Chapter 1563 – The Examination Begins

…

…

…

When Lin Ming was in Tragic Death Valley, he had accompanied Empyrean Divine Mist for seven years. During these seven years, Empyrean Divine Mist had nearly never spoken about his past. Lin Ming had only once asked him how long he had been stranded in Tragic Death Valley and Empyrean Divine Mist had responded with an approximate figure – 35 million years.

The flow of time in Tragic Death Valley was increased in a 10:1 ratio from the outside. That meant that 35 million years within Tragic Death Valley was equal to 3.5 million years outside, a figure consistent with the 3.47 million years that Qin Yi had spoken of!

It was inevitable that he formed some connections in his mind.

The most likely explanation was that in the past, when Divine Void wanted to kill Divine Mist, the reason was to compete for the qualifications to become a True Divinity! Or, they were struggling for some sort of object that was able to allow either one of the two brothers to rise to the True Divinity Realm; for instance, pills, artifacts, and so forth!

And in the end, Divine Void had come out on top. After he became a True Divinity, he forced Divine Mist into Tragic Death Valley.

Lin Ming had thought this was strange in the past. Empyrean Divine Mist and Great Emperor Divine Void were brothers to begin with. If the two brothers were willing to support each other then they could truly dominate the world, unrivalled by anyone. So, just what had happened that could cause these two brothers to become enemies?

If it was said that the means of becoming a True Divinity were the reason that the two brothers engaged in a life or death struggle, then everything was easily explained!

The True Divinity realm was far too tempting for an Empyrean! Even Divine Dream, Primordius, Demondawn, all of them were willing to pay a great price to reach the True Divinity boundary.

Empyrean Divine Dream had severed her primordial spirit. Empyrean Primordius had returned to his homeland to found his own Samsara Heavenly Dao. Empyrean Demondawn had sided with the saints to betray humanity. All of this was done to reach the True Divinity realm!

Moreover, Lin Ming had something that he hadn’t been able to figure out before. Empyrean Divine Mist and Great Emperor Divine Void had similarly astonishing levels of talent to begin with and their cultivation conditions were similar. So, why did Divine Void step into the True Divinity realm whilst Divine Mist remained at the extreme Empyrean realm? When an Empyrean stepped into True Divinity, that was an entirely new level altogether; it wasn’t a minor difference.

If one had to think about it, then several million years ago, the two brothers Divine Void and Divine Mist must have stumbled onto some opportunity to becoming a True Divinity. But, this opportunity could only help one person realize their dreams. And for this chance, Divine Void had harmed Divine Mist. If so, then everything made sense!

“So originally… the reason Divine Mist fell into Tragic Death Valley was because of some chance of becoming a True Divinity!”

Lin Ming sighed with emotion. Millions of years ago, Empyrean Divine Mist had been at the prime of his life. He could be called a dashing and heroic figure who had even learned about a chance to become a True Divinity. If he had succeeded then his prospects would have been endless and his name would have been preserved in the annals of history.

But no one could predict the heavens or the hearts of others. In the end, Divine Mist had been harmed by his brother and had lost his chance of becoming a True Divinity. Then, he had been trapped in the hopeless Tragic Death Valley of tens for millions of years as he slowly exhausted himself to the point of death!

This gruesome experience had only been described by Empyrean Divine Mist with one word – enmity. He was unwilling to bring up his past because he didn’t want to relive it. In this word ‘enmity’, it was unknown just how much misery and sorrow was contained!

Lin Ming secretly swore that if he had the ability, he would definitely seek justice for Empyrean Divine Mist!

As Lin Ming was deep in thought, several red-clothed deacons stepped into the examination hall. Amongst these red-clothed deacons was a white-robed old man.

These people were all judges for this examination.

The white-robed old man was an Elder of the Divine Runic Masters Guild. During every examination for divine runic masters, the Divine Runic Masters Guild would send out an Elder to manage it, even if they were only testing for new recruits.

With Old Man Xue and Old Man Su, there were three senior divine runic masters present.

As the old white-robed man stepped through the doors, Old Man Xue sent him a true essence sound transmission informing him of the situation. After the old man heard this, he looked at Qin Yi with some surprise. “Qin Yi, I’m looking forwards to your performance!”

The white-robed old man didn’t conceal his appreciation of Qin Yi. Of course, he didn’t ignore the other juniors here. He quickly glanced over everyone in the hall and said, “There is also the rest of you, I am anticipating your performance too. If possible, I hope that all of you can become divine runic masters. Of course… because the examination is considerably strict, the chances of that happening aren’t too high. Every year, only an exceedingly small number of people qualify. Perhaps this year will be considered a good harvest…”

As the white-robed old man spoke, his eyes swept over Qin Yi, Clearshadow, and Dreampearl. The three of them were the stars of this year.

Of the three of them, Clearshadow and Dreampearl both seemed brimming with confidence, eager to begin. As for Qin Yi, his complexion was indifferent as if he didn’t care too much.

“Dreampearl, relax your mind and show your normal level of skill.”

Old Man Xue said towards his own apprentice, giving her a thumbs. Although this old man was stingy towards others and he particularly wanted to take advantage of Lin Ming’s wealth, he was indeed very good to his apprentices.

After speaking to his apprentice, Old Man Xue turned to Lin Ming. He laughed, saying, “There is also you, boy. You can do it! Even if you are here to cause a little chaos you should try your best to stir up some trouble. Otherwise, it won’t be you wasting our time but us wasting yours.”

Old Man Xue said, his face full of smiles. Lin Ming smiled and nodded in return. Towards this overly large fellow that resembled a round mouse, Lin Ming had some good impressions. This old man’s heart wasn’t bad at all. If he were to cooperate with such a person in a life or death mystic realm, then although he might be taken advantage of a little, he at least wouldn’t need to worry about a hidden knife to his back.

As the examination Elder stood at the front of the stage, the divine runic master examination was set to begin.

Lin Ming quietly glanced over at Qin Yi and took up his own divine runic pen. Although meeting Qin Yi during this examination was a bit surprising to Lin Ming, it was a little interlude that he took seriously.

At this time, Qin Yi’s hands were hanging low to his sides. He hadn’t picked up his divine runic pen yet, like he wasn’t even here to take the examination. His confidence seemed to be without parallel.

“During this divine runic master examination, there is no limit to the number of failures. If you can complete a single first grade divine runic symbol in 10 hours then you will be considered as having passed. The examination begins now!”

The white-robed Elder calmly announced. Although he said there was no limit to the number of failures, the money for the materials had to be provided by oneself. There was no one that was willing to randomly waste their own materials. Moreover, a low level divine runic master could at most complete three divine runic symbols in 10 hours. In other words, if they failed three times then they would have more or less failed the examination.

As the examination started, many examinees began rapidly using their soul force to process materials. Then, they used their divine runic pens to suck up the juices of the materials and begin drawing up the numerous and complex divine runes.

Lin Ming was no exception. The divine runic symbol he chose to produce this time was the ‘Overwhelming Rune’.

Although the Overwhelming Rune sounded as if it had an earth-shaking name, it indeed was an unforgettable memory to Lin Ming.

When Lin Ming was 15 years old, in order to pay for resources he had busily rushed everywhere to find a job. This was when he stumbled upon the Magic Cube. After he obtained the Magic Cube, he inherited the memories of an inscription master. The first inscription symbol that Lin Ming had drawn up was the Overwhelming Rune.

Of course, that Overwhelming Rune and the Overwhelming Rune of the Asura Road were two completely different concepts. The current Overwhelming Rune was part of the divine runic arts, and it was tens of thousands of times stronger. In the past, the Overwhelming Rune that Lin Ming had drawn up had only been the lowest level inscription symbol.

Even so, to the Lin Ming of that time, collecting the materials for the Overwhelming Rune had nearly caused him to be broke.

In order to save the materials that cost him all of his wealth, Lin Ming hadn’t been willing to practice drawing up Overwhelming Runes using his materials. Rather, he used his own true essence to draw up the Overwhelming Rune. He had practiced for many days and nights, failing countless times as he repeatedly overdrew his divine soul.

In this sort of hellish practice environment, Lin Ming had put in an incredible amount of effort before he managed to successfully draw up the Overwhelming Rune. But, the process of selling the Overwhelming Rune was also filled with suffering and difficulties.

No one was able to judge the quality of his work. Lin Ming had gone to numerous shops where he was rejected many times. Finally, he had to sell the Overwhelming Rune on consignment. The price was low to the point that it seemed to be an inscription symbol drawn by an apprentice. During the process, he even encountered his old sweetheart Lan Yunyue. She had looked at him with a sadness unfit for an outsider.

As Lin Ming recalled all of this, his movements became much slower. It was like the scene of dozens of years ago when he first drew up the Overwhelming Rune was replaying itself in his mind. He recalled walking down that difficult early road, adding halo upon halo to his body until he shined with radiance. He was moved just by thinking about this.

As Lin Ming was immersed in his own drawing, every stroke of his was filled with a sincere earnestness.

And to the side, there was someone that was staring at Lin Ming the entire time. This person was Old Man Xue.

Old Man Xue was all smiles. He planned to see just what tricks Lin Ming was going to bring up. But as Lin Ming started to draw up the Overwhelming Rune, his happy expression slowly froze on his face, to be replaced by one of growing astonishment.

In his opinion, it was impossible to produce a divine runic master without dozens of years of hard work. This was also in a situation where there was a teacher guiding them.

Of course, if one was a heaven-gifted rare talent and also had the hands-on help of a teacher, then learning enough to become a divine runic master in 10 years wasn’t a problem at all.

For instance, Qin Yi had only practiced the divine runic arts for 15 years. And looking at his appearance, he was definitely more skilled than a first grade divine runic master.

However, no matter how ridiculous one’s talent was, Old Man Xue didn’t believe that Lin Ming could learn how to honestly draw up a divine runic symbol in a single year. Although Lin Ming’s movements were slow, they were steady and true!

His fundamentals could be called solid.

This was especially astonishing because Lin Ming was a human martial artist!

“This boy… just how did he practice? Had he already come into contact with the divine runic arts a year ago and was just pretending?”

As Old Man Xue thought about it, he didn’t believe that Lin Ming would do something so juvenile and meaningless as tricking him. At that time, there was no point in pretending. After all, Lin Ming wasn’t a child.

“Could he have had some fortuitous encounter? Or perhaps he had the guidance of some famous teacher?”

At this time, Old Man Xue was completely ignoring his own apprentice Dreampearl. All of his concentration was placed on Lin Ming as he closely observed Lin Ming’s movements. If Lin Ming could maintain this state then there really was the chance that he could complete a divine runic symbol!

Of course, it was too early to make any guesses right now. Lin Ming’s movements weren’t fast and completing a single divine runic symbol required forming hundreds and thousands of tiny runes. If there was a single misstep then the entire drawing would fail!

However, even if Lin Ming failed, this was an incomparably terrifying talent in Old Man Xue’s eyes. If this level of talent could be maintained, then Lin Ming would absolutely be able to become a divine runic master in two years. Within five or six years, he could become a second grade divine runic master. In 10 years, he might even rise to a third grade divine runic master!

This was the speed of a monstrous genius!