Misdirection
"Marvel's Magnetic Field Rotation"
Some time ago, Kaecilius, who was quite talented in magic, defected from Kamar-Taj.
The incident began when his wife died of illness, Kaecilius desperately wanted to use magic to bring her back to life, but all he could do was powerless in the face of death.
Kaecilius sought the Master Gu Yi's help, but the Sorcerer Supreme told him a bunch of grand theories about the irreversibility of death and that magic could only awaken a body that only carried memories of its previous life, not his wife herself, without offering him any real help.
If Kaecilius were to analyze this carefully, he would discover that the Ancient One had already told him what it would take to completely resurrect a person—he would need to make a direct deal with Death, one of the Five Cosmic Entities.
Using the Eye of Agamotto, the Master Gu Yi once surveyed the Multiverse and observed the timeline, but found no trace of the Five Cosmic Entities in this dimension; this method simply doesn't work.
Even Mephisto, the Hell Lord, can only grant health to a dying person, but cannot reverse the fact of death.
Or perhaps, by collecting Six Infinity Stones, one could use their infinite power to realize a single, idealistic idea, reaching the depths of the soul, pervading all of space, covering the timeline, and solidifying it into reality, thus distorting the existence of an event from the six fundamental points of the universe.
However, Kaecilius did not listen. Instead, he thought that the Master Gu Yi was hoarding her knowledge and was unwilling to show them the true secrets of magic. So he began to study dark magic and then glimpsed the secrets of the Master Gu Yi.
The Master Gu Yi has lived for far too long and shows no signs of aging. Especially considering we're all sorcerers, why is she so powerful while we're so weak? -- It turns out she secretly uses the energy of the Dark Dimension. All white magic is a lie; only dark magic can give you everything you want.
Kaecilius then gathered a group of mages blinded by their thirst for power and fled Kamar-Taj, where they have been engaged in a guerrilla war with the Master Gu Yi ever since.
Even without the Master Gu Yi's constraints, Kaecilius, who practiced dark magic without restraint, didn't see much improvement in his magic power. Despite desperately absorbing energy from the Dark Dimension, he couldn't become as powerful as the Master Gu Yi.
Kaecilius believed the reason was that he and his followers had not made contact with Dormammu, the Lord of the Dark Dimension. Only by establishing contact with this Dimensional Demon God could he obtain powerful strength.
As for the price to be paid—is one Earth enough?
But to make a phone call, you need to know the other party's phone number. How can you contact Dormammu out of nowhere? The Book of Cagliostro, which contains forbidden knowledge, is the key item.
Kaecilius used some of his followers as bait to lure the Master Gu Yi away from Kamar-Taj. He then launched a surprise attack on the Kamar-Taj Library, beheaded the librarian as a sacrifice, and escaped with the pages containing key ritual knowledge.
The librarian was none other than the mage Dahshir, who had taught Wei Xiuming the basics. Given this teacher-student bond, Wei Xiuming naturally wanted to take revenge on Kaecilius; otherwise, why would he have bothered getting involved in the Kamar-Taj affair?
"To train the body to be as hard as steel? Superior magic?"
Strange's face fell; no matter how he analyzed it, he couldn't figure out the connection between the two.
But Wei Xiuming did not answer him. Mordo, wearing Sling Ring, drew circles in the air and opened a portal. On the other side of the portal was the summit of a snow-capped mountain, where the wind howled and water froze instantly.
Wei Xiuming carried Strange like a chick and stepped into the portal.
"Where is this..." The mountain wind, carrying snowflakes, quickly took away the heat from Strange's body, causing his voice to tremble.
"The summit of the Himalayas—but not Mount Everest," said Mordo, who arrived shortly after.
"Strange, exercising is an extremely painful thing. Muscle fatigue and the soreness from lactic acid buildup, the natural inertia in human consciousness, and the subconscious constraint on the body—these are all reasons that hinder fitness progress, and these are also stumbling blocks on the path to learning magic." Wei Xiuming concocted a theory to fool the trembling Strange: "When I was conducting research on the human body, I discovered that humans naturally have a limiter. It is both the upper limit of the human race's lifespan and the limitation of the human brain's self-awareness. If you don't let go of what you already know, you cannot accept new knowledge."
"What... do... you... want... to... do?" In less than a minute, Strange couldn't even utter a complete sentence, only managing to utter one word at a time.
"For beginner training, people only unleash their potential in life-or-death crises, and a place like the Great Snow Mountain is a perfect training ground." Wei Xiuming said something that seemed reasonable, then picked up Strange and walked to the edge of the cliff before leaping off.
Before Strange could even scream, Wei Xiuming landed steadily, the impact of which was less than the force of his high jump.
"It will take at most thirty minutes to climb from where we are now to the portal. Given the current temperature, wind speed, and the rate at which your body heat is being lost, you can last at least forty minutes in this environment. I'll be waiting for you up there." Wei Xiuming pulled Strange's hand off his white coat and then took out a small wooden box, about half the size of his palm, from his pocket and slapped it into Strange's palm.
"Although you can survive for forty minutes before freezing to death, you'll go into shock in less than five minutes. Take this box of medicated wax and apply it to your body before climbing the mountain to help protect your skin and limbs."
Then Wei Xiuming soared into the sky and flew back to the mountaintop where he had come from. In the midst of the swirling snow, Strange could even see him waving at him. The place where he was now standing was not far from where he had come from as the Third Brother flies; on flat ground, it would take less than a minute to cross. But this was a steep snow-covered mountain, and the cold was a deadly threat. Lacking professional equipment, he might not be able to climb up even in an hour. At least the Indians knew to equip their army with blankets, while he only had a long robe on his body.
Shivering, Strange realized he was hallucinating from the cold. His mind started wandering to random thoughts. Trembling, he opened the wooden box, scooped out a lump of dark ointment with his fingers, and, without caring what it was made of, began to smear it on his skin that wasn't covered by his robe.
To be honest, after applying these ointments, Strange really felt warm all over, and the knife-like pain in his face from the cold wind was also relieved quite a bit.
But this could only prevent his limbs from freezing and his skin from cracking; it couldn't allow him to survive in this life-threatening place for long. He only had one choice: to climb up and return to Kamar-Taj through the portal.
"Is this really necessary?" Mordo looked up at Wei Xiuming.
Although the Sorcerer Supreme entrusted Strange to two people to be in charge of his training, and Wei Xiuming had also informed him beforehand that he needed to come to the summit of the snow mountain, no one expected that Wei Xiuming would actually torture Strange to death.
"Don't worry, with me here, he won't die... and this is the best way for him to get started," Wei Xiuming said. "Knowledge is both a blessing and a curse; it can open up a person's understanding of the world while also limiting their perspective on it—Master Mordo, what do you think magic is?"
"Power, the power to leverage reality," Mordo stated his understanding.
"In my understanding, magic is knowledge. Strange is a medical doctor; he has his own world of understanding, which cannot be easily changed. If he were suddenly exposed to things like souls and magic that are beyond his comprehension, he wouldn't be able to understand them quickly." Wei Xiuming continued chatting idly with Mordo, "The fact that Strange became a medical doctor at such a young age shows that he has a strong learning ability and can master a lot of knowledge in a short time, but he can't use it well."
"Humans always find excuses to justify themselves at times like this. His crippled hands are very likely to become his excuse, and his purpose in learning magic is not pure. Only physical pain can pull him out of hatred, otherwise he will go down the wrong path like Kaecilius."
Wei Xiuming said with a serious expression.
Actually, his purpose wasn't so noble; he just wanted to torment Strange.
He had worked on construction sites for a while in his previous life. At that time, the foreman's son had developed a dislike for school and didn't want to continue studying. So the foreman asked the school for a week's leave and dragged him to the construction site to carry steel bars. After three days, he couldn't even straighten his back. When he went back to school to continue studying, he was incredibly diligent.
They gave Strange half an hour, and neither Wei Xiuming nor Mordo went straight back to Kamar-Taj to have tea and wait. But they couldn't just wait idly either, so the two of them started chatting with Strange.
"Strange has a talent for magic; at least he can cast spells faster than others."
Strange usually speaks at double speed, but when he gets serious and into the zone, his speech becomes even faster. He can cast spells in half the time or even less than others, which means he can use magic faster than others.
In a mage duel, the time it takes for the enemy to cast one spell while you can cast two is an advantage!
"I sensed magical fluctuations in the ointment you gave him."
"That's soil soaked in Dragon Blood, mixed with many medicinal herbs and treated using special methods. It can be applied externally to strengthen the body, but ordinary people cannot withstand its powerful effects, or even absorb it. It only works by being pounded in an extremely cold environment," Wei Xiuming explained. "Since Strange was injured, his body hasn't been properly cared for. He needs to fully activate all his bodily functions. As the saying goes, food therapy is better than medicine, and a series of medicinal meals await him."
His greatest skill was ultimately human modification, using Dragon Blood to give Strange a stronger physique, which would help him become a qualified mage.
As we all know, magic is used to enhance strength, speed, and other stats; close-quarters combat with blades is the proper way to fight.
In Avengers: Infinity War, of the more than ten types of magic used by Doctor Strange, only the Vishanti 'Sacred Sword of Vishanti bears the name of the Trinity. This is the kind of sparking magical sword most commonly used by Kamar-Taj sorcerers, and the most basic Energy Whip also falls into this category.
For example, after Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian's ring-shaped spaceship landed in Avengers: Avengers: Infinity War, the spaceship's magnetic propulsion system created a large-scale dust storm. The spell Doctor Strange used to disperse the dust was called Vatoum's Wind, which is the magic of Tearing Wind Vatoum.
There's also the Crimson Chains of Cyttorak bind Thanos's left hand, which are the power of the Crimson Tyrant Cyttorak; the physical clone nicknamed "Thousand-Armed Guanyin" is called the Form of Ekarn, which is the power of the Master of Illusions Ekarn; even the Mirror Dimension most commonly used by Kamar-Taj is called "Dormammu's Mirror Dimension".
As the patron of the Sorcerer Supreme lineage, they encourage wielding a magic shield in one hand and a magic sword in the other, demonstrating that this is the most correct approach for Mages.
Upon hearing Wei Xiuming's plan, Mordo said, "This is a technique used by Tantric Buddhism to create guardian deities. They pour a paste made of mineral herbs and ghee onto the body, and then use forging to allow the body to absorb it."
"Come on, Stephen. My prediction was that you could crawl to us in thirty minutes. Now there are two minutes left. I hope you can prove me wrong," Wei Xiuming said to Strange, who was now almost there, just a short distance away.
But those last two steps were an insurmountable obstacle for Strange. His trembling limbs, chilled to the bone, could no longer move freely. The hot breath he exhaled from his mouth and nose caused his eyebrows and beard to freeze. He walked the last stretch for a full two minutes, exactly as Wei Xiuming had predicted.
It took Strange a long time to recover after returning to Kamar-Taj, cuddling hot tea and wrapped in a blanket. Although the tea was salty milk tea instead of his preferred black tea with honey, he didn't care.
After tormenting Strange, Wei Xiuming gave him a day off, and the lesson on basic magic knowledge would be held after lunch.
"Kamar-Taj has seafood soup?" Although his body temperature had returned to normal, Strange was still shivering. As a newcomer, he received extra attention. While the other apprentices had simple meals, he had a large bowl of seafood soup with plenty of ingredients. The octopus tentacles in it tasted delicious.
But after thinking about it, he wasn't surprised that the mages could directly access the portal to the mountaintop.
The monk who served him food looked rather familiar, quite similar to a FedEx courier who had sent him the bills before.