Life is like the ocean; calm and quiet is the best, but turbulent waves are also interesting. Only those middling swells make one dizzy and uncomfortable.

Just like this Monday morning.

The counselor for Astronomy Class 08-1, the dean of Jiuyou Academy, legendary wizard, Professor Yao Xiaomi, absent from his magic curse class without any forewarning, something that has never happened in Zheng Qing’s nearly two years at First University.

Even Tang Dun rushed to the office building and couldn’t find any trace of Old Yao.

The Door Gods on the dean’s office door were courteous, though, and informed the young wizard that Old Yao indeed came to the office in the morning but quickly left without leaving any message.

The good news is that the absent professor seems to be only Old Yao—meaning it might just be an unexpected incident and not some trouble within the school—according to Tang Dun’s observations, courses for other classes were conducted normally.

The bad news is, other professors don’t know Old Yao’s whereabouts either.

Such a mix of good and bad made everyone hesitant to play recklessly or study earnestly, leaving them to idly chat while flipping through leisure books, truly like those middling swells, causing discomfort.

If Zheng Qing were four or five years younger, back in junior high or high school, and the teacher didn’t show up one morning, the classroom would certainly be filled with joyous cheers, with everyone celebrating this lottery-like brief break from heavy coursework.

But now, he is a college student.

And at a magic university.

Upon realizing Old Yao didn’t come to class, more than half of the classmates immediately took out their crystal balls, turtle shells, and Cao Herb, attempting to divine the good or bad of this matter. Unsurprisingly, everyone’s divination results were terribly ambiguous, and no one could pinpoint the whereabouts of a legendary wizard.

Of course, being college students also has its advantages. Tang Dun and Liu Fei Fei easily maintained order in the class. Without the teacher, the only thing they could do was urge everyone to preview the Chapter in "Standard Spells - University Second Grade" that Old Yao might discuss today, while reminding those who hadn’t finished last class’s homework to hurry and complete it, and to ’try’ to remain quiet.

Thus, half the class passed by quickly.

Old Yao then arrived in the classroom—more accurately, just a projection of him, appearing abruptly on the podium when most hadn’t even noticed.

Zheng Qing was among the few who did.

He had just finished his alchemy homework at the time, raising his head to ease the fatigue of intensive study by gazing at the back of a witch sitting in the first row, when out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed a group exuding five-colored radiance appearing in front of the blackboard. Soon after, a familiar figure materialized with the flow of textured magic power gushing out from that radiance, as if a waterfall.

"Professor Yao is here!"

The stick figure behind the door might have been the second to notice the anomaly on the podium, dutifully shouting before immediately retreating to a corner of the white paper, covering its head.

The young wizards in the classroom quickly turned their heads toward the door, then to the podium with uniform movements, amusingly like a group of adorable rabbits.

"Good morning."

Professor Yao, having revealed his form, threw the lecture notes on the desk, raised a hand—Zheng Qing noticed he wasn’t holding a pipe—and gave a perfunctory greeting:

"I had a little issue outside this morning, took a stroll through the woods... Hmm, there’s still an hour and a half, so we need to hurry, speed up a bit on our progress... Last class, we analyzed the magic of ancient ’Supreme Three Cavity Imperial Thunder Spell,’ discussing several classic usage techniques for ’urgency like law mandate.’ This lesson, we follow the development of modern magic theory to analyze the empowerment and cultivation techniques for ’Five Thunder Spell.’ Known as ’Five Thunder Spell,’ it is also referred to as ’Five Thunder Technique,’ divided into ’Big Five Thunder’ and ’Small Five Thunder’ based on origins—ancient Shenxiao Sect for the former, categorizing thunder into ’heaven,’ ’earth,’ ’water,’ ’fire,’ and ’community’; whereas the latter originates from the old Five Elements theory, naming thunder as ’metal,’ ’wood,’ ’water,’ ’fire,’ and ’earth.’ You can notice, both Shenxiao and Five Elements have ’water’ and ’fire’ thunder, because these two thunder spell forms are very much alike and most easily comprehended by ancient wizards engaging with lightning and thunder..."

On the podium, the abruptly appearing magic curse professor gave no chance for anyone to question, starting the lecture with his flowing voice amid the chaotic rustling of textbooks—making one feel an incessant silent sense of urgency looming.

Perhaps merely for rushing time to catch up on progress, or maybe to prevent endless questioning, for the rest of the over hour-long session, Professor Yao even refrained from the usual naming for responses, instead throwing out complex curse casting cases leaving everyone, overwhelmed by his voice, little time to think of other matters.

"He’s late, not us, why are we the ones suffering!"

During lunchtime break, Xin Fat Man recalled the morning’s magic curse class’s ordeal in outrageous discontent: "It’s too unfair... never seen such bullying of kids!"

Zheng Qing silently made a vomiting gesture.

"Does the campus newspaper editorial have any news?" Xiao Xiao knocked on the table, reminding Fat Man to stay on topic.

He deliberately didn’t go to the library this noon, returning to the dorm to inquire about Old Yao’s unexplained half-class disappearance this morning. In fact, right after the magic curse class, he privately asked many people, yet nobody outside Astronomy Class 08-1 at Jiuyou Academy seemed to know anything about it.

"How could there be news!"

Xin Fat Man put down the brush he was using on Tuan Tuan, revealing a begrudging expression: "Ordinary wizards—especially us ’little rascals’ who haven’t graduated—how could we possibly find out about something a legendary wizard wants to keep unknown? Did you ask Teacher Sima? Does she know?"

Xiao Xiao shook his head silently, it’s unclear whether he hadn’t asked or even Sima didn’t know—the latter seemed more likely to Zheng Qing, as Doctor Xiao wasn’t one to let Sima Yangyun do taboo things for mere curiosity’s sake.

"What kind of thing could make a legendary wizard abandon his responsibility and disappear for half a class?" Zheng Qing murmured, lying on the edge of the desk, staring at the three sleeping sprites in the sunflower dish.

"That’s precisely the most peculiar part."

Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses, continuing to examine the crystal ball in front of him and muttering softly: "Legendary wizards exist beyond the dimension we understand... theoretically, they don’t exist at a ’time point’ but rather a ’time period,’ meaning at the same moment, countless Old Yao exist in reality... what kind of accident could cause him not even to project, leaving us for half a class?"