The hefty "encyclopedia" fell from the desk, only to be caught midair by a gentle force. It flew to another bookshelf and slid steadily into an empty gap.
Yellow Flower Cat's fur stood on end, making it look like an enraged hedgehog.
Mr. Wu withdrew his gaze from the direction of the museum.
He glanced at the irritable tabby and said calmly, "This isn't that child's fault. When I saw those scenes in Yog's domain, I already understood... As a young wizard, he could not refuse a gift bestowed from a higher dimension. It's like a light rain falling from the sky, soaking the young green shoots in a field—perhaps the shoots know a farmer is tending them and need not fear a lack of water, but once the rain falls from the heavens, do they have the ability to refuse it?"
"You could have built a glass greenhouse to keep out that stray rain." The tabby smoothed down its raised fur and snorted unpleasantly.
In the distance, thunder rumbled across the pitch-black horizon.
"He cannot stay in a greenhouse for the rest of his life." Mr. Wu held a small red-clay teapot and watched Pearl-colored Mist rise from its spout. He let out a soft sigh. "Just as an ugly duckling cannot spend its whole life mingling among ducks... From the first day that seed was buried in the earth, it was destined to grow into a towering tree. And a greenhouse cannot contain a towering tree."
"Whether flowers raised in a greenhouse can bloom outdoors is the question we need to consider next."
At First University's Two-Dimensional Evolution Laboratory, outside a temporary barrier, Su Shijun stood before a group of researchers in her red glasses and delivered her concluding remarks after the experiment:
"...Whether Transcenders cultivated