Bamboo Mound

First of all, this release of spiritual energy was somewhat familiar to him, since he had studied it once before.

Following the steps described in the Spirit Control Manual, Ning Chang slowly gathered spiritual power in his palm and then spread it across the bamboo leaves.

Suddenly, he felt a wonderful connection between himself and the bamboo leaves, as if they were his own arms.

"This spirit control is truly wondrous!" he couldn't help but exclaim.

He tried to control the bamboo leaves to float up, but the bamboo leaves only trembled a few times and then stopped moving.

"I'm still not very good at it. That's true, I've only just learned it." Ning Chang's enthusiasm immediately waned.

Looking up at the sky, I sighed, "Another day has passed like this. Time flies..."

Composing himself, he tossed aside the bamboo leaves and turned to go back inside.

A night without words...

The next day, Ning Chang got up early and practiced spirit control by the bamboo.

The art of controlling spirits is ultimately just a method. Once you learn the method, it depends entirely on your ability to project your spiritual power and the strength of your mind.

Through constant practice, Ning Chang's ability to project spiritual energy became increasingly proficient, and his control speed increased.

Unbeknownst to him, his mental energy was also slowly increasing.

By noon, he could no longer control the bamboo leaves without any resistance, as if they were his own arm.

He controlled the bamboo leaf as it traveled to the storeroom, aimed it at the puppet from before, and shot it swiftly.

The bamboo leaves shot out and crashed into the puppet, and then...

The puppet merely swayed and then fell silent, while the bamboo leaf, without Ning Chang's control, bent and remained in place as it flew back.

Looking at the puppet, Ning Chang confirmed his guess.

"It can indeed cause an effective attack. Although the bamboo leaves are too weak, this strike is still more powerful than my previous punch."

"Most importantly, this attack requires almost no spiritual power and is quick and easy."

He put down the bamboo leaf and began to circulate his spiritual energy around the puppet. His spiritual energy was rapidly depleted, and it took him a full ten percent of it to complete the arrangement of his spiritual energy.

He tried to control the puppet to fly, but the result was the same as when he first tried to control the bamboo leaf.

"Sure enough, the heavier and larger the object, the more spiritual energy is consumed, and the more difficult it is to control."

Looking at the puppet's stone base, Ning Chang abandoned the idea of ​​removing it. That was the heaviest part of the puppet, and keeping it would allow him to better train his ability to manipulate spiritual power.

"Then let's practice with this puppet. Only when you can wield something this heavy as easily as you can do it, will you no longer need to practice."

Having made up his mind, Ning Chang devoted himself to practicing controlling the puppet.

........

"It's really no use..." In the evening, Ning Chang sat on the ground with lifeless eyes.

He was now completely exhausted, and the only result he had achieved was lifting the puppet a fraction of an inch.

After resting for a while, I slowly walked to my room, threw myself on the bed without washing up, and fell asleep within a few breaths.

..........

Three days later, in the evening.

"I've finally mastered it!" Ning Chang said with a sense of relief. He could now control the puppet at will, but he still couldn't do it continuously for too long.

"I should have found a lighter transitional method first." If he could start over, he would remove the stone base before practicing.

For the past three days, he has been practicing spirit control in the storeroom, and one day he even slept there all night!

But the results were remarkable. Now, when he tries to control the bamboo leaves, he can do it many times faster than before, and he is much more adept at it.

"The bamboo leaves are still too weak," he sighed softly.

Even at his current speed of manipulating the bamboo leaves, he still couldn't leave a scratch on the puppet.

He believed that the weapons in the storage room could cause damage, but he thought they were too easy to dodge and shoot down in actual combat.

Moreover, if someone suddenly gets close, it's difficult to control the weapon and defend. Even if he uses the Azure Cloud Step to dodge, he still can't avoid some unexpected situations.

After all, people subconsciously rely only on what they are good at. If they only use a sword, they will be powerless to defend themselves or attack when their sword is out of their hands or they are disarmed!

If possible, Ning Chang did not want weapons to become his breakthrough point.

"What can be used in large quantities, is inexpensive, and can create an effective offensive?"

As he thought about it, he tore the bamboo leaves in his hand until they were too shredded to tear any further, then he looked down at them.

Just as he was about to casually toss it away, he realized that the bamboo leaf fragments in his hand were not there.

"This...that's it! Cheap and easy to use, that's it!?"

Ning Chang was pleasantly surprised. "I don't need to pursue a direct offensive. A few attack points can be defended, but if there are densely packed attack points, even if you know you can't be touched, you are powerless to defend against them."

"As for their power, I can just make them smaller!"

An idea suddenly popped into his mind.

"Most people don't pay attention to the minute dust particles in the air that they come into contact with all over their bodies, let alone small dust particles. Unless you specifically try to sense them, no one would expect that there is a hidden secret here!"

If one can tear bamboo leaves or other objects into extremely small pieces, and then manipulate them with a small amount of spiritual energy, these substances can be sent into the enemy's body.

The result, whether in the lungs or ear canals, is enough to incapacitate the enemy!

Ning Chang became more and more excited as he thought about it. He pinched out a piece of bamboo leaf and tried to circulate his spiritual energy.

He controlled the tiny bamboo leaves with ease. Not only did it consume dozens of times less spiritual energy than a whole bamboo leaf, but it also didn't require much attention. He only needed to move his mind slightly to complete the precise control!

He picked up the bamboo leaf, held it in his hand and continued tearing it until he had torn it to a tiny bit that he couldn't hold with two fingers. Then Ning Chang tried to control it again.

At first, the debris simply vanished. After a pause, Ning Chang squinted and found the last piece of debris where he had sensed his spiritual power.

He was very satisfied with this result. The debris would cause people to lose focus and need to reposition themselves if it moved even slightly. If there was a whole bunch of debris, then only a full-body shield could defend against it!

In high spirits, he tried to control all the bamboo leaf fragments in his palm, but the fragments stuck together in twos and threes, and wobbled crookedly when they flew up.

This bucket of cold water calmed him down considerably.

"I was too arrogant. It's already quite an achievement that so many units could be controlled and all of them could fly at once. Besides, we've been practicing for a whole day," he comforted himself.

He glanced at the sky and decided to practice multi-unit exercises again tomorrow.

Because she hadn't overexerted herself today, Ning Chang still had the energy to go back to her room and wash up.

But exhaustion was unavoidable, and he fell asleep within moments.