Chapter 132: Practicing Magic

She was casting a spell on a round boulder that was bigger than herself.

To turn stone into gold, it doesn't mean you have to turn a stone this big.

Besides, fighting is useless and can turn stones into gold.

"Are you sure I have to master this?" Jiaoran didn't believe him.

Zhu Su put away the jade flute and put his hands behind his waist. "This is an entire system of magic. If you can't even learn this, let alone the others."

Jiaoran was so tired that his forehead was covered in sweat and his abdomen was aching. "I have used up all my energy and haven't seen any results."

He nodded, "You are a good candidate for martial arts, but when it comes to practicing magic..."

He didn't say the rest of the sentence. Jiaoran understood, but it still hurt his pride. "Immortals like you have practiced for hundreds or thousands of years, but I only have twenty days."

Speaking of this, Jiao Ran turned around and chanted the incantation again, casting a spell, "Don't you think it's strange? He was so kind as to give me time to learn some spells to fight him. Logically speaking, it shouldn't be the easiest thing for him to kill me so easily?"

Zhu Su sneered for a moment, "Good intentions? So foolish."

"Why are you scolding me? I just think he could have just gone straight to war with me, but he didn't."

"So, he's still a righteous man, you say?"

"Doesn't it count?"

"Never make superficial assumptions about him. Besides, he killed so many people, don't you find it scary?"

Jiaoran asked herself. Originally, she also thought that this person was strange and gloomy, and exuded an evil spirit. But after so many days in the underground palace, her flawless memories awakened in her. She observed him from another person's perspective and felt that he was actually no different from ordinary people. He was just more extreme and selfish. He had the same seven emotions and six desires as ordinary people.

As long as a person has not lost his humanity, he is not difficult to deal with.

"I heard the woman's voice, and her memory told me that he also had a gentle side."

"Warmth? Have you forgotten how he manipulated those people? And how he killed your mother?"

Zhu Su looked at her with a strange look. Ever since she left the underground palace and he re-entered her dream, Jiaoran had become a little different.

He sensed a very mixed aura from her. Those auras did not belong to her alone, but seemed to be countless auras of the underworld. Although she was still alive, those auras tightly entangled her. She herself did not understand how strange she was now.

"Bright."

The first time he called out her name completely and properly was to remind her who she was.

"Well, what's wrong?" Jiaoran turned around and saw that his face was full of worry.

"Nothing. Just—wanted you to focus."

"You're crazy, I'm concentrating, don't interrupt me."

Zhu Su was really worried that she would turn against him. If it was the Jiaoran of the past, she would definitely not show mercy, but he was not sure about the current one.

I don’t know what the Phoenix Chick did to her in the underground palace. Even if it awakened her memories of many lifetimes, she shouldn’t speak for him like this, as if... she knew him better than anyone else.

But he couldn't say that Jiaoran had become a different person, because she still looked like Jiaoran, just with some impurities.

"I'll show you more clearly."

"What can I see more clearly?"

With a stroke of the bamboo jade flute, a clear ripple was drawn on the water.

The face of the Phoenix chick was reflected on the water surface. He tilted his head, which was a little different from the current Phoenix chick who had restrained his edge.

He suddenly smiled with the innocent smile of a child.

However, when he showed that innocent smile, screams were heard from all over the Fish and Dragon Wonderland. He set a fire, and the fire burned the immortal bones of countless children.

Jiaoran unconsciously took a half step back. At the same time, she recalled Ah Heng's massacre of the circus troupe's owner and others. He had acted so cruelly and decisively, as if he were slaughtering chickens and ducks.

The young phoenix walked on a pool of blood, beheading many immortals, the burning Ascension Tower reflected in its pupils.

He laughed loudly, and his laughter echoed strangely in Jiaoran's ears, and she suddenly felt cold all over.

He killed his way through the crowd, shouting, "What do you mean by 'demigod blood taints the wonderland'? What do you mean by 'good and evil cannot coexist'? I'll show you the power of demons!"

He squatted on the ground and piled up human heads, smiling ignorantly like a child.

The water system of the Wonderful Land of Fish and Dragons was dyed into a pool of blood.

There were countless broken immortal bodies floating in the water, and he was very proud of it.

Anything in his hand could kill immortals. Later on, his fingers were covered in the blood of people he had killed with his bare hands, and they were too slippery to hold their throats, so he used the jade belt around his waist to strangle their necks, with a sound that was crisper than breaking a branch.

Jiaoran felt a sharp pain in his stomach.

"Your eyes are the most beautiful, Third Elder." He caressed the lifeless immortal's eyes lovingly, "Like the finest glass beads."

Jiao Ran asked, "What does he want to do?"

Zhu Su said, "See for yourself."

When Phoenix Chick came to the end, she realized that he had killed the servants one by one just to gather a body and piece together the image of his mother that satisfied him.

The buildings, villages, pavilions and terraces in the wonderful scenery fell down and turned into dust.

But the phoenix chick laughed even more happily, and its clothes fluttered in the flames.

He closed his eyes in ecstasy, enjoying the pleasure of slaughter and revenge.

There was another clear wave, and the blood pool turned into clear flowing water. The reflected figures and the fighting scene had disappeared.

Zhu Su's jade flute stirred the water. "Don't believe he has any compassion. He only gets pleasure from destruction. He is not a complete man or god. Whether as a man or a god, he is incomplete."

Jiaoran recalled the last scene. The madness in the Phoenix Chick's eyes faded away, leaving only a terrifying calmness. But that calmness made him even more shocked, as if he had become an object driven by the pleasure of killing, rather than a flesh-and-blood person.

Ripples formed on the water. Zhu Su pulled out his jade flute and sighed, "That's why I told you not to trust him. He has no compassion. You must be prepared to face his brutal side."

Jiaoran came to her senses and realized that she didn't know what was going on and let her guard down, thinking that since the Phoenix Chick was willing to let them go, she was not inhumane.

Ten days have passed, and Jiaoran still failed to form the seal.

Spiritual light gathered at the fingertips, appearing and disappearing in an instant.

Her slightly trembling fingertips kept touching each other, trying to draw the power of the strong wind.

"It's not like that." Zhu Su stood at one end of the bamboo forest, looking at her for an unknown amount of time.

He learned martial arts very quickly, but he couldn't improve his magic in a short period of time.

Jiaoran impatiently formed seals again. The consumption of spiritual energy caused her wrist bones to ache, and she could hardly lift her palm.

"Do you know where the problem lies?"

As Zhu Su spoke, a cluster of golden flames shot up from his fingertips. He waved his hand and countless golden butterflies flew out from his fingertips.

Under the moonlight, golden butterflies fill the sky.

She had seen this kind of magic before, in the secret room of the Governor's Mansion. At first she thought those golden butterflies were summoned by the Holy Witch, but later she found out that they were the spiritual power of the phoenix chicks.

It seems that they all practiced the same magic.

"I just can't learn it. I can't even learn the simplest Midas Touch spell, let alone the power of controlling the wind."

"You remember the formula very clearly, but practicing magic is not the same as practicing martial arts. You focus too much on existence, but forget to use your mind to drive the magic. The mind is originally nothing. If you focus too much on existence, you will not be able to create something from nothing."

"What I want to learn is magic, not these great principles."

Seeing that she didn't have the patience to listen to his teachings as before, he also lost his patience. The flames on his fingertips suddenly exploded and turned into thousands of golden-red butterflies that flew towards Jiaoran's face.

Jiaoran subconsciously closed her eyes and covered her head, and a gust of wind blew past her ears.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself standing in the air, with thousands of golden butterflies under her feet.

Jiaoran tried to take a step and immediately fell from the golden butterfly.

She was filled with fear and fell heavily to the ground. There was nothing to support her in the air. When she was on the water or on the cliff, she could still show her superior lightness skills by stepping on the waves and holding on to the rocks, but in mid-air, she could only fall down helplessly.

A man's shoes appeared in front of her, and he appeared in front of her, "Without mind, without thoughts, you can transform yourself into the breeze, attract the wind, gather the rain, and gather the power of the four seasons."

He tapped Jiaoran's brow with his finger, and the meridians in Jiaoran's body transformed into golden streams. "This is Gaoshan Shou. The fact that you can master Gaoshan Shou proves that you have the ability to practice magic. Gaoshan Shou is not something that ordinary people can learn. It is an ancient secret book with divine power."

"Then why can't I succeed in cultivation?" Jiaoran's voice sounded somewhat frustrated.

The wounds from her fall were aching slightly, and she didn't even want to get up.

"Try again." His tone softened and he reached out coldly.

Jiaoran didn't hold his hand and got up on her own.

Silently recite the mantra, "The wind is born from the mind, invisible and unobstructed, rise!"

With a soft cry, a little light flashed on her fingertips.

But there was still no movement of wind.

"Don't be obsessed. Gao Shan Shou is about following the power of nature. The stronger your obsession and the more anxious your mind is, the harder it will be to comprehend the natural law of Tao."

Jiaoran took a deep breath. This time, there was nothing in his mind and nothing in his heart.

She let go of all thoughts and exiled herself to the void.

A strange thing happened. When she opened her eyes again, a gust of wind had passed through her body.

This time, she could actually drive the wind away.

She seemed to have become a part of the wind, yet also to be above the wind.

She was flying in the air, with golden butterflies fluttering around her.

A golden butterfly landed on Jiaoran's eyelashes. She subconsciously reached out to touch it, and the golden butterfly turned into a ray of light, leading her to fly higher.

Zhu Su's voice came from the ground, "Now, seal again."

Jiaoran suddenly had an idea and made the hand seal that he had failed countless times with his hands again.

This time, without deliberately controlling and guiding her spiritual power, she transformed herself into a wisp of wind.

"With the fire of Li as the guide, burn the entire world, burn!"

A flame suddenly appeared in the palm of his hand.

"Combine the two!" Zhu Su said again.

"Combining wind and fire? I can't do that yet!"

Zhu Su said, "Try it."

Jiaoran silently recited the incantation. The breath was like a gossamer at first, but soon turned into a vortex, with fire and wind spinning.

The flames transformed into a radiant passage that unfolded before her.

She walked along the passage, drawing upon the power of wind and fire. "Success!"

Jiaoran exclaimed in surprise.

He landed gently on the ground, with a cyclone of fire suspended in the palm of his hand.

Zhu Su nodded gently, the moonlight coating his face with a layer of frost. "There is nothing outside the mind. Cultivation is also about cultivating the mind. You were just trapped by this obsession."

Jiaoran stared at the cyclone in his hand and suddenly realized why he had only learned this spell now.

When she was no longer obsessed with gathering spiritual energy, she naturally felt no sense of mental restraint or urgency.

"Being is non-being, non-being is being..." she murmured.

"Do you understand now?"

"Didn't you tell me this a long time ago? Once in a dream, I remember you took me to an invisible land."

He shook his head, "No, when have I ever taken you there?"

The cyclone in Jiaoran's hand changed shape. In a trance, she seemed a little confused, "It's obviously there."

Suddenly, the cyclone in her hand trembled violently, and fragmented images emerged in the vortex of fire and wind.

The moonlight shines through the woods, casting mottled shadows of bamboo on the ground.

"This is..." Zhu Su's pupils suddenly shrank.

The person who taught her the ropes in her memory had a distinctly different aura from Zhu Su. Silver cloud patterns embroidered on their sleeves, and a golden curse seal flashed across their wrists as they raised their hands.

Zhu Su suddenly held her trembling wrist and asked, "What did you see?"

The cyclone exploded with a "bang", and sparks condensed into eight golden characters in the air - the virtual and the real complement each other, and the spirit wanders in the void.

Jiaoran broke out in a cold sweat on his forehead. These handwritings were exactly the same as what he saw that day.

"I remember now!" She suddenly grabbed Zhu Su's sleeve, "It wasn't a dream. When I was asleep before, it seemed like someone led my soul out of my body..."

Zhu Su's expression suddenly changed. He struck his jade flute horizontally, and a green barrier enveloped the two of them. The golden butterfly dancing outside the barrier suddenly froze, the phosphorus powder on its wings peeling off, revealing blood-red patterns underneath.

"It's him indeed." Zhu Su's voice was cold. "These are all transformed by the gods. He is using my magic to spy on you."

Jiaoran suddenly understood why his cultivation progressed so rapidly. It was the reminders he'd heard in his dreams at midnight, the inexplicable realizations he'd experienced after failing in practice, and even the gentle breeze that had brushed past his head during his last epiphany.

"But why..." She looked down at her palm, where the warmth of the flame still remained.

"Why would he teach me?"

Zhu Su suddenly cut his fingertip, and a drop of blood dripped onto Jiao Ran's brow. "See what's in the depths of your spiritual platform!"

A silver bell rang softly in the darkness. Jiaoran saw her soul wrapped in a golden thread, the other end of which disappeared into the void. When she tried to touch the thread, a violent gust of wind rushed over—

Zhu Su's voice seemed to come from far away, "Concentrate, don't speak..."

Jiaoran suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood.

A shadow outside the bamboo forest flashed by, the golden thread vibrated violently, and she saw her pale face reflected in Zhu Su's pupils.

"There's still time." His voice rang in my ears, "Don't be afraid, there's enough time, and there's also the God. He shouldn't hurt you..."

The sound stopped abruptly.

Zhu Su's jade flute pressed against her back, its azure light like a sword attempting to sever the golden thread. Jiao Ran collapsed to the ground, yet the golden thread remained unwavering.