As snowflakes gently descended, Hexia, dressed in an indigo velvet winter dress, walked down the sloping path. Ahead of her, the expanse of a white, icy lake gradually came into focus through the falling snow.
In Yuanting Academy's Fragrant Leaf Lake, the surface had already frozen over, dotted with sporadic students gliding across on ice skates. There were, however, many who could only watch from a distance.
Having stopped in her tracks, Hexia shook the snow from her hood and then removed it, standing in front of the lake. She then opened the wooden crate she had been carrying, and three little ducks, fluffing up their feathers, waddled out.
The trio of ducks had now grown white plumage, and shortly after making their entrance, the Indigo Snake followed suit, positioning itself protectively by the side of the ducks.
Despite the cold weather, the ducks were not afraid. They shook their webbed feet and stepped onto the ice, sliding towards the center of the lake.
"Take it slow~," the girl advised as she watched the little ones, and then she too stepped onto the lake's surface.
This ice is a bit thin.
The moment she stepped on it, Hexia realized something was amiss, and then a faint white light appeared on her body, reducing her weight. Only then did she feel somewhat at ease.
No wonder many students were not skating. It seems one needs to learn the Feather Transformation Ability to play on the lake, but aside from the students staying in the Ring Bird Wind Tower dormitory, the others wouldn't put effort into learning this ability. Typically, they would wait until the third year to directly learn skills related to flight.
Yuanting Academy is a school highly associated with flying, and the Flying Art is a skill that every student must learn for their exams, although the way each Sequence flies is quite different and there was no strict requirement as to which one had to be learned.
Hexia, followed by the three ducks, made her way to the middle of the lake where she commanded the Indigo Snake to circle around, melting a round hole. The ducks dove in while Hexia took out a telescopic fishing rod to fish in the lake.
Within Fragrant Leaf Lake, there was a special kind of fish only catchable in winter, for they hid in the lakebed's silt during other seasons, proving difficult to catch. This was the last type of fish she needed to collect.
Circling around the fishing line, the three ducks kept swimming dutifully, occasionally diving in search of fry, unfortunately without any success.
Even in the chilly weather, the three ducks were undeterred as they had advanced to Natural Sequence 1 - White Down Ducks. Although they lacked special abilities, they could endure the cold better than ordinary animals.
Sequence 1 was not remarkable, but advancing an ordinary animal in just two months was indeed notable. If she mentioned it, it would likely cause a stir within the Academy. However, Hexia did not care for such notoriety, so not many people knew about it. Besides, the magic fluctuation of Sequence 1 was quite subtle, undetectable without close observation.
Probably only after advancing to Sequence 2 would such an achievement be recognized by all.
As the float remained still for a long while and Hexia's thoughts began to drift toward other matters, the fishing rod in her hand suddenly dipped, and she quickly tightened her grip.
The fish beneath the ice began to thrash vigorously, pulling the fishing line to the edge of the ice hole, cutting into the ice on the side of the hole.
"Trying to run? It's not up to you," said the girl with a blink, followed by a stomp of her foot and then a sharp tug on the fishing rod.
A large silver fish, encased in a block of ice, leapt out of the water, casting shimmering flashes in the sunlight.
Primordial Sequence 2 - Silver Rock Fish, a special species capable of camouflaging itself as a rock to hide and hibernate.
Carrying the heavy fish, Hexia looked around and suddenly realized that she seemed to have forgotten to bring a bamboo basket for the fish.
Do I really have to carry this fish around the lake? The girl remembered some funny images that were circulated online.
How do you know I caught a big fish today.jpg
It's said that there's a special condition, which is after catching a big fish one might suffer from a kind of amnesia and have to go around the neighborhood and streets for three rounds before finding the way home.
Funny as it was, but she really didn't bring a fish basket today, and to use her spatial ability in full view was just too extravagant and showy.
In the end, the girl could only helplessly shake her head, carried the big fish, and walked towards the lakeside, hoping to borrow a fish basket at the little fishing gear cabin.
She didn't intend to eat this fish, but planned to keep it to experiment with some abilities, such as helping transcendent animals condense their cores and advance. It was after helping three little ducks advance that she realized she seemed especially good at this type of thing. Condensation of crystals allowed the transcendent cores to settle down easily and stably, and even if there were mistakes causing hidden injuries, she could heal them with the healing crystal. She could even use the ability of the Song of Time Strings to explore potential directions and find more harmonious structures.
The three pieces of spiritual medicine gems she had sent to her cousins on Qian Liu's side were also the product of her continuous experimentation recently. It wasn't as difficult as the adults thought, as after the initial unfamiliarity, she became more and more skilled at it. Now, making the same spiritual medicine gems would just take her minutes, but she didn't want to make it too astonishing. After all, there were too many ways to look up information within the federation, and it was easy to trace back to the source.
She sometimes felt it was a bit too much.
What others couldn't achieve in years, or even decades, she accomplished with ease, simply because of her talent.
Sigh, she wasn't sure whether such talent was a good or bad thing. She increasingly felt like a normal life was moving further away from her.
Upon reaching the lakeside, some classmates already saw the large silver fish in the girl's hands, and many were curious about it.
"That fish, is it a Silver Rockfish?"
"It should be, it's even emitting faint magic power fluctuations, probably a Sequence 2."
"It's very beautiful, both the fish and the person."
"You've already noticed how pretty that girl is, here I thought you were just paying attention to the fish," some students joked and laughed, and one or two more daring ones approached to ask questions.
"Excuse me, is this a Silver Rockfish, and how did you catch it?"
"It was caught in the center of the lake. I researched that they like to stay in the mud and only come out in winter," the girl explained briefly, and while others hadn't crowded around yet, she quickly made her escape, with the three little ducks chirping and following behind, taking cheerful steps.
"Phew." Arriving in front of the fishing gear hut, the girl sighed in relief and quickly tapped on the window. The staff on duty poked their head out and, seeing the girl with the big fish, quickly understood her need.
"Hehe, you're really lucky, catching one in the first year. Many students might not catch one even in four years at the academy," he said, handing over the fish basket. Then Hexia placed the fish inside, melted the transparent ice block, and let the fish start swimming again.
After bending down to thank him, the girl pulled her hood back up to block the sporadic snowflakes falling from the sky. Then, she pondered for a moment and put the three little ducks into the water-filled fish basket as well, watching them play with the big fish.
And so, after finally catching 20 different species of fish, Hexia completed the first challenge task given to her by the Yuanting Academy.