Chapter 86 - 77: Level 3 Star Badge Rating
The thick stack of scale pattern paper on the desk blurred, then vanished.
Thinking of the paper’s reward, Nasha couldn’t help but lick her red lips. "The reward for a Star Badge Third Level paper is a huge sum of money."
She turned to look at the young face inside the sphere of light.
The journal paper had vanished from the desk, clearly sent by the Witch Spirit to the *Shining Light of the Black Tower* Society.
The female apprentice grew even more envious. "I hear the society’s reward for a paper that establishes a new Divination theory is nothing to scoff at, either."
Her mouth practically watered as she did a rough calculation. "The two rewards combined... that’s got to be at least several thousand Black Tower Points."
Nasha had already gotten over her jealousy.
But faced with such an immense fortune, she couldn’t stay calm. Her eyes turned red as she stared at the sphere of light.
Even for a Second Level Apprentice, this was a truly immense fortune.
*****
Nasha, the sharp-eared female apprentice, wasn’t the only one whose peace of mind was disturbed on this quiet night.
The two girls, Anya and Reina, were among them.
In a stone pavilion at Bright Mirror Lake, the two were burning the midnight oil.
As one of the three major recreational areas open to new students in the academy, Bright Mirror Lake was not a single lake, but a cluster of over thirty lakes.
The surface of each lake was as still as a mirror. Not a single ripple formed, even when the evening wind swept past—a clear sign of Witchcraft’s power.
Many beautiful white stone pavilions were built beside the lakes. Inside each, a Magic Energy Lamp hung, automatically lighting up at nightfall.
After the second class, faced with a heavy academic workload, none of the new students had the leisurely mood for sightseeing anymore.
Now, many of the stone pavilions had become the newcomers’ "study halls."
The reason was simple: the newcomers had discovered that forming study groups to tackle Divination problems was more efficient than struggling alone.
At that moment, the two girls were poring over sheets of scale pattern paper spread across the stone table, studying the details together.
It was none other than Mo Ning’s manuscript.
Earlier, Anya had used Secret Technique Whisper to directly "copy" Mo Ning’s manuscript onto sheets of scale pattern paper.
The noble lady knew Reina had a decent Divination Talent, so she had brought her along to study it.
Reina exclaimed while quickly taking notes, "This is the first I’m hearing that the Felice Third Longbow Display can be used to calm spiritual disturbances. I don’t think Stone Soul ever mentioned that in class."
Anya smiled radiantly. "Perhaps it’s a blind spot in Stone Soul’s knowledge."
Reina paused, stunned. "But Stone Soul is a senior Third Level Apprentice. How could he not know?"
Anya chuckled softly. "The knowledge of Divination is as vast as the ocean. No Wizard, not even one who only knows the basics, would dare claim to know everything. It’s not surprising that Stone Soul has some blind spots."
Reina couldn’t argue. It’s not like she could go ask Stone Soul to his face.
When the Dazed Girl first saw the manuscript, she assumed Anya had gotten it from a Second or Third Level Apprentice.
The depth of the explanations and the elegant, almost artistic, Divination deductions all pointed to a senior apprentice with a powerful Divination foundation.
So when Anya told her who the author was, the Dazed Girl refused to believe it.
Mo Ning was a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old newcomer, yet the manuscript’s author seemed to have decades of accumulated knowledge of Divination. The ages simply didn’t match.
The noble lady wasted no words and simply showed her the "original."
In the three-dimensional image captured by Secret Technique Whisper, a Guiding Ring sat in the upper-left corner of the desk. Its side bore a fine pattern from which two words could be identified: Mo Ning.
Reina had been rendered speechless with shock.
Back during the assessment in the Secluded Forest, the Dazed Girl had already realized Mo Ning’s knowledge of Divination was likely far greater than her own.
But she never imagined he was *this* strong.
Just then, two butterflies, their bodies covered in splendid, fluorescent patterns, fluttered over gracefully.
The two girls stopped their discussion, their gazes simultaneously falling upon the two butterflies.
They circled the stone table once before landing gently on a page of the manuscript.
These were Nightlight Butterflies.
"Nightlight Butterfly" isn’t the name of a single species, but a general term for a broad category.
Normal butterflies are active during the day and moths at night, but Nightlight Butterflies only appear after dark—contrary to common knowledge.
Two seconds later, the Nightlight Butterflies took flight, fluttering gracefully into the distance.
Reina watched one of the butterflies and said softly, "The one on the left is called a Destiny Light Feather Butterfly."
"I’ve read a book about Nightlight Butterflies. It said that Destiny Light Feather Butterflies can sense the Power of Destiny hidden within people or objects."
A smile touched Anya’s lips. "An interesting notion."
She gently brushed her fingers over the manuscript page the butterfly had graced. "So there’s Power of Destiny in this manuscript? Looks like I’ll have to keep it safe."
Reina shrugged. "Maybe."
The Dazed Girl then suggested, "How about we study until midnight before heading back?"
She had heard from the noble lady that Mo Ning regularly studied late into the night, and she didn’t want to be left in the dust.
Anya agreed readily. "Alright!"
The night grew deeper.
But by the shores of Bright Mirror Lake, dozens of newcomers still remained.
*****
「At the same time, in No. 2 Black Tower.」
In the duty room of the *Shining Light of the Black Tower* Witchcraft Research Society, Junior Reviewer Roy’s state of mind was also significantly disturbed.
The Second Level Apprentice was on duty—a policy the society had maintained without fail since the journal’s founding.
The academy was full of all sorts of people. Some, upon disagreeing with an article in the journal, might show up in person to debate the matter.
Even at three or four in the morning, when most people were sound asleep, these agitated individuals would still show up.
Worse, these people were often senior members, some even Official Wizards, so the society had to treat them with the utmost courtesy—lest they defect to a rival journal in a fit of pique.
This had been happening every so often since *Shine* was first published, which was why the on-duty system was created.
When faced with someone who came to "cause trouble," the on-duty reviewer’s job was to listen patiently, record their opinions in detail, and then persuade them to leave.
Like the other junior reviewers, Roy was more than happy to be on duty.
For one, there was a stipend for the shift.
For another, the shift was usually quiet, allowing him to work on his own things without the endless pressure of preliminary review tasks.
Roy took a gentle sip of his hot spring tea, his gaze returning to the manuscript page covered in Lord Terry’s annotations.
Hot spring tea wasn’t named because its water came from an actual hot spring.
Rather, it was because the tea contained trace amounts of Spiritual Power. A single sip made one feel warm all over, as if enveloped by a thermal spring, dispelling all fatigue.
After a few seconds, Roy finally understood a key step in the deduction. He murmured in a moment of epiphany, "So that’s how it works."
Just then, a mechanical voice suddenly rang out:
[Journal submission has arrived at the *Shining Light of the Black Tower* Society. Transfer procedure complete. Please review!]
Roy jumped slightly.
His gaze lifted from the manuscript, and he frowned slightly. "It’s almost eleven. Who’s still submitting a paper this late?"
The reviewers for the two major societies rarely processed new submissions after 6 p.m., so most authors chose to submit during the day.
He instinctively turned his head toward the submission pedestal to his right—a grayish-white stone platform covered in fine runes, used exclusively for receiving papers transported by the Witch Spirit.
The next moment, a faint ripple shimmered above the stone pedestal, and a thick paper materialized on its surface.
Roy had no intention of reviewing it. The duty of the watch was to handle visitors, not process submissions.
But he was curious. He just wanted to see who would submit something at this hour.
His eyes first fell upon the author line:
The River Flows Eastward!!
Roy jolted and shot up from his chair.
’Him again?’
’It’s only been a few days! How could this First Level Apprentice have finished a second paper already?’
The name had left such a deep impression on him that he doubted he would ever forget it.
Roy’s gaze then fell to the paper’s title:
"An Innovative Method for Solving Systems of Complex Divination Equations—A Breakthrough in Isolated-State Problems Using the ’Highway Bridge Technique’."
The word "Innovative" felt like a sharp needle, stabbing deep into his eyes.
Roy’s heart suddenly began to race. He subconsciously muttered, "By the Great Mystery!"
Even a fool knew that daring to add that word to a paper’s title meant the innovation had to be incredibly significant.
Only one thought filled his mind: ’I’ve just received one hell of a journal paper.’