Chapter 45: Beast Souls


    Han Ming sat at an ancient wooden desk, carefully flipping through an absurdly thick magic book.


    This was the reading room of the Magic Academy, where rows upon rows of shelves were filled with books on every type of magic.


    Over the past year, through constant absorption of water elemental crystals and rigorous training, Han Ming had reached the peak of a ninth-tier mage. He was now just one step away from advancing to the first-tier of a grand mage. This also meant he was close to being able to cultivate the first layer of the *Water God''s Decree*—**Extreme Freeze**!


    The requirements for cultivating the first layer of the *Water God''s Decree* were twofold. First, his physical strength had to reach the level of a grand warrior. Han Ming had long since met this requirement. Although he couldn’t use battle aura, his physical strength was more than sufficient. This requirement alone would disqualify the vast majority of mages. It was as if the *Water God''s Decree* had been tailor-made for Han Ming.


    The second requirement was to obtain the core of an extremely cold-attribute magical beast.


    **Beast Cores**.


    When a magical beast reaches the third tier, not only does it possess a magic crystal in its head, but there is also a small chance that a beast core will form in its heart. If magic crystals are the source of a mage’s magical energy, then beast cores are the foundation for a mage to enhance the quality of their magic.


    The higher the tier of the magical beast, the purer the energy within its core. Most importantly, once a mage absorbs a beast core, their magic can take on a tangible form. For example, the **Dance of Flames** skill used by the fire mage from the Dark Hall that Han Ming had encountered before.


    That skill was formed by absorbing the core of a third-tier **Flame Serpent**.


    In other words, the type of beast core a mage absorbs determines the form their magic will take when released.


    Of course, a mage isn’t limited to absorbing just one type of beast core. There’s no limit to how many cores a mage can absorb. The more beast cores a mage absorbs, the more varied the forms their magic can take.


    Over the past year, Han Ming had spent several hours every day in the reading room. This had allowed him to completely shed his novice status.


    He learned that for a mage to increase their strength, they must continuously refine magical energy. There are two ways to refine magical energy: the first is through meditation, constantly absorbing and refining the magical elements in the environment. This not only increases the purity of one’s magical energy but also enhances one’s sensitivity to elemental forces. The second method, which Han Ming had been using, is far more extravagant—directly absorbing the pure magical energy from magic crystals. While this still requires refinement, it saves a lot of effort and is much faster. However, this method is incredibly costly. Han Ming had nearly exhausted his entire stock of magic crystals to advance from a first-tier mage to the peak of the ninth tier.


    During this time, he had gradually exchanged all his other elemental crystals for water elemental ones, but even that wasn’t enough. Now, he only had five hundred water elemental crystals left in his storage bag. To break through to the first-tier of a grand mage, he would likely need to use up all of them. Of course, this was also due to his unique constitution.


    Every time he absorbed a low-tier magic crystal, the amount of energy he retained was pitifully small. It was a serious waste of resources.


    Initially, Han Ming had thought that the most important thing for a mage was their weapon—specifically, their staff. But now he realized how naive that belief had been.


    There are two things that are most important to a mage in their magical journey.


    The first is the **beast core**. Once a mage possesses a beast core, their magic skills not only take on a tangible form but also gain the **soul** of the beast. This significantly increases the power of the skill.


    For example, if a fire mage absorbs the core of a third-tier **Flame Serpent**, they can release a fire serpent-shaped magic attack. This magical serpent’s attack path is incredibly unpredictable, and its speed is as fast as a real serpent striking its prey. Your enemy isn’t just facing a fire magic attack—it’s as if they’re facing a real third-tier Flame Serpent!


    If the same mage also absorbs the core of a third-tier **Blazing Rhinoceros**, they can use the same amount of magical energy to release a massive Blazing Rhinoceros-shaped attack. While the energy used is the same, the nature of the attack is completely different.


    The Flame Serpent’s attack is characterized by its unpredictable path and incredible speed, while the Blazing Rhinoceros’s attack is overwhelmingly powerful, with a much larger range and impact, though it lacks the speed and agility of the serpent.


    If the mage had absorbed the cores of fourth-tier beasts instead of third-tier ones, the power of their magic would increase accordingly.


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    The forms that a mage’s magic takes after absorbing beast cores are called **Beast Souls**.


    One of the most famous Beast Souls in the magical world belongs to the headmaster of the Magic Academy, the renowned fourth-tier, first-rank fire grand mage, **Mokar**. His most powerful Beast Soul is that of a fifth-tier fire beast, the **Vermilion Bird**—a creature second only to Han Ming’s sworn brother, the sixth-tier Flame Qilin, Sagus.


    The Vermilion Bird is on par with the Flame Qilin in terms of status. However, the Vermilion Bird core Mokar possesses is only fifth-tier, which is not the peak of its power. Even so, obtaining a fifth-tier Vermilion Bird core was a gift from the Mage Guild.


    The second most important thing for a mage, which Han Ming hadn’t anticipated, is **magic manuals**.


    Let’s take the simplest example of a fire mage. If you absorb the core of a Flame Serpent but don’t have the corresponding magic manual, you won’t be able to release a Flame Serpent-shaped magic skill. For example, the basic **Flame Serpent** skill and the intermediate **Dance of Flames** skill both require specific manuals. In short, magic manuals teach you how to manifest the form of the beast whose core you’ve absorbed.


    The Magic Academy’s library is vast, but most of the manuals are for beginner-level skills. Over the millennia, many of the excellent magic manuals created by skilled mages have been lost to history. Some were looted during wars, others stolen, and many more were hoarded by powerful families, kept as secret knowledge for their own members. The ways to obtain magic manuals are varied—they can be bought at auctions, found in ancient mage tombs, or even stolen from others.


    For Han Ming, however, magic manuals aren’t a concern. He already possesses the heaven-defying *Water God''s Decree*.


    The first layer of the *Water God''s Decree* contains methods to manifest almost every type of beast form. Han Ming was even shocked to find a technique for manifesting an **Ice Dragon** at the end of the manual. This nearly scared him out of his wits.


    An Ice Dragon isn’t some lesser dragon species like a Magma Dragon, Ironclad Dragon, or Land Dragon. It’s a true dragon with the purest dragon bloodline. This was beyond insane. Han Ming couldn’t help but wonder what kind of person had created the *Water God''s Decree*. To have developed a technique for manifesting an Ice Dragon’s soul, the creator must have possessed an Ice Dragon core and successfully manifested it.


    From Catherine, Han Ming had learned that dragons have two additional tiers at every stage compared to humans. For a human to defeat a dragon is almost impossible. Yet, the creator of the *Water God''s Decree* had actually defeated an Ice Dragon. If the creator was indeed human, their strength must have been unimaginable.


    When Han Ming first saw the technique for manifesting an Ice Dragon’s soul, he was ecstatic. But after calming down, his excitement faded. Manifesting an Ice Dragon’s soul was undoubtedly tempting, but first, he would need an Ice Dragon core. Did that mean he had to hunt an Ice Dragon? That was a joke. It was impossible.


    Han Ming gently closed the magic manual in his hands. On the cover were three gilded characters: **Healing Spell**.


    Even after a year of studying magic manuals, the thickness of this book still left Han Ming speechless. A simple healing spell had nearly a hundred pages, each densely packed with text that made his head spin.


    The entire book was filled with explanations of the principles behind the healing spell, how to cast it, how to circulate magical energy within the body, and the pathways the energy should follow. Every word of the healing spell had to be memorized perfectly, with no mistakes. The process had to be repeated over and over in the mind, and then practiced repeatedly. The more熟练 (proficient) one became, the faster they could cast the spell.


    Han Ming had once accidentally cast a healing spell, but now he realized it barely qualified as one. It was more like the natural healing effect of water magic.


    Initially, Han Ming had thought that magic skills were written on a single piece of parchment. You’d read it, chant the spell, and that was it. Now he knew how laughable that idea was. He finally understood why the success rate of mages was so low. Just memorizing the dense,晦涩 (obscure) text in this book would take an enormous amount of time—and this was just a healing spell. What about more advanced skills like **Ice Spear**, **Ice Spike**, or **Ice Shield**? How thick would those manuals be? And what about the manuals for manifesting Beast Souls? Would they be half a person’s height?


    No wonder all those mages looked pale and frail. They must have been worn out from memorizing all that text.


    Han Ming glanced at the large clock on the wall. It was already noon.


    He left the reading room and headed to the Military Academy to have lunch with Li Chengfeng.


    Over the past year, Han Ming had eaten almost every meal at the Military Academy. While the food at the Magic Academy was delicious, as Li Chengfeng put it, the atmosphere was too gloomy and lifeless. The mages there were like ghosts, and looking at them made it hard to enjoy a meal.


    Han Ming agreed wholeheartedly.


    From Li Chengfeng, Han Ming learned that warriors could also absorb Beast Souls.


    However, the way Beast Souls manifested for warriors was different. For mages, Beast Souls were released through magical skills.


    For warriors, Beast Souls were activated through battle aura and manifested on their bodies. When a warrior activated their Beast Soul, a faint shadow of the beast would appear behind them, giving the impression of being possessed.


    Additionally, when a warrior attacked, their battle aura would take on the shape of the Beast Soul.


    Warriors’ battle aura also had elemental attributes, divided into wind, wood, water, fire, and earth, just like mages.


    However, these attributes weren’t as pronounced in warriors as they were in mages. Still, they had some corresponding effects.


    For example, a warrior with fire-attribute battle aura would have attacks that carried a scorching heat and slight explosive effect.


    Wind-attribute battle aura allowed for incredibly fast attacks.


    Earth-attribute battle aura provided the strongest defense.


    Wood-attribute battle aura allowed warriors to recover from injuries quickly.


    Water-attribute battle aura, on the other hand, offered minimal healing and no additional effects.


    From both a mage’s and a warrior’s perspective, the water attribute seemed the most useless.


    However, warriors didn’t need to worry too much about their water-attribute battle aura. For warriors, the elemental attributes of their battle aura were primarily used to determine which types of Beast Souls they could absorb.


    This was the most crucial aspect.


    Li Chengfeng’s battle aura, fittingly, was wind-attribute.


    After a year of study and training, Li Chengfeng had finally broken through to the fifth-tier of a grand warrior.


    Compared to Han Ming’s rapid progress in magic, Li Chengfeng’s advancement seemed modest. But in reality, the further one progressed in cultivation, the slower the progress became.


    Moreover, Han Ming’s insane consumption of magic crystals was a major factor in his rapid early progress.