220: Chapter 220 What kind of magic is this?

The third day was for the fire element.

The main instructor, Junior Martial Uncle Zhao, was a burly man in his forties at the Late Foundation Establishment Stage. He stood on the central demonstration platform, with three test stones of varying sizes placed beside him.

He excelled in a second-order Spell called Crimson Fire Thunder, which was quite renowned within the Sect.

Junior Martial Uncle Zhao wasted no time on pleasantries. After cupping his hands in a salute to the audience below the stage, he directly began his demonstration.

The first Crimson Fire Thunder was a standard, textbook execution.

Spiritual power was refined and compressed within the Dantian, then traveled upward along the main fire-attribute Meridians. It abruptly accelerated upon passing the Danzhong acupoint, converging in the palm to form a fist-sized crimson fireball.

The fireball left his hand and struck the smallest test stone, leaving a two-finger-wide charred crack on its surface.

The Qi Refining Disciples in the back rows collectively gasped in shock. The dozen or so Foundation Establishment Cultivators in the front rows reacted more calmly, though some nodded.

Junior Martial Uncle Zhao waved his hand dismissively.

"Mastering the basics of Crimson Fire Thunder isn't difficult. The challenge lies in what comes after."

For the second time, he changed his approach.

The initial movements were identical to the first: spiritual power compression, upward travel, acceleration. But at the moment the thunderball condensed in his palm, the air in the side hall suddenly grew heavy.

It wasn't that the spiritual power fluctuations had intensified. On the contrary, the total amount of spiritual power released by Junior Martial Uncle Zhao in this second attempt was almost the same as the first.

Something else had changed. An intangible pressure emanated from his palm. The dozen or so Foundation Establishment Cultivators in the front simultaneously felt a slight stagnation in their own spiritual power circulation. The Qi Refining Disciples in the back felt it even more distinctly; several instinctively held their breath.

This was Momentum!

Junior Martial Uncle Zhao offered no explanation. He simply changed the output frequency of his fire-attribute spiritual power from constant to pulsed.

Releasing it in bursts, not in one continuous stream.

But what truly transformed this strike wasn't the pulsing itself, but the perfectly natural Qi rhythm behind those pulses.

Each burst of spiritual power pulse carried with it the accumulated Spell might from Junior Martial Uncle Zhao's sixty years of diligent practice with Crimson Fire Thunder. The spiritual power was no longer mere energy output; it was imbued with the caster's complete understanding and mastery of this Spell.

The effect was worlds apart.

The fireball left his hand, traced an arc through the air, and landed squarely in the center of the medium-sized test stone.

This time, there was no crack. The entire stone shattered from within, breaking into fragments large and small.

The side hall instantly fell silent.

"See the difference?" Junior Martial Uncle Zhao turned around, sweeping his gaze over the audience below. "The first and second attempts consumed nearly the same amount of spiritual power, but the power differed by almost double. Where's the difference? It's in the Momentum."

He raised his right palm, the residual crimson spiritual glow not yet fully dissipated.

"When a Spell is practiced to the level of Momentum, the circulation of spiritual power no longer requires your deliberate guidance. It moves on its own.

The Spell follows your intent, not you following the Spell's steps.

At that point, the same amount of spiritual power released naturally carries might."

Su Yunling's eyes lit up.

Momentum!

She had heard her Revered Master speak of it and read about it in ancient texts, but she had never felt it so viscerally before.

The difference between Senior Brother Zhao's first and second attempts wasn't in the change of technique, but in the fact that each burst of spiritual power pulse in the second attempt was infused with something.

It was the natural synergy formed between body and spiritual power after practicing the Crimson Fire Thunder Spell for sixty years.

The spiritual power knew how to move without needing the mind's command. This was Momentum!

And what her Beacon Fire Seal and Fire Crow Sword Art lacked was precisely this.

The techniques themselves were practiced to proficiency. Every step of spiritual power circulation was committed to memory; she could perform them with her eyes closed.

But the results always fell just short. The flame was just flame, the Sword Qi was just Sword Qi. Once released, they were simply released, lacking that sense of seamless unity.

Because she was still following the steps of the Spells, not having turned it around to make the Spells follow her.

Su Yunling's mind began to race. Senior Brother Zhao's pulsed output gave her an entry point.

The Beacon Fire Seal pursued sustained burning. Its spiritual power output emphasized continuous, unbroken flow with layered accumulation. Therefore, she had always practiced constant output, stabilizing the spiritual power supply for each layer of the fire seal.

But Senior Brother Zhao's method was the exact opposite. He broke the continuous spiritual power stream into pulsed segments, with extremely brief gaps between each pulse. During these gaps, the fire-attribute spiritual power would spontaneously rebound and compress. When the next pulse arrived, the combined power of the two forces wasn't a simple one-plus-one addition.

Moreover, this pulsed output method was precisely an external manifestation of "Momentum."

Because only when the caster no longer needed to meticulously control every step of the spiritual power's path could they spare the effort to adjust the output's rhythm and frequency, achieving the ability to switch freely between constant and pulsed modes.

If she could seamlessly insert pulsed compression into the constant layering of her Beacon Fire Seal—not by forcibly wrenching it with her Divine Sense, but by letting the spiritual power find that rhythm on its own—then her Beacon Fire Seal wouldn't just gain a new output method; it would truly step over the threshold into "Momentum."

The temperature of the fire seal wouldn't be interrupted, because the constant-layered base fire would keep burning.

But each time a pulse was injected, the temperature would spike sharply for an instant, forming a sharp heat peak.

Continuous base fire plus intermittent heat peaks wouldn't produce mere sustained burning, but a peeling effect, layer by layer.

And what about the Fire Crow Sword Art? The crow-shaped Sword Qi of the Fire Crow Sword Art was itself condensed fire-attribute spiritual power, pursuing penetrative power.

What if, when channeling the Sword Qi, instead of using constant infusion, she added a burst of spiritual power pulse at the final moment of the Sword Qi's formation?

The number of fiery threads scattering upon the Sword Qi penetrating the target would double, and each fiery thread would carry the extra heat from the pulsed compression.

Two Spells, the same Breakthrough point.

Su Yunling rapidly simulated the spiritual power circulation routes within her Sea of Consciousness.

The Meridian path for the fourth layer of the Beacon Fire Seal: spiritual power departs from the Dantian, travels upward along the main fire-attribute Meridian, passes through twelve acupoint nodes, and finally converges in the palm for release.

Now, what she needed to do was insert the pulsed compression technique during the acceleration phase, relax the deliberate control over the spiritual power, and let it find its own rhythm of alternating constant and pulsed flow during the acceleration segment.

As for the Fire Crow Sword Art, she only needed to switch the spiritual power infusion method from constant to a short, sharp pulse of compression just before the Sword Qi fully formed, allowing the crow-shaped Sword Qi to carry higher-density fire-attribute spiritual power the moment it left her hand.

Su Yunling turned her right palm upward and attempted to channel the Beacon Fire Seal.

Spiritual power within her Dantian began to circulate. The base fire of the Beacon Fire Seal spread out, output constant, one layer, two layers, three layers of fire seal stacked sequentially—steady.

Then, she used her Divine Sense to slightly relax her control over the spiritual power. The spiritual power in her Meridians jolted violently. Conflict arose.

Constant layering and pulsed compression collided in the acceleration phase. The two circulation methods tore at each other, and the pressure on the Meridian walls suddenly multiplied several times over.

Fine beads of sweat broke out on Su Yunling's forehead. Her Divine Sense was split in two: one half desperately maintaining the constant layering of the base fire, the other half desperately controlling the rhythm and intensity of the pulses.

It hurt. A fiery, burning sensation raged in her Meridians, but they didn't rupture.

"The Spell follows your intent, not you following the Spell's steps."

Senior Brother Zhao's words kept revolving in her mind.

She stopped trying to use her Divine Sense to precisely control the timing and force of each pulse. Instead, she shifted her focus from *how* to do it to *what* she wanted.

Base fire unbroken, heat peaks stacking, burn, layer by layer—that was her only thought.

The spiritual power seemed to understand. The rhythm of the constant layering slowed by half a beat on its own, creating a sliver of space for the pulses to insert.

The output of the pulses also automatically reduced to about thirty percent, no longer competing with the base fire for the path. The two spiritual power streams bumped and ground against each other in the acceleration phase for about ten breaths, then meshed.

The constant base fire and the pulsed compression synchronized on a certain beat. The spiritual power streams no longer repelled each other but advanced alternately, one after the other.

The base fire took a step, the pulse followed. The base fire paved the way, the pulse added pressure.

Su Yunling's right palm began to glow. A cluster of crimson flame rose from her palm.

But the form of this flame was completely different from a normal Beacon Fire Seal.

The outer layer of the flame was the continuously burning dark red base fire—uniform, stable, layered. But at the flame's core, every two or three breaths, a bright orange-white light flashed—the instantaneous heat peak brought by the pulsed compression.

Dark red and orange-white alternated in brightness. One layer finished burning, the next pressed forward. More crucially, the air around this flame shimmered slightly.

It wasn't merely heat waves from high temperature, but an intangible sense of pressure seeping from the flame, slowly diffusing outward.

A Foundation Establishment Mid-stage Senior Brother sitting next to Su Yunling instinctively shifted away. Not only was his face scorched by the heat, but the circulation of spiritual power within his body also inexplicably hit a slight snag.

"What Spell is this?"