Meditation and Training

On the first day, no one noticed anything unusual.

No one found it strange that Qiaosuo did not show up.

On the second day, people began to sense that something was off. Passing by his door, they could already smell a faint stench.

The temperature aboard the ship was not low, and more than forty-eight hours had passed since his death. At last, the room could no longer contain the smell.

By the time Charles finished breakfast on the third day, Qiaosuo's door had already been forced open.

A Great Knight clad in armor stood outside the room with a sword in hand. Several sailor-servants from the ship were busy cleaning out Qiaosuo's room beside him.

Before long, the sailors carried Qiaosuo's corpse out of the room.

The Great Knight looked at the gathered young men and women and said coldly, "This young man experimented with evil wizardry in his room and killed himself. You are still standing around watching? Aren't you afraid of being infected as well?"

At those words, the crowd watching from afar with their noses covered stirred in alarm and quickly scattered.

Standing far away, Charles watched the knight use his sword sheath to hook up the small pouch of Magic Stones from Qiaosuo's body and tuck it into his own clothes.

The knight had no intention of investigating how Qiaosuo had died.

As for the wizard apprentices stationed aboard the ship, they did not even intend to come down from the upper cabins.

Knights were merely attendants and servants to wizards and wizard apprentices.

Watching the knight's actions, Charles felt a slight pang of regret.

Had he known that the ship would handle a death so simply, he should have taken Qiaosuo's Magic Stones back then.

Once Qiaosuo's body had been removed and the room cleaned up, someone would likely move in again before long.

The weight hanging over Charles's heart finally lifted, and he began cultivating in earnest.

They had received the Basic Meditation Technique when they boarded the ship.

This meditation technique contained a total of forty-five runes. During cultivation, one needed to record every one of those runes within one's mind.

Once one could record all forty-five runes in their mind at once, a qualitative transformation would occur, and they would become a Third-Rank Wizard Apprentice.

Some of the more talented had successfully advanced to Third-Rank Wizard Apprentices within the first few months.

The other benefits of becoming a wizard apprentice were not yet obvious, but one advantage was that they could move into the upper cabins of the ship for free.

By comparison, the upper cabins were undoubtedly larger, offered better service, and cost nothing.

Charles's original talent had been poor. After an entire year, he had only recorded around twenty runes.

At that rate, there was an eighty percent chance he would not become a wizard apprentice before reaching the Wizard Continent.

That slow progress was precisely why Charles had risked taking the wicked path.

But that had been the previous Charles's problem.

The current Charles had evolved. Having obtained a thin Succubus Bloodline, his talent was now considerably better.

Perhaps it was not solely because of the Succubus Bloodline. Cultivating a meditation technique primarily depended on the soul.

Charles's original talent was not necessarily the same as his current talent.

At least judging from the past few days of cultivation, Charles was progressing far faster than before.

Perhaps in another couple of months, he would be able to memorize all forty-five runes.

According to the voyage duration he had heard about, they should not have reached the Wizard Continent by then.

Charles gathered his thoughts and entered meditation. He recorded the runes one by one, using his mental power to imbue them as he comprehended them.

That was how meditation was cultivated, and it placed a considerable burden on the mind.

The runes he had already recorded were relatively easy. Those still being recorded, however, were each exceptionally taxing and consumed a great deal of mental power.

After cultivating for just over two hours, Charles could no longer endure it. He clutched his head and opened his eyes.

That night, he had successfully recorded another rune, moving one step closer to success.

Before becoming wizard apprentices, they could not cultivate for very long each day.

Memorizing runes consumed a great deal of mental power, and they generally could not persist for long.

With the same amount of cultivation time, those with better talent found it easier to record runes and could gain a greater advantage from the very beginning.

His meditation session was over, but Charles was not sleepy yet.

Besides meditation, he also needed to train in the Knight Breathing Technique.

The Knight Breathing Technique came from the inherited tradition of the Augustus Family, an earl's family. It was called the Molten Breathing Technique.

This breathing technique could be cultivated to the Great Knight stage and reliably produced Great Knights for the Augustus Family.

Charles also possessed the lesser version of the Molten Breathing Technique, the Flame Breathing Technique.

Compared to the Molten Breathing Technique, the Flame Breathing Technique was less effective and slower to cultivate.

However, it could likewise awaken the Knight Seed and allow one to become a knight attendant.

Breathing techniques could temper the body and give Charles the power to fight in close combat.

As the former youngest son of an earl, Charles had never lacked resources for breathing technique cultivation.

Even though he had not been particularly dedicated to training, he had still awakened his Knight Seed and become a knight.

A knight's body gave Charles tremendous strength. When he attacked, he could even carry faint flames and heat with his blows.

Yet knights could not compare to wizards. Even a stronger Great Knight was said to be merely equivalent to a First-Rank Wizard Apprentice.

As for a knight like Charles, he could only be easily toyed with when facing a wizard apprentice.

But among ordinary people like them, who did not even qualify as wizard apprentices, the status and combat strength of a knight were still quite formidable.

At least before advancing to a Third-Rank Wizard Apprentice, Charles needed a means to protect himself and survive.

Cultivating the Knight Breathing Technique also required specially made medicinal oil, which strengthened the body without damaging it.

Quite a few wizard apprentices cultivated the Knight Breathing Technique as a secondary discipline. Prolonged meditation and the cultivation and absorption of magic power could both harm the body.

If they did not want to die young, they needed to cultivate the Knight Breathing Technique all the more. Otherwise, their bodies would soon collapse.

The former Charles had never been particularly diligent in cultivating the Knight Breathing Technique. After all, he was meant to become a wizard.

But the current Charles was different. A healthy body was the foundation of everything.

Maintaining his body well was still very important.

In the darkness, Charles evenly applied medicinal oil to several parts of his body, then began training it according to a specific regimen.

The Knight Breathing Technique did not rely on breathing alone. It also required muscle training and the cooperation of the Knight Seed within the body.

By the end of the full routine, Charles was exhausted. Completing one entire set took a full two hours.

No wonder the former Charles had been too lazy to cultivate the Knight Breathing Technique. This thing was simply a test of one's physical limits.