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Chapter 59

“You...? Y-Y-You?!” Esther was so shocked that she forgot how to speak and could only stutter.

She grabbed him by the collar and tried to shake him, but she wasn’t strong enough to actually move him. Even though she was in the Third Degree Body Refining Tier, she’d never been through proper physical training. Her long, thin arms could barely even hold him up. They fell loosely to her sides.

Being far stronger, Leonard was of course the first to react. “Please calm down. I truly have no idea why you’re acting like this.”

Esther hadn’t even noticed that she’d fallen into his arms. She looked up at him with a dumb face before remembering herself. She slapped aside the hand he’d placed on her head. After spending a few minutes taking deep breaths and suppressing the screams that kept threatening to come out, she could finally speak.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“Are you talking about Magic Missile?”

His calmness brought her to the brink of exploding again, and she could only stamp her feet. “Yeah! It’s that damn spell! Not only did you cast five at the same time, you even changed the shape! How did you do it? It shouldn’t be possible for a Class 1 mage!”

Even a Class 4 mage couldn’t cast Magic Missile like that using just one Circle, let alone someone who’d just started learning magic. However, Esther didn’t say that, trying to preserve what was left of her dignity.

“I adjusted the spell a little. Just as I was about to cast Magic Missile, I had a feeling that it would be improved if I modified a few things.”

“A-Adjusted the spell? On the spot, with no study, just based on feeling?”

His words made a mockery of normal mages. Esther was no exception. Her face grew ashen, and she began to tremble like a leaf. She let out a shout, still not fully believing him. Normally, she never acted like this.

“If you’re telling the truth, tell me what principles you used to modify Magic Missile! I want to try it too!”

“Okay.”

He worked backward from the perfected version shaped by the Five Elements True Dragon Ring and briefly explained it to her. Esther looked doubtful when she made note of the changes. Then, she activated her own Circles to cast the spell. It was a cleaner shot than before, and it wasn’t any weaker either.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

Five magical projectiles shot out at once, and Esther looked like she was about to lose her mind. She quickly composed herself. Her spell was still off from Leonard’s cast.

“Hey, they weren’t shaped like daggers. Did I do something wrong? Or did I miss the shape alteration principle?”

“Oh, that’s all for the theoretical modifications. If you wish to change the shape of the projectiles, you simply need to use your willpower while they’re stationary.”

“What? Willpower? What do you mean?” Esther finally reached her limit and began to have a mental breakdown. “What the hell is willpower! I studied nothing but magic for twenty years, so why am I sitting here, getting taught by a kid who just made his first Circle?! And I don’t even understand what you’re talking about! How is this happening!!!!”

She crumpled to the ground and began to sob. Just as he was about to console her, Leonard had a strange sense of déjà vu.

Ah, this is how the scholars acted.

There was a time when the scholars who had been preparing for the government exams had found out that the number of test questions would triple starting that year. They’d gripped their faces, ripped out their hair, and collapsed to the ground. Yeon Mu-Hyuk couldn’t understand what they were going through, but he knew that it was no ordinary suffering. It would be meaningless to try and comfort her when he didn’t understand what she was experiencing.

A few minutes passed.

Esther was still sniffling when she wiped away the snot and tears covering her face. Her eyes were swollen and bloodshot.

“S-So? What do you mean by willpower?”

It was commendable how she was still trying to learn more about magic even after taking a mental blow. The fact that she was willing to ask someone younger and less experienced for guidance was proof that she was a fine mage.

“The term is self-explanatory. Willpower refers to the power of one’s will. Though it’s hard to perceive and consciously channel it, anyone who knows how to use mana has willpower,” he said as he generously began to teach her something new. He left nothing out, just as she’d done for him.

Willpower was completely unrelated to neural signaling in the brain, and mana could not be controlled through one’s muscles, blood vessels, or nerves. The force came from the Baekhoe point, which was located in the brain and housed one’s intellect, consciousness and one of the Three Treasures, the spirit. People who hadn’t unlocked the upper dantian had trouble perceiving willpower, and even if they did, willpower was hard to consciously control, so there was only a very small number of people who could utilize their willpower. Unlike mind arts, it could be used by anyone, but it was a latent power.

“Uh, so I can’t use it?” Esther moaned, starting to tear up again.

“That’s not it,” Leonard said consolingly. He skimmed through the martial arts scriptures in his head.

I remember now. There was a cultivation method I learned from the Qingcheng Sect.

The Qingming Cultivation Method was unpopular in the Qingcheng Sect, so it had been neglected. This was because it didn’t increase a martial artist’s cultivation even if they trained for a hundred days, as it cultivated willpower instead of qi. But after spending weeks poring over the cultivation method, Leonard couldn’t help but condemn the Qingcheng Sect for a major oversight.

This is a cultivation method that refines one’s spirit. It can protect one from heart devils that can possibly be planted by practitioners of malefic and demonic arts, and it greatly reduces the chance of experiencing qi deviation.

These were also features generally present in so-called hidden cultivation methods.

The Kunlun Sect’s Supreme Purity Cultivation Method.

The Wudang Sect’s Yin-Yang Wuji Cultivation Method.

The Qingcheng Sect’s Universal Unification Cultivation Method.

Even martial arts techniques such as Shaolin’s Prajna Cultivation Method and Supreme Skills could be considered among them.

But hidden or not, most of the practitioners of these cultivation methods die without ever learning a word of scripture.

The Qingming Cultivation Method was not very difficult to use, and it could also be mastered very quickly. Rather than racing to accumulate just one or two years’ worth of cultivation more than others, it was more beneficial to train in martial arts that used willpower to get ahead. Unfortunately, the Qingcheng Sect did not take the Sword Emperor’s advice, and a few years later, there were no more martial artists who trained in the Qingming Cultivation Method.

“I’ll teach you a way to channel your willpower, so please stop your flow of mana and turn around,” Leonard instructed.

Esther was startled by his request to show her back while defenseless. She stared at him. “What?! Th-That’s...!”

“If you can’t trust me, there’s nothing more I can teach you.”

She knew that Leonard had no reason to kill or maim her, but naturally, she felt a psychological aversion. She bit down on her lip.

“All right. Thank you for helping me.”

She stopped the rotation of all the Circles within her and turned around to sit with her back to him, eyes closed. An External Force Tier martial artist could kill her with one punch. She was essentially putting her life in his hands.

As soon as she resolved herself, Leonard said, “Do not speak under any circumstance, and please just listen to what I say.”

When he placed his hand in the middle of her lower back at the Myeongmun point, Esther concentrated, barely keeping herself together. Mana slowly crawled up her back, as if creating a path for her to follow.

Not to honor men of worth will keep the people from contention.

The Qingming Cultivation Method followed the principles of Daoism, as it taught one to keep their heart in control. It involved verses from the Daodejing.

Not to value goods which are hard to come by will keep them from theft.

Greed came from the heart, so as long as one could control their heart, they could suppress the weakness of desire.

Trusting one’s wisdom made one arrogant.

Trusting one’s strength made one careless.

Trusting one’s virtue made one self-righteous.

The Qingming Cultivation Method borrowed these ideas from the third chapter of the Daodejing.

If people lack knowledge and desire, then intellectuals will not try to interfere.

If a practitioner completely emptied their heart of desire, there would be no temptations to distract them from their training. Though the Daodejing was a text that taught methods for governing a country, the founders of this cultivation method used its words to create scriptures that taught practitioners to empty their hearts of all thoughts and desires in order to strengthen their willpower.

This was because once all desire and distractions were expelled, all that remained was the spirit.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

When Leonard recited the final verse and stopped the flow of energy, Esther was in a trance. As this cultivation method did not involve breathing techniques, the energy around them stayed undisturbed, but with each passing second, Esther seemed to change in Leonard’s eyes.

As the Qingming Cultivation Technique confronted several years’ worth of stagnant experience and knowledge, she began to approach the next level.

Is she...?

Leonard’s eyes widened. Though mana cultivation and mage tiers required very different components to move up the different levels, he could see that her limits kept rising with no end in sight. In martial arts terms, it was as if a low-tier Peak Realm martial artist had reached the mid-tier and was still evolving with no sign of stopping.

At this rate, she would reach the next Class.

Is she going to create the fifth Circle because of me?

He’d merely meant to teach her the basics of channeling willpower, but she was continuing to improve with no end in sight. There was no telling what would happen next.

Leonard’s guess was correct.

As her Circles began to revolve and use mana mastery, a light, sonorous sound came from inside Esther, and her mana mastery dominated the mana in the room. Even the Five Elements True Dragon Ring couldn’t escape its touch.

Unexpectedly, a new Class 5 mage was born.

“...” Esther blinked once she gracefully stabilized the five Circles. Even she was confused, and the first thing she felt was embarrassment, not joy.

She automatically cast the last spell she learned, Leonard’s improved version of Magic Missile.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

As before, five magic orbs materialized in the air, but the spell began to change. She was slower than Leonard, and her projectiles were crudely shaped like daggers.

Despite this, she had succeeded in modifying and completing the spell with willpower.

The five missiles buried themselves into the target, making sharp sounds as they pierced into it, just like real daggers. As Esther turned to Leonard, she pointed at the target and then at herself. She wanted to say something, but it seemed her voice wouldn’t come out.

Leonard didn’t laugh at her predicament. He simply stepped forward and held out his hand.

“Congratulations on becoming a Class 5 mage, Esther.”

She blinked at him, and then shiny tears began to fall from her face.

Instead of shaking his hand, she pulled him into a hug, putting a puzzled expression on Leonard’s face.