Lily realized there were quite a few ways to win.
But having only transmigrated a couple of days ago, she wasn’t ready to become a lawless outlaw just yet, so all those brutal plans had to be set aside for now.
She hoped for a solution that was “high-damage yet still salvageable.”
Lily scratched her head in frustration for a while. Suddenly, her eyes landed on Gentle Breeze.
When wind magic was mastered well, it was extremely useful.
Aside from fueling fire, wind magic could also blow fire back at an opponent when they used fire magic. Once wind magic was developed to a certain level, one could learn Lightness Technique, or even achieve the effect of “riding the wind.”
Of course, given Lily’s current level of wind magic, those were out of the question.
She even thought that Gentle Breeze was the most useless among the basic spells she had mastered—the wind she could whip up by swinging her arms with all her might was probably stronger, and it only consumed physical energy, not mental energy.
But at this moment, a different thought struck her: she had been looking at wind magic’s development in the wrong direction. The key wasn’t the strength of the wind—it was what kind of wind she was blowing!
Physically fanning the air and magical Gentle Breeze were fundamentally different!
As everyone knew, air was composed of different components like carbon dioxide, oxygen, and so on.
Frantically fanning only made the gases flow—it didn’t change the gas composition.
Magical Gentle Breeze, however, was a magical effect formed by the transformation of air-element spirits. Could Gentle Breeze filter out different “gases”? Lily believed: yes!
This kind of filtration actually only involved simple gas stratification, still within the scope of Gentle Breeze at its core.
Just like Water Arrow redirecting—the essence of Water Arrow remained unchanged, so it was merely an extension of Water Arrow. With more practice on Water Arrow, mastering redirection wasn’t hard.
Lily slapped her fist into her palm. Perfect—she’d go with this!
“Spirit of air…” She focused her attention, casting Gentle Breeze while visualizing the concept of gas layering.
Should she call this extended version Oxygen Spell or Carbon Dioxide Spell?
It didn’t really matter—inhaling pure oxygen or pure carbon dioxide would both cause poisoning. Pure carbon monoxide was also an option. But again: her classmates didn’t deserve that.
“Respond to my call in the form of carbon dioxide!”
Lily first tested it on herself. The gentle breeze blew toward her, and she took a breath—nearly suffocating herself. Well, a person wouldn’t die that easily, but breathing in pure carbon dioxide definitely brought a suffocating, stifling sensation.
Lily quickly ended the spell and breathed normally again. The little bit of carbon dioxide gathered by Gentle Breeze soon dispersed into the air, and Lily felt alive again.
Sure enough, this method worked!
But Lily still needed more practice to ensure she could aim accurately and sustain the spell. Otherwise, just like earlier, she might stun her opponent for a moment, but once the wind dissipated, the effect was gone—that wouldn’t be enough to take down an opponent.
With a clear goal in mind, Lily felt much more relaxed. She tidied up the broken mirror pieces on the floor and tossed them into the garbage disposal point outside her dorm.
What Lily didn’t notice was that after she left, a figure crept over and rummaged through her trash, picking out the shattered mirror fragments…
There were five days left until the freshman assessment.
Lily was busy.
She had to familiarize herself with academy life, learn more magical knowledge, practice Gentle Breeze… all these tasks packed tightly together, keeping her out of the spotlight and laying low.
However, “laying low” was how Lily herself would describe it. If you asked her classmates, they’d give you the exact opposite assessment: she was way too arrogant!
That morning, after the basic magic theory class ended, Chris walked up to Lily’s seat, lifted his chin, and said, “Hey, you—come with me. I have something to say to you.”
He had come to see Lily because he’d heard the rumors about her and Ray.
That damn Ray—truly a scheming bastard! On the surface, he acted like he didn’t care at all about the bet, but in reality, he was planning a backdoor move!
If things went on like this, Chris, who had rushed into the bet, might end up becoming a laughingstock! No matter how untalented Lily was, as long as someone poured resources into supporting her, she could always find a foothold in the academy.
Thankfully, Lily couldn’t keep a secret, which was why this secret had been exposed!
Chris didn’t go to Ray—instead, he came to Lily to confirm things, figuring it’d be easier to get the truth out of her.
But Lily didn’t even look up. She packed her things and was about to leave.
Chris had never been treated with such cold indifference. His face was quickly turning the same color as his hair—not a shy blush, but rage.
Chris braced his hand against the wall, blocking Lily’s way. “You’re ignoring me?!”
“Oh, were you talking to me?” Lily shot back.
Chris ground his teeth. He did remember Lily’s name—after all, it was easy to remember. But deep down, he thought she was insignificant, so a casual “hey you” seemed good enough. He never expected her to use that against him!
But Chris still had things to ask Lily, so he couldn’t just turn and walk away. He forced out, “Yes, I’m talking to you. I have something to discuss.”
“Oh, I don’t have time.” Lily flatly refused. She paused, then added a reminder, “By the way, you might want to avoid talking to people from that angle—it really makes your nostrils look huge.”
Before Chris could react, Lily slipped away like an agile weasel, darting right under his armpit and out of the classroom.
The other students lowered their heads and quickly filed out of the room.
Hold it in! Don’t laugh! Even if you have to laugh, don’t do it in front of Chris!
The classroom gradually emptied, but Chris stood there as if frozen in place, not moving an inch.
He had actually snapped out of Lily’s insult by now, but intermittent laughter kept drifting in from the hallway outside—walking out now would only make things more awkward!
After a long pause, he finally ground out two names through clenched teeth: “Lily! Ray!”
Chris also added Lily’s account to Ray’s tab.
He had already gotten his answer from Lily’s reaction: those two were definitely in cahoots!
If not, how would Lily dare to be so arrogant? Ray must have put her up to it!
Thinking this, Chris subconsciously touched his nose. He always cared a great deal about his personal image, because his image represented the face of the Kingdom of Leyne.
Did looking up at him really make his nostrils look that big?
Wait! Lily hadn’t even looked up at all! She was just spouting nonsense!
Chris immediately dropped his hand and silently repented for three seconds over almost falling for her nonsense.
He grew even more humiliated and furious, repeating in his mind: Ray, Lily—just you wait!
It wasn’t just Chris—most of the other students thought along the same lines:
Even if this was the Magic Holy City rather than the Kingdom of Leyne, no ordinary commoner student would dare speak to Chris like that.
Lily was audacious beyond belief—someone must be backing her up! And who that someone was, needless to say, was obvious, right?
The connection between Ray and Lily had been further confirmed.
Heaven knows, Lily hadn’t intended to deepen anyone’s misunderstanding this time—there was no need for that.
She had given Chris no face simply because she didn’t want to.
Who did he think he was? Couldn’t he see she was busy? He said he had something to discuss and expected her to make time—had he asked for her opinion?
If Ray had come to her, Lily would have entertained him even if she was busy. But Chris wasn’t her “rumored boyfriend,” and his tone was condescending—why should she give him face?
By doing this, she had essentially offended Chris. Would there be any bad consequences?
Lily figured it wasn’t a big deal.
From the very start, her personal interests had never aligned with Chris’s. Chris wanted to use her failure to refute Ray’s ideology. When the freshman assessment came, Chris might not personally make a move against her, but most of those who challenged her would be from his faction.
Lily hadn’t been admitted to the academy because Chris thought, “What a coincidence, you’re from Leyne too—let me, as a prince, look out for you and get you in.” He didn’t have that kind of kindness.
Lily was just a pawn—what personal interests could a pawn have? In Chris’s view, it was already Lily’s honor to be his pawn.
By the standards of this world and Chris’s status, his words and actions were entirely normal. It wasn’t that he had “prince syndrome”—he actually was a prince.
Lily just wasn’t having it.
With conflicting interests, offending him or not made no difference. The only thing Lily needed to watch out for was getting jumped in secret—but she was already planning to guard against Ray’s side doing the same. What difference did it make who she was guarding against? Rounding it up, offending Chris cost her nothing.
…
What happened in the magic theory classroom spread quickly—though Chris had desperately wanted to impose a gag order.
A friend nudged Ray’s arm. “Are you sure you didn’t tell her to do that?”
They hadn’t been there in person, but they could easily imagine Chris’s meltdown. All they could say was: well done!
Ray shot him a speechless glare.
“Maybe we should just bring her into our fold.” His friend urged.
Lily might not have much skill, but her talent for annoying people was top-notch—perfectly filling a gap in their team. Since others had already misunderstood her relationship with Ray, they might as well make the rumors official.
Ray ignored this flippant suggestion and continued asking, “Aside from that, who else does she interact with often?”
Earlier, he had suspected Lily was bought off by Chris, but now that didn’t seem likely. Chris, who cared so much about saving face, would never agree to play the role of being publicly humiliated.
“Nothing else. She always keeps to herself.”
Ray fell into deep thought.
Had she offended both him and Chris in one go entirely of her own volition? Or was the person behind her simply more deeply hidden?