Chapter 198 Magic Patterns, Magic Texts and Formations

Over the past week, Bell has selected a lot of books, planning to buy them all and read them slowly when he goes back. On the other hand, he also had a certain understanding of the overall situation of the Chinese monk community.

First of all, Bell found... nothing special about the history of the Chinese monk community.

The history of China in this world, for some reason, is not much different from Bell's previous life in general. At most, the names of the dynasties are different, or the events occurred at different times.

The only difference is that some feudal legends in the previous life are basically the good deeds of monks in this world.

But this is just Bell's subjective feeling. After all, his historical results are not good, and he has been hovering above the passing line.

To use a more fashionable metaphor, after each exam, Bell's history scores were like "Schrödinger's cat." Before the papers were handed out, he would never know whether he had passed or failed. .

In addition to history, Bell's biggest gain is that he has a clearer understanding of China's cultivation system.

From the source of power, monks and wizards are no different. They all come from the innate magic power in the body. It’s just that the monks called it ‘spiritual power’.

But in terms of spells, especially high-level and large-scale spells, they are obviously different from magic spells.

When wizards use some difficult spells, if they only rely on the instinctive reaction of magic power, it will easily lead to problems such as spell casting failure, excessive magic power consumption, and difficulty in control.

Ancient wizards discovered the existence of ‘magic patterns’ through research and observation of magical creatures.

The so-called magic pattern is actually not something grand. They are just some patterns naturally formed on the bodies or bones of some magical creatures.

The first wizards used magic to imitate these patterns to help them cast magic.

With continuous exploration and research, these magic patterns were continuously classified and simplified, and finally formed the 'magic text' system used by modern wizards.

The same as the ancient wizards, the ancient monks, or should they be called Taoists at that time? Also facing the same problem.

Therefore, Taoist priests also found a way to solve the problem from magical creatures - magic patterns.

However, due to differences in language systems, in China, these magic patterns eventually evolved into formations.

Compared with Western magic spells, it is easy to cast, but its effect time is short, making it more suitable for single use. Although Hua's formation has the disadvantages of being difficult to cast and time-consuming, once the formation is deployed, it can maintain itself for a long time.

For example, in order to prevent ordinary people's hatred of extraordinary beings from being introduced into the Central Plains, the monks built a huge formation - the 'Kiuzhou Guardian Array' - to prevent Western wizards from entering. This formation is still operating normally to this day, thousands of years later.

It was only then that Bell realized why Europe and China were no longer connected by a key passage.

In order to open a space channel connecting the inside and outside in the Kyushu Guardian Formation, it would require a huge amount of manpower, material resources and time.

In addition to its long maintenance time, the formation also has another advantage, that is, it is good at integrating forces.

For wizards, most of the time they use magic alone. When necessary, 3 or 5 people usually cast spells together.

If you want to increase the number of people who jointly cast spells to more than 10, it will be almost impossible to succeed unless you are led by a wizard with extremely high magical attainments.

This can be seen from the battle between Grindelwald and Voldemort, the two Dark Lords before and after them when they were wreaking havoc. The wizards were in melee most of the time, each fighting his own way.

When monks use the power of formations, they can even bring together hundreds or even thousands of people to fight against the enemy together. Several powerful demons in the history of China were basically suppressed by this kind of formation.

No wonder that when Grindelwald was wreaking havoc all over the world, he never entered China, or even the lands surrounding China. If he accidentally bumped into a large formation, Dumbledore might not have a chance to play.

Of course, a coalition of hundreds or thousands of people not only requires powerful formations to support it, but also requires long-term training and running-in.

But if it is just a combination of a dozen or dozens of people, it will be much simpler. Even strangers, with the guidance and assistance of the formation, only need a short time to gather their spiritual power to fight against the enemy.

So in general, in low-level duels, wizards have an advantage in spell casting speed. But if it was a group battle, the wizards would probably be pressed to the ground and rubbed.

As for the high level? Then these differences are actually not that important. Different paths lead to the same destination.

In addition to spells, Bell also figured out what was going on with the 'skills' that he had always been curious about before.

The first thing to emphasize is that only monks can practice the exercises. According to the Chinese monk community, one must have a 'spiritual root' in the body.

The second thing to emphasize is that Qigong is not actually a way to cultivate spiritual power. It is actually the third method of using spells discovered by monks besides flying swords and talismans.

Moreover, wizards actually have this method, but no one has systematically summarized it.

So having said all that, what exactly is the practice?

In fact, it was the 'magic-strengthened body' that Bell had always listed as his primary research goal since he was very young.

There are not many types of exercises in China, and the methods of cultivation are all similar.

The first step in practicing the technique is to open up the Dantian Qi sea.

The function of Dantian Qihai is to provide a place for the spiritual power to change its nature after receiving the monk's thoughts.

The monks chose the Dantian (dàn) point on the chest to locate the Dantian Qihai. Because it is not only protected by the sternum, but also located in the gap between the two lungs. In this way, when practicing the exercises, even if the spiritual power cannot be controlled well, it is not easy to harm the fragile internal organs.

After successfully opening up the Dantian Qi Sea, the second step is to strengthen the meridians.

After the spiritual power has completed the change in nature in the Dantian Qi Sea, it still needs to be cast outside the body in order to truly form a spell.

In order to prevent the spiritual power that has completed its change in nature from harming the human body, the monks chose to strengthen certain meridians individually to create a fixed path for the spiritual power to pass through.

After completing these two steps, it means that a skill has been successfully practiced. The next thing to do is to continuously consolidate the Dantian Qi sea and continue to strengthen the meridians.