The Old Mage's World

Chapter 9: The Old Mage's World

Around 2 PM, Cheng Yan finished her nap and came downstairs. Rubbing her sleepy eyes and yawning, she said, "I'm going back to get some change of clothes. I'll hand over my shift when I get back... Huh?"

She looked closely and saw Cheng Yun sleeping soundly at the counter, not making a sound.

He looked dead!

Cheng Yan sighed helplessly, walked straight through the lobby, pushed open the glass door, and went outside.

The late June sun was scorching, making her frown. She raised her hand to shield her forehead and still hailed a Mobike bicycle to ride back.

Almost as soon as she left, the Old Mage coincidentally returned, carrying a shopping bag. Recalling his recent shopping trip, the Old Mage still showed a hint of embarrassment.

He glanced at Cheng Yun sleeping at the counter, took his clothes upstairs, and when he came down again, Cheng Yun had already woken up, looking much better than before.

"Mm, you're back," Cheng Yun greeted him.

"Mm," the Old Mage nodded, taking some bills out of his pocket and returning them to Cheng Yun. "This is the change from buying clothes. Here you go."

"Mm, you don't have to be so..." Cheng Yun glanced at the bills and was instantly stunned.

Good heavens, he seemed to have given the Old Mage a total of four hundred yuan. After all, summer clothes were cheap, and he wasn't rich! Yet the Old Mage had given him over three hundred and fifty back...

"Where did you buy the clothes?" he asked.

"That city, the capital of your country, I think? It's called Yanjing. And there's a place called Xizhimen. There's a market near Xizhimen, and I saw many people picking out clothes there. Since it's so popular, it should be good," the Old Mage said.

"Yanjing!!" Cheng Yun checked his watch, then stared at the Old Mage in disbelief. "You traveled from Jinguan to Yanjing in two hours!!"

The Old Mage smiled faintly and said, "Yes. You slept for two hours, and you seem much more energetic than this morning!"

"Really?" Cheng Yun blinked, no longer dwelling on it, and sighed. "It might be because I just took a nap. By the way, before I slept, I kept repeating the first step of the meditation technique. Every time I finished meditating, I felt a bit tired, but then I immediately felt more energetic. Is this normal?"

"..." The Old Mage was silent for a moment, then showed a slightly embarrassed expression. "It's been too many years, I've almost forgotten. But the result should indicate something."

"Then, when my sister wakes up and comes down to hand over her shift, we can continue to the next step!" Cheng Yun was a little excited. "Oh, what's this meditation technique called?"

"Hmm, let me think... It seems to be the Iron Horse Kingdom's Basic Meditation Technique for Junior Students, Set Seven, Simplified Version." The Old Mage's words extinguished all his expectations.

"..." Cheng Yun.

As if seeing the dazed look on his face, the Old Mage immediately added, "But I've optimized it. The meditation method is much more scientific than the one originally promoted, and the effect should be better."

"Originally... should be..." Cheng Yun fell silent for a moment. "The Iron Horse Kingdom was that kingdom that expanded to Yan Lake hundreds of years ago, right? Is it still around?"

"It is," the Old Mage affirmed the resilience of this ancient kingdom. "But it seems to have become a third-world country."

Cheng Yun gave him a strained smile and immediately got up and walked out from behind the counter. "Watch things for me, I'll go up and see if Cheng Yan is awake."

Just as he was about to go upstairs, he saw Cheng Yan push the door open and walk in, wearing a sun hat and carrying a large watermelon. She looked at him and said, "You're awake?"

"Uh, when did you go out?"

"Just now," Cheng Yan said, glancing lightly at the Old Mage.

"Then you stay on duty, I'll go upstairs to rest."

"Wait!" Cheng Yan called out.

"Huh?"

"I brought you melatonin and sleeping pills. I bought them before and didn't finish them." Cheng Yan calmly took out half of the watermelon, which had already been cut in half, and placed it on the counter. She stuck a spoon in the bright red flesh, then put the other half into the refrigerated drink cabinet. She then took out a small bag and threw it to him. "The melatonin dosage is 5mg. Try one tablet first. If it's not enough, take two. Try not to take the sleeping pills unless absolutely necessary; it was hard enough for me to get this much."

"Okay," Cheng Yun took the medicine and went upstairs.

The Old Mage followed him calmly, while Cheng Yan stood inside the cash register, watching their retreating figures and yawning.

Node space. Cheng Yun sat cross-legged.

"Mage, I think we can first research the space-time nodes, and then use the remaining time to study the meditation technique," Cheng Yun said, looking up at the Old Mage. He had lost most of his interest in that 'National Primary School Broadcast Gymnastics' set.

"Okay," the Old Mage smiled, saying no more. "Then today, let's first research how to identify the energy recovery status of transmigrators and items."

"Mm!" Cheng Yun remained seated on the ground.

It had been proven countless times before that the Old Mage's experiments did not require his physical participation, and in this space, his posture or position was meaningless.

The Old Mage waved his hand and took out the great staff again, tapping it twice on the ground. This particularly flashy staff seemed to have no other function besides making the Old Mage look more like a mage and complementing his certain habitual movements.

"Let's establish a standard first, using percentages for now, and then subdivide it into energy scales... I can clearly perceive the total energy and current reserves of myself and the scroll. You also have a certain ability to perceive life and objects that enter this space, so it's simple—just identify which part of the sensation you perceive is related to our energy, find its changes, and correspond it to the standard."

"Okay!" Cheng Yun said.

"Most of the previous experiments involved me sharing research results with you. This time, it's your turn to share results with me." Perhaps the Old Mage would never use these research results in his lifetime, but he had an obsessive pursuit of knowledge.

"Okay!" Cheng Yun said.

"Now, I will help you amplify your perception. You need to remember every sensation you feel."

"Okay!" Cheng Yun said.

An hour passed.

"Let's put this research aside for today. It's not something that can be completed in a short time. Let's move on to the next research project," the Old Mage said, tapping his staff again. "I thought about it last night. Although I haven't had time to formulate equations and verify them, I believe your control over this space is more than this. I think we can try to explore in this direction."

"Okay!" Cheng Yun said.

"You really are... sigh!" The Old Mage shook his head. "Then let's begin."

"Okay!" Cheng Yun's expression was blank.

He felt as if he had returned to his high school days.

Teacher: "Because sinB(sin2A+cos2A)=√2sinA, right?"

Cheng Yun: "Mm."

Teacher: "So sinB=√2sinA, right?"

Cheng Yun: "Mm."

Teacher: "So the result is out now?"

Cheng Yun: "Mm."

Teacher: "And what is the result?"

Cheng Yun: "..."

About an hour and a half later--

"Alright, that's all for today," the Old Mage said with a smile. "You're learning the meditation technique quite quickly."

Cheng Yun sat on the ground, putting away the meditation assist card. He felt like a useless husk.

He looked up at the Old Mage but didn't move. Instead, he asked, "Esteemed Mage, I'm actually very curious, do gods exist in your world? I think I heard you mention demons before."

"Gods? What are gods?" The Old Mage looked at him and smiled helplessly. "The gods of the beginning were merely an answer in people's hearts, intended to explain why the world and life appear as they do. Ultimately, they were just tools born from people's imaginations to fill cognitive gaps and dispel inner fears and anxieties."

Cheng Yun blinked. "And then what?"

"Then?" The Old Mage's expression grew more helpless. "You must understand that gods in the broad sense do not exist, and gods in the narrow sense are not gods. We mages know this better than anyone. Because in the long course of our world's development, too many races and individuals who claimed to be gods or were once revered as gods have been toppled by rapidly advancing magical technology."

"I see!" Cheng Yun frowned. "Then what kind of world is your magical world like?"

"Our world?" The Old Mage showed a hint of a smile. "To put it simply, the background of our world is quite different from yours! The difference lies in subtle variations in rules, which is why we don't have natural science, and it's difficult for us to develop natural science. Because before natural science, we already had magic. We had a feudal era much longer than yours; we endured tens of thousands of years of wars like those fought by primitive people. Later, the development of civilization changed everything, including magic and spellcasters..."

"Magic is no longer used to cast Fireball spells, and no one forms mage battle groups anymore... We started using magic to create weapons, build cities, construct bridges spanning canyons and roads crossing deserts, and use magic to propel us out of our planet to explore our plane..." The Old Mage saw that he seemed to be listening intently and couldn't help but chuckle. "But child, these are ultimately just external differences."

"Besides the differences in background, the highs and lows of culture, wars that erupt and then gradually subside, nations that are established, rise, and then fall into ruin—goodness, greed, order, violence, rules, desire—these are always similar!" The Old Mage looked at him. "People living in two different worlds are actually doing pretty much the same things. I've noticed that people in your world also like to use a metaphor: the wheels of history. Do you know why?"

"Why?" Cheng Yun asked. "Isn't it because wheels crush everything? Because they leave everything behind, turning it into the past?"

"Because a wheel is a circle, repeating itself," the Old Mage said, drawing a circle in the air. A white line appeared, gradually evolving into the shape of an ancient carriage wheel, and then suddenly began to spin. "When the wheels of history start to turn, even as they move forward, they are merely reenacting the same story in a different era!"

"Is... is that so?" Cheng Yun squinted at the spinning wheel.

He didn't refute it, nor did he have the inclination to think of a rebuttal, even if he could find flaws if he tried.

The Old Mage had lived for twelve hundred years.

A thousand years might not seem long, but for an ordinary person, it was like an endless, arduous journey. Therefore, ordinary people could probably never imagine what a spellcaster who had lived for a thousand years was like—how they thought, what experiences and knowledge they possessed, their wisdom exceeding our imagination, or their incorrigible pedantry.

Cheng Yun didn't want to think about it because he was very sleepy.

His experiment with the Old Mage had been very helpful, and he had also learned the second, third, and fourth steps of the meditation technique from him. The Old Mage said it should be enough to manage for now, and he wanted to go back and try sleeping.

To avoid any mishaps, he ordered takeout for the Old Mage before going to bed, setting the delivery time for six o'clock.

This proved to be a wise decision, as he slept soundly until eleven o'clock that night, without any dreams or insomnia. When he woke up, he felt so refreshed he almost wanted to shout for joy.

Insomnia was truly terrifying!

It was also the first time he realized how wonderful it felt to get a good night's sleep!

It was a shame he was a bit hungry.

As Cheng Yun stumbled down the stairs, he saw Cheng Yan being pestered at the counter by a young man, about twenty years old, dressed neatly and sharply.

Cheng Yun's groggy eyes snapped open.