Chapter 146 Third Tier Advanced Meditation Method

Upon returning to the stone house, Shao Ke tidied up his writing desk a bit more before leaning over to scan the knowledge recorded in the books. He discovered that each book documented only one meditation method—either for increasing magical power or for boosting mental power. That's why the material was split across several volumes. The rest provided detailed accounts of the issues that might arise at various stages of strength progression with each method, along with annotations from mages who had previously practiced it.

After reading these detailed descriptions, Shao Ke first selected the book that recorded the meditation method for increasing vigor. He wanted to master these meditation methods as quickly as possible before moving on to transcribing spells.

By the time his maid brought food again, Shao Ke had already gained some understanding of these third-rank meditation methods. He noticed that the highest-level methods required extremely complex patterns to be traced during meditation—even more intricate than the advanced magic arrays used for advancing to the third rank. Fortunately, he didn't mind. Using his method, which didn't fear spatial disturbances, he planned to gradually experiment through practical application to achieve rapid mastery.

The maid, somewhat excitedly, served Shao Ke his meal. Then, after inquiring about the mage's preferences, she returned to her room to read.

Another ten-plus days hurried by. On this day, Shao Ke was attempting to practice the final meditation method, which could quickly restore both mental power and magical power simultaneously. As he traced the patterns formed by his mental power and magical power, two extremely complex meditation arrays slowly took shape within his meditation space. Once the final line was completed, the two arrays rapidly absorbed energy from their respective spaces and began to operate swiftly.

At that moment, several beams of silver light burst from the silvery radiance attached to the Three-pointed Star Magic Array, landing on the two meditation arrays and further accelerating their operation.

Shao Ke observed carefully and found that this advanced recovery-type meditation method was one to two times as effective in restoration as the second-rank advanced single-type recovery meditation he had used before. This made him once again marvel at the difference between a third-rank mage and a second-rank mage.

After operating for a little under half a magic hour, the meditation arrays triggered spatial disturbances more severely than other types of meditation methods. At that moment, the silvery light quickly burst several rays from the Three-pointed Star Magic Array, swiftly calming the disturbances. Of course, Shao Ke paid another heavy price for this rapid growth—a swift and massive consumption of vigor. This drain was not alleviated by the meditation method he had acquired for increasing vigor; instead, it was further exacerbated by the effects of the other meditation methods he had chosen.

After confirming the effects of the various meditation methods, Shao Ke spent the next few days transcribing these meditation methods into his spellbook. Naturally, he also meticulously copied the precautions recorded in the books using Chinese characters.

On this day, Shao Ke finally finished transcribing all the meditation methods. He then flopped down onto the maid who was reading a book and urgently said, “Give me a massage. My head is killing me.” Unable to suppress the headache caused by excessive vigor consumption any longer, his now much more gaunt hands tightly gripped the bedding, hoping to alleviate some of the pain this way.

The maid hurriedly put away her book and began massaging him using a special technique. “Relax a bit, Mage Xueye. This should help ease the pain,” she comforted him while skillfully applying varying pressure to his head. “Mage Xueye, you should pay more attention to your health. I feel like you’ve lost more weight. I’ll have them prepare more food for you at noon.”

As the maid massaged him, Shao Ke felt his headache lessen slightly. He took a deep breath and said, “Have them prepare more medicinal soup to replenish vigor. And more meat slices. That should help.” With that, he shifted position, resting his head on the maid’s soft thigh, and slowly drifted into sleep.

The maid continued her work with a resigned expression. She couldn’t understand why the mage lying on her was so determined to study spells so intensely. Fortunately, as far as she could tell, he had only grown thinner, with no signs of declining physical condition. This relieved her, as she didn’t want to face harsh punishments—which she couldn’t bear—if something unexpected happened to the relatively kind mage she served during her service.

When Shao Ke woke up again, the maid had already brought him food. He quickly devoured two or three times the usual amount of magical beast meat slices, followed by a small bowl of tonic soup for replenishing vigor, accompanied by specially made bread slices and vegetables. Finally, the maid poured him a slightly bitter medicinal liquor, which he drank.

After the meal, Shao Ke dismissed the maid, as he planned to rest properly for a while and didn’t need to be as busy as before. Thus, he had ample time to replenish his vigor and recuperate.

After taking the auxiliary medications distributed by the Death Mage Corps again, Shao Ke resumed his previous routine from the military camp. Of course, this only lasted for a few short days before he abruptly ended it.

When the maid heard that Shao Ke was going to the vast book repository again to find books for transcription, she softly advised him while massaging him, “Mage Xueye, rest a bit longer. Your body is still recovering. I think you’ll be fine after a while longer.”

“How long have I been here?” Shao Ke asked the maid. “There are still spells I need to transcribe, and I doubt my body will return to its previous state even after another month or so.”

The maid gently massaged Shao Ke’s somewhat withered thighs and said uncertainly, “Your physical condition hasn’t declined; you’ve just lost some weight. Spending more time in those medicinal baths should help you recover.” As she spoke, her small hands continued massaging upward. She was now quite familiar with every part of the mage’s body, though only in terms of massage.

Shao Ke once again rejected the maid’s advice. He didn’t know if he would have enough time left to transcribe all the spells he wanted. After all, if he missed this opportunity, he would have to wait until after completing a mission to return here and transcribe or read about spell-related knowledge. He didn’t want to be hunted down during his first mission due to lacking a spell.

When Shao Ke returned to the vast book repository, he returned all the books he had borrowed last time. With the help of a maid, he found the spells he wanted to transcribe. Looking at the thick, hardcover books, Shao Ke felt his head ache again. He didn’t know when he would be able to memorize all the contents of these books.

The maid serving Shao Ke returned after exchanging books. Seeing the stack of books nearly half a person’s height in front of Shao Ke, she suddenly felt a sense of foreboding. She didn’t know what price the mage would pay for memorizing and transcribing the contents of these books. Unable to argue, she could only silently hope that the mage she served would leave here safely, so she wouldn’t have to face the harsh punishments.

With the help of a male attendant, the three of them finally moved the heavy books back to Shao Ke’s room. Due to the arrival of these spellbooks, Shao Ke once again abandoned the leisure he had just begun to enjoy and threw himself back into busy work.

These books on third-level spells not only recorded various spellcasting techniques and precautions but also detailed the spells that countered them and those they countered. At the end, they included detailed notes from mages who had studied these spells, written with their permission.

Fortunately, in these books recording spell knowledge, only the drawn spell structures were infused with large amounts of magical power and mental power to maintain the unique fluctuations and other information of the spell structures. The other text contained no excessive mental power or magical power, nor any magical traps, significantly reducing Shao Ke’s reading consumption and saving him time.

Shao Ke first selected the advanced spell related to “Death Gaze.” According to the book, the third-rank Death Gaze had a casting range of over thirty meters in front of the caster and was much more powerful in effect. It recorded many examples of restraining warriors of the same rank, though this would consume varying amounts of energy depending on the location of the spell structure within the meditation space. Moreover, the normal consumption of this third-rank Death Gaze was still two to three times that of other special third-level spells.

On this day, after successfully interpreting the third-rank Death Gaze using the method he had previously figured out and transcribing it into his spellbook, Shao Ke decided to embed this spell into his spiritual space as described in the book.

Embedding the spell did not go smoothly. Shao Ke attempted many times. Although he managed to outline the spell structure of the third-rank Death Gaze in his spiritual space, after being absorbed by the silver light into the Three-pointed Star Magic Array, it couldn’t perfectly merge with the second-rank Death Gaze spell structure already inside. The two spell structures within the Three-pointed Star Magic Array refused to change their positions no matter how Shao Ke manipulated them with his mental power, preventing them from merging as he intended.

Finally, Shao Ke tried dispersing the two spell structures within the three-pointed star, planning to merge them outside. As he had hoped, although it cost him a great deal of mental power to resist the silver light’s absorption of the spell structures, after several attempts, he successfully merged the two spell structures in their specific positions.