Chapter 51: Consumption Plus Body Strengthening—Definitely Worth It

"Consumption" is one of the spells Feng Xue bought from Ninth Aunt; according to the four foundational principles of the Mortuary Scripture, it belongs to the 【Transformation】 school, endowing magical energy with a "pre-digestive" quality akin to spider venom—in simple terms, it uses magical energy to process food, making it easier to digest and absorb.

It seems like a highly practical skill, capable of effectively replenishing the essence depletion caused by Xuan cultivators extracting primordial energy.

But in reality, few Xuan cultivators use this spell.

The reason, naturally, is an imbalance between input and output.

Although the Consumption spell increases the nutrients the body extracts from food, these nutrients must still be transformed by the body into essence, then converted into primordial energy through breath meditation, and finally absorbed by the spirit to produce magical energy.

With such layered transformations, the magical energy gained through the Consumption spell is even less than the magical energy consumed to activate it.

Although the focus of this spell is to enhance the primordial energy available for the spirit's growth and absorption, if magical energy cannot achieve balance, the Xuan cultivator's risk resistance plummets—let alone that pre-initiation Xuan cultivators have extremely weak control over magical energy; a single misstep leads to total loss.

Thus, except for those complete dependents who never leave their sect before initiation and rely entirely on their sect for all resources, most Xuan cultivators only use the Consumption spell when they obtain rare immortal mushrooms or spiritual herbs to boost absorption efficiency—or after initiation, to extract primordial energy from substances like jade that they normally cannot absorb.

But Feng Xue himself doesn't care—he has more magical energy than he knows what to do with, and he doesn't rely on the Consumption spell to increase primordial energy; he practices it solely to strengthen his essence, combining it with the Nourishing Essence and Body Strengthening spells to rapidly enhance his physical condition.

Had there been any heretical method that returned primordial energy through consumption, Feng Xue might have literally caused his electric meter to spin backward.

After quickly familiarizing himself with the Body Strengthening spell's movements, Feng Xue turned to studying the Nourishing Essence spell, roughly learning which foods and cooking methods suited Body Strengthening, ranking them by culinary difficulty, and planning to gradually teach them to Liu Yunxi…

"Wait a minute! I've got a new tool now!"

Feng Xue snapped his fingers—*pop*—and the translucent Mo Ying drifted out of the scroll, blinking around in confusion. Seeing several books before Feng Xue, he immediately assumed: "I haven't digested the one I copied this morning yet—give me some time to study it before I look at anything else…"

"Who mentioned books? I've got a task for you!" Feng Xue cut him off, pointing at the cookbook before him.

"You'll teach Liu Yunxi how to read and cook."

"You're turning me into…" Mo Ying started to refuse, but seeing Feng Xue's raised palm, his face flushed red; his half-extended body instantly retracted into the scroll, leaving only his head visible.

"I can't cook! I've never learned! I can't even tell salt from sugar, soy sauce from vinegar!"

"I don't need you to know how!" Feng Xue rolled his eyes, glancing at Liu Yunxi, who was already bringing dishes to the table. "Just use the recipes as literacy textbooks. She knows the difference between oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar! By the way, it's time you practiced your 【Drag Into Illusion】 technique—teach Liu Yunxi inside the 【Illusion】, and you'll save time."

"Who's 'crossing the model'?!" Though still unsure what "crossing the model" meant, Mo Ying understood it wasn't a compliment and immediately retorted. Meanwhile, Liu Yunxi, unaware of what awaited her, smiled and called out: "Dinner's almost ready—come eat!"

"Coming." Feng Xue grabbed the jade tablet inscribed with the character "Eat," engraved with the Consumption spell's transformation glyph, sat at the table, and began devouring everything in sight.

As magical energy flowed into the jade tablet, a warm current, guided by Feng Xue's intent, enveloped his body. A sensation—not quite unpleasant, but slightly unnatural—rippled through him, and the satisfaction from the food increased several times faster than normal eating.

Then Feng Xue realized: this entire table of food didn't produce even a hint of fullness!

He was like those cartoon characters with bottomless stomachs—having devoured massive quantities, yet his belly showed no bulge.

Seeing the Consumption spell's immediate effect, Feng Xue was pleasantly surprised, but he didn't pause—he immediately rose and began performing the Body Strengthening spell's postures.

Normally, one shouldn't exercise vigorously right after eating, but due to the Consumption spell's effect, Feng Xue had no fear of issues like gastric ptosis. As he moved through motions resembling broadcast calisthenics, he faintly felt a warm current slowly flowing along with his movements.

It resembled primordial energy, yet wasn't as tangible—merely following his consciousness at a steady pace, accompanying the stretching of tendons and contraction of muscles.

With this sensation emerging, the previously mundane calisthenics gained an air of mystery, and Feng Xue felt greater accomplishment in practicing.

Unfortunately, this training still wasn't enough to trigger his cheat skill—no "Body Strengthening Spell" popped up.

Recalling the descriptions of movement in the "Body Strengthening" manual, Feng Xue realized his perception was far more intense than normal Body Strengthening practitioners; he didn't believe himself some once-in-a-million martial genius—clearly, this warm current was the Consumption spell's bonus.

"Consumption plus Body Strengthening—definitely worth it!"

Feng Xue nodded in satisfaction, yet didn't wonder why others in this world didn't do the same—after all, no Xuan cultivator would waste precious magical energy to help a Wu Xiu solve a problem solvable by simply eating more and training harder.

After practicing for half an hour, Feng Xue felt the warm current begin to fade. He silently calculated, pulled out a sheet of paper, and began revising his schedule—

Body Strengthening isn't taxing, but the body needs time to consolidate—so one session after each meal suffices. Then, in the morning, when his body is in peak condition, it's perfect for standing meditation. At night, as always, he extracts primordial energy to feed his spirit.

"So really, it's just added morning exercise and post-meal movement." Feng Xue nodded, finalizing his schedule.

Seeing it was only four-something in the afternoon, Feng Xue reached out and patted Liu Yunxi, who was slumped on the table—then remembered she'd been dragged into the 【Illusion】 for lessons. He immediately contacted his spirit ghost.

But due to the illusion's interference, the signal was poor; Feng Xue could only sigh at his lowly spirit soul, then fished a jade tablet engraved with the character "Ghost" from his pocket.

He carried over a dozen jade tablets; retrieving the one he wanted wasn't done by mahjong-style groping or shoulder-view peeking, but through the spell "Summon Object."

In plain terms, this spell is simple: use the 【Attach Spirit Charm】 technique to fix one's magical energy onto an object, then encode specific annotations into the energy based on the object's nature.

Thus, when one desires something, merely sensing the magical energy imprint allows quick identification—and if one incorporates the magical energy's fourth trait, 【Transfer】, one can even make a spirit ghost retrieve objects from afar (Note ①).

But Feng Xue, a lowly cultivator who still relies on artifacts to transform magical energy, is far from that level—he can merely distinguish the types of artifacts in his pocket.

Now, as magical energy flowed into the jade tablet, the weak signal sharpened instantly—and Feng Xue heard Mo Ying's soft, cute voice—

"A little is just a little—how am I supposed to know how much? Just try it yourself when you cook… Ah, M-Master! You called me?"

Feng Xue didn't mind Mo Ying's still-reluctant address; he gave a direct order: "Release Liu Yunxi… Wait, just tell her—from tonight's dinner, increase her portion by two… no, by three times! We still have enough ingredients for the next two days; after that, I'll have the agent deliver food regularly—she handles the cooking!"

Note ①: A spirit ghost normally just picks up an object and hands it to you. But if you integrate Transfer and Attach Spirit, you can tag an object with a coordinate, teleport the spirit ghost hundreds or thousands of miles to that location, have it retrieve the target, then use the spirit-master spiritual bond to teleport the spirit ghost back—achieving a technique similar to spatial teleportation. Alternatively, you can reverse it: send objects dozens or hundreds of miles back home.

But this requires high magical energy perception—not the direct scanning kind, but the subtle awareness of where your own magical energy resides, somewhat like Bluetooth find-my-device. The protagonist clearly lacks this precision—he can't sense beyond two li, making it practically useless. Currently, it's only good for quickly identifying which artifact in his pocket is which.

ps1: The Consumption spell is equivalent to using magical energy to convert ingredients into nutrient broth (though waste is still produced, it's far less than normal eating). Nutrients are absorbed, but there's no sensation of fullness.

Also, this magical energy aids absorption—there's no scenario like eating massive supplements in reality and absorbing nothing.

ps2: Post 52 was auto-published with the wrong date; luckily, I could delete it.

ps3: About dice—each world in this book is a large module. I first write the worldbuilding, then plan several routes, and place different events along them. For this world, it's a fantasy-comedy tone: Ping'an County has zombies, evil ghosts, infant spirits; the harbor has triads; inland branches lead to Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Kunshan, with villages and shady inns along the way. Which path you take, what you encounter—all depends on the dice.

PS2: Chapter 52 was auto-published with the wrong date, but luckily I could delete it.

PS3: About the dice—each world in this book is a massive module. I first write the worldbuilding, then plan several routes, and along those routes place different events. For example, this world has a phantom comedy aesthetic: Ping'an County has zombies, evil ghosts, and infant spirits; Gangdu has triads; heading inland, there are branches to Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Kunshan, with villages and shady inns along the way. Which path you take and what you encounter depends on the dice.

(End of Chapter)

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(End of this chapter)