Chapter 208 The End of the Second Trial

Chapter 208 The End of the Second Trial

The End of the Second Trial

Ling San was still skeptical of everything, but with how kind Xue Bai was acting and the fact that he didn't think the Young Duke would lie to him about such an easily proven thing, he still obeyed.

Pulling out a small, half-foot-long brush, Ling San started to engrave the rune.

To engrave a formation rune, one needed to take the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth and use it as a sort of ink. Just like in the Law Engraving realm, one would need to use the comprehension of their laws to engrave runes, but instead with Spiritual Qi.

Because this was such a hard thing to do for most people, auxiliary items were created to help cultivators with less talent achieve it. The brush in Ling San's hands was such an item.

Depending on a variety of factors, with the largest being the rank of their Martial Veins, cultivators would have varying affinities for Spiritual Qi. The higher the affinity, the more suited one would be to becoming a formation master. After all, one needed to sense, control, and then finally manipulate Spiritual Qi before even starting any formation, no matter how low of a rank the formation was.

However, should one desire to be a formation master yet have a low affinity for Spiritual Qi, they have other options to take, like the brush in Ling San's hands, for example. Using it, he was able to forcibly take the Spiritual Qi in the atmosphere and bend it to his will.

There were other tools like accessories that could increase one's affinity or pills that did the same, but at the end of the day, no matter how helpful they were, they were still external items. Helpful, yes, but they ultimately were signs of an untalented or unskilled formation master.

Xue Bai had a heavenly talent and, therefore, didn't need these tools. Even without willing the Spiritual Qi in the atmosphere to come toward him, it still congested toward Xue Bai like a magnet. That was the beauty of his Heaven-grade Martial Veins. Spiritual Qi obeyed him without any hint of disobedience and loved him. It was why he could cultivate so quickly.

Because of his extremely high affinity for Spiritual Qi, Xue Bai could simply engrave runes with just his fingers. Moreover, he didn't even need to break a sweat while doing so. He didn't need to coerce or control the Spiritual Qi into the ink-like state needed to create formation runes. The Spiritual Qi did it itself once it sensed Xue Bai's will.

All of these factors together were one of the reasons why Xue Bai wanted to become a formation master.

Ling San, sadly, didn't have such talent or affinity for Spiritual Qi and was forced to use his auxiliary item to come close to Xue Bai and Ji Ruxi's league.

'Xue Bai said that this Illusory Garden Formation is just an offshoot of the Dao of Illusion and that I could complete this even in my sleep.'

While Ling San knew that Xue Bai had no reason to lie to him at such a time, he still couldn't help but be extremely skeptical. The phantasm he now had was extremely cool and had infinite potential, but what did it have to do with this rune?

His mind was confused, but without any other better options, Ling San lifted the brush in his hands up toward his chin and started to engrave.

Starting to engrave the rune from the top, Ling San's brows immediately furrowed. He instantly ran into a roadblock the second he tried to engrave the rune.

However, just before he could turn around to Xue Bai with a smile that said, 'I told you so,' the fog that engulfed his mind disappeared. Like a hand that came into his mind and swatted away all of his stray thoughts, Ling San's mind became clear.

His body started to move even without his brain telling it to do anything.

Up, down, left, and right, Ling San's hand moved in a beautiful motion, creating long strokes of Spiritual Qi as if a dragon were flying through the heavens.

Line after line, intersection after intersection, Ling San's work was slowly turning from a congested mess of Spiritual Qi into a picturesque rune worthy of the ghostly emperor's appreciation.

Minutes soon passed with only Xue Bai paying attention to Ling San, but eventually, the young man completed his rune.

"I'm done!"

"I'm done?"

Two sentences, the exact same words sounded almost simultaneously, but both of them carried different tones. One was filled with relieved excitement; the other was nonchalant yet confused. The former was a Kun Empire student who was a part of Lin Fu's lecture, while the latter was Ling San.

The shouts, though, were looked at with different gazes once they proclaimed their completion. Currently, there are still 20 people in this secret realm, but not all of them are equal. Xue Bai, Lin Fu, and Ji Ruxi had completed their runes long before anyone and were thought to be of a different tier than everyone else.

Behind them were the remaining 17 students still meddling their way through the Illusory Garden Formation rune.

But even those 17 people weren't on the same playing field. While a few students, like the lead noble, were almost guaranteed to succeed, some were almost guaranteed to fail. Ling San was such a student.

Ling San had given the rune a lot of effort in the beginning, trying every single trick he knew to attempt to decipher it. Sadly, his skill in formations was far too low to do anything. Hence, without suspense, he failed at every avenue.

It was then that he 'gave up' on attempting to engrave the rune and simply started to 'mediate' without care for the trial. Once all of the other students saw that, they scratched Ling San off as one possible competitor.

Of course, all of Ling San's actions that related to his quitting were just him being enlightened by Mirage, but the other students obviously didn't know that. Hence, they forgot about Ling San entirely, thinking that he had given up.

Yet, to everyone's shock and surprise, not only had Ling San not given up, but the man even finished his rune just in time!

Everyone still inside the secret realm was stunned, not knowing how to respond for a moment.

The Kun Empire students were angered that a random person who they had already written off managed to steal one of their spots, Lin Fu, and was included in this group. The final Gen Empire student who realized that he would be eliminated was slightly saddened but happy that one of his peers would move on. At the same time, even the usual taciturn Ji Ruxi was moved.

Despite her surprise, though, she wasn't like the other students who were looking at Ling San. She was looking at the smiling Xue Bai behind him.

As a royal in her own right, Ji Ruxi had more than a few trump cards that she kept hidden at all times. One of them was that she had soul-refining art!

Contrary to popular belief, a cultivator didn't need to be at the peak of the Houtian Great Realm to sense their souls. In fact, you could even be a mortal without a strand of Spiritual Qi in your body and still sense your soul. The difficulty of such a task was harder than ascending the heavens, but it was still possible.

So, while hard, it was more than possible to sense your soul before the Xiantian Great Realm. Xue Bai was one such person. It was just that he hadn't done it with his talent but instead with the help of Mirage. Still, a feat was a feat, and Xue Bai had managed to sense his soul.

Sadly, without a soul-refining art or any teacher to guide him, Xue Bai's overly powerful soul was fated to sit around in his fleshy shell, doing nothing.

Ji Ruxi, though, was an exception. Not only had she managed to sense her own soul through sheer talent, but she even had a soul-refining art that could help her temper, grow, and even weaponize her soul before the Xiantian Great Realm!

Beyond all of this, though, Ji Ruxi had a strong soul. Even in her state of deep meditation, she had managed to see Xue Bai and Lin Fu conversing, but she even heard the last part of their conversation!

Mirage had set up a small barrier around the two while Xue Bai gave Ling San the rundown on the Dao of Illusion, but after Xue Bai finished that, he dropped it. The reason? Xue Bai didn't know, but even if he did, it wasn't like he was expecting Ji Ruxi to hear them conversing.

After all, while cultivators at their stage possessed spiritual sense and could easily hear everything in close proximity to them, it wasn't foolproof. If a cultivator had to divert their attention to something much more important, they would usually tunnel their vision into said task. During such a moment, their listening ability would be greatly reduced, leaving them vulnerable.

Such an action could only be done in absolutely safe environments, like at home or in their own bedrooms, but with the ghostly emperor watching over them and the Illusory Garden Formation being extremely hard, almost all the students choose to practically seal all of their senses and study diligently in hopes of being one of the first 10 to succeed.

So, it wasn't wrong for all of the students to be unaware of Ling San's awakening and speedrun of an engraving process.

But Ji Ruxi did see all of this. And now she was intrigued.

"It seems this purple-haired fellow has some secrets." Ji Ruxi mumbled in a voice almost imperceptible to human ears.

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