The Three Essentials of Spellcasting

In the cave, water dripped steadily.

Fang Shu sat cross-legged, holding a gray fox pelt. Its hide was turned inside out, and thirteen complex characters, smeared in bloody red, had already been written across it.

They were thirteen Mystic Script characters from Immortal Studies.

Each one had been drawn with Fang Shu's own vital blood. Not a single stroke could be misplaced, and he had to write them all in one breath.

So even though he had fully grasped the spell, it still took him nearly half a month to write the Mystic Script on the fox pelt.

Even then, he had only managed it because he'd already gained experience consecrating the Long-Tongue Sword.

And the consecration method for the Fur-Shedding Skin-Changing Technique was even simpler than the one for the Long-Tongue Sword. He only needed to write the characters in blood, unlike the Long-Tongue Sword, which had to be tattooed into flesh.

In the dimness,

Fang Shu lowered his head and studied the blood-red Mystic Script on the fox pelt.

He reached up and wiped his mouth, pulling the Tongue Sword from between his lips.

He let the Long-Tongue Sword hang over the fox pelt, using its tip to sense the flow of qi and blood within the pelt and see whether they harmonized.

The Mystic Script characters written or engraved on a magical artifact weren't isolated from one another. Together, they formed a "restriction," much like the meridians in a human body.

Only after a restriction had been formed could the artifact's core be turned into a magical artifact that could be wielded. Otherwise, it remained nothing more than a dead object.

After sensing it carefully, Fang Shu confirmed that he hadn't wasted the fox pelt in his hands.

He breathed a sigh of relief and murmured,

"A spell cannot be learned without Mystic Script; an artifact cannot be completed without a restriction."

Moreover,

According to his second uncle, Immortal Studies was an empirical discipline.

After learning a spell and refining a magical artifact, a cultivator still needed magical power to serve as a bridge between them. Only then could they manifest their power in the outside world and make that might their own.

Spells, magical artifacts, and magical power were all of a piece.

They supported one another, each link bound to the next. Not one could be missing. These were the "Three Essentials of Spellcasting."

Without a spell, one couldn't refine a magical artifact; without a magical artifact, one couldn't use a spell; and without magical power, one was like a strong man who'd collapsed from hunger—no matter how skilled he was or what tools he had, he couldn't put them to use.

Of course, Fang Shu hadn't yet entered the Path, and he didn't have even a trace of immortal magical power.

Fortunately, vital blood could also serve as magical power, though the price was harm to the body and a shorter lifespan. It wasn't something to use often.

Fang Shu pondered,

Casting spells in this world is quite different from the tales of my previous life.

Spells actually need magical artifacts to work with them. It all seems rather cumbersome and inconvenient.

He had also asked around about it.

He found that only in ancient immortal legends were spells simply spells and magical artifacts simply magical artifacts, with little connection between the two.

Fang Shu thought,

Perhaps, as my second uncle said, the spells of today ought to be called "methods of the arts."

Immortals may be given the grand name of "immortal," but they're hardly free of worldly airs. "Method practitioners" or "practitioners of the arts" would suit them better.

But when in Rome, do as the Romans did. Since that was what everyone called them, he would follow suit.

Moreover,

Though the spells—or methods of the arts—of the present day seemed cumbersome to practice and cast,

Once mastered, they were actually more convenient and swift than the spells of ancient immortal legends.

That was because many spells needed neither incantations nor the circulation of energy, and required no hand seals or ritual steps. They could be released with a mere thought, like the limbs and fingers of the human body!

This had to do with the materials used to consecrate magical artifacts and how they were stored and used.

As for materials, immortals could use not only demons, but also gold, silver, copper, and iron; thunder and rain; the heart, liver, spleen, and lungs; the eyes, ears, nose, and throat; even a cultivator's own three hun and seven po souls...

Anything in the world could become an artifact!

Once refined, a magical artifact could be kept outside the body, serving as clothing or an adornment, or inside the body, taking the place of the internal organs. It could be constantly nourished within, growing or shrinking and changing in countless ways.

One more thing.

When Fang Shu had first begun studying Immortal Studies, he'd worried about this and written to ask his second uncle:

"Even so, if someone steals an immortal's magical artifacts, wouldn't they be knocked back to their original state and become no different from ordinary people?"

His second uncle's reply had been exceedingly brief:

"If someone can pull out your Long-Tongue Sword, they can cut off your head too."

After musing for a moment,

Fang Shu gathered his thoughts and stopped dwelling on it.

He checked the fox-pelt artifact over and over. Once he was sure there was nothing lacking, he immediately rose, held the pelt, and chanted:

"Demon hide, be my guide; Let my body take its form. Shed my fur, change my skin; Let me shape myself at will."

In the cave, he had already set up a simple altar. Human hair, nails, and saliva lay upon it, alongside a fox's heart, eyes, and fur.

Demon aura coiled thickly, wild and untamed.

As he climbed the altar, chanted, and stepped through the ritual motions, yellow paper crackled in the six-foot space around him, flapping in the wind.

Now that the artifact was ready, it was time to claim it for his own.

What he was doing was the final consecration: taking the artifact into his body.

Jiujiu!

A fox's cry suddenly rang through the cave.

Fang Shu hunched over and draped the fox pelt across his shoulders like a cloak. He dropped to all fours and let out a cry.

Suddenly, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat blood onto the yellow paper around him.

Whoosh! The paper caught fire at the touch of blood, releasing a dense, incense-like fragrance. Slowly, the smoke gathered into the shape of a fox and darted about the cave.

This was Fang Shu using his vital blood as a catalyst, letting it serve as magical power to drive the spell and artifact.

Fang Shu raised his head and drew on his lungs, swallowing all the fox-shaped smoke into his body.

Then his voice turned strange, high and hurried, part fox cry and part human speech, as he recited an incantation:

"Lend me your power; let my wonder shine!"

Jiu!

His body suddenly sank low, writhing strangely as his bones contracted until he was only six feet tall.

When Fang Shu raised his head again, his eyes were narrow, gray fur covered his face, and his features had grown pointed. He now had a living fox's face.

He curled up on the altar, grooming his fur and licking his paws. After giving his whole body a shake, he found that he was fox-shaped from face to tail, back to paws.

At that moment, he was a fox through and through, nothing like someone merely disguised by an illusion talisman.

Whoosh, whoosh.

He leaped off the altar and scampered all around the cave, darting up and down.

The cave, which had seemed rather dim to him before, now looked as bright as day.

And a host of scents filled his nostrils. His sense of smell had grown more than tenfold compared with when he was in human form.

After transforming into a fox, Fang Shu also opened his mouth and slickly spat out the Tongue Sword.

He could still use the Tongue Sword in fox form, and it felt quite different from when he was human. Its ghostly nature was greatly amplified, making it easier to wield from the shadows and strike down an enemy.

After playing around to his heart's content,

Fang Shu stood upright and grinned with his fox face. He reached up with a claw and peeled the fox pelt from his face.

He leaped free of the pelt, his body growing larger with a series of cracking sounds, and transformed back into human form.

The fox pelt he had removed didn't collapse into a heap of fur.

It swayed and wobbled, the fur drawing together until it became a furry fox with a half-smile. It floated lightly in place, turning around several times on its own.

When its lifeless eyes slowly met Fang Shu's,

Jiu!

Fang Shu let out a fox's cry. The pelt leaped onto him, scampering up to his neck and settling there as a hood of fox fur.

Feeling the smooth fox fur around his neck, Fang Shu couldn't help looking moved and exhilarated.

"Wonderful! I've mastered another spell."

With this spell, traveling through the mountains and wilderness would be much easier and safer for him.

At a critical moment, he could even cast off the fox pelt and escape like a lizard shedding its tail, saving his life and slipping away.

Once he reached an immortal marketplace, he could also consider selling the fox pelt to supplement his household's funds.

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

And the fox pelt had only just been consecrated. If he nourished it over time and used certain medicinal materials to deepen its consecration,

perhaps it would rise from an Unranked artifact to a One-Tribulation Artifact.

Then it would be worth much more to him!

Fang Shu looked forward to it.

The magical artifact was consecrated, and there was no need to linger here.

He glanced at the cluttered cave, and his urge to leave grew strong.

Fang Shu gathered up his belongings, then gripped the Lightness Talisman and sprang out of the cave.

When he landed, poof—he had transformed into a gray-furred fox again.

He spread his paws and tested them a few times, then scampered around the foot of the cliff.

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