Elite Mages' Academy

Could he have done something wrong?

That was impossible! Unless the book was wrong, but if that was the case, it would not be in the library. Xiao Lin believed the academy, with its long history, would not make a mistake like that.

Could something have gone wrong with the meditative world?

That was impossible as well, or that singular thread of death energy would not have appeared.

Once every other possibility was eliminated, the remaining one, no matter how improbable, was the truth.

“Could it be impossible to sense death energy in the academy?”

Xiao Lin furrowed his eyebrows as he thought of that possibility. The book was translated from texts from Planet Norma, there was no way they took the academies into account.

Xiao Lin remembered someone telling the new students when they first enrolled that the academy was an isolated space created by the original colonists. Even if it greatly replicated Planet Norma, even following the time zones and seasons, it was still not the real Planet Norma.

Almost every freshman knew that the four seasons in the academy were set in stone. Rumor was that the changing of the seasons in Planet Norma involved astrology that was too complicated for the original colonists to replicate.

Then came the problem. There might be elemental energies here, but that did not mean that natural energy and death energy existed as well. The book said that death energy was found everywhere, and was even more concentrated than elemental energies, but that was referring to Planet Norma. On that planet, every corner saw someone dying at every moment, no matter what race or even what level of intelligence, the cycle of life meant death was naturally abundant.

Was there death in Dawn Academy?

Of course it did happen. If their lifespan was insufficient and they died in the monthly examination, the students were unsaveable. That cruel rule caused a lot of complaints, but it was irrefutable.

However, the simulated environments for the monthly examinations were their own isolated spaces as well. Their base attributes were different from that of Dawn Academy, even if they were still simulated worlds.

It was like the scientists back on Earth. They could imitate various weathers in their labs, but it was impossible to change the actual weather on Earth outside of the lab that easily.

Xiao Lin felt that his hypothesis was very reasonable, but it caused him a great amount of frustration. That meant that his hardwork the past few days had been useless, but what he failed to understand was that weak and dim grey-colored thread of energy. Since natural and death energy did not exist in Dawn Academy, then what did he see in his meditative world?

Thinking about it, Xiao Lin suddenly smiled as he looked at the Holy Soul Sword on the table. He had forgotten that the spirit of some dead swordsman was in the weapon.

“Holy Soul Summoning!”

Xiao Lin waved his sword, the name of the skill causing him to curse a little. It was clearly an undead being. Why did Lu Renjia insist on naming it a holy soul?

The holy soul needed a large amount of death as tribute, clearly meaning it required a large amount of fresh death energy. In Dawn Academy where there was no death energy, it was obvious the soul could not be summoned.

Placing the sword down, Xiao Lin once again started his necromantic meditation. The undead soul in the sword proved that his hard work was not for nothing. At the very least the LV0 Necromantic Meditation in his personal information was not just for show; the progress was just frustratingly slow.

As Xiao Lin was closely examining the only sliver of death energy in the meditative world, that blackhole did not seem to suck it in, or even reject it. When the blackhole appeared, the grey-colored energy would start to struggle, seemingly trying to escape.

It seemed to be terrified, just like how the elements would distance themselves from the blackhole, but it got Xiao Lin very curious, since dead spirits usually did not have any form of sentience. That sort of low-level lifeform that was only solidified through death energy were usually empty husks controlled by their masters. They would only gain sentience if they evolved into strong enough undead spirits, but that was obviously not the case for the swordsman.

Xiao Lin’s interest peaked. He did not use his own mental strength to control it, trying to mess with the grey energy like one would tease a cat or a dog. The energy did not react at the start, acting like a corpse floating in the vast universe, but slowly, the energy started to react, even if it was just the most basic of reactions.

Xiao Lin felt a great sense of accomplishment. It was hard to describe the feeling; it was akin to raising a pet and successfully teaching them new tricks.

However, with Song Junlang’s return, Xiao Lin quickly dropped what he was doing. To him, the more pressing matter was obviously how to make sure he could win the money from the casino, especially since he had put everything he owned in there.

“I’ve settled everything in the New World. How is the situation here?” The two of them were not strangers anymore, and went straight to the point when they met.

Song Junlang threw a silver-colored card over as he said that. Xiao Lin grabbed it. It was proof of their bet with the casino. On the card, 9,000 New Dollars was clearly written. The surface was very sleek, probably made from expensive magical materials to prevent tampering.

“I’ve already placed a bet on the forums, but some other folks seemed to have placed their bets on me lately, causing the odds to decrease. It’s only at 1 to 18 now. How about the New World?”

“Oh, not bad. Your odds actually increased. How little does everyone think of you?”

Xiao Lin’s mouth twitched, but he felt like something was off. He might have a bit of a reputation in the academy, but it was limited to the first-years; it was not possible for people to know of him in the New World. Looking at Song Junlang’s cryptic but happy smile, he exclaimed in realization, “No wonder you’ve been missing for so long. You’ve been slandering me in the casino.”

“Ahem, you should understand: those old gamblers have their own friends in the academy, so it’s easy for them to get news. If I didn’t say anything, your odds might have decreased by quite a bit.’”

Xiao Lin sighed. “Fine, give it to me then. What are my odds in the New World?”

“1 to 150!”

Xiao Lin’s eyes widened, the odds had increased by half from the initial 100. Even if he did not know what sort of rumors were spread about him, the result was not too bad.