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A small, delicate hourglass was turned upside down. As the fine sand flowed from the top to the bottom, it would mark exactly half an hour.
This seemingly brief period was the lesson time that Uncle Two had assigned to Harry.
Once he entered teaching mode, Uncle Two was a completely different person. It was akin to the difference between Severus Snape from the JK world and Severus Snape from the AK world when interacting with Harry—cold and distant. The aura exuding from Uncle Two, with his stern expression, made Harry feel as though he were sitting on pins and needles, much like having a strict teacher stand behind you during evening study hours, peering over your shoulder and staring at the back of your neck without a word.
"The mental energy stream can be used in three primary ways: energy compression and accumulation based on mental energy beads, projectile and beam flows; energy shaping and activation based on mental energy entanglement, fractal explosion flows; and lastly, mental energy embodiment, enhancing close combat with phantom projection."
"However, the essence of phantom projection is merely a powerful auxiliary method. It does not have intrinsic offensive or defensive abilities. Its sole function is to mimic the actions of the original body. The stronger the user's power, the stronger the phantom projection will be, capable of mimicking up to fifty percent of the original body's strength. The projection can have a maximum of seven simultaneous embodiments."
"Feel it for yourself!"
Uncle Two sank into a horse stance and delivered a straight punch to Harry's chest. The punch wasn't fast or particularly powerful, yet it carried a strange, inescapable feeling, as if it would be impossible to dodge.
Harry pushed aside the instinct to dodge and raised both hands to block his chest, summoning a shield that resembled solid iron armor.
"Boom~~Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom~"
The first long sound was followed by seven rapid, dull thuds in the span of mere milliseconds. After the straight punch was thrown, a series of translucent shadows, as if they were nails, flashed along the path of the punch, each hit piercing into Harry's chest in rapid succession. Despite not stepping back even a fraction, Harry's magical shield bore a fist-shaped indentation that nearly shattered it.
"Phantom projection is also referred to as 'internal energy breakthrough.' It involves compressing mental energy within the body and, upon impact, releasing the compressed energy through the meridians. This technique is best used alongside the attacks you've mastered, as the phantom projection's attack has a certain delay. This delay allows the mental energy to leave your body, otherwise, it would injure yourself, making it counterproductive."
"Like the projectile and beam flows, phantom projection is also a skill developed from mental energy compression. However, its compression occurs within the body, whereas the other types compress outside the body. I'll teach you both techniques together."
"We'll start from within. Compressing mental energy inside the body is easier to sense than compressing it outside. Once you've mastered basic internal energy compression, we'll move to external compression. The higher the compression level, the greater the risk. It's much safer to release it externally than internally."
"Now, as for the fractal explosion flow, this type doesn't rely on energy compression. Instead, it involves sharpening or dulling mental energy. Mental energy, transformed through lightning elements, can be made to explode violently by increasing its activity. Conversely, if you want to make mental beasts or other transformed entities create effects like binding, paralysis, or stasis, you need to reduce the elemental activity."
After a brief introduction, practical instruction began immediately. However, unlike the "brutal teaching" style described by Xiong Tianba, Uncle Two was not a harsh instructor. As long as he explained, you practiced, and you got it right in one go, he would not say another word. Any slight flaw would be immediately pointed out, along with instructions on how to avoid it and the potential mistakes it could cause.
His meticulous teaching method was like feeding you knowledge bit by bit, ensuring you absorbed every detail and worried about whether you'd fully digested the material—he wouldn't stop until everything was perfect.
By the time the hourglass still had a quarter of its sand left, Harry had already successfully formed a black energy sphere the size of a melon in his palm, aiming it eagerly at the wooden target in the distance.
"Give it a try."
Uncle Two nodded in satisfaction. He genuinely enjoyed sharing knowledge, which was why he chose to be a teacher instead of working in a research lab. He hadn't returned to Panda Village because of being expelled from school. Though his perfectionism sometimes seemed obsessive during lessons, no school would give up a professor who excelled both in theory and practice, especially someone in the prime of their career.
At just ninety years old, Uncle Two was far from being considered old by wizard standards. Wizards of this age were at their peak in both experience and energy. In the magical world, a hundred years was the boundary of middle age. Figures like Grindelwald and Dumbledore, while sounding elderly at over a century old, could effortlessly defeat hundreds of so-called "young" wizards—even those with unique abilities like Harry, who hadn't matured fully, could still be easily subdued before fully growing.
Magic was a field rooted in both talent and experience. While talent was a critical foundation, time often demonstrated a wizard's strength. Of course, without talent, a century of practice wouldn't necessarily make someone more powerful than a novice with natural gifts.
"Understood, sir."
Harry assumed a solid horse stance, his hands positioned at his waist as if cradling an invisible sphere. Within his body, his magic began undergoing a transformation, adopting the properties of lightning. As the elemental magic coursed through his meridians and escaped from his palms, the surging lightning rapidly coiled and compressed, forming a pitch-black energy bullet.
When his control over magic reached a sufficient level, the compressed energy did not expand outward like a loose sphere. Instead, it solidified into a dense projectile.
"Excellent. A flawless first-stage compression. Maintain this level. You have the potential to reach the fourth stage. I don't want you to be like others who sacrifice control over energy just to increase compression layers. Your energy won't easily dissipate. Even at nine compressions, you can grind your way through as long as you take your time. So, focus on making each compression perfect. Memorize this sensation. As you refine your technique, your energy gathering speed will increase exponentially. Unlike others, you have almost endless time to adjust and experiment."
A first-stage energy bullet could form almost instantly. However, each additional compression required significantly more time. By the time Harry successfully created a fourth-stage compressed bullet—one with zero energy leakage—nearly ten seconds had passed.
For most people, ten seconds would be long enough for their externalized energy to dissipate completely. Even if they continued channeling energy, they wouldn't be able to increase the compression stage any further.
"By the way, sir," Harry suddenly turned to Uncle Two, a thought sparking in his mind. "I was just thinking… A projectile transforms into a beam because the energy undergoes elemental polarization, advancing the electric properties of mental energy to high-energy electric particles, essentially mimicking pure lightning-element energy."
"But what if, without using elemental polarization, I could still convert mental energy into a non-solid state of lightning?"
Harry was proficient in creating solid, tangible threads of lightning, but their production rate was abysmally low. Even now, he could only generate a tiny strand at a time—shorter than Fleur's hair. Worse, the energy cost was enormous, consuming nearly eighty percent of his reserves in a single attempt.
However, if he skipped the solidification process and instead directly converted magic into pure lightning energy…
"I don't know exactly what method you're thinking of," Uncle Two said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "But give it a shot. Even if it explodes, it won't harm us."
"Then I've got nothing to worry about!"
Harry grinned, his eyes narrowing slightly as he softly uttered a magic word he had repeated countless times before.
"Qo (Lightning)."
The originally pitch-black energy bullet, formed from Awakened Magic, suddenly erupted with an impossibly blinding radiance. The rampant electricity within it surged wildly, as if eager to lash out in all directions. Yet, no matter how it struggled, it remained tightly bound within the compact, three-to-four-fist-sized sphere of light.
"Thunderous Mind-Power Charging Cannon!"
A torrent of pure lightning energy exploded forth in an instant.
It was eerily reminiscent of the solar dragon's light cannon that had once blasted at Harry. However, while that had been a condensed breath attack of pure light energy, this was a raging, draconic thunderstorm, surging and roaring with violent fury.
A hundred meters away, a target identical in material to the wooden dummies within the training field was swallowed whole by the electrified deluge. The dazzling light lasted less than half a second, and when it dissipated, the air was left with a perfectly straight, ionized pathway. Tiny remnants of light flickered and vanished, resembling the final sparks of fireworks at the end of a grand performance.
The nearly disintegrated target had lost more than half its original thickness. Apart from its central torso, the rest had been completely obliterated. It hadn't shattered into spectacular fragments, but anyone who witnessed the attack would be certain of one thing—*they never wanted to be on the receiving end of it.*
Uncle Two gazed deeply at Harry, his eyes shining even brighter than before—filled with excitement and anticipation.
But before he could say a word, Harry, as if he had just discovered a whole new world, burst into exhilarated laughter.
"I knew this would work!"
What thrilled him wasn't just successfully firing an energy cannon. It was the realization that compared to the complex process of elemental polarization, the element conversion of Awakened Magic was far more efficient and intuitive. There were no convoluted steps, no need for preliminary elemental transformation, nor the tedious process of converting magic into mental energy first.
Creating solid, tangible pure elements was undoubtedly difficult.
But simply *converting magic into pure, singular elemental energy?*
That was easy.
While at Nicollem's place, Harry had accidentally brushed against the threshold of Liz (Ice) through a strange series of coincidences.
"I'll try this again!"
With his eyes shining, Harry quickly formed another four-layer compressed energy ball. Compared to the first attempt, the second one was completed in under ten seconds. Having found the right feel, his proficiency in energy compression was rapidly improving.
"Liz (Ice)!"
The pale blue glow wasn't as blindingly intense as the previous lightning, but the frost that spread and froze everything in its path took the visual effect to a whole new level.
A cold gust, colder than Siberian winds, swept through, and the temperature in the entire area dropped by more than ten degrees in an instant. The target, struck by the light blue chill, was surrounded by an icy hell, the temperature plunging to minus fifty or sixty degrees. White frost now blanketed the area, resembling a beautiful, yet deadly, winter landscape.
"Rainbow light waves are within reach? I can't even imagine how flashy it'll be when the lights go out at night!"
Harry looked down at his hand, a smirk curling at the corner of his mouth.
"I really hope I can get in touch with Senior Setti soon." The token given to him by the Sun Dragon Queen, Daenerys, hadn't shown any sign of activity. Harry had no idea how to activate it—whether through magic infusion or by reciting the Awakened Magic words, the stone remained completely unresponsive. If it weren't for the high regard Harry held for Senior Setti, he might have even wondered if something had happened to him. After all, Daenerys had mentioned that Setti might not have much time left.
"Immortals really are something else," Harry mused.
Uncle Two, who was watching with mild astonishment, spoke up. "Elemental polarization is used to convert energy into high-concentration elemental particles. However, the level of concentration is limited. For example, if the world's elements are divided into ten types, each accounting for a tenth, high concentration would roughly raise one of those elements to a third of its total capacity."
"Aside from elemental life forms, most magical creatures have mixed magic. If you want to harness or use the pure, untainted power of a single element, you usually need to extract it from pure elemental magic stones or use other methods. This kind of direct conversion, though, is a first for me, even with all my experience."
"Let's move on to mental energy shaping. It's not too difficult. You just need to mold it yourself, and there's no risk of your energy disappearing. You can shape anything you want. Hell, you could even create a long-legged beauty if you like."
"We're going to learn how to create and imbue mental energy with a shapeable, illusory consciousness. It's similar to what you might know as activation-based transformation, but it places much more emphasis on the coordination between the illusory consciousness and the body. Let me show you some useful tricks. I've got some great secrets in this area. I did some advanced studies in Xiangxi, you know? Have you ever heard of corpse-puppetry? Sounds creepy, right? But it's basically creating human-shaped puppets—except they don't breathe, have a heartbeat, or body temperature. That's why people might mistake them for corpses moving."
"I won't brag, but the place I studied this at reached the highest level when it came to imbuing illusory consciousness. Those hyper-realistic virtual assistants you see today? Pfft, they're nothing compared to what I learned. Ahem."
Uncle Two suddenly coughed, realizing he had gotten carried away and almost let something slip that he shouldn't have.
"Anyway, when I went there, I picked up some really cool techniques. Come here, I'll whisper it to you."
The teacher and student leaned in, whispering to each other for a while before both looked up with enlightened expressions, excited about what they had just discovered.
(End of chapter)