spirit had clearly considered his situation and preferences when handling these details.

[Pen name confirmation complete. Executing journal paper transport procedure—]

Faint ripples appeared above the wooden table.

The neatly bound stack of scale pattern paper quickly blurred, vanishing completely in the blink of an eye as if it had never been there.

Any other Apprentice submitting a paper to the journal for the first time would have been at least a little excited.

But Mo Ning felt not a flicker of emotion.

Without resting for even a second, he took [Dawa’s Grocery List] from his locker.

The first time he entered the Mirror Image Mysteries Hall, he had selected sixteen types of Sub-zero Level Witchcraft.

He had already built permanent Witchcraft Models for most of them in his Spiritual World, with only two left to master.

Mo Ning planned to finish this task by morning’s end.

Imbuing the Witchcraft Models these past few days had cost a fair number of Black Tower Points, and his account balance was now down to just 1,147.

*****

「No. 2 Black Tower.」

The *Shining Light of the Black Tower* Witchcraft Research Society was located on the seventh floor of No. 2 Black Tower.

The society’s doors were made of dark oak, with an exquisite emblem embedded in the lintel: an open book with a Burning lightning bolt carved onto its pages, symbolizing the union of knowledge and power.

The journal operated like a society, and the Wizards and Apprentices who worked for it were all society members.

The main difference was that Wizards were Official Members, while Apprentices were merely Preparatory Members.

But for a junior reviewer like Roy, the status of "Preparatory Member" was an asset not to be taken lightly.

After all, *Shine* was one of only two witchcraft research journals in the academy. Anyone without a sufficient foundation in the field wasn’t even qualified to cross the society’s threshold.

In his daily interactions with other Apprentices, Roy could clearly feel their exceptional respect for him.

He knew exactly why.

For one, many had no experience publishing papers and needed his guidance.

For another, the vast majority struggled to write high-quality papers. As for the society, it had to accept a number of low-quality submissions just to fill the pages.

A considerable number of papers fell right on the borderline between acceptance and rejection—too good to discard, yet not good enough to be truly wanted.

And while Roy, as a junior reviewer, didn’t have the final say on a paper’s acceptance, he could recommend submissions to the Senior Reviewers.

It wasn’t a great deal of power, but it was enough to make him an "important figure" in the eyes of many Apprentices.

A single recommendation from him gave a low-quality paper a decent chance of being published in the journal.

Of course, it would only make it into the back half of the issue.

At that moment, Roy took a sip from a glass of raspberry juice, savoring the sweet liquid as it spread across his tongue.

The raspberries contained a trace amount of Spirituality; they were a gift from an Apprentice who had visited him two days ago.

He leaned back in his large chair and began his day’s work: reviewing papers.

Just a moment ago, the Witch Spirit had delivered twelve papers.

Roy set down his raspberry juice and picked up the first paper.

He had only glanced at the cover when his brow furrowed slightly.

"The River Flows Eastward..." he muttered the name, shaking his head slightly. "A First Level Apprentice, trying to use a pen name like an Official Wizard."

He added under his breath, "What a ridiculous fellow."

This first glance left Roy with a poor impression, and he already felt little desire to read the paper.

’What kind of valuable paper could a mere First Level Apprentice possibly write? And on the extremely difficult topic of the Spiritual Domain, no less.’

’Reading it would just be a waste of time.’

But out of a long-cultivated sense of professionalism—or perhaps, out of respect for his salary—Roy decided to waste a little time and give the paper a quick scan.

He flipped to the first page.

The abstract at the very beginning was worded with extreme conciseness and elegance, and its logic was superb.