Martial World

The examination had already been underway for several dozen breaths of time and Lin Ming had drawn up 10 tiny rune structures. Although his speed was very slow, his strokes were steady and it was impossible for anyone to find a flaw in them.

However, besides this sort of proper and orderly method astonishing Old Man Xue, who knew of Lin Ming’s background, there was no one else that noticed him.

The attention of the people present was mostly concentrated on the two beautiful girls, Dreampearl and Clearshadow.

Their drawing of the divine runic symbol could be called as beautiful as flying dragons and dancing phoenixes, wonderful to the senses. Their ten slender fingers waved like lush plants in the wind, and when joined together with the divine runic pen that had absorbed the juices of all sorts of materials, the beautiful rainbows of lights they painted in the skies were as illusive and wonderful as a dream.

This exquisite and smooth technique left many people who had come to watch the examination, including some deacons, crying out in praise.

To watch these two young girls draw up divine runic symbols could be called a type of enjoyment.

“They are indeed apprentices taught by Old Su and Old Xue! From their appearances it shouldn’t difficult for them to obtain the qualifications for a divine runic master at all.”

Several deacons discussed amongst themselves with true essence sound transmission. The white-robed old man smiled, saying, “Yes, there shouldn’t be any problems for them to obtain the divine runic master qualifications, but perhaps the main play today might not be them. That main lead, has yet to begin…”

As the white-robed Elder spoke, he glanced towards the side. Everyone followed his vision. The one that he had been speaking about was the successor to the Divine Void Divine Kingdom’s King Qin, Qin Yi.

The examination had already been in progress for 20 some breaths of time, but Qin Yi’s hands were still calmly resting by his side. He had yet to do anything.

“What is he doing? Is this his attempt at being humble?”

As the deacons saw Qin Yi’s calm and idle appearance, all of them frowned. In truth, although they held some awe towards this talented youth from Divine Void Divine Kingdom, they didn’t believe that he would blossom in glory and drown out the light of Divine Rune City’s local examinees.

The competition had been going for such a long time but he hadn’t even moved yet. Whatever he was planning, it seemed a bit too theatrical.

“This fellow is too arrogant!” A deacon said, a bit disgusted.

“What is the meaning of this? Does he want our people to complete their drawings first so he can then display his high and mighty skills?”

The white-robed Elder shook his head, “You have misunderstood what he is doing. Although this Qin Yi is arrogant, that arrogance is within his bones and he won’t normally show it. The reason he has yet to move is not because he is intentionally demonstrating his strength, but because he is carefully analyzing and feeling out the structure and characteristics of all the materials. He is drawing up a divine runic symbol plan diagram in his mind. Once he is finished, he will draw it, and draw it all at once.”

When a top artist was drawing up a painting, they would have a complete image in their mind of what their painting would be like before they even began. This was what it meant to have a well thought out plan and one would be able to proceed with absolute confidence; to be forewarned was to be forearmed. A divine runic master was the same when they drew up divine runic symbols. If they first outlined the divine runic symbol in their mind, they would be able to draw up the complete symbol.

And just as the white-robed Elder finished speaking, Qin Yi began to move.

He casually picked up a handful of materials and tossed them in the air. He revolved his soul force, manifesting it into a sharp blade that chopped up these materials.

These divine runic symbol materials were all quite expensive. A normal divine runic master would process them with care, lest they make any mistakes and waste them. But, Qin Yi’s actions were bold and brave, because he had already become familiar with the structure and characteristics of these materials. Even the tiniest differences in the materials had been thoroughly probed by him earlier. This was the ability brought about by Qin Yi’s strong soul force.

With a series of slicing sounds, the batch of materials was processed by Qin Yi. Some had their juices drawn out, some were ground into powder, and some were sliced into parts.

Then, all of the materials gathered within Qin Yi’s palm.

This caused the white-robed Elder’s eyes to brighten. What wonderful hand work! At such a young age this Qin Yi was able to control several types of materials at once!

Normally, when a divine runic master drew up a divine runic symbol, they would handle materials one at a time in order to guarantee the highest chance of success. This was because one couldn’t split their mind in two, and the difficulty of controlling several materials at once could be imagined! It would make the process far, far more difficult!

Of course, the advantage of this was that the speed at which one drew up the divine runic symbol would be that much faster. Even so, these weren’t actions that a young divine runic master would dare to do.

“This boy is far fiercer than I originally thought! From the materials he has gathered, I think he is drawing up a divine runic symbol called the Fire Melting Symbol. This divine runic symbol is considered quite difficult amongst the first grade divine runic symbols!”

“He is an outstanding character to begin with, so it isn’t a surprise for him to choose the Fire Melting Symbol.”

Compared to Qin Yi manipulating a dozen plus materials at once, drawing a Fire Melting Symbol wasn’t difficult at all.

As everyone was speaking, Qin Yi began drawing. Without using the divine runic pen, he fused his finger with true essence and used it as a pen, pulling up the material juices to begin his drawing.

His speed was extremely fast. In just several blinks of the eye he drew up one tiny rune. Then in another several blinks he drew up a second. Then a third, fourth… soon he had dozens of them drawn up.

These tiny runes floated in the air, supported there by some invisible power. They were kept a good distance from each other as they faintly resonated with some mysterious Laws. Of course, these Laws were the Asura Road Laws.

Although Qin Yi hadn’t started until some time into the examination, with just a little bit of work, he had caught up to everyone else, and had even begun surpassing them.

“What amazing speed!”

The complexions of many people changed. Even Lin Ming glanced to Qin Yi more than once. This Qin Yi was clearly a talented young elite that was carefully raised by Divine Void Divine Kingdom. Although his cultivation might not be the highest, in terms of divine runic arts he was likely the top junior of his generation in the Divine Void Divine Kingdom.

However, Lin Ming only glanced at him twice before refocusing his thoughts and devoting his attention to the Overwhelming Rune. Even within the divine runic arts system, the Overwhelming Rune could only be considered a low difficulty rune as well as a low level rune.

However, Lin Ming had still chosen this rune because of the memories it recalled for him. Moreover, what Lin Ming was in now was the divine runic master examination and not a divine runic master competition. He would pass as long as he drew up any first grade divine runic symbol.

As Lin Ming calmly and steadily drew up the Overwhelming Rune, he heard two explosive sounds behind him. Two partially drawn divine runic symbols had burst into smoke and flames in the air. This was because some divine runic apprentices had been distracted by looking at Qin Yi and their soul forces had gone out of control, thus their divine runic symbols had blown up.

These two divine runic apprentices suddenly seemed as if they would begin crying.

Although they still had plenty of time remaining, the chances of them crossing the examination were small to begin with. At the start, when their soul force was at its peak, they still had some hopes that they would succeed. But as more time passed and their soul force weakened, their chances would naturally diminish.

Besides these two nearly hopeless divine runic apprentices, there were many others that were having trouble controlling their soul force. Even Yue Liuxing was focused on her work with an extremely tense expression on her face, as if she didn’t dare to allow anything to distract her. One could only say that Dreampearl, Clearshadow, and Qin Yi were far too different from them.

But, in this intense and exhilarating competition between divine runic apprentices, there was someone that didn’t pay much attention to Qin Yi at all, no matter how shocking his performance was. Rather, 99% of his attention was focused on Lin Ming. This person was Old Man Xue.

From the start of the examination until now, he had been staring at Lin Ming throughout.

He didn’t even glance at his own apprentice more than a few times. Although Qin Yi’s appearance had slightly diverted his attention, he had only looked at him for a moment before turning back to Lin Ming.

This sort of situation didn’t escape the eyes of Old Man Xue’s good friend, Old Su.

“I must say… Old Man Xue, why do you keep staring at that boy? Is there something strange going on?”

Old Su asked from beside Old Xue. His attention had originally been placed on his own apprentice, Clearshadow, so he thought that Old Xue should also be focused on his apprentice, Dreampearl. But, he discovered that Old Xue kept his eyes on Lin Ming from the start of the examination until now, not even blinking. It was like there was something quite interesting on Lin Ming’s face.

“He…”

Old Xue wryly smiled, not sure what to say.

Seeing the forced smile on Old Xue’s face, Old Su was even more interested. “You don’t care about your own apprentice, you haven’t looked at Clearshadow, and you aren’t even interested in that Divine Void Divine Kingdom genius, Qin Yi. Instead, you are focused on that boy alone? What secrets does he have?”

“Secrets…” Old Xue shook his head. “If I were to tell you that this boy had only studied the divine runic arts for one year, would you think I was stupid?”

“Only a year!?”

Old Su’s eyebrows leapt up. Before, he had heard Lin Ming and Old Xue squabbling. Old Xue had been mocking Lin Ming and saying that his chances of becoming a divine runic master were low, but Old Su only thought this was because Old Xue wanted Lin Ming to become his apprentice and pay tuition fees. He never imagined that Lin Ming had only studied the divine runic arts for year… no wonder Old Xue had thought that Lin Ming had come to the divine runic master examination to cause trouble.

“Are you sure he’s only studied for one year? The first year of practicing the divine runic arts could be called unimaginably difficult, but if you look at his drawing technique, do you really think that is possible from some novice who has only been studying for a single year?”

Old Su shook his head repeatedly, not willing to believe this.

Old Xue said, “That’s why I’ve been watching him. Qin Yi comes from the True Divinity Holy Land, Divine Void Divine Kingdom. In terms of divine runic master inheritances, although they are inferior to us, that is only in scale and quantity. In terms of the number of top divine runic masters, they have no fewer than we do. If Qin Yi is hand-taught by them then the skills he has displayed aren’t strange at all. But, this Lin Ming… I really cannot figure him out. He is far more amazing than Qin Yi is.”

“Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake?” Old Su said, still unable to believe this.

Old Xue said, “I also doubted it. I thought, did this boy really not start practicing the divine runic arts until a year ago? Perhaps he was playing with me at the time? But what would be his motive in doing so?”