Chapter 476: The Final Relaxation Before the Joint Exam
After enjoying Sister Bai’s heartwarming breakfast, I lay back down on my bed to rest for a while. Last night’s discussion about the mysteries of body cultivation with Sister Bai went on too late, and of course, it was quite intense, which was exhausting. Although it was just this one time, I realized I needed to adjust my body in a timely manner.
In this regard, the effects of normal restoration spells do not include such adjustments.
Sister Bai also taught me some self-regulation techniques related to body cultivation this morning, enabling a quick recovery without depleting my foundational energy.
Before long, feeling the replenishment of nutrients and hydration, along with the adjustment from body cultivation, I felt completely revitalized!
I even had the illusion that I could handle last night’s events all over again without any issue.
“Recovered already?”
“Of course~ I’m in great shape; it was just a night of fierce battle,” I said lightly, though I felt an indescribable sense of satisfaction and joy inside.
“Then hurry up and take a shower; you wouldn’t want anyone to find out what you got up to last night, right?” Sister Bai said, playfully taking my hand that was about to grab the new clothes and pointing towards the bathroom.
“Uh… alright.” I sighed lightly, the scent I had become accustomed to suddenly drawing my attention under the heightened sensitivity from body cultivation. It was a mingled aroma of me and Sister Bai, strong and… stimulating, even the thought of it brought back memories of our intense discussion last night.
Honestly, I didn’t even have a real need to take a shower. With my mastery and derivation of the cleaning spell, cleansing my body and eliminating odors were basic skills.
However, the act of showering is, to some extent, irreplaceable.
“Stop making such a reluctant face; after you shower, take a nice soak to fully relax your body. Or do you want me to join you in the bath?”
“Sure, sure!”
“Alright, but you’ll have to wait a bit,” Sister Bai said indulgently, then swiftly removed the mattress, sheets, and other bedding from the bed where we had spent a wonderful night together.
Looking at Sister Bai’s demeanor, it seemed she was cleaning up the battlefield. Seeing the scene of our shared masterpiece made my face blush; after all, witnessing such things is truly a different experience than just imagining it.
Before long, in the bathroom, feeling the pleasant temperature of the shower water streaming down on me, I thoroughly enjoyed the joy of bathing.
Just halfway through my shower, the bathroom door was suddenly opened softly.
“Huh? Sister Bai… what are you doing…” Seeing the bathroom door swing open unexpectedly, I instinctively covered myself. The warm steam enveloped my vision like a holy light due to my instinctive reaction, but when I saw it was Sister Bai, my guard completely dropped.
“Look at you dawdling for so long, just awkwardly splashing water everywhere. Have you forgotten how I taught you to take care of yourself as a girl?”
“Huh? I didn’t forget… no, I forgot… I’m sorry, Sister Bai. I let you down; I actually forgot such an important thing and now need you to teach me again from scratch…”
“Well, there’s no helping it now…” Sister Bai walked into the bathroom, having changed into a bath towel, stepping into the dense steam which blurred my vision and concealed her knowing smile.
“Let’s start from cleaning your hair and treating your hair quality. Seriously, Xiao Han, don’t you pay attention to these details? Girls should take better care of themselves; hair is a girl’s life—there’s no exaggeration in this!” Bai Yu gently stroked my damp silver-white hair, treating each inch like a treasure, taking painstaking care at every detail. After the events of last night, she understood that the girl in front of her belonged entirely to her, and she cherished her beloved without hesitation.
…
“Whew~ I never imagined time could pass so pleasantly and quickly.”
At this moment, after a happy bath with Sister Bai and taking care of some earlier trifles, it had already reached noon, more than half a day had passed, and I was now having lunch with Sister Bai.
There was no daily meditation, no constant physical training, and no endless research on spells.
I devoted myself entirely to relaxation and enjoyment.
There were no time constraints; I soaked until I felt comfortable. The greatest sorrow in life is when the time for studying is spent distractedly, when one feels restricted while having fun, and when thoughts of ending a relaxing moment intrude.
This anxiety and internal conflict were completely cast aside, allowing my enjoyment to end not at a predetermined time but at a genuine level of eight parts satisfaction and two parts discipline. People are drawn to pleasure, and excessive indulgence indicates an uncertain mindset regarding future enjoyment, as well as a form of preemptive compensation.
When this psychological state is soothed and future plans are made, the uncertainty dissipates. Even with just two parts of discipline, it is enough to plan my needs for satisfaction and tender yearning.
“Sister Bai, do you know how the academy is arranging the joint exam next? After all, even if it’s just for new students, that’s still tens of thousands of people. How are we going to get to the Bobapop Islands?”
“Of course, we’ll use the large-scale fixed teleportation spell arranged by the academy, directly point-to-point teleportation, dropping us into the false world surrounding the Bobapop Islands, which conveniently avoids clashes with tourists there.”
“By the way, just how big is the Bobapop Islands? Just one Witch Academy has ten thousand students. If I’m not mistaken, there are only over twenty academies compared to that past exchange match. Can an island accommodate over twenty thousand people?” I asked anxiously, as that was… more than twenty thousand people! That’s nearly the population of a city…
Thinking about the area occupied by the Witch Academy, it’s about the size of an entire Magic Capital. However, when considering the departed seniors from the last decade of Witch Academy, along with the Extraordinary Mentors, it doesn’t seem too exaggerated.
“Xiao Han, you’re overthinking it. Not every academy qualifies to enroll over ten thousand students each year. Top-tier academies value quality over quantity, while smaller, less prestigious Extraordinary Academies have enrollment limits that are strictly controlled.”
“After all, those who enter Extraordinary Academies have essentially removed themselves from society and seldom return to the ordinary world. However, the Main World needs a population to function; it’s impossible for Extraordinary Academies to deplete their resources for recruits. Even the top three academies generally enroll only on a massive scale.”
“As for the other Extraordinary Academies overshadowed by those three, aside from our Witch Academy, which doesn’t follow the usual rules, none of those academies would dare exceed a thousand enrollees—not to mention, small Exceptional Academies have very limited outreach, with only a few hundred students being accepted each year.”
“Ah? Is that so?”
“Xiao Han, haven’t you looked into this before? Shouldn’t you have done some research when choosing your preferences?” Bai Yu originally intended to point out that there are books summarizing the enrollment conditions and score lines for Extraordinary Academies and regular universities every year, which are usually reserved by families to help plan their children’s pathways.
But recalling Xiao Han’s past…
“I didn’t—thank you, Sister Bai, for explaining all this to me.” I quickly broke the awkwardness, already trying to let go of my past. I was also attempting to face it directly and remain calm.
Yet, the memories associated with this world, nearly half of my recollections and experiences, still easily stirred my emotions.
Summarizing it all, I truly didn’t have many channels to access that information when I was filling out my preferences. I could only reference last year’s scores online; I had no access to this year’s Extraordinary Academy’s scores. For ordinary people, eligibility to contact Extraordinary Academies lies only with those special institutions, which then uniformly disseminate that information, and it’s not accessible to everyone.
But thinking back now… all the developments were beyond my expectations. God knows how surprising that initial phone call from Teacher Ji was for me. Looking back, I can’t believe I rambled so much; I should have just agreed without hesitation.
“But even so, that’s still a terrifying number of tens of thousands. Can the Bobapop Islands really accommodate that?” I asked again.
“So, Xiao Han, you should at least study geography a bit. If you have any knowledge of the world map, you should know how big this place is. The largest central island, Bobapop Main Island, radiates outwards, surrounded by thirteen additional islands, along with eight periodically surfacing reefs that shift with the tides. Just on the main island, there’s a well-structured urban development. Although it relies on tourism as its backbone, it can also achieve a degree of self-sufficiency…”
As I listened to Sister Bai’s introduction about the place we were headed, I took out my phone to search for information about the Bobapop Islands and found that it was largely consistent with what Sister Bai said. Using such an archipelago for a multi-academy joint practical testing truly felt… extravagant.
Moreover, I discovered that the Bobapop Islands were situated on a volcanic belt, so the formation of underwater volcanoes made perfect sense.
After finishing lunch, Sister Bai and I planned to explore a market spontaneously organized by several clubs, a suggestion made by Sister Bai, which I hadn’t even known existed.
After all, it was the final exams, and the demand for materials was high. The joint exam regulations didn’t impose too many restrictions; Alchemical Items were allowed, but no excessively outrageous items were permitted. However, incredibly extravagant alchemical items are generally beyond the means of a student, so the essence of controlling alchemical items isn’t very significant.
At this stage, while new students have many ways to gain power, some ordinary students still use ten-digit magic sources and consume minimal spellbooks to fight. Their strongest means might just be the spells locked in the witch set’s badge they receive upon enrollment.
Don’t think this gap is significant; the value difference between a minor spellbook and a basic subtle consumption spellbook is immense.
In the Witch Academy where gaining power is quite easy, spellbooks symbolize strength and also demonstrate “exchangeable” value.
Perhaps… that’s one of the reasons why Sister Bai, who has risen from an ordinary student, values money so much. In the Witch Academy, having money allows for rapid progress, at least in terms of gaining power.
After wandering around, I acquired some interesting spellbooks and minor spellbooks, happily placing them on the bookshelf.
The feeling of filling my spell library based on my interests far exceeded the random spellbooks I received through competitions or even those given to me by Tan Han.
Furthermore, I heard Sister Bai mention the Grand Library of the Witch World, the one overseen by the Primordial Witch, which houses countless spellbooks. Witches can exchange their magic sources there for any spellbook, as long as it exists in that library.
This made me yearn for that place intensely. At this moment, I’ve never wanted to become an Extraordinary Witch so quickly.
However, it was clear that I, having only entered the Witch Academy for half a year, seemingly hadn’t come across the true methods for advancement. I only vaguely knew they were related to magic sources, life level, and so-called topics.
It seemed that Teacher Ji, Teacher Lina, Principal Mei, Principal Beif… had all tacitly avoided discussing these matters with me, even Teacher Ji had only mentioned it broadly without diving into details.
It was as if advancing to become an Extraordinary Witch too quickly would have no advantages for me, but all of this was just my conjecture.
Perhaps mastering a skill in the academy was indeed quite important.
I spent the afternoon like this beside Sister Bai.
If it were my former self, I would definitely feel that such behavior was a complete waste of time.
But the current me would challenge that notion. If I continued to plan my life using time in the same way as before, busy everywhere, I deserved to be busy for a lifetime. Even though I could go days without sleep after becoming a witch, that was not how I was meant to use it.
Once such a fixed mindset is established, even reasonable rest leads to feelings of guilt. Why should one subject oneself to such cruel self-training?
When I liberated myself from it, I finally understood what true freedom was.
The saying “time is money” is not wrong. If I were a poor person in life, gaining free time feels like receiving a huge fortune. However, after obtaining that money, I wouldn’t even know how to spend it, which is quite tragic.
It’s laughable to think I once wasted a period of free time without utilizing it at all.
Using time is akin to spending money. What does it mean to spend small amounts of money to accomplish great things? How to spend money so it’s considered extravagant? How to spend money to get value for it… What constitutes charity, what constitutes investment, what constitutes entrepreneurship, and what constitutes spending money to suffer… Understanding the time of life through a different lens seems to open the door to a new world.
And now, I am spending the currency of time, orchestrating the palace I walk into alongside Sister Bai, to elevate the bond between us.
I use reason to guide my emotions, transforming them into a pointer that indicates my direction. I infuse sensitivity with instinct, allowing my most primal self to choose how to nestle into Sister Bai’s heart.
Trust seems to leap over the verification of time, much like thoughts bypass language barriers, linking us together… ordinary yet profound, great yet unproven. This is the sense of security Sister Bai gives me, pure and untainted.
