Chapter 18: Reaction Formula "Flame"
Doudou stared in bewilderment at Qin Xiaoxia, who had suddenly started shouting.
Could his newly awakened magic be affecting his mind, too?
But Qin Xiaoxia's brain had already begun working at full speed.
He remembered a news report saying that the gases released by the Crooked Loach River contained a small amount of CH4, a major component of marsh gas.
From the looks of things, the source of that marsh gas had to be the Dread Marsh.
If they really drained the river, leaving only the Dread Marsh itself, could they set it on fire directly?
It sounded a little far-fetched, but on closer thought, it might actually work.
Qin Xiaoxia wasn't crazy enough to set the river on fire in front of everyone, so he would still have to rely on his newly awakened magic.
Of course, his instinctive confidence came from carefully recalling what he had felt by the river earlier.
According to Doudou,
magic was a special power born from the combined efforts of the soul's will and the physical body. It was a wondrous law belonging to living beings, with all sorts of incredible abilities.
Naturally, Qin Xiaoxia didn't believe his magic was limited to perception.
Doudou had been absolutely right about one thing.
"The only person who can truly understand your magic is you!"
The same held true for Qin Xiaoxia.
After learning the basic principles of magic and how it existed, he had also begun examining his own body, using the simple method Doudou had taught him to sense its various changes.
Simply put, he was "inspecting" his own magic for the first time.
It was an indescribable feeling, as though he could "see" every structure within his body.
A faint purple hue, mysterious and magnificent, appeared in every corner of his body. It suffused his organs, his bones, and even every one of his cells.
Together, it formed a human-shaped phantom that looked very much like that elusive thing called a soul.
It covered his entire body without a single gap! It was nothing like the meridians or dantians in novels.
Perhaps because of his exertion by the river, it seemed somewhat sparse. Yet it recovered far faster than Doudou's, that "good-for-nothing." At least for now, the recovery was practically "visible to the naked eye."
That feeling of everything around him becoming "compliant" returned. This time, because he was deliberately sensing it, it was clearer and more distinct than before.
Something suddenly occurred to him.
"Doudou, light the lighter."
Although Qin Xiaoxia didn't smoke, he still kept a lighter at home for visiting guests or lighting mosquito coils.
Doudou felt that unsettling flutter again. Though weaker than before, it probably meant Qin Xiaoxia was sensing his own magic.
Without asking why, Doudou immediately picked up the lighter from the coffee table and clicked it alight.
The instant the flame sprang up,
Qin Xiaoxia sensed the change.
Heat and burning, the gas continuously spraying from the lighter, and an invisible substance in the air constantly gathering into the flame.
Oxygen?
It really works! If I try doing this, will it succeed?
Once the idea took hold, he couldn't resist testing it.
And so, a few seconds later,
Pop!
The lighter's flame suddenly swelled, shooting several times higher as its temperature soared.
Startled, Doudou immediately flung the lighter away.
The lighter, now blazing with a "huge fire," struck the wall.
Boom!
It exploded, the flames bursting outward in an instant and spreading several meters.
"Holy shit!"
Qin Xiaoxia immediately stopped his "experiment" and rushed over to Doudou, anxiously checking him for burns.
Only after confirming that Doudou was merely frightened, not injured, did he turn toward the wall, where not a spark remained.
The white paint had been scorched with a black mark half a meter square.
Shock, bewilderment, excitement, and other emotions tangled together inside him.
"B-big cousin, what did you j-just do?"
As Doudou stared in alarm and uncertainty, Qin Xiaoxia instinctively looked down at his body and hands.
"Looks like my magic can do more than just sense things."
That went without saying. Doudou had already understood as much from what had just happened.
Fortunately, although the explosion's "flame effects" had been intimidating, it hadn't been very loud. Otherwise, the neighbors in the building might have thought something had happened.
Now Doudou grew excited.
"Are you an amazing Spellweaver? Or can you borrow the power of Fire Sprites?"
Qin Xiaoxia had learned about the types and nature of sprites from Doudou during their first few days together.
Sprites came in many different types and forms. Some had flesh and blood, while others were invisible to the eye. Doudou himself was essentially a kind of sprite, while Fire Sprites were beings that seemed decidedly fantastical by earthly standards.
Spellweavers, on the other hand, used their own magic to weave spells, effectively attacking directly with magic.
Qin Xiaoxia knew perfectly well that what he had just done belonged to neither category.
He had used the little physics and chemistry knowledge he hadn't yet forgotten.
If he had to classify it using the academic terminology Doudou had mentioned for magical applications,
he could coin a new term: "Reaction Formula."
After this preliminary confirmation of one of his magic's properties, Qin Xiaoxia couldn't help wondering,
How did my magic come into being?
It might have something to do with his Inspiration Sharing with Doudou, but that wasn't necessarily the main cause.
That earlier wish, in particular, had also been weighing on Qin Xiaoxia's mind.
After all, his magic hadn't awakened before or later-it had awakened on the very day he made that wish.
Doudou wasn't a studious little sprite, so some things Qin Xiaoxia thought he ought to know were hazy to him as well.
But as Qin Xiaoxia understood it,
a wish that "sought an answer" had to require an "answerer." Since Doudou himself couldn't serve as that answerer, it had to be some other being.
"Doudou, suppose someone in your Margeson World makes a wish to ask a question. What sort of being would be most likely to provide the answer?"
Qin Xiaoxia suddenly posed a question to Doudou.
Doudou answered reflexively.
"How would I know... uh, a sprite! Or a god, I guess."
Doudou had been about to blurt out that he didn't know, but upon seeing Qin Xiaoxia's unfriendly gaze, he immediately thought it over and changed his answer.
"But Earth has no sprites, and no gods either. Well, assuming there aren't any, what kind of being would answer the question?"
This time, Doudou couldn't answer.
But Qin Xiaoxia wasn't really expecting Doudou to give him an answer.
"Do you think it could be the world itself?"
Doudou froze, then answered instinctively.
"That's not impossible..."
Though Doudou's response was hardly a firm confirmation, Qin Xiaoxia himself had all but settled on that answer.
The sensation conveyed through his magic made it seem as though everything around him felt an extraordinary affinity for him. This "inclination to help" was simply too obvious.
Then, hypothetically, these strange properties of his magic, and even his ability to awaken magic at all, might have something to do with the influence of the world itself.
That influence wouldn't have appeared without a reason. His act of making a wish to locate the Dread Marsh was precisely what had drawn the world's attention to him.
And the various perceptual gifts he had gained through Inspiration Sharing might have been the foundation that made this possible.
Until I find a more accurate answer, I'll go with that for now.
Qin Xiaoxia was a little obsessive about figuring things out. Whether the reasoning was sound or strained, reaching this conclusion made it easier for him to understand and use his magic.
In a certain sense, Qin Xiaoxia could be said to have a desire for control.
And verifying this hypothesis would require further experimentation.