Mage's Cultivation Journey 20

It wasn’t the first time I watched Yu Xing practice, but it was the first time since we met that he had the luxury of savage beast meat rather than overdrawing the energy of his own body, barely replenished by the porridge we had to eat.

The differences were stark. The process of turning food into internal energy required the body to digest it completely at first. And, in the end, only a tiny amount of internal energy could be generated, barely enough for a few punches.

Savage beast meat functioned differently. It wasn’t like the essence pill I used, melting directly into the form of internal energy, but it wasn’t as indirect as ordinary food. It still needed to be digested, but the process of it was much faster. The moment it was absorbed into the blood, it could be pulled directly to the center of the body.

The advantages, it was faster than ordinary food, and the amount of internal energy that was generated was much higher. Also, it wasn’t as tainted as the energy from the pill.

The disadvantage, the energy was not pure. It wasn’t the same kind of taint from the essence pill. It was more like how the martial artists transformed their energy before the attack. The newly received energy was distinct in his core.

A temporary state. Every punch he delivered blunted the wild nature of the energy. Some parts of it had been released, but most never left his body, cycling back to his core.

I watched him for an hour, until he stopped practicing and sat down with Su Mi. They started their lessons once more. They had paper and brush, but they continued to use sticks and sand.

With my learning speed, their lesson material helped me less and less, but that wasn’t enough to make me stop listening. I just focused on it less, focusing on my own internal energy, trying to figure out a way to purify the energy I had received.

One big advantage of martial arts, even in the Initiate stage, was the passive improvement of the body. That part required neither meridians nor any technique. Just a passive absorption of the energy. I didn’t dare to let my body absorb any of it before I purified the energy from the pill.

I closed my eyes, but this time, I wasn’t focusing on what I had learned from the martial arts manuals. I was afraid of relying on them too much. Not only I couldn’t trust their accuracy considering the dubious source, but worse, I couldn’t trust myself that I had accurately understood all of it.

Using them for something as direct as how to accumulate and direct internal energy had been fine, but actually manipulating and purifying it wasn’t as simple. Each manual had differing methods with little commonality, making it even more challenging.

Luckily, those broken manuals weren’t the only way I had manipulated various mystical sources of energy. Focusing inward, I focused on shaping the internal energy I had, using some of the simplest spell structures.

Some, internal energy didn’t react the slightest, like the patterns that were used for simple arcane manipulations. I traced the familiar patterns, feeling nostalgic. As every single aspiring mage without the resources of a noble family, I had started my journey with arcane; smooth, easy to cast, yet with limited utility. My internal energies transformed into many shapes, triangles with recursive folds, layered glyphs, complicated polyhedral structures…

Nothing.

No matter how many arcane patterns I used, the internal energy didn’t react in the slightest.

Next, I moved to elemental principles, about to rely on the four existential forces … but I didn’t even make an attempt. The moment I tried to create that, a sense of doom hit me, just like when I was trying to write.

It was better to leave elements alone, I decided.

I have tried many different schools. Some, like healing spells, I had been hopeful for, even though I only knew the basics. The others, like patterns of illusion spells, I expected to fail, just making an attempt. Annoyed, I continued to try many other patterns, most failing to get even a simple reaction. I continued because I had no other option —

Only for a structure to actually help me. One that surprised me greatly.

Demonology.

“Makes sense,” I muttered to myself, but only after the initial surprise had faded. Technically, it made sense, as the whole point of demonology was dealing with extraplanar entities, and not all of them used mana.

I didn’t know much about demonology. It was one of the forbidden paths, monopolized by some select noble families and academies. An inevitable restriction, considering the dangers of a summoning gone wrong.

There had been many planes that had been destroyed by a creature summoned by an arrogant mage.

The mana structure I copied was a summoning circle … well, the outer layer of a summoning circle, responsible for shaking the interlunar entities while isolating them from the environment.

Its effectiveness was not perfect, but that was only to be expected. For one, internal energy was not mana. Also, even demon summoners didn’t actually rely on circles made of pure mana, but reinforced their structures with many other components, from alchemical substances to pure gems.

The question of why it worked was fascinating, but once again, I had to focus on the practical concerns.

For a moment, I closed my eyes, focusing fully on myself. Some of my internal energy, I took control, turning it into an approximation of a filter, only letting the pure internal energy pass. Then, slowly, I pushed the rest of the energy through that primitive structure.

It was a slow, exhausting process, the impurities in the internal energy resisting pressure. The difficulty of keeping the filter active while pushing the internal energy didn’t make it any easier. And, to top it all, passing the internal energy through the filter didn’t cleanse it completely.

It was like washing an oily cloth with water. It helped, but to a limited degree. So, I kept a small portion of my internal energy separate from the rest, and passed it through the filter again and again. It took an hour to purify a tiny amount of the energy. Even with his injuries, Yu Xing used his weakest punch more.

Yet, I didn’t care, for two reasons. One was the warmth that spread into my body as I stopped controlling the energy, and my body slowly started absorbing it. As for impurities, I released them by exhaling my breath, another trick that relied on my control.

The passive absorption of the internal energy was a slow process in the first place, especially without a corresponding martial arts style to help — something some of the techniques I read mentioned, which I didn’t dare to try.

I had no choice but to purify my internal energies to a higher degree if I wanted to hasten the process. It also related to the second reason I wasn’t disappointed. I was actually excited.

Because, what I discovered was a proof of concept, proving that my magical knowledge could be applied to manipulating internal energy. Now that I had a viable direction, increasing its efficiency was something I could explore. I could try to find more viable patterns for the filter. I could learn more efficient ways to internally push the energy to assist the filtering.

I could take another page out of the demonology best practices, and actually build the filter externally. Without the necessity to maintain the filter inside me as a phantom object, I would be able to handle the other parts in a far better way. All viable paths that I could slowly explore.

Later.

No matter how tempting the idea of creating even better methods, I knew that it wasn’t the first priority. The first priority was to let my body absorb as much purified internal energy as possible, giving me the physical boost I desperately needed before someone decided to call our bluff.

—

My decision meant that, despite the tricky position of our camp, we let a simple monotony capture our lives, almost a domestic pattern, which was greatly contrasted by the unrest that covered the rest of the surroundings, slowly growing.

I was afraid that the kid would get mixed up, but luckily, that hadn’t happened. The kid and the girl each had their own projects, with the kid teaching her the Furious Wind Style, while learning how to write and read from her, their focus preventing them from noticing the rest.

Their attempts to educate each other helped me develop my skills in both areas as well. I even managed to ask some of my questions, even though I had to disguise them as an attempt to insult the kid by asking him a question above his skill level.

However, my focus was on purifying the internal energy, each day my filter constructs getting stronger, and my channeling getting faster. I tried most of my ideas. The only thing that I didn’t attempt was to build an external filter with the physical component, the visibility of our current camp making it an ill-advised attempt.

In that time, I absorbed three more essence pills, but their energy stayed at my core, ready to be unleashed rather than purified and absorbed. As far as the purified portion went, I barely finished one.

Still, it was enough to give me the confidence to leave. We could turn our back and leave.

I had just begun to hope that our week would pass uneventfully, when the world disagreed.

In the form of a sudden, determined rush of a guard regiment from the city walls, moving toward the refugee camp.

It was time to move.