Free Web NovelChapter 55: Chapter 53: Temptation
It was not until one in the morning.
Accompanied by the "Ssss" unique to the Snake Sleep Technique, which sounded like a snake flicking its tongue, Mo Ning finally sank into a deep sleep.
All day long, he had been like a boy sprinting through the rain, his feet never once stopping.
Even with the sleep-aiding Effect of the Snake Sleep Technique, the time it took him to fall into a deep sleep was nearly ten percent shorter than usual.
Mo Ning was truly exhausted.
After constructing the Witchcraft Model for Fast Sliding in his Spiritual World that morning, he had practiced a total of 1,253 times in the Simulation Space.
This kind of practice was, in truth, incredibly dull and tedious.
But he never felt the slightest bit of boredom. He was focused and gave his all every single time.
He constantly reflected and improved. With the utmost patience, he fine-tuned every little aspect of his sliding posture and adjusted his Casting Techniques.
His first 100 attempts were a complete, clumsy struggle.
Crashing into trees, hitting rocks, sliding into ditches, and tumbling down slopes—he experienced nearly every obstacle one could possibly encounter in the wild.
Over the next few hundred attempts, Mo Ning started to get the hang of it.
He learned to use the terrain to his advantage.
Tiny undulations that would be useless to an ordinary person became springboards under his feet.
A shallow ditch no wider than his palm, a slightly raised mound of earth—by using them properly and adopting the right posture, he could glide in a wide, sweeping curve.
On his 178th attempt.
Mo Ning skillfully used two small hollows—not really ’pits,’ just indentations the depth of a finger—to successfully execute an S-curve and bypass three stones.
When he came to a stop, he jumped for joy.
This wasn’t luck; he had truly mastered it.
For Mo Ning, this was a milestone.
He had finally found an effective method of control.
First, observe the terrain. Then, determine the route. Only then should he cast the spell and glide forward.
Plan first, then act—don’t just rush out like a headless fly.
After that, he rarely had any more clumsy falls.
How low to keep his center of gravity, how far in advance to adjust for a turn, how to use inertia to catch air on a slope—these details, which once left him fumbling, were slowly becoming instinct.
But the true breakthrough occurred during his 383rd attempt.
The Eye of Truth had accumulated enough data. After a deep analysis, it offered a crucial piece of advice:
[Data analysis complete.]
[Conclusion: A non-linear output of Magic Power can alter your speed. Specific Magic Disturbances can alter your direction.]
[Please attempt to control your Magic Power to gather more data.]
These minuscule variables, imperceptible to the average person, had been keenly detected by his ability.
It was a wake-up call.
Mo Ning had long suspected that physical adjustments alone would never be enough to achieve the control-at-will he desired.
The angle of his body, the shift in his center of gravity, the swing of his arms—he had done everything he could, but it always felt like he was up against an invisible wall.
And now, a door had opened.
Another long stretch of practice followed.
He fell into a cycle of "experiment, summarize, adjust," repeating it again and again.
Every failure brought a bit more understanding, and every adjustment made that sense of ’getting it’ even clearer.
Gradually, he began to get the knack of it.
The Eye of Truth thoughtfully generated a "Magic Power Variable Chart," clearly labeling each of the invisible, intangible parameters.
Mo Ning committed it to memory, using every glide to verify, correct, and add to it.
As the data on the chart grew more precise, his control became more fluid.
On his 617th attempt.
A narrow mountain ridge lay before him. Both sides were steep slopes strewn with jagged rocks; there wasn’t a single flat spot.
Mo Ning took one look and instantly "plotted" a course in his mind.
Then he activated the Witchcraft, and his body shot out like an arrow.
He constantly adjusted his Magic Power output and frequently shifted his posture, his trajectory carving a smooth arc.
He glided across the narrow ridge with extreme fluidity, dodging one obstacle after another.
Mo Ning came to a steady stop at the end. Looking back, the corner of his mouth curved into a smile.
This had been a truly difficult challenge.
’Even the creator of Fast Sliding probably couldn’t do this.’
But this still wasn’t enough.
Mo Ning didn’t need an occasional success; he needed to succeed every single time.
He needed to control his body with more precision and his Magic Power with more stability, engraving it all into his instincts.
Over the next several hundred attempts, he continued to hone his technique, scrutinizing every detail with the strictest attitude.
He verified, calibrated, and solidified the relationship between Magic Power output and speed, over and over again.
The 1,253rd attempt.
And his last in the Simulation Space.
Mo Ning shot forward like an arrow from a bow, his body carving wave-like arcs across the ground. Every turn was as smooth as if measured with a ruler.
He charged into a dense forest. Tree shadows flew backward in his vision as thick trunks rushed toward him, only for him to narrowly dodge them at the last second.
Every dodge was as precise as a calculation. Every turn was executed by a hair’s breadth.
He traversed forty meters of dense forest without slowing down once.
Suddenly, the resistance under his Sheepskin Boots returned.
Without hesitation, Mo Ning changed direction, gliding over a tiny slope and using the momentum to launch himself into the air.
In his Spiritual World, the Witchcraft Model pulsed with three Magic Disturbances.
His body tilted sharply in mid-air, nearly at a ninety-degree angle to the brown tree trunk ahead.
His Sheepskin Boots made precise contact with the rough bark, and he slid up the trunk as if on a pre-set track.
Just as his upward momentum gave out, Mo Ning landed steadily on a branch.
In the distance, the silhouette of a small town spread out quietly in the twilight.
Smoke from cooking fires rose from the scattered rooftops, pulled into long, thin threads by the evening breeze.
Children chased each other at the end of an alley, their voices too distant to make out clearly, creating only a faint impression of liveliness.
This was Aita Town.
It was where the body’s previous owner had grown up, and the first place he had stayed after transmigrating.
For nearly a month, he had been crammed together with a large family that argued from morning till night, never giving him a moment of peace.
At the time, Mo Ning had found it incredibly annoying.
But thinking back on it now, he surprisingly felt a faint sense of warmth.
’But I can’t go back.’
Just as the Lord Wizard who had gifted him the spatial item, Walking into the Painting, had said, his future lay in the unknown distance.
He wouldn’t be able to return to Aita Town for many, many years to come.
"Stop the simulation."
Mo Ning calmly gave the command.
Before this final attempt, he had already traversed this dense forest twenty times, passing through smoothly on each occasion.
He therefore believed he had more or less mastered Fast Sliding and didn’t need any more practice.
With the wilderness survival assessment coming up in a few days, this life-saving technique would be enough for him to make a quick escape if he ran into danger.
After his practice ended, Mo Ning had a quick lunch and then immediately threw himself into the Divine Statue Technique, meditating for four hours straight.
In the Meditation World, he once again met Zhang Xiaoxiao, the prettiest girl from his old class.
Like a TV series that had been unpaused, the scene picked up right where it had left off last time.
After school, he followed her home and ate a meal she had cooked herself. He washed the dishes, and then they sat on the sofa together to watch TV.
One thing led to another, and soon they were all over each other.
Just as the ’indescribable’ was about to happen—there was a sound at the front door.
"Crap! My parents are back!"
Even after leaving the Meditation World, Mo Ning still cringed at that line.
’What the hell was that?’
He couldn’t help but recall a warning he’d read in a book about the Meditation World:
"It is like a sweet wine, full of endless temptation, but laced with a drop of deadly poison.
"It will do everything in its power to lure you into addiction. It is cunning and will never grant you full satisfaction at once.
"It will only ever give you a small taste, stopping at the critical moment and mercilessly snatching away what you desire.
"It does this again and again, leaving you hooked until you can no longer distinguish between reality and illusion.
"If you have reached this point, I must give you a stern warning—you may not be far from becoming one of the Soulless."
When he had first read that passage, he hadn’t quite believed it.
’How is it that the Meditation World’s whole schtick sounds just like those damn web novel authors from my past life who loved their cliffhangers?’
’Seriously?’
Now that he had experienced it firsthand, he was a hundred percent convinced.
The reality was even worse than the book described.
Zhang Xiaoxiao had only just taken off her jacket when the door opened.
’At this rate,’ he thought, ’even after another eight or ten ’episodes’ in the Meditation World, the class beauty probably won’t even have her pants off.’
The book also offered a specific strategy:
"Perhaps there is a way to help those of you who are troubled to resist the temptations of the Meditation World—find an anchor in reality.
"Simply put, find something similar in the real world. Use reality to fight the illusion.
"You must remember that one anchor may not be enough. You should prepare as many as possible."
As Mo Ning recalled these words, a beautifully smiling face surfaced in his mind—Anya.
’Transmigration itself is a natural anchor.’
’Blue Star, my previous world, was already an ephemeral memory, a fact my soul would never forget.’
’And this Noble Lady... could she be an anchor, too?’
’At the very least, she’s far more beautiful than Zhang Xiaoxiao. Even her figure seems much better than the class beauty’s.’
「That evening.」
Mo Ning once again entered the wondrous Mirror Image Mysteries Hall and learned two new Sub-zero Level Tricks.
With astonishing efficiency, he built permanent models in his Spiritual World, replacing two of his old Tricks.
These two new instances of Witchcraft were far less difficult, and it didn’t take him long to master them in the Simulation Space.
For a newcomer, learning three Sub-zero Level Tricks in a single day would be unthinkable.
But for Mo Ning, it was just another ordinary, strenuous day on his path to pursuing knowledge.
’Was he tired?’
’Of course he was tired!’
’But he was already used to it.’
