Magic

After leaving the City Lord's Manor, Huo Yuhao paused briefly and looked up at the night sky.

Yao Chen somehow produced a small mirror. As he stroked his face, he said, "Yuhao, we can go back now, right? Lack of sleep causes crow's feet!"

Huo Yuhao shook his head. "There's still something to do."

"Still more? No one else has provoked you, have they? Don't tell me you're planning to cause trouble for other mercenary groups?"

Hearing that, the corners of Huo Yuhao's lips curved upward slightly. "Teacher, you've reminded me. If there's enough time, we can go take a look at the other mercenary groups."

Yao Chen could not help but smile bitterly. "Will this ever end?"

Huo Yuhao summoned a flying Spirit Artifact from his storage ring and flew toward the outskirts of the city.

He stopped about a li beyond the city walls, then turned back to inspect Stone Desert City's walls as he pondered.

The walls were probably already at their limit if they had to withstand an attack from a Dou Ling. Aside from them, Stone Desert City had no other defensive capabilities. The strongest person in the city was only Senior Hai Bodong. If the snake people attacked...

"Yuhao, are you planning to...?" Yao Chen had found it strange when Huo Yuhao flew out of the city, and now he finally spoke up, interrupting his thoughts.

Coming back to his senses, Huo Yuhao replied, "Teacher, I'm planning to set up warning and defensive formations around Stone Desert City."

"Why?" Yao Chen did not understand. "If you're worried about your elder brothers' safety, it would be enough to set up formations at the Desert Iron Mercenary Corps' headquarters."

Huo Yuhao nodded. "After setting up the formations outside the city, I'll go set some up near the headquarters as well."

"Uh..."

Huo Yuhao took out some metal and Magic Cores. "Teacher, may I borrow your Bone Spirit Cold Flame?"

"Uh, I forgot to bring it. The Bone Spirit Cold Flame is with my main body; this spiritual body doesn't have it." Yao Chen looked embarrassed. After explaining, he asked curiously, "Aren't you setting up a formation? What do you need a Heavenly Flame for?"

"I'm planning to refine some formation foundations." Hearing that Yao Chen had not brought the Bone Spirit Cold Flame, Huo Yuhao felt a headache coming on.

"Formation foundations?" Yao Chen asked about the unfamiliar term. "What are those? The incomplete formation manual I gave you didn't mention them."

"Didn't you use only Magic Cores when you set up formations last time?"

"This is something Xiao Yan told me. He said that the formations he had seen all used things like formation foundations and formation flags." As Huo Yuhao spoke, he took out his forging furnace.

"Inscribing formation patterns directly onto Magic Cores can easily damage their structure, so I plan to inscribe the patterns onto metal and use Magic Cores to provide energy. In essence, this also counts as crafting Spirit Artifacts."

Huo Yuhao tossed a piece of rare metal into the furnace and ignited the flames. Yet after the flames burned for a long time, the metal's surface merely turned faintly red, without any further change. Seeing this, Huo Yuhao pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Ordinary flames are too slow. I won't finish it all in one night."

Huo Yuhao extinguished the flames and considered inwardly, Perhaps I can forgo Spirit Artifacts and use Soul Tools instead?

Yao Chen could offer some advice regarding artifact refinement, since his old friend Wind Venerable also knew how to refine artifacts. But he truly knew little about formations. At this moment, he could only say awkwardly, "Then should I go back and call my main body over?"

Right, when I was studying spirit patterns last time... Huo Yuhao suddenly thought of something. He waved Yao Chen off and said, "No need. I have a new idea."

With that, Huo Yuhao formed a hand seal with both hands and chanted, "Fire elements of this world, heed my call and burn away my enemies—Fireball!"

Something Yao Chen could not comprehend happened. Before his astonished eyes, the fire-attributed energy between heaven and earth seemed to truly heed Huo Yuhao's command. Huo Yuhao had neither forcibly controlled it with spiritual power nor entered the state of Heaven-Human Unity, yet it still gathered in his hand and formed a fireball that simply floated there in silence.

"Th-this is?"

"I've always had this feeling, whether when studying spirit patterns or when I used the Ice-Sealing Dragon Transformation Art against Senior Hai Bodong. It's strange. It feels like this world naturally acknowledges the existence of magic."

"I've never seen such a method before." Yao Chen was so shocked that he even dropped his usual self-reference. "This makes no sense. These fire-attributed energies have no self-awareness, so how could they possibly obey you so readily? That Ice-Sealing Dragon Transformation Art you used before—wasn't that also you actively controlling the energy of heaven and earth? You even deliberately combined Dou Qi and spiritual power to perform it. Yet this time, you only expended spiritual power after the fireball formed in order to maintain it."

Yao Chen rattled off a long string of words without pausing, not giving Huo Yuhao a chance to answer before continuing, "I'll try it myself."

Before his words had even faded, Yao Chen copied Huo Yuhao's hand seal and began chanting as well. "Fire elements of this world..."

A light breeze passed by. Nothing happened.

Watching the baffled Yao Chen, Huo Yuhao thought for a moment before saying, "Teacher, the teacher who taught me magic in my previous life once told me not to treat the elements as lifeless things. You've already decided that the elements have no will of their own, so naturally they won't respond. You need to communicate with them."

"Communicate?"

Huo Yuhao rubbed his temples as he continued recalling. "It seems that if you want to use magic of a certain element, you must regard yourself as that element. Accept it with both your body and soul."

Yao Chen had been one of the most outstanding geniuses of the previous era. Words that would leave many experts utterly confused instead gave him something to ponder. After a moment of silence, Yao Chen closed his eyes and spread his spiritual power into the sky.

Very quickly, although Yao Chen was merely a spiritual body, Huo Yuhao had the illusion that he was burning. Yao Chen formed the hand seal once more and began chanting.

Yao Chen's voice rang out slowly, one word at a time. As the chant continued, the surrounding fire elements gathered madly.

At the same time, dark clouds filled the night sky, and peals of thunder rolled through the air. Yet no lightning ultimately descended.

The thunder faded, and the dark clouds dispersed. A massive fireball ignited in midair, illuminating the entire city wall.

"So this is magic!" Yao Chen muttered as he stared at the fireball. Then, seeing the Stone Desert City guards who had been alarmed, he dispersed the fireball and said to Huo Yuhao, "People will be coming here soon. Let's go somewhere farther away."

"Alright."

While flying, Huo Yuhao could not help asking, "Teacher, why is your fireball so much bigger?"

"Haha, as expected, I'm a genius!" Yao Chen had put his sunglasses back on and was feeling smug again. "So magic relies on one's soul realm. Spiritual power is merely fuel; the soul realm is what truly determines its power. It seems you'll need to devote some effort to raising your soul realm, Yuhao. Stop fiddling with that spiritual control of yours all day."

Hearing that, Huo Yuhao smiled bitterly. "The Spirit Condensation Formula can strengthen the soul itself, but its progress is somewhat slow."

"Mm, then I'll think about how to modify it."

Watching the thoroughly excited Yao Chen, Huo Yuhao shook his head and thought, I originally intended to use the flames Teacher Rong Nianbing taught me to refine artifacts. I never expected the magic system to fit this world so unexpectedly well. And those dark clouds just now should have been...