Chapter 156: Flame Serpent Spell Part1

A shrieking high-pitched voice emerged from within the jade slip, almost startling Xander.

"Brother, your favorite beast is running wild again!"

Xavier, who had aimlessly wandered over to the royal training grounds later in the day, heard this hot piece of gossip.

Being the filial brother that he was, he of course, immediately reported it to Xander.

He couldn't digest the fact that his stingy brother had given so many resources to one of his consorts.

The last time he had cheated him and given him some sort of bullshit explanation about how he was spying on her.

But clearly, it was more than that. So Xavier decided to poke him until he spills everything.

Unfortunately for him, Xander had already forgotten about him the second he heard the message. 

The elf did not look like he was going to respond back and even threw away the jade slip on his hand.

"Can't you listen to me for once?" He gazed into the distance and chuckled. 

This woman of his was far more black-bellied and ruthless than he ever was! She was also quite good at inciting drama!

His long silver hair fluttered in the wind as Xander again resumed his meditative pose but with a smile on his face this time around.

His soul sense seeped out and entered the labyrinth silently, trying for the thousandth time if he could break through the barrier defenses.

…..

…..

…..

Back in the elven royal palace, Tang Yue was happily skinny dipping in the courtyard pond.

She knew that the madman was away, so she dared to swim around and enjoy the pleasant nourishing waters of the golden lotus pond.

The things that she had witnessed during the day weighed heavily on her mind.

Most of the serious participants in the contest were all more skilled and had much more combat experience than her.

She simply couldn't afford to rely on her cheap tricks for much longer.

But Tang Yue's main issue was that she lacked a good fighting technique. 

This combined with her lack of knowledge of higher grade spells made her very weak.

Tang Yue sighed deeply and dipped her head into the water.

As she laid still underwater, twirling a small spike of ice on her palm inside the water, Tang Yue's mind wandered around.

She then suddenly got out of the pond and sat in a meditative pose on the outer courtyard, with water still dripping from her hair.

She was thinking about the flame serpent spell and wanted to see if she could manipulate her mana that way.

She settled her mind and rotated her cultivation base to produce several tongues of flame on her palm.

She then tried to manipulate them further to look like what she had observed on the stage.

She tried a couple of times, but efforts were not really rewarded. She couldn't even recreate a fraction of what she had seen.

As the snake was solemnly pondering what to do about this, a familiar nasally voice sounded in her mind.

[Dumb little snake, what are you trying to do?]

Tang Yue did not have the energy to talk back to the system and absentmindedly replied. "Flame serpent spell."

[Eh? You are even dumber than I thought! Don't you know any basics at all?]

Tang Yue smiled bitterly. Hardly one in a hundred snakes had any elemental affinity if at all. 

Where would she learn the fundamentals?

She only knew the fundamentals of illusion magic.

[I am in a good mood today. I will give you some free advice.]

[First, tell me this. I saw you practicing with both ice elemental spells and fire elemental spells.] 

[Are you planning on sharpening your dual-wielding skills?]

"Hmm. Yes?" Tang Yue nodded. 

She was surprised that the old man was being useful for once and obediently answered his question.

[Dumb little snake. Don't be stupid. First focus on one elemental.]

[Do you know how an elemental magic spell works?]

[Wait. Your answer would probably be some rubbish. I will explain it myself.]

[Our world, the sun, the moon, and the air you breathe in, is made of the many elemental essences existing in nature.]

[Mana is the energy derived from these elemental essences.]

[At your current stage, you use your mana to invoke the elemental essences you need to execute a spell.]

[But since this is too strong for your soul, you use magical incantations to assist you in this.]

[This is the gist of magic practiced by the weaklings.]

[But now that you have stepped into the Emperor realm at least mentally, you should soon sense that everything is different.]

[Mana can be specifically absorbed into your cultivation core as a form of the essence in itself.]

[Instead of taking the shortcut and absorbing mana from the air through your beast body, try using your soul to sense the fire elemental essence around you and absorb that specific mana.]

[A living being's soul just like a wisp of elemental energy is eternal and ancient.]

[Your body might break down and build up again with every reincarnation cycle, but your soul remains the same.]

[One can never truly destroy someone else's soul. There will always be a small spec of it remaining, no matter how small.]

[So your soul will be able to better sense mana in its elemental essence form rather than your body.]

[So stop wasting your time in this dual wielding bullshit and first focus on your fire elemental essence training.]

[Sometimes less is better!]

[Did you get this across your thick head, dumb snake?]

Tang Yue nodded. 

She consciously ignored the insults and tried to absorb the knowledge that the perverted old man was giving for free.

One needed to have a thick skin to be this hateful old man's student. Sigh.

She was sure that the old man was also probably restless like her after sitting through the various fights in the contest today.

That was why he was perhaps giving her some charity lessons in the fundamentals.

Tang Yue obediently nodded and closed her eyes. 

She focused her mind and calmly tried to feel the mana energy surrounding her.