"Hand over everything else you’ve got." Ian Song casually tossed the bottle of Water of Life into his Storage Ring, then smiled at Nissa.
"No way. You have to trade for it." Nissa shook her head stubbornly.
"Idiot!"
Ian rolled his eyes. "Your life is in my hands and you still want to bargain? Forget it. Clearly I’ve been too polite, and you think I’m easy to talk to…" As he spoke, Ian stepped up to Nissa, grabbed her hand, and took off the crescent-shaped Silvermoon Storage Ring from her finger.
Nissa didn’t resist, but her gaze at Ian was full of contempt.
These earthlings really are earthlings, she thought. Doesn’t he know that a space ring is bound to its owner's spiritual imprint? No one but the owner can open it.
Sensing the contempt in Nissa’s eyes, Ian ignored her and sent a wisp of sword essence into the ring, only to find a powerful restriction inside. The moment his sword essence entered, it was instantly shredded.
Now, Nissa looked even more contemptuous.
The restriction was formidable. Ian was certain that even if he poured in all his sword essence, he still wouldn’t be able to break it.
"This storage ring was a gift from my mother, the Queen. She personally set the magic restriction inside. With your strength, you’ll never open it." Nissa’s voice dripped with mockery.
"Doesn’t matter if I can’t open it. As long as you can, that’s good enough!" Ian looked at Nissa with a sly smile.
Nissa replied coldly, "Don’t even think about it. I’ll never help you open the storage ring!"
"Heh."
Ian was finding this elf princess more and more brainless. Not bothering to waste words, he reached out and tapped her forehead, sending a Puppet Mastery Divine Art sigil into her sea of consciousness.
But just then, a surge of powerful spiritual force erupted from Nissa’s sea of consciousness.
The sudden burst of power made Ian sense a huge threat, and he instinctively leapt back.
"Pfft!"
The spiritual force turned into a sharp sword, slashing down and instantly shredding the black Puppet Mastery sigil to dust.
"What did you just do to me?"
Nissa stared at Ian, a little flustered.
Ian stared at Nissa, uncertain and a bit surprised. The aura from that spiritual force was terrifyingly strong—likely at the Nascent Soul level. It must have been left in her sea of consciousness by one of her elders to protect her.
Still, Ian wasn’t someone who could be easily scared off.
He stepped forward again, right up to Princess Nissa, and fired two more Puppet Mastery Divine Art sigils into her sea of consciousness.
The spiritual force lurking in her sea of consciousness erupted again, easily shattering both Puppet Mastery sigils.
"Again!"
This time, Ian sent seven Puppet Mastery Divine Art sigils into Princess Nissa’s sea of consciousness all at once.
The spiritual force erupted once more, but it took over ten breaths to completely destroy all seven sigils—and after that, it was clearly greatly weakened.
He’d used up all ten Puppet Mastery Divine Art sigils for today.
But Ian still had a stronger technique—the Soul-Control Brand.
Forming hand seals, he shot a streak of black light straight into Nissa’s soul.
The Soul-Control Brand was a seventh-grade soul art, far more powerful than Puppet Mastery.
With only a little spiritual force left, Nissa’s guardian had no way to resist the Soul-Control Brand. Instantly, Ian took control of her soul.
"Erase your spiritual imprint from the storage ring, now!"
"Yes!"
A flash of light—and Ian sensed that the storage ring had become ownerless.
He sent in a wisp of spiritual power and left his own imprint, smoothly becoming the new owner of the ring.
The interior space of this storage ring wasn’t very large.
Only about ten cubic meters.
There were a lot of things inside, but Ian was disappointed.
Most of it was filled with all sorts of exquisite clothing.
There was also a pile of fruit and snacks taking up two cubic meters. In the remaining small space were ten bottles of Water of Life, a magic staff inlaid with multicolored gems, and three silver crystal spheres the size of a fist.
With a thought, a red crystal appeared in Ian’s hand. He probed it with his spiritual sense and found countless tiny symbols floating inside—none of which he recognized.
"Bastard! How dare you steal my storage ring? Give it back!"
Nissa had regained consciousness. Seeing the red crystal in Ian’s hand, she lunged at him, teeth bared and claws out.
Ian casually flicked a bit of qi, knocking Nissa out again. Then he beckoned to the two maids.
The two girls approached, trembling with fear.
"Sir, please don’t hurt Her Highness the Princess!"
Both maids pleaded together.
"That depends on how you behave." Ian smiled, then raised the red crystal sphere. "What is this?"
"A Magic Legacy Crystal."
"How do you use it?" Ian asked, pressing for details.
"Just pour magic power into it. The symbols inside will collapse into a magic seed and enter your body," explained Nana, one of the maids.
"What’s magic power?"
"You have to meditate to obtain magic power," Lulu answered this time.
"Is there a meditation formula?"
"Yes!" Lulu said, then recited a string of strange words.
Ian’s face darkened. "Say it in Yanhuang language."
Lulu stammered, "Sorry, sir. Nana and I just learned Yanhuang language recently. We can only use it for daily conversation, not to translate advanced meditation scripture."
Ian thought for a moment. "Then teach me your… Wait, where are you two from? Actually, tell me about your origins first!"
"Yes, sir."
The two girls nodded. Lulu did most of the talking, with Nana adding details. It took about half an hour for them to explain their origins.
"Hema Galaxy, Moon-God race—interesting." Ian chuckled, then motioned for the two girls to teach him the common language of the Hema Galaxy.
Ian had an abnormal memory, and his comprehension was also incredibly strong.
So in less than two hours, he’d mastered the Hema Galaxy’s common tongue.
Once they chanted the meditation formula, he instantly understood its meaning.
He didn’t meditate right away, but instead asked the girls to explain magic. However, they were only level-4 magic users—the lowest rank of battle mage—so their understanding was limited.
Still, with some deduction, Ian managed to figure out the basic principles of magic.
Simply put, magic uses internal magic power as a primer, then special incantations to gather magic elements from heaven and earth, and finally releases them as spells.
As for magic elements, they’re really just heaven-and-earth spiritual energy—the same stuff cultivators use for spells, just a different system.
The only difference is, one system cultivates magic power, while the other cultivates true essence.