The Geared Immortal

Chapter 72

While having a spar with Xi Jung, Phoenix suddenly had her memory opens up and she seem to see flashes of moving pictures in her mind. These are her memories, memories of a long lost past when she was a little child.

Then she suddenly finds her consciousness which is full of foreign yet seemingly really familiar symbols. She can also see memories of her being young talking and walking with some people who seem to be distant from her yet closely familiar inside her heart. She is in a place with tall buildings made of bricks, dark corridors lit by torches, and people clothed in different apparel which one cannot see in the land of cultivators. In that place, they stood in a line towards a large hall while magnificent chandeliers provide illumination. Up in a high golden throne sits a man wearing a golden crown on his head with his handsome face and regal appearance.

Then her mind suddenly goes to a setting where she is sitting in a room with other children and learns those foreign yet familiar words in a book. Then they would stand in a field trying to say those words in the book and when she remembers those things, her mind immediately seems to know what to do next.

Right now those words that she learned are coming out of her mouth as her body dashes towards Xi Jung.

Phoenix has clearly remembered her past and who she really is. She is someone who is considered as a mixed-race. Her mother is a cultivator who accidentally traveled to another continent using an experimental ship from a crafting school in the kingdom of Si. But due to an accident, she was stuck on the continent and met someone. From there a unique love story started which bears fruit to a little girl, who looks almost exactly like her mother.

And then one day when she was 8 years old an accident occurred where monsters started to invade their homes and kingdom. Without a choice, just to save their little girl, her mother and father made a sacrifice and created a portal using a huge amount of energy and resources just to send their little girl into the continent where her mother came from. Then after that, she didn't know what happened to her parents.

That little girl was sent to a mortal village and grew up to be an ordinary girl. Due to the space distortion and her traumatic experience, she forgot about her past until today.

After casting the fireball, Phoenix felt that the energy inside her body is being consumed way too much. She knows that this is because she did not focus as she is currently moving. The reason why mages especially beginners would stand still to cast their magic is that they needed to stabilize the mana and their focus. But it is too late for her to try and control this, and all she can do now is to release the huge fireball that she had created.

KABOOM!!!

The huge explosion burned to ashes everything along in a straight path of about 30 meters. Upon seeing this Phoenix heart quickly skipped a beat and she suddenly felt remorseful of her action. At that time she was too excited to realize that she is just having a sparring match with Xi Jung and thoroughly forgotten everything. Now her body felt so heavy but she just stood there looking at the devastation she created with tears in her eyes.

"No!!! Xi Jung! Noooo!!!" Phoenix shouted as she held on to her fading consciousness.

Then she felt her body slump to the ground as her vision darkened.

The next day…

The chirping of the birds can be heard along with the booming sounds of explosion. Outside of a small hut, a wide area has been cleared as smoke and debris can be seen littered everywhere. Shin Jiao and the other girls are still in the testing phase of the new weapons and their currently new discovery.

Inside the hut, a figure of a young woman lays on the bed with her beautiful face in a peaceful and tranquil sleep. Beside the young woman sits a man with a seemingly haggard appearance but his gentle aura and attractive face would make everything in the room peaceful. His eyes never left the woman lying in the bed for a very long time, as he felt that if he would remove his gaze from her she would suddenly disappear. His eyes are full of complicated emotions of love and anxiousness which seems to add more to his attractiveness.

The other girls in the camp would walk in the hut every now and then, and they would check on the young woman. Every time they would look at the young man, it would always cause them to be mesmerized by his appearance.

"Ugh…" a moan suddenly escaped Phoenix's mouth as she slowly opens her eyes.

"Hey…" Xi Jung immediately said as he noticed Phoenix's eyelids fluttering.

As Phoenix slowly opens her eyes, Xi Jung immediately noticed that the once hazel brown iris is now turned into light hazel, making it resembles like golden rays of light, which made her look more like a goddess. When Xi Jung saw this he was truly dumbstruck at the beauty of his Dao companion. He could not explain what he is feeling right now as he felt that the woman he loves, is truly magical.

When Phoenix regained her vision and is able to recognize the man in front of her who is looking at her like a love-struck fool, her tears immediately burst out.

"Oh! Xi, you're okay… I… I thought I have… huhu…" Phoenix cried while she immediately hugs Xi Jung.

"It's okay… I'm fine as you can see. It's thanks to your master." Xi Jung said as he also hugs Phoenix while patting her back.

The two talked for a while as to what had happened.

Meanwhile in a few kilometers away from the hut…

Shin Jiao and a small young woman are standing in front of a tall tree, the young woman is Qilin. While Shin Jiao has his eyes closed as he is trying to check his progress, she is trying to focus her thought and mana while she is looking at the tree. Then she slowly chanted some words like the one that Phoenix said. But then in the middle, she missed words and the slowly glowing flame in her palm immediately dissipated.

Toink!

The sound of a small stick hitting her head immediately sounded.

"Ouch! Master if you always hit me in my head I'll become stupid." Qilin complained as she rubs her head coquettishly.

"Again!" Shin Jiao said without opening his eyes.

Qilin pouted her lips as she once again began to concentrate and adjusted her state of mind.

"Master! Phoenix is awake!" sounded an excited voice while she is running towards Shin Jiao's location.

Upon hearing this Shin Jiao immediately opens his eyes with a glint of excitement in them. When he first heard the spell chant he immediately memorized it and was able to replicate it and taught the other girls. Now that he heard the spell chant from Phoenix he is able to at least comprehend a part of it which he immediately integrated with his own knowledge of gathering mana through what he learned from Gubu.

Since then he taught the girls how to control the flow of mana in their bodies and found that only Qilin has the ability to manipulate mana outside of her body, while the three girls are only able to manipulate it inside of their bodies. According to Gubu, Qilin and Phoenix who can muster and command the elements are called Mages in the other continent, while Fairy, Serpent, and Vermilion Bird who can manipulate the mana inside their bodies but is unable to control natural energies outside are called Warriors.

Although Warriors is unable to manipulate the natural energies outside just like that of the Mages, still they can use the natural energy in their body or mana to form barriers or even change their skin into natural elements. This ability makes them perfect in melee fights or even long-range fighting using bows with arrows charged with mana.

So far Shin Jiao has been using this technique with regards to his weapons and fighting style. He is doing this by enhancing his body and making it stronger so as to cope up with his speed and weapon recoils, he can also enhance his body using natural energy and spiritual Qi at the same time.

Now that he is able to learn a chant from Phoenix, he started to help the other three girls who can't command the natural energy in developing the ability to control the mana inside their bodies.

The reason why Shin Jiao had chosen the five girls is because of their innate ability to wield mana. At that time he thought that Fairy and Phoenix have the highest possibility to be Mages as the two has a huge amount of natural energy in their aura. But he didn't expect that Qilin would be a Mage instead of Fairy.

"Alright, let's wrap things up for today." Shin Jiao said as he smiled at Qilin then patted her head.

Upon seeing this, the one who called them Serpent immediately pouted. Then like a spoiled little girl, rushed towards Shin Jiao's side and ogled him with her big sparkling eye. Shin Jiao almost laughed in exasperation as he knows that he had spoiled these young women. Though he is tough when it comes to training however in normal times he is like an older brother to them.

So he patted her head to and immediately walks away, this causes Serpent to blush and giggled. Qilin upon seeing the reaction of Serpent just shook her head and followed Shin Jiao.

"Hey, wait for me!" Serpent shouted as she followed suit.

…

"Master you're here!" Phoenix excitedly said as she saw Shin Jiao walking toward the hut.

Then she walks out along with Xi Jung and cupped their hands in greetings.

"So, how do you feel?" Shin Jiao asked after nodding his head to both of them.

"I'm okay now master. I… I think I've recovered most of my memories. And I seem to come from another land, a land which is very far from this continent." Phoenix said with a smile on her face, her words made the other girls and Xi Jung showed an incredulous look on their faces.

If it was the day before, it is almost impossible for them to imagine that Phoenix came from another place. But with her eyes and looks right now everyone is convinced that what she is saying is true.

"So, you're a mage?" Shin Jiao asked.

Phoenix suddenly stiffens up, as she didn't expect her master to know the word Mage. Then with an incredulous look on her face, she became confused.

"Don't be confused as I actually had a little bit of knowledge about the other Continent that you are talking about. And, I already taught the members of the Shadow Squad about mana manipulation. But only Qilin is the same as you as she is also a Mage." Shin Jiao explained.

"Really! She… she can cast magic too!" Phoenix excitedly exclaimed.

"Umm… but I think fire spell is not my thing. As no matter how I try, I just can't feel some resonance with the fireball spell that you did." Qilin interjected with a look of hopelessness in her eyes as she held Phoenix's hand trying to gain her favor, while her words gained nods from the rest of the girls.

"Since Phoenix is already up maybe she has an idea on what element is suitable for you." Fairy added while looking at Phoenix.

Phoenix then thought for a while and was about to say something when Shin Jiao stopped her.

"I know you want to teach them what you know. But if I may ask, do you know how to write the basic spells?" Shin Jiao asked.

"Yes master, since young I was taught how to write all the basic spells. But I was too young and is unable to learn the more advanced spells as it was prohibited in the school at that time." Phoenix explained with a little disappointment in her tone.

"Haha! Don't worry too much. First, teach me the basic spells then I will try to learn something from it and we will see what would happen next." Shin Jiao said with confidence.

Everyone had their eyes wide open in realization. Phoenix too realized that she has forgotten how absurd her master's learning mode is. But thinking about his focus in his learning mode, her body involuntarily shudders.

That day Shin Jiao learned from Phoenix the 5 basic spells: Fire, wind, water, dirt, and lightning. Although these are just the basic spells, Phoenix told Shin Jiao that there are other basic spells which are prohibited to learn because she is still too young at that time and one of those examples is the dark spells. Upon hearing this Shin Jiao almost immediately wanted to build a ship and fly to the continent of magic.

Shin Jiao became excited as he stayed inside the room, then he takes out his laptop inside his ring and started to analyze each spell script intensively. He started to deduce a lot of data which would always show a happy and excited expression in his eyes. Shin Jiao learned a lot of things, and unlike before his learning curve is already high because of the changes in his body. And in that short amount of time, he was able to combine, change, and even create a new type of spell script. If those scholars and mages in the other continent could learn about this, they would pluck their white hair in exasperation at the speed of his learning.

But of course, this is not all due to Shin Jiao's ability as his laptop did all the fast calculations and spell simulations.

One day later…

Shin Jiao is now standing atop a cliff while looking at the opposite mountain. Then he suddenly invokes something in his hand and a silver glow covers his index finger. Then as quickly as he can he writes a spell circle in the air and within a few seconds finished it.

"This is the chant script for a lightning strike, if I am correct it would cause a huge area of effect damage." Shin Jiao said as he waited for the effect of the magic circle.

Then all of a sudden, the magic circle lights up and from the center came a flash of lightning as thick as a man's arms. The lightning bolt snaked towards the trees around a kilometer away from the cliff and caused a huge area of around 100 meters in diameter to be charred black.

"This… its effect is not that devastating, but enough to fight against a horde of monsters. And the mana it consumes is moderate. Haha… if I teach this to Qilin, she would surely be happy." Shin Jiao thought.

Then once again he drew another pattern in the air, but this time the pattern glowed red, as around a circle appear head-sized fireballs with extreme heat. Shin Jiao immediately backs away so that his clothes would not be burned. Then the fireballs immediately flew towards the trees at the same distance. But this time the devastation is a little bit wider as there is also the impact force when the fireballs hit the ground.

"Now this is for Phoenix, hopefully, she can control these fireballs, as my affinity with fire is just average. But if she can control these fireballs then it would truly be amazing." Shin Jiao said to himself with a smile.

After testing the spells he made, Shin Jiao decided to go back to the training area. But on his way, he suddenly felt something in the air.

"Hmm… I guess time is running out. We must be prepared for the incoming battle. If my calculation is correct we only have 3 days before the beast tide would appear.." Shin Jiao thought as he quickly rushed forward.