“I'll go prepare dinner,”
she said softly, turning to head toward the kitchen.
She paused at the door. Without looking back, she spoke in an even softer voice than before:
“Don't leave in too much of a hurry. At least have a meal before you think about those things.”
The kitchen door clicked shut behind her.
Jiang Lin leaned back against the sofa, watching the dancing flames in the fireplace. After a moment of silence, he picked up the now-lukewarm flower tea and took a slow sip.
The next morning, Jiang Lin and Fenrir set out together.
The streets of the Royal Capital looked exceptionally bright in the early spring sunshine. Shops were taking down their doorboards one after another, and steam from breakfast stalls rose at the alley entrances, drifting through the air with the scent of baked flatbreads and simmering meat broth.
The side gate of the Temple was already open. The deacon on duty saw the badge on Jiang Lin's chest, stepped aside, and let him pass without asking questions.
The library was located in the east wing of the Temple's second floor, occupying the entire level.
The entrance was a heavy oak door, its frame carved with the patterns of holy light runes. Jiang Lin placed his hand on the runes; a pale gold light glowed, and the lock clicked open.
The space behind the door was larger than he had anticipated.
Bookshelves stretched from the floor to the ceiling, arranged closely in rows that cast neat shadows in the morning light.
The air was filled with the distinct, musty scent of paper and leather, mingled with a faint, woody fragrance.
There was no one else in the library, save for a gray-haired old man sitting by the window, bent over a desk and copying something with a quill.
Hearing footsteps, he looked up and pushed his glasses up his nose. His gaze lingered on the badge on Jiang Lin's chest for a moment before he nodded slightly and lowered his head to continue writing.
Jiang Lin did not disturb him and walked straight toward the inner bookshelves.
His purpose today was clear: king-tier skill books.
Movement techniques, defense, and close-quarters combat—these were the three areas he lacked most right now.
His gaze swept across the rows of book spines.
【Flowing Wind Step】, a king-tier movement technique. Driven by wind magic essence, it emphasized speed and agility.
He flipped through it and felt it was not quite suitable for him; his mastery over wind magic essence was not particularly deep.
【Iron Wall Guardian】, a king-tier defense technique. Constructing a shield with earth magic essence, it emphasized absolute defense.
He was not very satisfied with this one either. Earth was also not his area of expertise, and such a pure defense technique did not fit his combat style very well.
He continued forward.
【Starlight Flash】, a king-tier movement technique. Driven by space magic essence, it emphasized short-distance teleportation and evasion.
The description on the spine made him stop.
He pulled out the book and flipped through a few pages. The content was indeed related to spatial magic, sharing certain connections with his existing Space Perception and Space Folding.
He tucked the book under his arm and continued scanning down.
【Holy Light Armor】, a king-tier defense technique. Condensing armor from holy light magic essence, it provided both defense and stat boosts.
This defense technique was highly compatible with his holy light power. It could condense a layer of armor constructed from holy light over his body, which could resist physical attacks, weaken magic damage, and slightly boost his strength and speed.
He took this second book.
For close-quarters combat, he found 【Holy Light Fist】 at the end of the shelf. A king-tier combat technique, it compressed holy light magic essence onto the surface of the fist, unleashing high-intensity impact upon bursting.
Simple and direct, it required no flashy setups and was perfect for him to quickly suppress opponents in close-quarters combat.
He took the third book.
But that was not all.
On an adjacent shelf, he found two auxiliary skill books related to spatial magic.
【Spatial Shockwave】, king-tier. It expanded spatial oscillation from single-target interference into an area-of-effect impact.
【Spatial Barrier】, king-tier. Constructing a temporary barrier with space elements, its defensive effectiveness lay between a physical shield and a magic shield.
After a brief thought, he took these two as well.
Finally, in the weapon technique section, he found 【Holy Light Warhammer Technique】, king-tier. It condensed holy light magic essence into the shape of a warhammer, focusing on heavy strikes while also possessing area-suppression effects.
Although he used a sword, having another close-combat option would not hurt.
The six books stacked together made a thick pile.
Carrying the books, he walked to the desk by the window. The transcribing old man had already put down his quill and was wiping the ink from its tip with a dry cloth.
Seeing Jiang Lin approach with the stack of books, he pushed up his glasses and scanned the book spines one by one, his expression unchanged.
“King-tier skill books, six of them,” he said, his voice dry and steady. “Lord Apostle, the library's rule is that a person can only borrow one book at a time. Copying or sharing is forbidden during the borrowing period, and you may only borrow the next one after returning the previous.”
Jiang Lin fell silent for a moment, then nodded. He lined up the six books side by side on the desk, his eyes scanning over the spines before finally resting on 【Starlight Flash】.
“I'll borrow this one first, then.”
The old man took the book, flipped open the title page to check, and after confirming that the borrowing log was empty, took out a stamp and stamped the last page.
“The borrowing period is thirty days. Failing to return it on time will automatically trigger a punishment rune, so please keep track of the time.”
“Understood.”
Jiang Lin put 【Starlight Flash】 into his spatial ring and returned the remaining five books to their original places on the shelves.
As he walked out of the library, the morning light slanted in from the east window, spreading a bright golden path across the corridor floor.
It was already noon by the time he returned to his territory.
Jiang Lin was in no hurry to flip through 【Starlight Flash】.
First, he stood in the middle of the courtyard's open space, closed his eyes, and ran his breathing technique through a complete cycle to stabilize his magic essence. Only then did he return to his room and sit at his desk.
Without Little Black by his side, his learning speed was much slower.
In the past, with Little Black explaining beside him, he could thoroughly grasp the underlying logic of a new skill within a few hours and quickly start practicing it.
Now that the fat cat was still living a leisurely life in some corner of the West Continent, he could only grind through it bit by bit on his own.
The principle of 【Starlight Flash】 was different from ordinary spatial magic.
It did not rely on the precise manipulation of space elements. Instead, through a special magic essence resonance, it caused the body to briefly "resonate" with space itself, entering a state between existence and non-existence at that instant, before "drifting" from one point to another.
This was completely different from 【Instant Light Flash】.
【Instant Light Flash】 forcibly tore through space, violent and direct.
Starlight Flash, on the other hand, conformed to the flow of space itself, like a leaf drifting downstream with the current. There was no need to force anything open; one only needed to find the direction of that "flow."
He understood the theory, but putting it into practice was not so simple.
On the first day, he sat at his desk, repeatedly studying the first few pages, breaking down every rune and explanation to ponder them in detail.
By evening, he attempted his first channeling. The moment the magic essence in his body traveled to the third ring of the formula's trajectory, a violent disruption occurred, nearly triggering a magic backlash.
On the second day, he adjusted his pacing, slowing down and adding a longer buildup before the third ring.
This time, the magic formula held until the fifth ring before collapsing, a significant improvement over his first attempt.
By the third day, he was already able to run the formula completely to the seventh ring, which was the final step.
However, the final step of "resonance" remained untriggered, as if blocked by an extremely thin barrier—visible yet untouchable.
On the fourth day, he began attempting to adjust his breathing rhythm while running the formula, trying to synchronize his body's breathing frequency with the natural pulsation of the space elements.
This was a very subtle adjustment, overlaying a breathing guide onto the flow of magic essence to make the formula's energy movement much smoother.
On the morning of the fifth day, just as the sunlight filtered through the east window, Jiang Lin sat at his desk, ran the formula to the seventh ring, and triggered the final resonance at the lowest point of his breathing.
An extremely faint silver-white light flashed across his body.
He felt his body grow "light" at that instant, as if supported by some invisible force.
Although it lasted for less than a breath, the sensation was real.
He opened his eyes and looked down at his hands.
A trace of a very faint silver-white halo still lingered on his palms, slowly dissipating.
【Starlight Flash】 had been initiated!
He let out a soft breath, leaned back against his chair, and stretched his somewhat stiff fingers.
Five days.
It was slightly slower than he had expected.
He had originally thought that with his current spatial magic attainment, he would be able to grasp it within three days.
In truth, however, the underlying logic of this movement technique was not entirely the same as ordinary spatial magic. It was closer to an "instinctive" application, requiring the body to "remember" the feeling of resonance rather than relying on the brain to calculate.
He stood up, walked to the window, and looked out at the fields on the hills, painted golden by the afternoon sun.
Initiating a king-tier skill book in five days was actually incredibly fast to the outside world.
For ordinary geniuses, being able to initiate a king-tier skill within a month was already considered decent.
Within fifteen days was the level of a normal genius, within ten days was a super genius, and within five days was already the talent of a heaven's favored child.
He thought about it and realized that in the past, with Little Black's help, he would push a skill from initiation all the way to limit-broken in just an hour or two, which had indeed set his standards far too high.
Now that Little Black was not around, he was experiencing the cultivation pace of a "normal genius" for the first time.
Even though this "normal" was already enough to leave the vast majority of people far behind.
He composed himself, sat back down at his desk, and turned his gaze to the system panel.
It had been a long time since he had used those accumulated "Random Skill Upgrade" points.
From Planet Teluofuto to the Demon Lord Trial, from drifting across the Endless Sea to the elven kingdom, and from the Starfall Corridor to Caeous for one hundred and fifty days...
He experienced so many battles that even he could not remember them all.
Every battle brought a small accumulation of Random Skill Upgrades.
Though the amount gained each time was small, over time, the accumulated number was far larger than he had initially estimated.
His gaze fell upon the number on the panel.
【Remaining Random Skill Upgrades: 491】
Over four hundred and ninety points.
This number was enough for him to push several skills all the way to limit-broken.
Without hesitation, he poured sixty-five Random Skill Upgrades into 【Starlight Flash】.
【Random Skill Upgrades: 491 → 490】
【Starlight Flash (Initiated) → Starlight Flash (Superlative)】
【Random Skill Upgrades: 490 → 426】
【Starlight Flash (Superlative) → Starlight Flash (Limit-Broken)】
【Space affinity increased, light-attribute affinity increased】
The familiar scene unfolded before his eyes.
He stood in an boundless silver-white space. Beneath his feet was a transparent, water-like ground that rippled slightly with every step.
Overhead was a deep void, where countless tiny specks of light slowly drifted, resembling an upside-down river of stars.
This was the "little black room," or rather, the mental training space constructed for him by the system.
He raised his right hand, palm up, and a wisp of silver-white light glowed at his fingertips.
It was the magic essence brand of 【Starlight Flash】, manifesting in its purest form within his mental space.
He began to practice.
On his first try, a discrepancy occurred during the transition from resonance to drifting, causing his landing point to drift off by half a foot.
On his second try, the landing point was precise, but the duration of the drift was half of what he expected.
On his third try, the duration stabilized, but the trigger for the resonance was half a beat too slow.
He began to adjust his breathing rhythm and slow down the formula's operation, adding a longer buildup between the third and fifth rings.
By the forty-seventh try, his body finally entered that state "between existence and non-existence," drifting from the starting point to the end smoothly throughout, without any deviation or interruption.
By the one thousand and thirty-seventh try, he could already perform three consecutive drifts in his mental space, with each landing point precisely on target.
He had no idea how long he had spent in this space.
There was no day or night here, nor any reference for the passage of time. He was simply trying, failing, adjusting, and trying again, over and over.
When his final training session concluded, the silver-white space before him began to collapse, turning into countless tiny specks of light that surged into his body.
He opened his eyes. The copy of 《Starlight Flash》 on his desk was still open to the title page, and the sunlight outside remained bright, as if everything that had just happened was merely the blink of an eye.
But he knew it was not.
He stood up, walked to the open space in the middle of the room, and shifted his thoughts.
An extremely faint silver-white light swept across his body. At that instant, his body grew "light," as if sharing some subtle resonance with the surrounding space.
Then, he took a step forward.
The moment his foot landed, his figure vanished from his spot for an instant, only to reappear three steps away.
The entire process was silent and seamless, without any magic essence fluctuations or traces of spatial tearing, as if he was always meant to be there.
Starlight Flash.
Unlike the violent tearing of Instant Light Flash, Starlight Flash moved much more softly, like a leaf carried by a current—noiseless, impact-free, with barely any disturbance to space itself.
If Instant Light Flash was an "outburst" used to break through defensive lines and disrupt pacing, then Starlight Flash was an "infiltration" used to approach stealthily and retreat without a sound.
One was fierce and direct, while the other was gentle and silent.
They complemented each other perfectly.
...
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