Owl Qi

After tidying up the laboratory, Saine walked toward the dormitory building in a heavy mood.

Because the experiments under his mentor Moxidu had turned day and night upside down these past few days, it was, strictly speaking, daytime at the Black Wizard Academy.

All sorts of apprentices passed by Saine.

Not one of the Entry-Level Apprentices and Low-Level Apprentices heading to their public classes dared disturb this Black Wizard Apprentice wearing a white mask and exuding a steady presence.

The reverence in their eyes showed that they had adapted well to life at the Black Wizard Academy.

Ever since a batch of new apprentices had enrolled three years ago, the floating giant ship had delivered two more batches over those three years.

But each time, it brought fewer apprentices than before.

The most recent batch had arrived last year. There had not even been many children on the entire ship, and only around fifty had ultimately passed the tests to become Entry-Level Apprentices.

Perhaps because fewer new apprentices had enrolled, the Formal Black Wizards of the academy were no longer like before when teaching public classes, killing and crushing these ants whenever they were in a bad mood.

Sometimes, Saine thought that these newly enrolled apprentices were truly lucky.

If it had been when Saine had first arrived in the Underdark more than ten years ago, an apprentice casualty rate exceeding half would have been enough to show those little ones newly arrived in the Underground World what true despair was.

The apprentice casualty rate of recent years had been kept at thirty percent. Saine had once heard his mentor Moxidu casually mention that this seemed to be the intention of the dean, Dadalong.

If there had not been so many Formal Black Wizards like Master Ke Suo Long, who had long since grown indifferent to life and habitually crushed stupid fools or bugs they disliked, the apprentice casualty rate these past few years would have been even lower.

But no matter how low it was, apprentices still met misfortune or died every day.

Master Ke Suo Long's anatomy experiment classes never lacked fresh specimens.

And those specimens had very likely been among the apprentices attending class just the day before.

The cold laws of the Underground World made these apprentices increasingly cautious.

By the time Saine reached White Crow Forest in front of the dormitory building, there was hardly a low-level apprentice or Entry-Level Apprentice in sight.

The academy's designated class time was about to begin. Not a single apprentice dared be late—not one!

After arriving at White Crow Forest, Saine did not continue toward the dormitory building.

Instead, with a turn of thought, he left the roadside and headed directly into White Crow Forest.

White Crow Forest covered a vast area and could be considered the largest forest within the Black Wizard Academy.

Though it was said that the variety of trees and vegetation here was not as abundant as in the plantation.

Besides white crow trees, however, strange plants and small animals could still be found here.

Of the more than fifty animal specimens and over two hundred plant specimens Saine had collected and made, one-third came from White Crow Forest.

Saine could also be considered a regular customer of White Crow Forest.

Entering the lush White Crow Forest, which appeared to have no paths at all, Saine headed east.

Saine's final destination was a massive tree crown on the eastern side of White Crow Forest.

The entire forest felt quiet, with only faint insect and bird calls drifting through it.

Its surroundings could gradually soothe an irritated person, allowing them to calm down.

No apprentice would have imagined that there was such a secluded paradise within the cold and oppressive Black Wizard Academy.

White Crow Forest lay beside the Apprentice Dormitory. Apprentices living on the upper floors of the dormitory building could look out their windows and see only dense woods and towering tree crowns.

They had no idea that beneath those crowns lay such a tranquil, ethereal scene.

The academy's tense atmosphere and ever-present dangers also meant that Low-Level Apprentices and Entry-Level Apprentices simply did not dare come here to explore.

As for Intermediate Apprentices and above, most knew that this was the habitat of the Academy Supervisors, so they would not rashly come to disturb them either.

Only Saine had been wandering around here whenever he had the chance for more than four years.

Of course, he never came empty-handed.

"Qi, I'm here!" When Saine finally reached his destination, he called up at the top of the enormous tree crown before him, which stood nearly thirty meters tall.

A flutter of wings sounded. Before Saine could react, an owl half the height of a man appeared before him.

This was the Academy Supervisor Saine had encountered more than four years ago and gradually grown familiar with.

After more than four years, Saine and the other had become friends.

Since they were friends, they naturally had a general understanding of each other's circumstances.

There was no need to say much about Saine, but this owl before him had revealed that its actual strength was at the level of a Quasi-Level Magical Beast.

The ranking of a Quasi-Level Magical Beast's actual strength was comparable to Saine's Senior Brother, Zorro.

It was a creature stronger than a high-level magical beast, though still somewhat weaker than Formal Magicians.

It was also from Qi that Saine had learned that magical beasts capable of rivaling Formal Black Wizards were known as Level Magical Beasts.

However, such magical beasts were not widely distributed in the Underdark.

Several decades ago, there had been several Level Magical Beasts in the Underground World near the City of Mozhsuobula.

But they had been unlucky enough to encounter a group of vicious and even more powerful Black Magicians.

Not only were the Level Magical Beasts wiped out by those Black Magicians, even the Quasi-Level Magical Beasts and high-level magical beasts were ravaged clean.

It was said that there had once been powerful Underground Subhuman experts nearby who could rival Formal Black Wizards, but they too had been bathed in blood by the Black Magicians.

The City of Mozhsuobula had originally been built amid such clashes of blood and fire. Much of the blood long dried upon its walls had been left behind in those days.

Through Qi's account, Saine could almost see hundreds of thousands of ordinary subhumans charging toward the City of Mozhsuobula, along with the surging Beast Tide of the Underground World.

Yet before the powerful Elemental Power wielded by the Black Magicians, all those scenes had been reduced completely to dust and dregs.

It was precisely that sufficiently powerful strength that had established the City of Mozhsuobula's status as the center of the Underdark.

Learning this secret history gave Saine a general understanding of the City of Mozhsuobula's past, as well as the approximate time when the group known as Black Magicians had arrived in the Underground World.

Saine had also asked Qi's exact age.

Unlike senior sister Fei'er, for whom the word age was taboo, Owl Supervisor Qi showed no concealment whatsoever.

One hundred and thirty-seven was Qi's true age.

At that age, it was still relatively young among its kind. Magical beasts often possessed longer lifespans and stronger constitutions than humans.

Its name was Qi because it ranked seventh among the owls of its generation.

Saine had once asked how many Owl Supervisors there were in the Black Wizard Academy, as well as who Qi's elder blood relatives were.

Qi had not answered any of those questions. They seemed to involve the academy's secrets and were information strictly forbidden from being disclosed.