Chapter 39 - Writing Brush
Chapter 39 – Writing Brush
After washing up, Xue Qilin yawned and changed clothes, and then sat in front of the dressing table and called Qi Qiqi who was standing aside: “Little Seven, come over and help me comb my hair.”
In the reflection of the bronze mirror, Xue Qilin could see Qi Qiqi roll her eyes, but she still approached slowly, and then fished out a comb from her sleeve and started to comb Xue Qilin’s hair.
Xue Qilin naturally enjoyed watching other people work, and she hummed a tune that felt queer to Qi Qiqi.
“Done.” Qi Qiqi put back the comb, and then Xue Qilin touched the hair buns on her head and nodded, satisfied.
“Do you remember the “array” that I drew you last time?”
“Of course!”
“Then try to draw it.” Xue Qilin pointed at the writing utensils that she has hardly used on the desk.
“You want me to draw it? Why?”
“Of course there’s a reason~~” Xue Qilin didn’t explain.
Qi Qiqi was puzzled, and raised a single eyebrow, but she still did as she was told. She sat at the desk and moved the white paper resting in the corner of the table to in front of her.
“…” Qi Qiqi thought carefully for a moment, and then took the writing brush and dipped it in the ink.
She painted very quickly. Although she spent some time thinking at the beginning, but after the first stroke was made, she didn’t stop until the whole pattern was drawn. The process was natural, and it flowed smoothly.
“What do you think? No errors, right?” The girl put down the brush and looked at Xue Qilin proudly.
Xue Qilin carefully observed the pattern on the paper. The pattern is quite complicated at first glance, but when scrutinized, it isn’t hard to tell that it is just a circle coupled with numerous lines.
The so-called spell model, to put it plainly, is the model of true qi when a certain spell is casted, and the product after the spell model was drawn is called array.
Oy, there are indeed no mistakes! Xue Qilin was surprised by Qi Qiqi’s ability to memorize.
“Hey hey hey, then why can’t you do it?”
Xue Qilin poured a bucked of cold water on her enthusiasm, and Qi Qiqi’s expression turned sluggish, “I don’t know. But it’s really hard…”
Xue Qilin was stunned. The other party sounded like a little girl who was asking her parents forgiveness.
“Let’s start from the most basic part.” Xue Qilin sighed, “Do you remember what the outermost circle is called?”
“Base circle!” Qi Qiqi quickly answered, and then asked doubtfully: “You said that this array is in fact a true qi circulation path, right?”
“Yes, I did.”
In fact, there is a subtle difference. To cast a spell, you only have to use true qi to “draw” the array. To say that it is a true qi circulation path, it isn’t wrong. As long as you control true qi to circulate according to the array, you will “draw” the array all the same.
“I have never seen such a qi operation method.” Qi Qiqi stared at the picture she has drawn and frowned.
“Hey, have you even seen a martial practitioner who can use flames like I do?”
“Taoists are very good at using such eccentric moves!”
Xue Qilin squinted her eyes – are there people in this world who can use magic apart from me?
Just as Xue Qilin wanted to ask for details, Qi Qiqi added: “However, although Taoists use both lightning and fire, but your… oh… “magic” was it?”
Qi Qiqi looked at Xue Qilin and sought confirmation.
Xue Qilin was stunned for a while, and then facepalmed, “Oh god, how can you not even remember the name of what you are learning…”
“I didn’t forget…” Probably aware that she was in the wrong, Qi Qiqi’s face became flushed, but she still muttered.
Xue Qilin stared at Qi Qiqi, and then retracted her gaze only after the latter was visibly feeling uncomfortable.
“Now try to urge your true qi and infuse it into the array, only into the lines. Don’t go out of bounds. I’ll mock you if you do.”
“Where should I start from?”
“From the base circle. Don’t pay attention to anything else.”
“Oh.”
Qi Qiqi was about to start, when Xue Qilin said leisurely: “Oh, that’s right. The true qi should be even, but don’t use much of it. If you blow up my quarters, then I’ll tear down your’s.”
“I know. So annoying.” Qi Qiqi protested in discontent.
Xue Qilin looked at her, doubtful.
It’s not surprising for Xue Qilin to have such an expression. After all, Qi Qiqi failed to control her true qi during the casting process several days earlier and blew up Xue Qilin’s custom-made rocking chair.
“You don’t have to make this expression!”
“Okay, okay, let’s hurry up…” Xue Qilin carried on with an enigmatic smile, “or Little Zhen will come again.”
Qi Qiqi is taking time to learn magic in the morning and evening. After all, she has to take care of the temple’s affairs the rest of the time, and thus hardly has any spare time.
“You really hate this!” Qi Qiqi complained, and then focused and placed her palm suspended above the paper.
In Xue Qilin’s perception, true qi was released from Qi Qiqi’s palm. Her true qi flowed along the line on the paper and constructed the base circle.
“Why is it shining?” Qi Qiqi was shocked.
The base circle was glowing faintly.
“It’s normal. Don’t get distracted, continue.”
“Oh, okay.” Qi Qiqi responded in agreement, and then concentrated again.
The criss-crossing lines inside the base circle gradually revealed a shimmer.
Soon after, a complex pattern of true qi was fully presented in front of the two.
“Not bad.”
“What, what should I do next?” Qi Qiqi asked a little nervously.
“It’s very simple. Shout “Li” [1] loudly!”
“I have to yell?” Qi Qiqi was a bit hesitant.
Xue Qilin saw through the other party’s hesitation – she’s embarrassed to “yell the name of a move while executing it”.
“Hey, don’t you people yell the name of moves when you execute them? Why are you being so shy now?”
“In fact, it doesn’t matter if you shout or not. Although you usually do shout… but I’m embarrassed to do it.”
Xue Qilin rolled her eyes, and then adopted a look of annoyance, “If I said yell, then yell. I am the teacher now.”
“Then so be it!” Qi Qiqi spoke in resignation.
She looked left and right. After making sure that there was no one around…
“Li!” The Temple Master’s shout resounded across the sky. She has shouted at the top of her lungs.
Xue Qilin was silent at first, and then burst out laughing.
“Bwa-ha-ha-ha…” Probably because it was too funny, Xue Qilin pressed her head against the desk and laughed until she was out of breath, “You actually yelled so loudly! Ah-ha-ha-ha…”
“You… ah!” Qi Qiqi suddenly exclaimed and startled Xue Qilin.
When the girl looked up, she found Qi Qiqi staring at the array in a daze. There was a small flame tongue burning.
“You, you succeeded?”
Qi Qiqi looked sluggishly at Xue Qilin, and then asked unhappily: “You didn’t pay attention?”
Next, Qi Qiqi’s reaction was beyond Xue Qilin’s expectation. She jumped in joy, “Yay! I succeeded! Little Xue, do you see, I succeeded!”
“Don’t call me Little Xue… oh!” Qi Qiqi suddenly hugged Xue Qilin and left her bewildered.
Although Qi Qiqi was rather “flat”, but Xue Qilin could still feel something.
A warm stream rushed to her nose, and then…
Shit! Xue Qilin, a person who has been single for many years and hasn’t even held a girl’s hand, couldn’t stand this “stimulation”.
“Let go of me! Your chest is too hard!” Xue Qilin said quickly and pushed Qi Qiqi away.
“What?! What did you say about my… ah?” Qi Qiqi’s eyes went wide, “Why, why, why do you have a nosebleed?”
Xue Qilin didn’t answer. She quickly took out a handkerchief from her sleeve, spread it out on her palm, and pointed with the index and middle fingers of the other hand at the handkerchief.
“Kan [2]!” With that, a weak stream of water sprouted out from Xue Qilin’s finger and soaked the handkerchief.
“That’s so convenient!”
Ignoring Qi Qiqi’s surprise, Xue Qilin wiped away the blood with the handkerchief.
Qi Qiqi’s eyes sparkled, and she asked, expectant: “Can you teach me…?”
“That would be pointless…” After rolling up the handkerchief and stuffing it into her nose, Xue Qilin replied in a muffled voice.
“Why?”
“Your cultivation method isn’t suitable.”
Qi Qiqi’s cultivation method was different from Xue Qilin’s. Although she was Qi Guiyuan’s great-granddaughter, but the cultivation method she practiced was called “Still Flame Cultivation Method”. Some cultivation methods alter the nature of true qi and give it a certain characteristic. Due to her cultivation method, Qi Qiqi’s true qi belongs to the fire element. So if she wants to cast a water spell, the spell model would have to be very complicated due to various factors.
If the difficulty of casting a fire spell is “one”, then the difficulty of casting a water spell for Qi Qiqi is “two” or even higher.
“Oh, so it’s like this…” Looking like she has thought of something else, Qi Qiqi’s expression turned grievous at once: “That said, why didn’t you teach me this method from the start?”
She was referring to the method of first drawing the array on the paper, and then “infusing” true qi into it.
“Hey, when you’re locked in a fight, will the opponent give you time to draw?”
“But…” Qi Qiqi was speechless. But very quickly, she put on a puzzled look, “Can’t I just draw in advance, and then use when needed?”
It was now Xue Qilin’s time to be speechless.
In fact, it is indeed possible to draw arrays on something in advance, and then use them when needed. As long as you inject true qi, spells can be easily cast. Some charms and magic tools use this principle.
Having said that, once you started using such things habitually, you’ll become dependent on them, which will have an adverse effect on future studies.
For this reason, Xue Qilin hadn’t taught Qi Qiqi to cast spells in this way at the beginning, but asked her to build a spell model from scratch. If it wasn’t for the fact that Qi Qiqi couldn’t get the hang of it for a whole week, Xue Qilin wouldn’t have told her about this method.
Incidentally, it wasn’t surprising to Xue Qilin that Qi Qiqi could extrapolate and figure out a compromise.
Although Qi Qiqi is a bit silly in Xue Qilin’s mind, but Xue Qilin doesn’t really think that she is stupid. Can a stupid person keep the temple in order? It has been more than two months that Xue Qilin has come here, yet she has never seen Qi Qiqi mismanage the Merak Temple.
However, Xue Qilin didn’t wish to explain.
She raised a finger in front of Qi Qiqi, and the latter stared at the finger reflexively.
Something extended from the fingertip.
Glimmering with dazzling white light, a thread formed from true qi extended from the fingertip like a snake.
It goes without saying that to cast spells, true qi doesn’t need to be condensed until it shines. The reason why Xue Qilin condensed her true qi to this degree was that Qi Qiqi could see clearly.
“Watch carefully!”
The true qi thread quickly depicted the array, and then disappeared.
Instead, a flame tongue appeared atop Xue Qilin’s fingertip.
The entire process of casting took less than a breath of time.
“So fast!”
When she saw the look of astonishment on Qi Qiqi’s face, Xue Qilin wrinkled her nose and said proudly: “Now tell me, whose way is faster?”
“But it’s really hard to draw from scratch…” Qi Qiqi uttered dejectedly.
Upon seeing this, Xue Qilin uttered, her tone approaching that of schadenfreude: “Is it… You think that that is difficult? After you can do it from scratch, next you’ll have to do it inside your body.”
“Inside my body? How do I “draw” inside the body?”
“Oy, aren’t there qi passageways in your body?”
The flow rate and control of true qi inside the body is much higher than outside. Besides, qi passageways, blood vessels, and various other channels in the body have enough space for the caster to use.
“A lot of the qi passageways in the body stay idle.” Xue Qilin said with a smile.
Cultivation methods mainly use major qi passageways. While some tiny, messy qi passageways fundamentally have no true qi flowing inside them.
“How … do you do that?”
“You obviously can’t even perform it from scratch.” Xue Qilin rolled her eyes. This is the typical case of learning to walk before learning to crawl!
“It’s true, but I still have some control over true qi in my body!” Qi Qiqi retorted firmly with a confident look on her face.
Oh, I forgot that this lassie is a martial arts genius. Xue Qilin laughed involuntarily, and then thought of something that she has been neglecting and touched her chin in thought.
The reason why magic emphasizes external release of true qi is because many spells are applied outside the body. Although spell models can be completed inside the body, but the effects of spell models are still released outside the body. Or is it possible to ignite them inside the body?
Magic is generally studied from the outside to the inside, while martial arts are studied from the inside to the outside.
When it comes to control of true qi outside the body, wizards are naturally superior, but when it comes to control of true qi inside the body, martial practitioners are superior.
In this case, isn’t it better for a martial practitioner to study magic from the inside?
Xue Qilin felt more and more that it was feasible.
“Take off your boots.” She went to the desk, picked up a brush and dipped it in ink, and ordered Qi Qiqi in an unquestionable tone.
“Huh, why?”
“If I don’t draw a route for you, do you know what path your true qi should take?”
“You want to draw a path on my legs?” Qi Qiqi was surprised, and opposed the idea.
After all, women love beauty and cleanliness. This is a truth that holds true since ancient times.
“Do you want to learn or not?” Xue Qilin asked back indifferently, and Qi Qiqi entered a state of inner struggle.
“… ok, okay.” In the end, Qi Qiqi agreed, aggrieved.
Truth be told, Qi Qiqi is a very motivated person as well as a stubborn person who will follow through after she made a decision. Since she said that she wanted to learn, the she will do her best to learn.
Xue Qilin gave a satisfied nod – if you can’t even bear this much, then how can you practice martial arts, how can you learn magic?
For thousands of years, how many people have been able to attain the Tao [3] through martial arts and smash the void?
They can be counted on one hand.
This proves that the martial practitioner path can’t be easily traversed, and the same holds true for the wizard path.
“I’m, I’m done!” A rather embarrassed voice sounded abruptly and roused Xue Qilin back to her senses.
Next, she saw an unforgettable scene.
This is what the saying “the heavens aren’t fair” means.
A pair of long, delicate legs were in front of her. They looked perfect.
Xue Qilin suddenly felt that the heavens were really biased.
Qi Qiqi was already more than beautiful, and she also had a remarkable figure. Except for her chest area, there was nothing to nitpick.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Qi Qiqi sat on the bed and placed her porcelain feet on the ground.
Xue Qilin swallowed and chanted secretly, “Don’t look.”
“Com, coming…” Xue Qilin walked to in front of Qi Qiqi and coughed lightly, “Lift up one leg.”
Xue Qilin tried to adopt an expression where she looked at the pair of legs, yet in fact couldn’t see anything.
The legendary Sanpaku eyes [4].
“What’s up with you?” Qi Qiqi asked, astounded.
“…” Xue Qilin did not answer. Her trembling moved forward.
Will I suffer the wrath of the heavens… Xue Qilin’s thoughts swirled.
Splatter! Maybe Xue Qilin was hesitating for too long, but a drop of ink fell from the tip of the writing brush and dropped on Qi Qiqi’s toe.
“What are you doing!” Qi Qiqi finally lot it.
With difficulty, she steeled her mind and suppressed her obsession with cleanliness, gritted her teeth and endured the idea of other party drawing on her leg, but as a result, Xue Qilin just wasted her effort.
However, she didn’t expect that her shout would frighten Xue Qilin so much that the brush would slip out of her hand.
It drew a beautiful ark in the air, and then struck brush tip first Qi Qiqi in the face.
There was a moment of silence.
The brush slowly dropped down and fell on Qi Qiqi’s foot.
“It wasn’t intentional!” Xue Qilin saw Qi Qiqi jump up from the corner of hey eyes, and she backed away, “Ha-ha!”
“Xue Qilin, stay here!” Qi Qiqi picked up the writing brush and threw it at Xue Qilin, who has already reached the door.
Xue Qilin dodged nimbly, and then turned and fled.
“Stop!” Without wearing her shoes, Qi Qiqi rushed out.
However, Xue Qilin has disappeared. She has fled to god knows where.
[1] – Li (離)
[2] – Kan (坎)
[4] – Tao
[3] – Sanpaku eyes