Lu Ming had already lost consciousness and the beads began to fall. It was at that exact moment that his soul space underwent a sudden change. The Heaven Pestle which was continuously absorbing the soul Qi became stagnant for some time, and when Lu Ming finally lost his consciousness, mysterious energy began to spread out of it.
The mysterious energy didn't interfere with replenishing the soul Qi, but rather began to interact with the soul replenishing runes embedded within his soul space. The runes which couldn't keep up with the expenditure began to vibrate with an alarming frequency as the soul Qi emission out of it started to increase. The soul space which was initially drained out began to refill and Lu Ming slowly gained consciousness.
"What happened?" Lu Ming was surprised to see the soul runes vibrating with such intensity.
"As expected, the two arts are born out of immortal scripture such as the Origin soul manual. I had a feeling that the two arts had a mutual connection with each other and had the perspective to invigorate the growth processes of each other."
"The first set of clues were obtained during your cultivation of the heaven pestle art. When the soul replenishing came to your rescue to make up for the required soul Qi. It got me thinking that vice-versa might be affected too."
"It was the reason behind me suggesting you practice your soul Qi expenditure until it was completely drained. As expected, not only did your cultivation in the Heavenly pestle grow, your soul replenishing rate was growing side by side. My experiment couldn't be more accurate as I can't directly interfere with your soul space. Even if the artifact is quite phenomenal, one's soul is quite fragile."
"So, you wanted to use the test to simulate the experiment naturally without any external interference." Lu Ming could guess what followed.
"The experiment bore fruit. The runes are going through a morph due to simulation from the Heaven pestle. The process is catalyzed by the soul beads which are continuously consuming the soul Qi within your soul space."
"The last ten beads feel a bit different than the other ninety. Every single bead consumes double the energy of the last one. I guess the soul Qi wouldn't be enough" Lu Ming feels the huge burden of keeping the last ten beads afloat.
"You shouldn't get discouraged yet. The simulation is still underway. Runes are slowly growing in strength and power. Let's see the event to its end."
Lu Ming had no choice but to follow the Keeper's lead.
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Heaven's pestle's unique energy began to bring about some drastic changes. Every time Lu Ming thought that he had reached his limit, the rejuvenating runes would undergo another change and the recovery process but get a sudden boost.
"Would I be able to morph the runes into a new state now and then by following this process?" Lu Ming could gain a great advantage in soul training if that were the case.
"I think the next time you might be able to reuse this energy wouldn't be anytime soon. Heaven's pestle's unique energy is something it has collected over the period of your training. I believe it to be of a limited amount and hence the process won't continue after some time. You need to accumulate the energy over a long period of time to be able to use it once again. You won't be experiencing this phenomenon before reaching the peak of Soul Guru."
Soul Guru was the next level of soul cultivation after Soul grandmaster. Lu Ming couldn't believe that it would take such a long time to accumulate this energy. He remained silent and enjoyed the unique feeling.
The soul beads slowly reached the 98, and the energy threads began to grow weaker and weaker.
"The energy is about to get exhausted. I will leave the final bead to you. If your hunch proves to be right and there is some mystery hidden behind the soul beads, it will be up to you to achieve it.
The 99th bead fell and the energy threads finally vanished. Heaven Pestle was no longer emanating energy as before and the rune became stagnant. Lu Ming could feel the aura exerted by the runes. Not only did it grow in size, but the brightness was blinding. There were also hints of silver within the usual yellowish glow of the runes. Lu Ming believed that the next breakthrough would bring about a qualitative change within these runes.
He looked above, just to see a single bead floating in the air. His soul Qi was rapidly depleting and Lu Ming clutched his hands and teeth in preparation for what was coming next.
The barrier holding it back vanished and the bead started descending.
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"This is the Lu Ming which we are familiar with." The first elder spoke with an excited voice. His disciples didn't only break the previous year's record, but also managed to reach the extreme score possible. He was just 1 bead behind the maximum score.
The bead slowly fell. The audience almost forgot to breathe air in as silence fell over the whole stadium. Everyone present was watching the scene with trepidation in their eyes. Although many were dissatisfied with Lu Ming's actions some time ago, they did want to see the birth of a miracle.
The heartbeats of the audience members began to increase with the descent of the bead. As it finally made contact with the soul Qi of Lu Ming, an elastic rebound caused it to bounce back and fall on the group of beads. This was the moment of truth, if Lu Ming could hold this bead in place, he would officially be scoring the maximum possible marks in the test.
Lu Ming's eyes were closed but the struggle was visible on his face. When the bead finally landed on top of the pile, a rapid descent took place, and beads started to fall. But just as the first few beads were about to make contact with the ground, an invisible force held them together.
A majestic view of 100 beads floating in the air was visible.
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Lu Ming's mind-
A strange sensation hit Lu Ming's mind as soon as the last bead made contact with his soul Qi. It felt as if a huge amount of information was being transmitted into his memory.
A bizarre outline of a picture came into his memory. It was as if lines were drawn at random and were intersecting at strange points. Lu Ming couldn't make any sense of this picture, but he believed that he would be able to solve the mystery. Since the memory came out of the soul beads, it must signify something of great importance. The only fact remained that the mystery would reveal its true color later.
Another surprise came from the energy of the soul. Once the memory transmission was complete, the beads started supplying a huge amount of soul QI to Lu Ming.
"Instantly start Heaven's Pestle art. This will be your second blessing. You are about to experience the full amount of soul Qi which was absorbed by the soul beads before this. You might be able to promote your soul's cultivation with its help."
The huge amount of soul QI soon coagulated into a small ball of concentrated soul Qi which then got transferred into Lu Ming's soul space. It was slowly emanating huge amounts of soul Qi into his soul space and the Heaven Pestle was churning rapidly too.
"This could easily push you through the intermediate level of soul grandmaster. Who knows, you might also be able to enter the advanced grandmaster realm. You just need to practice at a steady pace and not utilize it haphazardly."
Lu Ming was lost in elation. The situation seems to have profited him quite a bit.