Aaron glanced at this crafty little schemer. “You actually believed I’d force you into dark magic experiments? Relax, I’m not that desperate.”
Dark magic was erroneous magic. To put it arrogantly—he looked down on it! What he wanted to create was a mature, stable system of time magic!
Of course, if Lily wanted to court death on her own, Aaron wouldn’t stop her. Making use of the waste and observing the experiment process on the side wouldn’t be bad either.
“Professor, you’re brilliant!” Lily said with groveling enthusiasm.
“Save the flattery. If you don’t want to try again, I won’t force you. But I am curious—tell me in detail about your experience using that dark magic. It’ll give me some reference.”
Lily hesitated, as if wanting to speak but holding back.
Tell him what? About her life as [Wen Li]?
“Professor, what if I told you there was no time magic at all, and my exhaustion came purely from working a job—would you believe me?”
Lily’s tone carried infinite melancholy.
Who could guarantee that her soul’s exhaustion was really from time travel rather than from work? No one could be certain!
Aaron felt incredibly drained: I believe you—I believe you, my ass! This one’s secrets were practically all laid bare, and she was still being stubborn about it!
Then he suddenly paused.
Lily’s words actually made some sense. Back when he did research on his own, staying up day and night, he never felt tired. But after teaching students for a while, he felt mentally exhausted.
Work really did age a person!
Aaron’s thoughts wandered for a moment, then he fixed his gaze on Lily again: Keep deflecting, and see if I don’t actually go get that magic staff customized!
The urge to discipline this student kept bubbling up again and again!
Lily sensed the danger and immediately reverted to being an obedient, demure child.
“But Professor, I really don’t have any particular feelings about it, because I don’t quite remember whether I actually used that spell or not.”
It was just—close her eyes, open them, and it was all over? She wouldn’t mention her modern-era experiences either—after all, if she brought up working a job again, Aaron really might give her a good thrashing!
This answer seemed even more evasive than before, but Aaron had his own measure—he knew Lily was telling the truth.
Experimenting with dangerous magic could cause memory loss as a side effect—Aaron knew that far better than Lily did.
He was a bit disappointed, but not very surprised, and merely muttered, “Well, there are no shortcuts in magic.”
Aaron then looked thoughtfully at Lily. “This memory loss is probably the reason you sometimes feel guilty and self-doubting, isn’t it? You’re not sure what happened to you, not sure if your soul has been affected…”
Lily felt a chill run down her spine. She really wanted to hide some secrets, but in front of a mage of Aaron’s level, she couldn’t hide a single thing!
Some things she herself only had a vague guess about, yet Aaron had already reasoned out the entire cause and effect for her. How was she supposed to hide anything?
Aaron tapped his fingers lightly on the desk. “I’ve told you everything you wanted to know. You’re a smart person. I think you should know how to face yourself now.”
Lily understood what Aaron meant.
How to face herself? It meant acknowledging that she was Lily, acknowledging her own existence.
“Your soul isn’t damaged for now, but if even you aren’t sure who you are, then losing yourself is only a matter of time.”
Aaron had reminded her of similar things before.
But now, Lily seemed to have gained a deeper understanding.
Why had she passed the light magic examination so smoothly during the assessment?
Because at that time, she was in a phase of “no doubt about herself.” She felt she hadn’t used dark magic, and she accepted the examination with the determination to live well as Lily.
If she’d been examined later, when she felt uncertain about herself, something might have gone wrong.
Don’t forget—magic in this world was highly idealistic: if you couldn’t imagine something, you couldn’t cast it. By the same logic, if even you couldn’t accept yourself, how could light magic possibly accept you?
Lily took a deep breath and said in a firm tone, “Professor, rest assured. I am who I am. I am Lily. From now on, there will be no more doubt about that!”
Aaron gave her a knowing smile.
Then, out of nowhere, he steered the conversation back to the very beginning. “So? Having such a reliable mentor—don’t you feel like you hit the jackpot? See, when choosing a mentor, you can’t just look at immediate benefits—you have to see what they can actually teach you!”
Lily nodded in genuine agreement.
“Any other academic questions? Ask them all at once.” Aaron crossed his legs casually, looking every bit the suave mentor.
He was ready to show off a few more moves, to let Lily see for herself that he—once hailed as the mage most likely to break through to legend—was no empty name.
Taming a thorny student like Lily and winning her over completely gave Aaron a real sense of accomplishment.
Lily certainly wasn’t going to waste this opportunity!
Though having almost all of Aaron’s teaching performance requirements piled onto her was incredibly stressful, looking at it from another angle—if she could learn Aaron’s true skills and quickly master high-level magic, then meeting those assessment targets wouldn’t be too difficult either…
Her eyes lit up, and she rattled off questions she’d been mulling over for a while, speaking at rapid speed:
“Professor, are there any tricks for learning more powerful magic quickly? Like crash courses for intermediate or advanced spells?”
“Professor, how can I improve meditation efficiency to make my mental energy stronger?”
“And…”
“Crash courses? Does one day count?” Aaron asked her.
“Mm-hmm! Of course it counts! It absolutely counts!” Lily grew even more excited, nodding so fast her head almost blurred.
Coach, she wanted to learn that!
Aaron then said, “That’s simple. Read the book once, then practice it once—you’ll have it down.”
Lily stared at him silently: And then?
Aaron calmly stared back: There’s no “and then.” You’ve already learned it—what more do you want?
“Oh, if you don’t feel proficient enough, just practice a few more times.”
Lily’s “my mentor is unreliable” alarm started going off again in her head.
But just then, Aaron began explaining the tricks for “strengthening mental energy,” so she suppressed the urge to complain and continued listening attentively.
“Strengthening mental energy is simple too. Use more magic, meditate more—in about a month, you can increase your mental energy cap by about ten percent. Of course, I’m speaking for someone your age and at your current rank. It gets harder the further you go.”
“Increasing meditation efficiency… that’s a more complicated question, because I’ve never studied it. Meditation already restores mental energy pretty quickly—how much faster do you want it?”
“…”
As she listened, Lily’s excited expression gradually turned into one of utter despair.
“Professor, have you never taught students before?”
“Professor, do you have no friends?”
“Professor, the data you just mentioned—are they all based on yourself as the standard?”
Well, just as Aaron could infer Lily’s situation from a few words, Lily could also figure out Aaron’s background from his.
If he’d ever taught students before, if he’d ever had normal conversations with friends, his teaching approach wouldn’t be this absurd.
Increase mental energy cap by ten percent in a month? What a joke! That was top-tier genius efficiency! Even Chris and the others probably couldn’t achieve that growth rate.
Meditation restores mental energy pretty quickly? Ha—after draining your mental energy, meditating for two or three hours to recover was the average level for ordinary students at the First Academy.
Aaron thought it was fast because by his own standards, he usually recovered in under half an hour. Sometimes he could even recover while expending energy at the same time.
It wasn’t that Aaron was completely talking nonsense. He had a basis for what he said—that basis was himself.
But as a mentor, Aaron’s advice wasn’t just “of little reference value”—it had no practical applicability whatsoever.
All his secret techniques could be summed up as: Just use your hands. How was Lily supposed to learn from that?
She might as well go listen to what the regular instructors taught in basic classes!
Those foundational courses rarely taught exclusive secret techniques, but the content was usually universally workable.
Hearing Lily call him out point by point, Aaron’s face darkened.
Who said he had no friends? It’s just that at their level, who still discussed such trivial foundational matters?
Aaron spread his hands. “Student Lily, you can’t say this is my problem. I’ve taught you all the tricks—if you can’t do it, that’s your problem.”
He switched to a tone of earnest advice. “Lily, you need to work hard so you can catch up to my pace sooner.”
Lily’s fists clenched. This irresponsible blame-shifting really made her want to smack him.
Of course, until she was strong enough to match him, she figured she’d better remain a respectful, teacher-honoring student.
She silently wiped a tear for herself: Well, screw it. She’d really fallen into a big pit this time.