Perhaps because Shanglin Garden is not under the control of a weather monitor, the weather changes tend to be more natural. Zheng Qing felt the wind blowing from the lake at this moment carried a hint of chill, and he couldn’t help but wrap his robe tighter.

A chime sounded across the shimmering lake, reaching the ears of all the young wizards, invigorating them. Even the chill seemed to lighten a bit.

The lakeside instantly quieted down.

The sound of the chime rang out again, and the thick clouds above Crescent Lake rolled, curling to the sides, revealing a slender crack. Golden sunlight poured down through the rift in the clouds, painting the sky, Centimeter Mountain, and the lake with an exceptionally splendid hue.

The chime rang for the third time.

The first round of the Spring Hunting trial officially begins.

A rainbow light slowly rose from the foot of Centimeter Mountain, landing on the opposite shore of Crescent Lake, accurately at the feet of Alexander Hesse, taking him away. He would be the first hunter to appear in the first round of the trial.

The Hesse family is one of the few prestigious families in the Alliance known for transformation magic despite not being from the Druid Sect. A more famous figure in the family is Magnus Hess from over a hundred years ago. He was the first to identify that long-term use of transformation magic could lead to symptoms similar to magic poisoning, naming it ’Transformation-Induced Poisoning Syndrome’.

Alexander Hesse, 22 years old, studies at The Alpha College of the First University, in his fourth year, typically performing moderately with the characteristic steadiness of an aristocratic disciple.

After stepping onto the Magic Stage, he courteously bowed to the surroundings.

A bamboo slip fell from the void, landing in the hands of the warlock. As he brushed it with his hand, a line of shining small characters appeared on the bamboo slip—’Please use a transformation spell to concoct a potion to treat scabies’.

This line simultaneously appeared in the void, visible to all the young wizards standing by the lake.

Zheng Qing’s first reaction to seeing this line was confusion, as magic potions and transformation magic belonged to completely different conceptual realms. He found it hard to imagine how to use transformation magic to concoct a magic potion.

The lakeside was serene.

Centimeter Mountain was gilded with a golden edge by the sunlight, appearing somewhat dazzling. The mist rolling at the mountain top and mid-slopes flowed like a stream. Representatives from various families, ’Hunters’ from Trident Sword and Danghag, and guests from other wizard organizations sat quietly in their places, watching the young man standing on the Magic Stage below.

After pondering for a moment, Alexander Hesse calmly opened the law book, chanting a spell.

A multitude of colorful spell lights rose in sequence, falling upon the area outside the Magic Stage where various materials and tools for concocting magic potions were stored. The medicine cabinet holding the various ingredients shook violently. In a moment, the cabinet opened, and gray-green scorpions waved their large claws, hurriedly crawling out.

Following closely were several iron-blue little snakes, their bodies covered with tiny white spots, snaking along behind the scorpions, both rushing toward a large green toad squatting beside Alexander.

The toad opened its mouth, exhaling a hot breath. Its scarlet tongue flicked out, rolling those gray-green scorpions and iron-blue little snakes into its belly. A sound like muffled thunder erupted from its stomach, akin to boiling water, as one after another, transparent gas bubbles rose and burst on the toad’s back, releasing wisps of increasingly deeper-colored unknown gas.

Zheng Qing watched this dazzling scene, feeling amazed though he didn’t fully understand.

"I see."

Jiang Yu’s thoughtful voice came from beside him. He gave the witch a puzzled look, and she softly explained, "The simplest ’scabies potion’ requires ingredients like dry nettles, crushed snake fangs, boiled antennae-bearing slugs, and porcupine quills... During preparation, dry nettles and ground snake fangs need to be thrown into a cauldron and simmered together, with porcupine quills and boiled antennae-bearing slugs added after extinguishing the fire.

Nettles are also called ’scorpion grass’. Alexander used a transformation spell to turn nettle grass into scorpions, the crushed fangs into snakes. Do you see those fine white spots on the snakes? Those are the crushed fangs manifesting externally during magical transformation. Then he turned the cauldron into a toad, using the principle of the five poisons counteracting each other, having the toad swallow the scorpions and venomous snakes, refining them in its belly... to say ’refine’ is actually a cooking process.

If he hadn’t applied the principle of ’five poisons counteraction’ in this process, Alexander’s transformation spell would barely count as a deceitful trick, but with this principle added, the cooking actually becomes another reaction mode, which means he is genuinely using transformation magic to concoct a magic potion."

Listening to this explanation, Zheng Qing felt eye-opening.

He had never thought that magic from different realms could be so analogous, intertwining with each other. Subconsciously, he thought of the talismans he was most adept at. If the bamboo slips required him to use the Fu Method to concoct a magic potion, how would he do it?

For the first time, he felt a greater interest in the Spring Hunting trial, an event he had previously held biases against.

Just watching the first match of the first round, he immediately realized, in contrast to the wizard apprentices lacking resources and accumulation, these wizards from established families not only possessed a more comprehensive and richer understanding of magic but also did not remain stagnant. On the contrary, in terms of utilizing magic, these wizards from aristocratic families appeared more flexible. This alone could transform an ordinarily gifted registered wizard into a seemingly ’gifted’ registered wizard in the eyes of outsiders. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

In comparison, Zheng Qing suddenly felt his approach to using magic was too rigid and dogmatic.

During the time Jiang Yu explained and he contemplated, the large toad on the Magic Stage successively swallowed a black and white patterned Pointed-Foot Centipede and a translucent, jelly-like gecko.

With the harmony of the five poisons, the large toad gradually quieted down. The water bubbles that originally crackled on its back fell silent, and its body color shifted from emerald green to olive, eventually fading to grayish-white.

Alexander Hesse reached into his sleeve and took out a test tube, placing it by the toad’s mouth to collect half a tube of the toad’s dripped-down transparent saliva. He shook it, took a sniff beneath his nose, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

The test tube and the big toad were quickly delivered to the judge’s table.

Zheng Qing nodded in admiration, instinctively applauding twice in an attempt to express his current delight. In the words of the ancients, it was like ’having an epiphany, worthy of a great celebration’. This match suddenly gave him many new ideas about using talismans, eager to try them out at the first opportunity.

In the quiet beside the lake, the crisp applause felt particularly abrupt, causing him a bit of embarrassment and a hint of puzzlement—though theoretically, everyone was a competitor, wasn’t such an outstanding performance and solution onstage worthy of applause from the spectators?

"Alexander is already in his fourth year, about to graduate from the First University." Finally, Jiang Yu softly explained in his ear, "At his age and being from the Hesse family, opting for preparing scabies potion, a task easy for even young children, for the sake of caution, hardly earns everyone’s approval."

No sooner had she spoken, a firework rose from the foot of Centimeter Mountain, bursting in mid-air into a clear number:

Seventy-three points.

This was the final sum of scores given by the ten judges—a not high but significantly above the passing line. The young wizard onstage let out a heavy breath, bowed following propriety, and was then carried back to the shores of Crescent Lake by the rainbow light.