NEC Chapter 50: Channeling Sacrifice

The next few minutes became an unforgettable spectacle for the apprentices of Glimmer Group Three, destined to be their go-to bragging material in countless future conversations.

Chen Mo’s spell model construction was steady and fluid. Though it seemed to incorporate some inexplicable extra spiritual energy channels, his overall speed was far faster than that of these low-to-mid-tier apprentices.

In the first act, after just a few seconds of positioning, two slender, refined beams of spiritual energy precisely divided the main model into four.

In the second act, Chen Mo tackled the significantly harder six-line channeling. He added multiple auxiliary lines, straight and curved, completing the six-line channeling in about three minutes.

If Morton could still somewhat follow the earlier steps, Chen Mo’s three-line channeling left him utterly baffled. After a dazzling, intricate series of divisions, Chen Mo pinpointed four points, splitting the main model into three.

From the strictest perspective, there was still a slight deviation, but only someone like Morton, steeped in spell models for years, could detect it. To the naked eye, it was a remarkably standard three-line channeling.

The room fell into a deathly silence.

Morton’s mouth gaped in an almost comical arc, wide enough to fit a giant egg from the Theia Plains.

The other Glimmer Group Three apprentices huddled in corners, exchanging looks of shock and bewilderment.

Some were visibly trembling.

Chen Mo was completely unaware of how extraordinary his performance was.

The truth was, even his instructor, a mage of modest tier but with rock-solid fundamentals, nicknamed the “human spell engraving board”, was only proficient in two-line and four-line channeling.

For odd-numbered channeling, especially five or more, most mages didn’t bother practicing. The effort-to-reward ratio was abysmal.

If a fireball could be easily split into four paths, you could just cast another if needed. Why go through the hassle of splitting it five ways? This wasn’t the mythical Five Fireball Sect!

It was like cooking: others cut a potato into four pieces with two slices and call it a day, but you insist on carving a perfect seven-pointed star. In the time it takes you to master that, others could learn a dozen new dishes.

As for using geometry to simplify the process? That was pure fantasy.

In the Starry Continent, education was a privilege for the few. Even for these lucky ones, subjects like arithmetic and geometry were far from priorities.

Only mages at the Corona tier or above, aiming to construct complex spell models for tier advancement, would invest time and effort in deeper study.

For apprentices and low-tier mages? No resources, no need! Practice was enough. An illiterate person could paint perfect hollow slogans on a wall after hundreds of repetitions—practice makes perfect.

Thus, Chen Mo mastering three, four, six, and eight-line channeling in a single night’s practice, while stubbornly wrestling with five-line channeling, made everyone in the room, including Instructor Morton, realize a brutal truth:

This guy wasn’t even in the same race as them!

They were running on foot, maybe a few hundred meters ahead, but Chen Mo was chasing them on horseback, a winged silver pegasus, no less.

Morton decisively shut down the topic.

“I… can’t teach you in this area,” he admitted. “But I don’t recommend spending too much time on it.”

“Mastering four-line channeling is sufficient. Focus more on building your core strength, raising your mental power and mana would be a better use of your time.”

“Understood! Thank you, Instructor!” Chen Mo accepted the advice humbly, adapting quickly.

For the rest of the day’s lessons, Morton taught listlessly, and the group studied halfheartedly, the air heavy with a sense of defeat.

Chen Mo, unfazed, dove back into his routine of cultivation, cultivation, and more cultivation.

The potions gifted by Instructor Morton, tested personally by Kato, proved effective with no noticeable side effects. In Kato’s words: “Tastes awful, like muddy rotten roots!”

Such a minor flaw was no issue. Chen Mo added the potion to his daily gear.

Morton’s intention was for the potion to ease the mental strain of prolonged meditation, reducing stress and allowing more rest.

But to Chen Mo, rest? What rest?

He used to need five or six hours of intermittent rest to sustain cultivation. Now, with the potion, three hours sufficed. If he used the saved time to rest, wouldn’t that waste the potion?

Of course, he kept grinding!

He added a 90-minute meditation session and spent the remaining time practicing Spiritual Energy Channeling.

Once he confirmed his four-line channeling was proficient and stable, unlikely to cause mishaps, Chen Mo took a brief break, splurged on a private skill practice room, and activated his summoning altar again.

Four-line channeling meant the once-bulky, time-intensive summoning ritual was neatly split into four independent, lightweight magical frameworks. This was a game-changer for Chen Mo—no more “waiting by the stump” for long stretches! Whenever Blue Star had “goods” ready, he could find a quiet corner and “pick them up” instantly!

The letter to his family was long prepared. Before sending, he reviewed it meticulously, tweaking a few phrases and adding some heartfelt ramblings that had surfaced recently.

Then he checked the items packed for home.

At the bottom was a magical badge from the Vine Squad.

Previously, due to his limited magical knowledge, Chen Mo had been wary of magical items, avoiding the gear on the blonde mage out of fear of tracking marks and hesitating to send other magical items to Blue Star, worried about unforeseen consequences.

Only after learning comprehensive magical basics from Morton did he start sending these items home.

Besides magical items, the most valuable contents were several magical materials and potions obtained from Morton.

Next was a stack of memory cards, crammed with environmental data, recorded footage, and detailed daily logs and study notes from his time in the Starry Continent.

Chen Mo recorded every cultivation insight meticulously, not just out of diligence but to send these techniques and experiences back home.

With a bit of transmission capacity left and unable to shop recently, Chen Mo, ever frugal, added some soil and pebbles scavenged from the cultivation room’s corners, filling the altar’s transfer space to the brim.

After ensuring the private practice room’s door was securely locked, Chen Mo entered the lengthy, intricate spatial coordinates tracing the paths of the stars.

Buzz…

A faint spatial ripple passed. With only a quarter of the altar’s usual transfer load, he successfully sent a 1.8-kilogram “gift package” from another world to distant Blue Star.

Well, less than a single lunar soil sample…

A piercing alarm blared once more in the special operations office of the Cihang Engineering Department at Changle Palace.

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