Every Spell Comes with a Price
Gu Jun had already arrived at his own understanding of the foreign spells on his own. This note written by Landon was one of them. The obvious example was the spell on the high wall inside the abnormal space. While Phecda was still scouting out the place, they failed to photograph, draw, print, or even memorize the spell because it was imbued with power when it was written down. But if Gu Jun, Xue Ba, Uncle Dan, or anyone else was asked to write down the same Mad Arab's poem, their creation would not pose the same problem.
"It is because we do not possess the ability to turn those words into actual spells," Gu Jun concluded. "Just like what Landon said, without their inherent power, they are just some ugly wiggles."