A Sorcerer's Journey Chapter 7
"Use your mental strength to evoke the magical force…" Ge Lin was sitting in his room and was reading A Guide to Meditation.
"Magical force is powerless itself; it has to be controlled by mental strength," mumbled Ge Lin.
Ge Lin had stayed at the Duke's manor for five days and he had done nothing but studied the Guide. Fortunately, he had conjured up a little bit of magical power in the morning.
But Ge Lin needed to seek 'knowledge', plus the mental strength. Magical force would be put into effect only when the pract.i.tioner used his/her mental strength, which was to be gained in part through acquirement of knowledge.
Ge Lin sat before his desk morosely and scratching his hair restlessly He had been more enchanted with sorcery ever since Lafite, a student, produced the vine and tied up Robinson.
"Ge Lin! Ge Lin!" A loud noise came from the yard of the manor.
It was a distinctive voice - shrill and rattling. Ge Lin knew that it must be Robinson. Although Ge Lin harbored strong antipathy towards the prattling Robinson, he wanted to be engaged in something else for a distraction.
"What's up?" Ge Lin hid the book under his pillow, put out the candles and sped out of his room to greet Robinson.
"Hey, Ge Lin," Robinson said with a big smile. "Have you heard of the Dark Wells?"
"The Dark Wells? No, I haven't. What are they?" Ge Lin inquired as he smoothed out his long silky robe, which he had obtained as a gift from a n.o.bleman in the previous port.
As one might say, "Clothes make the man." Now, with this sumptuous elegant-looking robe, coupled with his serious look on his face, Ge Lin appeared as if he was a man of gentry.
"Seriously, you haven't? Come with me, then, or you will regret it for the rest of your life," said Robinson mysteriously as he dragged Ge Lin's arm and ran out of the manor.
After half an hour of trotting, they arrived at a boisterous bazaar by dusk.
endors were peddling foods, candies, and toys from their trolleys. Ge Lin was curious and wanted to try everything. He had rarely hung out at night since a curfew was in place for all ordinary people in the Bi Seer City.
However, nothing in the bazaar seemed to be of any interest to Robinson. He was thinking about the Dark Wells.
He then dragged Ge Lin by his arm and bulldozed his way through the sea of people.
Around ten minutes of galloping, they arrived at a manor.
"Here we are." Robinson exclaimed as Ge Lin stooped, gasping for air.
In front of them was a manor larger than the Duke's. It was nestled in a thick and leafy jungle.
Moonlight shone upon the large trees surrounding the manor, and beams of moonlights were reflected by the shuffling branches to the windows of the manor, making the place more mysterious.
Young couples were strolling out the archway of the manor at the time, with surprising smiles on their faces.
Ge Lin and Robinson were led to a grim-looking hall after paying two gold coins of admission fee.
A wrinkled old woman was at the entrance and she handed each of them a transparent stone. The old woman had dim eyes that starkly contrasted the gleam of the stones, and her yellowish teeth were indented as if they had been gnawed by some animal.
"Have a good time," said the woman.
But Ge Lin was still confused about the stone in his hand.
"You see the wells out there? There are over 70 of them. You pick one and put the stone in, and then you can talk with 'people' from the Foreign Lands."
"Foreign Lands?" Ge Lin gawked.
"Foreign Lands! You think we are alone out in this universe? No, the human world and the sorcerer world, they're just only a part out of the many worlds," explained Robinson proudly.
"Weird creatures might surface from the well occasionally, but generally it is safe and really exciting," Robinson went over to a well, leaving Ge Lin alone.
Ge Lin flipped the stone before he headed off to a well, eager to have a conversation with an 'alien'.
Reaching the edge of a well, Ge Lin inclined his body forward, and peeked into the well. The water in it was calm and glossy like a mirror. And It was around six feet deep.
Ge Lin drew a deep breath and flung the stone into the well and caused the water to ripple.
Almost instantly an oddly-shaped '' with unclear features emerged in the water. .
The creature swam up but stopped when its gray antennae reached the surface. It then broke the surface and exposed its bust in the air. It studied Ge Lin in curiosity.
"Are you a sorcerer?" the creature asked.
It was incredibly strange. Although Ge Lin was sure that he got every word of what the creature said,, he was certain that he didn't hear it or, not through his ears. It was as if the message had been directed straight to his brain or something.
"Who are you?" inquired Ge Lin.
"Don't speak! You fool. communicate using your soul!" the creature scowled for Ge Lin's mouth-speaking. It seemed that e it could not make out a word of Ge Lin's speech.
"Didn't you know Foreign anders communicate through soul?" It added.
"Soul?" Ge Lin's face darkened. But at least he knew he could receive and understand messages sent by souls. But he did not know it was because of the stone that conjured the creature up or because of his gift.
Living things from Foreign Lands communicated using their souls. They didn't talk and some of them didn't have hearing ability at all. l.
"Are you a sorcerer?" the creature asked the question again.
"urh..." Ge Lin stuttered, "No speaking, , then how..."
"You answer my questions by nodding and shaking your head, okay? A nod is a "yes", and a shake means "no", are we clear?"
Ge Lin nodded with force.
"Are you a sorcerer?"
Ge Lin shook his head.
"Then what are you? A human?" said the creature rudely.
Ge Lin gave another nod.
"d.a.m.n it. I traveled for a long time here talk with a human?" It shook his head disappointedly.
"Still, I will answer two questions according to the fairness principle in effect on the Foreign Land, of since you have technically answered two of mine," It said seriously.
"But since your voice makes no sense to me, I will instead tell you two information. First, I am a level four star denizen from the Star City of the Foreign Land.. Second, in terms of energy level, I am basically a level two sorcerer on the Sorcerer Continent."
The star denizen disappeared into the water the moment it finished the two information.
Ge Lin embarra.s.sed by the fact that the little creature was not willing to take another second of its time to talk with him.
Ge Lin now knew that there were many alien worlds out there. He was also told by Robinson that encounters between humans and 'people' from Foreign Land foreboded evil if they were made not through the Dark Wells.
"The strange creatures appeared back in the governor's house in the Bi Seer City - the swimming jellyfish, the paper man, the giant tongue - are they from a different world, too?" Ge Lin wondered out loud.