Chapter 468: Transcendence, Prediction

Although he had not expected anything like Will Fuwu or Mind Fuwu to begin with, when Xia Duo truly saw this so-called "Meditation Method," he could not help but feel disappointed.

The Arcane Empire's "Meditation Method" was actually somewhat similar to the yoga meditation from Xia Duo's hometown; both aimed to improve focus, but it lacked any directly quantifiable means of observation, and in some respects, it was not even as good as the Focus Training of the Main Plane.

At the very least, ordinary Focus Training could tell the trainee the goals that needed to be reached at each stage.

However, upon closer inspection, Xia Duo still discovered the advantage of this "Meditation Method"—there were no bottlenecks; as long as one kept practicing, one would eventually be able to perceive the Soul.

The Main Plane's Focus Training existed here as well, but here, ordinary Focus Training seemed to have been relegated to a quantitative testing method rather than the primary means of training.

Here, meditation was the primary focus.

This kind of Meditation Method was clearly not the one Xia Duo had been looking forward to, the kind described in novels that could enhance so-called Mental Power or even the Soul.

Whether it was meditation or ordinary Focus Training, both were merely means to unearth a Spellcaster's innate endowment, similar to an athlete's training on Earth; advanced training methods might allow an ordinary person to become a world champion, but no matter how much one practiced, it was impossible to train a human into a non-human.

Currently, whether it was Netheril on the Main Plane or the Arcane Empire, both knew too little about the Soul, but even so, this did not prevent an ordinary person from becoming a Great Arcanist.

Xia Duo guessed that Great Arcanists would die a natural death, perhaps precisely because of the inherent limitations of mortal beings; the next step should be Ascension to Godhood.

Having read so many novels and even written one himself, Xia Duo was naturally interested in the so-called "Ascension to Godhood"; this was not the concept of a Main Plane Spellcaster surpassing ordinary people, but an essential leap.

From this perspective, Elves were actually mortal beings as well, only their natural lifespan was a bit longer than humans.

For the time being, only gods were undoubtedly "transcendent."

Humans had a Soul, and Xia Duo speculated that gods should also have a Divine Soul, or a similar existence; if there really were some Meditation Method that could turn a human's essence into a god, that would be too exaggerated.

Compared to fantasy novels or cultivation novels with various techniques, Mages in a real Magic world had no techniques for cultivation; all they had was Knowledge, or to use the words of Xia Duo's hometown, it should be called "Mechanical Ascension," "Technological God-making," or "Magic Ascension to Godhood."

The concepts of Magic and science were consistent; both were knowledge systems verifiable within a certain range, and in the future, it might truly be possible for mass Ascension to Godhood, provided that technology (Magic technology) exceeded a certain critical point.

Of course, this was merely Xia Duo's current speculation; if the essence of Magic did not waver, such speculation might be realized, just as before Xia Duo transmigrated, although his hometown was only a small, broken ball, the vision of his hometown's scientists could fly to the depths of the endless Universe, with theories far exceeding reality.

Xia Duo's current speculation was just like the predictions from his hometown regarding Controlled Nuclear Fusion, curvature flight, longevity, or even immortality; it was theoretically completely feasible, but theory was theory after all, and it was still a bit short of reality.

Having gained the "Meditation Method," although it was not the Meditation Method from novels that could enhance one's essence, Xia Duo was still very happy to have a relatively efficient training method without bottlenecks.

The Main Plane's Focus Training was divided into multiple stages; once one stage was completed, starting the next stage required re-familiarization and re-training, not to mention the time wasted, and the efficiency itself could not compare to the Arcane Empire's Meditation Method.

No wonder the Arcane Empire had so many Great Arcanists!

The difficulty of advancement was lowered, so there were more Arcanists, and naturally, more would eventually endure to become Great Arcanists, not to mention the various shortcut methods; Xia Duo himself knew how to fast-track levels.

As long as one found a high-ring Learning Scroll and displayed all the Spell details, once learned, one could touch a higher layer of the Magic Net, breaking through layer by layer, and theoretically, one could quickly rise above 10 Rings.

But such a Spellcaster was extremely dangerous; if their focus was not up to par, a single disturbance during Spellcasting could trigger the Magic Net String in the Deep Weave; dying oneself was a small matter, but the most feared thing was implicating a crowd of people nearby.

Therefore, the higher the rank of the Spellcaster, the stronger their self-Control ability; at least in terms of controlling Magic Net Strings, High Mages were far superior to low-rank Mages.

Now, after multiple rounds of Focus Training, Xia Duo's will was condensed to a certain degree, and he could perceive the existence of the Magic Net at any time without needing to deliberately maintain a state of focus, although it was somewhat blurry.

Sometimes he even worried whether one day, while dreaming, he would accidentally trigger the Magic Net and kill himself; the further one went toward higher ranks, the more cautious one became.

Shortcut methods were not advisable.

From this, it could be seen how precious a Meditation Method that could improve the efficiency of Focus Training was. If the speed of focus improvement increased, it was equivalent to the speed of leveling up becoming faster; this was the situation in the Arcane Empire.

And on the Main Plane, the focus improvement speed of the average Spellcaster was higher than the acquisition speed of Knowledge; this was due to the degree of Knowledge openness in the two Planes.

In the future, if one wanted to engage in Knowledge openness, perhaps a supporting training method similar to the Meditation Method would also appear.

And for now, the Meditation Method was the most suitable method for geniuses like Xia Duo, whose Knowledge acquisition speed was higher than their focus improvement speed.

Quickly and roughly finishing this "Empire Meditation Third Edition," Xia Duo closed his eyes and began to recall the content of the book; reading it once was of course not enough for him to memorize the entire text, but he could have a rough and comprehensive impression.

Because he had two days off, Xia Duo had plenty of time to obtain this book, and soon he was reading it for the second time; at the same time, he also began to use the paper and pen in his Personal Space to take study notes.

He did not need to copy the whole book, but he had to organize the complete Meditation Method.

From morning to night, Xia Duo not only organized the Meditation Method but also found materials regarding the Paper-making Technique; the "Technique" here indeed referred to Spells, but it was not a single Spell, but rather a series.

It included 7 Spells for the entire process, such as 【Paper-making Crushing Force Field】, 【Paper-making Acid Baptism】, 【Paper-making Acid Neutralization】, and 【Paper-making Shaping and Drying】.

Of course, where there were Spell versions, there were naturally non-Spell versions.

According to the records in the book, the earliest paper in the Arcane Empire was made using Spells, pioneered by a Great Sage; later, a paper-making method without Spells was researched, and now the most popular paper was made using ordinary methods.

Of course, high-quality paper still involved Spells.

What Xia Duo found a pity was that the paper made by the Arcane Empire could not serve as a carrier for Magic Scrolls; this was clearly still a certain distance away from the Elf city where his previous Projection was located (it could only make 0-Ring Scrolls, which had little practical value).

However, no one knew how it would develop in the future; perhaps artificial paper that could serve as a carrier for Magic Scrolls would appear!

Having stayed in the Library for the whole day, coupled with high-intensity thinking, by the end of the day, Xia Duo was so hungry he felt his chest sticking to his back, but as long as he thought about his gains in the Library, he did not feel that hungry.

Returning to his residence and eating something casually, Xia Duo could not wait to start his first attempt at meditation.