Chapter 187: A Hint
After several weeks of struggling to understand her true path, Anji had developed a new routine. Instead of pouring through books and talking to people, she had started visiting the cross-training ground that the guests were using to train.
"Oh? Ci Wang is here again. Did you figure out what you were looking for?" Hao Yizhen asked. Liu Guiya’s aide had grown fond of the child over time, much like the others.
Shaking her head but with a bright smile on her face, Anji greeted everyone present. It was still rather early in the morning, and those who had been busy drinking until the late hours the previous night were still asleep, including her family, except for Gu Ying, who had strict discipline.
Seeing how few people were here at the special training ground, Anji decided to take up a spot in the side, away from the wooden training puppets her teacher designed. The artificial core spells used on the Paperman were refined and tested during those few weeks Anji spent searching without results for her answer. Yan Ping was a superb researcher, and watching her teacher efficiently troubleshoot every angle of a problem taught Anji many valuable lessons. Nothing was more effective than observing from the sideline. Anji even helped her teacher calculate the balance for spell reactivity and sensitivity in the Paperman prototype. However, seeing it transformed into a life-sized wooden puppet was a different story.
With this distance, Anji had faith that most people would not be able to see the change in her eye colour. Activating the Heavenly Eye stealthily, Anji decided to observe how the new spells worked. If the training puppets had spells embedded within them in a manner similar to her modified artificial cores, she might be able to gain a hint to control the rapid flow of energy.
Taking an interest in the wooden training puppet that Gu Ying was training with, Anji noticed how differently the energy flowed between the puppet and the cultivators. Of course, the lack of a spiritual core meant that the general energy flow within those circuits was different. However, the energy utilisation was also not the same. While cultivators were able to redirect energy quickly to different parts of their body or expand it outwards into a weapon, the wooden puppets could not do the same.
Frowning, Anji wondered if she had ever attempted to collect or redirect energy to only one part of her body for strengthening or amplification. Realising that she had never done this before, she attempted to redirect a small part of the energy flowing freely into her eyes.
The small boost shocked Anji. It allowed her vision to become much clearer even when she was sitting this far away. Did this mean she was able to enhance different abilities by borrowing qi to amplify them? The next thing Anji attempted to amplify was her hearing. Amazingly, it worked.
Curious, she looked over at the heavy weapon rack. Ordinarily, she would never be able to lift them because of how heavy it was. However, in theory, by amplifying the muscles required to lift them, it might be possible. There was just one small problem. Gu Ying was on watch. She would never allow Anji to do such a reckless thing. Instead, Anji tried to find something else to test this theory.