"Magic, put simply, is about communicating with the various energies between heaven and earth, and then influencing them. Natural magic, however, is about sensing the power of nature—communicating with every flower, blade of grass, tree, and piece of wood in nature—and then guiding them to absorb and store the energies of heaven and earth according to your will."
"In other words, the first step to learning natural magic is to master other forms of magic."
"For example, if you want to cultivate a top-grade fire dragon fruit, you not only have to communicate with the fruit using your will, but also communicate with the elemental energies of water, wood, life, and fire in the world, so they can be absorbed by the fruit—and you must ensure that the fruit doesn't burst from the excess energy."
Although Xia Yi had said that they'd wait a few days until Ya Li returned before teaching the Elves the second-stage processing method of the Life Stones—that is, the forging method—the Elves didn't wait for Xia Yi to teach them forging before they began teaching him natural magic.
After the Elven Queen left, she arranged for a top-tier natural magician to personally teach Xia Yi.
Because Xia Yi needed to protect Yuanen Yehui and Ye Xinglan and couldn't stray far from them, the Elven natural magician even came to Xia Yi's residence to teach him.
"Wouldn't that require too much time?" Xia Yi couldn't help but ask.
"That's not quite right. A powerful natural magician can cultivate an entire forest of fruit trees—or even staple crops—at the same time. I myself am responsible for cultivating all the fruit trees on an entire mountain. If you truly master natural magic, I can take you to see it." The Elven natural magician was a young man named Barubel. Though he appeared to be just in his early twenties, he was actually over 200 years old and one of the Elf Clan's Nine Elders.
He didn't have much hope that Xia Yi could actually learn natural magic—he simply didn't believe that a human could do it.
It was only because the Queen had told him that the second-stage processed Life Stones could help her break through to the level of Venerable that Barubel agreed to come teach Xia Yi himself.
Whether Xia Yi could learn or not was his own problem.
But how to teach—that was a matter of the Elf Clan's sincerity.
Looking at Barubel, Xia Yi asked, "I noticed the sea monsters use incantations when they cast magic. Does natural magic need incantations?"
"Incantations are just a crutch for beginner magicians whose spiritual power is insufficient. A truly top-tier magician can wield magic with their will alone—there's no need for incantations. Though you've never trained in magic, your spiritual power is already high enough. You don't need incantations anymore." Barubel patiently explained.
"What do I need to do?" Xia Yi finally asked the critical question.
"With your spiritual power, it should already be very easy to sense the various energies between heaven and earth. See that patch of weeds on the ground? Try communicating with them. Make them absorb more water energy from the world to grow. If you can get them to contain twice as much water energy as the surrounding weeds without dying, then you have the potential to learn natural magic. Remember—it must be purely water energy. You must not use life force to forcefully maintain their vitality. If you can't do it, give up." Barubel pointed to the weeds on the ground.
He had already sensed that Xia Yi's spiritual power far exceeded his own—across the entire Eternal Forest, only the Eternal Venerable could suppress Xia Yi in that regard.
With spiritual power like that, there was no need to teach Xia Yi how to sense elemental energy.
"I'll give it a try." Xia Yi immediately released his spiritual power and tried to communicate with the weeds.
In an instant, he was stunned.
The weeds here were very different from those on the Douluo Continent.
On Douluo, even the weakest Blue Silver Grass possessed a faint trace of spiritual awareness. That spiritual awareness would gradually grow over time and could eventually evolve into a soul beast.
But the weeds on the Tianxuan Continent had absolutely no spiritual awareness—not even the towering ancient trees nearby possessed any.
"Like hell I'm giving up." Xia Yi gritted his teeth and directly used his spiritual power to control the water energy—or rather, water elements—in the air to enter a blade of grass.
However, in the very next instant, he clearly sensed that the blade of grass had lost all vitality from absorbing too much water.
"I don't believe this. Again." Xia Yi chose another healthy-looking weed and tried once more, forcibly guiding water elements into it.
Unsurprisingly—another failure.
Unwilling to accept defeat, Xia Yi tried again.
And failed again!
"Water energy is one of the most compatible energies for plants. If I can't even get them to absorb water, how could I ever expect them to handle other energies?" Xia Yi now understood why Barubel had told him to start with water energy.
But the truth was, he couldn't even manage water energy.
"On the Douluo Continent, plants all have a faint spiritual nature. It would be far easier to communicate with them there. But even so, how could I guarantee that introducing other types of energy wouldn't kill the plant?" Xia Yi frowned deeply, continuing to ponder as he stubbornly tried again.
Before he knew it, a whole patch of weeds around him had already withered and collapsed.
"What's he doing?" Yuanen Yehui and Ye Xinglan, now sober, sat quietly on the doorstep watching Xia Yi, smiling gently and not feeling bored in the slightest.
"Keep your voice down. Don't disturb him." Seeing how focused Xia Yi was, Ye Xinglan quickly covered Yuanen Yehui's lips.
"Lovestruck fool," Yuanen Yehui rolled her eyes at Ye Xinglan in exasperation.
He hasn't even agreed to be with you yet, and you're already so protective of him.
Under the watchful eyes of the two girls, Xia Yi continued his repeated attempts—until another Elf girl came to deliver food, prompting him to get up reluctantly.
"No need to be discouraged, dear guest. Over the years, many powerful human and beastkin magicians have come to the Elf Clan hoping to learn natural magic. But without exception—they all failed." The Elf girl could tell at a glance that Xia Yi had been trying to learn natural magic.
Seeing his lack of progress, she could only try to comfort him.
"I'm not so easily discouraged." Xia Yi smiled and then looked up at Yuanen Yehui and Ye Xinglan, asking with a grin, "Feeling better after sobering up?"
"More or less," Yuanen Yehui nodded gently.
"Xia Yi…" Ye Xinglan trembled slightly again. The excitement in her eyes had not diminished—if anything, it had only grown stronger.
"Xinglan, here—this soul spirit is for you." Xia Yi smiled as he raised his hand, and a glowing orb appeared. Inside the orb was a radiant star.
"A soul spirit—and a hundred-thousand-year one at that!" Ye Xinglan was stunned. As a soul master, she could immediately sense its authenticity.
She was currently at level 87, not far from becoming a Titled Douluo.
This soul spirit from Xia Yi was exactly what her heart desired.
"That's right—a hundred-thousand-year Star Soul Spirit, perfectly suited for your Star God Sword," Xia Yi said with a gentle smile.
Even though they'd left the Spirit Pagoda, Gu Yue had never stopped her research into artificial soul spirits within the Origin of Creation.
Though soul beasts didn't need soul spirits to increase their cultivation…
Red mechas required a hundred-thousand-year soul spirit to function.
Seeing rows upon rows of human mecha pilots, Gu Yue wanted soul beasts to have their own mecha army too.
To make powerful mechas, she developed many powerful artificial soul spirits.
The Star Soul Spirit was one of her masterpieces—a powerful, hundred-thousand-year artificial soul spirit.
The Star Soul Spirit wasn't modeled after any specific soul beast.
It was simply a Star Soul Spirit.
A creation on par with the Solar Soul Spirit Gu Yue gave to Mu Xi.
Both were among the strongest soul spirits Gu Yue ever developed.