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“Really? And you can use them both at the same time?” Her eyes lit up in surprise, “I’ve never heard of such thing before… Is this some kind of innovative spell you’ve come up with?”

“Yes. And there are many more like this,” said Shi Ying lightly, “Each of the five elemental spells can be stacked up on top of each other, thus creating a brand-new spell – the impact will be different as the power applied to the two spells is different when they are cast. Like a kaleidoscope, the variations are countless and inexhaustible.”

“There is actually such a thing?” Zhu Yan blurted out, her eyes shining, “No wonder I went through the entire handwritten book and didn’t find the spell that you used in Susa Haru, the one that could control the ten thousand arrows!”

Shi Ying nodded, “That was an improvised spell I created, using the magic of ‘Void Shattering’ from the Golden Tier and ‘Wind Condensing Snow’ from the Water Tier, stacked together – I only used it once, and it doesn’t have a name yet.”

“Wow, so amazing!” Zhu Yan couldn’t help but lick her lips, “Such a powerful spell, you could actually use it even though you didn’t even give it a name!”

“The name is just a mere label, it has no importance.” Standing under the starry sky of Jiuyi Mountain, Shi Ying patiently taught his only disciple, “The more powerful and subtle the spell is when stacked, the more overpowering the new spell produced will be. If you cast both the mightiest attack spell, ‘Heavenly Punishment’, and the mightiest defensive spell, ‘Thousand Trees’…”

Zhu Yan’s eyes lit up and she blurted out, “What would that do?”

Shi Ying lowered his head to look at his hands and said softly, “The superposition of these two most powerful spells will produce an incantation that is close to a divine miracle. I have named it ‘Nine Radiant Heavenly Gods’ – the level of this spell is almost on par with the Star Soul Blood Oath. It cannot be used easily, because when it is unleashed…”

“What will it be like?” Zhu Yan just beamed with enthusiasm, “It must be very dazzling, right?”

“You’ll see if you try it out for yourself in the future.” Shi Ying, however, chuckled a little.

She pondered about it for a moment, only to feel a million claws scratching at the bottom of her heart, eager to see if what Master said was true, yet after only a moment of reflection, she froze and said, ” But that can’t be right… Both the Heavenly Punishment and the Thousand Trees require both hands to form a seal to activate them, right? So how can they be performed ‘simultaneously’?”

Shi Ying looked at her, “Who says you can only activate a seal only if you use both hands?”

“Those hand gestures for conjuring seals were clearly drawn by you on the handwritten notes!” Zhu Yan frowned and retorted with a righteous voice, “Could it be that there are mistakes in what you drew?”

Without saying a word, Shi Ying simply turned his eyes, gazed at the ground outside of the temple and stretched out a finger – in just an instant, countless huge trees broke out of the square and grew sinuously!

“Ah!” Zhu Yan exclaimed in surprise, hardly believing her own eyes, “A Thousand Trees?!”

Yes, Master had just unleashed the most profound defensive spell in an instant without making a single move or even spitting out a single word of incantation! How did he do that? With his eyes?

Shi Ying did not speak, but only closed his eyes slightly and withdrew his finger. In that instant, the huge trees linked into the barrier instantly withered and returned to the soil, and the whole square outside the temple remained as flat as before, as if nothing had ever happened!

He turned back to look at his disciple from the promenade with his hands behind his back, and spoke in a calm voice: “Do you see? You don’t have to make a seal, you don’t even have to chant a spell, your eyes can replace your hands, your mind can replace the words – the key to using a spell lies in one’s mind.”

“To hold it in your mind?” She repeated the word a second time in a daze, perplexed.

“There is no end to learning. Most of the Yunhuang spells come from the Jiuyi lineage, but in different hands they can be used in very different ways.” The voice of Shi Ying was calm, but with a note of expectation, “Ah-Yan, although you have mastered all the magic spells, you can only be considered to have entered the hall, but not the room – keep working hard.”

“Mhm!” She nodded vigorously, “One day, I’ll catch up with you!”

Shi Ying’s eyes shifted slightly as he gazed at the firmament and fell silent.

The atmosphere suddenly became unusually heavy again. After a few moments, Zhu Yan finally couldn’t bear that suffocating silence anymore and opened her mouth to ask in a tiny voice, “What are you looking at?”

“The astral landscape.” Shi Ying let out a sad sigh, “Unfortunately, the clouds are too heavy to allow for observation.”

Her heart skipped a beat and she turned her head to stare at the night sky as well – it was pitch black without a trace of light, all the stars and the moon were shrouded up. Zhu Yan couldn’t help but sigh heavily as well: how much she wanted to see the star map after the Star Soul Blood Oath shifted, so she could see both hers and his stars orbiting together! But why did it have to rain?

She was still sighing when she heard Shi Ying lightly saying from the side, “It’s time for you to leave – the attendants will be back soon, and as per house rules, no woman is allowed to be present inside the Divine Temple.”

“What a stupid rule! Why on earth can’t a woman enter the temple?” She muttered, but aware that the Master was acting strictly, she had to submit, “Then… I’ll just go back to the grotto and hide there for a while.”

“No, it is time for you to go back.” He spoke calmly but was unflinching, “Your father has not seen you for so long, he must be very anxious. If you go back now, he won’t have to worry about you day and night.”

Ah… Father! In that instant, Zhu Yan’s heart throbbed as she remembered her family.

Yes, it has been over a month since she quietly ran away in the midst of the chaos. Is he looking for her everywhere? Was Grandma Sheng being punished? Also, did Doctor Shen Tu brought Sumo back to the Palace? Is the little one’s injury completely healed?

All these big and minor issues, which she had not been able to recall when she was under the pressure of life and death, suddenly emerged, making her so worried that she wanted to return home flying without wings.

“Let Chongming take you home.” As if he was aware of her anxiety, Shi Ying spoke gently.

“Yes!” She jumped up and rushed towards the door.

There was something strange in Shi Ying’s eyes upon seeing her leaving, as if he was trying desperately to suppress some kind of feeling – yet, just as she reached the entrance of the temple, Zhu Yan stopped in her tracks and turned around to look at him again.

“What is it?” Shi Ying shuddered, but his voice was still calm, “What else happened?”

“Ah, yes! If I leave now, will you still be here when I come back…?” Zhu Yan stood at the entrance of the temple, staring at the lone Priest under the lamp, with suspicion, “You’re going to resign from the priesthood and leave Jiuyi immediately, aren’t you?”

He nodded with a soft sigh, “Yes.”

“Then if I go back now, will I never see you again?” Zhu Yan suddenly understood and stomped her foot, “Then… then I won’t go back for now! I’ll write a letter to Father to report that I’m safe, and then I will stay here and watch…”

“Watch me enter the Hell of Ten Thousand Tribulations?” In that moment, Shi Ying could no longer control himself, his tone filled with a hint of annoyance and anger that usually wasn’t there, and he snapped, “We have to part ways anyway, what difference does it make if it’s a day sooner or later?”

The sparkle in his eyes took her by surprise and her heart tightened, so much that she was almost terrified to speak.

Yes, what else is there to be said? Since she could not travel with him on the Seven Seas, or since they were bound to go their separate ways?

“Then…” she hesitated to leave, and said timidly, “Can I stay until tomorrow?” Seeing that he didn’t say anything, she hastily added, “I’ll leave early in the morning, and I’ll never let those people to see me!”

Without saying a word, Shi Ying turned and walked away, leaving her alone in the temple.

He appeared so inaccessible, with his silent, solitary figure. As she watched him walk away from her, she felt a sudden urge to run after him and pull him into her embrace – even if it meant being separated forever by next morning.

Yet the fearless woman suddenly lost her courage and could only stand still, watching him walk further and further away, never to be seen again.

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