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Following the memories left behind in his mind, Gao De sat cross-legged on the bed.
He kept his chin level with the floor, closed his eyes, straightened his back, and rested both hands on his knees with the palms facing upward, letting his entire body relax.
In this seated posture, one naturally felt comfortable and at ease, making it easier to enter a state of inner stillness.
Of course, for an experienced mage, it was possible to enter that state and begin cultivating in almost any posture and under almost any circumstances. Such "assistance" was unnecessary to them.
But Gao De was still only an apprentice among apprentices, so he followed the procedure strictly.
After breathing deeply for several minutes, he finally entered the proper state.
In his consciousness, it felt as though he were now suspended within a dim and boundless universe.
Countless motes of stardust drifted through that universe, wandering without pattern, beautiful and captivating, each giving off a faint glimmer.
This was the magic power that existed in the world—the fundamental force upon which reality itself was built.
It was abundant, mighty, and inexhaustible.
The so-called Guidance Art was the practice of using one's spiritual power to guide this magical stardust into the body, then refine it into mana.
Gao De began attempting to guide those magical particles with his spiritual power.
Under the control of his mind and will, the magic power followed the breath he inhaled through his mouth, entered his body, and traveled downward, sinking lower and lower until it reached the region around his navel, where it began to settle.
That, however, was not the end.
Once he sensed the magical stardust had stabilized, Gao De still needed to control his mind and spiritual power, polishing it continuously in rhythm with his breathing until it transformed into mana that truly belonged to him.
Truthfully, the efficiency of the whole process was not very high.
That was because the Guidance Art and Meditation Art he practiced shared a common name:
Apprentice Guidance Art and Apprentice Meditation Art.
As the names implied, they were methods specifically designed for mage apprentices—the most basic of the basic.
Their flaw was their simplicity.
Their strength was also their simplicity.
For laying foundations, they were almost flawless.
But in terms of efficiency, they were naturally nothing remarkable.
Gao De immersed himself in his first cultivation session until he began to feel tired, and the efficiency of guiding magical stardust had fallen by around thirty percent compared to the beginning. Only then did he stop.
He knew his spiritual power had reached the critical threshold of forty percent depletion.
It was time to switch to Meditation Art.
Gao De adjusted his posture once more, calmed his breathing for a while, and, following the requirements of Apprentice Meditation Art, closed his eyes and began the practice.
Meditation Art was somewhat similar to the visualization methods often mentioned in Buddhism from his previous life—one imagined within the mind some mysterious and profound object in order to strengthen spiritual power.
The object visualized by Apprentice Meditation Art was a sixteen-petaled lotus.
The number of lotus petals one could manifest was directly proportional to one's progress in cultivation.
Once all sixteen petals could be fully visualized, the Apprentice Meditation Art would be considered perfected.
But Gao De's current level was still very far from completion.
If he remembered correctly, the former owner of this body had only barely managed to manifest five petals after all this time, and that was already because his spiritual talent had been quite good.
That pace was actually not bad.
Among the apprentices of Gao De's own batch—and even some who had started training before him—many had only reached the stage of one or two petals.
As his mind sank deeper inward, Gao De clearly sensed the existence of his spiritual power.
In the endless darkness of consciousness, a lotus slowly rotated within his mind.
Yet the flower had no true substance. It was only an outline formed by faint dotted lines.
The purpose of Meditation Art was to use spiritual power to fill in those lines until the lotus was fully and truly manifested.
Gao De was just about to proceed, just as the memory in his mind instructed him to do—
when he suddenly noticed something.
Deep within his consciousness, there seemed to be something extra, a small point giving off light.
Instinctively, his thoughts stirred, and both his attention and spiritual power focused toward that luminous spot.
Deep within the space of his consciousness, darkness still reigned.
But besides that, there were countless irregular drifting stars, as well as two groups of star clusters that resembled galaxies yet were in fact fixed spell models.
Those were the two cantrips Gao De had mastered.
Taken as a whole, the deepest part of his consciousness looked like a sea of stars.
That was why this place was also known as the Spell Starsea.
And yet today, within that Spell Starsea, besides the stars and spell models, there was now one more thing.
Something that should not have existed there.
It was a crescent moon.
Floating silently and motionlessly at the very center of the Spell Starsea, it radiated a pure, moon-white glow.
More accurately speaking, it was a crescent-shaped gemstone.
Its shape resembled a magatama—broad and rounded at one end, tapering to a fine point at the other. Its color was white, though not milky white, but the kind of pale purity associated with moonlight itself.
The entire gem was crystalline and flawless, without the slightest impurity. Upon its surface grew beautiful, intricate patterns and designs like strange symbols.
Yes—grew, not carved.
Because there was no sign whatsoever of human workmanship. Those patterns seemed fused seamlessly with the gem itself, as though born that way by nature.
Gao De stared blankly at the crescent gemstone suspended inside his mind, unable to believe it.
"Isn't this the pendant I used to wear around my neck?"
It was an heirloom of the Gao family.
His father had strung it into a necklace and passed it down to him.
Gao De had worn it for over ten years and had never noticed anything unusual about it.
And yet now, this object—which should not have belonged to this world at all—had somehow come here together with him.
And more than that, it had shifted from something material into something intangible, taking root in his Spell Starsea.
At this point, after something as absurd as transmigration had already happened, having one more gemstone inside his head did not seem especially hard to accept.
But why this gemstone, of all things?
That could only mean one thing—
it had to possess something special.
Gao De forced himself to remain calm and searched his memory for information related to the gem.
Then he realized that when his father had passed it on to him, he had never said much about its origins.
All Gao De knew was that this stone had to be extremely valuable.
He was certain it was not some crafted trinket made from agate or soapstone.
It was a natural gemstone.
Because it was too exquisite—so exquisite that it did not seem man-made at all.
Only the miraculous craftsmanship of nature itself could have produced such a work of art.
Gao De observed it carefully for quite some time, but discovered nothing unusual.
"A very rare supernatural object," he concluded, based on his understanding of this world, tentatively assigning that identity to the gemstone.
"And the fact that it came with me through transmigration is alone enough to prove that its grade is definitely not low."
Carefully, Gao De extended his spiritual power toward the crescent gemstone.
According to the knowledge in his memory, this was the most common way to activate a supernatural object.
He wanted to stimulate the object and thereby discover its function.
However, the moment his spiritual power touched the gemstone, it felt as though it had struck a wall, only to be rebounded immediately.
Gao De thought for a moment. This time, instead of carefully probing, he gathered all of his spiritual power and tried to activate it again.
Once.
Twice.
Three times…
Until he began to feel a trace of fatigue, that "crescent moon" still floated there in utter stillness, unchanged and unmoving, as though completely impervious to everything—utterly unresponsive.
A shock ran through him.
At first he had assumed he had simply been too cautious and therefore failed to activate the supernatural object.
But later, he had used his full strength, and yet he still failed.
Gao De studied the gemstone again and again, trying to discover some hidden mechanism.
The result was still the same.
Nothing.
Now he truly felt troubled.
There was an "outsider" lodged inside his head, and he did not even know what it was for. Who could possibly accept that willingly?
But the problem was, this thing had settled into his mind like a permanent squatter. His spiritual power could not shake it in the slightest, much less expel it.
No matter how unwilling he felt, there was nothing he could do to change it.
"Nine times out of ten, my spiritual power is simply too weak at the moment. That's why I can neither activate it nor affect it in any way," Gao De guessed.
"Forget it."
In the end, having no solution, he could only choose to give up for now.
At the very least, one thing was certain:
this gemstone, which had somehow come with him into this world, posed no harm to his body.
That alone was enough.
So Gao De withdrew his attention from the stone. After taking some time to calm himself, he reentered the state required for Meditation Art.
Within his consciousness, the lotus outlined in dotted lines gradually became more solid under his meditation.
The lotus base took on substance.
And upon that lotus base, five petals gradually manifested one by one…
Nearly two hours later,
Gao De opened his eyes.
A deep weariness welled up inside him.
The spiritual power he had spent earlier in practicing Guidance Art had already recovered through Meditation, but recovery of spiritual power did not mean the disappearance of fatigue.
In fact, according to the memories left behind by the former owner, the best thing to do after practicing Meditation Art was to get a good night's sleep.
Aimi had finished cultivating earlier than Gao De and was already asleep, letting out soft snores.
Gao De also quietly removed his outer clothing and lay down on the bed.
As he did, he recalled everything he had seen and heard since arriving in this world, pondering how he could escape his current situation… and much more besides.