Chapter 66 - 64: Mo Ning’s First Journal Paper
Two days passed in a flash.
It was five-thirty in the morning.
The light of dawn fully illuminated the vast, flowing river outside the floor-to-ceiling window.
Mo Ning withdrew his gaze from the attribute panel floating before him.
[Name: Mo Ning]
[Spiritual Strength: 0.60]
[Physical Strength: 0.22]
Two days of effort had raised his Spiritual Strength by another 0.01 points.
Mo Ning felt this was mainly thanks to the Moonlight Potion.
Ever since drinking that permanent-attribute Magic Potion, he’d had a vague feeling—as if something deep within his Spiritual World was slowly changing.
The data detected by his Eye of Truth confirmed this.
Over the past few days, his Spiritual Spectrum had been oscillating rhythmically—sometimes high, sometimes low; sometimes fast, sometimes slow—a repeating performance in an unseen dimension.
Yesterday, he had spent the entire afternoon using his cheat’s powerful data analysis capabilities and had finally found a few hidden patterns within the seemingly chaotic fluctuations.
Initially, he had tried to dig deeper, hoping to find a topic he could apply for as a research project—something like "How to Use the Spiritual Power of Magic Potions to Increase Meditation Efficiency."
But after an hour, he decisively gave up on the attempt.
With his current level of accumulated knowledge, Mo Ning was incapable of unearthing any more patterns.
Besides, the topic involved Magic Potions.
When it came to enhancing the effects of Magic Potions, countless studies had already been conducted not just by Apprentices, but by Official Wizards.
Describing the books and papers piled up in the depths of the library as "enough to make an ox sweat" would be an understatement.
Mo Ning had long since shed the arrogance of a Transmigrator. At his current stage, he didn’t believe he was any more skilled than Wizards who had been immersed in Magic Potion Study for a hundred, or even several hundred, years.
So, he changed his approach. He would write a paper and submit it to the academy’s Journal of Witchcraft Research.
At the academy, research project papers and journal articles were on two different tracks.
Some research projects had significant depth, qualifying them for Black Tower Point funding from the academy. The resulting papers were called "project papers" and were collected in the project paper database.
Anyone who wished to read them had to pay a certain fee.
Other topics, however, lacked sufficient research depth and didn’t qualify for academy funding—but that didn’t mean they were without value.
The Journal of Witchcraft Research was the "front line" the academy had established specifically for them.
The academy had two internal academic journals. One was called the *Shining Light of the Black Tower*, and the other was the *Mystical Radiance of the Black Tower*.
Just from their names, one could smell the strong scent of rivalry.
According to the "gossip" Mo Ning had heard, the Wizards and Apprentices from the two journals never greeted each other when they met in private.
Mo Ning had no interest in these grievances. He quickly made up his mind. ’I’ll submit it to the *Shining Light of the Black Tower*.’
The academy had a rule: as long as you had written a project paper, you were automatically qualified to submit articles to both journals.
The Witch Spirit would place the paper directly on the reviewer’s desk.
Otherwise, it would have to go through a "preliminary qualification review" and be approved by a preliminary reviewer before it even reached the main reviewers’ eyes.
That extra step often meant several extra days of waiting.
「Ten minutes later.」
Line after line of beautiful Secret Spirit Text flowed smoothly from the tip of Mo Ning’s pen.
"...In conclusion,"
"The above is my in-depth study of the patterns between the Moonlight Potion and the Spiritual Spectrum. Using the methods of Secret Divination and Divination, I have provided a reasonable explanation for some of the rhythmic changes in the peripheral layer of Spiritual Flow Transformation."
"This explanation holds a certain significance for analyzing the deeper patterns between Magic Potions and spiritual changes, and can serve as a reference for similar research."
With a final flick of his pen, Mo Ning put a period at the end of his journal article.
The paper’s conclusion highlighted the difference between a project paper and a journal article.
The former systematically solved a problem—for instance, making a substantial improvement to a certain form of Witchcraft.
The latter, on the other hand, studied a fragmented phenomenon, offering an explanation using Secret Divination and Divination. It didn’t need to be all-encompassing; it just had to drill down with some depth on a single point.
For almost every Apprentice, submitting an article to a journal was their first official step into the field of Witchcraft.
Mo Ning, however, had done it the other way around.
He stacked the six pages of the manuscript neatly and nodded in satisfaction.
In just ten minutes—or to be precise, nine minutes and thirty-six seconds—a new paper was hot off the press.
Mo Ning activated his Guiding Ring with his Spiritual Power and called out softly,
"Witch Spirit, I want to submit an article to the witchcraft journal, the *Shining Light of the Black Tower*."
The next second,
a characteristic mechanical voice sounded out of thin air:
["The *Shining Light of the Black Tower* welcomes your submission. Please confirm the manuscript to be submitted."]
Mo Ning pointed to the stack of pages on his desk. "This is it."
The Witch Spirit immediately responded:
["Paper: ’A New Method of Divination Interpretation—A Preliminary Exploration of the Moonlight Potion’s Effect on Peripheral-Layer Spiritual Flow Transformation.’ Author: Mo Ning. Submission to the *Shining Light of the Black Tower* confirmed."]
Mo Ning thought the process was over.
However, the Witch Spirit’s voice hadn’t stopped:
["According to the academy’s journal management rules, you may choose to ’submit under your real name’ or ’submit under a pen name.’"]
Mo Ning froze for a moment.
He immediately recalled an anecdote he had read in some old notes:
Because the two academy journals were competitors, the Wizards and Apprentices in charge of reviewing manuscripts would often privately contact authors who contributed to their rival’s publication.
Authors with a deep accumulation of knowledge, a solid Divination Foundation, and a relatively high output were especially sought-after targets for poaching by both sides.