The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#339 - Paper Cutting

"By the way, did you know that the secret power in the academy is so strong because it's built next to a secret realm?" Xuan Ji added, as if she had thought of something.

"But it's a very small and young secret realm, probably only two or three hundred years older than the academy. It's considered the least dangerous of all the known secret realms."

Lu Jing thought about it. He didn't think he had ever been in contact with any secret realms. The energy in his upper dantian was formed by the battle between the Void Ghost and the Primordial Water, which rekindled a glimmer of hope in his heart.

"Does secret power have a form?"

"No form."

"Does it have a color?"

"No color."

"What do cultivators feel when it's stored in the niwan palace?"

"I haven't cultivated secret power, and I don't know what it feels like in the niwan palace. But according to the 'True Explanation of Secret Power,' cultivators usually don't feel anything unusual."

Lu Jing's spirit lifted when he heard this. That was different from his current situation. He felt it very clearly, and even his temples were throbbing.

But then he thought, 'Damn it, is it because there's too much?!'

After all, every time he refreshed, it was very substantial, just like when everyone went out for barbecue in college and poured wine into each other's cups. The wine had to be level with the rim and even overflow a little to show fatherly love.

So Lu Jing asked again, "What does it feel like when the niwan palace is filled with secret power?"

This time, it was Xuan Ji's turn to be stunned.

After a moment, she whispered, "This... no one would fill their niwan palace with secret power, would they? It actually becomes more difficult to absorb secret power later on. Most cultivators only store half of their niwan palace with secret power, balancing efficiency and safety.

"If they knew in advance that there would be a fierce battle in the future, they might spend more time absorbing seventy percent of the secret power. It's not impossible to absorb more, but it would take too much time.

"Of course, as cultivation progresses, the niwan palace will continue to grow, and the amount of secret power that can be stored will also increase."

No, this is completely useless as a reference.

Lu Jing was a little disappointed. It seemed that he could only use the simplest and most direct method. He gritted his teeth and said, "Are there any books here that record spells?"

"Yes." Xuan Ji nodded, but she was even more puzzled. The entire academy knew that Lu Jing couldn't cultivate internal energy, and Xuan Ji was no exception.

However, all of Lu Jing's questions tonight were related to secret power. But with Xuan Ji's gentle nature, she would naturally not laugh at Lu Jing because of this. She just silently found a book that recorded spells and handed it to Lu Jing as he asked.

Although she didn't know why Lu Jing wanted to learn spells when he hadn't even cultivated secret power.

Lu Jing looked at the title of the book, 'Mysterious Evasion Technique,' then opened it and flipped through a few pages before closing it again.

"Uh, is there anything simpler?"

"Oh, oh."

Xuan Ji quickly found another book, 'Little Paper-Cutting Arts,' and handed it to Lu Jing. "This book is borrowed by many people because paper duels are very popular in the academy… I've also read some of it. It's basically a few students following the spells recorded in this book, each cutting out a paper figure to see whose paper figure can defeat the others and become the winner."

Lu Jing thought it was simple based on Xuan Ji's description, but when he tried it himself, he found that there were still many things he didn't understand.

Okay, it seems that it has nothing to do with the book. It's purely because he hadn't listened to any secret power lessons before, resulting in an almost zero theoretical foundation.

Now that he was directly jumping to the spellcasting stage, it was naturally difficult. Fortunately, he still had Xuan Ji as a human index. Lu Jing directly asked Xuan Ji about anything he didn't know or couldn't understand.

Although Xuan Ji had never cultivated secret power, she could always find the answer for Lu Jing in some book.

Lu Jing spent about an hour finally learning the simplest paper-cut fish spell on it with difficulty, then took a few deep breaths.

He performed it several times according to what the book said.

As a result, nothing happened after he cut out the paper fish. It was just an ordinary paper-cut.

Seeing this, Xuan Ji comforted him, "It's okay. Except for geniuses like Xia Huai, most people don't learn spells right away."

But it would have been better if she hadn't said that. After she finished speaking, she saw that Lu Jing's originally slightly relaxed expression became serious again. "Then I'll try a few more times."

Xuan Ji didn't try to persuade him. She got up and added some lamp oil to Lu Jing's oil lamp, then brewed two bowls of tea. When she came back, there were already four more paper fish on the table.

But there was still no reaction.

The dead fish eyes of those paper fish seemed to be saying to Lu Jing, 'Don't waste your energy.'

Lu Jing held the scissors, preparing to try one last time, but at this moment, he suddenly thought of something and, as if possessed, replaced all the parts of the spell that needed to draw on external secret power with the secret power in his niwan palace.

So he simply gave up on this aspect of the attempt completely.

Then he put down the knife again and skillfully cut the white paper into the shape of a paper fish.

And when he made the last cut, something magical happened. The paper fish suddenly wagged its tail, jumped up from the table, jumped into the air, and then plunged headlong into a teacup.

Xuan Ji let out a cry of surprise, not because the paper fish jumped into her freshly brewed tea, but because she was shocked that Lu Jing had actually cast a spell.

Although it was just the simplest paper-cutting technique, it also meant that Lu Jing could indeed start cultivating in the future.

However, before Xuan Ji could say her congratulations, Lu Jing, who was next to her, looked at the paper fish with a pale face, as if he had seen a ghost.

"Did you see that just now?!"

"I saw it," Xuan Ji nodded. "Great Hero Lu, you succeeded!"

"Success is success, but it also means that I'm not far from becoming a martyr." A wry smile appeared on Lu Jing's face.

The thing he was most worried about finally happened. The success of this paper-cutting technique also meant that the things filling his upper dantian now were indeed secret power!

There couldn't be anything worse than this!

When he saw the paper fish come alive, Lu Jing collapsed on the chair.

Internal energy was already enough to give people a headache, and now secret power was also causing trouble. How could he handle this?

Then Lu Jing thought of something again, and his face changed drastically again. If his secret power had now joined the refresh rhythm, wouldn't that mean that if he couldn't use up the secret power in his upper dantian today, he could directly delete his account and be reborn tomorrow?