He was all too familiar with that persistence—that yearning to grow stronger and the desperate desire to break through a bottleneck.
“Two thousand gold coins a week.”
Without a word, Alicia took a coin pouch from her spatial ring and handed it over.
“This is for a month—eight thousand gold coins.”
Jiang Lin took the pouch; it felt heavy in his hand.
He glanced at Alicia. Her expression didn't flicker, as if this sum of money was nothing more than pocket change to her.
The noble children of Silver Moon Academy were certainly well-off.
“Starting tomorrow, you'll be with Fenrir.”
“Thank you, Master Matthew!”
After saying that, Jiang Lin turned and walked toward the arena stands.
Elune stood up to meet him, her pale purple eyes curving into two beautiful crescents.
“You said you’d teach him a lesson he wouldn’t forget.”
Jiang Lin spoke nonchalantly.
“I originally just wanted to make him back off.”
Elune tilted her head slightly, her pale purple braids swaying gently. Her tone carried a hint of helplessness.
But beneath that was a sense of pride she hadn't even noticed herself.
“Who knew you were such a fighter?”
The two walked side by side out of the arena's archway. The midday sun spilled down from above, casting two shadows of different lengths behind them.
The surrounding students automatically cleared a path. Their gazes were filled with awe and curiosity, and a few elven girls didn't even try to hide the admiration in their eyes.
“But because of this, you’re completely famous in the academy now,” Elune said as they walked.
“Slapping the heir of the Moonshadow family in front of three thousand people.
“Then defeating Fenrir in one strike, and finally taking Alicia as a student.
“Once word of this gets out, all of Silver Moon City will know your name.”
“Just another day for me,” Jiang Lin said dismissively.
Elune glanced at him from the side.
In the sunlight, the human youth’s profile was sharp and well-defined, and his golden eyes were as calm as water. He truly had the presence to make it hard for anyone to look away.
She quickly withdrew her gaze, pretending to look at a cluster of moonlight roses by the roadside.
When they returned to Elune’s small building, lunch was already laid out on the coffee table in the living room.
Silver plates held golden, crispy roasted poultry, fresh vegetable salad, and a dish of specialty elven berry pie. A pot of steaming floral tea sat beside them.
Evidently, Elune had instructed the servants to prepare it in advance.
Jiang Lin sat on the sofa, but he didn't rush to eat. Instead, he took Zoe’s stack of notes from his spatial ring.
He flipped to the page he had been reading earlier and continued his study.
The scrawled but forceful handwriting was dense, recording the core formulas and derivation processes of space folding theory.
Beside them were annotations Zoe had marked in red pen: 【The key lies in understanding the elastic modulus of space, rather than pure magic essence output.】
“Aren't you going to eat?” Elune sat down across from him and picked up her teacup.
“I am.”
Without looking up, Jiang Lin continued flipping pages with his left hand while his right hand picked up a piece of berry pie. He devoured it in a few bites and went back to the notes.
Elune shook her head helplessly and stopped bothering him, quietly sipping her tea.
The living room fell silent, save for the occasional rustle of turning pages and the faint sound of Little Black snoring on the windowsill.
Since arriving in the Silver Moon Kingdom, this fat cat’s routine had become extremely stable: eat, sleep, and go for a walk when there was nothing better to do.
After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Lin suddenly closed the notes and stood up.
“I’m going to Master Zoe’s research room.”
Elune looked up. “Now?”
“Yes. I think I can try some practical application.” He paused and looked at Elune. “Do you want to come along?”
Elune’s eyes brightened for a moment before she nodded with feigned composure. “I don't have anything else to do this afternoon anyway.”
The two left the building and returned to the Moonlight Tower.
The tower was as quiet as ever. The afternoon sun filtered through the stained-glass windows, casting mottled patterns of light and shadow on the bluish-gray stone steps.
The door to Zoe’s research room was slightly ajar, and a faint fluctuation of magic essence and a sharp hum could be heard from inside.
Jiang Lin raised his hand and knocked.
“Come in.” The cool female voice drifted from inside.
Pushing the door open, they found Zoe still sitting behind her workbench, which was piled high with blueprints. She was operating a silver metal ring suspended in mid-air.
The ring was about half a meter in diameter, and a mass of distorted space slowly rotated inside it—the stability sample of the spatial rift.
Seeing Jiang Lin and Elune, she raised an eyebrow slightly.
She raised her hand and gave a light flick of her fingers, and the silver metal ring stopped rotating.
The distorted spatial rift inside also stabilized, resembling a frozen mirror of silver water.
“Just in time.”
She stood up, walked to the front of the workbench, and studied Jiang Lin with her pale silver eyes.
“I was wondering when you’d show up. Finished the notes?”
“I have.”
Jiang Lin walked to the crystal container and stared at the mass of constantly twisting silver-white light inside.
“Also, I saw a few basic spatial magic formulas and wanted to try learning them through practice.”
“Finished?”
Zoe’s brow quirked slightly, her tone carrying a hint of barely perceptible surprise.
“You only got the notes yesterday, and you’ve finished them today?”
“That’s not how you’re supposed to read notes.”
Zoe’s tone held a touch of academic pickiness.
She walked over to Jiang Lin, reached out to flip the notes back to the table of contents, and pointed her slender finger at a line of scrawled text.
“Space Perception, Spatial Ripple, and Space Folding—these three chapters are the absolute foundation.
“Everything that follows—teleportation array architecture, spatial cutting, spatial anchoring—is built entirely upon these three chapters.
“If you’ve just ‘finished reading’ without actual practice, it’s the same as not reading them at all.”
She closed the notes and looked Jiang Lin straight in the eye.
“I gave you the notes so you could consult them when you encounter problems, not for you to read them cover to cover.
“Spatial magic isn't a theoretical subject; it’s a practical one.
“The fact that you perceived space elements from zero in a single day is indeed amazing talent, but no matter how high your talent is, you can't bypass the threshold of practical operation.”
“That’s why I’ve come to find you, Master.”
Zoe was silent for a moment before saying, “Fine. Since you say you’ve finished the first third, I’ll test you.”
“In the formula structure of a Spatial Ripple, how many core nodes are there? And where are they located in the magic essence circuit?”
Jiang Lin answered almost instantly.
“Three core nodes.
“The first node is at the start of the magic essence circuit, responsible for guiding the initial flow of space elements.
“The second node is in the middle of the circuit, responsible for compressing and stabilizing the density of the space elements.
“The third node is at the end of the circuit, responsible for controlling the ripple’s diffusion range and decay speed.”
Zoe nodded slightly, her expression becoming more serious.
“Then what is the basic prerequisite for Space Folding?”
“It requires at least two stable spatial anchors as references.
“Without anchors, the folded space will revert on its own in a very short time and cannot maintain stability.
“The precision of the anchors determines the precision of the fold, and the stability of the anchors determines the duration of the fold.”
“What is the minimum magic essence threshold for a spatial teleportation array?”
“It depends on the teleportation distance and the mass of the object being teleported.
“Using a standard adult human as the benchmark, it requires about three hundred standard units of magic essence within one kilometer.
“Every additional kilometer requires an extra 0.3% magic essence loss to be accounted for.”
Zoe fell silent for a moment.
Even with rote memorization, it would be difficult to memorize all of this in a single day.
Yet Jiang Lin’s answers were concise, precise, and without a single wasted word.
“Carlos said you were a monster.”
Jiang Lin remained silent.
“Follow me.”
Zoe turned and walked toward the crystal container.
“Since you’ve mastered the theoretical foundation, we’ll skip the theory and go straight to practice.”
She raised her right hand and tapped her slender finger lightly on the surface of the crystal container.
A circle of pale silver ripples spread from her fingertip, and the spatial rift inside the container suddenly stabilized.
“I have the only stability sample of a spatial rift in the entire Silver Moon Kingdom.
“Using it to practice the perception and manipulation of spatial magic will yield twice the result with half the effort.”
She paused and glanced at Jiang Lin.
“Remember, you only have three hours of usage time per week. Since today is your first time, I’ll make an exception and let you use it for an extra hour. Make the most of it.”
Jiang Lin nodded and walked to the crystal container.
He could clearly feel that the density of space elements inside the container was dozens of times higher than outside. They were exceptionally active—even denser than when he had used the Astral Dust.
Practicing spatial magic in this environment would indeed be twice as effective.
“Start with the basics.
“You’ve already mastered Spatial Ripple.
“Next is Space Perception. This technique allows you to continuously sense the space elements around you.”
Zoe stepped behind him and pressed her right hand lightly against the surface of the crystal container.
She began to guide him, her voice cool as always but with a bit more patience than usual.
“The formula structure for Space Perception is slightly more complex than a Spatial Ripple, but the underlying logic is the same.
“The key is to maintain the stability of the formula, making the perception state a passive effect rather than a skill that needs to be actively triggered.
“Close your eyes and sink your mind into your body.
“I will guide you through constructing the formula first.”
Jiang Lin closed his eyes. Zoe’s magic essence was transmitted through the surface of the crystal container.
It was an extremely gentle, pale silver magic essence, like a spring breeze brushing over the surface of water.
It didn't invade Jiang Lin’s body; instead, it formed an incredibly thin space element membrane around him, allowing him to more clearly perceive the omnipresent space elements.
“Do you feel it?”
“I do.”
Under Zoe’s guidance, he could clearly ‘see’ the space elements like countless tiny silver-white points of light flowing slowly through the air.
He tried to guide his own magic essence, following the formula structure recorded in Zoe’s notes, to sketch out the magic essence circuit for Space Perception at his fingertips.
The circuit was extremely complex, with at least seven more magic essence tracks than a Spatial Ripple.
Every track required precise control over the flow and direction of magic essence; the slightest mistake would cause the entire formula to collapse.
Fine beads of sweat broke out on Jiang Lin’s forehead.
His control was far beyond most adventurers of the same rank, but the requirements for spatial magic were nearly several times higher than for conventional magic.
On his first attempt, the formula collapsed at the third track.
On the second, it collapsed at the fifth track. The spatial fluctuations produced by the collapse rippled out, making his fingertips feel slightly numb.
On the third, it collapsed at the seventh track, and Jiang Lin’s brow furrowed even deeper.
Zoe stood to the side without speaking.
She had seen too many beginners fail at this stage. The formula structure for Space Perception wasn't considered overly complex.
However, it required extremely fine magic essence control and a deep understanding of space elements.
This was the threshold—the filter.
As time passed, Jiang Lin finally began to stabilize the ninth magic essence track.
The formula was nearing completion. He could feel the space elements resonating with the magic essence circuit inside him.
A circle of pale silver light quietly spread around him, enveloping him like an incredibly thin veil.
Just then, the formula collapsed again.
The magic essence circuit inside him suddenly jolted, and a surge of backlash struck, causing him to instinctively take a step back.
Elune caught him from behind.
Jiang Lin wiped the sweat from his forehead and waved a hand at Elune to show he was fine.
He took a deep breath, walked to the crystal container, and sat cross-legged. He pressed both hands against the container’s surface, letting his fingertips directly touch that mass of frozen silver.
Space elements flooded into his body through his fingertips, more direct and more turbulent than when they were guided by Zoe.
He could feel his magic essence circuit vibrating slightly under the wash of space elements.
Then, he began his fourth attempt.
This time, the formula didn't collapse at the third track, nor the fifth, nor the seventh.
When the ninth track stabilized and took shape, a circle of pale silver light finally steadied around him, enveloping him like an incredibly thin veil.
He opened his eyes, and his golden gaze reflected countless silver-white points of light—the traces left by the space elements in his perception.
【Space Perception (Uninitiated) → (Initiated)】
A flash of surprise crossed Zoe’s eyes.
“Four hours.”
Her voice was still cool, but her tone carried a hint of undeniable shock.
“When I first initiated Space Perception, it took me a day, which was already considered amazing. You actually finished it in just four hours?”
Jiang Lin thought for a moment before saying, “Maybe this is just what talent looks like.”
Seeing Jiang Lin like this, both Zoe and Elune felt like hitting him.
However, they both began to seriously ponder the matter in their hearts.
“Um... Matthew.”
Elune’s voice came from behind him, carrying a hint of cautious probing.
“Are you really a normal human? You’re not some monster in disguise, are you?”
“Of course not. How could I be a monster?”
Elune was silent for a moment, then quietly got up and walked to the corner of the room, pretending to look at the scenery outside the window.
Zoe let out a light chuckle but quickly regained her composure.
“Since you’ve mastered Space Perception...
“Next, use this stability sample to practice other low-level spatial magics.
“Once you’ve practiced these basic spells to a certain level of proficiency, then you can begin learning higher-tier magic.”
Jiang Lin nodded. “No problem. But I’d like to take a break for now.”
In truth, what he was thinking was that once he was alone, he would immediately limit-break Space Perception.
...
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