On the Sains Continent of the present day, the understanding of magic had long since moved beyond the traditional, simple process of using mana to gather magic elements and form spells.
Guided by the scientific view of magic proposed by Xu Yi, the mages of the Sains Continent had begun studying magic at an increasingly fundamental level, with ever greater precision.
The clearest example was that the requirements for any spell were now supported by countless precise measurements and statistics, rather than vague, superficial descriptions such as "feeling," "sensing," or "finding what feels most suitable."
Even the simplest fireball spell was now described through an incredibly complex and precise set of data: the quantity of magic elements required, their arrangement, the deviation in fluctuations caused by their rate of condensation, and the temperature, size, shape, and so on of the resulting fireball.
Furthermore, these figures had to be adjusted for each individual mage, making the process far more troublesome than learning a fireball spell had been in the past.
The advantage, however, was that once someone mastered this method, they had completely mastered the fireball spell. They would even gain a profound understanding of fire magic as a whole, making other spells easy to learn.
Of course, few mages on the Sains Continent still studied traditional elemental magic such as the fireball spell, water arrow spell, or falling rock spell as they once had, since these did nothing to advance the magic industry.
What everyone needed to learn was far more sophisticated than that.
Take the current situation, for example. Under the old traditions, if Xu Yi wanted to investigate something with magic, he would generally release his mana to influence the magic elements in the surrounding space and test their responses. The feedback he received would concern magic alone.