His voice fell. The young girl in the mirror visibly stiffened, then seemed to stagger backward and nearly fall onto the floor with a thump. There was a sharp inhale, as if she had struck something, followed by a flurry of frantic movements. At last, with a splash of light, the young girl suddenly appeared, leaning in close.
"Q-Q-Qi WuHuo?"
She seemed to have backed away in shock and bumped into something. A little dust had smeared her face, but her eyes were bright.
"You learned it?!"
"You learned it that fast?!"
"You really are a genius!"
Qi WuHuo nodded, then thought for a moment before answering gently, "I think I learned it."
The young girl on the other side seemed overjoyed. She cheered and was about to speak when ripples suddenly spread across the mirror and then dissipated. The spell's light vanished, and Qi WuHuo suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion from the loss of his qi and Primordial Spirit. Even the space between his brows throbbed faintly. He let out a muffled groan.
The mirror fell into the young Daoist's sleeve.
Qi WuHuo made no great commotion, though the pain was intense, as if it were tearing his brow apart. The others were still asleep, after all. He simply formed a hand seal and regulated his breathing to nourish his Primordial Spirit and cultivate both his nature and his life force.
The faint ache between his brows took quite some time to fade.
Only after a long while did Qi WuHuo open his eyes. His voice was calm.
"My cultivation... isn't enough."
"Cultivating both nature and life, refining them together—without a solid foundation, even if I could learn a thousand spells and divine arts, they'd be useless."
Qi WuHuo murmured to himself.
His fingers rubbed against the mirror.