The Three Essentials of Spellcasting

In the rock cavern, water droplets ticked rhythmically.

Fang Shu sat cross-legged, holding a gray fox pelt in his hands. The skin was turned inside out, and thirteen bloody, complex characters had already been inscribed upon it.

These were the thirteen Mystic Scripts of Immortal Studies.

Each one had been drawn by Fang Shu using his own vital blood; not a single stroke could be misplaced, and the entire process required a single, unbroken flow of focus.

Thus, even after fully comprehending the spell, he had spent nearly half a month just to write these characters onto the fox pelt.

This was only possible because he already had the experience of refining his Long-Tongue Sword.

Moreover, the refining method for the Fur-Shedding Skin-Changing Technique was simpler than that of the Long-Tongue Sword. It only required the blood-written characters, unlike the sword, which had to be carved into his own flesh like a tattoo.

In the dim light.

Fang Shu lowered his head to look at the blood-red Mystic Scripts on the pelt.

He reached up to wipe his mouth and removed the long tongue from within.

He draped the long tongue over the fox pelt, using the tip to sense the flow of blood and qi within the skin to see if they were in harmony.

These Mystic Scripts, whether written or carved into an artifact, were not isolated; they formed a "prohibition" that functioned much like the meridians of a human body.

Only after refining this prohibition could a raw object be transformed into a usable artifact; otherwise, it remained nothing more than a dead thing.

After sensing it carefully for a while, Fang Shu confirmed that he had not wasted the fox pelt in his hands.

He let out a breath of relief and sighed softly:

"Without Mystic Scripts, a spell cannot be learned; without a prohibition, an artifact cannot be forged."

Furthermore.

According to his second uncle, Immortal Studies was a discipline of empirical evidence.

Once a practitioner learned a spell and forged an artifact, they still needed mana as a bridge to connect the two, allowing them to manifest their power and bring that greatness back to themselves.

Spells, artifacts, and mana—these three were truly one.

They complemented each other, linked together, and none could be dispensed with; this was what was known as the "Three Essentials of Spellcasting."

Without spells, one could not forge artifacts; without artifacts, one could not utilize spells; and without mana, one was like a starving strongman—no matter how skilled or well-equipped, he could exert no strength.

Of course, Fang Shu had not yet entered the Dao, and he possessed not a shred of immortal mana.

Fortunately, "vital blood" could serve as a substitute for mana, though the cost was damage to his body and a shortening of his lifespan, so it was not to be used lightly.

Fang Shu pondered in his mind:

"Casting spells in this world is quite different from the storybooks of my past life.

It is surprisingly cumbersome and inconvenient that one must have an artifact to cooperate with the spell."

He had inquired about this himself.

He discovered that only in the ancient immortal legends were spells simply spells and artifacts simply artifacts, with no tight relationship between the two.

Fang Shu thought to himself:

"Perhaps today's spells, just as my second uncle said, should more accurately be called 'Method Arts.'

The immortals call themselves 'immortal' as a fine name, but in truth, they have little detachment from the world; they should more properly be called 'Methodists' or 'Artisans.'"

However, when in Rome, do as the Romans do; since the world called them such, he would simply follow the crowd.

Furthermore.

Although today's spells (Method Arts) appeared cumbersome when being practiced and cast.

Once mastered, they were actually far more convenient and efficient than the spells in ancient legends.

This was because the casting of many spells required no chanting, no channeling of energy, and no hand seals or footwork; they were triggered by a single thought, just like the limbs and fingers of a human body!

This was related to the materials used when refining artifacts and the methods used to store them.

In terms of materials, immortals could use not only demonic creatures but also gold, silver, copper, iron, thunder, rain, dew, or even hearts, livers, spleens, stomachs, eyes, ears, noses, throats, and even the practitioner's own three souls and seven spirits...

Everything in the world could be an artifact!

And once an artifact was forged, it could be worn outside the body as clothing or ornaments, or kept inside the body to serve as internal organs, nurtured at all times, growing large or small, changing in a thousand ways.

As an aside.

When Fang Shu first touched upon Immortal Studies, he had worried about this unnecessarily and wrote to his second uncle:

"Even so, if an immortal's artifact were stolen, wouldn't they be beaten back to their original form and become no different from a mortal?"

His second uncle's reply was extremely brief:

"He who can pull out your long tongue can naturally cut off your head."

After a moment of reflection.

Fang Shu gathered his thoughts and stopped dwelling on it.

He checked the fox pelt artifact in his hands repeatedly, and after confirming there were no flaws, he stood up immediately, holding the pelt and chanting:

"Demon skin as the guide, my body becomes the other. Fur-shedding and skin-changing, transformation at my will."

In the rock cavern, he had already set up a crude Dharma Altar, adorned with human hair, human nails, human saliva, and set with a fox's heart, fox's eyes, and fox fur.

The demonic aura was eerie, and the wild atmosphere was thick.

As he ascended the altar to chant and pace the steps of the stars, the yellow paper within a six-foot radius rattled and slapped against the wind.

Once an artifact was forged, it should naturally be claimed for one's own use.

What he was doing now was the final refining, binding the artifact to his body.

Chirp!

A fox's cry suddenly rang out in the cave.

Fang Shu was seen hunched over, draping the shawl-like fox pelt over his body, dropping to all fours, and making a sound from his throat.

Suddenly, he bit his tongue and spat blood toward the surrounding yellow paper.

Whoosh! The yellow paper ignited upon contact with the blood, emitting a rich scent of incense and candles, and as it drifted, it formed the shape of a fox, darting about the cave.

This was him using his own vital blood as a guide to act as mana, driving the spell and the artifact.

Fang Shu tilted his head back, using the strength of his lungs to swallow the fox-shaped smoke entirely into his body.

Immediately, his voice became strange, sharp, and rapid—resembling both a fox's cry and human speech—as he chanted a spell:

"Borrowing your power, manifest my wonder!"

Chirp!

His figure suddenly crouched low, writhing strangely as his bones shrank to the size of six feet.

When Fang Shu looked up again, his eyes were long and narrow, gray fur grew on his face, and his features were sharp—it was a vivid fox face.

He curled his body, groomed his fur and licked his paws on the altar, shaking his entire body, and found that from face to tail, from back to claws, there was nothing that wasn't fox-like.

At this moment, he was a fox through and through, far beyond what could be mimicked by illusion talismans.

Swish, swish.

He leaped off the altar and wandered around the rock cavern, darting up and down.

The cave, which had seemed quite dim to his eyes before, now appeared no different from broad daylight.

Moreover, various scents appeared between his mouth and nose; his sense of smell had improved more than tenfold compared to when he was in human form.

After transforming into a fox, Fang Shu opened his mouth and flicked out the Long-Tongue Sword.

He could still use the tongue sword in his fox state, and it was quite different from his human state; its ghostly, sinister nature was doubled, making it easier to wield the sword from the shadows and ambush enemies.

After playing around to his heart's content.

Fang Shu stood upright, grinned with his fox face, and reached out a claw to peel the fox pelt from his face.

His body leaped out from the fox pelt, crackling as it grew larger, and transformed back into human form.

As for the fox pelt he had shed, it did not fall into a heap of fur on the spot.

It swayed, the fur closing up to become a fox-like shape with a half-smile, and it floated around in place a few times on its own.

When its pair of dead, lifeless eyes slowly met Fang Shu's gaze.

Chirp!

Fang Shu let out a fox cry, and it pounced toward him, darting onto his neck and coiling into a fox-pelt hood.

Stroking the smooth fox fur at his neck, Fang Shu could not help but feel moved, exclaiming with excitement:

"How fortunate! I have mastered another spell."

With this technique, traveling through the mountains and wilderness in the future would not only be much more convenient but also much more covert.

At critical moments, he could even discard this fox pelt, escaping like a gecko shedding its tail to save his life.

Once he reached an immortal market, he could even consider selling this fox pelt to bolster his assets.

The more he thought about it, the happier Fang Shu became.

Furthermore, this fox pelt had only just been refined; once he nurtured it for a long time and used some medicinal herbs to deepen the refining process.

It might just advance from a low-grade artifact to a ranked One-Tribulation Artifact.

By then, it would bring him even greater value!

Fang Shu looked forward to it.

With the artifact refining complete, there was no need to stay here any longer.

He glanced at the cluttered cave, his desire to leave growing strong.

Immediately, Fang Shu packed up his belongings in the cave, then pinched a Lightness Talisman and leaped out of the rock cavern.

As he landed, he poofed and transformed back into a gray-furred fox.

He stepped out on all fours, tested the ground a few times, and then darted away at the base of the cliff.

In the blink of an eye, Fang Shu vanished into the mountain forest, disappearing without a trace, truly like a wild fox.