Gloria choked on that answer. Doubt flickered in her heart as she gave Sanders a few more looks, but he still wore that breezy, untroubled expression. Had she guessed wrong? Was Angel's talent unrelated to the Nightmare Realm?
But when she recalled Angel's earlier account, no matter how she listened to it, it sounded like the Nightmare Realm.
If Angel's talent truly had something to do with the Nightmare Realm, then when his talent had been tested, he must have unwittingly entered the real Nightmare Realm, right? Could Angel's talent be a connection between reality and the Nightmare Realm? Gloria laughed at herself. How could that be possible? A realm passage was not something a mortal body could forge a connection with.
At first, Gloria had guessed that Angel's talent might have effects similar to the Twisted Baworm. That was why she had come specifically to pry for gossip, but now it seemed that was not the case.
Gloria shook her head. For things she could not figure out, she could only let them go.
The person sitting opposite her was a major figure of the Southern Region. She did not have the ability to force him to speak.
With that thought, Gloria could only suppress her doubts and begin preparing the Twisted Baworm Sanders wanted.
.
Just as Gloria was preparing the ingredients, the sound of wings beating through the air reached everyone's ears.
Following the sound, they saw a seabird no larger than two palms dart in from beyond the curtain. It had gray feathers, green eyes, red claws, and an orange beak. Judging from its appearance, it was no different from an ordinary seabird.
But what if that seabird was wearing clothes?
A white cap, a blue bib apron, and a small satchel slung across its body. Such an outfit should have looked wildly out of place on a seabird. Yet strangely, the bird's attire was unexpectedly harmonious.
Perhaps it had something to do with its lively, almost human eyes?
"Ah! It's little Chirp-Chirp." At the sight of the seabird, Angel cried out instinctively.
Upon hearing Angel's voice, the seabird spun through the air, then gave one final flap and landed atop Angel's golden head of hair.
"Oh ho ho ho, little darling Toby!"
At some point, Gloria had already come to Angel's side, rubbing her plump cheeks incessantly against Toby the seabird.
Since the seabird was on Angel's head, Gloria simply swept Angel into her arms as well.
The sudden impact made Angel's mind go blank, and the world before his eyes churned. Surrounded by bloated flesh, he felt as though his face had been squeezed out of shape.
Other than his late mother, this was the first time Angel had ever been in such close contact with a woman. Yet he had not a shred of romantic thought; all he wanted was to break free as quickly as possible.
After a bout of struggling, Gloria finally released Angel.
Toby the seabird still perched steadily atop Angel's head, though his feathers were somewhat more disheveled than before.
Angel was in a far more miserable state. His glossy slicked-back hair, neatly combed that morning, had become somewhat tangled due to Toby's arrival. Then, after Gloria's rough handling, his hair was completely reduced to a mess.
"Hey, hey, what's with this bird?" Seeing the newly acknowledged junior wear an utterly lifeless expression, Flora snickered as she pulled Angel behind her.
"What do you mean, bird or no bird? Have you no manners? His name is Toby, and he's my beloved pet!" Gloria shot her a resentful glare.
"What does it matter what he's called? Isn't he still a bird?"
"Too lazy to bother with you." Gloria carefully cupped Toby in her hands, placed him on her shoulder, then swayed her hips as she continued making the Twisted Baworm.
"That bird is food," Sanders suddenly said.
"Food? Could it be Gloria's Genesis?" Flora asked in surprise.
"Most likely."
Flora's expression suddenly changed. "No, that's not right. I examined it carefully just now. That is definitely a magical bird. Though it is an extremely low-level Magic Beast, how could it possibly be food synthesized through Genesis?!"
"Use Break Illusion to look into its foundations, and you'll know," Sanders said, a trace of admiration in his expression.
After a while, Flora turned her head back with a face full of shock and uncertainty. When she used Break Illusion to observe that seabird, its origin had actually been severed! That was a typical remnant of Genesis!
Previously, Gloria's Genesis Art could only cultivate and synthesize all kinds of non-sentient creatures.
Yet in merely a few decades, she had become capable of cultivating a magical bird that might gain intelligence. It seemed her power had already reached a critical threshold." Sanders sighed. "Had she not taken the wrong road, then given another twenty years, perhaps she would have become the Southern Region's first Rank 2 Gourmet Wizard."
One had to know that whether Fragment Mayflies or Twisted Baworms, although they possessed wondrous powers, they had not gained intelligence and could only serve as materials to wizards. Magic Beasts were different. Though many Magic Beasts could be dealt with even by ordinary mortals, they had already gained intelligence. Given a fortunate opportunity, they could even become great powers.
"So this is a true wizard? Her road has actually stretched farther and farther." Flora sighed.
"What is Genesis?" Hearing the two chat, Angel could not help asking.
Sanders pointed at Gloria. "It is Gloria's original spell. You will see it soon enough."
The food Gloria created was generally taken away directly by her customers, so she did not use any particular tableware in its preparation. Her movements were swift as she fed all manner of unidentifiable materials into a magical device unique to Gourmet Wizards.
Whirling gas, many-eyed monsters, smoke, worms, ore, unknown solutions... Every material was strange and bizarre, yet each faintly emitted an extraordinary aura.
Then Gloria suddenly tossed all the materials into the air. No one knew what she murmured under her breath as streams of radiance flowed from between her ten fingers.
What Angel saw was all kinds of living and dead materials changing shape and color beneath the "massage" of that radiance. Like moist soil, they were kneaded into new forms and sprouted tender new buds.
In the end, a dark, multi-segmented worm appeared before Gloria.
Angel merely watched the spectacle, but Sanders and Flora could see within it the application of much knowledge and technique. Combined with the unique fluctuations of a Gourmet Wizard and the descent of some unknown will from the unseen, only then could death be turned into life, creating a creature modeled after multiple templates.
"How gorgeous. How amazing!" That was Angel's assessment.
"Knowledge as vast as the sea, logic applied in ten thousand transformations—truly breathtaking." That was what Flora and Sanders felt every time they watched Gloria cast her Genesis Art.
Looking at the fresh, lively worm, Angel asked softly, "Does Genesis mean creating life?" Angel remembered that in Earth's myths, whether Eastern or Western, creating life was something only supreme beings at the pinnacle of mythology could accomplish. But in the Wizarding World, could any wizard create life as long as they became a wizard?
Sanders fell silent for a long while. "Yes, and no."
"True creation of life may be something only the Creator Gods of myth could achieve. But wizards do not believe in gods. Wizards believe only in truth and knowledge. Gloria's original spell is called Genesis. It appears to create life, but in reality it involves far too many theories, including illusory beast biology, microbial structural recombination, equivalent exchange of magical sources... a whole series of profound principles. It is not creation from nothing like the Creator Gods of myth."
"Oh..." Angel nodded in sudden understanding. This was roughly like the theory of cloning. Through all sorts of methods, reproductive barriers were broken and new life appeared. "I see. I think I understand."
Still just a child. Sanders shook his head. Naturally, he did not believe Angel truly understood. He only thought Angel was pretending to be calm out of a young man's refusal to admit defeat. Yet he had no idea that, in terms of the logic behind certain fields of knowledge, Angel already counted as a qualified scholar.
Sanders did not expose him, considering it a way to save some face for his newly accepted student.
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