Cult of the Sacred Runes

Chapter 97 – First Round Elimination

In the evening of the third day, with a little help from the other cultivators, Ye Wei was able to refine and transform the Supernova stance into its evolved state.

After Ye Wei’s alteration, the number of runes in the figure reached three hundred and fifteen. Ye Wei was able to add one hundred and seventy-nine runes to the Supernova stance. The extra runes were recycled from the original one hundred and thirty-six, otherwise, it would have taken much longer for Ye Wei to figure out the second evolution of the Glacial Emperor’s pride and joy.

After refining the stance, Ye Wei gained a great understanding of the runic system. He realized that if he wished to continue refining Supernova stance, he would need to create new runes from scratch.

Creating runes was conventionally only done by Grand Runemasters and was something Ye Wei or even Master Yi were not capable of doing yet.

“Three hundred and fifteen runes!?! This is unmistakably the second evolution of Supernova stance!” Pu Yuan’s eyes widened, and he stared right at Ye Wei’s childish face.

Centuries ago the Glacial Emperor spent three days deciphering one hundred and eight runes then hit a wall. He then took a break and spent time reading countless books and manuals before he could finish deciphering the Supernova stance. After that, it took him three years of using the stance in combat and testing it before he gained enough understanding to refine the stance to its second evolution.

‘Three days… It took him three days…’ Pu Yuan was struggling to find words to describe how he felt from the sea of expressions he had learned throughout centuries of his existence.

Accompanied by a thundering noise, a while pillar of light descended from the sky and enveloped Ye Wei.

A massive influx of energy surged into Ye Wei’s body through his pores filling his body and rushing towards his dantian. His body shook from the heavenly energy he was receiving. Ye Wei felt a sacred presence from the other end of the white pillar of energy.

Ye Wei looked up, and he was able to see a dazzling structure far up in the sky. ‘Where does the cosmic energy really come from?’ He wondered.

Restored by the cosmic energy, Ye Wei’s skin became crystal clear as all his impure energy was expelled from his body. His muscles were strengthened and his skin became tougher while his bones became denser.

He felt his soul being purified which gave him a transcendent sensation. It was rumored that cosmic energy increased a cultivators chance of defeating their inner demons when they cultivate and eventually hit their ten-star barrier.

Ye Wei hurried and guided the energy into his meridians, purifying it and guiding it to his dantian. The cosmic energy was then diluted and stored as Qi. Its purity was beyond compare with any other kind of energy.

There were only a few Students who were capable of refining stances in the history of cultivation and Ye Wei was one of the youngest on that list.

For a Student, the after effects of being purified by cosmic energy was as much as taking hundreds of Silver Moon pills. The energy surge was seemingly never ending, and it pushed Ye Wei’s dantian and meridians to their limits.

As his body strengthened and his Sentient and dantian enlarged, the cosmic energy transformed Ye Wei into an eight-star Student.

But even the diluted energy was quickly stored inside his dantian. Energy from the heavens did not stop flooding into his body, and he was continuously becoming stronger even after the breakthrough.

‘Nine-star!’ Ye Wei could feel that he broke through again. But even after that, cosmic energy just kept pouring down. Not all the energy was taken in by Ye Wei, as he was not strong enough to absorb it efficiently, some of it spread out onto Lin Zi Yan, Hong Xun, and Xue Yao who stood close by.

‘This amount of cosmic energy is incredible. It can’t be compared with the time when he refined the Triple Tidal Palm with me.’ Lin Zi Yan was shocked as her body was bombarded by the energy overflowing from Ye Wei.

‘This stance was created and refined before little Wei was even born. How could he trigger the cosmic energy if that was the case?’ Lin Zi Yan started to consider the possibilities but couldn’t quite nail down what caused this phenomenon to occur. ‘Could this be…’

At this moment, Ye Wei was absorbing the cosmic energy like a whale swallowing water. He continuously took in the energy and filtered it until it was pure enough to be stored in his body. Eventually, all his meridians were filled to the brim with Qi, and his dantian was not able to take in any more so instead his meridians widened to contain this vast surge of energy. The expansion of his meridians pushed his body to breakthrough again.

His body kept becoming stronger and stronger until finally, the surge started to slow down right before his body was on the verge of becoming a Warrior. In the end, Ye Wei hadn’t trained much after his recent breakthroughs, and he was too weak. He wasted too much of the cosmic energy to breakthrough again.

The immense energy shook Ye Wei’s footing and knocked him down to the floor. He climbed back up and sat in the lotus position. He could feel his body was changed and that now he was very close to becoming a Warrior. Surprisingly, he couldn’t feel any side effects from breaking through so quickly; he didn’t feel fatigued nor did he feel nauseous.

Thinking back, Ye Wei remembered he could vaguely see a bit of movement towards the other end of the light pillar. ‘What is on the other side? What is the source of this energy…’ He couldn’t help but pause and question what he saw.

But knowing that he had more important things to deal with, Ye Wei quickly dismissed his thought and continued focusing on consolidating what he just gained to avoid wasting the energy further. In the end, it was a rare occurrence for one to be purified by cosmic energy.

If Ye Wei were to receive cosmic energy again, it would be very possible for him to breakthrough to the Warrior rank! He clenched his fist tightly. For him learning the Supernova stance purged his fear of not being able to use stances. ‘Looks like I will be able to cultivate quicker than others now that I can use and refine stances!’

‘But to be able to refine a stance first I will have to understand it fully just like I did with the Supernova stance.’

Seeing that Ye Wei was able to refine the stance and received cosmic energy, Pu Yuan laughed while saying, “The Supernova stance is a very special stance; not only is it evolvable, it’s also customizable so to speak. The evolved stages of this stance are different for each user, and strictly speaking, you are actually creating a new stance every time you refine it. Therefore it is entirely possible that you will receive cosmic energy every time the stance is refined.” Pu Yuan explained.

‘I wonder if this boy’s Supernova stance will become as strong as master’s… Either way, I guess I can say that I did not waste three hundred years now that I met this kid!!’ Pu Yuan stared at Ye Wei as his eyes were heating up. ‘He is definitely the most qualified person here to become master’s successor. I am glad someone this talented showed up after all these unworthy people came and failed…’

‘However…’ Pu Yuan exhaled slowly and calmed his excitement. He frowned as he remembered what was written on his master’s will.

“Master said whoever deciphered eighty-one runes would be qualified to take the next test!” Pu Yuan looked at Ye Wei, Lin Zi Yan, and Jin Yan. But he frowned and felt uneasy, if he did not swear to follow his master’s will, he would have directly chosen Ye Wei as the only candidate to inherit the Glacial Emperor’s legacy.

“As stated from his will, whoever deciphers more than eighty-one runes of the Supernova stance shall inherit everything, and in the case where there is more than one person who meets the requirement, a second test shall be held…” Pu Yuan announced.

“What are your names?” He pointed at the cultivators who qualified and asked.

“Jin Yan!”

“Mister Pu Yuan, my name is Lin Zi Yan.”

“I am Ye Wei.”

‘All three of them passed the test, but this Ye Wei is by far the best suited to become the temple’s next master.’ Pu Yuan sighed. In his opinion, although Lin Zi Yan and Jin Yan did pretty well on the test they were not even close to Ye Wei’s level.

‘But I have to follow master’s will to the letter!’

“The test is over. All three of you have passed.” Pu Yuan waved his hand, and three pillars of blue light fell onto Ye Wei, Lin Zi Yan, and Jin Yan.

“What, that’s it? Only three of us passed?” Hong Xun, Xue Yao, and the others felt deflated as they looked at the chosen three, but on the other hand, they understood the distance between them and the trio was quite vast.

The Glacial Emperor was a legend. Literally, everyone in the room wanted to inherit his legacy. This was a once in a lifetime chance, and most of the cultivators were feeling pretty down because they had failed.

“Congrats!” After a few sighs and sobs, Hong Xun, and Xue Yao overcame the negative emotions. They were glad that at least there was still a chance that Jin Yan would be eliminated, so they walked up to Ye Wei and Lin Zi Yan and shook their hands.

“Thank you so much!” Ye Wei answered smilingly.

Just after Ye Wei showed his gratitude, some of the Warriors were starting to disappear. They were teleported out of the labyrinth by Pu Yuan.

In mere moments, there were only about thirty Warriors left in the temple. Xue Yao and Hong Xun were confused, so they looked at each other, ‘Huh? Why haven’t we been teleported out?’

“Little ones!” Pu Yuan’s hoarse voice sounded.

“Eh?” Hearing his voice, everyone raised their heads and looked towards him.

“Although the rest of you did not pass the test, suffice it to say, you guys are talented enough to have deciphered a respectable portion of the Supernova stance!” Pu Yuan smiled as he relayed the good news. “Back in the day, master had eight close servants including myself. We are his disciples, and all seven of my comrades made their names famous in different corners of the continent while I was left behind to guard this temple!”

“I can not let you inherit the Glacial Emperor’s legacy, but to reward your efforts I would like you to meet his other disciples and see if you can learn something from my old friends’ descendants!” Pu Yuan waved his arm and seven jade amulets appeared out of thin air as they quietly levitated above the Warriors’ heads.

“There is a runic teleport array inside each of these amulets. Activating them will transfer you to the owners of the other halves of these amulets.

“The legacy of the Emperor’s disciples!?” The Warriors looked at the amulets and the fire in their eyes was relit.

‘Of course, it would be nice to inherit what the emperor left for the world, but from what I can see the emperor’s servants are stronger than their titles sound. I can definitely learn something that will make me someone strong!’