Chapter Six: Discipline (Part II)

ICP Filing Number: Xiang B2-20100081-3. Internet Publishing Qualification: New Network Publication Permit (Xiang) No. 11. Network Culture Operation License: Wenwenwen [2010]128.

For Xiu, life was beautiful.
Eating, drinking, sleeping, playing, watching others fight and never raising a paw.

Watching a show is always easier and more delightful than performing in one. If it could speak, it would have been able to toss off a few mild jabs: the learners were not putting in enough effort; that posture was wrong, that angle was untimely; some people were too dull to be taught, unfit for the stage, stupid, absurd, and so on.

During Shuyi’s stretch of days with the bandits, Xiu never stopped that kind of snide internal commentary. Even when the thieves trained with all their might and discipline, he always found fault in it.
The little fellow was like a fastidious god, morally detached, criticizing everything he could possibly criticize. Even if there was nothing obvious to blame, he would still hunt for something to diminish, just to be spitefully exacting.

For a proud demon-drake like him, the viewpoint was always one of looking down. Even though he did not truly understand ritual or etiquette, it did not stop him from condescending to all beneath him.

This little demon-drake’s name, he thought, should have been Kong, not Xiu.

But even easy days end. One day, Xiu no longer clung to that carefree life.
He was no longer the judge on the sideline; a performance awaited him—a performance that would soon place him on the high platform.

Whether by coaxing or by force, the fact remained: Shuyi somehow led the poor little demon-drake, not yet two years old, onto the path of human magic.
Though abyssal demon-dragons are born with three innate capacities—Spatial, Nature, and Fire magic—and though Xiu possessed the rare ability to learn human magic that no other demon-drake had, his nature alone meant he could never cultivate human magic through meditation the way humans did.
Without that form of meditation, the human magic Xiu could learn remained confined to only Spatial, Nature, and Fire magic.
That is why Shuyi could teach him only one branch: spatial magic.

Unlike Wind magic and Soul magic, spatial magic has three main advancement paths.
First is spatial movement: basic matter teleportation, intermediate instant teleportation, and finally the Star Gate, which performs precision long-range transport.
Second is energy offense: first the basic energy thrust, energy wave, and energy blade. From that base, two advanced lines arise. One goes to the fourth-tier Vacuum Blade, then the fifth-tier Rift Blade, and then directly to the seventh-tier Void Black Hole Tide. The other line goes straight to the sixth-tier fierce energy storm, then the seventh-tier Light Labyrinth.
Third is barriers. A second-tier spatial mage can learn the Energy Barrier, a comparatively low-rank but very practical barrier that increases a mage’s mana recovery rate.
A third-tier mage can use a Void Barrier to place a target briefly into the void state and keep it out of harms’ reach.
Fourth tier brings a Conservation Barrier that continuously weakens material damage.
Fifth gives Barrier Break, which can tear apart most protective wards.
Sixth gives Recoil Barrier, reflecting part of incoming force, though the reflected force can never exceed the caster’s own level.
Seventh gives Guiding Barrier, which diverts all incoming force entirely into void space.

Whether for attack or defense, spatial magic is extraordinarily powerful—that is its defining trait. Its flaws are threefold: first, it consumes too much mana. Second, it has too few forms, so battle flexibility is limited. Third, it has no summoning magic.
So one can see why Abelit’s spatial cultivation was formidable. At the very least, he had mastered every spatial technique available at his level. But only because Shuyi understood spatial magic’s fatal weakness too well, and because the Flamingbird helped him suppress Ablit’s Water magic, and because he had prepared meticulously, he could kill that opponent with ease.

After repeated calculations, Shuyi decided to teach Xiu the offensive branch of spatial magic.
As Xiu reluctantly swished his small claws and struggled to cast a Vacuum Blade, making every troublesome expression imaginable, Shuyi suddenly found the little creature genuinely blessed.

“Xiu,” he said, “you may not understand now, but one day you will grow up and understand. Happiness is not getting whatever you wish. It is treasuring what you can truly obtain, and what can be obtained according to your strength. Think about it: a human must begin as an apprentice to learn magic; a demon-drake is born with many powerful arts. Yet the tragedy is that they cannot learn human magic. A child like you, who can learn fourth-tier human magic from birth, has gathered the greatest gifts of both human and demon-drake lineages. I doubt there is another of your kind in all the world.
But I worry that if you can learn human magic, one day you may learn the boundless reaches of it as well. If I tell you to pursue nothing, then all I can do is let you be satisfied with enough power. In this I am selfish. I am not thinking of what you may one day become for humanity. So even if it is for your own good, train properly and study hard.”

“Wu... woof!”
The little one looked as if he had understood some of what Shuyi meant.

“Whit!” A Vacuum Blade cut through a tree far away, a seam of space slicing the trunk. The old tree groaned and collapsed.

The bandits standing at a distance all stood speechless.
Reyle muttered, “Good heavens! Did I just see that dog cast human spatial magic?”
“Are you sure that was even a dog, Head?”
“I’m not, but I finally understand why Shuyi Grayler is so deranged. Even his pet is like that!”
As if hearing Rayle’s words, Xiu turned and bared his teeth at him, one little paw slowly lifted this way.
A cluster of thieves panicked and ran off.
The little fellow bobbed his adorable head and gave a strange grin.
Even that grin was chilling.

Thus the tense training went on, day after day. In it, besides the thieves and Xiu, Shuyi himself was pushing himself to ruin.

In the morning, wind howled outside.
On the distant plain, a ground-level whirlwind spun endlessly in place.
It was Shuyi Grayler training.

Since the day he had accidentally understood Swift Gale Strike, he had kept thinking of ways to improve it and had practiced without end.
The wind stopped, and the boy’s swiftly moving body stilled.
With a sweeping motion of Shuyi’s hand, an energy barrier slowly formed around him.
He looked up and called, “Red!”

In the sky, the Flamingbird opened its great beak and unleashed a flood of fire element that struck the barrier, erupting into radiant, multicolored brilliance.

After the breakthrough at the Lanya Great Theater, he had hurriedly left Xiangye City and had had little chance to train.
Besides being nearly complete in second-tier Soul magic, he had not had time to learn Spatial magic and second-tier Wind magic. This was a rare chance, and he meant to make up those gaps quickly.
What he had just released was a fourth-tier spatial Conservation Barrier.

For Shuyi, he was not short on offense: the Flamingbird’s flame jet, Xiu’s spatial energy attacks, and his own close-quarters soul techniques could all be used. Yet his defenses were insufficient. To rely only on lightness and agility was clearly impossible against those fierce senior warriors. Spatial barrier techniques solved that weakness.
When Shuyi decided to train Xiu in spatial energy offense, he had already decided to make barrier magic his main discipline so the two could complement each other.
Concentrate scarce mana on defense and stamina, use warrior talent for attack—this became Shuyi’s own positioning, a way to maximize his present power.

Red’s stream of fire element was reduced by one-tenth by the Conservation Barrier, but the remaining surge still charged toward Shuyi. He dodged in time.
“Constant reduction only shows clearly when other spells are combined,” Shuyi murmured.
He softly spoke a charm. A Wind Spirit Shield appeared around him, and then he cast the Conservation Barrier again.

“Red, once more! Full power!”
This time, after the reduced flame passed the Conservation Barrier, the remaining fire energy struck the Wind Spirit Shield hard. The fragile shield flashed brilliant iridescence and held for only a moment before vanishing, yet Red’s jet dealt Shuyi no damage at all.
“The Conservation Barrier’s reduction should not have been this low. It must be because I am not yet using a low-tier barrier with full skill. Still, cross-using different schools can patch a temporary gap.”

The consequence of upgrading too quickly had now shown itself: he suddenly had to learn too many arts at once, and his time was plainly not enough.
Without a sufficient foundation, there is no way to fully unleash higher-tier techniques. His Conservation Barrier could only cut damage by ten percent. A true fully powered Conservation Barrier can, for a fixed period, continuously reduce all-element damage by at least thirty percent.
Fortunately, he could still compensate with other arts.

But unfortunately, he could not use Wind and Spatial magic at the same time. At present, dual casting was available only within one school; crossing schools was a qualitative leap in difficulty.
For most mages, they do not spend all their effort solving cross-school combinations. Once they reach advanced levels in one discipline, stronger techniques in that line naturally replace the weaker ones, so there is no need to simulate high-level effects by combining multiple lesser spells.
Shuyi was different.
Yesterday’s Swift Gale Strike showed him a new road in magical cultivation: by combining low-level spells, one could mimic the effects of higher-level ones.

To some extent, Swift Gale Strike was a substitute for the fifth-tier Tornado technique. Though perhaps weaker than a true Tornado and constrained in execution, it remained a very good way to gain formidable combat strength quickly.
For Shuyi, coming battles would grow harder by the hour; he had to raise his level in as little time as possible.

After testing spatial barrier usage, Shuyi shifted his focus to Wind magic.
Second-tier Wind magic did not contain many powerful attacks; support spells had increased instead—Wind Hearing, Wind Sight, and the like. For Shuyi, who was already a close-quarters warrior, those were of little use.
In summoning, however, Wind magic had an excellent advanced technique: summoning a Wind Spirit.

Summoning elemental spirits is the strangest branch among all summoning disciplines. It is a separate line on its own. Above it exist stronger summon branches—Wind Spirit Summoning, even top-tier Wind Dragon summoning—but summoning a wind elemental spirit is entirely different.
For such spirits, strength and frailty depend on the summoner’s talent and cultivation.

“Air Spirit, answer my call. Give stern punishment to the irreverent...”
As he softly intoned the words, wind elements gathered around Shuyi, gradually forming a semi-transparent figure with a bluish tinge.
Perhaps because of wind’s nature, what stood before him shimmered like a drifting, human-shaped cloud. When it fully condensed, it appeared as a small girl.
This elemental spirit, wholly made of wind, seemed like a hazy figure from an old stage projection. To Shuyi’s surprise, even her long hair and dress were shaped from wind essence.
Her skirts fluttered like those of a heavenly maiden.

Shuyi reached out tentatively to touch her, but his hand passed through her chest, feeling only a soft, warm breeze brush across the back of his hand.

The elemental spirit gave a bright cry and, seeing what Shuyi intended, smiled with childlike pride.
“Good,” Shuyi said as he withdrew his hand, smiling. “At least in this form you need not fear ordinary physical damage.”
These spirits have no true body and take no damage from normal blades or swords, but magical and martial-force attacks can still strike them.

“Show me your abilities. From what I know, an elemental spirit draws from its master’s power. Perhaps I can see which parts of my arts you can wield.”
“Ah!”
The spirit screamed upward, and in the next instant she became a band of ferocious wind and drifted off into the distance. A whirlwind rose on the wild field, roaring and sweeping all around.
“Hmm?”
Shuyi was astonished.
He had never expected that the elemental spirit he summoned could use the same dual-art combination he possessed with Swift Gale Strike, producing a tornado-like technique.
“What else can you do?”
From that swirling gale, sharp wind blades flew out and raked a distant tree, slicing through it in long, brutal gashes.
Wind-blade.
Then a shell of air defense wrapped around her, followed immediately by a wind vortex.

When a wind spirit uses Wind magic, it consumes no mana and requires no incantation.
Yet because Shuyi was still new to this school, the spirit he called could survive only briefly before vanishing.
In that brief span, she had already used five of Shuyi Grayler’s strongest Wind techniques. Only a few, like Wind Warbler and Wind Splinter, she had not learned; the rest she could perform.

Shuyi laughed in happiness at that.
Not every elemental spirit can wield most of the techniques its master knows. How much a spirit inherits and learns depends on the summoner’s talent and level in that school.
A wind mage without enough talent may summon a spirit that can inherit only one Wind art. Even if the master grows stronger, the spirit’s repertoire remains capped. But for one with very high wind talent—one who has reached the Realm of Wind Breath—the spirit can inherit most of the master’s Wind arts and learn quickly.

In short, a summoner’s talent and level decide how much ability the elemental spirit can inherit and learn; the summoner’s power decides how far into advanced arts it can go. If the summoner is only level two, the elemental spirit can cast only second-tier arts. If the summoner reaches level seven, it can learn seventh-tier arts. The number of arts it can learn depends on the summoner’s talent, while the strength with which it casts them depends on the summoner’s level.
Each mage can have only one elemental spirit for each magic branch, and duplicate summons are not possible.
A spirit’s level rises alongside the master; each time the master advances, the spirit advances one level too, allowing it to learn corresponding arts. It can only learn arts matching its own level. If the master levels up before the spirit has mastered some foundational art, then it can never learn that art later, and without that foundation it can never learn the advanced forms either. That means half its potential is wasted.
If an elemental spirit is killed, the next summons forget every art it had learned and return to level two, retaining only the two-level arts it had inherited at birth. If the summoner has already climbed beyond that, the spirit will always stay one level behind. Once the summoner reaches the seventh-level peak, the spirit can never level up again and is effectively ruined.
An elemental spirit’s strength thus depends on the mage’s level, the mage’s talent, and finally training and careful care afterward. Miss one, and it fails.

Because spirit summoning is a second-level art, keeping such a spirit alive in combat is extremely difficult. For most mages, cultivation of a spirit is not worthwhile.
To keep it, one must synchronize levels, keep it from dying, and nurture it even during battle. Such requirements raise the bar high, and with talent limits, few spirits that truly inherit a master’s range of arts appear. So most mages abandon them and treat the summon as an ordinary second-level pet; as their Wind magic grows, they can summon far stronger wind summons anyway.

But Shuyi, after long thought, still chose to stop all other Wind second-tier spells and focus on the summoning of the Wind Spirit. Since he had become so adept at using Wind Warbler, he was confident he could quickly master this one.

After resummoning the elemental spirit, Shuyi told her, “I do not know if you can understand my words. But from today on, you will fight at my side. You will be my new companion. Your name is Blue.”

From that day on, Shuyi Grayler began training desperately at spatial barrier applications and the summoning of wind elemental spirits, while Red and Green became his hardest opponents during practice.
To help him rise faster, Red and Green did not show him any mercy.

Every morning the thieves saw fireballs swarming through the sky, Red’s light filling the air.
Within that savage sea of fire, a golden youth leaped like an unyielding fighter. In the flames his slender figure looked so slight, as if he would die in the next instant—and yet he always survived, by some miracle.
Each bout ended only when the boy grew utterly exhausted and collapsed. Then he drank from a small vial of medicine, and in no time he was back, spirit revived, to begin again.
The thieves watched this madness with open mouths, unable to believe how frantic the boy could be.

For Shuyi, this wild training brought great progress.
He finally understood why most mages did not choose multi-school paths.
Not only would it waste too much of a mage’s effort, but there was another crucial reason: under the limits of incantations, in battle a mage usually cannot cast too many spells at once.
A mage may possess many spells, but if they are not cast in time, they may as well not exist.
That is the weakness of low-tier combination tactics. What a high-tier art can do with one incantation may require Shuyi to recite and deploy several.
In battle, time is life. Shuyi could never have cast the Conservation Barrier and Wind Spirit Shield at once, then performed the dual-spell formula for Swift Gale Strike, and then thrown a Soul technique on top. By the moment he finished, his opponent would likely have already hurled several advanced spells at him.
How to solve this problem? For days, Shuyi kept turning it over in his mind.