Chapter 220 - 9: Secret Technique to Break Through to the First Spirit Ring

Chapter 220: Chapter 9: Secret Technique to Break Through to the First Spirit Ring

Mo Ning’s expression was somewhat peculiar as he recalled his experience in Meditation.

Three months had passed, and the illusory land within his Spiritual World had already undergone earth-shattering changes.

But the timeline in his Meditation advanced even faster; in the blink of an eye, a year had passed.

He had graduated from high school and been accepted into a prestigious university, and was now in the second semester of his freshman year.

This, too, was different from the path his life had actually taken. In reality, he had only attended an ordinary university.

That evening, he left the study hall with his backpack on, strolling into the night breeze to unwind.

He suddenly felt something trailing him from behind. When he turned to look, he saw a pair of dark green pupils staring eerily at him from the dim light of a streetlamp.

Mo Ning froze for a moment. After a closer look, he realized it was a black cat.

It was pitch-black, melting into the night, making its eyes all the more striking.

He didn’t think much of it and turned back, heading toward his dorm on his own.

To his surprise, the black cat trailed him for several hundred meters, right up to the entrance of his dormitory, where it paused to watch him go into the hall.

For the next three days, the black cat appeared punctually by the side of the road, waiting for him to finish studying and escorting him all the way back to his dorm.

He stopped several times to ask if it would come home with him, offering to adopt it.

But the black cat would always turn and walk away without a backward glance.

「Until the fourth day.」

Mo Ning left the study hall, following the same route back that he had walked countless times.

He had only walked fifty meters when the black cat leaped out from the shadows with a YOWL, blocking his path.

He paused, stunned. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, something unexpected happened.

A thick, dead branch on a dense tree by the roadside broke with a CRACK, plummeting from high above and crashing down just a meter in front of him.

A fork in the branch nearly grazed the tip of his nose, making his hair stand on end in terror.

Mo Ning understood at once. If the black cat hadn’t blocked his path, that branch would have undoubtedly smashed into his head.

The branch was heavy; if it had truly hit him, he would have likely suffered a serious, bloody injury.

He crouched down, gazed into the black cat’s dark green eyes, and asked in earnest, "Will you come home with me?"

As if it understood him, the black cat gave a surprisingly human-like nod.

He brought the black cat home and settled it on the balcony. His three roommates welcomed it warmly.

「At this moment.」

Mo Ning sat in the bedroom of the Cabin in the Woods, gently stroking the rough leopard tooth. The expression on his face grew even more peculiar.

The Thunder Shadow Leopard was covered in black fur and preferred to be active at night. In his Meditation World, he encountered a black cat every day, and it was always nighttime.

’Is this a coincidence?’

’Lord Budi’s parting words said, "In dark passages, there are always dangers that are hard to perceive."’

’The path from the study hall to the dorm was lined with tall trees, their branches nearly blocking out the sky. Wasn’t that just like a dark passage?’

’Is this a coincidence, too?’

’The message also said, "May the Thunder Shadow Leopard help you see the path clearly." The black cat had seen the branch snap and fall, stopping him just in time and saving him from a nasty head injury.’

’Is this still a coincidence?’

’With so many coincidences piling up, it clearly wasn’t a coincidence anymore.’

His Spiritual Intuition told him that the black cat, which had suddenly appeared in his Meditation World, would bring a series of wondrous influences into his real life.

Mo Ning hung the pendant around his neck, feeling more and more that the Meditation World concealed endless mysteries.

He first returned to his apartment to retrieve the breakfast the lovely cook had meticulously prepared and left in his mailbox. Only then did he activate his brooch to return to the Cabin in the Woods.

He was worried that the two Dark Wizard infiltrators, Dead Ghost Kanda and Semy, might have set some kind of trap in the dormitory area. Because of this, ever since gaining permanent access to the cabin, he had stopped spending the night at his apartment.

This created one small inconvenience: he had to go back for his breakfast every time.

Upon opening the food container, the first thing Mo Ning saw were three round, flat cakes, pan-fried to a crispy, golden-brown. An unconscious smile touched his lips.

They were scallion and pork pancakes.

He had only casually described how to make them yesterday, yet the lovely cook, Anya, had already figured out the process today. It was clear the Noble Lady’s culinary skills had advanced by leaps and bounds over the past few months.

In addition to the pancakes, the container also held a portion of fragrant, golden fish fillets and a bowl of creamy mushroom soup.

The mushrooms in the soup were, of course, fresh ingredients gathered in the Birch Forest by the Artificial Soul, Flower.

He had to admit, the quality of his meals had been steadily improving over the past few months.

As his Physique Value continued to rise, Mo Ning found his appetite growing more voracious. Even his height had quietly crept up from five-foot-eleven to a solid six feet.

Tucked into a slot on the corner of the lid was a folded sheet of scale pattern paper.

Mo Ning unfolded the paper. It was covered in densely written Secret Spirit Text—questions that Anya and Reina had accumulated from their studies over the last few days.

Without needing to be told, Flower quickly fetched some blank paper and an Ink Tube Pen, laying the paper out to his right.

Flower knew its new master’s habits well. He always enjoyed his delicious breakfast while simultaneously answering his two teammates’ questions, refusing to waste even a single moment.

Mo Ning took a bite of the scallion and pork pancake, savoring the rich, savory layers of flavor that exploded on his tongue. He quietly cast a Trick: Pen Control.

It was a Trick he had just learned a few days ago.

With the rapid growth of his Spiritual Strength, his Spiritual World now had enough spare capacity to handle more Magic.

Pen Control was a Trick simplified from the Level Zero Witchcraft, Magic Pen Technique.

The biggest difference between the two was that the Level Zero Witchcraft used Magic Power to create an illusory projection of an Ink Tube Pen, which could write at speeds exceeding two hundred characters of Secret Spirit Text per second.