Because the "Crown of the Sun" had only unsealed one layer, the aura of the Necrotic Realm it could detect had to be extremely dense, and the distance had to be very close. This meant a terrifying undead creature was hiding right beside Lucian—a powerful wraith capable of striking down low-ranking mages with a single blow!
Yet through his spiritual perception, the entire study appeared perfectly normal. From every angle, there was only himself.
The winter afternoon sunlight was gentle and warm, falling softly upon Lucian, but he felt no warmth at all. Instead, a bone-piercing chill rose within him, making his hair stand on end.
Suppressing his fear and dread, Lucian calmly picked up a card and "carefully read" the elemental properties summarized upon it.
The burning from the Crown of the Sun intensified further. Staring at the card in his hand, an inexplicable image surfaced in Lucian's mind: right beside his cheek, at the level of his own head, there hovered a translucent, pale skull—its eyes wide open, gleaming with an eerie red light—studying the elemental card with the same focused attentiveness as him. Yet in the mirror across the room, only his own concentrated figure was reflected.
"Is the Pale Hand spying on me?"
"They haven't connected me with the Professor yet—otherwise this wouldn't be simple surveillance..."
As his thoughts churned, Lucian examined the elemental cards one by one, just like any diligent beginner—tirelessly memorizing, understanding, and mastering the various properties of different elements, betraying not the slightest hint of anything unusual. All the while, his mind kept repeating: "I need to write my Archanist research paper as soon as possible..."
The afternoon slipped away quickly. When Lucian finally set down the cards and walked out of the study, the Crown of the Sun's burning had faded to a barely perceptible warmth—meaning the powerful undead had moved slightly farther away, though it hadn't truly left.
"As expected, it's just surveillance." Lucian relaxed a little. As long as he didn't show anything unusual and kept to his normal routine from the past week, there'd be nothing for anyone to suspect. But this couldn't let him fully lower his guard. No one knew how long the Pale Hand's patience would hold, or whether they'd simply leave after finding nothing—or resort to other means.
.........
After dinner, Lucian headed to the Arcane Magic experiment tower as usual.
The moment he stepped inside, the warmth from the Crown of the Sun vanished completely, returning to normal.
"Looks like this tower has powerful defensive Magic Circles set up—the undead monitoring me doesn't dare come in." Lucian discovered this with a mix of surprise and relief. Being watched every waking moment would drive anyone mad.
Just then, k walked in. Spotting Lucian, he said with a small smile, "Lucian, I thought you wouldn't be in the mood for Arcane Magic experiments today. You're tougher than I expected."
"I'm not the kind of person to fall apart just because I took a hit." Lucian grinned and fell into step beside k. "Oh, by the way, k—what was that paper you published in *Elements*? Today I went from getting smacked down one moment to being overjoyed when His Excellency the Grand Archanist cited my paper, and I completely forgot to read it."
k scratched the back of his head sheepishly: "It's about how elements in magical potions and alchemical reactions always combine with a fixed number of other molecules—the valence issue Mr. Larry brought up."
"That's a foundational question in elemental magic. No wonder Mr. Larry thinks highly of you, k. I'll have to hunt down a copy later—perfect timing for my recent experiments on elemental properties." Lucian praised him with a smile.
k looked even more embarrassed, gave a short laugh, and said nothing.
Just then, several people on the third floor passed by the stairwell and happened to spot Lucian and k.
"Good evening, Mr. k, Mr. Evans." The speaker was an unremarkable young man with black hair and black eyes. A faint, ambiguous smile played across his normally solemn face.
k responded in his deep voice: "Good evening, Bayard."
After this brief courtesy, he didn't so much as glance at Bayard or his companions, continuing on toward the stairs leading to the fourth floor.
Lucian offered a polite but cool nod and silently followed k up to the next level.
"Seems Mr. Evans hasn't truly reflected on his mistakes yet." Seeing Lucian's demeanor, Bayard chuckled. "Still holding a grudge against us."
k spun around, his deep voice laced with anger: "Bayard, I know Lucian's teaching style violated school regulations, but couldn't you have tried talking to him first? If he'd refused to correct it, then filing a complaint would've been perfectly fine. Are you really that petty?"