The Astrologer's Hut

Back home, Bailing was whispering with Lianyi, seeming to have been waiting in the hall for a while.

"Wow, Reilo, you're finally back! Let Mom see your Bubble Skill!"

As soon as he entered, Bailing stood up, eagerly urging Reilo.

"Okay!"

Reilo knew what Bailing meant; she wanted to show Lianyi his progress. He responded, and with a fluctuation of his Energy Magnetic Field, he released a Bubble Skill from his palm.

The transparent bubble floated in mid-air, drifting towards Lianyi under Reilo's control.

Lianyi's bright eyes watched the transparent bubble before her, a hint of relief appearing on her face. She stroked Bailing's hair, and after observing the bubble for a moment, she suddenly extended her index finger.

"Careful!"

Reilo couldn't help but warn her.

As Lianyi's index finger was enveloped in a faint blue glow, the bubble popped with a "pop." Lianyi slowly retracted her finger.

This glow seemed to be a protective coloration of some bioluminescent creature.

"Hmm."

Lianyi pondered and nodded.

"The energy level is about three to four degrees, and the projectile speed is relatively slow. Its advantage is that it's easy to upgrade and evolve."

After analyzing, Lianyi looked at Bailing and smiled, "But as Reilo's foundational academic skill, Bubble Skill is a good choice."

"Naturally!"

Bailing's face showed pride.

"Never mind the poison bubbles. As long as junior disciple finds a medium partner and masters the first level of Energy Magnetic Field, he should be able to fly using Bubble Skill! Wow! A novice scholar who can fly, his advantage in the graduation assessment will be obvious!"

Hearing his senior disciple's words, Reilo's eyes lit up!

Why hadn't he thought of the application of flying in the air using a large Bubble Skill?

The application of Bubble Skill wasn't just simple direct attacks!

Night fell.

During dinner, he informed Gubo, Lianyi, and Bailing that he would be going out to collect specimens. Reilo was currently tidying his room alone, packing his travel essentials into his spatial box.

Since the spatial box gifted by Shatuo wasn't high-grade, its capacity was limited. Reilo had to pack meticulously to reserve some space for specimens.

As for Reilo going out to collect specimens, Gubo and Lianyi didn't say much.

For scholars, apart from time spent in laboratory research, most of their lives were spent traveling. It was only because this was Reilo's first time going out and he lacked experience that his senior disciple Bailing gave him a few more instructions.

Learning that Reilo hadn't invited anyone to travel with him and intended to go collect specimens alone for the first time, Bailing suggested Reilo visit the Mercenary Association to hire a few E-class mercenaries.

"The lowest rank for a mercenary group is D-class. They pay registration fees to the association to guarantee their contracts, which allows them to accept missions from the association. As for E-class mercenaries, they are unaffiliated mercenaries who haven't joined a group and can only take odd jobs. They're almost like hired farmhands and don't cost much.

Bailing said proudly, "Moreover, to those mercenaries, scholars like us are mages, possessing supernatural knowledge and power. If you go to hire mercenaries, they'll be scrambling for the opportunity!"

Reilo accepted Bailing's suggestion and decided to visit the Mercenary Association tomorrow.

Since arriving at Saint Grand Fort, Reilo had been studying at the academy and had never left. He had grown accustomed to the quiet of the late night, contemplating and studying alone, dissecting experimental specimens, observing, and recording in his notebook to accumulate knowledge.

After a while.

On a tray on a workbench in a corner of Reilo's bedroom, an electric eel specimen was being meticulously dissected. Soon, the secrets of the electric eel's electricity-generating physiological functions were revealed by Reilo in his notebook, bit by bit.

As a zero-level creature, the electricity discharged by an electric eel was already astonishingly lethal among zero-level beings. Its energy level far surpassed Reilo's Bubble Skill. A normal adult could withstand an average of ten degrees of energy, while the electric eel's current reached between eight and twelve degrees, enough to cause fatal damage to most adults.

However, an attack of this magnitude was merely akin to a toddler's first steps among magical beasts that also possessed electrical abilities.

But!

The dissection of this electric eel was secondary to its basic physiological structure.

Using this electric eel, Reilo had secretly conducted the first stage of the muscle Self-Control experiment for Self-Control. However, in just three days, the electric eel died of poisoning!

In addition.

Of the seven experimental white mice, five died successively after two rounds of poisoning and detoxification experiments. The remaining two were also in a weak and dying state.

Such terrifying experimental results made Reilo break out in a cold sweat, and he dared not experiment with Self-Control on himself lightly.

"It is indeed death by poison."

Reilo had completely confirmed the cause of the electric eel's death: it was the agent he had injected into it.

Although the antidote had worked, after the second injection of the poison and antidote, the electric eel ultimately failed to complete the detoxification and died. And this was only a weak poison at the lowest dosage.

"Could it be a dosage issue? But I only injected one milligram each time! Or is it some other problem? What secrets did that old man's body hold to resist the side effects of the residual toxins?"

Reilo suspected that the old man who left Self-Control might have created Self-Control while in a state of extreme personal strength, allowing his body to withstand the side effects of poisoning and detoxification in the first stage of Self-Control.

Unknowingly.

By the time Reilo had completely drawn the basic sketch of the electric eel's body, it was already past midnight.

With dark circles under his eyes, Reilo stretched as usual, his bones cracking. He yawned.

After a while, Reilo slowly closed the Ice Fire Bird Notebook, wiping down the workbench as he pondered today's dissection results.

Self-Control involved knowledge of poisons, which Reilo had only touched upon preliminarily. Now that he'd experimented with its dangers, he could only set it aside for now. Once he returned with specimens, he would go to the Black Widow Apothecary to learn the relevant knowledge from Merlin.

As for now, it was more important to focus on the future framework of Bubble Magic.

"What is the future of Bubble Magic?"

Reilo lay on his bed, utterly exhausted, feeling like he could fall asleep at any moment. Yet, the thought of his stunned, helpless ignorance under the examiner's question made sleep impossible.

This was Reilo's first bout of insomnia.

"Sigh..."

With a sigh, Reilo slowly sat up. Unaffected by the cold air, he walked to the window and gazed out at the vast, boundless night sky, the shimmering, star-filled expanse. His thoughts drifted unconsciously.

What exactly was the universe?

Was it as the Church preached – that the God of Light created Heaven, and greedy, ignorant mortals, by opening the Pandora's Box of Original Sin, fell into the Star Veil world for self-redemption, with the Star Veil world being a giant box?

Or was it as the pioneer White Niven, who resolutely ascended the pyre, said – that the Star Veil world, like the countless stars in the sky, were spherical celestial bodies revolving around the sun, with the sun as the center of the universe, and the order and laws between celestial bodies were unchangeable even by the God of Light?

The debate between the Church's doctrines and the pioneers' theories, the clash between the God of Light's teachings and natural science, had reached the level of understanding the world's origins. Yet, he himself was so insignificant at this moment, only able to study these trivial natural specimens from the long river of life's history, hoping to glimpse some truths and laws, change his life, and gain some attention from his mentors.

His thoughts in disarray, Reilo had completely lost his desire to sleep.

He closed the glass window and tiptoed up to the third floor.

Mentor Gubo and Lianyi should already be asleep. Reilo continued up the stairs, reaching the rooftop garden.

Although Lianyi was also an active mentor at the academy, like Shatuo, she was only responsible for a small part of the academy's affairs, leaving her with a lot of free time. His wife's favorite pastime at home was tending to this vegetable garden on the rooftop.

The vegetables for their salads were mostly grown and harvested by Lianyi on the rooftop.

Due to the Church's knights enforcing martial law, the once bustling, never-sleeping scholar's street was now quiet. Standing on the third-floor rooftop, Reilo couldn't help but feel a sense of emptiness, loneliness, and confusion about the future.

Hoo-hoo...

An academy guardian owl flew by at a low altitude.

The late night air was a bit cold this season. After breathing in the fresh, cold air on the rooftop for a while, Reilo shook his head silently and turned to go back to his room. Unexpectedly, he found that the usually locked astrology cabin's wooden door was now open.

A look of confusion.

Reilo stopped and walked towards the astrology cabin, softly probing, "Mentor?"

"Your mentor has already gone to rest."

A sudden voice, and Jiahei emerged from the small wooden house. Its pair of eerie green eyes in the moonlight startled Reilo.

Crouching in front of Reilo, Jiahei licked its paws, looking bored.

"Why are you still awake so late? What are you doing on the rooftop, looking for me, an old cat, to chat with?"

"Uh... hehe."

Reilo gave an awkward laugh, his curiosity piqued as he looked into the pitch-black astrology cabin. He asked softly, "What's inside? Can I go in and take a look?"

Jiahei glanced at Reilo.

"I'm a cat. I'm only responsible for being aloof and eating fish, not for guarding your mentor's house like a dog."

"Haha."

Reilo was amused by Jiahei.

With Jiahei's tacit approval, Reilo excitedly walked towards the astrology cabin and peeked inside. How did his mentor conduct his astrology research?

However, Reilo was disappointed.

There were no complex, high-end experimental devices in the astrology cabin as Reilo had imagined. There was only a cheap crystal lamp. Moonlight streamed in from the open skylight, and a simple telescope extended out of the roof window.

"This high-magnification telescope has been passed down from White Niven's astronomical era. The Church has strictly prohibited its continued production now."

Jiahei yawned.

Curiously, Reilo walked under the telescope and gazed at the vast starry sky through it.

"Wow!"

He couldn't help but exclaim!

In Reilo's vision at that moment, it was as if countless things were faintly shimmering in the high heavens, like a semi-transparent veil spread across the night sky. Against this veil as a backdrop, on the other side of the veil, there seemed to be an even more indescribably vast and boundless world, without end.

Could this be the Star Veil mentioned in the Star Core's imagery, the barrier of the Original Sin box that the Church preached about?

Seeking recommendation tickets and collections, thank you~~