Cang Song chuckled as he answered, "Oh? Him? He went off to fulfill his wager~"
Tianlan blinked in confusion. "Huh?"
"Don't mind him." Cang Song waved his hand. "Come, let's continue training. First, recall the feeling you had during the attribute conversion just now. Increase your magic flow—it's fine to push it higher. Your goal now is simple: raise your conversion speed. Even if your magic withers, it doesn't matter. Qing Luo and I will suppress it and restore you. Just focus on experimenting."
Tianlan immediately closed his eyes and activated his magic, forcing it to surge wildly through his body.
The next moment, his breathing quickened and his fingertips trembled—
Magic ran rampantly in every direction.
Qing Luo jumped up in shock and screamed, "Is this brat insane!? He's letting a huge amount of magic run loose when he hasn't even mastered basic conversion!? Does he want to die!? Or does he just assume we'll clean up his mess!?"
But Cang Song burst out laughing. "He really is crazy. Alright, enough yelling. Let's move."
The two quickly worked together to suppress Tianlan's violent magic rampage. For Cang Song, Tianlan's current magic output was nothing but a small nuisance. Yet Tianlan still fainted from the overwhelming internal shock.
After fully healing him, Qing Luo immediately raised her hand and began slapping him repeatedly across the face.
"Hey! Wake up! Didn't you say you wanted to train!? Wake up, you lunatic!"
Beside her, Cang Song muttered under his breath, "Looks like she's accumulated quite a bit of stress these past few days…"
The slaps jolted Tianlan awake. "W–What?? What happened? Why am I lying down?"
Qing Luo answered coldly, "Oh, you're awake. Very brave of you, huh."
Cang Song continued, "Your magic rampaged. You actually stuffed a huge amount of magic into your body? Aren't you afraid of dying?"
Tianlan replied confidently, "But you told me to explore freely. I figured that using a large amount of magic would make it easier to sense the attribute core, so I just—"
Cang Song paused for a second. "…Well, that does make sense. But if Qing Luo and I weren't here, you'd already be dead."
Tianlan answered without hesitation, "But—you are here, right?"
Qing Luo stared at him in disbelief, and Cang Song laughed so hard he nearly toppled over.
"You planning to keep using this method?" Cang Song asked.
Tianlan nodded firmly. "So far, it seems like the fastest way."
"Excellent!" Cang Song looked delighted, like he'd discovered a treasure. "Then keep going!"
Qing Luo had completely given up resisting their insanity.
One hour later
Qing Luo lay collapsed on the ground, exhausted from healing Tianlan nonstop.
Compared to the past few days, today was another level entirely—
Tianlan had caused multiple magic witherings and rampages due to his extreme experimenting.
But the results were astonishing:
Tianlan could now completely convert his magic into Wind Attribute within 10 seconds.
Cang Song grinned. "Look at what you've done. Qing Luo is half-dead. Luckily, you didn't waste her efforts."
Tianlan quickly apologized, "Sorry! Really sorry! Thank you for all your hard work…"
Qing Luo complained weakly, "Lunatic… actual lunatic… I can't believe you really pulled it off…"
Cang Song said, "Alright, let her rest. You go read the book I gave you. Start thinking about creating your own magic. Once Qing Luo recovers, we'll continue training. And by then, Zheng Yue should be back too. I have some business to take care of. See you tomorrow."
With that, he left.
Tianlan reading
Tianlan opened the magic book and began reading from the Wind Attribute section. After finishing the recorded spells, he started contemplating how he could utilize the principles written there.
Whenever he got stuck, he switched to another attribute, hoping the nature of other elements might spark inspiration.
The book contained descriptions of most known magic attributes in this world—
their characteristics, tendencies, and unique applications.
One hour later
Zheng Yue finally returned to the training grounds.
"Qing Luo, why are you lying on the floor? The old man left to deal with business?" he asked.
Tianlan explained everything that had happened.
Zheng Yue burst into loud laughter. "Only a maniac could come up with that! No wonder Qing Luo is about to pass out. So—you succeeded?"
Tianlan nodded.
"Good." Zheng Yue took out a pair of armguards from his ring and tossed them over. "Catch. This is the reward for that bet. They can block any attack below A+. With these, your defense jumps up a whole tier."
Tianlan caught them, stunned with excitement. "Woah!? You're really giving me these? Isn't this too valuable?"
Even Qing Luo questioned him. "Isn't this basically cheating? And how did you even get something this high-grade so quickly?"
Zheng Yue replied with full confidence, "The rules never said we couldn't use A-grade gear, and never said a clan head can't give gifts. As for where the armguards came from… irrelevant!"
——In truth, he had robbed them off a clan bodyguard.
When he found the pair that fit Tianlan, his eyes lit up.
"Oh~ finally found them."
The guard greeted respectfully, "Greetings, sir!"
Zheng Yue stared at the armguards. "Those. Give them to me."
The guard rejected immediately. "No! I risked my life to get these during a mission!"
Zheng Yue began tugging at them. "Alright, alright, just lend them to me! Go back and claim another pair!"
And so, the unlucky guard temporarily lost his treasured armguards.
Zheng Yue hadn't bought new ones because—
his wife controls all the clan finances, which everyone agrees is the wisest arrangement.
It wasn't that the clan didn't trust Zheng Yue.
In fact, whenever he made serious decisions, the whole clan followed him without question.
The issue was simply that he was… terrible with money.
Thus, his wife held the authority, and he had limited funds at hand.
Back at the training grounds
Zheng Yue asked, "Did the old man leave you any instructions?"
After Tianlan repeated them, Zheng Yue nodded. "Makes sense."
He turned to Qing Luo. "How long to recover?"
"About half an hour…"
Zheng Yue then looked at Tianlan. "Good. Then we'll spar first. No magic."
Tianlan hesitated. "But I—"
"No buts," Zheng Yue cut him off. "I'll limit my strength to match yours."
He then took out a gravity ring and put it on.
"This is what I use for my own training. Come—start."
Tianlan rushed forward, but instantly sensed the unimaginable gap between them.
Zheng Yue's movements were small but exquisitely precise,
as if calculated down to the finest detail.
His footsteps, shoulder shifts, even his breathing rhythm—
all perfectly optimized.
He countered Tianlan with the least movement for the greatest effect,
fighting purely with defense and timed counterattacks.
While exchanging blows, he lectured:
"Learn to control and predict your opponent's movements! You constantly do imaginary training, so you should understand how important that is! And—"
The next moment, Zheng Yue lowered his stance.
He attacked.
"Body blow!"
His fist smashed into Tianlan's abdomen—
BOOM!
Tianlan was sent flying more than ten meters as if struck by a sledgehammer.
(To be continued)