Translator: TheBrokenPen
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Wielding his saber soaked with blood, Lu Ye finally managed to cut down the last monster inside the pocket dimension of the Rift of Illusions. Strewn on the ground around him were puddles of slimy green ichor, maimed limbs and entrails from the monsters he slayed. After so many days, he had succeeded in defeating the nine monster wave.
Despite the wounds that were making him dizzy, Lu Ye maintained as much vigilance as he could muster. He did not know if a tenth monster might appear out of nowhere. But if there really were one prowling nearby, he might as well just surrender.
The mist up ahead roiled like a gathering storm, then he spied a shadowy figure approaching him through the obscuring veil.
Lu Ye looked, his eyes throbbing with disbelief. The last thing he expected to see here, instead of monsters of myriad species, was a human!
Whether it was a man or a woman, Lu Ye could not tell. Whoever it was, the figure remained surrounded by the mist that he could barely tell if it was a human at all.
Naturally, it’s not a real person, but a magical contrivance conjured by this pocket dimension.
But Lu Ye was still recovering from his surprise while observing his new opponent when the stranger lifted a finger at him. A flash of light sparkled through the mist and Lu Ye recognized it instantly. TELEKINESIS!
[This humanoid thing’s a Seventh-Order!] .𝒎
Minutes later, Lu Ye reopened his eyes and found himself back inside his training chamber. His head was stinging from the imaginary blow that “killed” him and his face was a sickly-pale white, but he looked positively thrilled.
That a humanoid opponent would appear was certainly the last thing he expected to see inside the Rift, especially after nine rounds of dealing with oversized bugs, but he welcomed the change.
Killing bugs might help to hone his skills but on a very limited scale. What he would be facing were real enemies. Human enemies. Hence a humanoid opponent would be more useful to his training than just insects.
But whether he would still need to get past gauntlets of bloodthirsty insects first, Lu Ye would have to find that out himself the next time he entered the Rift. Better not, he thought, to save time and effort.
He would rather just fight humanoid opponents than go for another bug-killing spree once again. Especially since the humanoid opponent fought with the strength and power of not just any Seventh-Order, but rather, an elite Seventh Order.
The answer to that would have to wait until tomorrow.
He shoved two more Spirit Pills into his mouth and extracted the book Lady Yun gave him to read it.
His strength returned a few hours later and all weariness that weighed his shoulders down was gone.
It was time he tried to construct Glyph: Thirtieth.
Somehow, either through good mood or great form, he succeeded on the first try.
He dispelled his magic and tried to replicate the feat once more. Only this time, he failed.
Nevertheless, it was not too hard trying to replicate his initial success. He managed to get it right on the third try. Then he failed during the fourth, although he did well again on the fifth and the subsequent sixth…
Lu Ye practiced a couple more times, paying attention to his errors and making sure to grasp the feel as he accumulated enough experience and skill. By the time he almost reached the one-hundredth time, he had grown adept enough to pull off at least seven out of every ten of his tries.
That was a respectable score that Lady Yun would be proud of. That would mean that she would be happy to give him his next instruction.
The repeated construction of Glyph: Thirtieth should have caused a dent to his reserves of Spiritual Power, but with both Glyph: Gathering Spirits and the cultivation discipline of Gluttony Feast in motion, his stores of power not only did not reduce, but instead, it was replenishing.
In fact he was fully replenished.
He examined his Spiritual Points. Perhaps he could try to break down the barrier and see if he could unlock his next Point.
And his prayers were answered in the following hour. The barrier burst open like a dam rupturing, and he finally reached his one-hundred-and-eighth Spiritual Point.
The exact number of Spiritual Points he needed to reach the Seventh-Order of the Spirit Creek Realm!
Lu Ye channeled his power, allowing its effluence to flow through all remaining separated Spiritual Points, conjoining them into various Microcosmic Orbits that churned out greater power! The power of a fully-fledged Seventh-Order!
Such a day of fruitful outcomes! After his discovery of the Rift of Illusions, his attempts to practice constructing Glyph: Thirtieth had been rewarding and he had achieved the Seventh-Order of the Spirit Creek Realm!
It had only been one month since his return from Chess Island. Anyone who had noticed how fast he had progressed would have been in awe.
It was time for a break. Lu Ye stepped out of the training room. With his Spiritual Power now fully replenished, he went to all other training chambers to cast more Glyph: Gathering Spirits magical circles there. He had been doing this for the past few days and almost every training chamber now had at least one Gathering Spirits magical circle. Some had two while the ones occupied by Hua Ci and a handful of others had three. All those Glyphs plus the Circles of Boon that were already inside the training chambers in the first place would help to enhance the efficiency of their meditation by leaps and bounds.
Lu Ye arrived at the Summit of Clarity two hours later. He took his seat before Lady Yun.
Satisfied at his demonstration of the construction of Glyph: Thirtieth, she produced a large handful of the same crystalline wafers she had shown him before. Each of them contained Glyphs—Glyphs that looked like they were frozen, encased in ice, and suspended through time. Each of the wafers was numbered to denote the different types of Glyphs. That they were numbered showed that they were useless in battle, although their very existence carried immense and enduring academic value to the tutelage of new Glyphweavers.
He dismantled the Glyphs down to their basic elements without a hitch.
Next, Lady Yun instructed him in more techniques for constructing Glyphs by assembling Yin and Yang elements. Lu Ye never stopped asking questions whenever he found himself boggled, but Lady Yun provided answers to all his queries with tremendous patience and clarity.
The sun outside looked like it was about to set when Lady Yun finally singled out two crystalline wafers from the others. “These are Glyphs: Eighty-third and A-Hundred-and-Sixty-fifth, practice on them and come see me once you’re able to reconstruct them.”
She also handed Lu Ye a few books.
Lu Ye stowed them away carefully, said his farewells, and left the Summit of Clarity with Lady Yun’s maidservant seeing him out.
He went back to the Summit of Fortitude and found Shui Yuan.
“Wait, you’re in the Seventh-Order now?!” she gasped, her surprise and amazement at his rapid progress undisguised. “That means you can start learning Telekinesis now.”
Which was exactly Lu Ye’s reason for coming to Shui Yuan. He had encountered enough Seventh-Orders during the Battle Royal of the Legates for the seed of envy in him to become the impulse that had driven him to hurry here as soon as he had reached the Seventh-Order himself.
“But I’m afraid I’m not adept enough in the magic of Telekinesis,” said Shui Yuan, although her eyes gleamed with inspiration, “Why don’t you try asking Li Baxian? He’s particularly masterful in this regard. I’m sure he’s the ideal person to speak to about this.”
“Brother Baxian, eh? All right, I’ll speak to him and see.”
He had his fill of good food with Shui Yuan to restore his energy before he gave Amber another round of the red substance from his dragon scale, then he rushed back to the outpost and straight into the training chamber.
As he began meditating, he delivered a message to Li Baxian.
The latter too was astounded to hear about Lu Ye achieving the Seventh-Order in such a short time. But he was even more pleased and delighted to give Lu Ye advice and instructions when he knew how Lu Ye was interested to learn about Telekinesis.
Li Baxian might not be able to come over and teach Lu Ye personally just yet, but he could still provide a trove of helpful information through his messages.
After a lengthy explanation of how to master Telekinesis, Li Baxian said, “Give it a go on your own, Lu Ye. Feel free to come to me with more questions.”
“Understood, Brother Baxian, and thank you!”
He drew out Inviolable and placed it across his knees. Next, he channeled his Spiritual Power into it.
Telekinesis was all about the manipulation of objects using Spiritual Power, so Li Baxian told him. The purer Spiritual Power a Cultivator had, the greater the strength of the mental connection to the object would be and the higher the speed would be. There was also the matter of distance. Seventh-Orders usually could employ Telekinesis on an object within a hundred meters but those with purer Spiritual Power could reach even further, which would undoubtedly be an advantage during battle.
A Cultivator’s finesse in the handling of his or her Spiritual Power was equally important in affecting the manipulation’s reach and speed.
Hence both speed and distance were the advantages that Cultivators who mastered Telekinesis could rely on during a battle while the purity of one’s Spiritual Power and the finesse in controlling Spiritual Power were the two main requirements to mastering the discipline.
And in a battle where both combatants were Cultivators who could use Telekinesis, the one with greater reach and higher speed would definitely have the upper hand, if the Spirit Artifacts were both of the same grade and class.
The requirement of pure Spiritual Power was not something Lu Ye worried about. With the Tree of Glyphs now regaining its ability to consume the toxins in his body, his Spiritual Power had been restored to its former pristine state and he had never been more confident in his handling of Spiritual Power.
That he could manipulate the Yin and Yang elements with the ease and deftness of fiddling with a toy was proof enough of that.
There were no better masters in handling Spiritual Power than Glyphweavers.
But the crux of Telekinesis lay with the fact that a Cultivator would gain the ability to control Spiritual Power that had physically detached from them when they reached the Seventh-Order.
Those who had yet to attain the Seventh-Order could not do the same. Once a portion of the Spiritual Power was separated, a Cultivator would lose control of it.
Just like the Fire Phoenix technique that Lu Ye had been using to clumsy and lamentable effect. Lu Ye had always refrained from using the Fire Phoenix technique in battle unless he absolutely needed to because he lacked the precision to make sure that his projectile would hit its target. Every time he used the technique, more often than not, the projectile would just miss, and his Spiritual Power would be wasted, to say nothing of the fact that missing would also mean giving his opponent an opening for a riposte.
However, he did note that the late Dong Shu Ye once fired a fireball at him that could chase him like a bloodhound on a scent. The technique had once proven to be a major headache for Lu Ye and Amber.
Now that he knew more about Seventh-Orders, he finally understood how Dong Shu Ye was able to do it. Dong Shu Ye could also manipulate the Spiritual Power that had separated from him; that was why he could steer the fireball around and make it chase Lu Ye.
At long last, he had reached the Seventh-Order himself.
To test his theory, Lu Ye exited his training chamber. He fired a Fire Phoenix projectile up into the sky, feeling the sensation of heat escaping his hand as a plump bird-like firebolt dashed up into the night sky, flapping its wings furiously.
Lu Ye had always believed that whether his spell would work depended purely on luck.
But this time, everything felt different. He could feel the tingly sensation coming from the glob of Spiritual Power separated from him. He could still control it! He willed it to loop around and the fiery avian made a circle in the air, although the Spiritual Power that fueled the spell quickly ebbed away as the bird eventually dissipated into nothing.
“Hahahaha!” A peal of laughter burst out from beside him.
Lu Ye swiveled around and found a young lass with a hand propped against the pillar of a gazebo. She was looking to the sky at where the fiery projectile was flying before it had vanished.
[Who’s she? She looks familiar…] Lu Ye mused quietly.
Realizing Lu Ye’s stare upon her, the girl quickly withdrew her gaze sheepishly.
“Who are you?”
She snapped to attention like a sentry and swallowed hard before she managed to squeak, “My name is He Xiyin, Brother Lu Ye!” Her eyeballs rolled nervously in their sockets before she stole a guilty look at him, “And… Um… I wasn’t laughing at you just now.”
“Then why were you laughing just now?”
“I-I don’t know!” He Xiyin gulped down a mouthful of saliva anxiously. “Something just felt funny, and I-I just laughed! I swear, Brother Lu Ye! I wasn’t laughing at you!” Then she realized that what she said did not sound convincing at all. She dropped to the ground, crouching with her arms over her head. “Please, Brother Lu Ye! Don’t hit me!”
She was there on the floor, shivering with fright for a few seconds until she finally looked around. Lu Ye was gone. Only then did she pat her chest and exhaled with relief.