Entering Kamar-Taj

A portal connected New York and Nepal.

Bai Jing stepped through the portal. On the other side stood a Nepalese-style wooden house. The interior was quite spacious, with two rows of tables and chairs. Light streamed in from one side, and since it was dusk, golden rays bathed the entire room in gold.

It gave him the feeling of holding a banquet inside a yurt.

There were three people in the room. One was a middle-aged man dressed like a Taoist from China. Though his hand was hidden by his clothes, Bai Jing could tell that he was missing one hand.

Another was bald, dressed in yellow monk's robes, with kind features and a warm smile as he brewed tea.

The third was a Black man standing guard nearby without saying a word, presumably an attendant.

Bai Jing glanced at the Taoist, then turned to the bald man. Of course, he knew the bald man was the Ancient One.

"It seems you know me well..." The Ancient One saw Bai Jing's expression and made a guess.

"Yes. Your story is known throughout the multiverse!" Bai Jing replied honestly.

The Ancient One was not America. She had truly protected Earth for five hundred years.

Many transmigrators feared the Ancient One, probably because they had guilty consciences. If you neither wanted to destroy the world nor ruin Earth, the Ancient One would never trouble you.

Bai Jing had never intended to destroy Earth, so naturally, he was not afraid of the Ancient One.

"Sure enough, space-time fluctuations surround you, which gave me some ideas. But you do not seem hostile toward this world. I simply did not expect you to come looking for me." The Ancient One looked up. "Would you like some tea?"

"Thank you..." Bai Jing accepted the tea and took a light sip. The taste was actually rather ordinary, though it was quite sweet.

He had thought the black hole on his body distorted time, preventing the Ancient One from seeing him. Now it seemed he had been far too full of himself!

"I came here hoping to study magic under you. Would that be possible?" Bai Jing set down his teacup and stated his purpose.

Although the Ancient One had lived for five hundred years, she was not a rigid, dogmatic sorcerer. Her mindset had always remained youthful, so there was no harm in speaking plainly.

"Magic does not shun those who seek it!" The Ancient One smiled. "If you wish to learn, then of course I can teach you!"

"Ah!" Bai Jing was somewhat pleasantly surprised. Was it really this easy?

Then again, Kamar-Taj did not seem to have many requirements for accepting students in the first place. Even someone as burdened by hatred as Kaecilius had been admitted.

It was only after Kaecilius's betrayal that they became slightly stricter. Yet after Strange lay at the entrance for five hours, the Ancient One softened her heart again.

The Ancient One nodded and asked, "But do you truly believe magic exists?"

"Of course I do!" Bai Jing nodded as if it were only natural. Why else would he have come here?

"Very good. Then..." The Ancient One raised her hand and suddenly shoved Bai Jing!

Boom!

Bai Jing felt as though he had gone blind.

The omnipresent light, electromagnetic waves, sound waves, and air molecules in the sky flooded his entire soul in an instant. His mind went utterly blank!

The world he could see overflowed with boundless light, while the world he could hear resembled raging waves. He felt like a small boat adrift at sea, or as if he were standing directly before the sun.

The Ancient One beside him also stared at Bai Jing's soul in surprise.

Bai Jing's physical body was no different from that of an ordinary person, and most of his soul was the same as well. Yet where his eyes should have been were two whirlpools that instantly sucked all the light in the room into them!

Fortunately, it lasted only a moment. In the next instant, Bai Jing seemed to regain consciousness. He immediately reined in the black hole's fluctuations and opened his eyes.

So my Black Hole Eye isn't on my physical body. It's in my soul? One of Bai Jing's greatest doubts had finally been resolved. He had always wondered why his mental processing speed and Five Senses had improved so much while his body seemed unchanged, to the point that even running three hundred meters left him exhausted.

Only now did he understand that it was his spirit, not his body, that had been strengthened.

But body and spirit were fused together. A powerful spirit would inevitably affect the body, so Bai Jing's physical body was gradually becoming stronger as well. It had simply been too short a time for the results to become obvious.

Previously, restrained by his physical body, even the black hole's absorption ability had been somewhat restricted. Now that his spirit had been forced out, his control over his eyes immediately became insufficient for an instant.

Fortunately, his eyes belonged to him in the first place, and he easily regained control over them.

"Is this your ability?" The Ancient One looked at Bai Jing's eyes. The power felt commonplace, something found everywhere in the universe, yet its essence was incomparably terrifying.

She thought of black holes, but said nothing.

Bai Jing nodded, keeping his eyes on the Ancient One. If anything went wrong, he would have to find a way to escape.

But the Ancient One did not make a move. She merely looked up as though considering something, then continued, "The essence of magic lies in deepening the spirit. The first step in deepening it is perceiving one's own spirit.

Normally, meditation is used to complete this process. Even geniuses need more than a decade, while the mediocre may have no hope in their lifetimes. By forcing your spirit out, I shortened this process!"

"Are there any side effects?" Bai Jing asked. "I heard that taking shortcuts in cultivation leads to side effects."

The Ancient One gave Bai Jing a somewhat surprised look. "You have great awareness. Most shortcuts indeed bring endless future trouble, but this method does not count. I merely lowered a rope to you from the mountain."

Bai Jing nodded. Just as he was about to say something else, he felt an enormous pulling force from his body, and in an instant, he returned to it.

"A person's spirit controls all bodily functions. Once the spirit leaves for too long, the body develops problems. And the body is the spirit's vessel. Once the vessel has problems, the spirit has nowhere to rely on and will eventually collapse!" The Ancient One said. "There are many benefits to leaving the body. Meditation becomes easier, and memory and comprehension improve. But you must never become overly dependent on it!"

Bai Jing nodded repeatedly.

"He will teach you the foundations of your training from now on!" The Ancient One pointed at Wang beside her. "If you encounter any difficulties, come find me!"

"Alright!" Bai Jing nodded as he watched the Ancient One slowly descend the stairs, followed by the Black sorcerer.

"Hey, hello." Wang seemed quite enthusiastic. "What was that move you just used?"

He was not yet thirty and still had a rather lively personality.

"Maybe an innate divine ability?" Bai Jing thought for a moment before replying. "Like the Five-Colored Divine Light!"

"Oh..." Wang scratched his head, trying to recall what the Five-Colored Divine Light was.

"What should I do next?" Bai Jing asked.

"Oh, I'll take you to look at some books first!" Wang walked ahead and said, "Most magical texts are written in Sanskrit, so you must first learn Sanskrit. After that, you'll learn how to meditate, along with basic spells and hand gestures. Finally, I'll teach you how to sense the Multidimensional Realm!"

The two went downstairs, turned left and right through several corridors, and finally arrived at a library.

It was similar to the New York Sanctum, except there were several times more books here.

Of course, what Bai Jing noticed was not the books, but the Eye of Agamotto sitting so conspicuously on the desk.

Naturally, he knew it was the Time Stone.

"Stop looking. You're not at the stage where you can use magical artifacts yet. If you become strong enough, you may not be unable to master this artifact someday!" Wang said, then softly added, "Master Manilla, I'm getting some books for the newcomer!"

Soon, four books, each as thick as a brick but even larger, appeared beside Bai Jing.

Book of Illusions: A book that helped people understand the mystic arts. It recorded various feats accomplished by sorcerers through magic, somewhat like Strange Tales from a Studio in China.

There was no need to explain the Sanskrit Dictionary. Bai Jing did not need to speak Sanskrit; he only needed to understand the words in the books.

Finally, Maxim's Enlightenment. Maxim had been a Sorcerer Supreme a thousand years ago. He systematically organized methods of meditation, making magic no longer exclusive to geniuses and giving ordinary people the possibility of deepening their spirits.

"How long will it take you to finish reading them?" Wang asked.

"Hmm, two days, I think!" Bai Jing considered it before answering.

"Very good!" Wang raised an eyebrow. "I like your confidence. Come with me. I'll show you where you'll be staying!"

The place he referred to was a mud hut of less than ten square meters. The bed and table were covered in dust, and when he lightly tapped the window, layer after layer of dust fell down again.

"I believe you can overcome this!" Wang said with a smile before turning and leaving.

He did not leave a note behind, because Wi-Fi had not yet become widespread.

"Tut, tut, tut..." Bai Jing looked around, raised a hand lightly, and walked in from the doorway. Everywhere he passed, the room became spotless.

But as soon as he lay down, he got back up.

The bedboard was fucking hard.

He lifted the bedding and found that there was only one thin layer beneath it, followed directly by dirt. Worse, the earthen bed was uneven, its surface riddled with insect-eaten holes.

Seriously? My family was poor when I was little, but I never slept in a bed like this!

Was this some kind of reality show?

Bai Jing simply used the black hole to rework it, smoothing the bed's surface completely. Yet it still dug into his body when he lay down.

He simply eliminated his sleepiness, got up, and began reading.

"He is not someone willing to live in obscurity!" Before the Kamar-Taj sanctuary, Mordo said, "We know nothing about his origins. His power is dangerous, and his ideas are dangerous as well. If he also gains the power of magic..."

"Whether or not he learns magic, his strength will gradually increase!" The Ancient One shook her head. "But here, at least he can become a force against the Dark Dimension."

In the Ancient One's heart, no one was beyond saving. She had even tried to save the traitorous Kaecilius, much less Bai Jing, who had never committed evil.

Oh, you said Bai Jing had killed people?

The Ancient One, whose gaze spanned the multiverse, did not consider that a sin. Besides, Bai Jing had not killed with the intention of killing.

As for his ideas?

The neighboring country had over a billion people with those same ideas. The Ancient One had only seen that country thrive, becoming more promising than every other nation.

Of course, she did not care what became of nations. Even if humanity regressed to primitive times, she would not care.

So long as the invaders were not aliens or beings from other dimensions.