Days passed one after another.
The mentors and apprentices of Black Bone Forest Academy had gradually recovered from their grief and adapted to their current lives.
By now, Black Bone Forest Academy had almost entirely become a graveyard.
In the vast academy grounds, you could walk for half a day without seeing a single soul.
Empty classrooms, an always deserted trading plaza — even the academy's mission board was covered row upon row with posted tasks, yet hardly any apprentices came to accept them.
For most of the time, the entire Black Bone Forest Academy was shrouded in deathly silence.
Any ordinary person spending just a few days here could quite literally be frightened to death!
Fortunately, whether it was Leilin Farell and the other apprentices who had survived the Blood Battle, or the various mentors, they were all people of exceptional mental fortitude, which allowed them to keep the academy functioning in some capacity under these conditions.
Still, this situation wouldn't last much longer.
According to Leilin's estimation, the time for all academies along the South Coast to reopen recruitment was fast approaching.
Black Bone Forest Academy would certainly lower its requirements considerably this time, and a large batch of apprentices would come to fill the school. The academy would soon recover its former appearance on the surface.
But cultivating any genius apprentice required a tremendous investment of time and energy, let alone finding a fifth-grade genius — they weren't exactly easy to come by.
The lineage of Black Bone Forest Academy, which had suffered a break in Leilin's generation, would probably take over a decade to fully recover.
But none of this had much to do with Leilin personally.
He had returned to his previous monotonous routine — a few fixed points in a line each day. Every day he went to his mentor to assist with experiments and learn from the experience.
At the same time, using the privileges of a Third-rank Apprentice, he purchased large quantities of spell resources and stockpiled knowledge of advanced disciplines.
Leilin's aptitude was considered average in the Wizard world — neither high nor low, but decent enough.
Moreover, he had successfully advanced to Third-rank Apprentice before the age of twenty, leaving him plenty of time to push for the realm of a formal Wizard!
For this reason, both mentors and apprentices held Leilin in considerably higher regard.
Now, when Leilin walked along the road and encountered a formal Wizard, after he offered a bow, the other party would sometimes even nod in acknowledgment first. Many apprentices, upon spotting Leilin from a distance, would immediately bow deeply in greeting.
As for Niss and the others, they barely dared to appear before Leilin at all.
Thinking of Niss, Leilin couldn't help but feel relieved for her. In a Blood Battle with such an extraordinarily high mortality rate, she had actually managed to keep her life and even earn some contribution points — that was truly remarkable.
He had heard that she used her contribution points to obtain a potion that could enhance Spiritual Power, and she was currently preparing wholeheartedly for her push to become a Third-rank Apprentice.
"I hope she succeeds. To heal the damage in her body, she'll need to reach at least the realm of a formal Wizard!"
Leilin thought of Niss's injuries and couldn't help but feel a touch of melancholy. Now, in the entire Black Bone Forest Academy, only he, Niss, and Jiamen remained as apprentices from the Keli Archipelago.
These thoughts flickered briefly through Leilin's mind before he turned his full attention back to the book in front of him.
The book in his hands was quite thick — about the height of two bricks stacked together — yet the page size was remarkably small, a style characteristic of ancient-era books.
"The Mother of the Earth lay upon the ground and gave birth to seven children: Wrath, Sorrow, Greed, Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, and Fear! Her seven children each inherited a portion of the Earth's power. Mountains split apart before them, and the seas parted of their own accord..."
The book Leilin was reading was clearly about mythology.
"The ancients described events in an extremely obscure manner, and hidden within these accounts is much information about Wizards..."
Leilin's eyes flickered as he commanded, "Chip! Record!"
Since Leilin had registered with the academy administration, he had automatically received numerous privileges at Black Bone Forest Academy as a Wizard seed.
Among these was the right to read the hidden books in the library!
Of course, within these books, descriptions of formal Wizards had been heavily redacted. At most, they were mentioned in passing during narration, expressed so opaquely that an average person would overlook them entirely.
But even so, with the Chip, Leilin had obtained a great deal of useful information from the hidden library.
First, the Chip had already recorded nearly all knowledge below the formal Wizard level. Leilin could now confidently say that if anyone asked questions related to apprentice-level topics, most mentors at Black Bone Forest Academy couldn't match him.
This was enormously helpful for Leilin in consolidating his foundation at the apprentice level.
At the very least, he now knew about certain minor mistakes he had made during his previous push to advance to Third-rank Apprentice, and he had begun doing his best to rectify them.
Don't underestimate these errors. If they weren't repaired in time, even after Leilin became a formal Wizard, his Spiritual Power would eventually stagnate after a period, trapping him permanently at his current realm with no possibility of ever breaking through.
Additionally, Leilin had found some content related to descriptions of advanced Meditation Methods.