Chapter 45

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Chapter 45: Chang Xiang’s Identity

In the evening, after a great deal of effort, Lou Yun finally managed to extract the location of Han Tianxiao’s residence from Nie Jiu, who was deeply engrossed in his battle with his food. Then, he alone left the room and went out.

Along the way, he encountered many students who were idly strolling in the academy. When they saw Lou Yun, admiration, curiosity, or worship flickered in the eyes of most of them, and some of the friendlier ones even greeted him directly. Clearly, they had all heard of his feats.

Naturally, Lou Yun politely greeted them back. That was how he arrived at Han Tianxiao’s dwelling.

Before he could even knock, Han Tianxiao’s voice came from inside: "Come in!"

Pushing the door open and entering, Lou Yun first took a look around. The layout of the room was exactly like a student’s, except teachers lived alone. Inside was spotlessly clean, showing that Han Tianxiao was also a tidy person.

Han Tianxiao sat cross-legged on the bed, clearly cultivating. After Lou Yun closed the door, he said with a smile, "Here, sit wherever you like."

Lou Yun walked over and sat on the chair by the bed. Han Tianxiao wasted no time: "How much do you know about spiritual energy?"

Lou Yun thought for a moment and said, "Spiritual energy is a form of energy existing all around us between heaven and earth. We absorb this energy into our bodies, cultivate it using specific techniques, then direct it to form magical weapons."

"Hmm, well said. That basically covers its main function. Now, summon your magical weapon."

Lou Yun brought out the Dream Emperor Sword.

"Try to sense it: roughly how much spiritual energy did you consume when forming this magical weapon?"

Lou Yun had never calculated it before. After carefully estimating, he said, "It seems like only a very small amount."

Han Tianxiao smiled slightly and raised his hand. In an instant, his magical weapon appeared—it was a book!

Lou Yun was stunned. Qian Ruming’s abacus magical weapon had already surprised him, but he never expected Han Tianxiao’s magical weapon to be a book!

Han Tianxiao naturally saw Lou Yun’s surprise and shrugged with a laugh: "Heh, strange? Actually, it’s no big deal. The form of a magical weapon is shaped by one’s will and thoughts. I’ve loved reading since childhood, plus my five-element attributes are earth, so when I formed it, I made it into a book."

"But don’t underestimate it. Like other magical weapons, mine can attack, but due to its unique shape and earth attribute, it also has strong defensive capabilities."

Lou Yun nodded; he had already seen for himself that Qian Ruming’s abacus could both attack and defend.

Han Tianxiao opened the book in his hand and flipped through it a few times—it was completely blank, with no words. Then he looked up: "Now, guess how much spiritual energy I used to form mine!"

Lou Yun shook his head, thinking: I don’t even know how much I used for my own, much less for yours!

"Hehe! I didn’t use even a shred of spiritual energy!"

"Impossible!"

"If it were a common weapon, you could say it uses no energy when drawn, but for a magical weapon, just appearing must involve spiritual energy."

Han Tianxiao added, "Ah, I misspoke: I meant, I didn’t use a shred of spiritual energy from my own body!"

After a brief stunned pause, Lou Yun understood: the magical weapon in Han Tianxiao’s hand wasn’t formed with spiritual energy from within him, but with outside energy, drawn from the air around him.

Seeing Lou Yun’s expression, Han Tianxiao knew he got it and said with a smile, "Didn’t expect that, did you? Actually, once a magical weapon is formed, we don’t need to use it. Instead, we can draw spiritual energy from the outside while absorbing it to create the weapon. Of course, this is a bit challenging, but very beneficial. However, while forming it is possible, you still need to infuse your own internal spiritual energy to unleash its full power."

"For us magical weapons masters, magical weapons are more important than life. Damage to one causes immeasurable harm. But with this method, simply put, the weapon inside us is our main magical weapon, and this external one is a subsidiary. Even if the subsidiary is heavily damaged or shattered—it’s definitely not as sturdy as the main—as long as the main magical weapon is unharmed, we ourselves remain fine, and we can form it again!"

These words made Lou Yun’s eyes light up instantly. He thought of his father: if his father had known this method back then, his current troubles wouldn’t have happened.

The mere thought made Lou Yun yearn to learn the method right away. He hastily said, "Teacher Han, can you teach me how?"

Han Tianxiao smiled mysteriously: "This is my closely guarded secret—I can’t teach it yet. Plus, to pull it off, you need near-perfect control of spiritual energy. Focus on mastering that first. Don’t underestimate it—proper control often decides the outcome of battles!"

Next, Han Tianxiao briefly explained a bit more about controlling spiritual energy. But by now, Lou Yun’s mind was completely filled with thoughts of forming a magical weapon that way, leaving no room for anything else.

Han Tianxiao clearly saw Lou Yun was distracted. He smiled faintly, didn’t scold him, and simply said they’d stop here for today. He told Lou Yun to go back and reflect on it all, then they’d start proper lessons in class.

After leaving Han Tianxiao’s room, Lou Yun couldn’t wait to start trying like Han Tianxiao, to condense a magical weapon by absorbing external spiritual energy.

This was extremely appealing. If both hands could condense magical weapons, it would be like possessing an endless number of them. The magical weapon inside his body would serve as the primary, while those formed outside would be secondary. If a secondary one was severely damaged and vanished, it could be condensed repeatedly. In battle, this would surely catch the enemy off guard.

Just moments ago, watching Han Tianxiao do it had seemed very simple and quick. But when Lou Yun tried it himself, he realized it wasn’t that easy at all.

He spread out his hand. Although he could absorb spiritual energy through the pores on his palm, normally it was taken into his body. Now, he needed to condense the spiritual energy on his palm to form a magical weapon. Yet, with his palm open and exposed, nothing could make it come together.

After multiple attempts, the result was either the spiritual energy getting directly absorbed into his body or dissipating back into the air.

Helplessly, Lou Yun had to give up. Apparently, there was some trick in between that he hadn’t mastered.

Returning to his room, his roommate Nie Jiu was sitting on the bed with his eyes closed, meditating. The large pile of food scraps from earlier had also been cleaned up by him.

Hearing the door open, Nie Jiu opened his eyes. Seeing it was Lou Yun entering, he grinned and said, "You’re back? Did you learn everything Teacher Han taught you?"

Lou Yun wiped his face with a towel and said with a wry smile, "Far from it. That method of condensing a magical weapon outside the body is just too advanced."

"Hmm, that’s true," Nie Jiu said. "That’s Teacher Han’s unique specialty. Countless people wanted to learn it but failed. Besides requiring nearly impossible control over spiritual energy, it also demands outstanding innate senses. I secretly heard that among Teacher Han’s students, very few have managed to learn it."

Upon hearing this, Nie Jiu seemed to know something. So Lou Yun quickly went over and asked, "A Jiu, how did Teacher Han explain it to you?"

Nie Jiu scratched his head, thought for a moment, and replied, "How did he say it? I’m bad with words, so I can’t explain it well. But Teacher Han treats all students equally. How he explained it to us is surely how he explained it to you."

Remembering that afternoon when Nie Jiu took three days just to memorize a route, now expecting him to recall Han Tianxiao’s explanation felt truly unfair.

Lou Yun gave a slight smile and shifted the topic. "Earlier, you said some of Teacher Han’s students learned it. Who are they? So impressive?"

After scratching his head once more, Nie Jiu said with a confused expression, "I forgot!"

Even as capable as Lou Yun was, facing someone like Nie Jiu, he had no choice. He could only chuckle bitterly, exchange a few more idle words, and then go back to his own bedroom.

Lou Yun pondered the matter again for a while but still couldn’t grasp the key. He abandoned it, closed his eyes, and started calling Chang Xiang. During the day, he had arranged with Chang Xiang for him to reveal his origin tonight.

Chang Xiang responded quickly this time. Without being urged, he volunteered, "I thought about it, and I still can’t tell you my entire origin. It’s too soon to say now, and it might not help you. So I’ll first tell you part of it."

Lou Yun thought to himself that hearing part was better than nothing. Since Chang Xiang had decided against telling, begging wouldn’t change it.

After a brief silence, Chang Xiang spoke up again. "Actually, I’m not human!"

That first sentence startled Lou Yun. He immediately asked, "What? You say you’re not human?"

"Nonsense," Chang Xiang retorted. "Think about it. If I were human, how could I hide inside your body? Just give it a try to hide in someone else’s body."

Rebuked like that, Lou Yun was stunned into silence. "Uh, then what are you? A ghost?"

"I’m not a ghost either," Chang Xiang replied, "but my nature is a bit like one. I’m a spirit!"

"A spirit?" Lou Yun echoed. "What is that? Spiritual energy? A magical weapon?"

"No, no, none of those. A spirit is a spirit; it has nothing to do with spiritual energy or magical weapons," Chang Xiang snapped. "Hey, am I telling the story or are you? If you keep questioning like this, I’ll say nothing at all!"

Lou Yun dared not ask more. "Alright, alright, I won’t interrupt. Go on, go on."

After another short silence, Chang Xiang’s voice continued. "I am a spirit. My origin is a place you can’t imagine. And I came specifically to find you. As I mentioned when we first met, I have some link to your Lou Family. But I lied back then—my connection with the Lou Family isn’t slight; it’s intensely deep!"

Hearing this, countless questions arose in Lou Yun’s mind, but he held back from asking.

"My purpose in finding you is to train you into an expert, one who surpasses all masters on Spirit Weapon Star. By that time, everything will make sense to you!"

"Because of my unique form as a spirit, I can’t absorb spiritual energy directly like you for cultivation. I can only do so inside your body, by borrowing what you absorb. That’s also why I prevented you from condensing a magical weapon initially—I needed your spiritual energy back then to cultivate myself."

"Others might start absorbing spiritual energy at ages four, five, or six. But since your birth, I’ve been inside you. I urgently needed spiritual energy to cultivate, so I had your body begin absorbing it. Thus, by age six, your weapon spirit power naturally reached the tenth tier, turning you into a perceived genius."

Lou Yun had stayed calm and silent throughout Chang Xiang’s explanation. But upon this, he couldn’t hold back. He asked in a grave tone, "So does that mean my exceptionally strong innate senses, my ability to read at age two, and all my other talents are because of your presence? In other words, were they all given by you?"