Extraordinary Item

Gao De sat cross-legged on the bed, following the memories he had inherited.

He kept his chin parallel to the floor, closed his eyes, straightened his back, placed both hands on his knees with his palms facing up, and relaxed all ten fingers.

In this seated posture, the entire body would feel comfortable and relaxed, making it easier to enter a tranquil state of mind.

Of course, veteran mages could begin cultivating in almost any posture or environment with ease. They had no need for such "aids."

But Gao De was still an apprentice among apprentices, so he naturally followed the procedure strictly.

After taking deep breaths for several minutes, Gao De finally entered the proper state. In his consciousness, he seemed to be standing within a dark universe.

Countless motes of stardust floated through that universe, wandering without pattern. They were beautiful and enchanting, scattering specks of starlight.

This was the magic power that existed in the world, the foundation of the world's strength.

It was abundant and powerful, endless and inexhaustible.

The so-called Guiding Method was the use of one's Mental Strength to guide this magic power into the body and refine it into mana.

Gao De began trying to guide those motes of magical stardust with his Mental Strength.

Under the control of his mind and will, the magic power entered his body along with the breath he drew into his mouth. It traveled downward, all the way to the area around his navel, where it finally began to settle.

But that was not the end. Once Gao De sensed that the magical stardust had stabilized, he still needed to control his mind and will, following the rhythm of his breathing as he continuously tempered the magic power until it became his own mana.

To be honest, the efficiency of the whole process was not very high.

That was because the Guiding Method and Meditation Art Gao De practiced had a shared name—the Apprentice Guidance Method and Apprentice Meditation Art.

As the names implied, they were cultivation methods specially designed for Mage Apprentices, the most basic of basics. Their drawback was that they were basic, but their strength was also that they were basic. For laying foundations, they were practically flawless, though their efficiency naturally could not be all that great.

Gao De immersed himself in his first cultivation session. Only when fatigue began to set in, and his efficiency at guiding magical stardust had dropped by around thirty percent, did he finally stop.

He knew that the expenditure of his Mental Strength had reached the forty-percent threshold. It was time to switch to the Meditation Art.

Gao De adjusted his posture again, evened out his breathing for a moment, then closed his eyes according to the requirements of the Apprentice Meditation Art and began practicing it.

Meditation Art cultivation was similar to the visualization techniques often mentioned in Buddhism in his previous life. One outlined certain strange and mysterious objects in the mind to strengthen Mental Strength.

The Apprentice Meditation Art manifested a sixteen-petaled lotus. The number of Lotus Petals manifested was directly proportional to one's cultivation progress.

Once all sixteen Lotus Petals could be fully manifested, the Apprentice Meditation Art would be considered complete.

But Gao De's current progress was still far from completion.

If he remembered correctly, the previous owner of this body had only barely managed to manifest five petals after cultivating until now. That was only because his predecessor's talent for Mental Strength had been exceptionally good.

That progress was already quite impressive. Among the apprentices from Gao De's batch, and even those who had begun cultivating before him, most had only reached one or two petals so far.

As his mind sank deeper, Gao De clearly sensed the existence of his Mental Strength.

Within the endless darkness of his consciousness, a lotus slowly rotated inside his mind.

However, the flower had no physical form. It was merely an outline traced in dashed lines.

The purpose of Meditation Art cultivation was to use Mental Strength to fill in those dashed lines and fully manifest a real lotus.

Gao De was about to begin manifesting the lotus as he had in his memories when he suddenly noticed something extra deep within his consciousness, something that was glimmering.

Instinctively, his heart stirred. His Mental Strength and attention both focused on that glowing point.

The depths of his consciousness remained dark.

Yet beyond that, there were countless irregularly wandering stars, as well as two groups of star-like structures resembling galaxies but actually fixed Spell Models.

Those were the two cantrips Gao De had mastered.

Taken as a whole, the depths of his consciousness looked like a sea of stars.

Thus, this place was also called the Spell Starsea.

However, today, there was something else in the Spell Starsea besides the stars and Spell Models.

Something that should not have been there.

It was a "crescent moon."

It floated silently and motionlessly at the very center of the Spell Starsea, radiating a pure, luminous glow.

More accurately, it was a crescent-shaped gemstone.

Its shape closely resembled a magatama, broad and rounded at one end, fine and pointed at the other. It was entirely white, not milky white, but the pure white of moonlight.

The gemstone was crystal-clear throughout, without the slightest impurity. Complex, beautiful patterns and designs grew across its surface, resembling strange symbols.

Yes, grew—not engraved.

There was not the slightest trace of craftsmanship. The patterns and designs were fused into the gemstone as one, utterly natural.

Gao De stared blankly at the Crescent Gem within his mind, unable to believe it.

"Isn't this the pendant I used to wear around my neck?"

It was an heirloom of the Gao Family. His father had strung it into a pendant and passed it down to him.

Gao De had worn that pendant for more than ten years and had never noticed anything unusual about it.

Yet now, this object that did not belong to this world had somehow crossed over with him.

And it had changed from something tangible into something illusory, taking root in his Spell Starsea.

After all, since something as absurd as transmigration had happened, having an extra gemstone in his head no longer seemed all that difficult to accept.

But why did it have to be this gemstone?

That meant it must possess something special.

Gao De did his best to remain calm and recalled everything he knew about the gemstone.

Then he realized that when his father had passed it down to him, he had not explained much about its origins.

Gao De only knew that the gemstone was undoubtedly extremely valuable. It was certainly not some crafted ornament made from agate, talc, or anything of the sort, but a natural gemstone.

It was simply too exquisite, so exquisite that it did not seem man-made.

Only the miraculous craftsmanship of nature could have forged such a work of art.

Gao De examined it carefully for quite a while, but he truly could not find anything unusual.

"An extremely rare extraordinary item," he judged for the moment based on his understanding of this world. "And the fact that it crossed over into this world with me alone proves that its rank is definitely not low."

Gao De cautiously extended his Mental Strength toward the Crescent Gem.

According to his memories, this was the most common way to activate an "extraordinary item."

Gao De tried to awaken this "extraordinary item" and learn what it could do.

However, the moment his Mental Strength touched the gemstone, it was as if it had struck a wall. It was immediately rebounded.

Gao De thought for a moment, then stopped being cautious and mobilized all his Mental Strength to try activating it again.

Once, twice, three times.

By the time Gao De began to feel slightly exhausted, that "crescent moon" was still floating there without moving. Nothing had changed, and it had not budged in the slightest. It simply refused to respond.

His heart jolted.

At first, he had thought he had failed to activate the extraordinary item only because he had been too cautious. But later, he had already gone all out, and yet he had still failed.

Gao De carefully examined the gemstone again, trying to discover some sort of mechanism.

He still found nothing.

Now Gao De was troubled. There was an "outsider" in his head, yet he had no idea what it was for. Who could possibly be content with that?

But the problem was that this thing was like a stubborn squatter. It had simply settled down in his head, and his Mental Strength could not shake it in the slightest. He could not even drive it away.

No matter how unwilling he was, he could not change anything.

"There's a ninety-percent chance that my Mental Strength is simply too weak right now, which is why I can neither activate it nor move it," Gao De guessed.

"Forget it." Having no way to deal with it, Gao De could only give up in the end.

At the very least, he could be certain that this gemstone, which had inexplicably crossed over with him, was not harmful to his body.

That was enough.

So Gao De withdrew his attention from the gemstone. After taking some time to calm himself, he reentered the state of Meditation Art cultivation.

Under Gao De's meditation, the lotus made of dashed lines in his consciousness gradually became more solid.

The lotus pedestal took physical form, and the five Lotus Petals atop it were gradually manifested by Gao De as well.

Nearly two hours later.

Gao De opened his eyes.

A deep sense of exhaustion welled up within him.

The Mental Strength he had expended while practicing the Guiding Method had already recovered through the Meditation Art, but recovering Mental Strength did not mean eliminating fatigue.

In fact, according to the memories left behind by the previous owner of this body, sleeping well after practicing the Meditation Art produced the best results.

Emil had finished cultivating earlier than him and was already asleep, letting out faint snores.

Gao De also quietly removed his outer clothes and lay down on the bed, recalling everything he had seen and heard since arriving in this world as he pondered how to escape and what else he needed to do.