Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 8: Small Success in Magic
The visible growth in spiritual power data made Song Xian very happy. He calculated that he had been practicing for less than two months. At this speed, if everything went well, he would be able to reach the tenth level of Qi Refining in about twenty years.

If one can build a foundation in twenty years, then the path of cultivation thereafter will be much smoother.

The lifespan of a cultivator in the Qi Refining Stage can reach up to 120 years. After breaking through the Foundation Establishment Stage, the lifespan will increase significantly.

With this as motivation, Song Xian practiced even harder. From then on, he went to and from school almost every day and only slept for three hours a day.

If he is not in the training room, he is learning to make talismans. Occasionally, he will take time out to learn fire and earth attribute spells.

.........

Time flies, and more than half a year passed in the blink of an eye. After day after day of hard training, his spiritual power finally broke through 15 points, and he successfully advanced to the second level of Qi Refining.

That day, he was practicing magic in the backyard of his mansion.

Before this, Zhang Shilin gave him two rubbings of secret records of magic with fire and earth attributes. Each record contained four different kinds of magic.

The fire attribute spells are: Fireball, Fire Snake, Fire Rain, and Fire Screen.

Fireball is a low-level first-grade spell.

The Fire Snake Technique is a first-grade intermediate technique.

Fire Rain and Fire Screen are both high-level techniques, but one focuses on attack and the other on defense.

The four earth-attribute spells are: Earth Wall, Earth Spike, Earth Prison, and Earth Armor.

The earth wall technique is a low-level first-grade technique.

Earth Spike Technique and Earth Prison Technique are both first-grade intermediate techniques, one focuses on attack and the other focuses on defense.

The Armor of Earth is a high-level first-grade spell.

According to Zhang Shilin, as long as one masters these spells during the Qi Refining stage, it will be enough to fight against the enemy in battle. He also advised him not to be too ambitious and to start practicing from the lowest level spells.

The key to magic is refinement rather than quantity. As long as you can master one spell, it is equivalent to ten spells.

Moreover, these eight spells can complement each other. For example, the low-level fireball spell and earth wall spell, one is mainly for attack and the other is for defense.

The intermediate-level Fire Snake Technique, Earth Spike Technique, and Earth Prison Technique also have both offensive and defensive capabilities.

Among the high-level spells, the Rain of Fire, Fire Screen, and Earth Armor can also be used for both offense and defense.

In this way, there is no need to worry that at a certain stage, you only have offensive techniques and no defensive techniques available.

In addition, the five elements have a counteracting effect on each other.

As we all know, wood overcomes earth, earth overcomes water, water overcomes fire, fire overcomes metal, and metal overcomes wood.

Master two attack methods with different attributes and adopt corresponding tactics according to the situation.

For example, if the opponent is a water-attribute cultivator and casts a water-attribute spell, you can attack with an earth-attribute spell.

If the opponent uses gold-attribute magic, you can attack him with fire-attribute magic.

When the attributes counteract each other, you can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

At this moment, Song Xian stood in the courtyard with a solemn expression, as if facing a formidable enemy.

He took a deep breath, clasped his hands together, and silently recited a mental method. The spiritual energy in his body flowed along his meridians. The fire-attributed power in the surrounding heaven and earth seemed to be summoned and pulled by something, converging towards him, condensing in front of his palm, and gradually forming a fireball the size of a bowl.

Song Xian's idea moved, and the fireball shot towards a stone not far away.

At the same time, the spiritual power in his body surged into his eyes, and in an instant, the corresponding data of the small fireball appeared in his mind.

Fireball: (Fire attribute)
Attack: 2
Soon, with a bang, the fireball hit the stubborn stone, splashing sparks everywhere.

It was still the same. Song Xian felt a little disappointed. He had been practicing the fireball technique for several months, but was still at the elementary stage.

With this power, it is no better than a mortal holding a bow and arrow!
However, this small fireball would consume 4 points of his spiritual power, and it would take four or five breaths to condense and guide it.

In other words, with his current cultivation level, even at his peak, he is only able to release three or four fireballs.

He had also seen Zhang Shilin demonstrate the fireball technique himself. The fireball was three feet in diameter and extremely powerful, with an attack power of up to 10 points.

According to him, his fireball technique has been perfected.

No wonder it is said that magic is about quality rather than quantity.

Even if you learn hundreds or thousands of spells, it is not as useful as mastering one spell to perfection.

Zhang Shilin asked him to practice both fireball and earth wall techniques to the intermediate level within a year. Now, nearly nine months have passed.

He had already mastered the earth wall technique to the intermediate level, but he had not yet mastered the fireball technique.

He'd been practicing Fireball for even longer than Earth Wall, but for some reason, his progress wasn't as good as his. Just as he was feeling disappointed, a chubby woman hurried over and saluted. "Master Song, Immortal Master Zhang Yi has arrived. He's here on the orders of the Sect Master and is waiting in the main hall."

After hearing this, Song Xian immediately left quickly.

After arriving at the main hall, I saw a thin man with thick eyebrows, big eyes, short stature and medium build sitting in the guest seat. He was wearing an ordinary green robe and had a pair of bright eyes. This man was Zhang Yi, who had reached the sixth level of Qi Refining.

He is a descendant of the Zhang family and a distant relative of Zhang Shilin. He is currently serving as Zhang Shilin's disciple.

Zhang Shilin had two followers, both of whom were outer disciples who had a close relationship with him. Zhang Yi was one of them. With his four spiritual roots, he naturally had no chance of becoming an inner disciple.

But with the help of his relationship with the Zhang family's children, he also became an attendant of Zhang Shilin. Both his treatment and status were naturally much better than those of ordinary outer disciples. Even some inner disciples were a little wary of him, after all, he was the master's confidant.

"Senior Brother Zhang, you're here." Song Xian walked in quickly and asked.

"Junior Brother Song, please sit down first." Zhang Yi usually doesn't smile and always has a stern face, but his expression at this moment is a little different than usual.

Song Xian was stunned and confused. This was in his own house, so why did he take the initiative and ask him to sit down?

"Brother Zhang, what's going on?"

Zhang Yi sighed slightly, "The Outer Peak Secular Affairs Pavilion just sent a message. The headmaster ordered me to tell you that there's news from your family that your father has passed away."

Upon hearing this, Song Xian suddenly froze, as if petrified. Then, he was overwhelmed with grief and could not suppress it, with two lines of tears rolling down his face.

He was sent to Qingyun Sect to practice at the age of eight, and has never returned home since then.

After he became mortal, he mentioned to Zhang Shilin that he wanted to go home to see his father, but Zhang Shilin advised him to focus on cultivation and let him go down the mountain to visit his family when he had the chance in the future.

At this moment, the scenes of his interactions with his father flashed through his mind like slides, as if they were vividly remembered.

He remembered his father taking him to play in the river when he was a child.

Remember him playing on his father's back.

I remember the three of us having dinner together as a family, when my mother had not yet passed away.

……

"Junior Brother Song, please accept my condolences." Zhang Yi consoled him.

"It's okay, I'm fine." Song Xian muttered with a dull look in his eyes.

The main hall fell into silence. Neither of them spoke again. After a while, Song Xian wiped his tears and said, "I want to see Master."

"The Master is waiting for you."

The two of them left the house and saw a green bamboo flying magic weapon that looked like a kite parked in the courtyard.

Zhang Yi is the messenger follower of the headmaster. He cannot just rely on his two legs to get around, so he has this flying magic weapon to travel.

The two of them sat on the green bamboo magic weapon and came to Zhang Shilin's mansion. As they were walking, a middle-aged man with fair complexion and regular features came to greet them. He looked to be about fifty years old and had the cultivation level of the eighth level of Qi Refining. This man was the inner sect deacon, named Zhong Wenyuan.

He is the cousin of Zhang Shilin's first wife, and also Zhang Hunyuan's uncle. His other identity is Zhang Shilin's staff officer, responsible for helping Zhang Shilin deal with important affairs of the sect.

"Junior Brother Song is here. Please wait in the main hall for a while! The headmaster is discussing important matters with Junior Brother Lin."

Song Xian then went to the main hall and sat down. A maid brought him tea, fruits, and vegetables. After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, Zhong Wenyuan came into the hall and said, "Junior Brother Song, the master is calling you over."

"Okay." Song Xian followed him into another room, where he saw Zhang Shilin sitting behind a desk, with a tall and solemn-looking man standing in front of him. He was the Junior Brother Lin that Zhong Wenyuan had mentioned.

This man's name is Lin Zixiang, and he is Zhang Shilin's adopted son. It is said that he was an orphan and was abandoned in the mountains and wilderness. Zhang Shilin happened to meet him when he went down the mountain to do business. Seeing that he had spiritual roots, he brought him back to Qingyun Sect.

Who would have thought that after he transformed into a mortal, it was discovered that he had dual spiritual roots. Zhang Shilin was overjoyed, and seeing that he had such a fate with him, he adopted him as his son.

Before Song Xian's transformation into a mortal, Qingyun Sect only had two disciples with dual spiritual roots, and Lin Zixiang was one of them. Now his cultivation has reached the eighth level of Qi Refining.

Many people within Qingyun Sect believed that he was the most likely person to break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage first.

"Master, you called me?" Song Xian bowed respectfully to Zhang Shilin after entering.

"Xian'er, you know everything about your father, right?"

"Yes. I hope to go down the mountain to pay my respects to my father. I hope Master will allow me to do so."

"Ah!" Zhang Shilin sighed. "This is also Master's fault. If I had let you go back to see your father earlier, it would have been fine. I didn't expect something like this to happen. If you want to go back to pay your respects to your father, of course you can. Master asked you to come here for this matter. Taking advantage of this opportunity to go down the mountain, Master wants you to see more of the world so that I can hand over some things to you in the future."

"When you go down the mountain this time, go and pay your respects to your father first. Before March 15th, go to the Fuyuan Inn on Xianxia Mountain in Guangxing City and meet up with Zixiang there. He will then show you around. Just follow his instructions on everything."

"Yes, disciple obeys your command." Song Xian responded.

Zhang Shilin chatted with him for a while, and reminded him to be careful on the way and not to lose any money so as not to be targeted by people with bad intentions.

(End of this chapter)