Without anything else to do for the next two hours until she had to prepare her lunch, Anji read the book her shifu gave her. Yan Ping did not require Anji to sit at the table when she studied, so Anji left with her beginner book to sit on the veranda, staring at the front garden with a big smile. It was nice to feel the slight breeze and have natural sunlight while reading. This had been Anji’s dream for a while. However, Lizi was an overprotective mother hen who would not allow it.
Studying the generic diagram of the five elements, Anji committed the five basic elemental runic symbols into her head. She would most definitely need them later.
According to the guidebook, runes required a medium to be drawn on. Many of these spells used a cultivator’s qi as an energy source to sustain itself or activate. The medium could come from trees, the ground, rocks or even blood. However, human sacrifices were frowned upon. Any spells that consumed life force were considered dark arts.
For now, Anji chose to move on from the explanation of different mediums and the effectiveness of the spells. She needed to understand an overview of spells and how they were created. Yan Ping was not someone who blabbered unnecessarily. Her words always carried a purpose. Hence, Anji wanted to discover the mystery behind her body’s seals and valves.
According to the guidebook, the five elements could be combined to create new secondary elements with different functions. While they served a single function, the effects could be multiplied differently when used together with other elements in a circuit. There were many different combinations, and the possibilities were endless.
However, there was a problem. It required mathematics.
Anji groaned. She had no idea how to add or subtract correctly without the help of her fingers or something that helped her visualise them. Although she understood the concept of greater and fewer, she needed help grasping the difference in calculations. Any number bigger than ten was a major issue. Anji knew how the abacus worked. However, she was often lost when she had to transfer the beads over to the next row every time it happened. That was often the reason for her miscalculation. Storing more than one piece of information in her tiny head required ultra focus. Anji couldn’t do that well enough. This combination circuit would be out of the question.
Sighing in defeat, Anji placed the book down. It might be a little early to prepare lunch, but her teacher claimed she did not need to eat at her cultivation level. Hence, Anji only needed to find food for herself. Plenty of food did not need cooking before they were eaten. Fruits and vegetables were some examples. Anji decided to take a peek in the kitchen. She was usually not allowed near the kitchen without an escort because the adults were afraid the fire and knives would hurt her. However, Yan Ping told her to use whatever she could in the kitchen without worry. Her teacher was very different from the people in the sect.
Hopping to the kitchen, Anji quickly realised why Yan Ping was very confident in Anji’s inability to become hurt. The stove and the water barrel have been modified with spell seals. There were no signs of flint in sight and absolutely not a single piece of firewood. The knives were blunt and embedded with spells that would only cut things when activated. Basically, there was no way Anji would be able to use the kitchen unless she mastered some spells. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn n̷o̷v̷e̷l̷f̷i̷r̷e̷.net
Was she going to starve on the first day of her special training course? Worried, the little girl decided to explore the rest of the isolated hut.
Everywhere she went, there would be a spell seal. The entire place was full of spells, from the walls to the garden. Even the lavatory had spells for the night lamp and the waste disposal compost bin. Anji did not recognise many of the runic symbols on these seals. Some of them were in circles, and some were in rectangular formats. Some were fusions, but all of them required qi activation to function. Thankfully, Anji recognised the spell on the compost bin as the earth element. However, she could not use it yet. Not when she had no idea how to convert her seals into artificial cores.
Dejected, Anji went to find her shifu. She doubted she could do anything in this place without the ability to activate the seals. As a result, she might have to find her food from bushes and trees manually and take a bath in a river.
"Shifu!" she called out from the doorway to her teacher’s room. "I’ll be going out to find lunch now."
Yan Ping was meditating in her room when Anji’s voice brought her back. She had been observing the vicinity of the hut in her astral form to ensure the surroundings were safe when an intruder broke in. As it turned out, the intruder was none other than Zhao Mingfeng, who was worried sick about his youngest child.
"Take this amulet," she held out a protective charm imbued with her strongest defensive spells in case Anji was attacked or fell from a high place. "There are fruit trees, wild vegetables, small animals like birds and rabbits in the area near the hut. I’ve placed a large area spell array so we will not be disturbed, but do not venture too far out. About a hundred metres from here, you should see a small pond with clean drinking water. I’d still recommend you boil it before drinking. Have you figured out how to activate the seal in your Shaoshang point?"
Shaking her head, Anji frowned.
"Sorry, shifu. This disciple is useless. The mathematical calculations are too difficult to understand. I’ve not finished reading the book yet because there are simply so many things to remember. I’ll try to finish the book before dinner today."
Ah, mathematics... Yan Ping nodded and told Anji to return in two hours before she called on a search party to locate the girl if she went missing for too long.
"Collect some small pebbles on the way, about twenty of them. If you follow the stream flowing into the pond, you’ll find a small creek in the forest."
Perking up at her first official chore assigned by Yan Ping, Anji beamed and promised to be back in two hours. The lively child found a bamboo basket and took an extra jacket with her before leaving the hut with a sprint in her step, humming a merry tune.
Smirking, Yan Ping resumed meditation. Zhao Mingfeng wasn’t too far from his daughter. She could afford to relax a little while her student went on her first official errand. It was good to cultivate independence in children from a young age.