Free Web NovelChapter 37: Chapter 35: The Great Wisdom of the Wizards
Mo Ning issued a command with his consciousness, "Eye of Truth!"
The next moment, an illusory eyeball, radiating an ancient and mysterious aura, materialized in his Spiritual World.
’Where talent falls short, cheats pick up the slack!’
A slight smile touched the corners of Mo Ning’s lips as he continued to command, "Search for the standard Meditation Mark!"
The Nebula in the center of the eyeball’s pupil began to spin faster.
At a glance, the eyeball seemed to come alive, as if it were truly searching for something.
A few moments later, the Nebula stopped spinning.
An existence that was difficult to describe in words entered Mo Ning’s "sight."
It was—the standard Meditation Mark.
The wondrous power of the Eye of Truth had captured it, forcibly dragging it out from the depths of his consciousness.
It was not light, not shadow, not anything that could be defined by the senses.
It was more like a feeling—the trace of having been "marked" by some power.
Mo Ning had a strange feeling: the mark was rejecting him.
This was clearly due to his fusion rate being too low.
He thought to himself, ’This is your home, so why are you acting like a stranger?’
But that didn’t matter.
He had already thought of a solution during class.
With a mere thought from Mo Ning, an illusory interface instantly popped up.
At the very top was a striking line of block text: [Divine Statue Projection·Divination Calculator v1.0]
A three-dimensional image resembling a Phantom Carved Statue slowly emerged from the interface.
The image was lifelike—its wings were slightly spread, its talons retracted, and its head was turned slightly to the side, as if it were looking down upon the earth.
The outline of every feather was clearly visible, and every curve was smooth and natural.
For an Apprentice, the greatest obstacle to studying a Spirit Seal is the ability to visualize in three-dimensional space.
The complex structures of Spirit Seals, the nested layers of Energy Circuits, the runes interwoven in different dimensions—all required the construction of a precise three-dimensional model in the mind.
The slightest mistake could lead to a massive deviation.
But his cheat could simulate any three-dimensional image.
Rotation, zoom, disassembly, reassembly—with just a single thought, the spatial visualization problems that plagued countless Apprentices were solved with ease.
This saved him a great deal of trouble.
The Tree Spirit Wizard had once spoken in the Lecture Hall in a cautionary tone:
"The reason the standard Meditation Mark has the word ’standard’ is because it is a universal mark.
"However, every person’s soul is different, so the mark cannot perfectly adapt to everyone. This mismatch will inevitably affect Meditation efficiency.
"Therefore, the earlier you modify the standard Meditation Mark to better suit yourself, the greater the benefits you will reap in the future."
Lv Mei had clarified this point with hard data:
"If you modify your Meditation Technique after one year, your Spiritual Strength can increase by 15 points after ten years."
"If you wait two years to begin modifications, your Spiritual Strength will increase by a maximum of 12 points after ten years."
A mere one-year difference in when the modifications were made resulted in a three-point difference in Spiritual Strength ten years later.
Any newcomer could understand the implication—time was the most expensive cost.
But it was easier said than done.
The vast majority of new Apprentices only gained the ability to gradually improve their Basic Meditation Technique after becoming Apprentices.
But Mo Ning was different.
He had always been a man of action.
He didn’t want to wait a single moment.
His work on the improvements had already begun in class.
Mo Ning had directly activated a "Dual Threads" mode—listening to the lecture with one part of his mind while using the "soul palpitation" data he had recorded from the Phantom Carved Statue to begin extrapolating the first version of the Divine Statue Projection model.
After the three-hour class ended, the Eye of Truth had successfully extrapolated the first version of the Divine Statue Projection model through Divination calculations.
Of course, this was by no means the final version.
As Mo Ning continued to improve his Meditation Technique, the version would be iterated upon continuously.
V1.0 was just the beginning; there would be v1.1, v1.2... Every deepened understanding of the Meditation Technique, every further fusion with the mark, would give rise to new improvements.
It was entirely possible that future versions could be updated to "v100.8" or even "v200.5."
Mo Ning gazed at the Divine Statue Projection, a faint sense of accomplishment welling up within him. ’Most First Level Apprentices would probably find it difficult to complete this model.’
But he had completed the extrapolation in one go, without encountering the slightest obstacle.
Inside the model, more than sixty points of light were slowly circulating.
The points of light varied in size and brightness—some were as large as soybeans, shining brilliantly; others were as small as grains of rice, their light faint and dim.
They were distributed in different positions throughout the projection, connected to each other by fine filaments of light, forming an intricate network.
On paper, each point of light was a collection of Divination Formulas.
But in the Spiritual World, each point of light represented a "Spiritual Resonance Node."
It served many functions: tuning spiritual frequencies, converging irregular spiritual fluctuations, amplifying stable resonance signals, and so on.
So, the question was—how does one convert Divination Formulas on paper into Spiritual Resonance Nodes in the mind?
As if a memory had been triggered, passages of text he had read in the Royal Library surfaced in his mind:
"The astonishing leap of Secret Divination and Divination from paper to the Spiritual World, a historic leap that also initiated a revolution in Witchcraft, must be credited to the greatest pioneer: Mr. Ling Huan.
"Here, ’Ling Huan’ does not refer to the Spirit Ring that is the foundation for casting Witchcraft, but is a genuine name.
"According to numerous historical records, this Mr. Ling Huan came from a clan in a certain desert region.
"Due to their extremely low level of civilization, many desert people had no names, only simple designations. The most common of these was ’Sha’.
"Mr. Ling Huan was also originally called ’Sha,’ but later, His Excellency happened to hear the word ’Spirit Ring’ (Ling Huan) and took it as his own name."
"And yet it was from this primitive land that the spark that ignited the most brilliant civilization was born.
"In ancient times, Ancient Wizards had gradually come to realize that the ubiquitous Magic Power was, in essence, composed of energy particles called ’Demon Seeds’.
"After extensive experimentation, the Ancient Wizards eventually discovered eight types of Demon Seeds, but they remained at a loss as to how to utilize them.
"Until the first year of the New Era—you must remember this year, for it was the beginning of a glorious age.
"Mr. Ling Huan, with astonishing creativity, created the ’Divination Visualization Technique’.
"Simply put, it first involves using visualization to project Demon Seeds into the Spiritual World to form a ’Demon Seed Mapping’.
"Because Demon Seeds have a naturally strong affinity with the soul, forming a Demon Seed Mapping is not difficult for anyone with a certain degree of Spiritual Talent.
"However, this step was a discovery of the Ancient Wizards, who had only ever used it as a minor method for training their Spiritual Power.
"Mr. Ling Huan was the first to utilize Demon Seed Mapping, arranging and combining different mappings to form ’Demon Seed Groups’."
"Then, using the Divination Visualization Technique, the Demon Seed Group is solidified within the Spiritual World.
"Finally, Mr. Ling Huan assigned a different Divination meaning to each Demon Seed Group.
"At that moment, Secret Divination and Divination was officially born!!
"Before the first year of the New Era, Ancient Wizards described Magic Power as an ’elusive, chaotic force’.
"After the first year of the New Era, for the first time in history, Magic Power became a force that could be calculated and extrapolated."
When Mo Ning first read this passage, he had been utterly astounded.
Wasn’t this whole mechanism just a Wizard’s version of an "Octal Programming Language"?
The eight types of Demon Seeds were like eight basic instructions; the Demon Seed Mapping was like loading those instructions into memory;
The Demon Seed Group was like combining instructions into a program; and the Divination Visualization Technique was like a virtual machine running that program.
The only difference was that the operating environment wasn’t a computer, but the Spiritual World of a sentient being.
At that moment, he had sincerely marveled at the great wisdom of the Wizards.
Now, Mo Ning opened his secure locker and took out a small, light-green bottle.
This was the Calming Oil he had requested for his second research topic yesterday.
The academy had approved his application and delivered it an hour later.
Calming Oil could induce a state of high mental focus, which was somewhat helpful for Meditation and equally beneficial for the Divination Visualization Technique.
For Mo Ning, solidifying more than sixty Spiritual Resonance Nodes in his Spiritual World in the form of Demon Seed Groups was quite a challenging task.
After all, his Spiritual Strength was only 0.53.
So—if not now, then when?
Other newcomers treated Calming Oil like a treasure, only willing to use it during Meditation, and even then, they were afraid of using a single drop more than necessary.
Using it for the Divination Visualization Technique was far too extravagant.
But Mo Ning had gotten ten bottles from the academy for free, so he could use it with reckless abandon.
He gently twisted open the cap, and a strange, acrid smell immediately wafted out, mixed with a faint, musky odor.
Memories from his past life were instantly activated.
This musky odor was remarkably similar to the scent a man gives off during private moments.
He suddenly understood why the other Apprentices were so repulsed by the stuff.
Mo Ning hesitated for a moment, but still tilted the bottle, poured a few drops of the pale golden essential oil onto his fingertips, and smeared it on his forehead.
Although the smell was unpleasant, its effect was quite good.
Feeling the coolness slowly seeping in from his forehead, Mo Ning gave it a fair evaluation in his mind.
The pale golden Calming Oil gradually faded on the surface of his skin as a cool sensation spread from his forehead, causing his previously scattered attention to quickly focus into a single point.
But compared to the Magic Potion Level Calming Ointment, the effect of this stuff was far too weak.
The former could trigger a complete Elf Reaction, a feeling akin to his entire Spiritual World being lit up, every corner bathed in a warm glow.
The latter, however, only made Mo Ning’s mind feel clearer and his thoughts move a little faster than usual.
That was all.
