"Is that a threat?"
"No." The boy immediately denied it. "This is a sincere request... a student's prayer and plea to his teacher... I know you must have a way."
The teacher fell silent for a moment. "Actually, I think your choice after turning into a cat was wiser... That Little White Cat suited you very well."
The young wizard flushed red.
"Sir, those are two different matters!" His voice lost some control. The ripples of his soul stirred the books on the shelves, lifting several pages and a cloud of dust. "I am a wizard!"
"Perhaps." The old man chuckled, as though mocking the classifier the young man had chosen in his panic, yet also seeming to reminisce about the young man's fresh, intense desires.
After a pause, the teacher asked softly, "Do you know that she has turned into a tree?"
He meant Ilena.
Zheng Qing recalled the last scene he had witnessed before losing control, and his heart sank. The soul fluctuations that had surged moments ago suddenly froze in the air, and the entire bookstore seemed to have sunk into jelly.
"You must have a way." The boy's voice was somewhat dry as he stubbornly replied.
"For example?" The teacher sat in the high-backed chair behind his desk, elbows braced against the tabletop, fingers interlaced beneath his chin. He regarded the young wizard calmly, a trace of curiosity in his eyes—as though puzzled by the source of the young wizard's inexplicable confidence.
"You have already surpassed the Ancient Wizards!" Zheng Qing voiced the greatest source of confidence in his heart.
"The world must also operate according to certain rules." The teacher neither confirmed nor denied it. His gaze passed through the student's translucent spirit body and settled on the Red Clay Teapot still steaming atop the