Chapter Sixteen: Mastery of the Arcane Arts

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As he copied the contents of the book stroke by stroke, Feng Xue’s understanding of the path of cultivation grew increasingly clear.

To understand it through the logic of electrical appliances, magical power was like electric current. Before the spirit soul had been formed, the current could not be output steadily, so a ritual altar was needed as a voltage regulator to keep the voltage stable.

The ritual procedures of a spell were like an electrical circuit. By making magical power flow along a specific route, they enabled the spell to produce its effect.

As for the Little White Snake’s claim that the higher the ritual altar, the more formidable one became in magical combat, that was actually an exceedingly profound matter. Once a mystic cultivator’s spirit soul had stabilized, the altar no longer served merely as a voltage regulator. Instead, it drew the qi and the power of faith between Heaven and Earth as sources of energy, thereby increasing the might of one’s spells.

Because of the relationship between the foul earth energy of the underworld and the thoughts generated by human life, the higher one went, the purer the qi became and the purer the power of faith grew. At lower levels, by contrast, both became turbid and mixed.

Thus, every increase in the height of the altar allowed it to draw in slightly purer qi and slightly purer faith, and the power of the spells naturally grew accordingly.

Yet all of this was ultimately no more than auxiliary support. After all, if a third-rate sorcerer fought a grandmaster, even if the grandmaster dug a pit and stood in it, he could still shape spells with his bare hands and beat the other man so thoroughly that he would not know which way was north. The core of the matter was, in the end, the cultivator’s own attainment.

After finishing the section on arranging ritual altars, Feng Xue’s eyes finally reached the four spells.

The Thunder-Calling Spell could transform magical power into lightning. According to the book, before one attained the Dao—that is, before forming the spirit soul—it was not especially powerful. Against a person, at most it could numb the body. Against spiritual entities, however, it was devastatingly effective: an ordinary evil ghost need only be grazed by it once to have its soul scattered completely. After attaining the Dao, one could even summon heavenly thunder into the mortal realm, with tremendous power.

The Substitute Spell was a protective art. It could transfer a targeted curse aimed at oneself onto a substitute object, such as a straw effigy. Once one had attained the Dao, it could even reverse the positions of the stars and reflect an enemy’s curse back upon him.

The Spirit-Infusion Spell was somewhat more complicated than the previous two. Put in the terms of a game, it was essentially “enchantment.” Through specific ritual procedures, one attached one’s magical power to an object and endowed it with extraordinary effects. The book, however, offered only one example: a method for giving a peach-wood sword the ability to harm ghosts. It said nothing more, merely stating that after attaining the Dao, anything in existence could be transformed into a magical implement.

As for the final spell, the Deity-Inviting Spell, it was even shorter. It consisted only of a grand-sounding incantation, the corresponding ritual procedures, and two enormous words: USE WITH CAUTION. One could not help wondering whether those two words were covering up the rest of the text.

Even so, Feng Xue first copied down everything in its entirety before turning to look at the brothers. At some point, the senior brother had disappeared without a trace. Only the junior brother remained, weaving thread.

Feng Xue was not picky. He went straight to the point.

“Little Master, why does this Spirit-Infusion Spell only explain how to infuse a peach-wood sword? Didn’t you say it could also be used to make magical implements?”

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“This…”

Hearing this, the junior brother first looked around for his senior brother. When he realized that the man had already fled, he could only brace himself and say, “Spirit infusion simply means attaching magical power to an object. The peach-wood sword was merely the example that came most readily to hand. As for magical implements… that actually uses the same spell, except that infusing a magical implement means injecting other spells into suitable objects. For example, if you know the Thunder-Calling Spell, you can use the Spirit-Infusion Spell to infuse it into yellow paper and make a thunder talisman. The more proficient you are with the spell, the better the result. As for how to perform the infusion… my cultivation is not yet sufficient, but Master said that copying the ritual procedures exactly would be enough.”

Hearing this, Feng Xue understood. He still did not entirely grasp how one could copy ritual procedures onto an object, but he could study the peach-wood sword infusion to figure it out. He nodded slightly, then immediately asked, “What about the Deity-Inviting Spell? Is reciting the incantation all that is required?”

“No, no!”

At that moment, the senior brother finally returned. Hearing Feng Xue’s question, he hurriedly spoke up.

“You must not use the Deity-Inviting Spell recklessly!”

As though afraid Feng Xue would think he was deliberately withholding information, he quickly added, “The key to the Deity-Inviting Spell is relaxing the body and opening the spiritual platform. The ritual procedures are also meant to assist in relaxing the mind. The core purpose is to allow a deity to possess you. In essence, this is much the same as the mediums who serve household immortals or the spirit-writing diviners who invite spirits to answer questions. The only difference lies in whom one invites.

“Have you ever seen those mediums or spirit women? They shake their heads and stamp their feet. In essence, they lack the ability to empty their thoughts and relax their bodies, so they simply stamp their feet numb and shake their heads dizzy in order to make it easier for a spirit entity to enter their bodies.

“This incantation invites our founding patriarch. You have never formally acknowledged him as your master, burned the proper memorial petition, or offered incense to him day and night. Failing to summon him would be a minor matter. But if some evil spirit took advantage of the opportunity to possess you, the consequences would be disastrous!”

“What if I have a household spirit?” Feng Xue asked, seemingly at random.

Seeing that Feng Xue was willing to heed his advice, the senior brother breathed a sigh of relief. While secretly cursing himself for having forgotten about deity invocation, he replied, “That would work as well. You would not even need to recite an incantation. All you would need was an agreed-upon code phrase, something like, ‘Your disciple So-and-so invites So-and-so to possess him.’ Then you would open your mind and allow the other party to possess you.

“But household spirits are not to be invited carelessly, either. If the other party harbors malicious intent and refuses to return your body after taking control of it, the danger would be considerable. However, if you, sir, attain sufficient cultivation and acquire the body of a ghost immortal, you could pass this method on to your descendants.”

“Then the Deity-Inviting Spell is useless to me?” Feng Xue asked. Though somewhat disappointed, he was not greedy. At this moment, however, the junior brother finally seemed to have found a chance to show off.

“That is not entirely true. Master said that after attaining the Dao, the Deity-Inviting Spell can borrow the power of faith between Heaven and Earth to invite a phantom deity to possess you. Put simply, it allows you to attach the faith people hold toward a particular deity to yourself, granting you a portion of that deity’s supernatural power. If you have also mastered the Substitute Spell, you can even attach the phantom deity to another person—or even to a wooden puppet.”

“You really do talk too much!”

Though the reprimand was extremely quiet, Feng Xue still caught it. He then saw the senior brother put on a stern expression.

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“What my junior brother said is indeed a possible method. But a phantom deity requires the corresponding power of faith to be gathered in advance. It also requires one to have attained the Dao—that is, to have fully formed the spirit soul. Furthermore, it demands a great deal of time and energy.

“It is used more often by shamans and ritual priests, because they regularly wear masks and impersonate deities while praying for blessings and warding off disasters. The faith of the people naturally converges upon them in the process, so it happens incidentally.

“But for people like us who have not yet attained the Dao, the power of faith is no good thing. It contains too many conflicting thoughts. Recklessly coming into contact with it may, at best, affect your cultivation and, at worst, cause deviation, madness, or mental derangement…”

At this point, the senior brother continued tirelessly explaining the dangers of phantom-deity backlash, contamination by the power of faith, and the like. Even when Feng Xue displayed an expression of distaste and disgust, he did not stop. If anything, he became even more solemn.

Feng Xue could not help marveling at the man’s good nature, yet he also carefully recorded each of these taboos at the end of the copied manual.

Seeing Feng Xue taking notes so seriously, the senior brother finally relaxed. Feng Xue took the opportunity to ask, “By the way, Little Master, this cultivation method says that one must visualize an illusory image of the spirit soul. Is it supposed to look like oneself?”

Hearing this, the senior brother simply sat down beside the table and stepped on his junior brother’s foot. When he glanced toward the stove, the junior brother immediately understood, fetched water, and began brewing tea. The senior brother then started explaining.

“There are not many taboos concerning visualization. No matter what you imagine at first, as your spirit soul grows stronger, its appearance will gradually shift toward your own. As long as you do not deliberately imagine demons, monsters, bloodthirsty fiends, evil spirits, or the like, there will be no problem.

“Since visualization itself is not easy, you need not make things overly complicated at the beginning. If you truly do not know how to start, simply draw a circle like this.”

He selected one of the sheets of paper left over from Feng Xue’s copying and casually drew a circle, shading it completely black.

“Before visualizing, look at it for a while, then close your eyes. There will be a circle in your mind. Once you can picture that circle without looking at it, you can combine it with the breathing method in the book, circulating your breath and moving your qi and blood. When you can sense magical power flowing, do this…”

As he spoke, the senior brother picked up the pen and added a few strokes beneath the circle, turning it into a stick figure.

“In short, that is all there is to it!”

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