Chapter 157: The Power of Imagination

Lan Qingyou floated lightly to the side of the bed, then sprawled out spread-eagle on the mattress, staring up at the tent ceiling as she began to think.

It had to be said that the written language of the Kalim Continent and the characters of her native Dragon Kingdom were completely different.

After all, substituting one entirely different language for another and still achieving the exact same result was enough of an anomaly to keep a researcher digging for a lifetime.

Unable to wrap her head around it, Lan Qingyou posted her doubts in the group chat.

Since it was past eleven in the morning—the busiest time for wrapping up the morning's work—several minutes ticked by without a single reply.

It wasn't until the avid fisherman Nemo broke the silence that others began to slowly surface in the chat.

The Pope: "This is indeed a fascinating topic. Although I haven't studied magic instructions or enchanting, I have researched Symbology and Magic Circuits quite a bit. Personally, do you think the font or the specific characters simply don't matter?"

Perhaps because he hadn't caught anything today and decided to call it quits early, the Pope, sitting in his small boat, pulled out his Card to ask Gu Xiaobei for some food.

He ended up seeing Lan Qingyou's message instead, gave it some thought, and sent his reply.

The High Priestess: "I disagree with the Pope's guess. Since a course like 'Basic Magic Instruction Studies' exists in this world, it proves how important the actual text is to magic instructions."

The Star: "True. After reading that book, I also felt that the characters were crucial for magic instructions, but that doesn't explain what happened on the Tower's end."

At this point, the conversation hit a dead end.

No one had a clue how to explain this phenomenon.

No...

Let alone an explanation, they didn't even have a single lead.

The gap between the two theories was simply too vast.

Wheel of Fortune: "Do you guys think there's a chance this is related to the paper the Tower published earlier?"

The Tower: "Hm?"

Wheel of Fortune: "["On the Necessary Correlation Between Mental State and Talent"]"

The Magician: "What do you mean?"

Wheel of Fortune: "Didn't that paper propose the idealistic concept of 'that which the mind envisions'?"

Wheel of Fortune: "What if the text itself is important, but what truly matters is that when you write the characters, you inject mana while simultaneously infusing the very concept of your thoughts into them? If that's the case, wouldn't it completely resolve the contradiction?"

Wheel of Fortune: "Otherwise, why would this discipline even exist? Isn't it just to teach us the specific meanings contained within the letters and instructions of the Kalim Continent?"

Hiss—

Wheel of Fortune's hypothesis made Lan Qingyou draw in a sharp breath.

As the author of the paper, she naturally knew exactly what the concept of "that which the mind envisions" meant.

It was a concept practically identical to the "power of sheer belief."

But hold on a second! It actually made perfect sense!

Thanks to Esmeralda's reminder, Lan Qingyou genuinely felt it was possible.

After all, writing was just another form of symbols.

It was simply the user who imbued these characters with power.

For example, some people had talents for spirit speech or drawing talismans—wasn't that just another manifestation of the power of words?

If that was the case, then pouring one's thoughts into the text while infusing it with mana had to be incredibly important.

This was especially true for the ideograms of her Dragon Kingdom, which carried inherent meaning; every time she wrote them, she would unconsciously associate them with their related concepts.

For instance, highly visual characters like "run" or "jump" immediately evoked images of sprinting and leaping the moment they were written. Her mental imagery was naturally manifested and engraved into the text, forming the magic instruction.

Just as Wheel of Fortune had said, it truly was a matter of idealism.

But then again, was there any shortage of idealism in this magical world?

If a dying monster could instantly transform into a literal ore vein, what couldn't happen?

She could only admit that she still hadn't completely abandoned her preconceived notions and rigid mindset.

Slapping her forehead, Lan Qingyou offered a wry smile. Soon, various ways of writing instructions began to flood her mind.

The Tower: "I'll give it a try."

Wheel of Fortune: "Let us know the results of this theory later."

The Tower: "Will do."

Closing the chat, Lan Qingyou began writing down everything she had envisioned.

She wrote, pondered, recorded, and tested all at once.

She meticulously tested every single vocabulary instruction she penned down.

Once she had completely filled the interiors of both the purple knight and the Horned Lion Beast with various instructions, Lan Qingyou led her small squad out of the tent.

A heavy blizzard raged outside, but it couldn't cool Lan Qingyou's burning desire to experiment.

"Squeak!"

"Chirp, chirp!"

Seeing Lan Qingyou fly out of the tent, the two little creatures hurried after her.

But when they realized she was only moving around the entrance, they simply poked their heads out the flap to watch what was happening outside.

'It's a cute gesture and all, but do you two little rascals have absolutely no intention of sticking with me through thick and thin?'

Looking at the two little creatures' display, Lan Qingyou felt a strong urge to drag them out and force them to stand in the blizzard as punishment.

Just to teach them a chilly lesson.

However, the experiment took priority right now, so Lan Qingyou pushed those petty thoughts aside.

Controlling a magic puppet wasn't actually as complicated as one might think.

It didn't require anything overly mystical, nor did it involve pulling on physical strings like a marionette.

Because the instructions were inscribed using her own mana, she only needed to formulate the thought in her mind and issue the command.

Of course, there was a range limit.

Generally speaking, the control radius was roughly thirty meters, which was more than enough.

If she were to incorporate a Soul Crystal, Lan Qingyou was confident she could extend that control radius to fifty meters.

But this time was different.

Inspired by Esmeralda's earlier comment, Lan Qingyou directly applied the "Automatic Cruising" instruction to her duo of magic puppets.

It was an incredibly convenient and labor-saving command.

It essentially acted like a skill macro.

Anyone who had ever played video games knew that a macro was a hotkey binding multiple actions and skills together; pressing a single key would make the game character execute a pre-set series of desired moves.

A complete sequence—"Deploy Spiral Lance," "Charge," "Thrust," and "Retract Lance"—could be executed with just a single instruction combined with Automatic Cruising.

Lan Qingyou couldn't think of a better way to play with this system.

That was right.

She was playing.

When she was inscribing the commands, she treated the whole process like a game.

Although these creations were meant to save her life and boost her combat power, there was no denying that without an optimistic, playful mindset, dreaming up so many fascinating ideas would have been utterly impossible.

"It's a shame. If I had a Soul Crystal from a Warg or something similar, the Horned Lion Beast's movements would be much more agile."

Lan Qingyou muttered to herself as she watched the two magic puppets continuously execute various tactical maneuvers in the snow.