Longwei growled as he slashed his saber out, the saber light injuring the people surrounding him.
“Don’t go too far! Selfishly hoarding all the treasure will be your downfall!” A cultivator shouted out as he backed away, a large amount of blood leaking from his chest from the gash created by the saber light.
Longwei sneered as he brandished his saber. “If you have the ability, then you take these treasures from me! You’re simply a dog that can only bark with no bite!”
Even though Longwei acted arrogantly, he still objectively observed his circumstances. Currently, more than twenty Nascent Soul Grandmasters and ten Core Formation Masters surrounded him. Even for him, fighting against so many people would be taxing, not to mention he had to protect the women who followed behind him.
All of the cultivators had unpleasant expressions on their faces. Initially, they had been competing for the Sky Azure Bamboo growing on the mountain, but Longwei had popped out of nowhere and snatched it. Who wouldn’t have been angry? An outsider had stolen the fragrant meat in front of them!
“Longwei, just because the Saintess admires you does not allow you to be rampant!” A Bright Ascension Sect Nascent Soul Realm disciple said as he brandished a talisman against Longwei.
“Hmpf,” Longwei sneered, but his eyes darted around, searching for a figure. He turned towards the closest woman to him. “Where’s Muyang?”
“Miss Ji went in another direction when we split up. She said there was a material she must collect.” The woman said. Her brows furrowed as she thought of how distant Ji Muyang acted and how she went in the opposite direction.
“Forget it, if we can meet up, then good. If not, I’ll just have to comfort her.” Longwei said as he refocused on the siege against him. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see even more people closing in from afar.
This wasn’t the first time Longwei had snatched treasures from a group and sowed displeasure. He didn’t have time to deal with them one at a time, so he just ran to grab more treasure from another area. Hence the ever-growing size of people who wanted to slice him up into a thousand pieces.
Longwei waved his hand, and an illusionary red lotus covered him and his women in a red light that carried them off into the distance.
“Prince Xi, you’ve already learned a thousand techniques?” Even someone who was as fanatic towards Xi Mengfei and, by extension, Xi Tianyi couldn’t contain her surprise at how fast Tianyi grasped so many techniques.
“It’s not that hard,” Tianyi said, not knowing how many people would puke blood hearing his nonchalance. “At the sect, I’ve read through numerous manuals and learned quite a bit. It encompassed all sorts of fields, so it was easy for me to use my foundation to learn these techniques. Plus, the manuals I read were on a higher level compared to these here.”
Jian Wuyan nodded in understanding. This was the strong point of having a strong foundation in every aspect. What she didn’t think about was that Tianyi was only a bit over twenty years old, yet he already had such a deep foundation. Luckily, she was still in a state of fanaticism. Otherwise, she would be questioning whether her near forties years of life were spent living for nothing.
Tianyi bid farewell and moved towards the testing room. Once he entered, the exit disappeared, and only he remained in the bare room. With no prompting, Tianyi began to use each and every one of his newly learned techniques. With each technique, Tianyi demonstrated, a single step would materialize in the room. When Tianyi finished, a thousand step stairs had appeared, leading towards the second floor.
Tianyi didn’t know how much time he spent on each floor on the pagoda, and he seemed to have entered a crazed state, madly absorbing everything he could. With each floor Tianyi passed, his repertoire of knowledge increased without end. By the time Tianyi noticed, he had already entered the testing room of the seventh floor of the pagoda. Entering inside, Tianyi didn’t see any books but a statue of Immortal Ironword. The statue had its eye closed, but aside from that, it looked like the actual body of an Immortal. Only, without any presence of light.
“Junior, congratulations on reaching this far. This is the last test, but also the most challenging test. Earlier, you only had to learn and replicate the technique within all the manuals I gathered, but this final test is different. You will no longer replicate the techniques and instead write words using calligraphy.” The statue said as it opened its eyes. It motioned towards the table where the four treasures of the study -brush, paper, ink, and inkstone- lay.
“You will only need to write out a hundred words. However, you must fully demonstrate the concept behind these techniques with a single word. Naturally, the more you write, the greater the rewards will be. Now, pick up the brush.” Finish saying those words, the statue closed its eyes and became motionless once more.
Tianyi held his chin as he looked at the statue. He had confidence he could pass the test. After all, he was already accomplishing something similar when he used his Nine Strokes Sword Art. The question was how many words with concepts he could write. What he was pondering on was the mechanism controlling the statue. Unlike in the novels Tianyi read, he had not encountered a single formation spirit or Artifact spirit. If Tianyi had to compare it to something, it would be something akin to artificial intelligence that controlled a machine or tool.
Yet in all of Tianyi’s years in the Huang Realm, not even the Buzhou Immortal Sect had such a spirit.
Thinking deeper, Tianyi thought it made sense. A cultivator couldn’t create a new lifeform using artificial means, and a formation or artifact spirit would be akin to creating a new life. Then the statue should be something similar to a machine that reacted to certain conditions, only far more advanced to the devices he had seen on Earth. Even his mother’s immortal artifacts contained no spirituality, just a mere tool.
Tianyi couldn’t help be disappointed.
Taking some time to compose himself, Tianyi walked up towards the table and started to grind the inkstick into the inkstone. Just from a touch, Tianyi could discern that the inkstick and inkstone were treasures upon themselves.
The brush wasn’t any different; although not an immortal artifact, it should be at the Transcending Mortality Realm at the very least. And the paper wasn’t ordinary. Logically speaking, no ordinary paper would be able to contain words that were filled with obtuse concepts from the techniques gathered by Immortal Ironword. Just these materials on the table were the core components to create talismans. Depending on the talisman created, specific materials would be required. But Tianyi pushed that thought aside. He wasn’t skilled in talisman creation, after all.
With the inkstick ground into ink, Tianyi dipped the brush into the ink. His posture was perfect and elegant, as taught by his mother. It was a skill that his mother had taught him occasionally when it didn’t concern cultivation. It was something she replicated from her past experience because it was required for her to study the Four Arts as an imperial princess.
The first word Tianyi wrote was “chaos”, as someone who cultivated the Primordial Heavenly Scripture, Tianyi had a strong foundation understanding the concept of chaos. Not to mention the years of suffering he had to endure because of the true qi of chaos his whole produced as a Core Formation Master. The written word was jet-black, like a hole in space, yet countless tiny motes of lights could be seen. The word seemed to contain the meaning of all things yet nothing at the same time. The paper even seemed to distort under the concept written, but it held firm in the end, and nothing occurred.
The next two words Tianyi wrote were “yin” and “yang.” Both components of chaos, and each holding myriad meanings. He could write yin and yang down several times, each with a unique concept. This was gained from all the time Tianyi had to balance the yin and yang with his body as his understanding from his sole yin and eight yang spiritual cores.
The fourth unique word Tianyi wrote was “lightning.” Owing to his Dao Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Root that he had, Tianyi also had a very deep understanding toward this word and could write out several concepts using that word.
Next was “space.” Having an ever-expanding cosmos within his body, Tianyi had gained awareness of the Dao of Space and the ability to use spatial techniques.
Then was “jade.” Since his mother had allowed him to refined and gain partial control of the Jade Peak Seal, his understand had constantly be polished with each moment he was connected to the Jade Peak Seal.
Like this, Tianyi continued to write word after word, imprinting concept after concept into ink and paper. With each word written, he was like a jade being polished with each word written out. All the theoretical knowledge he had accumulated was being applied and increasing his foundation.
By the time Tianyi finished, his whole body was haggard as if he was a mortal who had spent countless days cramming for an exam. Had his body been able to sweat, it would have no doubt drenched his body. In the end, Tianyi had written a thousand and eight words filled with their unique concept. He had written two thousand more, but they lacked substance; the ideas within were fragile and did not qualify.
Tianyi forced his strained mind to move his body towards the newly formed door. His mind was no longer able to take in what the reanimated statue said, so he walked past the statue and into the room where the Eight Strokes Word Art lay.
The room was that of a study, like that of a scholar. Paintings and calligraphy hung on the walls, showing the owner’s learning, books lined up shelves, and in the center was a chair and table where the four treasures of the study lay. The only difference was that each of them emitted an immortal aura in contrast to the tools Tianyi used before.
But Tianyi had no mind to care about this. With swaying steps, he crashed onto the chair and slept. After an unknown amount of time, Tianyi woke up with an indolent yawn. Stretching his sore body, Tianyi rubbed his eyes to clear away the drowsiness. It only took a moment for Tianyi to focus and remember what happened. Tianyi cursed himself for letting his guard down so much, but at the same time, delight sprung from his body as he realized how much his foundation and mastery increased.
Next, Tianyi looked around the room to find where the Eight Strokes Word Art was located. He found it directly behind the chair. It was a calligraphy scroll hanging on the wall with four words: Eight Strokes Word Art. But it was no mere words as Tianyi felt knowledge being forced into his mind with each second his gaze remained.
Forcing himself to look away, Tianyi studied the room more. Seeing nothing else of significant note, Tianyi directed his gaze to the wall where the scroll hung.
“I should give my thanks for this…” Although it wasn’t as valuable as the Spring Autumn Scripture to Tianyi, it was still something that gave him massive gains. So Tianyi kneeled before the scroll and bowed. “Thank you, senior, for this blessing. Although I cannot guarantee to bring the Eight Strokes Word Art to the pinnacle, I will do my best to learn and nurture it.”
Unknown to Tianyi, the air in the room seemed to have vibrated for a slight moment. When Tianyi looked up, he blinked as he realized the black ink on the scroll had slightly changed. It was still black, but it contained a myriad of other colors at the same time. The four words were still Eight Strokes Word Arts, but the words seemed to have changed meaning yet retained their initial shape with each glance. Tianyi began to fall into a daze as the Eight Strokes Word Art began to transmit itself directly into his mind.