Chapter 22

“Puff”

Wang Yu’s five fingers trembled slightly, and a wisp of white mist spewed from his palm, lingering without dispersing, floating lightly in the air before him as if weightless.

Curious, he tapped the white mist with one finger—it was chilly, but not unbearable.

Only when he withdrew his finger and examined it closely did he notice a faint trace of frost lingering on his fingertip.

At that moment, the white mist gradually faded, and after a few breaths, vanished completely.

Is this the power of the second layer of Yin Water Technique?

Wang Yu felt deeply disappointed.

When his emotions had calmed somewhat, he reached into his robe and pulled out a small gray pouch hidden against his body—the very item suspected to be a storage bag from the Lord of Huangshi City.

As the lord of a city, when the Lord of Huangshi died, aside from a damaged magical shield and a pair of invulnerable gloves, not a single spirit stone was found?

If this truly is a storage bag, then without question, all valuable items must be stored inside.

With his cultivation base now greatly enhanced, he must try again.

Wang Yu held the cloth bag in one hand, locked his spiritual sense onto its opening, and slowly channeled his internal cultivation energy through his five fingers into it, carefully observing any changes.

As cultivation energy seeped bit by bit into the bag, the previously motionless pouch began to emit faint, unknown white light.

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow and increased the rate of energy input; after a short while, when his internal energy was still about half left, the tightly sealed opening of the bag slowly loosened slightly.

He rejoiced, pouring his remaining cultivation energy into the bag while simultaneously probing his spiritual sense into the opening—inside, he saw a small pile of glittering spirit stones, two green boxes, and something resembling a book.

Before Wang Yu could clearly make out the contents, his final trace of cultivation energy was exhausted; the storage bag shuddered, and its opening snapped shut again, locking tightly.

His spiritual sense was instantly repelled—he had no time to retrieve anything. Could it be that even with his current cultivation level, he still lacked the power to open this bag?

Wang Yu sighed, placed the storage bag aside, sat cross-legged, and began slowly restoring his depleted cultivation energy.

At noon, when Wang Yu felt his cultivation energy had nearly recovered, he tried again to open the storage bag—but still, he could only open the opening halfway, unable to extract anything inside.

Thus, he could only reluctantly put the storage bag away again, resolving to try once more after breaking through to the third layer of Yin Water Technique.

By evening, after restoring his cultivation energy once more, Wang Yu stepped out of the stone chamber and onto the open ground, pulling out the silver folding fan and channeling cultivation energy into it as he slowly unfolded its surface.

The uneven spiritual patterns on the fan’s surface seemed to awaken, stirring restlessly, while its surface gradually radiated blinding light.

This might work!

Wang Yu’s eyes lit up; he gripped the fan’s handle with both hands and swung it forcefully toward the empty air before him—his cultivation energy surged outward in a sudden tug.

“Whoosh”

A torrent of murky yellow wind erupted from the fan’s surface, instantly stirring up dust and stones across a radius of several zhang, lasting three full breaths before slowly dissipating.

Indeed, the cultivation energy of the second layer of Yin Water Technique can activate this “Xuan Feng Fan.” But magical instruments drain cultivation energy excessively—this single use consumed nearly half his total energy; he could only use it in critical moments.

As he caressed the spiritual patterns on the fan’s surface, he returned to his chamber and retrieved the book “Introduction to Spells” and the red beast hide.

Now that he had entered the Second Layer of Qi Refinement, he could finally begin learning actual spellcraft.

On his bed, Wang Yu carefully reread “Introduction to Spells,” set it aside, then spread the red beast hide in his hands and scanned it with his spiritual sense.

Within the hide, five crimson spiritual runes formed a clear spell pattern—each one blazing red like fire—the spellcraft technique “Firefly” recorded on the hide.

He had already fully comprehended all the spiritual rune symbols through his Overclocking ability; the next step was to meditate the “Spell Mark” into his spiritual sea and resonate it with his internal cultivation energy to cast the spell.

According to “Introduction to Spells,” even the simplest Spell Mark cannot be easily meditated by a beginner Qi Refinement cultivator; failing dozens or even hundreds of times is normal. Fortunately, the book recorded several hand seals and a universal incantation for meditating Spell Marks.

The book clearly stated that meditation was merely the process of using hand seals and incantations to imagine the spell’s spiritual runes into existence within the spiritual sea.

This process had extremely low tolerance for error; the cultivator must continuously adjust the runes with spiritual force, each “stroke” consuming vast amounts of mental energy, making the Spell Mark exceedingly difficult to form correctly.

An incomplete Spell Mark could only withstand a limited number of adjustments; too many revisions would cause it to collapse, inflicting some shock upon the cultivator’s spiritual sea.

Fortunately, “Firefly” was a low-tier spellcraft—its spell backlash was negligible, so there was no need to overly worry.

Wang Yu was naturally curious about the idea of imagining things out of thin air.

“Introduction to Spells” treated the matter casually, as if all cultivators could do it effortlessly; yet as a university graduate steeped in modern materialist theory, he remained half-skeptical.

After memorizing the shape and arrangement of the five crimson spiritual runes, mastering the hand seals and incantation, he began forming the hand seals and whispering the incantation, attempting to visualize the spell’s runes.

With his eyes closed, he appeared motionless on the bed, but as the halting incantation echoed in his ears, he distinctly felt his mental energy becoming more active and easier to control.

A miraculous sight appeared!

In his spiritual sea, a red dot spontaneously emerged; over time, it stretched into a slender thread, twisting and intertwining, gradually forming the basic shape of a spiritual rune—but constantly shifting and adjusting…

Even with all his focus, Wang Yu struggled to simultaneously visualize the rune pattern while maintaining the hand seals and incantation; he felt flustered and kept making mistakes.

Worse still, his previously easy-to-control mental energy became heavy as if submerged in deep water after the rune began to coalesce—each push required immense effort, and the forming rune constantly deviated, forcing repeated corrections.

Before the crimson spiritual rune reached two-thirds completion, it collapsed in a flash due to excessive revisions.

“Boom”

Wang Yu felt as if a giant hammer had struck his skull—a sharp pain surged through him; he opened his eyes, clutched his head, and winced on the bed for a long while before turning pale and recovering.

“Introduction to Spells” made failure sound trivial, but this spell backlash was far more agonizing than ordinary pain—it felt like a brand seared into his very spirit; he absolutely did not wish to endure it again anytime soon.

Moreover, this backlash not only disrupted his mental energy but also caused his internal cultivation energy to mysteriously diminish.

Wang Yu pondered, then suddenly understood.

The “Spell Mark” was not conjured from nothing—it consumed cultivation energy. It must be a fusion of mental energy and cultivation energy; this aligned with his “understanding.”

After resting for a long time and regaining stable mental energy, he silently whispered “Overclock,” resumed the hand seals, and chanted the incantation again.

His senses amplified; everything around him slowed down, and his mind entered a strange state…

Under Overclock synchronization, Wang Yu felt himself become a high-precision machine—his consciousness the blueprint, cultivation energy the power source, mental energy the raw material—and began ultra-precise manufacturing within his spiritual sea. With the aid of hand seals and incantation, the process flowed as smoothly as if practiced thousands of times, with no hesitation, no errors, and no need for adjustments or corrections.

A crimson spiritual rune rapidly formed in his spiritual sea, as precise as if printed, identical to the pattern on the beast hide.

But why was the mental energy consumption so terrifying? More than ten times faster than before—it drained like a dam breaking.

No good!

Stop!

“Exit Overclock”

Wang Yu panicked, immediately halted the hand seals, cut off the incantation, and instantly exited Overclock synchronization—the nearly completed rune in his mind flashed and collapsed again.

He endured another spell backlash, his face twisted with shock and fury.

In just this brief moment, his mental energy had vanished by more than half, leaving only about one-third.

By the time Wang Yu endured the backlash pain and sat again to restore his mental energy through meditation, it was already nightfall.

Unwilling to give up, he entered Overclock synchronization again—only to find that as long as he did not attempt to form the Spell Mark, his mental energy remained normal; but when he cautiously tried to form it, the same phenomenon occurred.

Mental energy drained just as terrifyingly, and the Spell Mark failed again.

After suffering another bout of spell backlash, Wang Yu finally gave up.

Though he still did not understand why Overclock synchronization caused this strange phenomenon, he abandoned the idea of relying on the auxiliary system and resolved to form the Spell Mark the normal way.

Seven days later, Wang Yu sat cross-legged on his bed, gazing at the complete Spell Mark floating in his spiritual sea, his heart heavy with sorrow.

During this period, he had endured over thirty to forty spell backlashes—through immense suffering, he finally realized his spellcasting talent was ordinary, not some so-called genius.

But now, no matter what, he could finally cast his first spell in life.

“Firefly”

Wang Yu whispered softly, raised one finger before him, and focused his intent to connect with the Spell Mark in his spiritual sea.

The Spell Mark trembled faintly in resonance the moment it touched his intent.

“Puff.”

A red flame flickered into existence at his fingertip, no taller than three inches.