Gaode returned fully loaded with three Magic Formulas, arriving back at the Medicinal Garden just in time for the evening meal. Suppressing his eagerness, he headed to the dining hall and forced down the classic but unpalatable two-piece combo he had long grown tired of—rye bread and pea soup—before finally retreating to his workshop. Evenings were the apprentices' cultivation time, free for them to arrange as they pleased, so no one would bother him.
Gaode took out the three Magic Formulas from his chest pocket. After a moment of thought, he opened the Acid Splash Magic Formula first. What caught his eye was a Magic Model composed of mathematical lines and diagrams, containing nine nodes. At first glance, the entire structure of the Magic Model resembled a three-dimensional star chart. Below it was the official introduction to the Magic. The spell effect introduction on the Yellow Paper Yom had given him earlier was copied exactly from here.
The right page featured a localized, magnified view of the Magic Model alongside a detailed text explanation. Flipping to the next page revealed another magnified view and its corresponding explanation. The Magic Model for a Trick was not particularly complex in itself. Furthermore, since it didn't require consuming a corresponding Magic Potion, the potion formula section was omitted, making the entire book a mere five pages long. In just a few minutes, Gaode had briefly skimmed through it.
Of course, this wasn't enough. The first step in constructing a Magic Model was to commit it to Memory. A normal Mage Apprentice would be stuck on this very first step for a day or two. Gaode's own Memory was already outstanding, and his predecessor's Memory hadn't been bad either. It seemed to be a case of one plus one being greater than two, elevating his Memory from merely outstanding to absolutely extraordinary. In less than half an hour, he had firmly etched the Magic Model of Acid Splash into his mind.
Afterward, Gaode put away the Acid Splash Magic Formula, lightly closed his eyes, and swiftly entered a state of Meditation. His five days of cultivation had made him increasingly proficient at entering Meditation. His Spirit immersed itself in the world of the Magic Star Sea. Deep within the dark consciousness, countless Stars were drifting about, beautiful and resplendent.
To construct a Magic Model, one needed to use their spiritual intent to guide and link these Stars, making them obediently stop at specific positions. Then, through the connections of Spiritual Power, they would be linked together into a Magic Model. Once the Magic Model was completed, a Mage could channel Mana through the model, transforming it into the corresponding Magic to cast out. However, these Stars were constantly moving erratically. Attempting to guide them and securely link them at fixed distances and orientations was by no means a simple task.
The construction of the Acid Splash Magic Model required a total of nine Stars. This wasn't considered many, but it wasn't few either. In fact, ninety-nine percent of Magic Models for Tricks did not exceed ten Stars. Gaode began trying to construct the Magic Model using his Spiritual Power, strictly following the diagrams and specific routes recorded in the Acid Splash Magic Formula.
He locked onto a random Star. His Spiritual Power acted like a hunting snake, silently closing in. As the distance closed, Gaode's Spiritual Power violently surged forward, firmly locking the erratically drifting Star in place. It went very smoothly; there were no unexpected hiccups. With his current Spiritual Power, controlling a single Star wouldn't result in any mistakes.
But a Star wouldn't just obediently stay still once locked. It would continuously struggle and resist. This meant that until the Magic Model was fully constructed, Gaode had to constantly use his Spiritual Power to suppress and balance the Stars. If any Star lost control and drifted off course during the construction of the Magic Model, all his efforts would be ruined, and he would have to start over from scratch.
As the saying goes, the first step is always the hardest. Yet, for constructing a Magic Model, it was the exact opposite: the first Star was actually the easiest. This was because moving forward, Gaode would have to split his Spiritual Power and attention to lock onto and control a second Star while simultaneously keeping the first one firmly suppressed. By the final step, he would need to control the ninth Star while simultaneously holding down eight other Stars. The difficulty was easy to imagine. And this was merely a Trick. The Magic Models for higher-level 1st Ring and 2nd Ring Magics would be composed of hundreds of Stars. Just thinking about it was terrifying.
It was no wonder that a Mage's two most important metrics were Mana and Spiritual Power. Without Mana, Magic could not be cast. If one's Spiritual Power wasn't strong enough, constructing a Magic Model was entirely impossible. Without a Magic Model, even an abundance of Mana wouldn't allow a single Magic to be cast. Neither could be lacking.
However, this wasn't an issue Gaode needed to consider right now. What he needed to do was control the second Star. He attempted to split off a stream of Spiritual Power to seize a Star that happened to be drifting near the first one, just as he had done before. But for this second Star, simply keeping it still wasn't enough. It also needed to be moved to a specific position relative to the first Star.
Taking a deep breath, Gaode extended the Spiritual Power coiled around the first Star outward. It transformed into a straight Star Orbit, shooting directly toward the second Star until the two were connected. Subsequently, following the descriptions in the Magic Formula, Gaode controlled the second Star and began to move it, using the first Star's location as the starting point.
"Move forward by one, right by one and a third, up by one-quarter..."
Any object's movement boils down to two elements: direction and distance. The directions a Star could move in were limited to three axes: forward and backward, left and right, and up and down. Distance, on the other hand, was represented directly by numbers, without any units, because the distance between each Star in a Magic Model was proportionally fixed. For example, if the distance between the first and second Stars in a specific direction was two feet, and the distance between the second and third Stars in a specific direction was four feet, changing them to four feet and eight feet respectively wouldn't affect the construction of the Magic Model. Therefore, the "one" in "move forward by one" was actually a ratio. The actual distances set by each person when constructing the Magic Model would vary, but the proportions remained identical, thereby ensuring the uniformity of the Magic Model.
The Star Orbit formed by Spiritual Power connecting the two Stars continued to extend and lengthen as the second Star moved. Finally, the second Star reached its designated position. Gaode pressed on without pausing, capturing a third Star near the second Star's location. Similarly, he used Spiritual Power to form a Star Orbit connecting the second and third Stars. He then controlled the third Star, using the second Star's current position as a starting point, and began to move it.
Aside from Stars, there was nothing else in the Magic Star Sea, meaning there were no reference points and certainly no rulers. Yet, the position of each node within a Magic Model required absolute fixedness and precision. Looking at it this way, simply grasping the moving distance of each Star seemed as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
But the truth was quite the opposite. During the construction of a Magic Model, controlling the moving distance of a Star was actually the easiest part. Because the Magic Star Sea was located deep within a person's consciousness, and within one's own Consciousness Space, everyone possessed machine-like, precise intuition regarding physical attributes such as distance, size, direction, and mass. The true difficulty in constructing a Magic Model lay in controlling the Stars' movement and maintaining their stability. This was because, whether moving or stationary, the Stars constantly struggled. This created tremendous resistance, and the direction of that resistance was constantly and randomly changing.
"Move forward by a half, right by two-thirds, down by a half..."
Similarly, this second Star Orbit continued to extend and lengthen as the third Star moved. Gaode's Spirit was highly concentrated on controlling the third Star, which was moving at a steady pace.
However, right at that moment, the Star Orbit between the first and second Stars suddenly and inexplicably began to tremble, its frequency increasing rapidly. Then, before Gaode could react, the Star Orbit snapped under the intense vibration. Free from the Star Orbit's restraint, the second Star bolted wildly through the Magic Star Sea like a runaway horse. Like falling dominoes, the departure of the second Star caused the second Star Orbit to collapse, and naturally, the third Star slipped out of control as well.
His first attempt at constructing the Acid Splash Magic Model ended in failure!