Chapter 114 - Half-Saints Sacred Glyph
Everyone remained silent, as they walked into Divine Power Palace without making any noise or even talking. It was their rare chance to enter the palace and they only had two hours to practice. They didn’t want to waste any second of it.
On the first floor of the palace, there were 12 Golden Foil Paintings hanging in 12 different directions on the wall.
Xue Ling, Yuchi Tiancong, Hua Lian, and Ju Hailan entered the palace and chose one painting each. They started cross-legged under their respective paintings and began practicing.
Since all of them were mature students, it was not their first time entering the Divine Power Palace. They remembered all the way and clearly understood the regulation to practice in the Palace.
“Twelve Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyph!”
Zhang Ruochen was stunned to see the paintings. This school was just too wealthy! This was just the external yard, yet they were willing to put out the Twelve Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyph for their students to practice with.
He walked closer to the Glyph and noticing something off about it.
The Twelve Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyph didn’t look authentic. Rather, they looked like the Rubbings Scrolls.
He was right. These were the Rubbings Scrolls.
Each Sacred Glyph represented a Half-Saint’s Martial Arts and its Spiritual Determination.
The students could rely on the Spiritual Determination of the Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyph to enhance their Spiritual Power.
Of course, they could even get the chance to figure out some secret technique or Martial Arts of the Half-Saint classified as lost knowledge.
The paintings on the wall weren’t authentic. They were the Rubbings Scrolls that could only imitate the Half-Saint’s Spiritual Determination, not its Martial Arts.
The array of the palace transferred Spiritual Qi into the Rubbings Scroll, allowing it to display the Half-Saint’s Spiritual Determination to foster the students’ Spiritual Powers.
To maintain the Half-Saint’s Spiritual Determination for two hours, the palace had to consume 5,000 Spiritual Crystals.
5,000 Spiritual Crystals were equivalent to five million silver coins.
Since this required too many silver coins, the palace was only open once a month.
Zi Qian picked one of the paintings and sat cross-legged under it. She started practicing. There was a small sentence carved on the bottom left corner of the glyph that read ‘Bloody Half-Saint Spirit Glyph’.
The description was also carved on the wall next to the glyph, indicating that it was suitable for female warriors as well as those looking for speed and slaughter.
The fighting style that Zi Qian was pursuing matched perfectly with the description — speed and slaughter. Therefore, she picked it to enhance her Spiritual Power.
Prince Huo Xing and Yao Qingtong had also chosen their respective glyphs.
On the other hand, Luo Shuihan, Tuo Muzi, Huang Yanchen, and Duanmu Xingling were walking toward the second level of the palace. When Duanmu Xingling was going up the stairs, she glanced at Zhang Ruochen as if to signal him to follow her.
Zhang Ruochen got her message and followed her.
Duanmu Xingling murmured, “Students with Spiritual Powers below level 20 are required to practice on the first level. Those beyond will practice on the second level.”
“Will we practice with Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyphs as well?” he asked.
Duanmu Xingling said, “The Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyphs in Divine Power Palace are all inauthentic Rubbings Scroll. The Spiritual Determination of the glyphs depends on how much Spiritual Qi we activate and transfer to the glyphs.”
“Though all the glyphs here are Rubbing Scrolls, those on the first level can only increase a person’s Spiritual Power up to level 20. But the six scrolls on the second level can increase Spiritual Power up to level 30. It’s said that there’s a Saint Sacred Graph of the Rubbings Scroll on the third level but only Luo Shuihan is strong enough to practice there so far,” she added.
Zhang Ruochen nodded and didn’t ask any more questions.
When Zhang Ruochen and Duanmu Xingling arrived at the second level of the palace, Tuo Muzi was already seated cross-legged under a Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyph. No one wanted to waste time in Divine Power Palace.
Huang Yanchen and Duanmu Xingling were respectively practicing under the Wind Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyph and the Icing Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyph.
Zhang Ruochen finally picked one glyph, where 10 stars were painted in a straight line and connected like a string of pearls.
It was an incredibly ordinary painting. If it wasn’t in the palace, no one would be able to tell it was a Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyph.
He read the words carved on the bottom left corner of the glyph: “Half-Saint Xue Wan Sword, leave behind the True Thought.”
Every single word was full of power, as if they were carved using a metallic sword.
He sat cross-legged underneath the glyph, focusing on it as he calmed himself down.
Something boomed inside his mind after a minute passed and everything went dark before his eyes.
When his vision returned, he found himself lying on the cold and dark land paved with grass. 10 stars floated above his head in a row as they did in the painting.
“Is this the world within the glyph?”
He gradually smiled. He didn’t feel even the tiniest of fear as he had once entered the world within a glyph to practice his Spiritual Power. He knew clearly that he had entered the glyph mentally through his Spiritual Power, not physically.
“Boom!”
The 10 stars floating in the sky lit up with a dazzling splendor and became light beams that shined on him.
He felt the weight on his shoulder doubling when each of the light beams hit him. When all 10 light beams fell on his body, it felt so heavy that it was like 10 massive mountains were pressing on him.
“Such a powerful Spiritual Determination!”
He kept his feet pressed firmly on the ground as the center of his gravity sunk. His knees bent as he took on the pressure. It was so unimaginably heavy that both his feet were digging into the ground.
Just as he had finally stabilized himself, a man dressed in white fell from the sky and lunged at Zhang Ruochen with his sword.
“Clash!”
With a thrust of the man’s sword, thousands of sword shadows emerged.
The shadows merged into a white light sword that pierced into Zhang Ruochen’s heart.
“Boom!”
Zhang Ruochen activated his Spiritual Power to create a sword in his hand. He slashed hard at the white light sword, shattering it into strands of white smoke.
A knowing smile appeared on the face of the man in white. “You still managed to produce a sword and destroy my attack under the pressure of the 10 stars. Your Spiritual Power has reached level 30 at least. This Rubbings Scroll won’t be of any help to you. You should leave!”
Swoosh!
A white light flashed.
Zhang Ruochen’s Spiritual Power was forced out of the glyph.
“Your Spiritual Power has reached level 30!” A sweet and melodious female voice drifted from behind him.
Shocked, he turned around and saw a woman dressed in white standing three steps away from him.
She was beautiful with a tall and slim figure. She stood behind him elegantly, her bright eyes focused on the 10 stars of the Half-Saint True Thought Painting. She looked deep in thought, though he wasn’t sure about what.
Zhang Ruochen stood up to greet Luo Shuihan. “Greetings to Senior Sister Luo.”
She looked into his eyes and said, “I knew you didn’t show your full capability when you tested your Spiritual Power the second time. I’m curious. What’s your exact level?”
Zhang Ruochen laughed. “There’s really no hiding from you.”
“Follow me to the third level of Divine Power Palace!”
Luo Shuihan’s voice was placid as she walked toward the third level of the palace, her flawless figure swaying gently. The subtle and delicate fragrance coming off her seemed as if it could stay in the air forever, making people drunk with infatuation.
Zhang Ruochen followed after her up the stairs. “I heard you’re the only one who can enter the third level.”
She asked, “Do you know why?”
“Why?”
“There’s an authentic Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyph hanging on the third level. I brought it here from the Luo household,” she said.
Zhang Ruochen’s footsteps halted and he said calmly, “Since you brought the Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyph from your home, that’s your personal treasure. I better not go up.”
She turned around and looked into his eyes. “Zhang Ruochen, there’s something you need to understand. Since it’s my personal treasure, I have the right to invite you to practice together. You’re the only one out of the entire Western Campus that qualifies to do so.”
“I’m impressed by your generosity,” said Zhang Ruochen.
When they arrived at the third level of the palace, they immediately spotted the Half-Saint’s Sacred Glyph hanging in the middle of the wall.
Though it looked similar to the other Golden Foil Paintings, it was inherently different from the Rubbing Scrolls. Zhang Ruochen could feel a massive pressure coming from the glyph just by standing close to it. The pressure was so great that it was suffocating.
He walked under it and lifted his head to observe the glyph in detail. Water currents were drawn on the painting where creeks were linked to brooks, brooks to rivers, rivers to streams, streams to the sea.
There were at least thousands of creeks, hundreds of brooks, tens of rivers, and nine streams on the glyph.
The nine streams gathered before flowing into the sea.
“There is the glyph that my ancestor, Luo Xu, created when he reached the Half-Saint realm. It’s said that this glyph not only contains his Spiritual Determination but his powerful Martial Arts as well. Unfortunately, none of the many talented Martial Artists from the Luo family in the last 200 years was able to comprehend the Martial Arts inside this glyph,” said Luo Shuihan regretfully.