The next morning, Jiang Shu woke up to a series of persistent knocks at the door. Rubbing his eyes, he opened the door to find a bored-to-death Su Xiaoou waiting outside.
"You, being a teacher and all, can still sleep past ten in the morning," Su Xiaoou began without stopping as soon as she entered, her face full of dissatisfaction, "Don’t you know that other apprentices have already started their physical training and breath practice? How am I supposed to compete with them in three years with a teacher like you?"
"Didn’t I give you the manual of techniques?" Jiang Shu wondered, "Just practice on your own."
"I can’t understand it," Su Xiaoou stubbornly replied, the reason being very authentic, "I can’t do it."
Jiang Shu: "..."
"Just say you can’t; no need to make up all those excuses," he said helplessly, picking up a deck of cards from his desk and demonstrating very slowly in front of Su Xiaoou, casually instructing, "See, like this. When you do this move, extend the range of your thumb a bit more. Don’t worry about being seen; just cover it slightly with the other hand. Once you’ve practiced enough, you can reduce the movement."
"Oh," Su Xiaoou felt she had an epiphany, taking out the cards she carried with her and scurrying off to the corner to practice, not forgetting to say before leaving, "Okay, okay, you go back to sleep, I’ll go practice."
"No more sleeping now," Jiang Shu yawned and went into the bathroom to freshen up.
Coming out of the bathroom, he glanced at Su Xiaoou, who was crouched in the corner practicing. She still looked a bit clumsy handling the cards.
The world commonly used bridge-sized playing cards, narrower in width, different from the custom ones he used.
For Su Xiaoou, they might be a bit large, after all, she was only a fifteen-year-old girl with small hands that couldn’t grasp the cards well.
He seemed to understand why Su Xiaoou couldn’t master those techniques by herself; the ones he filmed yesterday did require a certain hand size and finger length.
This was indeed a problem, he thought.
A fifteen-year-old girl’s palm bones and finger bones would definitely continue to grow, but since men and women are inherently different, what if her hands are still too small after she’s fully grown?
Some stretching exercises?
Three years of dedicated practice could certainly promote the growth of the palm bones and lengthening of the fingers.
"That won’t work either," Jiang Shu quickly dismissed the idea, "The length of the tendons won’t change with it, and the big hands gained from such training won’t be flexible at all. It would be even less suitable for practicing techniques."
Use smaller cards, perhaps bridge-size?
"Hey, Su Xiaoou," Jiang Shu called out to her, "Stop practicing for now. Those cards aren’t right for you. Just work on the basic techniques for these three years. I’ll teach you something else later."
"Have you had breakfast?" he asked.
Su Xiaoou paused, replying subconsciously, "No."
After saying that, he turned and left the office, descending the stairs to the nearby convenience store to pick up some hot food.
The feeling of being homeless was truly unpleasant, even no place to make breakfast.
When he returned, he saw Su Xiaoou scrutinizing the small gadgets in his glass cabinet.
"These..." she noticed Jiang Shu returning and pointed at the items inside, questioning.
Jiang Shu handed her the breakfast and casually said, "Don’t rush. These props are easy to learn. Just get the hang of how to conceal them."
After finishing breakfast, he wiped his mouth, stood up, and started to explain to Su Xiaoou.
"Next, I’m going to talk about the mindset of magic," Jiang Shu spoke earnestly, "Take good note of this; it’s far more important than techniques or procedures."
"Oh, oh," Su Xiaoou quickly replied and started recording.
Jiang Shu glanced at the camera and said sternly, "Refuse to spread it outside."
"Uh-huh, I understand," Su Xiaoou nodded solemnly, "If everyone knew the secret of Magic, we’d starve to death."
Jiang Shu thought about this statement for a while, "That’s true; the audience’s curiosity is indeed the primary productive force of Magic."
"Magic has nineteen basic effects," he pondered for two seconds, then glanced again at the draft he had written out last night.
He activated the alpha, beta, gamma, delta Projection, releasing a light screen the size of a blackboard, and then continued, "Including Creation, Disappearance, Shift, Change, Penetration, Recovery, Life-giving, Floating, Attraction, Unharmable, Anti-Natural Phenomenon, Audience Disablement, Shared Reaction, Telekinesis, Recognition, Mind Reading Technique, Thought Transmission, Language, and Super Perception."
The Simulated Light Screen sequentially displayed the names of the nineteen effects.
After speaking, Jiang Shu suddenly thought that since these were the effects of Magic, they would also become his abilities.
Combined, these abilities, although not comprehensive, would leave no difference between himself and a god if mastered, right?
However, putting aside the three-ability limit of Deception, if it were true, who would have given him these abilities?
God?
Was he a god-made god?
Yet, such things happen without cause, and after thinking for a while, Jiang Shu stopped considering it.
"Today, I’ll first talk to you about Spirit Magic," he said. "Fundamentally, I love this kind of Magic the most because it nearly perfectly aligns with my understanding of Magic."
"The last six of the nineteen fundamental effects are the effects of Spirit Magic," Jiang Shu struck through the first thirteen names, leaving only the last six, "which are Telekinesis, Recognition, Mind Reading Technique, Thought Transmission, Language, and Super Perception."
"Can you really do these things?" Su Xiaoou asked in amazement, as these seemed almost equivalent to superpowers.
Jiang Shu smiled, "Haven’t you taken part in my Magic acts? Other people don’t know, but don’t you?"
"Oh," Su Xiaoou collected her thoughts, remembering how Jiang Shu had managed to come up with the premonitory dreams.
"I’ve said before, Spirit Magic and Spirit Technique are different," he continued. "The former is fake, the latter real."
On the Simulated Light Screen, "Spirit Magic" and "Spirit Technique" were separated, one side labeled fake, the other side labeled real.
Then, he branched off under Spirit Magic, writing "Pure" on one side and "Fake" on the other.
"However, Spirit Magic is also divided into Pure Spirit and Fake Spirit," Jiang Shu expounded, "Pure Spirit uses some psychological measures to achieve magical effects, such as Cold Reading Technique, micro-expressions, Psychological Suggestion, or forced choice; Fake Spirit is to use other physical means, like props, procedures, techniques, etc., to achieve effects, such as the last performance of ’Past Life and Present Life.’"
"Oh—" Su Xiaoou nodded her head, understanding it deeply with an example for clarification.
Jiang Shu smiled, "However, in terms of effects, I don’t think Telekinesis qualifies as Spirit Magic; it shouldn’t even be included in the nineteen effects."
Although Su Xiaoou did not quite understand, she still said very supportively, "I think so too."
"Magic is fake, so the effects of Telekinesis, such as the movement of objects, are the results, while Telekinesis itself is just a way of talking," Jiang Shu glanced at her.
"In short, there are countless methods to achieve the five effects of Spirit Magic, with infinite variations but the same principles," he went on. "Over three years, you’ll need to master them flexibly."
Su Xiaoou nodded, but at the same time, she noticed a problem.
Jiang Shu’s manner of speaking implied another meaning...
He was not the creator of Magic.
So, why was there no Magic before?