The Magic Ban Festival outing was, on one hand, a tradition born of custom; on the other, it represented modern magic's transformation of traditional magic in a certain sense, embodying wizards' yearning for better things.
In Xiao Xiao's words, it was about changing the scenery and changing one's mood.
All of this stemmed from traditional wizards' fondness for hiding themselves.
They hid their names, with false names running rampant; hid their addresses, keeping them unknown; hid their spells, the foundation of their livelihood; and hid their potion formulas, since teaching an apprentice could starve the master. And so on.
Such penny-pinching habits had emerged in the difficult ancient days of wizardry and were not entirely without merit. In an era when wizards were few and communication was poor, hiding oneself could not only ensure one's safety, but also help wizards remain undistracted on their path toward truth.
Yet this excessively conservative habit also gave wizards a cold and solitary way of dealing with the world, making them keep a certain distance from anything new or unfamiliar.
With the rise of modern magic, this ancient wizarding habit had gradually improved. But without question, revising any tradition was never something that could be accomplished overnight. Wizards' tendency to hide themselves was still common even today.
Just like the situation Zheng Qing was currently facing.
He had been "gathering" firewood in a small grove when, to his surprise, a strange wizard hidden among the branches above his head suddenly gave him a warning:
"Hey, hey, that won't do."
Zheng Qing looked up and saw an unfamiliar male wizard sitting among the thick branches not far overhead. He had chestnut curls and wore a black senior-year apprentice Mage Robe. Straddling a horizontal branch, he let his legs dangle from either side, lazily swinging them