376: Chapter 376 White Spirit Magic, Research Breakthrough

The morning mist still pressed against the mountain's base, and Chen Xiaodao's footprints had just dried on the stone steps when a faint glimmer lit up deep within the ruins.

Bai Ling sat cross-legged in the center of a circular formation surrounded by twelve rune stones, holding half a withered leaf between her fingertips, softly humming a tune no one had ever heard.

Her left fingertips glowed with a faint crystalline light, like frozen frost flowers that would shatter at a touch.

A golden, thread-like trail of blood ran down from her right earlobe, sliding along her neck and into her collar, having already stained her front with a dark patch.

"Try again," she said to herself, her voice rasping as if rubbed by sandpaper. "Just a little more… the frequency doesn't match, and the energy will explode."

She placed the withered leaf on the sunken bluestone at the center of the formation and slowly raised her hands, palms facing the sky.

The rune stones began to vibrate, the humming sound rising from low to high, like a swarm of bees flying inside her skull.

A pulse came from underground, one beat after another, as if the earth were breathing.

"Stars fall to the west, the moon follows its track, spirits return to the Origin—Draw!"

As her words fell, the twelve stones lit up simultaneously, blue-green light patterns crawling along the ground and converging on the bluestone.

The withered leaf trembled, suddenly shot into the air, spun three times, and popped into a cloud of ash.

Boom—!

The shockwave overturned three rune stones, dust rained down from the dome, and the illumination crystals flickered, until only one in the corner remained glowing.

Bai Ling gave a muffled groan; her entire right arm became transparent, and fine cracks appeared beneath her skin, like a spiderweb before glass shatters.

"No good… still too violent." She gasped for air, pulled a small jade bottle from her bosom, and poured a drop of silver paste onto her arm.

That was "Moon Dew Gel," a stabilizer specially made from the Chen family's Medicinal Field; the coldness seeped into her flesh, and the cracks slowly closed.

She looked down at her trembling hand and gritted her teeth: "Three days, and I can't even run a complete spell pattern. Others can gain enlightenment practicing the sword, and I can't even squeeze out a single spell?"

As she spoke, she suddenly laughed, the sound so light it was almost inaudible.

"But isn't this how I make a living? Guarding a pile of broken stones, chanting words no one understands, lying to myself that I can still change my fate."

She pushed herself up, picked up the rune stones one by one, and rearranged them into a spiral array. Each time she placed one, she used her fingertip to add a scratch to the surface.

Her fingertips were worn raw, beads of blood seeping out and drying together with the runes.

"They used to say that the Elf Race's magic was a gift from nature and couldn't be forced."

She muttered while placing the stones, "And now? Nature stopped caring about us long ago. To survive, I have to create my own 'nature'."

She stepped back two paces and took a deep breath.

"Again. This time, I won't take the old path; I won't use the 'Wind Whisper Incantation' or the 'Forest Breath Art'—I'll write one myself."

She closed her eyes, crossed her hands over her chest, moved her lips slightly, and uttered a few unfamiliar syllables.

At first, it was very light, like wind blowing through the gaps in leaves.

Gradually, the syllables elongated, the rhythm quickened, and finally, it formed a strange resonance that made the dust on the ground ripple outward in circles.

The rune stones lit up.

Not blue-green, but interlaced gold and red, like lava flowing over an ice surface.

The withered leaf on the bluestone didn't move, but the air distorted.

A ring-shaped wave spread from the stone's surface; wherever it passed, dust suspended, broken vines hovered, and even the illumination crystals began to tremble.

"It worked!" She opened her eyes, her voice trembling. "The energy is controllable! The oscillation field has formed!"

She suddenly raised her hand, pointing at a stone tablet the size of a person on the cave wall.

The ring-shaped wave hit it; there was no explosion, but it rippled like water. The surface of the stone tablet cracked instantly, and with a snap, half of it collapsed.

"Hiss… the power is a bit intense." She grinned. "But the direction is right."

She unhooked a jade piece from her waist—palm-sized, with tiny metal wires embedded in the edges; it was a prototype the Chen family had given her, called a "Psionic Receiver." She tossed it into the center of the oscillation field.

As soon as the jade piece touched the fluctuation, it immediately lit up with blue light, and a few lines of scrolling text appeared on its surface. The next second, a very faint "ding" came from afar, as if some machine had finished recording.

"It can interface! It really can interface!" She jumped up, almost tripping over her own skirt. "The House Master is right; magic isn't just for fighting alone! It can act as a detonator for cannonballs, it can charge mechs, it can pair with Sword Intent—it can be used as a tool!"

She spun around in place, laughing until tears came to her eyes.

"Hahahaha! Did you hear that! Did you hear that! Old Ancestors! Those crappy rules you locked away in your classics, I'm tearing them all up today!"

Her laughter bounced around the empty ruins, startling a flock of night-roosting birds.

She stopped, gasping for breath, looking at the lingering light on the jade piece in her hand, and suddenly lowered her voice: "This move… needs a name."

She tilted her head and thought, her eyes frighteningly bright.

"It can tear through shields, like light shining into a crack—let's call it 'Splitting Radiance'."

"It can explode, it can crack, it can blast, like the sun crashing down—add 'Shattering Sun'."

"Put it together… 'Splitting Radiance · Shattering Sun'."

She recited it softly, once, then again, as if afraid of forgetting it.

"Good name." She nodded. "Ruthless enough, bright enough, and unlike me enough."

She carefully put away the jade piece and was about to stand up when she suddenly frowned.

Outside the barrier, something was moving.

It wasn't a person, nor a beast; it was a fingernail-sized mechanical bee, silver-gray all over, with wings as thin as a cicada's, slowly crawling along the surface of the barrier, looking for a gap.

"A Chen family scout bee?" She narrowed her eyes. "They received the signal this fast?"

She didn't move, just watched.

The mechanical bee circled around, finally found a weak point in the energy, buzzed as it drilled inside, and stopped at her feet, its antennae swaying slightly, as if waiting for instructions.

Bai Ling crouched down and untied a petal-shaped pendant from her wrist. It was a communication object of the Elf Race, undecaying for a thousand years, igniting upon contact with blood.

She bit her fingertip, a bead of blood dripped onto the petal, and she quickly wrote a line of small characters:

"I've found it—'Splitting Radiance · Shattering Sun', it can tear through shields and can also charge Sword Intent."

After writing, she blew on it, and the petal glowed faintly.

She gently placed the petal on the back of the mechanical bee. The little thing immediately stood up, spread its wings, and emitted a faint buzzing sound.

"Send this to the Main Peak and give it to the House Master," she said in a low voice. "Don't get lost, and don't get caught."

The mechanical bee spun in place, as if it understood, then shot into the air, passed through the crack in the dome, and turned into an imperceptible speck of light in the night sky.

Bai Ling stood in place, looking up at the direction it vanished, not moving for a long time.

Her right arm was still somewhat transparent, her left fingertips still hurt, and the blood in her ear had dried, feeling sticky.

But she smiled.

"I always used to feel like a burden," she said softly. "Needing protection, needing stabilization, needing a Seal… like a piece of porcelain, shattering at a touch."

"It's different now." She clenched her fist. "I can create things. I can help people. I am not just a 'vessel'."

She turned and walked toward the corner, where her pack lay—an old rattan bag containing a few bottles of medicine, two spare rune stones, and a crumpled map of the Eastern Wasteland.

She shouldered the bag and casually shut off the main valve of the energy core.

The entire ruin plunged into darkness, with only a faint glimmer remaining on her, like a firefly in the night that refused to be extinguished.

She walked out of the great hall and stepped onto the vine bridge spanning the abyss. The bridge swayed, and she steadied her forehead, but her steps did not falter.

The morning wind brushed across her face, carrying the dampness of the mountains and wilderness.

She hummed the tune no one had ever heard from earlier, the melody crooked, but she sang it very earnestly.

At the end of the vine bridge, the outline of the Eastern Wasteland's main city had already emerged in the mist.

She quickened her pace.

"House Master," she said to the wind, "this time, it's my turn to protect you all."

The last vine ladder fell, landing on solid ground.

She did not look back.