Chapter 1098: Taking the Spirit Awakener Examination
Translator: StarveCleric Editor: Millman97
To be honest, he had already been very low profile by not bringing Wu s.h.i.+, Guild Leader Han, or the Master Teacher Pavilion into the picture, but that fellow just had to offer up his face for a good slap.
How was Zhang Xuan supposed to hold himself back?
Forget it! As an adult, I should remain calm in the face of a child"s tantrums.
Ignoring the teacher-disciple duo, Zhang Xuan turned his attention back to Vice Guild Leader Xu.
Upon sensing the other party"s gaze on her, Vice Guild Leader Xu"s eyebrows shot up.
The reason she had sided with Zhang Xuan earlier was because he was a master teacher, and it was important for her to uphold rules in the Spirit Awakener Guild. She had intended to stop Dao Kou if he really made a move against the young man, but to her surprise, the battle ended before she could even say a word.
Without a doubt, it was a thorough victory for the young man before her!
For a Saint 1-dan pinnacle cultivator to knock out a Saint 4-dan expert with a single punch…
Just where in the world did this monster pop up from?
A thought suddenly emerged in Vice Guild Leader Xu"s mind. Could it be that… he"s an expert from the Combat Master Hall?
Combat masters tended to seclude themselves so that they could focus their efforts on their training. As such, even though there was a Combat Master Hall branch in Qingyuan City, she had not really seen many combat masters around.
As such, she did not know much about the combat masters either. However, considering that the Saint 1-dan pinnacle young man was able to knock out a Primordial Spirit realm expert so easily, there was little doubt that he was one of the legendary combat masters, and from the looks of it, his standing was likely rather high as well.
This would explain why he had a Saint intermediate-tier artifact in his possession.
Previously, Vice Guild Leader Xu had thought that the young man was only able to remain safe due to the protection from the Master Teacher Pavilion, but from the looks of it, his individual strength seemed to play a huge role in it as well.
While Vice Guild Leader Xu knew that the young man before her was not an ordinary figure, she still thought that it was best to offer a word of advice after some thought.
" Gongzi 1 , it"ll be best for you to remain on your guard. The Twin Bandits of the Northern Meadows are extremely famous figures. The Flitting Earth Bandit Dao Kou is one thing, but his elder brother, the Sky Bearing Bandit Cang Xu, will be a difficult foe to fight against. It"s said that he has already reached Primordial Spirit realm pinnacle, and he possesses many sinister means, making him a difficult opponent to deal with."
Of course, with just a cultivation of Primordial Spirit realm primary stage, there was no way Dao Kou could become a dominant power of the Northern Meadows. The one who was truly formidable of the Twin Bandits was the elder brother, Sky Bearing Bandit Cang Xu!
Wielding incredible strength, even Vice Guild Leader Xu would not dare face him in a direct battle.
After all, spirit awakener was only a supporting occupation. Their abilities were not suited for battling.
"Thank you for your advice!" Knowing that the other party was advising him out of goodwill, Zhang Xuan responded with a smile. After which, he glanced at the Golden Origin Cauldron and asked, "May I ask, when will it be convenient for you to wake up my artifact?"
"Let"s do it right now," replied Vice Guild Leader Xu.
She first walked around the Golden Origin Cauldron twice before abruptly pressing her palm against a certain portion of the Golden Origin Cauldron.
Weng!
A brilliant light shrouded the Golden Origin Cauldron.
Zhang Xuan stared at the situation nervously.
Around ten minutes later, Vice Guild Leader Xu retracted her palm before taking several steps backward. By this moment, her face was already ghastly pale. "It seems like I was underestimating the difficulty of the matter. If I"m not mistaken, your cauldron fell into a deep sleep from being struck by lightning, correct? If that"s the case, I fear that I am not sufficiently powerful to wake it!
"Spirits are extremely weak to lightning; I believe you should know of this as well. If it had fallen asleep due to other reasons, I might still have been able to wake it by pus.h.i.+ng myself a little further. But this is beyond my current capability."
Vice Guild Leader Xu shook her head.
"Then… do you know of anyone who can wake the spirit in my artifact then?" Zhang Xuan asked.
After a moment of contemplation, Vice Guild Leader Xu replied, "Based on what I have seen so far, the lightning has not only eroded the will within, it has also left some remnants throughout the cauldron. To wake the spirit within the cauldron, one would have to drive one"s soul energy beyond the region filled with lightning remnants. In order to do so, one would have to be at Leaving Aperture realm at the very minimum. During the Leaving Aperture Ordeal, the cultivator"s Primordial Spirit is tempered by lightning, granting it decent resistance to lightning. However, I fear that no one in the Qingyuan Empire Spirit Awakener Guild has reached that level yet!"
Even the strongest individual in the Qingyuan Empire Spirit Awakener Guild, their guild leader, had barely reached Primordial Spirit realm pinnacle. She was still far from reaching Leaving Aperture realm, so it was unlikely for her to be able to accomplish the task in the short-run.
"You mean that… due to lightning remnants on the cauldron, it"ll be impossible for anyone beneath Leaving Aperture realm to wake the spirit within? What about souls with resistance to lightning? Will they work as well?" Zhang Xuan asked with a frown.
"Theoretically, yes. But of course, the soul would still have to possess proficiency comparable to a 7-star spirit awakener in order to wake the spirit within. However… where in the world can one find a soul that is resistant to lightning?" Vice Guild Leader Xu replied.
Primordial Spirits and souls were of the yin attribute, which meant they were highly vulnerable to lightning. So far, she had never heard of any Primordial Spirit or soul beneath Leaving Aperture realm that did not fear lightning.
"Proficiency comparable to a 7-star spirit awakener?" Zhang Xuan pondered for a moment before lifting his gaze to ask, "Vice Guild Leader Xu, may I know what the conditions to browsing through the books in your guild library are?"
Since there was no one in the Qingyuan Empire Spirit Awakener Guild who was sufficiently skilled to wake the Golden Origin Cauldron, perhaps he should give it a try himself.
While lightning was the greatest threat to any soul or Primordial Spirit, his soul had been through the field of lightning and Saint Ascension Ordeal, thus making it more wholesome than the others. Ordinary lightning could no longer pose any threat to him.
"Conditions to browsing through the books in our library?" Vice Guild Leader Xu was slightly taken aback by Zhang Xuan"s abrupt question. She hesitated for a brief moment before replying, "Our guild doesn"t use the conventional rank restriction that other occupations use. As long as you pay a certain fee, you will be able to freely browse through our books and even copy them if you like. However, you aren"t allowed to take away the original book."
Zhang Xuan was delighted to hear those words. "I wish to browse through all of the spirit awakener books, from 4-star to 7-star. May I know how much I have to pay?"
Only unique occupations with a perfect heritage would be stricter on their hierarchy. Typical occupations did not have that much requirements.
In fact, some would even loosen the conditions so as to attract more people into it, thus bolstering their forces.
Vice Guild Leader Xu did a swift calculation before responding. "To browse through all of the books, you will have to pay a sum of two thousand high-tier spirit stones."
"Here you go!"
With a flick of his wrist, two thousand high-tier spirit stones appeared on the ground.
"This…" Vice Guild Leader Xu was taken aback.
Even she would have difficulty whipping out two thousand high-tier spirit stones all of a sudden, and yet, the other party willingly forked them out so decisively just so to browse through books. Wasn"t he a little too extravagant?
"Alright, I"ll have to trouble Vice Guild Leader Xu to show me to the library."
To the current Zhang Xuan, it was not an issue for him to whip out two thousand high-tier spirit stones. If he could save the Golden Origin Cauldron and learn a new occupation on top of that, it would definitely be well worth the sum spent.
"Alright…" Seeing the earnest look on the young man"s face, Vice Guild Leader Xu could tell that the other party was not joking. Thus, she accepted the spirit stones and said, "Follow me."
Zhang Xuan swiftly stowed the Golden Origin Cauldron back into his storage ring before following her.
Leaving the room, they walked through a long corridor for quite some time before eventually arriving at a vast room.
It was the library of the Spirit Awakener Guild.
At the entrance of the room, Vice Guild Leader Xu handed a token to Zhang Xuan before she began briefly explaining the rules.
"You are free to read any book you want, and if you want, you can cultivate in here too. If you suddenly have a stroke of inspiration while reading the books, there are also puppets that you can try enchanting. Those puppets are cla.s.sified by ranks, and the higher rank the puppet is, the more difficult it is to enchant it. If you succeed in enchanting the spirit within a puppet of a certain rank, that means that you have achieved the corresponding level of mastery as a spirit awakener as well."
While spirit awakener was an extremely lucrative occupation in Qingyuan Empire, it was not a unique occupation, so it was not bound by the rules that governed them. Even the examination for it was relatively informal and simple.
"Thank you!" Zhang Xuan nodded before taking the token from the other party"s hand.
"Alright, you may enter now. Actually, there are quite a handful of people who visit our library everyday in hopes of learning the art of spirit enchantment, but it"s a pity that very few of them succeed!" Vice Guild Leader Xu sighed deeply.
Considering how lucrative the occupation was, it was inevitable that many wished to learn its arts. However, the conditions to become a true spirit awakener were simply too harsh. On top of possessing a strong soul, one also had to be capable of pulling off precise maneuvers with their soul energy. In a sense, being able to become a spirit awakener could be considered an inborn talent. Just reading the books was not sufficient for one to grasp the art of spirit enchantment.
Without saying much, Zhang Xuan pushed the door open and stepped in.
The first floor of the library was not too huge, consisting of only several dozen shelves. All in all, there were a few hundred thousand books.
Just as Vice Guild Leader Xu had said earlier, there were quite a few people flipping through books within the library. Most likely, they were also intending to grasp the art of spirit enchantment, just like him.
In order to not stand out too much from the others, Zhang Xuan walked up to the first shelf and casually took out a book. Putting on an impression of being absorbed into the book, his eyes slowly glanced down the shelves.
Hualala!
Whichever book his eyes fell upon swiftly materialized within the Library of Heaven"s Path.
In less than ten minutes, Zhang Xuan had already succeeded in collecting all of the books on the shelves.
Compile! Zhang Xuan willed.
Innumerable books gathered together, fusing as one to form a single book. Zhang Xuan flipped it open lightly and began browsing through it.
It was the 4-star Heaven"s Path Spirit Enchantment Art.
Swiftly flipping through the contents, Zhang Xuan gained a deeper understanding of the occupation.
To put it in the simplest terms, enchantment was the act of using one"s soul energy to nourish the spirit of an artifact or the soul of a cultivator.
The prerequisite to doing so was for one"s soul to be attributeless. This was so as to avoid the spirit awakener"s infusion of soul energy from being rejected by the receiver.
Just the very first prerequisite of their soul being attributeless was already a hurdle that most cultivators would never be able to overcome in their life. However, this was not a problem for Zhang Xuan at all.
As one who cultivated the Heaven"s Path Soul Art, his soul was devoid of any attributes. Otherwise, he would not have been able to imitate the aura of others perfectly and deceive others with his disguise.
After browsing through the entire book, Zhang Xuan swiftly internalized what he had learned before driving his soul energy through his body. All in all, it took him less than an hour to fully grasp the 4-star Heaven"s Path Spirit Enchantment Art.
Let me see if it works or not, Zhang Xuan thought as he walked to the corner of the room, where he found a bizarre-looking puppet. The puppet had eight arms and four heads, and it seemed to be made of some kind of peculiar material. It was impossible to determine what tier it was.
Even so, Zhang Xuan could not be bothered to use his Eye of Insight or Library of Heaven"s Path on it. Tapping into his soul energy, he placed his palm on the ground in front of the puppet before extending his consciousness toward it.
In an instant, Zhang Xuan suddenly found himself standing in a world of perfect darkness. Driving his soul energy, he sought to create a spark of light within this world.
Weng!
A burst of light shrouded the puppet.
Geji! Geji!
A few breaths later, Zhang Xuan successfully enchanted a spirit into the puppet, and it gradually came to life. Its hands and heads began twisting and moving about randomly, creating quite a peculiar sight.
Opening his eyes, Zhang Xuan thought with a smile, Seems like the 4-star spirit awakener examination isn"t too hard after all.
He had been wondering how difficult the occupation would be, but judging from how he could enchant a spirit within the puppet so easily, it didn"t seem to be as difficult as he had thought.
After that was done, he began making his way to the second floor.
There were also several hundred thousand books on the second floor as well. It did not take long for Zhang Xuan to finish collecting them and form the 5-star Heaven"s Path Spirit Enchantment Art.
Once he was done grasping it, he headed to the puppet in the corner and successfully enchanted a spirit into it once more. Seeing that he was done for the second floor, he headed up to the next floor.
…
Four hours later, Zhang Xuan stepped onto the fourth floor.
The entire room was filled with 7-star spirit awakener books. He swiftly collected them into the Library of Heaven"s Path and compiled the 7-star Heaven"s Path Spirit Enchantment Art before heading to the corner where the puppet had been placed on the previous floors. However, when he arrived at his destination, what he saw left him with a deep frown instead.
There isn"t a puppet for this floor? Wait a moment, what is that pillar for?
There was no puppet for him to enchant on the fourth floor. In its place was a fairly large pillar that extended from the ceiling to the floor.
Perhaps, it might be a weapon. If I successfully enchant it, I should be qualified as a 7-star spirit awakener!
With such thoughts in mind, Zhang Xuan walked up to the pillar.