Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Princess Summer felt that a strong wind was blowing in front of her.

It seemed that her flesh and blood would be burnt away from her bones.

She had thought that she was doomed and had fallen into a terrifying purgatory.

However, the pain of death did not come for a long time. Instead, Theresa's laughter echoed behind her. "Sister Summer, that's enough. Stop fighting the air!"

"Huh?"

Princess Summer opened her eyes suspiciously and happened to notice that the enormous head of the Demonic Halberd Pig not far away had been burnt into a pale skull.

Princess Summer was so shocked that she could not believe her eyes. She turned around and stammered, "I—I—you—"

"What are you talking about? Are you scared?"

Theresa stepped forward and grabbed Princess Summer's hand gently but firmly. She took off the saber in her hand and massaged her shoulders to loosen her muscles.

"You did well, Sister Summer."

Theresa blew into Princess Summer's ear mischievously to ease her anxiety. "We defeated the Demonic Halberd Pig together!"

"It—it is really dead…"

Princess Summer finally realized what had happened.

Relieved, she simply wanted to collapse in Theresa's arms.

"Teresa, I didn't know that you were so strong that you defeated the Demonic Halberd Pig all by yourself. Is this really how an apprentice magician should behave?"

Princess Summer blushed. She felt that she had been a fool to stand in front of Theresa and protect her.

"Like I said, other than being a magic apprentice, I have also learned martial arts from experts. This is how dual-cultivation works."

Theresa smiled. "Besides, I didn't defeat the Demonic Halberd Pig by myself. Sister Summer's help was very important, too. It was because of your distraction that I was able to capture its critical parts.

"It's true. Not many people can stand still and raise their saber when they see the Demonic Halberd Pig charging at them. Sister Xia, I was right about you. Incomparable strength and courage are indeed hibernating inside your seemingly weak body. Your performance is even better than my first time on the battlefield with a saber. We have to develop your body in the future."

"Is—is it true?"

No one had ever said such words to Princess Summer before.

She was flattered. Looking at Theresa's 'sincere' eyes, she seemed to have gained new strength and courage.

"I thought that I would never be able to pick up a saber in my life. But the moment I raised the saber high, I realized that the weight of the saber was not so unbearable after all. Thank you, Theresa. I—I will try my best!"

Princess Summer nodded at Theresa solemnly and waved her fists in excitement. Then, she complimented sincerely, "I didn't know that Theresa was a Spellblade. It is a rarely-seen profession in the Emerald Continent!"

A Spellblade was a special profession that combined magic with martial arts, attaching demonic energy to a weapon, compressing it to the extreme, and releasing it in the form of battle energy. It was an extremely destructive profession.

To become a Spellblade, one had to walk on the path of both magic and martial arts, both of which were extremely difficult. One could not neglect any of the two paths. It was extremely difficult.

In terms of the probability of success, it was also a very risky and uneconomical career.

As a result, the number of Spellblades was extremely small. Neither the Glorious Vatican nor the major kingdoms and mage organizations encouraged teenagers to become Spellblades.

As time went by, the legacy of the Fiend Swordsmen was coming to an end. They fell into a vicious cycle, and naturally, they were on the brink of death.

However, in the tales of the bards, the Spellblades either did not show up, or they were mysterious, unpredictable, and strong main attackers.

Although Princess Summer was not good at fighting, she had read a lot of classics of the royal family's arts of magic and martial arts when she was growing up in the palace. Also, she had been following Black Jack for a long time. Therefore, she had a keen eye.

Judging from the head of the Demonic Halberd Pig, which had been burnt to ashes in the blink of an eye, she could tell that it was not an ordinary spell but an effect that could only be achieved by compressing the demonic energy to the minimum and blowing it into the head of the Demonic Halberd Pig with the most marvelous martial arts.

Only a Spellblade could do that.

Theresa stuck out her tongue. "I'm not a Spellblade. I'm sort of a… apprentice of the demon sword. Please don't tell anybody, Sister Summer. If other people find out, they will definitely stop me from walking on this path and persuade me to be a minor sorcerer. It will be our little secret. Is that okay?"

"Alright!"

No one could say no to Theresa's innocent eyes.

Princess Summer nodded, but she found it odd. "However, even if you are a Spellsword, your casting speed is still too fast. If my guess is correct, the move just now should be… the roar of a fire dragon, which is a level-3 spell.

"If you want to cast a level-3 spell, shouldn't you be preparing for a long time with a lot of magical materials, pray to the Flame God and the Dragon God, and ask for their blessings and gifts, and even draw a magical array in the air, on the ground, or on a weapon?

"Even if the Spellsword can reduce the speed of the spell, it is still too fast. I seem to have heard that you were mumbling something that did not seem to be a spell at all. You performed such a terrifying spell multiple times?"

Princess Summer finally came back to herself.

Come to think of it, Theresa's performance just now was more than unexpected. She had overthrown the inherent concepts of magic in her head.

Theresa simply opened her hands casually.

"Magic should be simple and concise.

Theresa said, "The master who taught me magic once told me that magic is the simplest and most direct power in the world. As long as there are conditions to perform magic, if one knows the language of magic, how to retrieve it, and even how to write a spell, then no matter who it is, from beginner to expert, they can instantly summon power from the high-dimensional universe, uh, the world of gods and demons.

"On the other hand, if there are no conditions to perform magic, it will be useless no matter how devout you pray, how long you recite the so-called spells, or how many weird magical materials you prepare.

"Huh?"

It was a subversive concept that Princess Summer had never heard of before.

She was a half-baked healer. When she performed 'recovery', she had to 'pray sincerely', 'exhaustively', and 'prepare weird magical materials', just like all the other mages.

Could it be that Theresa was saying that all the mages on the Emerald Continent were wrong?