No matter how many times I do this, it never stops feeling strange to me. Staring at a bird and copying the way it moves its spiritual energy, well, at least, it’s easy enough. Thanks to the ruler and her pet, err, friend spider modifying my meridians by cutting me apart and feeding me heavenly fruits, spiritual energy is as easy to control as qi. Making it flow a certain way isn’t hard at all, and even the confusing bits like “how do I copy the bird’s spiritual energy when it moves through its wings while I have arms and no wings” aren’t a problem anymore. There’s just one thing that’s really strange…. A ball of fire popped up inside my head. It’s the best way I can describe it. I can’t physically touch the fire because my scalp and skull are in the way, but at the same time, my brain isn’t overheating because of it either. I wonder if this is a cause for concern. I just got rid of the impurities in my brain; I don’t want any burnt bits blocking my thinking process before I even got to have fun with it. Mm, I never thought there’d be a day when I thought thinking could be fun, but here I am. “Teacher! There’s something wrong with my brain!”

The ruler glanced at me from her spot on the side of the boat. She was holding Slayer Junior by his tail, dangling him over the edge. I think she was using her spiritual energy to hold Slayer Junior’s eyes open because he wasn’t closing them, and they were a little red and veiny. The ruler gestured for me to come over with her hand, but I didn’t even have to move because that gesture teleported me over to her side. I wonder when I’ll gain the ability to teleport other people around. Ilya always had a problem with me teleporting next to her because she’s jumpy, so if I teleport her to me the next time I’m looking for her, I bet she’ll be pleasantly surprised.

The ruler placed her hand on my head and stared me in the eyes. A second later, she smiled at me and patted my shoulder. “Not bad,” she said and nodded. “You’ve already formed your vermillion flame seed. It’s not located inside your brain; it’s located inside your mind palace within your soul.” Her hand waved again, and Mrs. Feathers’ Future Husband appeared in her grasp. She placed the bird down on the gunwale and took out a device to shine a blue light on it. “Display your innate abilities.” She looked at me. “Pay attention to how it uses its qi to manipulate the spiritual energy in the surroundings.”

Mm, more observation. It might be weird, but at least, it’s not painful. Why couldn’t Durandal teach me techniques this way? Instead of making me swing my sword over and over until I collapsed, I could’ve just observed him with this blue light device. Then again, I’m not sure if I could’ve memorized his movements back then. I might’ve only developed impurities in my brain after learning the Heart Devil Cultivation Technique, but I’m pretty sure I’m smarter now than I was back then. The body reconstruction definitely boosted my brainpower; there’s dozens of things happening within and around Mrs. Feathers’ Future Husband’s body, but I’m keeping track of them without an issue. There’s no way I could’ve done this back when I was still a slave.

What exactly is this bird doing? It’s using its qi to grab the spiritual energy right around its body. Then, it forces the spiritual energy through the big yellow ball in its head. Ah? That must be its vermillion flame seed, the same ball of fire currently inside my brain, err, soul. Then, the spiritual energy seems to become brighter, and it’s circulated through its body again before being expelled. And with that, a layer of red flames is burning on its feathers. Not only that, but the red flames are burning the spiritual energy around it, using it to grow like an actual fire. Mm, Mrs. Feathers’ Future Husband’s body is also becoming a bit transparent like he’s turning into a ghost. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ghost before, but I’m pretty sure this is what one would look like.

“I can maintain this for an hour at most,” Mrs. Feathers’ Future Husband said, glancing at the ruler before glancing at me. “Is that enough time?”

Let’s see. I’ll copy what the bird did. First, I use my qi to grab the spiritual energy around me. It’s a little like sticking my tail up and trying to catch falling leaves with it, but it’s more complicated because I’m controlling dozens of tails of qi at once. Mm, after catching some spiritual energy, I have to bring it in and up towards my brain while still controlling the rest of my qi to get more spiritual energy. Ooh, after the spiritual energy makes contact with my vermillion flame thingy, it gets really hot. When I circulate it through my body, everywhere it passes heats up. This feels pretty nice! Ah, right, I’m supposed to be performing techniques right now. No wonder why the ruler said controlling spiritual energy requires a lot of focus. There are so many things to pay attention to at once! Controlling my qi, capturing spiritual energy, controlling spiritual energy, converting spiritual energy, moving the converted spiritual energy, whew. I’m not sure if my brain is overheating from thinking too much or if the fire in my head is burning a bit too hot. Either way, something’s happening! “I think I did it?”

“You’ve materialized vermillion flames,” the ruler said and beamed at me. “That’s great!” She held out her hand, and a fruit appeared on her palm. “Here, try eating this. It’ll help you control flames better.”

Even if that fruit didn’t help me control flames better, I still would’ve eaten it. It smells delicious! The fruits here are so much better than the ones back in the Immortal Continent. I really have to capture a void dragon to bring Sophia here. I have a feeling she’d like this place a lot more.