Chapter 46: Progressive Refinement

Carving jade was inherently a laborious task; whether soft or hard jade, it was still hard, and without force, you could not cut away unwanted parts, but with too much force, you risked damaging the parts you wished to preserve.

Fortunately, Feng Xue was wealthy and had ample scrap material to practice with, starting with fragments no larger than a thumbtip, gradually adapting to the feel of his carving knife.

Compared to magical energy, he found his control over his body was exceptional; after ruining only about a dozen fragments, he could already precisely regulate the force in his fingers.

This was not an innate quality he possessed before his transmigration, nor was it a talent of this body—he pondered for a moment and could only attribute it to the enhancement brought by his spiritual soul's elevation.

Although issues like disproportionate proportions and distorted patterns still occurred, they were not due to flawed control, but merely a lack of experience in artistic foundation and design thinking.

"Maybe I should try learning martial arts?"

This thought suddenly surfaced in Feng Xue's mind—and once it did, it refused to fade.

He had decisively abandoned Wu Xiu before because the path of martial cultivators clashed severely with his golden finger; achieving longevity through self-study was exceedingly difficult.

But now that he had a foundation in Xuan cultivation and possessed superior bodily control, Feng Xue couldn't help but want to learn about this world's martial way.

Although fragments from the "Yi Zhuang Secret Manual" told him that Wu Xiu here seemed fundamentally incompatible with Xuan cultivation, more skills never weighed one down—even if he himself could not learn them, perhaps in the future, after transmigration, he could use them to train subordinates.

Since he had already decided to convert his gains from this world into risk-mitigation assets before trying his luck again, Feng Xue naturally sought to collect as many useful things as possible—Cultivation Techniques, naturally, were among them.

A sliver of jade fell under the carving knife; Feng Xue placed the roughly cylindrical piece on the table, then picked up a new fragment and began cutting. Though he now had ideas, he still demanded himself to complete his set goal before acting on new impulses.

After all, in this world, Xuan cultivators placed great importance on mental discipline; most had already refined their character through the process of restraining their rate of Qi absorption, but Feng Xue was destined to lack this aspect—even if he believed his temperament was stable, he still added extra training to temper his mind.

As Feng Xue continuously refined his carving technique and gradually began infusing jade-affinity magical energy (via artifact transformation) into the process, synchronizing jade carving with jade nourishment, his heart suddenly stirred—he turned his head and saw a faint spiritual light slowly drifting out from the bedroom.

"That… um… m…." Seeing Mo Ying seemed still uncertain about the term "master," but after hesitating for a long while, she gritted her teeth and finally spoke it:

"Master, that tutorial is too long—I can't remember all of it at once! I want to digest it first, but it keeps turning pages…"

"Oh, right." Feng Xue, who had intended all along to make Seeing Mo Ying beg for his help, feigned sudden realization, set down his carving knife, turned into the room, fetched paper, ink brush, and his phone, and brought them all to the living room—

"I'll transmit some magical energy to you so you can interact with objects. Then you can learn while copying—how's that?"

"Yes!" Seeing Mo Ying nodded almost without hesitation. Feng Xue extended his hand, hovering above her incorporeal head; as magical energy flowed out, Seeing Mo Ying slowly solidified from her ethereal, luminous form.

This was not some "flesh" or "physical form" technique—Feng Xue performed no fine manipulation; he merely transmitted magical energy. The sense of solidity granted to Seeing Mo Ying came from the spiritual contract previously engraved within her.

Of course, this solidity could only be used to execute effects inherent to the "Spirit Binding Spell"—such as grasping objects or delivering an invisible punch to a target. To induce nightmares, retrieve desired items across any distance, or even carry the master through flight, she would still need to cultivate the relevant transformation techniques.

But neither Seeing Mo Ying nor Feng Xue considered such matters now. With a physical form, Seeing Mo Ying became like a ravenous glutton starved for centuries—impatiently snatching up the ink brush, gripping it in a posture so correct it bordered on rigid, yet she did not immediately begin copying. Instead, she scribbled randomly across a page.

Though Feng Xue was no expert in calligraphy, he had glanced at the textbook when helping Seeing Mo Ying open it, and after a moment's thought, he realized this must be the basic brush techniques mentioned in the opening—central tip, side tip, reverse tip…

Though it looked like random doodling, it contained the fundamental strokes of brushwork—clear proof that the spirit was studying earnestly.

Then, then Seeing Mo Ying just stared at the phone screen, motionless.

The spirit fidgeted, and a flood of emotions flowed through the spiritual contract toward Feng Xue. Seeing his indifferent expression, she finally couldn't hold back and spoke shyly:

"Um… I don't know how to use it…"

"Don't know how to use what? Isn't this the mirror enchanted with the Circle of Light spell?"

Liu Yunxi, who had never encountered such a fussy ghost (having only seen two other greedy, shameless ghosts), hearing her finally speak, immediately glanced over curiously. Though she had seen Feng Xue connect his phone to a drone before, seeing it inside the room still sparked her curiosity—

"Huh? Isn't this thing supposed to be used with a Kongming lantern?"

"Circle of Light… never mind." Feng Xue shook his head, abandoning explanation. He swiped a few times on the screen, gesturing for Seeing Mo Ying to watch closely and learn well.

Admittedly, if used merely to read e-books, smartphones were easy to operate—Seeing Mo Ying quickly mastered the page-turning method.

Watching the spirit enthusiastically copying, Liu Yunxi spoke up:

"Aren't you afraid she'll break it? Ghostly aura corrodes magical energy!"

"..." Feeling Seeing Mo Ying's anxious emotions flowing through the magical energy, Feng Xue cast a sidelong glance at the stiffly moving female ghost, smiled faintly, and said nothing.

Break it?

He was certainly worried—but for safety during transmigration, he had brought three phones, and his data was duplicated across two storage cards. If Seeing Mo Ying truly broke this one, he had backups—and could use the incident to give her a proper lesson to make her remember!

Though she didn't know what Feng Xue was thinking, the spiritual contract's mental link made Seeing Mo Ying's heart chill—her hand turned pages with increasing caution.

Feng Xue gave Liu Yunxi a "well done" look. The white snake, however, seemed to not fully understand—but since the expression appeared to be praise, she stopped thinking and happily resumed organizing jade material.

Seeing Liu Yunxi's clueless, endearing expression, Feng Xue's mood improved greatly; he felt his cultivation drive grow even stronger.

The mental connection between a spirit ghost and its master is inevitable—or else, how would the ghost receive its master's commands? Would the master have to shout, "Attack!" for the ghost to understand?

This is the same principle as spirit-souls of magical artifacts in cultivation novels—if the spirit-soul cannot directly sense what the master intends, what use is it?

Of course, this connection is controlled unilaterally by the master: if he wishes the ghost to know clearly, it knows clearly; if he wishes to withhold, the ghost receives only vague impressions.

Hmm, at least there is some perception—it cannot be severed entirely, or else the contract would break.

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(End of Chapter)