Chapter 13: Mystical Glacial Spellfire

Indeed, Fitch's face twisted sinisterly as soon as Gene finished speaking, almost as if someone had stepped on his face with a dirty shoe. He quickly glanced at the stupidly smiling Han Shuo, but continued to speak to Gene: "Master Gene, this insolent errand slave dared to trip me. How can I not teach him a lesson?"

Fitch rolled up his sleeves as he spoke and struck Han Shuo on the head with his grey magic wand. Han Shuo actually breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Fitch wasn't using magic, just his staff. Even though Fitch was tall, he didn't have much strength. Han Shuo saw that the blow landed without too much force and decided to ignore it completely. He stood there, making no attempt to dodge, just continuing to smile in a silly, honest way.

Pow!

Han Shuo suddenly felt acute pain as the wand struck his forehead. He let out a bloodcurdling "aiyo!" and grimaced in pain from the wand in Fitch's hands. Who would have thought that although the staff looked like it was made of wood, it had the weight and hardness of metal. Han Shuo could only feel that his brain was throbbing with pain and that a huge lump had already formed on his forehead.

"Damn it, why is this staff so hard and heavy? I've miscalculated this time!" Han Shuo thought as his forehead was hit again before his brain had a chance to recover from the first blow. He felt his head grow heavy and he fainted stiffly to the ground.

When Han Shuo came to, he found himself lying on a large, soft bed. There was a faint medicinal scent in the air. He noticed that the two large lumps on his head had already faded, and there seemed to be some sort of ointment applied to them. It had a cooling effect and made him feel very comfortable.

"You're awake?" A face suddenly approached him. Light purple wavy long hair, sparkling clear eyes, fresh white teeth, and sexy red lips blew a faint scent onto Han Shuo's face.

"Uh, Fan... Master Fanny!" Han Shuo gasped softly at the sight of the pretty face in front of him and his heart began to pound. He pulled himself up to a sitting position on the bed and looked around, taking in his surroundings.

The room was 20 square metres and there was a large upright chest of drawers nearby. It contained a variety of medicinal vials, as well as some bones of magical creatures on the side. The walls were covered with magical drawings and texts. In the centre was a pedestal of dark-coloured stones, upon which was a simple magical matrix. One look was enough to tell Han Shuo that this was Fanny's laboratory.

While Han Shuo was observing his surroundings, Fanny was also scrutinising him with great surprise. It wasn't until Han Shuo's gaze had turned a full circle and he was looking in her direction that Fanny extended a slender finger and lightly tapped his forehead. This was followed by a small exclamation of confusion, "Huh? The bumps went down so quickly? There wasn't even any bleeding under such a heavy staff... How is that possible?"

Han Shuo's heart lurched as Fanny's finger touched him, and his nose took a greedy deep breath. His lips curled up slightly in satisfaction as a hint of scent drifted towards him.

Fanny, on the other hand, was stunned by Han Shuo's behaviour. His actions just now showed some obvious signs of wanton seduction and was a marked difference from Bryan's typical timid and cowardly behaviour. This caused her to pause in disbelief, but a small sigh of understanding followed. She murmured softly, "I didn't believe them before, but it seems that Bryan has gone a bit mad. I can't believe that an agony of the soul has turned him into this, sigh!"

Although Fanny had muttered in an extremely low voice, Han Shuo clearly heard everything. He laughed wryly to himself, thinking that here was another person who truly believed that he had gone mad.

Suddenly, an expression of heightened curiosity appeared on Fanny's face and she said earnestly, "Bryan, the bruises on your forehead have healed so quickly, there's nothing there now. Is this an aftereffect of the agony of the soul? Aiya, this is really too incredible. I need to investigate this further. Necromancy magic is truly wondrous!"

Han Shuo could only smile wryly with some resignation as he watched Fanny 'pilipala' rifling through her things with great excitement. For her, Han Shuo was just a madman at the moment. Of course, he couldn't explain that the training of Magic Yuan was the reason for his body's oddities.

Fanny was not wearing her glasses again today and was rummaging through magical items in all directions. After a while, she sashayed over to Han Shuo, holding a light green ball the size of her palm. The light green ball glowed with a soft green light and after suddenly uttering an incantation, she placed the ball on Han Shuo's forehead.

Strong magical waves rippled out from the ball. It was like a magnet that stuck to Han Shuo's forehead as the light green ball sucked the last bit of mental energy out of his mind. The light green ball suddenly flickered like a broken green light bulb.

"Oh... this is too unbelievable! Bryan, you have mental power in your mind! Oh my God, what's going on? Can it be that the Agony of the Soul has the ability to give mental strength to ordinary people after they have been baptised by magic? This is too incredible!" Fanny suddenly exclaimed, astonishment and fear written all over her face. It seemed that discovering that Han Shuo's spirit had mental strength was more than just a small shock to her.

"I have decided, this will be my future research topic. If the torment of the soul doesn't drive someone mad and can leave traces of mental strength in a body, then even an ordinary person can become a mage. Oh... this is too unimaginable!"

He chuckled.

It was at this moment that Han Shuo's stomach protested with hunger. The excitement still had not faded from Fanny's face as she breathlessly addressed Han Shuo. "It's getting late today, go back and rest first. I'll visit you often in the future. I'll talk to the school authorities about reducing your workload and increasing your rations until I've finished my research on this subject."

Joy blossomed in Han Shuo's heart as he heard Fanny's words. Evil thoughts kept crossing his mind as he watched the glamorous Fanny. He thought there was no stopping good fortune when it came; not only did his workload suddenly lighten and his food rations increase, but he also had an excuse to get closer to Fanny. It looked as if Fitch had actually helped him a great deal with that beating.

Leaving Fanny's lab, Han Shuo lifted his head and saw that it was dusk as he noticed the fading light in the sky. He rubbed his forehead and discovered that there wasn't much wrong with him now, apart from a slight ache.

He completed his afternoon's chores in a flash and bumped into Jack at the bread distribution point. Jack was extremely surprised to see Han Shuo and gave him a strange look. He asked doubtfully, "Bryan, I heard you had two huge bumps on your head and fainted because of Fitch's staff? How come there's no trace of that now?"

"Master Fanny smeared magical reagents on me, so the bumps disappeared quite quickly. Heh heh, Master Fanny is beautiful and gentle!" Han Shuo laughed happily at Jack.

"Bryan, this is your meal for the day!" A voice called from the dining hall window. Han Shuo quickly ran over and received a piece of white bread, a small cup of milk and a fried egg.

"Huh? Brother Gotha, did you make a mistake? Bryan was supposed to get the same food as us, and even a smaller piece of bread than mine!" The boy Han Shuo had beaten last time - Carey - waved a piece of black bread in his hand and shouted loudly at the fat man who was in charge of distributing the messenger boys' rations - Gotha.

Gotha gave Carey a cold look and snorted lightly, "That's right, it came straight from the school authorities. This will also be Bryan's rations in future. Go talk to the school authorities if you have an opinion about it. Hm. But you're just a little errand boy, you'd be making life difficult for yourself if you said anything."

Han Shuo let out a loud laugh as he saw Carey and Borg's angry expressions while holding his white bread, milk and egg. He deliberately smacked his lips loudly as he ate the bread and went on a long litany of praise. "Mm-mm, this white bread definitely tastes different from the black bread. Ah, there's even milk and eggs. Oh my goodness, this is such a happy day".

"Uh... Bryan, can I have some milk? The milk looks so delicious!" Little Fatty Jack licked his lips and looked enviously at Han Shuo.

There's half a cup left, take it!" Han Shuo generously handed it to Jack and pulled him away, smiling happily as the two of them walked away, leaving Carey and Borg with disgruntled looks on their faces.

Han Shuo took a look at the small skeleton later that night, back at the warehouse. He noticed that the small skeleton was still in the wooden bucket, but that the seven vortexes in the bucket had stopped moving. With a glance, he understood that this was because the magic yuan had run out, and he reached out to put more magic yuan into the seven bone fragments. Only when the seven vortexes had formed around the bone fragments did he stop and go to bed.

The 'Yin Magical Concentration Matrix' was only one method of refining demonic treasures. According to the instructions, an infusion of magical Yuan should have been enough to maintain the matrix for a full 36 days. However, this expected result hadn't been achieved, partly due to the weaknesses of Han Shuo's Magical Yuan, and partly due to the fact that he had randomly gathered various ingredients together.

Han Shuo felt that the magical yuan in his body had become much stronger after a bit of meditation and training on the bed. A sudden thought struck him, and he wondered if he could use the magic yuan to practice the martial arts that Chu Cang Lan had left in his mind.

Han Shuo's eyebrows knitted together in deep thought as he started down this path of thought. He could vaguely sense that there were numerous training methods in his mind, but that many of these secret demonic techniques were somewhat blurred, as if a thin layer of opaque paper prevented a clear understanding.

His eyebrows furrowed as he slowly searched through his memories. He realised that the memories in his mind seemed to be in great disarray, and that he could not fully recall them all. He could only fully recall three topics, one of which was the basics of training magical yuan, and the other was the 'Yin Magical Concentration Matrix' for refining demonic treasures. Aside from these two, there was another canto called "Mystical Glacial Spellfire".

Mystic Glacial Spellfire was a way to use magical yuan, and its power would increase according to the level of the practitioner. The practitioner would be able to create red and purple spellfire on his palm by circulating his magical yuan in a certain way between the meridians. The red flame was scorching hot, and the purple was icy cold. If his magical yuan and practitioner level were high enough, he would be able to merge his magical yuan into two huge red and purple spellfires on his palms. This attack would be both scorching hot and icy cold.

It was as if Han Shuo had received a precious treasure after fully understanding all of this. He decided to ignore all the vague, obstructed memories and began to circulate his magical yuan using the Mystical Glacial Spellfire method. He slowly concentrated his magic yuan into his right hand, but his right hand meridian felt like it was on fire as the magic yuan flowed through it. His right arm became sore, numb and stiff as that thin, delicate meridian felt like it had been electrocuted.

If he hadn't circulated the magical yuan using the Mystical Glacial Spellfire method, it would have flowed easily and quickly to his hand. But every time he circulated the magic yuan according to the spellfire's instructions, it was as if the magic yuan had encountered significant obstacles. Every little bit of progress was accompanied by almost unbearable pain and discomfort. It wasn't until midnight that Han Shuo was finally able to circulate some magic yuan from his shoulder to his wrist, but his entire arm was tingling with pain and useless.

He understood that only by channeling all the magical yuan into his palm and fingertips would he be able to truly use the Mystical Glacial Spellfire method. It hurt so much now because he was clearing tiny meridians, acclimating them to magical yuan. Short-term pain was inevitable, and it would all go away once all the meridians were cleared.

Han Shuo's eyelids grew heavy as he was unusually tired, and he decided to fall onto the bed and sleep as he thought about his duties tomorrow. He wouldn't be able to finish the magic training in one night either.

Han Shou had a strange dream that night, one in which the little skeleton obeyed his commands and beat up the Fitch who had hit him on the forehead, taking revenge for Han Shuo.