Nascent Soul Rebirth: Starting as a Wizard

In the social norms of both wizards and monks, directly and brutally scanning others with overwhelming mental power is a great offense, almost a declaration of war.

Compared to the surgical precision and penetrating power of a monk's spiritual sense, wizards' use of spiritual power often focuses more on the pressure of "quantity" and the perception of specific areas.

While this method of reconnaissance is certainly quite intimidating, its inherent characteristics of "precision" and "penetration" may become vulnerabilities that can be exploited when faced with truly advanced and sophisticated concealment and camouflage.

Of course, the core of all pretense lies in conformity to logic and "persona".

Intermediate wizarding apprentices need to successfully construct and stabilize hundreds or thousands of mental runes to form intricate magical models, which is no challenge for Solo, who possesses peak spiritual awareness.

However, all the magic models in the appendix of his book "Basic Meditation Method" only amounted to a few dozen magic rune models, and even if all of them were built, they would not fill the "rune library" that an intermediate apprentice should have.

Long before he had fully mastered the meditation method and was about to condense his tenth mental rune, he decisively "stopped" his "practice" in this area and has been maintaining this level through secret techniques ever since.

They even deliberately simulated the illusion of "superficial" and "slow-growing" mental strength due to a lack of systematic guidance and no way forward.

Catherine's tidal wave of mental energy swept over it, like brushing past a seemingly ordinary riverbed pebble, failing to detect the distinctly different mineral crystals and geological memories spanning millions of years within.

She set down the bone china cup, the bottom of which made a slight clatter against the saucer. Her gaze then turned directly to Solo, and she nodded almost imperceptibly, her pale lips parting slightly.

"Not bad. To have reached this point through self-exploration is quite remarkable." Her tone was as flat as if she were commenting on the blandness of breakfast.

"With my occasional guidance, Leah and Keynes' mental strength has now stabilized at around twenty runes."

"Your foundation is weak and unstable, yet you've managed to reach the threshold of ten runes. It seems you do have some merit in intuitively constructing rune structures."

"However, your path as a knight has been much smoother. In just one year, the seed of life took root and you became a senior knight. I suppose it will only take you three to five years to enter the realm of a great knight."

There wasn't much praise in his words; it was more like a calm assessment based on observation.

"Thank you for your affirmation, cousin. It was mostly luck." Solo bowed slightly, his tone humble and polite.

He then naturally picked up a piece of bread spread with honey and butter and began to eat, as if the invisible storm had never happened.

"You've come at just the right time," Catherine said, cutting the smoked salmon drizzled with lemon juice on her plate with a silver fork. "The academy's current round of admissions ceremonies is still about two weeks away from officially starting."

During these two weeks, you are free to wander around and explore this Emerald City at your leisure.

As she spoke, she looked up at the floor-to-ceiling window, her gaze seemingly passing through the garden and the streets, landing on the hazy outline of the city buildings in the distance.

"Because, once you step through the gates of the academy," her voice lowered slightly, carrying a meaningful glint,

"To be able to move freely and enjoy the worldly scenery as we do now would be extremely difficult."

Solo paused chewing at the opportune moment, a perfectly timed look of doubt and curiosity appearing on his face:

"Academy rules are so strict? Even daily entry and exit are restricted?"

Catherine didn't answer directly. Instead, she gently turned the silver fork in her hand, pointing the tip out the window in a direction that almost everyone who arrived in the Emerald City for the first time would notice—

That area, with its towering buildings and shimmering light, prompts the question:

"What does that look like to you?"

Solo looked in the direction she pointed. The morning mist dissipated further, and the outlines of the strange buildings' spires became clearer in the rising sun, while the unnatural halos swirling around their tops seemed to become more active.

His face showed the hesitation and judgment befitting a "first-timer": "The Emerald Wizarding Academy...isn't it? I can vaguely sense that it's shrouded in a very powerful...energy barrier?"

He had indeed used his spiritual sense to "touch" the emerald green barrier that covered a vast area with extreme caution, and the stability and profundity of the feedback made him secretly tremble.

That was not something an ordinary person could set up; it would require at least a Golden Core cultivator. Therefore, he immediately stopped all his probing and did not dare to go any further.

"Heh." Catherine chuckled almost inaudibly, a laugh that carried a hint of understanding, and perhaps a touch of mockery of a certain common-sense limitation.

"How can such a small area accommodate the academy's selection and basic resettlement of tens of thousands of new students every twenty years?"

She gracefully wiped the corner of her lips with a napkin, then made a gesture that made Solo's pupils shrink slightly.

She raised her arm, her slender, white fingers not pointing to the buildings on the horizon, but slowly and firmly pointing upwards to the clear, boundless blue sky bathed in morning light.

"What you see below is nothing more than a portal, a platform for reception, a...mark facing the secular world."

Her voice was steady, yet it carried the weight unique to revealing a major secret.

"The true Emerald Wizarding Academy has never been situated in the mortal realm."

She paused briefly, letting her words ripple like a pebble thrown into a still lake.

"It hangs high in the sky, situated on a floating island in the clouds."

Solo, at the opportune moment, let his genuine astonishment show on his face.

Sky islands? Academies floating in the sky?

This certainly exceeded many of his previous guesses.

"Traveling between heaven and earth relies on a tightly controlled, fixed teleportation array. As for airships?" Catherine's lips curled into a very faint smile, a half-smile playing on her lips.

"It is not unnavigable, but the 'Emerald Sky Curtain' barrier, which covers the entire academy island and isolates the inside from the outside, has an opening authority that belongs only to third-level archmages throughout the entire Emerald Island and the surrounding seas."

Within the academy, including the Emerald Duke who rules the island, the number of true wizard towers is only about five.

In other words, only the tower master holds the key.

Her gaze returned to Solo's face, her eyes clear and deep, as if reflecting the turmoil in the listener's heart.

"Therefore, under normal circumstances, that 'celestial canopy' only opens once every twenty years—which is now, the time for recruiting new students. Once the selection is complete, the celestial canopy closes, the teleportation system is activated, and the academy becomes an isolated island, a secret realm in the clouds."

Whether it's a fervent pursuit of knowledge or a struggle to survive adversity, it all lies within.

You can only obtain limited, regulated access once you have sufficient power, contribution, or qualifications.

She picked up her teacup, ending this incredibly informative conversation, her tone returning to its initial calm, yet her words remained clear:

Therefore, cherish this half-month period.

Take a good look at this city that thrives because of the college, yet most of its residents never get to see the college in their lifetime.

This may be the closest you can get to the lingering echo of the so-called "ordinary" world in the long years to come.

The restaurant was quiet for a moment, with only the occasional soft sound of silverware touching porcelain plates and the increasingly clear birdsong outside the window.

Solo silently digested this shocking intelligence, his gaze involuntarily drifting back to the boundless blue sky.

The sky was clear and blue, with white clouds drifting lazily by, seemingly empty and devoid of anything.

But now he knows that above those clouds, beyond the reach of the naked eye and beyond the imagination of ordinary people, lies a powerful, mysterious wizarding world, almost completely isolated from the mortal world below.

The narrow entrance to that world will quietly open somewhere in this bustling yet ultimately "mortal" city, fifteen days and nights from now.