Sudden Change

All in all, although rumors about the island in the middle of the lake were everywhere and never ceased, they remained nothing more than rumors. No version had ever received confirmation from the school or produced any conclusive evidence.

As far as Zheng Qing was concerned, aside from Nicholas, acting as a freshman guide during the campus tour at the start of term, warning the newly enrolled young wizards that the island was filled with dangerous magic and mysterious curses, the young scholarship student knew nothing more about it.

Neither the library, Dr. Xiao, nor any of the school's older students or staff could clearly tell him anything further about that island. All information stopped at the two words "forbidden ground," with nothing beyond that.

Of course, that alone did not indicate just how forbidden that "forbidden ground" was—First University had no shortage of adventurous young people who loved exploring, especially those fight-crazed lunatics from Starry Sky Academy, who had never hesitated to sneak into Silent Forest in groups of three or five to hunt wild game.

The main reason even those "lunatics" concealed the island's secrets like the deep lay in the island itself.

Zheng Qing had tested it more than once. If he did not keep staring at the island, its image would vanish from his mind in less than a minute—even if he merely glanced over the lake, he would often overlook the island entirely.

This nearly bizarre magical effect closely resembled many curses from legend, making young wizards shy away from it.

Furthermore, whenever a Zhe Meng boat passed the island, it would automatically detour around it. The mermen of Linzhong Lake had also marked the waters around the island as a "No Passage" zone. Any wizard who casually crossed the boundary would be knocked unconscious