Learning Magic

Meditation is about calming the mind, entering a state of deep thought where it can expand infinitely.

For ordinary people, in this state, their spirit gradually grows, leading to a feeling of increasing well-being, better health, a good appetite, good digestion, and sound sleep.

But after experiencing astral projection, the spirit undergoes a deeper sublimation in a state of deep concentration, allowing one to perceive the Multidimensional Realm!

Bai Jing spent half the night comparing the Book of Maxim with a Sanskrit Dictionary. As for the New Astronomy and Book of Illusions, he abandoned them after flipping through a couple of pages.

He's someone who often reads Xianxia Novels, so why would he need to cultivate mystical thoughts?

He's someone who has received modern scientific education, so why would he need to read popular science literature from 400 years ago?

In the latter half of the night, Bai Jing began to attempt meditation.

At first, entering a state of deep concentration was difficult, but he eventually found a method.

Too many chaotic thoughts in his head—isn't that just overactive brain cells?

Bai Jing directly used gravity to control his nerve cells, suppressing any activity. After half an hour of this, his mind finally quieted down!

Subsequently, he very easily sensed an Alternate Dimension!

It was a magical feeling, as if a layer of invisible, intangible mist had appeared in the air, superimposed on their universe, yet not existing on the same plane.

This mist was a fiery red, gently drifting in the air.

"Is this the energy mages use?" Bai Jing curiously tried to guide it with his spirit, then opened his eyes.

As expected of a dimension closest to the universe, after exiting the meditative state, by simply maintaining mental focus, he could actually sense this power!

No wonder mages could conjure energy like this with a wave of their hand—it was too easy to sense!

Bai Jing also understood why mages didn't use spells like Ice Arrow or Earth Evasion: because this energy couldn't be used to create them!

This energy was best suited for shaping, creating things like Shields or Protractors, but Bai Jing didn't know how yet. Specific shaping required specific incantations, which Bai Jing hadn't started learning.

"Speaking of which, can gravity control this energy?" Bai Jing curiously manipulated the surrounding gravity to influence a spark, and was surprised to find that it could!

"They're clearly not from the same dimension, but no one knows the true nature of gravity. Scientific theory suggests it's a higher-dimensional power, capable of influencing energy across dimensions, so it seems plausible!" With this thought, Bai Jing continued his experiments.

His purpose in learning magic was to better utilize his own eyes. Now that he could sense so much energy, he naturally wanted to see if he could absorb it!

"I'll devour it!" Bai Jing slightly opened his Devouring Power, and in an instant, all the fiery red energy within the range of his gravity field vanished into it.

Bai Jing felt as if his eyes had briefly heated up, and then, he saw the alternate dimension!

He saw it with his eyes, not sensed it with his spirit!

He saw a world of orange-red, vast and boundless, filling the heavens. The entire world had instantly turned orange-red!

That fiery red energy drifted freely throughout this world, as common as air on Earth. In this world, Bai Jing also saw creatures like swimming fish and flying birds flash by.

There was life in this dimension!

"I think I..." Bai Jing's face darkened, then he quickly became excited: "Am I a super genius??"

He could see dimensional energy with his own eyes! While other mages had to rely on spiritual perception, he could see it!

What did this mean?

It meant that while other mages had to concentrate fully to maintain their magic in combat, Bai Jing didn't need to.

Therefore, his use of magic would be more casual, more free.

The only problem was that this energy, like mist, had low density and was scarce.

Casting a spell might require drawing energy from a considerable area.

Bai Jing thought he had found a portable power source he could draw from at will, but seeing this world, he realized he had rejoiced too soon.

But it was normal, really. If the energy in this dimension were incredibly abundant, the Ancient One would have just drawn from it, why bother drawing from the Dark Dimension?

"But looking at it this way, the Dark Dimension has a lot of energy?" He could absorb the energy from this commonly used dimension; theoretically, he should be able to absorb from the Dark Dimension as well.

But he wasn't sure. After all, when ordinary mages absorbed energy from the Dark Dimension, it would only attract Dormammu, but when the Ancient One absorbed power from the Dark Dimension, Dormammu wouldn't dare to make a peep.

The night passed without incident.

The next day, Bai Jing went to find Wang.

"I've finished the book, and I've sensed the energy from that dimension, so can I proceed to the next stage of my training?" Bai Jing asked.

"Huh?" Wang looked blankly at the sky, suspecting he had overslept or misremembered the time.

"Follow me!" Wang hesitated, then decided not to ask too many questions.

What if he really had sensed it? Wouldn't that make him look foolish?

What if he hadn't sensed it? Then he would only be deceiving himself.

They were back in the study.

"This is the Compendium of Basic Incantations!" Wang said. "The energy from alternate dimensions is like an electric current; our spirit draws it out, but to control it like an arm, incantations are needed to guide it!"

Another book. Bai Jing opened it and found it contained incantations for various weapons.

First, Shield, second, Whip, third, Blade, which were the Protractor commonly used by mages...

"Since the weapons formed by magic are mostly for close combat, you'll also need to learn some self-defense techniques," Wang said, handing Bai Jing a few more books.

Compendium of Various Fist Styles.

"Are there no bows and arrows?" Bai Jing flipped through the incantations and then looked at Wang curiously.

If I'm a mage and still need to fight in close combat, why wouldn't I just grab a Vibranium sword?

"Uh, we don't have those?" Wang scratched his head, then took the incantations and flipped through them. Indeed, there weren't any.

"Maybe there just aren't any mages who like archery, so no one created this incantation!" Wang thought for a moment and said, "If you really want to use one, you can create it yourself!"

"Is it difficult to create one?" Bai Jing asked.

"It probably isn't that difficult!" Wang mused, "After all, all the magic here was created by our predecessors. But to say it's simple, it's probably not simple either. It's been many years since a new spell was born!"

"Oh!" Bai Jing nodded and continued flipping through the incantations.

The incantation itself wasn't complicated; the complexity lay in the requirements for casting it, which demanded accurate pronunciation and precise stances.

Because language standardization only happened in the last century or so, mages from the past thousands of years spoke with all sorts of accents and created all kinds of spells. To their contemporaries, learning them wasn't difficult, but for those who came later, it was a headache.

However, once this spell was mastered, it wouldn't be so troublesome. One could try to modify the syllables and hand gestures, casting it in their most proficient way.

In fact, over the past century, the Ancient One had already modified most of the ancient spells to use English (the Ancient One is Celtic and uses English). This had already significantly reduced the casting difficulty of many spells.

The remaining ones were basically created by mages in the last century. Since the Sanctum is in Nepal, Sanskrit has been used more often in recent years, so there are still a large number of Sanskrit spells.

As for whether there are any Chinese spells, yes, there are, but very few. This is because China has its own inherited sects, so fewer people come here to apprentice.