When I approached the campsite, Zhou Min had already woken up, and Jiaxing Er was treating her wounds. It was clear from her expression that she was not in a good mood, to say the least. Her face showed anger, resentment, and remorse, a rather amusing combination. Smiling, I looked at the wolf, which by this time was already badly beaten. A high servant, a year ago, I could barely defeat one like this, and now I was holding it like a harmless dog. Of course, purely by my own strength, I couldn't have done it. Space magic helps me a lot, especially when transitioning to the second spiritual boundary.
I didn't watch the scene of a sad Zhou Min and a secretly laughing Jiaxing Er for long. Releasing the wolf, I dashed behind it, and before it could recover, I sent it towards the girls with a weakened lightning seal. Immediately, Zhou Min's scream was heard. When I returned to my observation post, I saw the wolf looking at them, baring its teeth and searching for a way to escape. It turned back and looked at me, and I waved back. I had never seen such a doomed face on a monster before. It was even more fun than planned.
Jiaxing Er stood slightly behind Zhou Min; after all, she was a beginner-level mage, and fighting a high servant in the open was a bad idea. Zhou Min herself, beaten, dressed in shorts and a bra, smeared with healing ointment, stood opposite the wolf. She was quickly building a star map of fire, deciding to kill it for sure? Well, yes, it was the simplest, but also the most energy-consuming method.
After consulting with me, the wolf ran towards Zhou Min, but alas, at that moment she had already finished the spell, and a fist of fire flew towards it, which simply incinerated it, turning it into charcoal. The last death cry sounded, and the wolf fell bravely. I will remember you, friend, you did a good deed. I had to use wind boots so as not to get caught in the fist of fire myself, and as a result, I landed next to the smoldering body and looked at Zhou Min and Jiaxing Er with a smile.
"What! A-a-a!" Zhou Min first screamed, then shrieked, covering her slight nudity with her hands. Jiaxing Er, standing behind her, giggled and handed her a T-shirt.
"You handled it well, but why did you have to use mid-level magic? Such a beast can be easily killed with beginner-level magic," I replied indifferently, examining the corpse.
"You... you... do you have any conscience at all?!" Zhou Min shouted back at my words, pulling on the T-shirt. "Where did this wolf come from, and why didn't you kill it? How the hell was I supposed to quickly kill a high-servant level monster with beginner-level magic!"
"I dragged him here," I said in the same tone, shrugging.
"What?" Zhou Min practically blurted out. Jiaxing Er took it all calmly, giggling, barely holding herself back. She was my accomplice in this situation. "How could you bring a high servant here! You're only a mid-level first-stage mage! Despite all your talents, it should be simply impossible!"
"Well, it was quite amusing. First, I beat him up, then I grabbed his jaw and dragged him here," I said with a slightly guilty laugh. To be honest, without actively using space magic, I wouldn't have succeeded. Zhou Min's jaw literally dropped at my words. "As for how easily it could have been killed with beginner-level magic, look. Of course, I probably couldn't repeat it in battle, but this is what you should strive for."
After these words, I raised two fingers folded together and pointed at the tree under which Zhou Min had slept yesterday. I had drawn a cross on it during the night. Using lightning wrath, I compressed it into a beam five centimeters in diameter, as I had done at night, and sent it precisely at the cross on the tree. This beam had immense speed, and dodging it would certainly be difficult. It looked like some kind of purple plasma, somewhat resembling lightsabers, only increasing until it met an insurmountable obstacle. I was sure I wouldn't be able to stop it or change its direction; too much power was concentrated in it. The tree was pierced through, and the resulting hole was scorched, but the beam didn't stop there and flew another fifty meters.
Still, such compression is possible for me with very high concentration. The third time today is too much. Concentrating so hard. So, after using this technique, my head hurt for a while from overexertion, you know, like after a difficult exam? If you get distracted, rest a little, and it all passes. I'll need to conduct more experiments to understand the optimal level of energy compression and then gradually increase it. I think by the peak of the high level, I'll be able to use such spells freely.
"Cool..." Zhou Min muttered to herself. "How did you do that? What was that?"
"I compressed the magical energy that was used to create the lightning wrath spell, thanks to which several simultaneous weak lightning bolts together formed one very strong beam," I replied, still following my lightning beam with my eyes.
"And that's it? What kind of control do you have to be able to do that?" she asked in surprise, not taking her eyes off me. "What did you do to achieve such a level?"
"Nothing, I just trained, long, hard, and constantly," I said dryly, shrugging. "You practiced building stars at will, right? Show me what you've achieved. We're starting your first training, and Jiaxing Er can go back to her lesson."
"Okay, brother," Jiaxing Er said, moving back to her previous spot and again trying to grab the sword created from green poisonous mist.
"What? I haven't had breakfast yet!" Zhou Min began to complain, watching Jiaxing Er, who had clearly eaten both portions while the guilty party was unconscious. At least, judging by the fact that all the plates were empty and stacked on a log near the campfire.
"And you're not entitled to breakfast," I chuckled, approaching her with a smile. "You're punished for falling asleep on duty."
"But, haven't these punishments been enough?" she asked pitifully, making puppy eyes.
"No, if you repeat it, you'll fight not Jiaxing Er, but me, and it will be like this until you understand that your actions can let everyone down," I said, smiling devilishly. She shivered from this smile.
"Okay, I understand, you don't need to make that face, it's creepy," she said hurt, taking a step aside.
"Good," I chuckled, removing the devilish smile from my face. "Now get to your lesson, show me everything you've achieved in controlling the stars."
"Now," she said listlessly, stepping away from me slightly. "Tell me, why did I agree to be your student?" she asked a rhetorical question, after which she created a star path, fire streamed to her feet, gathering there, and a second later she flew up about twenty meters, after which she began to fall. I was ready to use wind magic at any moment to reduce her fall speed, but it wasn't necessary; she herself created weak bursts of flame from her steps to land smoothly.
"Not bad, not bad. Now you'll have to practice rapid movement using this spell," I said, nodding my head.
"Are you serious? It took me two weeks!" she complained.
"You'll do that later. Now, try to compress the fire wave, just like I did with lightning wrath, to increase its power," I said, ignoring her complaints.
"As you say," she said indifferently, waving her hand. "Like this?" she asked, holding her hand forward, then quickly formed a star path and released a fire wave. The stream of flame was noticeably smaller than usual, but it was far from even the level of compression I usually use in battles. "Well, how?" Zhou Min asked, sighing heavily; it was clear it wasn't as easy for her as it might have seemed.
"Reasonably good," I replied indifferently. "Now let's get to the really important things. Here, attach these to your arms and legs," I said, handing her four weights of two kilograms each.
"What? And what am I supposed to do with them? How will this help me in battle?" she bombarded me with questions, simultaneously following instructions and putting on the weights.
"We're going to run," I said cheerfully. "About fifteen kilometers. Let's go, I've picked out a route while I was looking for the wolf."
"What? That much? And how will it help me?" Zhou Min didn't want to calm down, but still followed me. "What about Jiaxing Er then? Won't she be attacked while we're running?"
"Don't worry about her, we'll be nearby and will return quickly enough so she won't be attacked. And you need to run to temper your body. Do you want to be stronger than an ordinary mage of your level?" I asked. "You saw how it helps. It's only thanks to tempering that I can move at such a speed. And it's thanks to her that Jiaxing Er was able to defeat you in a pure physical fight, otherwise you would have easily beaten her, of course."
"Seriously, it's really strange that a beginner-level first-stage mage can match a mid-level mage in pure physical strength, and when did she learn it? And so well that she beat me?" Zhou Min asked, thinking.
"What, did you really think I wouldn't teach her that first?" I asked in return.
"Logically," Zhou Min nodded, and we started running together.
During the run, I explained to her what body tempering was and what awaited her next. After our return, we began training combat stances, of which she had sixteen. Eight ice and eight fire stances. The old man explained and showed me how they should look. I even performed them all in front of him so that I could monitor Zhou Min as accurately as possible. I wasn't going to be more lenient than the old man, so under her pitiful complaints, I hit her with a thin branch when she did something wrong.
Zhou Min's rest and training time also differed from mine. She worked for four minutes and rested for sixteen. She also had quite expensive potions for recovery, and that's not to mention that over time she would have to go to special places for training. One of which was the heavenly scar of Mount Tian Shan, but that's not for a while yet.
By the way, I taught her not one of the techniques I took from the old man, but their synthesis. It was the most suitable for all my conditions. It didn't require expensive potions, and you only need to go to special places starting from the concentration stage, which will be around the high level. And all this, it gave me a satisfactory pace of development. I had to spend a lot of time studying and combining those techniques, so she should be grateful to me for it. Although she only whines and complains for now.
Closer to noon, Zhou Min's training was over, and Jiaxing Er also finished. After eating, we headed further, on the way to the City of Hope. However, after just a couple of hours, Zhou Min couldn't walk any further due to fatigue, and we had to make a stop. Not that it was unexpected for me; no, quite the opposite, it was within our expectations. During the break, I was cultivating, and the main complainer was sleeping. Jiaxing Er was tempering her body. I watched her, occasionally correcting her, interrupting my own activity.
After dinner, the same watch was set as last time. While Jiaxing Er was on duty, I slept for all the past time, but when Zhou Min was on duty, I cultivated, watching her. This time, she managed to overcome her sleepiness and lasted until morning.