BXBX NOVEL Chapter 31 - 30: Shrinking Ground Into Inches t
Three days later.
Clad in tight-fitting attire, Lu Yang stood erect, a satisfied grin on his face, pride visible from having memorized the golden scroll.
“Recite it for me.”
“A thousand miles in existence, present before the eyes, released and relaxed…” Lu Yang started reciting smoothly, without an iota of interruption, indicating that he had memorized the content by heart.
Yun Zhi nodded in approval. The mantra was quite profound, reduced to its essential meaning word byword. Reciting it called for great mental power, and the fact that Lu Yang could memorize to this extent testified to the hard work he had put in.
“This mantra is an introduction. Recite it in your heart when you are not proficient with the spell in the early stage. It will assist you in successfully casting the spell. Once you can skillfully use Shrinking Ground Into Inches in your later stage, this mantra will be of no use.”
“Shrinking Ground Into Inches is a space spell and you are on the early side to practice it. However, since you are a disciple under the mentor, and he learned this spell at your cultivation level, maybe you can too.”
“The most important thing about cultivating space spells is safety. Once the space is misplaced, you will end up with your body separated from your head or split at the waist. Therefore, there is an unwritten rule in the cultivation world that when cultivating space spells, you must have a senior who is proficient in spatial matters to guide you.”
Yun Zhi turned unusually serious, and seeing her this way, Lu Yang also put away his laughter, paying full attention to Yun Zhi’s lecture.
“The principle of the Shrinking Ground Into Inches spell is to shrink the ground to the size of square inches. The spell caster casually steps over, traversing endless distances, and arrives at another place. The more skilled you are, the larger the area of the ground you can shrink, and the longer the distance you can cross. When you achieve the grand success, even the vast Central Continent can’t stop your pace.”
“What you need to pay attention to is that practicing the spell needs enlightenment. You have never touched on spatial spells, so you have to be mentally prepared for success or failure.”
“One should not get overjoyed or overly disappointed while cultivating,”
Yun Zhi imparts her cultivation experience to Lu Yang through her words and deeds.
Lu Yang nodded. He found the Eldest Senior Sister to be the most qualified to say these words as he had yet seen her have extreme emotional fluctuations.
He felt somewhat lacking in this respect.
Initially, when Lu Yang saw that the Eldest Senior Sister had only one expression, he thought she was emotionless. After spending some time together, he realized that she did have emotional fluctuations, only that they were too trivial.
Lu Yang could now discern how the Eldest Senior Sister was feeling from her subtle facial changes with a certain level of probability.
Like now… well, he couldn’t discern it.
“I’ll demonstrate it to you now.”
Yun Zhi, not knowing what Lu Yang was thinking, threw a red flag onto a hill across from them. Before Lu Yang could get a clear look, she stepped forward lightly. Suddenly, she disappeared and then reappeared, holding the red flag in her hand.
“Once you succeed, practice it a few times, and you’ll be as proficient as me.”
Lu Yang remained rooted to the spot, blinking once, and then again.
What had just happened?
In Lu Yang’s eyes, it seemed as if Yun Zhi had thrown the red flag and then effortlessly picked it back up. He was not even certain if the flag had landed on the mountain as he saw no signs of her using magic.
Unusually, Yun Zhi frowned a bit. When her master taught her, he demonstrated it in the same way and she learned it in one go.
Fearing that Lu Yang might not understand, Yun Zhi demonstrated it one more time.
Thus, throwing the flag, walking, coming back, all went smoothly and without understanding.
Indeed, there are times when the Eldest Senior Sister cannot be relied on too; learning is indeed something one has to accomplish by oneself.
Lu Yang met Eldest Senior Sister’s gaze, aware of her emotional state this time.
She was expecting him to succeed.
But Eldest Senior Sister, you must understand that with your level of teaching, no one can learn.
Lu Yang sighed secretly. He couldn’t rely on the Eldest Senior Sister anymore; he had to implement the spell based on his own understanding of Shrinking Ground into Inches.
“A thousand miles in existence, present before the eyes, released and relaxed…” Lu Yang closed his eyes while casting the spell, pinching out the spell while chanting.
“Shrinking Ground into Inches!” Lu Yang bellowed, and his body disappeared instantly. The surrounding scenery changed, being engulfed in darkness, as if he had fallen into an alternate space.
Lu Yang was delighted. He had succeeded on his first try.
He was indeed a genius!
Lu Yang remembered what his Senior Sister had said. The principle of Shrinking Ground Into Inches is to twist and fold space. Spell casters walk in an alternate space, which is a straight line, and can reach their destination in the shortest time possible through it.
Lu Yang was about to let out a hearty laugh when he discovered that the black substance around him was pouring into his mouth, and his body was trapped by it, making it impossible to move. Furthermore, it seemed that there was no air in the alternate space, making it extremely difficult for him to breathe.
After a brief but calm contemplation, he recognized a fact:
He was shrunk into the earth.
Now, Lu Yang had good news and bad news.
The good news was he had learned half of Shrinking Ground Into Inches – shrinking the ground.
The bad news was he had only learned half of it.
Standing on the ground, Yun Zhi didn’t know what to say. She watched Lu Yang cast the spell and then shrink into the ground, mastering Earth Escape Skill. Why did a space spell shift to an elemental spell?
Being the Eldest Senior Sister of the Seek Dao Sect and the eldest disciple of the Sect Leader, Yun Zhi’s cultivation level and talent for cultivation ranked first among all the disciples of Seek Dao Sect. She could craft formula easily, master spells at a glance, possessed unparalleled understanding, rare throughout ancient times, and all other geniuses paled in comparative elimination to her. She was truly terrifying.
Yet even she could not comprehend Lu Yang’s casting principle.
These were clearly two unrelated spells.
With a muffled sound, Lu Yang performed Shrinking Ground Into Inches again, his head sticking out of the ground like a mole. This arouses the urge to hammer it down or step on it.
Lu Yang cleared his throat trying to defuse the awkwardness.
No matter how thick-skinned Lu Yang was, he could not tolerate such an embarrassing situation.
Yun Zhi pulled Lu Yang out of the ground emotionlessly, shaking off a pile of mud.
Like pulling out a radish.
“It was an accident just now. Let me try again.”
Lu Yang felt he was close to figuring out the trick.
“A thousand miles in existence, present before the eyes, released and relaxed…” Lu Yang started configuring the spell again, chanting even faster than the previous time.
“Shrinking Ground into Inches!” Lu Yang yelled, and a change occurred again.
Yun Zhi was tall, but still half a head shorter than Lu Yang. In the past, Lu Yang could see the top of Eldest Senior Sister’s head, but now it had changed.
Yun Zhi’s body gradually became taller and Lu Yang changed from looking down, to looking straight, and then looking up, till he was finally craning his neck to look up.
From Lu Yang’s angle, he could not even see Eldest Senior Sister’s face.
Yun Zhi had become a giant holding up the sky, with her head touching the heavens and feet stepping on the ground.
“No, I’ve become smaller!”
Lu Yang shouted, seeing a rock that was half a person high on the ground, realizing where the problem was.
Three-inch-tall Lu Yang was hopping around on the ground, and even his voice had become much softer than before.
He had learned a new spell – Shrinking Into Inches.
Lu Yang’s talent in spells was also terrifying. Geniuses like Yun Zhi could only learn Shrinking Ground Into Inches, but Lu Yang had learned both Shrinking Ground and Shrinking Into Inches!
Yun Zhi crouched down to observe Lu Yang, her eyebrows slightly furrowed, apparently not understanding what went wrong..