"I see. Will you teach me anything at all? Or will you just hand me the blades and say, 'Try to do this, huh'?" she asked with displeasure.
"After the first sparring match, you'll understand everything yourself," I said, shrugging.
She didn't bother me with any more talk, and we calmly reached the arena. After quickly registering and paying for the arena for an hour, we finally prepared for battle. Zhou Min was quite surprised by how easily I paid ten thousand yuan for the arena, but considering that I have about eighty million, then yes, perhaps it really is a trifle for me.
"I won't use spells now, but don't be afraid; I can defend myself if necessary, so attack with full force, show me everything you're capable of," I said, standing opposite Zhou Min in the arena.
"The main thing is not to blame me later for getting burned," she smirked slyly and quickly formed a star path of fire, directing a wave of fire at me.
I easily dodged it by jumping to the side. Zhou Min was in a slight shock from this, as she could clearly see that I wasn't even going to use magic. After that, there was a furious barrage of fire waves, which couldn't reach me at all. My speed was not something Zhou Min could keep up with. After all, it would be difficult for a mage who has just entered the intermediate level to withstand a strong monster of a high servant. Of course, I am still weaker than such monsters, but speed is my main advantage, and it already equals the speed of a high servant.
This training was, in a sense, useful for me too, helping me develop my evasion skills. After about twenty minutes of continuous bombardment, Zhou Min finally got exhausted, having almost completely depleted her magical reserves. This was a predictable result; based on her character, it was clear that she would try to the end, putting in maximum effort.
"Well, what? Do you understand my strength?" I asked, approaching her. "Do you still have energy to use magic?"
"A little bit," she replied, breathing heavily. "Are you even human? How can you be so fast and resilient? Alright, once, twice, but to constantly dodge my attacks, it's too much!"
"Experience and a strong body, that's the whole secret," I replied calmly. "I told you that my physical strength has almost reached the level of a high servant."
"So it's all true? Will you teach me too, huh, teacher?" she asked, again emphasizing the word "teacher."
"Yes, but not now. In a month, admission to Mingzhu University. I need to prepare," I said, taking a piece of paper from my spatial bracelet. "I'll return to Shanghai soon for preparation. After admission, we'll focus on your swords, and I'll also teach you the body tempering method, which will help you become as strong. But remember, no one must know about it. Also, you need to hide this strength from everyone as much as possible."
"I see, and now will you teach me anything, or did I sign that spiritual contract in vain?" she said, offended and slightly angry.
"Yes, here, try to build a star path of fire this way," I said, handing her the piece of paper. Yesterday, before going to bed, besides calling the teacher, I slightly modified the wind dash, hoping to get a new spell for fire magic. According to my assumptions, it should turn out to be the same spell, only using fire for the dash, not wind. I had already named this spell "fire dash."
"Alright, but what is this? Won't magic just go out of control and cause an explosion if the star path is built differently than usual?" she asked, examining what was written on the paper with doubt.
"No, you remember how I killed the undead yesterday? Even using the wind step, my speed wouldn't be enough to react so quickly," I began my explanation, truly feeling like a teacher. For credibility, I even demonstrated the wind step, flying about fifteen meters high. "This is almost the same spell as the one I gave you. Try it; if it doesn't work right away, it will need to be refined. The main thing is to understand in which direction to move and find the best combination of stars."
"Alright, I'll try, teacher," she said, starting to build the star path. This time there was no special emphasis on the word "teacher"; it even made me feel a little pleased.
She didn't understand much about control and building stars, so building a completely new star path took quite a long time. When she finished, a stream of fire enveloped her legs, after which she was thrown twenty meters up. The power was clearly greater than mine. After all, reactive thrust is more effective when exploding than with a normal gust of wind. Catching her with the wind step, I helped her not to crash.
"What the hell is this!" she yelled when she stood on both feet. "How can this be controlled! And anyway, it takes too long to build such a star path, although it can be effective, increasing the speed of fire mages."
"Not bad, my assumption was correct, but I think you should improve and refine this spell yourself, as I don't have the fire element and may not understand all the subtleties of its work," I remarked calmly. "Record all your results, and then show them to me. There is also a way to practice building unusual star paths."
"What? Alright, I'll do it, as it's a really good spell," she said, nodding her head. "But what kind of method?"
"It only works if a person has two elements. Can you build an ice star path?" I asked her, with slight doubt, as she had recently reached the intermediate level and, judging by her reluctance to talk about the second element, might not have worked on it at all.
"Yes, I can; I was curious how it all freezes," she said indifferently, staring at me as if I were stupid.
"Good, try to start building the ice star path, and then, when only a couple of stars are left, start building the fire star path. Something like this," I said, building a lightning star path and striking near her, and immediately after activating the wind step, appearing next to her a moment later. In general, I could already build spells simultaneously, which proved that I could combine magic, but for demonstration, I made a slight delay.
"I see," she said, scratching her head, with a look that made it clear she didn't understand much.
She concentrated again on composing the star path. It didn't work the first time; both paths were destroyed. After that, she managed to complete only one, but after half an hour, when there was very little time left, she finally succeeded. True, the problem was evident: her two elements are completely opposite, so without precise control, they will simply suppress each other, but only long training can help here.
"Here, this is a healing elixir. I'll leave you a couple of bottles; they will help with both cultivation and energy recovery," I said, handing her a bottle with a rather simple decoction that the old man had given me.
"Thank you, I didn't know such things existed," she said, taking the bottle. "It's really quite effective, but it won't help me much; my elements suppress each other, so it will be worse than the old way."
"Focus on control. When releasing the spell, try to control the energy that transforms into magic. You need to make it move as you wish. It's quite difficult, but it will help you expand the possibilities of spells and greatly increase accuracy," I said calmly, watching her gulp down the decoction. After all, she sweated quite a lot during the entire training.
"What kind of decoction is this? Will you teach me to make it too?" she asked, with burning eyes, after finishing drinking. "I can literally feel my energy recovering; I think drinking it before cultivation will have a noticeable effect."
"Everything in its own time. Try using that spell one more time, but this time listen to your feelings and your stars," I said, stepping further away. "If you feel that the stars are trying to take a different position, let them do it, then the effect might be better, and also focus on controlling the magic, try to hold back some energy and then release it again. Something like this," I said, using the wind step, I made two jumps, flying a total of twenty-five meters.
"Alright, I'll try," she said, building the star path.
Again, fire enveloped her legs, after which there was a burst of flame vertically downwards, and she flew up twenty meters, but the fire didn't go out. Falling, Zhou Min released fire again, which, gradually weakening, kept her in the air. More accurately, she just fell slower, as if gliding back to the ground; this time, my help was not needed.
"This is so cool!" she yelled when she stood on both feet. "You can fly like this! Although only for a couple of seconds."
"Yes, it seems you've found a key application for this spell," I said, taking a notebook from my spatial bracelet. "Here, everything I know about building and configuring stars in star paths and a little about star charts is written here. Study everything carefully, and when practicing new spells, try to pay attention to your sensations and record everything carefully; it's very important for discovering new possibilities of magic."
"Understood, I'll try to perfect the fire dash," she said, with a smile on her face.
"Also, remember that no one should know what I told you today; this is very important information that can make a mage much stronger," I said sternly, so she would understand the seriousness of the situation.
"I see, you really know quite a lot; you'll make a good teacher," she said, also smiling.
"Are you saying I should become a teacher?" I asked sarcastically, smiling slightly.
"No, I mean that you really have something to teach me and that I didn't sign the spiritual contract in vain. Thanks to this alone, I will be able to become much stronger," she said confidently.
"I understand. And one more thing: when you can release intermediate-level magic, try to create two fire wave star paths simultaneously, using fourteen out of forty-nine stars," I said, passing on the last unique knowledge I had obtained. All this will make her much stronger, but it will take a long time to reach my level, even with my notes, it will be difficult. During this time, I will advance significantly myself, and her observations of fire and ice when changing the star path will help me.
"Is that possible?" she asked with disbelief, although there was a significant degree of faith in my words.
"Yes, and don't forget to experiment with the ice star path; it's difficult for me to assume what star path is needed to create a new ice spell, so all your observations will be very useful," I said calmly, heading towards the exit of the arena, as our time was almost up. "Let's go; we still need to meet Mu Bai and the others."
"Alright, teacher," she said, grabbing her bag, putting the notebook in it, and running after me. This time, the word "teacher" had a warm connotation. I even felt a little ashamed that I had deceived her with the spiritual contract. But on the other hand, I didn't intend to use it much; although Zhou Min is not a close person to me, she is not a stranger either, and as a disciple, she might become significant in my life. However, the contract is still mandatory; I have already passed on too many such secrets to her. If anyone finds out about them, there will only be two options: a spiritual contract of silence for close ones, or death for all other people. To reach the pinnacle of the world, one must remain in the shadows for a long time, otherwise, the powerful of this world may push you down, blocking your path to the top.