Chapter 52

"Don't waste your talent. I know you excel in some areas, but when it comes to enlightenment, you need to listen to others' advice." While Teacher Celine went to fetch the potion, Lucius resumed his attempts to persuade him. "Before you, many people tried to achieve enlightenment without understanding Druidic, and the success rate was very low. None of them became masters, let alone elders or grand elders."

Zhao Mai looked at him and said, "So, you're planning to eventually become an elder or a grand elder?"

"Definitely," Lucius replied. "I can't guarantee that I'll be the best in every aspect, but in terms of magic, my talent ranks among the top hundred in history. If someone with my level can't become an elder, who can? This isn't arrogance, just a statement of fact."

"Oh, then I'll congratulate you in advance." Zhao Mai managed a forced smile in response.

"Both my parents are elders in the community, so the natural force was already within me at birth. It could have awakened naturally, but to better nurture this power, a complex spell was cast on me, enveloping the natural force to prevent it from being stimulated and lost by external factors." Lucius explained, "After this enlightenment, the spell on me has started to loosen and will soon no longer bind me. Then, I can undergo a second enlightenment, further enhancing my connection with the natural force. This means my magical talent and perception of the force will reach a new level, an unprecedented achievement!"

Zhao Mai didn't bother to respond and squatted down to play with the reserve food. The little yellow dog, starting to shed its fur, always liked to rub against Zhao Mai, gently biting his wrist to get him to scratch its belly. Watching the reserve food curl its limbs, stick out its belly, wag its tail, tilt its head, and stick out its tongue, he found it much more endearing than the blonde beauty.

Zi Yue, who loved to join in the fun, kept reaching out to adjust the reserve food's tongue to a more aesthetically pleasing angle. The puppy pretended to bite her, but she always managed to dodge, making her laugh with delight. However, the reserve food didn't allow Zi Yue to touch its belly, a privilege reserved only for Zhao Mai.

Aphra sat quietly outside the circle of the enlightenment tree, a thick book made of leaves on her lap. She occasionally turned a page and sometimes looked in Zhao Mai's direction, her mind filled with strange thoughts. She recalled how Mike had asked her about Druidic, and the characters didn't seem to be chosen at random.

The characters on the enlightenment tree, if categorized by style, could be divided into two major types. One was more complex but vivid, while the other was simple and abstract. It was said that these characters were the collective wisdom of a group, not the work of a single person.

When Mike was learning, his questions were all focused on the more complex and vivid characters. Was this a coincidence or intentional? Aphra vaguely felt that Mike wasn't as clueless as he appeared. How many people could get permission to undergo enlightenment from scratch under the enlightenment tree? Why did Teacher Celine support him?

"Maybe you can succeed," she thought to herself.

"You won't succeed," Lucius continued to advise, "But I hope that even if you fail this time, it won't affect your confidence. There will be many more opportunities in the future. As long as you persist, work hard, and learn humbly, you will definitely succeed. The earth is vast, but it has high hills and low valleys. Believe me, as long as you are willing to climb, the scenery will always be in your sight."

If he continued, the author might have rushed in and beaten him to death with a keyboard. Fortunately, Lady Celine approached gracefully, holding a bottle of light yellow potion. Lucius shut his mouth and pulled Zi Yue away from the tree's canopy, so Mike could undergo enlightenment without being disturbed.

"This is the potion to communicate with nature. Can I ask what it's called?"

"Sprite's Dream," Celine replied.

Zhao Mai was startled, repeating the name in his mind to make sure he hadn't heard wrong. But when he took the light yellow potion, he still felt a bit nauseous.

"I will cast a blessing spell on you to help you perform better. At the same time, a spell that continuously provides natural healing to your body will be cast on you. Feel it, control it, and use it to establish a connection with the natural force." Lady Celine concluded, "May the force be with you."

In a daze, Zhao Mai felt everything become unreal. He sat cross-legged on the ground, the warmth from his hands continuously passing through the bottle to the potion. Time seemed to slow down, and he needed to clear his thoughts.

The airport, the old man, his father's illness. The navigation app that opened upwards, then the battlefield of angels and devils. The angel who died to help him, her veil seemed to lift, and he could see her expression in her final moments. It was filled with regret but also hope, and there was no pain.

Did she know who she was teleporting away? Perhaps this thought never formed in her mind, and everything was done by instinct, with kindness deeply ingrained in her. A human with no combat ability, being pursued by devils, would be far less valuable on the battlefield than a fighting angel. If it were Zhao Mai, he wouldn't have cared about such a sudden NPC. As a mathematics graduate, Zhao Mai always analyzed everything rationally, hoping to use a known, measurable system to assess his environment. This was why he loved TRPGs and often took on the role of game master. But under the Druidic enlightenment tree, he saw too many things beyond his understanding, things that should have been statistically impossible. A rational self wouldn't believe any of this.

He looked up at the massive canopy of the enlightenment tree, with countless leaves fluttering before his eyes. The saying "a single leaf can block the view of Mount Tai" came to mind. Everyone can only see the world from their own perspective. Could their own shadow blind them, preventing them from seeing Mount Tai?

Drinking a potion, having a few spells cast on him, sitting under a big tree, and looking at the small seal script and clerical script of the Druidic language, could he really connect with the natural force and gain the ability to cast spells? Rationality told him this was nonsense! But only this nonsense could explain what he knew and felt. He rubbed his eyes hard, hoping to clear the obstruction and see everything more clearly and clearly. Maybe he should believe in his intuition like the angel, rather than stick to the results of calculations. Overthinking and being too concerned with gains and losses only led to self-collapse and failure.

"Man follows the earth, the earth follows the sky, the sky follows the Dao, and the Dao follows nature." Zhao Mai suddenly thought of this famous line from the Tao Te Ching, then cleared his mind, opened the Sprite's Dream potion, and drank it down.