115. Diamond

Watching the five hundred thousand troops preparing to evacuate, Mo Fei felt a splitting headache. Previously, the urgent need to address the enemy's threat had kept him going, and he hadn't felt the strain of maintaining the long-term activation of the spatial magic array. Now that he had relaxed, he found himself dreading the thought of having to restart it.

After pondering for a while, his eyes fell upon the Bear Clan mages' encampment, and a clever idea struck him. With so many mages around, surely he could find ten or twenty who were capable. He could teach them the ropes; after all, the fact that the Bear Clan had mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops proved their sincere commitment to the alliance. What harm was there in teaching them a bit of magic? Merely learning how to trigger a spatial array was a far cry from being able to engrave complex incantations onto physical objects. Mo Fei was certainly not worried that these Bear Clan mages would one day be able to transport people directly into his imperial capital.

Action followed thought. Mo Fei rushed over to the Bear Clan mages' camp, summoned their lead mage, and instructed him to select fifty of their most proficient practitioners to report to his command tent. Before the lead mage could even grasp the situation, Mo Fei had already left the camp with Irene and Vivian.

Mo Fei had barely returned to his tent when a Berserker guard entered to report that the fifty mages had arrived. The speed of their arrival caught Mo Fei by surprise; it seemed the Bear Clan mages truly had a hierarchy, otherwise, the lead mage could not have rounded up the requested personnel so quickly.

"We pay our respects to the Shaman God. We have arrived as ordered. Please, give us your instructions!"

"Good, very good," Mo Fei said with a smile. "As for instructions, there is nothing specific. I simply wish to teach you some magic, provided you find it worthy of your time."

"Thank you, Shaman God!" the fifty mages were overjoyed. They had never imagined that the legendary Shaman God would personally teach them. For those who had reached their current level of cultivation, they were essentially at a bottleneck, and they had no idea when they might break through to the next stage. With the Shaman God’s guidance, it was far better than any solitary cultivation, so how could they refuse?

"Now then, I need to understand your current state of magical focus to teach you properly. Let’s head to the pier and test it out; I need to see how I should approach your instruction." Naturally, they had to go to the pier, as that was where the spatial transport array was located.

"Here is the plan: twenty of you step forward. Each of you stand behind one of the stone slabs. When I give the command, channel your magical energy. I want to see if the twenty of you can activate this array together." Mo Fei couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

The twenty mages took their positions behind the slabs, while the others gathered around Mo Fei, curious to see how he would teach them. Large-scale spatial arrays had been lost for over a century. Some among them could use minor spatial transport, but that was limited to moving themselves to different locations; the difference between their abilities and Mo Fei’s, who could single-handedly transport entire battalions at will, was as vast as heaven and earth.

Once the mages were in position, Mo Fei began to explain the mechanics of the transport array. After he recited the incantations, the twenty mages chanted along, their hands pressed against the stone slabs. A faint shadow began to emerge within the array, but it vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared. Disappointment washed over the mages' faces. They knew Mo Fei could activate the massive array on his own, and seeing that twenty of them combined couldn't do the same made the gap between them and Mo Fei painfully clear.

"Your focus is likely scattered. You keep obsessing over the need to activate the array, and that is the problem. With the combined strength of twenty people, you shouldn't be inferior to me alone. Just focus on channeling your mental energy into the slabs and repeat the incantations I taught you. You will find that controlling such magic isn't actually that difficult. Come, let’s try again."

This time, the twenty mages chanted the incantation and slowly managed to activate the spatial array. The shadow forming the gateway was quite small—not yet enough to transport a battalion—but in Mo Fei's eyes, it wouldn't be long before they mastered it.

"Very well, keep practicing in shifts. I have taught you the incantations. Once you can successfully activate the array, your mental control will have reached a new level, and only then will you be ready to learn my magic."

Mo Fei hated being troubled, and even standing there watching them practice felt tedious. After giving a few final instructions and ordering another ten mages to be called to form three rotating groups, he slipped away.

"Brother, will they be able to do it?" Irene asked softly.

"No problem at all. You saw them activate it just now; they just haven't adjusted their mindset. I can do it alone, so the pressure on twenty of them is naturally high. In truth, as long as their mental focus is sufficient, activating this large spatial array isn't that hard. It depends on their own realization. If they can cross this hurdle, their cultivation will advance, and then I can teach them real magic. Otherwise, they will remain second-rate mages forever."

"You make yourself sound so impressive," Irene crinkled her nose. "I doubt you even remember how you pulled off that group-attack Ice Arrow spell last time, do you? That spell should only have been simple Ice Arrows, but you turned them into Ice Blades. You really aren't an ordinary mage, are you?"

"Are you mocking your brother? Let's see how I punish you for that." Mo Fei laughed, scooped Irene up in his arms, and headed toward his tent.

...

Truth be told, Mo Fei really didn't know how he had transformed that single-target Ice Blade spell into a group-attack Ice Arrow spell. He had tried to replicate it later, but the Ice Blades remained Ice Blades, and the group-attack version remained a mystery. He also didn't know why he only seemed to grasp these magical insights during the heat of battle, while being unable to manifest them at will during practice. His own cultivation techniques were not practical on this continent, so he tried to use magic whenever possible. He didn't want too many people knowing his true identity as a cultivator.

"Young Master, Young Master..." Before Mo Fei even reached the tent, a dwarf came running toward him, holding something in his hand.

"Young Master, look at this. We dug this up. There are plenty more in the mountain mines. We aren't sure if this is what this continent calls a diamond, but its hardness is incredible." The dwarf handed the sparkling object to Mo Fei.

Mo Fei set Irene down and took the item. As he held it up to the light, it shimmered brilliantly, and a voice seemed to echo from deep within his memory.

"That's right, this is a diamond. If you find a way to cut it like this, you'll discover something quite different." Mo Fei picked up a broken branch and drew a faceted inverted triangle in the dirt from memory. "If you can grind several faces onto it, the light refraction will make it even more beautiful. And don't throw away the smaller pieces; grind them into the same shape and set them into gold jewelry—it will be worth much more."

Speaking of gold, Mo Fei immediately thought of the white gold of this continent. "By the way, have you found any white gold?"

"Not yet, Young Master," the dwarf replied. "We have only found these diamonds in the mine so far."

"Let's go take a look." Mo Fei pulled Irene and Vivian along, mounted his magical beast, and followed the dwarf toward the mine.

After months of hard work and nearly coming into conflict with the entire continent, he had finally unearthed these legendary treasures. Naturally, he had to see them for himself.

An anxious Mo Fei and his group soon arrived at the mountain mine. The Bear Clan warriors guarding the site saw Mo Fei approaching and, imitating the Berserkers, knelt on one knee and shouted, "Greetings, Your Majesty!"

"Haha, please rise, everyone. There is no need for this. We will likely see each other every day from now on; if you keep doing this, you'll be as annoyed as I am."

Amidst hearty laughter, Mo Fei followed the dwarf into the mine. Because it was an open-pit excavation, a staircase led from the mountain down into the depths. Halfway down, Mo Fei noticed that the stairs were no longer stone but solid black iron ore. "I didn't expect this to be such a rich iron mine. Elder Oufu must be absolutely ecstatic."

"Indeed. Since Elder Oufu brought us here, he hasn't left for a single moment. He's been beaming with joy every day," the master dwarf said.

"Is Elder Oufu still down there?" Mo Fei asked.

"Yes. As soon as we dug up this diamond, the Elder ordered me to report to you immediately, while he stayed below to direct the mining."

Just as Mo Fei was about to reach the bottom, a burst of joyful laughter erupted from the miners. "We found it! We found it!"

"What did you find that has you all so excited?" Mo Fei couldn't help but ask.

"The Young Master is here!" The miners were even more excited now.

"Young Master, look! We found another type of ore. We are not sure if it is the legendary white gold of this continent," Elder Oufu said, approaching with a block of metal in his hands.

"I already know about the diamonds you found earlier. What is this like?"

"It's a bit soft, unlike the iron ore or the diamonds. It doesn't have much hardness; you can easily flatten it with a tool, but it won't crack."

"Let me see." Mo Fei reached out and took the flattened piece from Elder Oufu.

"I'm not sure if this is white gold either, but I suspect that anything found alongside diamonds cannot be something ordinary. Keep it safe for now," Mo Fei said.

Just as he was about to say more, a figure came sprinting down the stairs, shouting, "Young Master! An envoy from a Great King has arrived at the camp with many gifts, saying he must see you!"