Spell Solidification

Early the next morning, Adam ran into David, who handed him a letter. Inside the envelope was a list, telling him that everyone named on it would follow his orders.

The list thoughtfully noted each person's relationship with Matt, as well as whether Matt trusted them.

Adam went through the entire list. McLaren was not on it.

Clearly, the coachman had been abandoned.

After getting up, Adam met with Doug, but they did not say much.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Adam left. The coachman assigned to him was still McLaren.

He kept his head lowered, avoiding Adam's face. Leaning against the carriage with the whip in hand, he listened to the horses breathing, certain that he could hear life drawing to its end.

Adam got into the carriage. This time, he did not draw the curtains, leaving them open as he spoke to McLaren.

"I praised you to Mr. Doug," Adam said, making good on his word, though he had added a few more words after the praise.

"Thank you, Mr. Adam. Thank you, Mr. Adam." McLaren hurriedly thanked him, indescribable delight in his voice. His back, hunched over in the front, straightened once more.

"No need. I may have to trouble you to drive me around for some time yet." Adam smiled. "But I can't keep borrowing the Rom Family's carriage forever. I may buy one myself later."

Then, in a joking tone, he said, "How about inviting McLaren to become my coachman then?"

"Mr. Adam!" McLaren's voice suddenly rose before he calmed himself and said, "My family has served as coachmen for the Rom Family for generations. We were in the past, and we will be in the future."

"Is that so?" Adam continued, "Still, I'm afraid you'll have to follow me for the time being. Mr. Doug and I have some business together. Until I hire a new coachman, you'll be the one driving me around."

"Yes... all right." McLaren was inexplicably flustered, and then said nothing more.

The journey to the Central Clock Tower was not long. They arrived before long.

"Same as yesterday. Come pick me up around four or five this afternoon," Adam said. He took out a gold coin, turned, and entered the Reflection Tower without paying McLaren any further attention.

In the dim stairwell, Adam did not see Xilin this time. He went directly to the tenth floor and found Anthony already waiting there.

Anthony looked fairly well, but his expression was far from pleasant.

"Teacher, did someone come to the tower last night?" Adam knew very well that with Anthony's strength, even while inside the Reflection Tower, he could observe what was happening outside.

It was only for some unknown reason that Anthony rarely did so.

"Hm? You knew?" Anthony's expression was poor, but his anger was not directed at Adam.

"Recently, a noble has been pestering Teacher Alva. It seems he failed to get what he wanted from Teacher Alva, so he came looking for me these past few days." Adam recounted everything concerning Doug, even admitting that he had accepted benefits.

"Even the carriage I've been taking here these past few days was provided by Mr. Doug."

As he came into contact with these powerful professionals, Adam realized that lying and concealing things around them was useless.

Most professionals began with perception, and perception affected every aspect of a professional. Thus, the first extraordinary attribute most professionals gained was usually extraordinary perception.

The stronger the professional, the sharper their perception. If you dared to lie, they could see through it.

"Is that so?" Though Anthony had not exposed anything, he glanced at Adam. "You're curious too, aren't you?"

"Indeed. I'm extremely curious about something even nobles would seek so desperately." Alva had certainly told Anthony some of his circumstances when he sent him here. Since that was the case, Adam might as well show it openly.

"What he seeks is no good thing." Anthony spoke with a trace of reminiscence. "Alva was much like you back then, always wanting to prove something, always wanting to change something. He has never changed, from childhood to adulthood."

"When he was young and powerless, it was manageable. But when he grew older and gained power, he could no longer restrain himself. He was already in his forties. Perhaps as noble power grew ever greater, and more and more young people in the church came from noble families, Alva began pondering one question: why must practitioners obey birth, aging, sickness, and death?"

"So that year, we finally obtained the Elixir of Immortality." Anthony looked straight into Adam's eyes. "And we brought about a great disaster, committing sins that could never be redeemed."

"The side effects of that Elixir of Immortality were too severe, worse than any other method of immortality. To obtain immortality without altering one's bloodline, one asked for too much—and thus had to pay far more."

"Perhaps the price of that time was tragic enough to fill Alva with regret. He began to reflect on himself, and to hate the person he had once been. Perhaps that is why he sent you to me."

"As for the Elixir of Immortality, there was only one dose of it back then. Alva will not refine a second dose. He would probably rather die than let that thing spread again. Since it does not exist, the next time you see that noble, tell him to stop pursuing it."

Anthony's words startled Adam. The information contained within them was considerable.

If what Anthony said was true, and there had only ever been one Elixir of Immortality, then he himself had not maintained his immortality by taking it. So where had Ai's "Elixir of Immortality" come from?

Or had Anthony misjudged Alva, and had that man taken up his ambitions from those days once more?

Thinking of the information he had obtained from Doug, Adam did not dwell on it, because Anthony's lesson had begun.

There was much to learn on the path of a spellcaster: meditation methods, advanced meditation methods—and even meditation methods could not simply be practiced with one's head down.

"Human palm prints differ, and souls differ as well. Therefore, the same meditation method must change according to the person practicing it."

"No one would feel at ease letting another observe their soul, and the barrier of the flesh makes observation difficult as well."

"Thus, these changes can only be adjusted by oneself."

"That requires knowledge. The path of a spellcaster is understanding—understanding oneself, understanding nature."

"The soul is too ethereal. To understand it deeply, one must rely on a medium. That medium is spiritual power."

The nature of spiritual power, internal control, the meanings brought by structure, the structures corresponding to various forces of nature—all of these had to be studied.

Only by understanding these things could one successfully cast a spell. With spells, one could construct ritual arrays; with ritual arrays, one could enter the Return Stage, and only then could one gain a deeper understanding of one's own soul.

"At the very beginning, there was no such thing as spells. Back then, they were all called rituals," Anthony said. "A ritual refers to a specific mode of action capable of communicating with nature."

"Rituals did not necessarily have to be performed by spellcasters. Practitioners, knights, even ordinary people—so long as they met the conditions and performed the ritual, they could display miracles through it."

"However, most rituals were complex. A short ritual took more than ten minutes to perform, while the unit for measuring a long one had to be years."

"With the rise of spellcasters, people began researching why rituals could invoke the forces of nature. At first, they used spiritual power to imitate and simplify them. Then they came to understand the principles within and began constructing miracles themselves. From that point on, spells completely separated from rituals."

"Your progress has been swift. Your Nether Soil has already taken on a certain scale, and you can now carry out the semi-solidification of a spell."

Meditation methods used spiritual power to maintain one's own spiritual power operating pattern. So-called semi-solidification meant using special methods to alter a portion of one's spiritual power, forge it into a model, embed it into that spiritual power operating pattern, and directly turn a spell into an innate ability.

"Many spells now pursue destructive power, but the definition of a spell should be that of a tool—a tool for exploring the soul. Later, you may choose a spell model from the bookshelf for semi-solidification," Anthony said. "Then go find Xi... then I will prepare the required resource materials for you."

The ultimate pursuit of spellcasters was the mysteries of the soul, and spells were tools for exploring it. If a tool was not enough for exploration, then one created a stronger spell. If a spell could only be cast once, then one developed semi-solidification techniques. If a single spell was not enough, then one chained spells together. If that still was not enough, then one gathered everything into a ritual array, forging spiritual power—the medium—into its strongest state before exploring the soul.

Personal ritual arrays differed. Some succeeded, some failed, and even those that succeeded discovered different things. Those who succeeded crossed the Return Stage and arrived at the Ascension Stage.

Those who failed each had their own way of living.

Anthony, who had always laid out Adam's road ahead with perfect clarity, merely gave him a hint this time before letting Adam choose for himself.

Yesterday, someone commented that the beginning of this book was imitating someone or other. Xuming took a heavy blow from it, and his mindset nearly collapsed. If every Western fantasy story counts as imitation, then I have nothing to say. But putting myself in others' shoes, Xuming also hopes that readers of Xuming's books will not spam Xuming's books or characters under other unrelated books. It easily invites hostility. Thank you all for your support and encouragement.