The power of the resulting spell exceeded all my expectations. The shell, which ordinary third-tier beginner magic couldn't penetrate, was pierced through this time, and in the head area! With such power, one could even go after leaders! True, the problem is that compressing the entire charge requires immense concentration, plus my magic is amplified by a large spiritual seed, so not everyone can repeat it. In normal combat, you wouldn't use such a technique, but it's clear in which direction to move. If you think about it, I did the same with wind magic before, until spells created by rearranging stars replaced it.
"Hahaha! Did you think of the same thing I did?" Asura laughed merrily in my head.
"Most likely," I replied, getting up from the stone. "Stars aren't needed to use magic, no, that's not right," I corrected myself.
"They help control energy, conduct it from the inner world to the outer, help manage magical elements in the air," Asura continued for me. "But they are not the primary factor for creating spells..."
"They can only help by directing energy and magical elements in the atmosphere along the right path," I interrupted Asura, choking with excitement. "I remember, in the original, there were also mages who didn't need stars to use magic. The first was Yan Shi, an old woman, the first known keeper of the Moon Moth, who spent her whole life blaming herself for betraying it and striving to become stronger to destroy the purple linden! Although it seems the power of half-curse magic gave her such an opportunity."
"And the second was Qin Er, Zhang Kong's friend, with an innate heavenly seed, pursued her whole life by the Holy City and the Special Cases Court!" Asura interrupted me, also burning with excitement. "One spent her whole life to learn this truth and be able to use it. The second, thanks to her incredible talent, was able to uncover this secret at a rather mature age."
"But why didn't either of them tell this secret to others?" I asked a perfectly reasonable question.
"Perhaps they understood it in some other way? Or did we just approach it from a different side?" Asura suggested.
"Well, it doesn't matter, we were able to learn this secret at the beginning of our journey, now we just need to master it, and our strength will increase many times over," I said.
"Will you teach them this?" Asura asked, clearly referring to Jiaxing Er and Zhou Min, who were sleeping peacefully, unaware of anything.
"I think I'll teach them to simply control and concentrate spell energy," I said with complete indifference in my voice. "If they're not complete fools, they'll figure it out themselves, and if not, then they don't need to know it."
"You speak logically, although you exaggerate quite a bit and rudely," Asura chuckled. "So be it."
After his words, I began to skin and prepare the Kibang, not to let good go to waste. I started a fire, hid the shell in a spatial bracelet, and when I get to the city, I'll spend at least a hundred million, but I'll buy myself more! I feel it in my gut, I'll need to store a lot more in it in the future. And I'll give this one to Jiaxing Er, at least she can carry her own things.
An hour after sunrise, Jiaxing Er was the first to wake up. Stretching in her sleeping bag and looking around, she stared in surprise at me sitting by the fire and preparing a rather large piece of meat that had appeared from nowhere. I dragged all the unnecessary parts away and threw them out, along with the bloody clothes, although I put on very similar, or rather the same, clothes again. I deliberately buy a lot of the same clothes so that it's not so regrettable to throw them away; blood is hard to wash out.
"Brother, whose is this?" Jiaxing Er asked, pointing at the piece of meat. She hadn't fully woken up yet, so her eyes were still closing as she spoke, which looked very cute.
"Shelled Kibang, I heard it's tasty," I said, shrugging.
"Ah, I see," she said, but soon understood what I meant. "What? Are you serious, brother? Is this really monster meat?"
"Yes, aren't you going to eat it?" I asked indifferently, because if she refused, I would get more.
"No, it's just unusual," she replied, coming closer.
"I see. Now listen. When you're on watch next time, don't train, because some beast might attack, and you'll be so exhausted that you won't be able to fight back," I said, remembering that I wanted to scold her for this, but I somehow didn't care after my discovery. Now my thoughts were mainly occupied with how to achieve the same effect using less concentration, so that it could be used during high-speed battles, which are essentially all my fights, if you think about it.
"Okay, so brother can watch over everything even when cultivating?" she asked, smiling and stopping near me. "Brother is so incredible, I hope I can become like that someday too."
"It's quite easy to achieve, you just need training and perseverance," I said, shrugging. "By the way, what have you achieved during this time?"
"Well, I feel physically stronger, and I've almost reached the second stage in magic," she replied, modestly hesitating.
"I see, not bad. Have you tried controlling that energy that the star path emits?" I asked, assuming she might have tried to learn it.
"Yes, a little. While brother was studying artifacts, I was training in the forest, not far from the border of the safe zone," she remarked cheerfully.
"Well, then show me what you've achieved," I said, smirking.
"Okay, as brother wishes," she said, stepping back about twenty meters.
After that, she quickly formed a star path, and a greenish lump of poison appeared in her hand, which she directed at a nearby tree. Immediately after, the ball hit the tree like a stream, instantly beginning to dissolve it. I had only seen this before when a living person turned into goo. Then Jiaxing Er created another ball, which she lowered to the ground, after which it seemed to explode, filling the space around with a greenish poisonous mist. The grass beneath it slowly but surely turned yellow, quickly drying up.
"Jiaxing Er, can you make something out of this mist? For example, a sword, and take it in your hand? Your poison doesn't harm you that much, does it?" I asked, watching the scene.
"I've never tried, but it might work," she said, extending her right hand forward, closing her eyes and concentrating hard.
After about five minutes, the mist began to gradually dissipate, but she continued to stand concentrated. At that moment, a small mound rose from the mist, which gradually grew, reached a size of a meter, and gradually broke into pieces, and inside it was a smoky greenish one-handed sword. Jiaxing Er opened her eyes and, without much hesitation, tried to take the sword, but it remained mist, so her hand simply passed through it. It looked quite amusing, I could barely hold back my laughter. Jiaxing Er kept trying and trying until she ran out of strength and took a break.
"It's not working, it's too misty," she said, then giggled at her own joke.
"Try to compress this mist so that it becomes tangible, and then try to take the sword," I said, continuing to watch the meat.
"Is that even possible?" she asked me in surprise.
"You won't know if you don't try. Just remember, it might not work the first time. Keep trying until you succeed," I said, smiling.
"Then maybe brother can show me how it's done?" she smiled back at me.
"Ha, alright, but it might be a little shocking," I said, turning away from the meat. I had an idea I wanted to test.
I formed two combined star paths, lightning and wind, thus creating the wind blade spell. I think for now I'll still use star rearrangement until I fully understand the principles of magical energy control. However, before releasing the blade and splitting something in half, I mentally compressed all the energy onto the tip of my two fingers. It was very difficult to do, even for me; sweat ran down my forehead from the strain. The more spectacular the demonstration, the harder she will try to develop her skills.
With a wave of my hand, I released the accumulated energy. A blade appeared, only a couple of centimeters thick, but almost two meters long. It destroyed the first tree in its path, and the lightning bolts inside set it on fire, but the blade didn't stop there, and continued on, destroying another dozen trees! This is too frightening power! One such strike could decapitate a true leader.
"Wow..." Jiaxing Er could only utter. "Brother, I knew you were strong, but not *that* strong..."
"I learned this not so long ago," I smirked. "So keep training, sooner or later you'll be able to do the same."
"Okay," Jiaxing Er nodded, starting to earnestly try to grab the sword made of green smoke.
In fact, it won't help her much in a real fight, though who knows. In many ways, I told her to do this only so that she would learn to concentrate and control magical energy. If she has these skills, she can come up with something for battle. I returned to roasting the meat, which was almost ready, glancing at Zhou Min, who was still asleep. She'll face a harsh punishment for falling asleep on duty, ha. This will be fun.
"Huh? What's that smell?" Zhou Min's sleepy voice suddenly sounded as the meat was almost ready.
"Oh, Zhou Min, you're awake?" I asked good-naturedly, turning to her and smiling. "Come over, we were just about to have breakfast."
"Really? Thank you," she said, forcing a smile, it was clearly visible. She understands that she messed up badly and is trying to cover it up, but it's too late.
"Yes, sit down," I said, pointing to a stump nearby. "Jiaxing Er, you finish what you're doing and come eat too."
"Huh?" she was surprised, I must have pulled her out of deep concentration, but oh well. "Okay," she said, looking at me and Zhou Min, quickly dispelling her poison. Of course, she wouldn't be able to understand me at all, but she could probably guess my immediate intentions.
"What happened while I was sleeping? Why are the trees chopped down, and why did the grass over there suddenly wilt?" Zhou Min asked, looking around as I cut the meat, dividing it into portions.
"Yeah, we just trained a bit," I said, shrugging. "Here, take your portion."
"How delicious, what kind of meat is this?" Zhou Min asked after tasting it. In response to her question, Jiaxing Er giggled, clearly anticipating what would happen next.
"This is the meat of a shelled Kibang, a monster that wandered to us today," I said, as if nothing had happened.
"What!" she screamed, spitting out everything she had eaten. "How can that be?"
"You must have fallen asleep while on watch," Jiaxing Er quipped, which made Zhou Min's astonished face turn angry.
"Yes, what are you..." she couldn't finish before I interrupted her.
"You really fell asleep, and if it weren't for me, we could all have died," I said innocently, smiling at Zhou Min.
"I'm sorry, it was an accident!" she wailed, starting to cry, which made Jiaxing Er laugh, while I just continued to smile.
"For falling asleep, you will face punishment," I said, still smiling, making her more and more terrified, it was very funny. She started sobbing, looking at me with a pleading gaze. "Nothing terrible will happen, the punishment will be that you will fight Jiaxing Er, without using magic, just hand-to-hand."