I Loaded the Mysticism Panel

Old Big walked back to his side of the table, scratched his head, and began to explain seriously:

"If your inspiration is too high at a Low Tier, it’s easy to see things you shouldn’t see prematurely."

"What kind of things?"

"Things behind the Veil."

The smile lines on his round face vanished completely.

"Inspiration is a window. The bigger the window, the more of the scenery outside you can see."

"But a window works both ways. You can see out, and what’s outside can see you."

His gaze shifted from the desk lamp to Richard’s face.

"If your inspiration is so high that you can perceive the depths of the Veil even as a Newcomer, then those things will be able to perceive you as well."

"It’s like a freshly lit Candle. If the flame is too bright, distant eyes will spot it immediately."

He drew a circle in the air with his index finger:

"But your flame is only so big. If those distant things really do see you, what will you use to deal with them?"

Richard recalled a line from *On the Ascent in the Veil*—the brighter the Candle, the more eyes that see it.

That text dedicated a great deal of space to elaborating on this logic.

Maintaining a low profile at a Low Tier is the first rule of survival.

"Too high is a Curse," Old Big concluded, his tone heavy.

"But too low isn’t good either. If it’s too low, you’ll just live your whole life as a Muggle, unable to even perceive the most basic Flowing Ether."

He tapped his fingers on the tabletop.

"At your level, your Perception isn’t what I’d call exceptionally strong.

Though you correctly identified eight of them just now, you hesitated for more than five seconds on three of them.

That means those few signals were on the edge of your perception range. You could grasp them, but not steadily."

"Your window is just the right size. Big enough to see things up close, but not so big that you get noticed by things far away."

He leaned back in his chair and refilled his cup halfway from a copper pot.

"Once your strength increases, your Tier rises, and your Ether reserves grow deeper, your inspiration will naturally grow along with them.

By then, the window will be bigger, and you’ll also have the ability to deal with the gazes from outside."

"The ones to worry about are the kids whose innate inspiration is off the charts.

Their windows are terrifyingly large, and they’re standing in front of them in a thin shirt while a gale rages and the rain pours outside."

He took a sip of tea, smacking his lips.

"My school once had someone like that. On the day of his initiation, during the Spiritual Vision test, he correctly distinguished all twenty items his teacher presented.

Not only did he distinguish their presence, but he also directly stated the relative ranking of each item’s strength."

"A perfect twenty, plus the ranking." Old Big gave a thumbs-up. "If not a once-in-a-century talent, then at least one you’d see only every few decades."

"What happened to him?"

Old Big’s thumb slowly lowered.

"Later..." He looked at the tea leaves at the bottom of his cup and didn’t continue.

The room fell silent.

The filament in the desk lamp buzzed, and the yellow cloth lampshade swayed slightly.

"Anyway," Old Big blinked hard twice.

"Your current inspiration is sufficient. Just take it steady and slow."

"Don’t be in a hurry to force the window open wider. It will grow on its own as you do."

Richard quietly processed these words.

’I still have one Point left to allocate.’

’My initial plan was to decide based on the results of today’s inspiration test.’

’If my inspiration was on the low side, I could have added the Point to Perception mid-test for an emergency boost.’

’Now, it seems my inspiration is at a perfectly suitable level.’

’And as for Breathing, at its current rate of accumulation, the progress bar will naturally fill up soon.’

’When that happens, I can just invest that saved Point to break Breathing through from Level 2 to Level 3 and obtain the "Healing" trait.’

’A body that continuously self-repairs, a higher stamina limit, deeper sleep, stronger immunity... the efficiency of all activities dependent on physical condition will rise accordingly.’

After Old Big finished speaking, his expression relaxed from its previous seriousness.

"Speaking of inspiration... my master’s wasn’t particularly high in the beginning either."

"Lady Mary?"

"Yes. When she was young, her test results were only a little better than yours. Upper-middle level, not exceptionally outstanding."

Old Big set his tin cup on the table and spun it around.

"When she first started, she was just a young girl of sixteen or seventeen, working as an apprentice in a pharmacy in the Southern Imperial City District.

One day, an old woman came into the pharmacy to buy peppermint oil, casually gave her forehead a pinch, and took her on as a student right then and there."

He rubbed his hands together, sounding a little wistful.

"After her test, her master said something that she later relayed to us."

"What did she say?"

"She said, ’The apprentice who learns best in a pharmacy isn’t the one with the sharpest nose, but the one most willing to smell.’"

Old Big drained the remaining half-cup of tea in one gulp.

"Her ability to get where she is today might be partly due to her foundational inspiration, but it’s much more about her hard work and exceptional comprehension."

As he said this, Old Big’s mouth suddenly froze.

He blinked his small eyes a couple of times, clearly annoyed with himself.

His big mouth had blurted it all out, and only now did he realize he’d revealed something he shouldn’t have.

"In any case," he said, vaguely pulling the conversation back.

"Talent is the floor, and effort is the ceiling. Your floor is high enough. The rest depends on how you train."

Richard mentally filed away the piece of information that "Lady Mary’s inspiration level is upper-middle."

Combining this with what Gerald had revealed on the phone earlier, Lady Mary had an excellent reputation in the Central and Northern Imperial regions, a vast network, and students in all walks of life.

’For someone with upper-middle inspiration to build what she has today, it definitely wasn’t just about talent.’

’Gerald said she "casts a wide net," and Old Big said her master valued "the one most willing to smell."’

’Putting those two pieces of information together, the picture became clear.’

’This was a person who used diligence and shrewdness to make up for a lack of raw talent—and had done so with incredible success.’

He asked tentatively,

"So, what Tier is Lady Mary at now?"

Old Big scratched his chin.

"That’s no secret. She’s at the Grand Mastery Tier."

After saying that, he thought for a moment and added,

"Grand Mastery is the ceiling on the Old Continent."

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like."

"The Old Continent, meaning the Western and Eastern Continents, including our Albion Imperial.

Among the Cultivators currently known to be alive, there are basically no High Tiers above Grand Mastery."

Above Grand Mastery, the Tiers recorded in the literature are Expert, Master, and Hidden Seat.

Now Old Big had added another piece of information: among the actual community of Cultivators on the Old Continent, Grand Mastery was the peak.

Richard asked curiously, "No Experts? No Masters?"

"If there are, they’re not on a level we can interact with."

Old Big spread his hands.

"Our master would occasionally mention certain things while teaching us, but she never went into too much depth."

His gaze fell upon the old copper button on the desk.

"This is what she said... ’Those above Grand Mastery no longer need to be known by us.

Whether they exist or not has no impact on our daily lives.

Whether a star in the sky is shining or not doesn’t affect whether you eat dinner tonight.’"

Richard listened quietly.

"But she also said one more thing..."

Old Big’s expression grew even more serious.

"’If one day you see a star falling in your direction, then run. Run as far away as you can!’"

"’Because when a star falls, it doesn’t care if it crushes an ant or an elephant.’"

Richard nodded.

The phrasing in *On the Ascent in the Veil* and Lady Mary’s analogy were talking about the same thing.

The stars don’t care about ants; the flame doesn’t care about moths.

Those of a higher Level were natural disasters to the people below.

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