New Meditation Method

"The most common meditation method—can any classmate tell me what it is?"

"Teacher Vivian, the process of constructing a Magic Model is itself a form of meditation."

"Lucia, you're quite right. They both involve controlling and arranging Spiritual Elements. The process of constructing magic is also a meditation method, but it's not a good one. Does anyone know why?"

"Teacher Vivian, the ultimate purpose of constructing magic is to cast spells, while the purpose of meditation is to increase the total quantity and activity of spiritual power?"

"Classmate Lucia, please give the other students a chance to speak. So, does anyone know another reason?"

The thirty-something, elegantly plain Teacher Vivian swept her gaze across the room. The students she looked at all lowered their heads one after another.

Vivian let out a soft sigh and added on her own: "The practice of constructing magic is meant for combat, so it requires keeping other senses sharp. Valuable meditation, on the other hand, involves shutting off the senses and focusing all consciousness within the Sea of Consciousness. Only this way can spiritual power be transformed to its maximum extent."

In truth, the vast majority of third-year students had yet to advance to Low-level Magic Apprentice, so naturally they couldn't enter a meditative state. At this stage, the Magic Academy's meditation classes mainly taught theoretical knowledge and compared the pros and cons of various meditation methods, so that students with hope of advancing could prepare early.

"We've discussed before that increasing the total quantity of Spiritual Elements versus enhancing their activity is like two ends of a scale. Now I'll explain the principle behind it. The method of increasing Spiritual Elements through meditation is very easy to understand: it's compression and splitting. We know that Spiritual Elements of different natures repel each other. In fact, Spiritual Elements of the same type also repel each other, but this repulsion can only be felt when two elements are extremely close. During meditation, if you compress Spiritual Elements to an extreme limit, they may split. The incomplete fragments after splitting will slowly grow into complete Spiritual Elements—that's the process by which meditation increases Spiritual Elements. However, compressing Spiritual Elements reduces their activity, lengthening the recovery time for a Mage after casting spells."

"The method for enhancing Spiritual Element activity is also simple: keep all Spiritual Elements of the same type in fixed positions relative to each other, and rotate them around a certain point. This creates subtle changes within the Sea of Consciousness that can slowly boost activity. But the principle behind this change still lacks a convincing explanation, so for now, we'll follow convention and call this meditation method the Dance of Divine Elements."

"Actually, no one can endure long periods of pure compression of Spiritual Elements, and the Dance of Divine Elements will leave people dizzy and disoriented. So most meditation methods are a balance or coordination between these two extremes."

"Last class, we already covered how to enter a deep meditative state. So, those classmates who are capable can try these two extreme meditation methods. Of course, given a Magic Apprentice's total Spiritual Elements, the effect of either method is very limited—just treat it as practice."

Donald had heard about meditation methods from Mr. Victor long ago and had read about several examples through books, but it wasn't until he listened to Vivian's thorough and accessible explanation that he gained a systematic understanding. This was the advantage of classroom learning.

Spiritual Elements split under compression and produced a special field during regular motion. This made Donald think back to his earlier guesses about the nature of Spiritual Elements. Though he couldn't confirm whether those guesses were correct, the properties Spiritual Elements had just displayed gave him an idea for an experiment. If it succeeded, he might be able to create a new meditation method.

***

When he first arrived at the Magic Academy, Donald only moved between the Library and the small building where Victor lived. So his impression of the academy was one of quiet tranquility. It wasn't until he moved into the Dormitory Area across the lake that he saw the academy's more real side—a world belonging to young people.

The Dormitory Area was divided into two parts. In the more remote section, large rows of neat white buildings belonged to first-year students. This area was jokingly called the "Kids' Resort," because every year it sent everyone away and welcomed a fresh batch of faces.

Only students who had condensed Spiritual Elements within a year—or claimed to have done so—were eligible to move into the formal student dorms, the gray buildings along the lakeshore. The number of people living here was far smaller than in the "Resort," but the area was much larger.

Donald's dorm was in the row right by the lake. Though these twelve rooms couldn't compare to Victor's small building, they were spacious and luxurious enough compared to other dorms. But all of this meant nothing to Donald. Every moment he spent in the dorm, aside from sleeping, was almost entirely at the workbench.

Now, Donald had just finished his practice of drawing glyphs. Over the past half-month, his spiritual power had stagnated at just over one hundred seventy per element, never increasing. The three-hundred-element threshold for advancing to Intermediate Magic Apprentice seemed hopelessly far off. Donald had to accept the fact: compared to those true geniuses who could advance to Intermediate Magic Apprentice just by drawing glyphs, his Magic Talent was unremarkable. His earlier miraculous growth had only come from unlocking the secret of the glyphs.

Even so, Donald still drew a full set of glyphs every day. He was preparing for drawing Magic Arrays. After months of practice, his glyph-drawing speed had increased significantly, and just as Victor had said, after finishing each one, he could feel a faint magical fluctuation in his hand. As for the distraction he'd experienced at the very beginning, it never happened again.

Donald put down his drawing pen, flipped the hourglass on the workbench, gently rubbed his eyes, leaned back into the wide chair, shifted his body to find the most comfortable position. He began to imagine himself on the familiar grassy cliff of Lant Island, feeling a gentle sea breeze, then relaxing from his toes and fingertips in sequence until his limbs and torso were completely loose. Before his eyes was the blue sky above the island, with five-colored Spiritual Elements drifting through the air...

Focusing all his attention on the colorful Spiritual Elements, before long, he entered deep meditation.

Donald first arranged the bright red Fire Elements evenly within a circular area, then set them rotating around the center. As the rotation sped up, a wondrous change occurred at the center. The Fire Elements near the center became more lively, as if their particles had grown larger.

As the rotation continued, Donald immediately felt the dizziness Vivian had mentioned. He stopped at once. Next, he would try something new.

He arranged Fire Elements and Water Elements into two interlocking rings, rotating them around the same center in opposite directions. This was difficult—controlling two types of Spiritual Elements to move in completely opposite ways. But Donald had anticipated this difficulty. He didn't rush to speed up; he slowly controlled their rotation, accelerating bit by bit within his ability. Not bad—almost no dizziness.

The speed gradually increased, already faster than the single-element rotation from before. Donald knew that if he'd been rotating a single element at this speed, he'd have fainted by now. But the two rings' opposing rotations canceled each other out, greatly reducing the dizziness.

As expected, as the Spiritual Elements rotated, that strange field appeared again. Donald could even sense that it was two superimposed fields—one from the Fire Elements' rotation and one from the Water Elements'—and they didn't interfere with each other.

Now came the most critical step.

Donald slowly shrank the outer ring of Fire Elements' rotation radius while maintaining their speed. The bright red outer ring and the deep blue inner ring drew closer and closer, finally merging into one. Red and blue Spiritual Elements spun at high speed in opposite directions within the same ring.

Nothing happened.

Donald kept trying, working to make the red-and-blue interwoven ring thinner and denser, until finally it was almost just a single thin purple ring.

He didn't know how long passed, just as he was about to give up—

Boom!

As if struck by something heavy, his meditative state shattered instantly. His brain felt like it was exploding with pain.

The intense pain gradually subsided. Donald slowly opened his eyes. The hourglass before him had long since run out—at least two hours had passed. Anxiously, he inspected his Sea of Consciousness. As expected, several tiny Spiritual Element fragments had appeared there, half red and half blue, while one complete Fire Element and one complete Water Element were missing.

"Sure enough, the high-speed collision split the Spiritual Elements into many pieces! If Teacher Vivian is right, then each of these fragments will grow into a complete Spiritual Element."

Outside the window, the night was hazy. Inside the room, the young man had just created a new meditation method. This method would eventually be named "Donald's Collider"—but that was a story for much, much later.