Cult of the Sacred Runes

Chapter 96 – Second

“The next best results were Hong Xun’s seventy-two and Xue Yao’s seventy-five. As confirmed by Pu Yuan, the eighty-first rune was a key-point. It did take me a day to get past it, but the fact that I did proved that I am on another level. If anyone should pass the test, it’s definitely going to be me!” Jin Yan pulled his shoulders back and stood tall; it was very hard for him to stay calm in this situation.

“I don’t care what family you’re from my result speaks for itself!” Jin Yan’s gaze made it obvious his message was directed to Lin Zi Yan. ‘The reason why I can decipher eighty-one runes in three days is because I have the talent to become a Runemaster. My master told me in a year or two I should be able to take the Runemaster entry exam!’

The fact that Jin Yan had the talent to become a Runemaster was a secret between him and his mysterious master. Even the Jin family was kept in the dark this whole time.

“Little Wei, how do you think you did?” Lin Zi Yan whispered in Ye Wei’s ears.

“Heh, not bad, but ladies first!” Ye Wei smiled confidently and shrugged.

“Ok!” Lin Zi Yan nodded and walked into the beam of light gracefully towards the figure.

‘It’s that girl!’ The cultivators’ eyes started to gather on Lin Zi Yan. Both her desirable strength and beauty caught quite a lot of attention earlier, and everyone was curious about how she did.

“Even Mo Ya couldn’t keep this girl under control! I think she’s actually stronger than Jin Yan!”

“I’d much rather this girl inherit the Glacial Emperor’s legacy than Jin Yan.” Nobody really liked Jin Yan, and seeing that no one else could match Jin Yan’s astonishing results, they all started to root for the girl with purple hair.

Jin Yan too, couldn’t take his eyes off Lin Zi Yan. She was the only person in the hall who he felt threatened by. He didn’t see Ye Wei as anything more than an annoying Student who got lucky in this treasure filled labyrinth.

Lin Zi Yan remained calm, and she didn’t lose her cool even though everyone was looking and talking about her. She took a few light steps and raised her slender arm as she arrived in front of the figure.

“Buzz!”

After a brief moment of silence, the runes on the figure started lighting up one by one at her touch.

“One hundred and eight!”

Everyone was staring at the green lights on the figure feeling startled.

“One hundred and eight runes! That’s ridiculous! That’s way better than what Jin Yan did!” The news was hard to swallow and after the initial shock, everyone turned their heads to Jin Yan whose face ashened. They thought what Jin Yan displayed was pretty hard to match, but apparently not so if you were Lin Zi Yan.

“Oh my god… one hundred and eight? Back in the day, the Glacial Emperor did the same in three days!”

“Could this girl be as talented as the Glacial Emperor was?”

The way each of the cultivators looked at Lin Zi Yan was slightly different; there was envy, jealousy, fear, but there was a sense of reverence in everyone’s eyes. They couldn’t help but ask themselves, ‘Will I live to see the rise of a legend?’.

“How is this possible?!” Stunned with disbelief, Jin Yan widened his eyes. He couldn’t take them off the runic figure bathed in bright light.

‘I have the talent to become a Runemaster, and I only deciphered eighty-one runes!’

Jin Yan, out of all the cultivators in the hall, was one of the people who knew how the complexity of the runes in Supernova stance only gets worse past the eighty-first rune. He struggled to believe that Lin Zi Yan could decipher as many as one hundred and eight runes.

Pu Yuan’s gaze fell upon Lin Zi Yan. He was excited at her talent that matched his late master’s. His cloudy eyes cleared up and shone brightly.

“Not bad, not bad. You’ve passed the test!” Pu Yuan announced full of praise. He didn’t think that after just three hundred years he would meet someone with so much potential.

The assessment was not yet over, but Pu Yuan was too excited to contain himself. Jin Yan took that as an insult because the remark Pu Yuan gave him was not as good.

“Next!” Pu Yuan looked at Ye Wei and said.

Ye Wei was the last in line!

“It’s that boy’s turn!” As Pu Yuan’s voice sounded, all eyes were set on Ye Wei.

All of the cultivators saw what Ye Wei could do with runes, but they did not expect his result to exceed Lin Zi Yan’s hundred and eight runes. Despite this, they certainly hoped he would do better than Jin Yan.

Ye Wei slowly got up and calmly walked towards the testing dummy under everyone’s attention.

“Pfft, what can a mere Student do apart from making a fool of himself!” Jin Yan grunted coldly. Although Ye Wei was able to fight him a while back, he had been relying on scrolls, ‘You need real strength and talent to decipher these runes!’

Ye Wei was the only Student in this group of Warriors, and in Jin Yan’s eyes, he was just a rich brat who was showing off his scrolls, not a person worthy to be considered as competition.

While everyone was caught in their own desires and thoughts about the Glacial Emperor’s legacy, Ye Wei was already standing in front of the figure rolling up his sleeves. He slowly extended his arm and placed his hand on it.

The second Ye Wei placed his hand on the figure, a surge of energy rushed through his body into his Sentient.

“Buzz! Buzz!”

An outburst of rich blue runic light emptied everyone’s mind. Their eyes immediately narrowed, and although they were curious to see how Ye Wei did, it was impossible for them to tell how many runes lit up while they were half blind.

When everyone blinked hysterically and tried to clear their vision, a loud rumble sounded and echoed in the hall. The disturbance died down, and the blinding light shrunk forming a halo on top of the figure’s head.

“They are all lit up!” The bright light finally weakened, and everyone could see clearly that every single one of the hundred and thirty-six runes on the figure’s body was lit. All the cultivators minds stopped, they couldn’t think. After a few moments, they rubbed their eyes in disbelief and counted the runes again.

“There is no mistake… One hundred and thirty-six runes?!!”

“No. That’s not possible. Something is not right. How can all of them be lit? Even a qualified Runemaster could not be able to decipher this many special runes in just three days!”

“He’s just a student, how come he can do what even I failed to do…” Jin Yan widened his eyes while staring at the figure. Agitated by the blue light, his eyes were stuck on these runes while his face turned bright red and his veins started bulging.

Everyone wondered if they were dreaming.

Seeing the scene, Lin Zi Yan’s expressive eyes lit up, ‘His soul sensitivity can match Runemasters, and he has a supreme level of rune consonance in the end. Why did I even doubt him! Haha!’

‘One day you will stand on the top of the world…’ She looked at Ye Wei and gave him her best wishes.

“This boy has learned the Supernova stance…” Pu Yuan have met many powerful characters throughout his life and even after his life, but even he was moved. ‘It only took him three days… Master, it’s a shame you’re not alive to see this boy.’

“Kid, what’s your nam…” When he was about to asked Ye Wei, something caught his attention and caused him to narrow his eyes.

Everyone followed Pu Yuan’s eyes. They could see that Ye Wei’s hand remained on the figure even though he had already shown he deciphered all one hundred and thirty-six runes.

Ye Wei’s eyes were tightly shut, and his eyes twitched as he injected his will-force into the figure. His energy was like a large hand inside it, twisting and adjusting the runic array within!

The Qi flow in the figure was being altered as Ye Wei swapped the runes around, and the halo on top of its head brightened again. This time, it was a turquoise hue, and the bright light kept intensifying until it eventually enveloped both Ye Wei and the figure.

Another rumbling noise sounded, and the space above the figure darkened. Sparks of primal energy arranged themselves like star constellations and a couple of those sparks whizzed through the air like shooting stars.

The awe-inspiring micro universe captured the cultivators’ attention. They felt naked as they were confronted by the mysterious cosmos.

“What is that?” Everyone raised their heads in shock.

Ye Wei slowly opened his eyes and pulled his hand away from the figure. “Finally!” Ye Wei was satisfied by the constellations and the two halos now floating over the figure.

Nobody could imagine that it only took Ye Wei one day to decipher the whole stance and that during the second and third day he was actually refining the Supernova stance. He had been stuck, but that was no longer the case after he was inspired by the residual Qi and will-force of the cultivators inside the figure.