The hall was a vision of opulence, its very steps crafted to mimic stacks of gold coins, every detail dripping with extravagance.
Yu Yu's first reaction, after taking it in, was: emmmm.
Was the Restoration school this practical back in the day?
[I ate without washing dishes]: "Alright, it's all fake. Can't even pry it loose."
She griped, "It looks so rundown and tiny outside, but in here? Huge! And I thought these were real coins—turns out, fake."
Yu Yu crouched to inspect. "Not necessarily fake. This looks like real gold, just cast into coin molds and designed as steps…"
Her voice trailed off, bemused.
What was with these Restoration school seniors?
And that one senior, stabbed to death by her own pet…
Though, her pets were legendary constructs, wielding epic weapons…
"Was the Restoration school filthy rich back then?" Yu Yu couldn't help asking.
Feng Ye: [Restoration, Enchantment, Alchemy, and Forging schools were famously lucrative. Every spellcaster picked one as a minor. You can guess why.]
Guang Chen sighed, [Alchemy and Forging have faded, merged into Enchantment. Restoration's just gone. Sigh…]
Yu Yu rubbed her chin. "No wonder they were loaded."
[I ate without washing dishes]: "You can livestream in-game?"
She was baffled. "This tech's too good, right?"
Yu Yu had reached the base of the steps, where Shang Wei stood, arms crossed, staring for ages.
"Is this… Shiva script?" Shang Wei mused, seemingly deep in thought but actually browsing the Magic Circle's store for books. She glanced up. "How'd you know?"
Yu Yu: "Senior taught me, but I haven't had time to learn."
Spellcasters were famed for their erudition—knowing dozens of languages and scripts was basic, right?
Senior Meng's exact words.
Yu Yu gave a mental thumbs-up, then skipped it.
Her course load was too heavy—she had to prioritize.
Shiva Common Tongue and Script wasn't a small project. Since she didn't need it yet, she'd passed.
Meng: [Told you to learn it. Now look at your problem.]
Yu Yu opened her wristband. Thanks to Senior Xue and Senior Zong's tireless work, the Magic Circle had entered the visualization era. Beyond chat groups and livestreams, the store and library were now online.
Yu Yu had special index access. She opened the library, typing "Shiva Script."
Search complete in seconds.
[Shiva Language and Script (Standard Edition)]
[Shiva Language and Script (Allen Comparative Edition)]
[On the Development and Origin of Continental Common Tongue]
…
Yu Yu tapped the second, the comparative edition, and downloaded it instantly.
Then she said, "Senior, times have changed!"
Meng: […]
Feng Ye: […]
Xue: [Ignorant fool. Continental Common Tongue needs to be scheduled too. It's just memorization—not even hard for you.]
Yu Yu: "…It's not hard, but too much cuts into sleep time."
She griped, "Senior, no sleep leads to sudden death!"
Xue, cold: "You're an adult."
Yu Yu: "Adults can die from overwork too!"
The Magic Circle's tech was undeniably high-end. Opening the book, Yu Yu swiped, and a pale blue screen turned translucent, floating on her left vision. She could nudge it anywhere, visible only to her. She scanned Shiva Script, cross-referencing Allen Script, searching.
Yu Yu: "Senior, I need a photo-to-text function and in-book search."
Xue: […Dream big, huh.]
Zong: [Got it. Not hard.]
Yu Yu: "Senior Zong's the best!"
Unlike Xue, Zong was a ruthless coder.
Xue snorted, [These features'll just make her lazier.]
Zong: [Can't stifle progress. If it's useful, it's fine. As for her, pile on more homework.]
Yu Yu: "???"
Give me back my gratitude!
"Found it," Yu Yu said. "Puglis Light…"
She faltered. "Is this 'sky' or, uh, 'plant'? Or both?"
"Puglis, Light, Sky, Light, Plant? Light…? Huh? Why's this phrase so weird?!"
[I ate without washing dishes] and Shang Wei flanked her, watching her wristband glow blue as she muttered gibberish.
Shang Wei: "This wristband's not going public? Seems handy."
[I ate without washing dishes] "Isn't it just like our game wristbands?"
Shang Wei: "You're really streaming? Why can't we see?"
Meng: [Puglis Light Cone.]
Yu Yu: "???"
"How's that an explanation?"
Xue, coolly: [This is why your shortcuts are sloppy. Your translations are a mess.]
[I saw that translation post you shared. Allen Script was butchered, yet they cheered you. Give me edit access when you're back—I'll rewrite it.]
Yu Yu: "…Fine."
Was her translation that bad?
She'd used a dictionary!
Sure, some parts were too hard, so she phonetically transcribed.
Ahem, Little Ball folks did that all the time—she had historical precedent.
Yu Yu refocused, pinching her chin. "Puglis sounds familiar."
Meng: [Of course. She was Nightingale's student, the second Speaker after Nightingale. She was unmatched in space, light, elements, plants, and animals.]
Yu Yu quickly recalled. "Puglis Satchel!"
Meng: [?]
Meng, puzzled: [Did I tell you about that?]
[Whatever, assume I did. The Puglis Satchel was spellcasters' first attempt at capturing dimensional space, spearheaded by Her Excellency Puglis.]
[The first satchel she made was named after her. Tiny space, but huge symbolic value. It's in the HQ museum now—one of the Magic Circle's prized relics.]
Yu Yu, touching her satchel, said, "Got it. Mine's a fake, then."
Hers had so much space—definitely not the real deal.
The original was teensy.
Shang Wei had picked up a blue quest: [Investigate the Buried Ruins' Dungeon Entrance].
Yu Yu got it the moment she entered. "Looks like a quest chain. Find the entrance, and there's probably more after."
Shang Wei glanced at her. "What about you? Where's your golden quest?"
Yu Yu looked up. "It's weird. Outside, the quest was here, but inside, it floated up."
"Get this: I step forward, the mark moves past me. I turn, it's ahead again. The quest guide's got me spinning."
[I ate without washing dishes] deadpan: "I got nothing."
Yu Yu shared the quest. "It's odd. You guys find the entrance—I'll keep studying."
"This stele's got tons of text."
[I ate without washing dishes] lit up. "Thanks, boss! I'm on it!"
She didn't care about golden or not, bolting off.
Shang Wei stayed, staring.
Yu Yu crouched, calling out, "Senior, Senior, how do I read this? So much text!"
She'd butcher it translating herself.
Meng opened her mouth but was cut off.
Xue: [Translate it yourself. Learn some Shiva Script. You gonna drag Meng everywhere?]
Yu Yu muttered, "We can co-op remotely."
Xue: [What if you can't stream?]
Yu Yu: "Private chat."
Xue, exasperated: [What if the Magic Circle's down?]
Yu Yu, shocked: "The Magic Circle isn't continent-wide?!"
Xue: [Of course not. It used to cover the continent. Now it's just three provinces. Leave that range, we lose you.]
Yu Yu: "…No way!"
She moped, "Senior Xue, step it up! Upgrade the Magic Circle!"
Xue fumed, [Did I ask you to nag me?]
Others: […]
Meng, worried Yu Yu would push Xue too far, explained, [The Magic Circle's running a deficit. Even HQ's shrinking. Its power comes from spellcaster numbers and Her Excellency's mental strength. Xue can't just "try harder."]
Yu Yu nodded. "Got it."
Glancing at the stream, she shut up and mimed flipping pages.
Translate, fine, whatever.
Xue snorted, [Staring here, staring there—what's the point.]
[Her Excellency Puglis Biography: Annotations, Verifications, and Examinations (Seventh)] — Xue
Puglis's biography, with annotations? And the annotations had verifications and examinations?
Author: Xue…
Yu Yu went numb, like seeing Records of the Grand Historian: Annotations and Examinations.
She hoped it was rich likeCommentary on the Waterways Classic, not a literal annotated study.
She didn't dare ask the word count, downloading quietly.
One wrong word, and she'd get scolded.
Yu Yu's word!
When Senior Xue spoke, everyone else clammed up.
Shang Wei lost patience. "What are you doing? I'm not here to watch you zone out."
Yu Yu: "Reading. Go play, don't mind me."
She shooed her like a pesky pet.
Shang Wei: "…"
She left.
Digging for entrances beat sitting here. The stele wasn't special—only Yu Yu obsessed over its text. The hall gleamed with gold, a lone stele on the steps. Corridors flanked both sides, leading who-knows-where. [I ate without washing dishes] was gone, and Shang Wei picked the opposite direction, leaving.
Suddenly, the hall held only Yu Yu, sitting on the steps, reading. Though nervous the book might be too long, once she started, she kept going.
No choice—she was used to it.
Academy texts were mostly written or edited by Senior Xue. Yu Yu had memorized so many, they were etched in her cortex (not really).
Xue's style was textbook: rigorous, serious, precise, detailed, clear, and progressive.
Level-wise, it crushed the messy, jargon-heavy textbooks from Yu Yu's childhood, with knowledge points buried everywhere. Hmph.
Xue's books listed exam points clearly, and tests didn't dodge them for trick questions.
Yu Yu soon sank into reading.
No choice—the stream was too quiet. No one spoke.
Swipe, swipe—done.
"Finished?"
Yu Yu blinked, checking the time. Only twenty-three minutes.
"Where's Shang Wei? [I ate without washing dishes]? They didn't die and respawn, did they?"
"Senior Chong, is it too late for my quest?"
Chong: [Don't worry about me. Do your thing.]
Feng Ye: [Why care about them? If they died, I'd tell you.]
Xue: [Well?]
Yu Yu mused, "I'm done. So the Puglis Light Cone was one of Her Excellency's experiments, right?"
"After figuring out satchel principles, she handed it to students, aiming for a self-sustaining, self-cycling…"
Yu Yu's mouth hung open. "Small world?"
"It used tons of new tech and results. Thanks to Her Excellency, spellcasters continent-wide pitched in…"
"But Puglis's lifespan was finite. After Speaker changes and Magic Circle faction shifts, her Light Cone and its plan faded into history, never heard of again."
"Some said the Light Cone's loss tied to her students… emmmm," Yu Yu griped, "Seventy-two disciples—Shiva's Confucius. And apparently, tons of traitors!"
Feng Ye: [Watch your words!]
Yu Yu pouted secretly.
The Night Sovereign wasn't here!
Bootlicker Feng Ye!
Xue: [Get to the point.]
Puglis was vastly different from Nightingale. She was like a grand inventor, always producing results, curious, sharp-eyed, and formidable.
She took seventy-two students, all exceptional. For a long time, Magic Circle Speakers were her students or their students. Two words: absurd.
Strictly speaking, Magic Circle spellcasters rarely had "good" disciples, but Puglis's chaos was rare.
It was a stew of political, academic, factional strife, plus love-hate drama. While the teacher lived, she kept it stable. Once gone, it boiled over.
And they were spellcasters—strong, long-lived. Their absurdity rivaled mixing Little Ball's historical annals with every wild persona from a certain green site, simmered into one pot.
Xue's research skipped the messy relationships, but even snippets left Yu Yu gobsmacked, muttering, "What a circus."
Yu Yu zeroed in, "This quest—could it be tied to the lost Light Cone?"
It was a peak Magic Circle project, continent-wide, led by the Speaker, with seventy-two legendary students contributing!
"Rumor has it, late Golden Era mage towers grew from Light Cone data, including the era's crowning achievement, Sky City!"
A note on Sky City: it had nothing else but firepower. When it flew, it blotted out half of Saint Fran's City's sky. Its main cannon, the Elion Beam, could vaporize all mainland mountains in one sweep, lighting the night like day.
Sadly, anomalies didn't care.
The anti-flight anomaly hit, and Sky City crashed, unsalvageable.
Yu Yu muttered, "They say Puglis's plan had the Light Cone holding every species, resource, water, air—self-sufficient, strong enough to conquer outer planes…"
"Isn't that a utopia?!"
"If no one could open it, fine. But if it survived, could there be survivors?"
Like, "'I know not of Han, nor Wei or Jin'" ancient spellcasters? Ooh.
Feng Ye, silent, finally said, [No clue. Don't think so far. Can you accept the quest now?]
Yu Yu snapped back. "Nope. I don't get why this stele's here."
"Senior, what's it say?"
Xue: [Nothing.]
Yu Yu: "Huh?"
Xue: [Besides what you read, the rest is ancient ritual script. I don't know it.]
Yu Yu, stunned, poked the stele. "Now that you mention it, I might know a bit."
Xue: [?]
Feng Ye: [?]
Meng: […]
Yu Yu: "The format's like that ritual Senior Yami solved. Let me think…"
"Any spell circuits?" she mumbled. "Last time, I saw a pile of books on Senior's desk. Thought they were decor, didn't take or read any. Lots were about ancient rituals…"
Xue, pained: [Such waste!]
She seized the chance. [Any lost spells or books you find, bring them back. If the Magic Circle doesn't have them, you'll get rewards and points. Or give them to any of us.]
Xue added, [Like Feng Ye's favor.]
Feng Ye: [? Why not your own?]
Yu Yu's eyes lit up. "Got it!"
She wandered the hall. "If there's an array, it's nearby, right?"
"Seniors, see any spell patterns?"
Meng: [Feels safe. Should I come check?]
Yu Yu: "No! The quest hasn't even started! You sure it's safe?"
She wailed, "You know how Senior Yami died? Careless like you, and no saving her!"
Spellcasters were badass, but their bodies were fragile.
Like the Grand Archon—so strong, but hit her real body, one stab, and she's down.
Unlike Lynn, who claimed she could take a dozen stabs, limp from the mainland to Silver Moon, get patched up, and bounce back.
Meng: […]
Xue finally spoke. [Look at the steps. Illusion school spell?]
Yu Yu: "?"
Zong: [Seems like it. Incredibly crafted.]
Yu Yu thought they meant her, but no.
She stepped back, letting the seniors study the steps.
Half an hour later, with Xue and Zong's guidance, Yu Yu dispelled the hall's illusion.
Yu Yu eagerly asked, "Illusion? The Magic Circle has an illusion school?"
Meng spoke up: [Yes, but it was never strong. Useful on people, but weaker than negative energy's damage. Nearly useless against anomalies, so few learn it now.]
She paused. [Except erudite seniors like Xue and Zong.]
Yu Yu noticed—when those two spoke, everyone, including the four Grand Archons, went dead silent.
The golden veneer shattered, revealing a solemn, milky-white hall.
The stone pillars bore the array circuits Yu Yu sought.
"…My turn to crack the array?" Yu Yu mused.
Xue: [Exactly. Talk us through your process.]
It was grueling. Three hours later, Yu Yu sketched the array's blueprint.
"This circuit looks familiar…" Yu Yu pondered.
Meng: [I thought so too.]
Yu Yu: "Got it! When we cracked that ritual, the gate made sweet music, with pretty leaping notes…"
"Could this ritual need a Tuning spell to solve?"
Feng Ye: [You learned too fast back then, and we didn't catch much. Can't help you.]
Yu Yu pinched her chin. "If only Senior Jin Che could leave her place."
Her eyes lit up. "Seniors, can Jin Che watch the stream?"
Feng Ye: […?]
Xue: […?]
Zong: […It's an idea, but we can't let her access the Magic Circle. If an anomaly corrupted it through her, we couldn't handle the fallout.]
Yu Yu pondered again.
Feng Ye: [Why're your ideas always so wild?]
Yu Yu: "No, Jin Che has eyes. If a senior's with her, playing the stream publicly, she can see it. No need for Magic Circle access."
Everyone: […]
Damn, oversight.
Feng Ye, calmest, forgot she'd just called Yu Yu's idea crazy. [Hold on, Gui Fan's sending someone.]
Twenty minutes later, a new account popped into the stream.
: [Little Yu?]
Yu Yu waved brightly. "Hey, Senior! Long time no see! Excited? Surprised? Shocked?!"
The user changed their ID, and a familiar handle appeared, silencing the stream.
Even through another spellcaster's account, it stirred a strange melancholy.
Jin Che: [Knew it was your weird idea. The Magic Circle can be used like this?]
Yu Yu, smug: "Of course. As long as your mind doesn't slip, solutions outnumber problems."
She cleared the view. "Senior, doesn't this ritual circuit look familiar?"
Jinche studied it. [Where's this?]
Yu Yu: "A Restoration school ruin in Lynx Capital. I found a stele about the Puglis Light Cone…"
She babbled an explanation.
Jin Che mused, [It's Tuning spell traces. I'm not sure, but try this…]
Moments later, Yu Yu got her long-coveted sonic spell.
[Summon Melody: Universal 2nd-Ring Spell.
The mental-tuning, ultra-wide, colorful piano!
Super cool, super flashy.]
Jin Che: [Sigh, you can try the spell, but have you studied music?]
Yu Yu, thrilled, summoned the piano, hand poised to play. Her face froze.
"…Too many classes lately. Haven't learned. QAQ"
Jin Che, prepared, said, [Go on, play.]
Yu Yu swore she'd master music after this!
She meant it!
The stream braced itself, except Felix, unready.
Moments later, Felix's fur bristled.
Wolves had keen hearing, alongside their sharp noses.
Wolf can't believe it. Wolf's shook.jpg
Felix: [!!!]
Yu Yu skipped her ungraceful moment. "Seniors, think we did it!"
She eyed the corridors. "Where'd those two go?"
Feng Ye: [What're you waiting for? Go in.]
The stele shot a brilliant beam through the blood-and-fire city, piercing the clouds, only to be blocked by a deep blue veil. The Duchess wiped blood from her face, looking up, startled.
"What's that?"
Fed up with monster bites, her body flashed, shifting to her true form. She howled skyward—
"Awoo!!!"
The silver-armored guards erupted, "For Silver Moon!!!"
"For the Duchess!!!"
The defending army's morale surged, their roars deafening players. Players looked over, seeing a massive, majestic silver-white wolf hovering in the air. Her body radiated dazzling moonlight, the only bright hue in the world. A calming ripple spread, halting players' anomaly corruption and clearing their minds.
Someone checked their status, spotting a new buff: [Silver Moon Shelter].
In her true form, the Duchess felt great. Her near-legendary strength far outstripped her human form. Transformed, she tore into battle, howling again in excitement. Players' buffs stacked, their moonlight halos flaring.
Wolf's gone feral.jpg
Forums exploded with posts, but Yu Yu, unaware, stepped confidently into the beam.
"Whoa, paradise!!!"
A cerulean sky arched above, clouds drifting at the horizon, a milky-white light tower piercing the heavens.
Feng Ye: [Impossible?!]
She shot to her feet.
Yu Yu gazed afar—lush peaks, vibrant life.
But in a second, the scene shattered, landing her before a floral archway.
The path was worn, the stone road rough, the scene desolate.
[Puglis Light Cone, Part One (Legendary)]
[Rewards: 5% Puglis Light Cone Authority, Magic Circle Favor +10]
[You choose to explore. Progress: 0%]
[Entrance bound]
[Owner: Garbled]
[Owner: Saint Puglis, Her Excellency]
Yu Yu watched the garbled text flicker into Saint Puglis, Her Excellency.
"Whoa? Am I Saint Puglis, Her Excellency?"
Everyone was speechless with shock, except Felix, grooming her fur, relatively calm. She said, [No. Look at your waist—it's glowing.]
Yu Yu glanced down. "Oh, my fake satchel's glowing."