I reign supreme in the Western fantasy world for eternity.

Ji Tian was awakened by a severe headache.

He opened his eyes and saw a gray, wooden ceiling.

The dim sunlight streamed in through the cracks in the window, cutting a bright band of light across his face.

He lay on a bed covered with thick mattresses, so soft it made one's bones feel like they were melting.

That wasn't his original bed.

My head hurts, my stomach is upset, and there's an indescribable bitter taste in my mouth, like I've chewed a pound of raw Coptis chinensis and drunk three bowls of vinegar.

He tried moving his fingers, and a tingling sensation came from his fingertips, like being pricked by a fine needle.

"woke up?"

The voice drifted from the bedside, cold and icy, but with a slight upward inflection at the end, carrying a sense of certainty that "I knew this would happen," and a hint of barely concealed...sullenness.

Ji Tian turned his head with difficulty.

Elena sat on a chair by the bed, holding a book in her hand, with her legs crossed.

She wore a dark green dress today, her hair casually draped over her shoulders, without braids or a bow—but this casual attire only made her face appear more refined.

But her expression was far more "vivid" than her clothes: her eyebrows were raised high, the corners of her mouth were slightly turned down, and her eyes clearly said "You idiot"—yet those eyes would occasionally glance at his face, as if to confirm whether he was really sober.

"Do you know," she slowly turned a page, her finger lingering on the page for a moment, her eyes not even on the words, "what's the name of the mushrooms growing under that crooked old locust tree behind the manor?"

Ji Tian opened his mouth, his throat as dry as sandpaper.

"Inspiration mushroom?" He kept calling it that, but he really didn't know its scientific name.

"Wrong—it's called 'Psychedelic Umbrella.'" Elena slammed the book shut, her chin slightly raised, as if to say, "Listen carefully." "After taking it, you'll experience intense hallucinations. First, you'll feel excited, then dizzy, nauseous, and numb in your limbs. In severe cases, you might even have convulsions, faint, or foam at the mouth."

She paused, glanced at him quickly, then looked away, a hint of barely perceptible annoyance in her voice: "Do you know who picked you up from under the tree?"

"……who?"

"The old gardener." She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. "He went to collect his tools in the evening and found you lying next to the mushroom pile, foaming at the mouth, convulsing, and shouting something like 'Oh, good, I've done it'—he thought you were dead and was so scared that he almost threw his hoe into the well."

As she said this, she gave a soft hum, her voice still cold, but the tips of her ears seemed to turn slightly red.

Ji Tian paused for a moment, then asked, "...And then?"

"Then he carried you back and called the doctor. The doctor said you ate poisonous mushrooms and gave you three bowls of herbal water. You vomited twice and had diarrhea—" She suddenly stopped, a hint of unease flashing across her face. Her fingers unconsciously twisted the pages of the book, and her voice suddenly became softer, "...In short, you didn't calm down until midnight."

The room was silent for a few seconds.

Elena snorted and slammed the book on the bedside table. She could have slammed it very lightly, but she deliberately made it loud.

"A country bumpkin," she said, enunciating each word clearly, her eyes wide, her tone fierce yet trying to appear mature, "can't even tell the difference between mushrooms, yet dares to eat them indiscriminately. Do you think you have too much time on your hands?"

Ji Tian remained silent for a while.

"I didn't eat anything indiscriminately." His voice was a little hoarse. "Those were raw materials for Foundation Establishment Pills, which can temporarily grant a person powerful mental energy."

Every poison has its side effects; even arsenic can be used as medicine, let alone mushrooms.

"What pill?"

"Foundation Pill."

Elena stared at him for three seconds.

"The Foundation Building Pill you mentioned," she said slowly, emphasizing each word clearly, "is it the one from that pile of poisonous mushrooms under the tree?"

"...You can understand it that way."

"You ate poisonous mushrooms thinking they were medicine?"

"……Um."

Elena took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. She closed her eyes, her lips slightly pursed, as if she were silently counting in her mind, or as if she was desperately suppressing some kind of impulse that was about to overflow—she clearly wanted to get angry, but couldn't bring herself to actually yell at him, so she could only struggle with herself.

"Ji Tian, ​​do you have—"

She was about to launch into a tirade of unladylike profanity when her voice suddenly caught in her throat.

Because a ball of flame appeared out of nowhere in Ji Tian's hand.

It hovered steadily above his palm, its shape almost a perfect sphere, its color a uniform orange-red with a slight bluish tinge at the edges.

It burned quietly, without making a sound, as if it were meant to be there.

Elena was stunned.

Those eyes, which always raised their eyebrows, pouted, and were full of disdain, were now slightly wide open, staring unblinkingly at the ball of flame, and even their breathing became a little lighter.

"You—" Her voice caught in her throat, and it took her two seconds to find her rhythm again, "When did you learn that?"

"Just now," Ji Tian said.

"Just now?" Elena's eyes were fixed on the flame. "You were suffering from mushroom poisoning yesterday, and today—"

"I was probably able to cast fireballs before I was poisoned yesterday," Ji Tian recalled his state after completing the Small Heavenly Circuit yesterday, "but my state was a bit unstable."

Elena remained silent for a moment.

"Let me see one more."

Ji Tian nodded, using his divine sense to grasp the faint trace of magic power within his body, and "imagining" it as fire in his mind.

It wasn't a complex, three-dimensional model from the traditional school; it was just a simple idea: combustion.

Magic responded to his thought.

A ball of flame reformed, this time smaller than the previous one, but more stable and with a more uniform color.

Elena stared at the fireball for a long time, her expression shifting from shock to confusion, from confusion to contemplation, and from contemplation to an indescribable complexity.

"You ate poisonous mushrooms yesterday," she murmured as if in a dream, "and now you can cast spells reliably."

"...That's a Foundation Establishment Pill," Ji Tian emphasized.

"You think it's that thing that's what's causing it?"

"Of course." Ji Tian thought for a moment and explained in a way she could understand, "It was the medicinal power of the Foundation Establishment Pill that stimulated the magic circuit, coupled with my persistent training, that allowed me to break through in one fell swoop."

Elena remained silent for a long time, staring at the fireball with a slight frown, as if she were pondering a difficult question.

After a while, she reached out and gently touched the edge of the flame with her fingers.

The flames did not burn her.

It twitched at her fingertips, as if in response to her touch, before quietly returning to Ji Tian's palm.

"You know what," Elena withdrew her hand, her voice becoming very soft, "I'm actually a genius magician, but it still took me a week to learn my first spell."

Ji Tian didn't say anything.

"For a whole week," she repeated, "my talent would rank me in the top ten even in the capital."

She looked at the quietly burning flame in Ji Tian's palm, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly, but there was no sarcasm or resentment in that smile.

"And you," she sighed softly, "ate some poisonous mushrooms, lay in bed all afternoon, and then learned how."

"...Just lucky, just lucky."

"Perhaps." Elena stood up, walked to the carved window sill, and stood with her back to the light. The evening breeze ruffled her clothes, making her figure appear particularly lonely. "But I really need to re-evaluate you."

After Elena finished speaking, she didn't say anything more.

She simply stood by the window, gazing at the training field in the distance, remaining silent for a long time. Then she turned around, reverting to her usual nonchalant expression.

"You should rest well today. Tomorrow," she seemed to have made up her mind, "let Gregor test your talent."

"Talent can be measured? Does that mean talent is the same as spiritual root?" Ji Tian's mind was still a bit confused, and he couldn't keep anything to himself.

"Spiritual root?" Elena frowned, her eyelashes drooping, as if pondering the meaning of the term. "What is that?"

"...It's nothing." Ji Tian stopped talking, but his mind was already racing:

"Testing talent? Isn't that just testing spiritual roots?"

In the online novels of my past life, those with poor spiritual roots were called "mixed spiritual roots." Their cultivation was slow, but not impossible. Besides, there were methods for "acquired spiritual root cleansing"—Marrow Cleansing Pills, Spirit Opening Fruits, the Nine Revolutions Tendon Changing Classic…

"Of course." Elena ignored the other person's nonsense, simply picked up the book on the table, and walked towards the door. "The sensitivity of magic perception, attribute affinity, circuit capacity... all these things can be measured. Otherwise, how do you think those magic academies admit students? By who's good-looking?"

She walked to the door, stopped, and glanced back at him.

"Go to bed early, don't be late tomorrow."

Then she pushed the door open and went out.