Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass of the penthouse, the city’s neon tide was rising, turning the night into a glowing ocean. Inside, only the reading lamp beside the single sofa next to the window was on, painting a warm yellow halo on the polished floor. The air still held the faint scent of dinner—a healthy but tasteless salad—and a whisper of Yun Xi’s post-rain-grass freshness, the fruit of disciplined sleep and moon-bath nourishment.
I lay sprawled in the wide reading chair like a salted fish yanked out of a mud-pit. Cherry-white hair loosely tied back, a few strands brushing my cheeks, framing a face that looked a little better after days of “healthy living”... yet still screamed “life-is-meaningless.” Beneath clear sky-blue eyes, the medals of all-night study sessions—acne—had faded, replaced by the hollow stare of a soul that had been scooped out.
I cradled a cup of lukewarm, unsweetened jasmine tea—Ancestor’s approved health drink—sipping the meager warmth, trying to beat back the irritation inside me. The aftershocks of last night’s river-side attack and the Dragon-Might rampage lingered: the bent railing, Blondie’s twisted mask of terror, the tremor of a sleeping beast rudely wakened... icy vines coiled round my heart.
Power... power out of control...
Xing Dian’s indigo wisp had shrunk to marble size, orbiting above the teacup, its flame flickering with the steam. Yue Fei sat poised on the windowsill, amethyst eyes reflecting the city’s flowing lights, tail-tip tapping the glass with a soft tic-tic-tic. The room felt like the hush before a thunderstorm.
“Hum...”
Right on schedule, that familiar ripple—lazy, ethereal, yet absolute—bloomed in the depths of my mind.
“Oh~ my adorable ‘me’~” Meng Yun Xi’s voice was melted snow—clear, bright. “A few days of rest and you already look better. Healthy food and regular hours do help, don’t they?”
Me: “...” Ancestor, could we not mention the words “healthy” and “regular”? They’re the natural enemies of my salted-fish soul!
“But...” Her tone flipped, playful. “Lying around ‘recuperating’ won’t tame the little... ahem, raptor inside you, you know?”
Little raptor?!
The phrase stabbed my already frayed nerves. Images of the warped railing and the out-of-control Dragon Might flashed back.
“Then... what do I do?” I blurted in my head, voice cracking with panic I hadn’t meant to show.
“Easy~” Meng Yun Xi brightened, as if suggesting we change TV channels. “Learn to control it. Start with the basics.”
Basics? As in power-control basics?
My brain instantly cycled through wuxia clichés—horse stance, stone locks, punching under waterfalls, climbing mountains with turtleshells on my back—cold sweat rushing from soles to scalp. No thanks! I’d rather go back to being a soft white bread loaf!
“Relax~” She sensed my terror, voice dropping to a lullaby. “We won’t take that crude path. A witch’s way is elegant, precise—a tiny ‘negotiation’ with the world’s rules.”
Witch? Rules? Negotiation?
Those words... didn’t sound tiring.
“Today we’ll learn some... life-friendly little spells.” She coaxed. “Utterly practical, utterly elegant, and—bonus—they’ll help sort out that messy power of yours~”
Life-friendly little spells? Hmm... maybe?
The instant my guard slipped—
“BZZT—!”
A torrent far vaster and fiercer than anything before—galaxy-wide, star-bright—burst straight into my skull. Not some illustrated Survival Guide, not a neat pimple-fix manual, but countless cold-gleaming runes, energy circuits, spatial coordinates, time nodes—raw spell templates.
Header, brutal and blunt:
[Witch Basic Training Manual (I): Daily Life Primer]
Spell One: Everfresh Touch (preservation charm)
What flooded in was a 3-D spell array like the inside of a Swiss watch—silver-blue runes revolving, demanding micro-space isolation, time-flow sensing, molecular activity control... every step requiring hair-fine perception of space-time. The core even needed a wisp of Time Stardust as “anchor” and “buffer” to stabilise the clipped micro-dimension.
This is BASIC?! It’s space cutting plus time flow! In any magic academy this would be Advanced Spatio-Temporal Theory 401! Ancestor, you call it a “fresh-keeping” spell?!
Spell Two: Dustless Dance (cleaning charm)
Next: indigo dots leaping, pink-white ribbons flowing—a living star map. Dots were “starry purifying particles”; ribbons were “lunar loci” guiding them. Casters had to lock onto every grease molecule, guide particles to vibrate-scour along those ribbons, then use the moonlight’s “smoothing” trait to repair any surface damage (so your plate doesn’t end up frosted). Requires sub-molecular perception, perfect energy-track building, and synchronising two opposite powers—purify and heal.
A basic scrubbing spell? This is nano-level precision detailing! Any mage guild would charge a fortune for it!
Spell Three: Guiding Glimmer (light charm)
Looks simpler: a softball-sized halo. Yet to keep it cool, stable, dimmable, you must hook a sliver of Time Stardust from Eternal Dream: Prime Abyss as the core, wrap it in Yue Fei’s “lunar dew” for diffusion and heat insulation—instinct-grade control over light-to-heat conversion, spectrum filtering, energy isolation.
A light bulb needing both time essence and moon essence? What kind of “basic” is this?!
The tsunami retreated, leaving my mind a beach glittering with high-level “basics.” I sagged, eyes hollow, forehead beaded with cold sweat, CPU smoking.
Basics? Daily little spells? Ancestor, did you redefine the dictionary?! Any single template could occupy a normal magus for half a lifetime!
“Oh~ feeling it?” Meng Yun Xi’s laugh tinkled, enjoying my daze. “Seems... simple? Very basic?”
Simple? Basic? My soul was shuddering!
“Don’t be glum~” she cheered. “Your talent is... mm, a tad better than you think. Give it a go? Start with the easiest—say, a quick Everfresh Touch on those strawberries wilting in the fridge?”
Talent? A tad?
I stared at my still-soft, still-trembling hands. Talent? All I’ve done is accidentally spray Dragon Might!
“Master, try! Xing Dian will help!” The indigo spark danced.
“Meow. Theory delivered; practice proves truth,” Yue Fei added, tail flicking in rare impatience.
No escape—shoved onto the stage!
I trudged to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and pulled out the punnet of strawberries already whitening at the edges. Dull, listless, totally unappetising.
Target: strawberries.
Spell: Everfresh Touch!
The intricate rune array flared in my head.
Step 1: sense spatial boundary of target area...
I focused, trying to “wrap” the berries with my mind. Felt like groping an invisible membrane; outlines blurred, boundaries foggy.
Step 2: channel a wisp of Time Stardust...
I reached for Eternal Dream: Prime Abyss on my wrist. The artifact’s river of time answered, vast and roaring. A wisp? How tiny? I tried to tweezer out the feeblest silver-blue dot—
“BZzzT!”
The bracelet blazed. A torrent far thicker than “a wisp” roared out, instantly coating the strawberries—and the milk and eggs beside them!
“Crap!” Alarm bells rang.
Step 3: build micro-space frame, slow time flow, inert molecules...
The rune array flashed wildly, struggling to steer the rampage. Too strong! Like aiming a fire hose at a needle’s eye!
“Crack... crack-crack...”
Thick white frost sheeted the punnet; the milk carton groaned; eggshells crazed. Fridge temperature plummeted.
“Stop! Cut it, Master!” Xing Dian shrieked.
“Meow! Power overflow! Sever link!” Yue Fei hissed.
I yanked the silver-blue flood back, mind tangled like yarn.
The strawberries were now ruby ice-balls. Milk frozen solid, eggs on life-support.
Attempt 1: fail, with localised flash-freeze collateral damage.
“...Again.” I ground my teeth, glaring at the berry-orbs. Defiance—or fury at being trolled—flared.
Target: the oil-stained cloth on the counter.
Spell: Dustless Dance!
Indigo dots and pink ribbons lit my mind.
Step 1: lock onto dirt molecules with mind...
I stared at the grease spot, focusing. Grease... there! Locked. Like shining an invisible torch.
Step 2: channel a trickle of starry purifying particles...
“Xing Dian! Just a drop!”
“Gotcha, Master!” A pin-head indigo mote merged with my fingertip.
Good—dosage controlled.
Step 3: build lunar locus, guide particles to vibrate-scour...
I had to multitask: keep the ribbon stable (a shaky circle) while making the dot sprint along it—like embroidering on a roller-coaster.
“Pfft!”
The indigo dot bolted the instant the track wobbled—laser blast, not gentle scrub!
“Fss!”
A black pin-hole smoked in the cloth’s centre, edges singed. Smell of burnt fibre filled the air.
Cloth: deceased.
Cleaning achieved (by physical deletion)?!
Attempt 2: fail, with cloth murder.
“...” I gaped at the smoking rag, fingers frozen. Frustration poured over me like ice water.
“Meow. Uneven mind-split, track collapse, particle rampage. Classic eyes-high, hands-low,” Yue Fei commented, surgical and savage.
“Master, don’t quit! One more! Xing Dian believes!” The spark bobbed, blindly optimistic.
One more? I’ll set the kitchen on fire!
“Oh~” Meng Yun Xi chuckled, enjoying the sitcom. “Seems theory and action are separated by a gorge called ‘control.’ Still... compared with the flash-freeze, at least you aimed. Progress?”
What kind of progress is that?!
“No rush~” she drawled. “Witch-road is long. Try the simplest? Guiding Glimmer? Just... light up that magazine in front of you?”
Target: the garish fashion mag on the coffee table.
Spell: Guiding Glimmer!
The relatively tidy orb-model ignited in my head.
Step 1: call a hair-thin wisp of Time Stardust as core...
Lessons learned. I focused like a bomb-tech snipping wires. I “spun” a filament finer than hair. A silver-blue mote hovered at my fingertip—stable, no rampage.
Step 2: wrap it with lunar dew to make diffuser and heat shield...
I called Yue Fei. “Yue Fei! A sliver of moonlight—wrap it!”
“Meow.” A cool, soft sakura-white halo drifted down like gauze and gently folded itself around the silver-blue spark.
The spark became a mellow little orb, giving off warm, candle-like light that hovered steadily above my fingertip. No heat, no flicker—just calm, even white.
It worked?!
I held my breath and eased the fingertip-globe over the magazine. The mild light poured down, revealing every eyelash on the cover model’s face and the glint of her outrageous earrings.
No explosion. No freeze-burn. No melt-through. Just gentle, controllable glow.
Success! Sure, it was only the most basic illumination spell—but it was success!
A sprout of pride I couldn’t name pushed up through all the earlier frustration. My heartbeat skipped faster.
“Wow! Mistress is awesome! It’s shining!” Xing Dian danced rings around the orb.
“Meow. Barely passing,” Yue Fei said, voice flat, though a flicker of approval lit her violet-crystal eyes. “Energy output stable, light quality pure, heat insulation effective.”
“See?” Meng Yun Xi’s laugh brushed my mind like a feather. “Your talent’s better than you think. First time building a stable light-source and you already block heat-leak and radiation—not every ‘basic witch’ manages that.”
Talent... really?
I stared at the peanut-sized sun burning calmly on my finger, then at the strawberry ice-balls in the fridge and the hole-riddled rag on the coffee table. Good? All I’d done was not blow up a lamp!
“Still,” Ancestor continued, tone turning wicked, “you’re nowhere near real ‘control.’ Today’s homework—”
A mental slideshow popped up: half a carton of blueberries in the fridge, a single dirty glass in the sink, and the entire living-room—about 80 m².
“Use Everfresh Touch to keep those blueberries forever young~ Use Dustless Dance to make that glass sparkle~ Finally, use Guiding Glimmer... to light every corner of the living-room~ Remember: be elegant~ be precise~ and above all...”
She drew the last word out like a demon’s whisper:
“...control.”
“Ancestor! There’s a difference between one little ball and lighting a whole room!” My hair practically frizzed.
“That’s why it’s homework~” Meng Yun Xi’s voice vanished in a satisfied sing-song. “Do your best, cute ‘me’~ I believe in you~ Oh, and”—a final, irresistible lure—“finish it and you get a full-sugar boba milk-tea~”
Milk-tea! Full sugar! Plus pearls!
My slack-lifer’s soul ignited. For boba, I’d move mountains!
I looked at the rice-grain lamp on my finger, then at the blueberries, the glass, the cavernous living-room... A cocktail of fight-spirit (for tea!) and sheer pressure bubbled inside me.
Light the whole room?
I lowered my eyes to the tiny sphere struggling to glow.
Long, long road ahead.
I inhaled, focused, and gingerly coaxed the orb. Grow... just a little.
It flickered—brightened a hair.
There’s a chance!
For milk-tea—charge!