Reborn as Huo Yuhao, but also in Battle Through the Heavens

Chapter 44 Magic

After leaving the city lord's mansion, Huo Yuhao paused briefly and looked up at the night sky.

Yao Chen pulled out a small mirror from somewhere, and while stroking his face, said, "Yuhao, can we go back now? Lack of sleep will give you crow's feet!"

Huo Yuhao shook his head: "There's something else."

"And another thing! Has no one bothered you anymore? You're not planning to go looking for trouble with other mercenary groups, are you?"

Upon hearing this, Huo Yuhao's lips curled up slightly: "Teacher, you've reminded me. If we have enough time, let's go and check out other mercenary groups."

Yao Chen couldn't help but smile wryly: "Will this ever end?!"

Huo Yuhao summoned a flying artifact from his storage ring and flew out of the city.

Stopping about a mile outside the city wall, Huo Yuhao turned back to examine the walls of Shimo City, pondering to himself.

The walls are probably at their limit in terms of strength, able to withstand even a Dou Ling's attack. Aside from these walls, Stone Desert City has no other defensive capabilities. The strongest person within the city is only Senior Hai Bodong. If the snake-people were to attack…

"Yuhao, what are you planning to do?" Yao Chen had been wondering ever since Huo Yuhao flew out of the city, and now he interrupted Huo Yuhao's thoughts.

Coming to his senses, Huo Yuhao replied, "Teacher, I plan to set up early warning and defensive formations around Stone Desert City."

"Why is that?" Yao Chen asked, puzzled. "I'm worried about your elder brother and the others' safety. Setting up a defense at the Mo Tie Mercenary Group's base is enough."

Huo Yuhao nodded: "After setting up the formation outside the city, we'll set up another formation near the camp."

"Well!"

Huo Yuhao took out some metal and magic cores and said to Yao Chen, "Teacher, may I borrow your Bone Spirit Cold Flame?"

"Uh, I forgot to bring it. The Bone Spirit Cold Flame is with my main body; this spiritual body doesn't have it." Yao Chen looked embarrassed and explained before asking curiously, "Aren't we setting up an array? What are you using a strange flame for?"

"I'm preparing to refine some array bases." Huo Yuhao felt a headache coming on when he heard that Yao Chen hadn't brought the Bone Spirit Cold Flame.

"Array base?" Yao Chen asked, having never heard of this term before. "What is that? It wasn't mentioned in the incomplete array manual I gave you."

"Didn't you only use magic cores when you set up the formation last time?"

"This is what Xiao Yan told me. Xiao Yan said that the array formations he had ever seen all used array bases, array flags and the like." Huo Yuhao answered while taking out his forging furnace.

"It would be easy to damage the structure of the magic core by directly inscribing array patterns on it, so I plan to inscribe array patterns on metal and use the magic core to provide energy. In essence, this is also a way of making a spiritual artifact."

Huo Yuhao tossed a piece of rare metal into the furnace and ignited the flames. However, after burning for a long time, the metal surface only turned slightly reddish, showing no other changes. Seeing this, Huo Yuhao rubbed his temples.

"Using a regular flame is too slow; it won't be finished in one night."

Huo Yuhao extinguished the flames and pondered in his heart: Perhaps we can use a soul tool instead of a spiritual weapon?

Yao Chen could offer some advice on weapon crafting, since his old friend Venerable Feng was also skilled in it. However, he truly didn't understand array formations, so he could only awkwardly say, "Then shall I go back and call my true form over?"

"Oh, right, when we were researching spirit runes last time..." Huo Yuhao suddenly remembered something, waved his hand at Yao Chen, and said, "No need, I have a new idea."

After speaking, Huo Yuhao formed a hand seal and chanted, "O fire elementals of this world, heed my heart's cry and incinerate my enemies—Fireball!"

Something incomprehensible to Yao Chen occurred. To his astonishment, the fire-attribute energy between heaven and earth seemed to truly obey Huo Yuhao's commands. Even though Huo Yuhao did not forcibly control it with his mental power, nor did he enter a state of oneness with heaven and man, it still gathered in Huo Yuhao's hand, forming a fireball that floated quietly.

"What... what is this?"

"I've always had this feeling, whether it was when I was researching spirit runes or when I used the Ice Dragon Transformation Technique when I fought Senior Hai Bodong. It's strange, it seems like this world naturally recognizes the existence of magic."

"I've never seen such a method before." Yao Chen was so surprised that he even changed his self-reference: "This is unreasonable. Fire attribute energy has no self-awareness, so how could it be so obedient? The 'Ice Sealing Dragon Transformation Technique' you used before was also actively controlling the energy of heaven and earth, wasn't it? You even actively used your battle qi and mental power to perform it, but this time you only consumed mental power to maintain it after the fireball was formed."

Yao Chen rattled off a long string of words without giving Huo Yuhao a chance to reply, and continued, "I'll try it myself."

Before he finished speaking, Yao Chen imitated Huo Yuhao's hand seals while chanting an incantation: "The fire element of this world..."

A gentle breeze blew by, and nothing happened.

Seeing Yao Chen's bewildered expression, Huo Yuhao pondered for a moment before saying, "Teacher, my magic teacher in my previous life told me not to treat elements as inanimate objects. You have a preconceived notion that elements have no independent consciousness, so naturally they won't respond. You need to communicate with them."

"communicate?"

Huo Yuhao rubbed his temples and continued to recall: "It seems that if you want to use magic of that element, you should imagine yourself as that element and accept it from body to soul."

Yao Chen was one of the most outstanding geniuses of the previous era, and his words, which would baffle even some powerful figures, made him thoughtful. After a moment of silence, Yao Chen closed his eyes and dispersed his spiritual energy into the sky.

Soon, despite being a spiritual entity, Yao Chen gave Huo Yuhao the illusion that he was burning. Yao Chen formed hand seals again and chanted an incantation.

Yao Chen's voice rang out slowly, word by word, accompanied by incantations, and the surrounding fire elements gathered wildly.

Meanwhile, dark clouds filled the night sky, and claps of thunder sounded. But no lightning struck.

The thunder ceased, the dark clouds dispersed, and a huge fireball ignited in mid-air, illuminating the entire city wall.

"So this is magic!" Yao Chen muttered to himself, staring at the fireball. Turning back to see the alerted guards of Stone Desert City, Yao Chen dispelled the fireball and said to Huo Yuhao, "Someone will be here soon. Let's go somewhere further away."

"it is good."

During the flight, Huo Yuhao couldn't help but ask, "Teacher, why are your fireballs so big?"

"Haha, your master is indeed a genius!" Yao Chen put on his sunglasses again, looking smug. "So this magic relies on the soul realm. Mental power is just nourishment. The soul realm is the fundamental factor that determines the power. It seems that Yuhao, you'll have to focus on improving your soul realm and stop messing around with your mental manipulation all day."

Upon hearing this, Huo Yuhao smiled wryly: "The Concentration Technique can increase the strength of the soul, but the increase is rather slow."

"Hmm, then I'll think about how to revise it."

Seeing Yao Chen's complete excitement, Huo Yuhao shook his head, thinking to himself, "I originally planned to use the flames that Teacher Rong Nianbing taught me to forge weapons, but I didn't expect the magic system to be so surprisingly compatible in this world. Also, those dark clouds just now should have been..."