“Did you think that my elemental aura was extremely weak?” The old man saw through Xiao Lin’s thoughts before waving his sword in the air.
The faint glow of fire turned vibrant for a moment, but it only maintained for less than a second before the flames dispersed. The entire process was extremely quick, and even Xiao Lin, who was staring unblinkingly, almost did not catch it.
The professor did not say anything after waving his sword because he noticed that Xiao Lin was deep in thought. After a dozen or so minutes, Xiao Lin finally relaxed his eyebrows in realization, saying hesitantly, “Even though it wasn’t very obvious, I could somewhat feel the immense power that was emitted for a brief moment, but why was it so short? Did you use some special ability to hide your elements from perception?”
“No, that’s not right.” Xiao Lin quickly shook his head. “The elements cannot be hidden. Hold on, what was that strange feeling from earlier?”
Xiao Lin muttered to himself by the side, but it was useless to just think about it like that, so he sat down cross-legged on the floor, closing his eyes as he rapidly entered his meditative state. The old man raised his eyebrows, not disturbing him, instead waiting for Xiao Lin by the side.
In the meditative universe, Xiao Lin tried to use his Perception to investigate the surrounding space. Thanks to the old man’s slash, the surrounding elemental fragments had yet to completely disperse, so from the perspective of the meditative universe, Xiao Lin could clearly see countless stars lingering around him.
However, the stars that represented those elements were very strange. They still emitted the glow of a star, but the size was very different from the usual ones he saw in meditation, and there were also a lot of fragment-like structures in the surroundings. Of course, it was not strange to see those in the real universe, but in his meditative state, those were oddities.
Just like that, he spent half an hour in his meditative state. Xiao Lin then reopened his eyes, and when he looked at the old man, his expression was filled with respect.
“It seems that you understand.” The professor laughed.
“The compression and release of elements. Heavens, how did you do it!” Xiao Lin was amazed, he had more or less understood how that slash was done.
What Professor Zhang did earlier was actually very simple. He had consistently compressed and combined massive amounts of elemental energy; the final product might be the same in size, but despite the similar size and numbers, it contained unthinkably shocking power. When released in the blink of an eye, the destructive power was naturally surprising.
Even though it sounded simple, Xiao Lin, who was no longer a mere rookie, knew that it was something not even the elemental spellcasters on Planet Norma had managed to do in tens of thousands of years. Compressing the elements, especially to the degree that there was practically no external leakage, was similar in difficulty to taking two stars and smashing them apart before putting them back together. Even the structural integrity of the stars needed to be maintained.
Ever since Dawn Academy had come to the New World, there were countless people who researched the problem, and even when they tried to combine Earth’s physics and magical knowledge, the results were the same.
Yet now, it had just happened right in front of Xiao Lin.
If not for the shushing motion the old man had done beforehand, Xiao Lin would have cried out in shock. It was a miracle, not just from a magical perspective, but it could also be said to be a miracle of microbiology.
“Keep it down. I don’t want anyone else to know,” the professor said in a low voice, his expression clear that he was not joking. He really did not want it known.
“Why?”
“They would not approve of my methods,” the professor said. “Those stubborn b*stards are the same as those unaging mages on Planet Norma. Their way of thinking has been set in stone!”
Xiao Lin was speechless, but he had nothing to do with it anyway. His head started to race, and he smiled as he said, “Are you going to teach me that?”
“That depends on how much you can learn. You should realize how much elemental compression will enhance the combat ability of elemental sword aura, right?”
“Of course!” Xiao Lin said.
Elemental sword aura was very different from inner sword aura, because it involved controlling large amounts of external energy. Elemental sword aura did not rely on sword technique; it simply used brute force. Yet, that meant it was easily handled, and was hard to control as well as inner sword aura.
If the elements could be suppressed, then elemental sword aura would be not that different from inner sword aura. Not only that, Xiao Lin had even thought about the next step; if he used it in spell casting, then many spells would be enhanced. The value of it would be hard to measure.
“In truth, it’s not hard to be done. You just need to view the elements as life forms. Inanimate objects are hard to combine, but if they were alive, compressing and combining them is not that difficult.”
“It sounds reasonable, but surely it’s not that easy?”
“Why don’t you start learning from meditation! Elemental sword aura has always needed Basic Meditation as a foundation. It’s a pity those stubborn fools in the academy aren’t willing to allow me to open up a meditation class for elemental sword aura.”
“Oh, I think my meditation rank should be enough.”
“No, not that useless all-purpose meditation you’ve learnt. How do I put this?” The professor tilted his head and asked, “If you want to truly control the method of compressing the elements, you first need to start from necromantic meditation, which you probably don’t know as a new student. Let me explain, the natural world has three main types of energy, life, death and elemental…”
“I know. The elves use life energy; humans and most races use elemental energy; and death energy is used in some necromantic spells and by dark races.” Xiao Lin had already read about that in the library.
“Yes, in order to understand life, you first need to start with death energy. That sort of energy is called the breath of death…”
“Oh, what about after that?”
“What do you mean after that?”
“How do I compress the elements after learning necromantic meditation?” Xiao Lin asked directly.
Professor Zhang furrowed his eyebrows in dissatisfaction. “Don’t be too eager to soar. I know you’re curious and excited, but the class needs to be taken step by step. Necromantic meditation isn’t easy, especially for someone like you who has already grasped basic mediation.”
“But I’ve already learned necromantic meditation.” Xiao Lin could not help but speak up.
“Oh, is that so?” The old man nodded, before his eyes suddenly widened. “What? Hold on! What did you say?!”