Chapter 13: Meditation Method and Contemplation Method

Beneath an ordinary little swamp.

Dragon's nest.

Lai Ang closed his eyes, using the idle slot to temper his spiritual power, growing stronger step by step.

Suddenly, a dragon's roar pierced through a hundred meters of swamp mud and transmitted into the dragon's nest.

Lai Ang abruptly opened his dragon eyes, a flicker of joy flashing deep within.

Mother has returned! In the other two corners of the dragon's nest, Ai Di and Sai Jia were also startled awake from sleep, their dragon eyes filled with joy.

Not long after, the black dragon plunged into the swamp and, with a savage posture, stormed into the dragon's nest.

Lai Ang, Ai Di, and Sai Jia, the three young dragons, had long been waiting at the entrance of the dragon's nest.

The ferocious pitch-black giant dragon emerged from the shadows, its silhouette illuminated by the glowing stones inside the dragon's nest.

Shattered scales covering half its body, several sword marks deep enough to reveal bone, and a right hind dragon claw twisted in a strange arc—each wound bore witness to the brutality of the mother dragon's previous bloodbath.

Seeing this, the three young dragons couldn't help but hold their breath.

The excitement of the mother dragon's return also faded by more than half.

"Mother, are you alright?" Lai Ang couldn't help but ask.

This time the mother dragon's injuries were even more severe than before, inevitably making Lai Ang feel worried.

Xi Er Wa Na Si lowered her gaze to her three children, a hint of softness flashing in her icy dragon eyes: "No need to worry; I'll recover in a few months."

"A few months?" That seemed not to have injured the foundation. Lai Ang thought to himself and also let out a sigh of relief.

However, for a giant dragon, an injury requiring months to heal is absolutely considered a serious wound.

Like Lai Ang tearing off Sai Jia's dragon scales or breaking its claws, those would heal in just a few days to over ten days.

"I need to enter hibernation first; after I wake, I will take you all away from here." Xi Er Wa Na Si said.

Then, without even glancing at the three young dragons' expressions, she headed straight into the dragon's nest, lay down on the scattered treasures, and instantly fell into a deep slumber.

Only the three young dragons remained, staring at each other.

"Leave here?" Ai Di narrowed his eyes, then glared with his dragon eyes, "Could it be that Mother didn't kill the enemy?"

After Ai Di voiced that possibility, the atmosphere grew heavy again.

"Enough, stop wild speculation." Lai Ang gave a low shout, then snorted coldly, "We just wait for Mother to awaken; don't think about anything else."

Although Lai Ang wasn't certain whether the mother dragon had slain the enemy, from her relaxed expression just now, he thought the outcome probably wasn't bad.

Even if she didn't kill the enemy, she at least drove them off—otherwise she would surely have warned the three young dragons not to go out.

Lai Ang turned and returned to his dwelling, continuing to temper his spiritual power.

However, in the idle slot, the first-ring spell 'Mage's Eye' that had been inserted only a few hours earlier was taken out and replaced with the Black Water Battle Qi that had already reached the second stage.

【Black Water Battle Qi】 (Second Stage)

【Level: 0 (0/50)】

Now that the mother dragon has returned, the idle priority of the Mage's Eye naturally falls behind.

Strength is what truly matters.

And what can most quickly boost Lai Ang's strength is undoubtedly the Black Water Battle Qi.

Moreover, the passive nourishment of the body from the Black Water Battle Qi can also stimulate the dragon's physique to develop faster, making Lai Ang bigger and stronger.

Two benefits in one. "However, the first-ring spell 'Breath Barrier' is also close to being mastered; I'll learn it first and then speak." Lai Ang thought to himself.

Once learned, it can be used to level up via the idle slot at any time, and even if not using the idle slot, it's still usable—just that the casting speed is slow and the effect is rather lackluster.

Seven days later.

Accompanied by the condensation of a white rune in his mind, Lai Ang slowly exhaled, feeling his brain weary.

"I've finally learned this first-ring spell, Breath Barrier." Lai Ang felt both happy and troubled.

The happiness came from having learned a spell; the headache came from knowing that, as long as he kept thinking about getting stronger, he would eventually have to encounter more and more profound spells.

"Just simply learning the release and basic use of a first-ring spell is already far harder than solving Olympiad math problems in my previous life." Lai Ang sighed.

Only by truly studying magic can one understand why, despite being born as a 'spellcasting genius' among dragons, there are so few who master spells.

From the Black Dragon inheritance, it is known that even adult giant dragons, aside from innate spell-like abilities granted by talent, mostly learn only a few practical simple spells.

For example, Mage's Hand (used to conveniently pick up things), Magic Seal (used to protect treasures), and similar minor spells.

Even among the five-colored dragons, the green dragon clan, which is most prone to producing powerful spellcasters, does not start learning spells from childhood, but only begins to gradually engage with them after adolescence.

Even so, green dragons that truly master a large number of spells are extremely rare.

Because giant dragons are lazy.

A low-tier spell, studying for three days then resting for thirty days, is normal for green dragons; besides, their lifespans are long, so they can simply rely on time to grind progress.

In this regard, spellcasters born of other short-lived races can be said to be envious, jealous, and resentful.

Lai Ang slowly closed his dragon eyes, his mind sinking into a state of idle reverie.

In that relaxed state, Lai Ang was also doing some simple thinking.

"Relying solely on the idle slot to temper spiritual power, although the effect is not bad, the efficiency is still too low."

"Is there any way to speed it up?"

Then, Lai Ang found in the Black Dragon inheritance information the knowledge of meditation and contemplation methods placed in a 'remote corner'.

Meditation Method: empty everything, letting body, emotion, and spirit gradually merge, unconsciously increasing spiritual power naturally.

Contemplation Method: using imagination, or shaping some real existence in the mind. The more refined and complex the shaping, the faster the spiritual power increases.

After looking them over, Lai Ang roughly understood the pros and cons of these two methods for boosting spiritual power.

The Meditation Method is relatively easy to get into, the process of increasing spiritual power is also fairly comfortable, but its effect is comparatively weaker than the Contemplation Method. Moreover, the Meditation Method is unsuitable for beings with scattered thoughts and many desires; learning it would only yield half the result for double the effort.

The Meditation Method is better suited for beings with pure minds and few thoughts.

As for the Contemplation Method, its entry is relatively difficult, the process of increasing spiritual power is precisely the process of contemplation, and it will moreover make you feel mentally exhausted to an extreme degree.

But the effect is better compared to meditation.

Especially for sentient beings with many distracting thoughts and strong desires, they can release these thoughts and desires through visualization. For example, if you have a strong destructive desire, you then create a 'destroy everything' world in your mental realm, releasing the destructive desire within the visualization.

Lai Ang thought for a while; although it wanted to choose a more comfortable meditation method, reality told it that the most suitable for it was still the visualization method.

The various chaotic knowledge and information it encountered over dozens of years in its previous life, plus that of this life; furthermore, Lai Ang's own desire is also extremely strong.

It has become stronger now, although it is only for the sake of survival.

But it is not truly just becoming stronger purely for survival.

It wants to properly take a look at the scenery of this vast world, and then witness one interesting event after another.

(End of chapter)