"However, it doesn"t necessarily means that one"s potential would upgrade when they reach a higher realm!" explained Ling Yu.Duan Li had previously made the a.s.sumption that each potential correlates to each realm. Thus, hearing that its not the case, he became curious once more.
"Really?.. why is that?" he asked.
Ling Yu turned towards w.a.n.g Guozhi as the latter nodded.
"Well, for example is between me and senior teacher Ling Yu here, she is of the Earth grade potential, while I am at the Nascent grade potential. But, we are both of the Nascent soul realms!" explained w.a.n.g Guozhi.
"However, a lower potential could only go so far.. thus, even if we are of the same realm, our fighting prowess is entirely at a different level!" he continued while sounding proud.
Ling Yu at the side seemed to pout a little bit.
"That"s right.. haa.. " Ling Yu sighed as she felt a little bit saddened by it, and then continued explaining;
"While we are both of the same realm, I am only at the Early-stage while he is at the Middle-stage.. eventhough I cultivated more diligently than him, this is as far as I can go without my potential upgrading to the nascent grade!"
"Furthermore, at the nascent realm, each stage becomes much more difficult to attain. And the trend seemed to be like this.." Ling Yu took out a paper and a pen as she drew something.
Earth grade -> Early stage.
Nascent grade -> Middle stage to Late stage.
Sky grade -> Late stage to the Pinnacle stage.
Seeing this, Duan Li finally understood. The difficulty level leaped by many folds as one reached the nascent soul realm it seems.
And by the looks of it, to reach the Immortal ascension realm would definitely requires the Immortal grade potential without a doubt!
It is of this moment that a spark of fire were lit within the hearts of Duan Li, as he vowed to reach the Immortal ascension realm in this lifetime.
...
"Ohh.. take a look, it seemed that she succeeded!" said w.a.n.g Guozhi as the thunder tribulation began to settle down and the dark clouds slowly disperse.
Xiahou Yu whom was sitting on the boulder slowly stood up, as a wide smile appeared on her face.
"I.. have finally reached the Nascent Soul realm!"
Looking at the screen, Duan Li asked; "Is the test finally over?"
w.a.n.g Guozhi shook his head.
"No.. its not over yet, what the test just now did was to test her will to withstand the pain of the thunder tribulation to ascend to nascent soul realm.. what comes next is a little bit more harder.. the test to measure one"s own spirit!" he replied as he pointed to the screen.
"Take a look.."
The bright face of Xiahou Yu suddenly went dark as she coughed up blood.
"W-what? Qi deviation?!" she said feeling shocked.
She gritted her teeth as she sat back down on the boulder cross-legged to use spiritual Qi breathing technique.
"Right now, she is undergoing a spiritual tempering from the trial of Qi Deviation! This happens to someone who had succ.u.mbed to their inner demons, practiced the wrong techniques, consuming pills or using treasures to forcefully ascend into the higher realm!" explained w.a.n.g Guozhi as his countenance turned grim.
"Qi deviation is extremely dangerous in the real world, if one does not tide through it, they risk of falling down into a lower realm.. or even worse.. losing their cultivation entirely and had to start from the beginning!" added Ling Yu.
Duan Li nodded as his face turned serious. He then asked, "Would my trial be the same as her"s?"
Ling Yu shook her head.
"Every student will face random trials to temper their spirit and wills. The runic formation will a.s.sess your potentials and possible realms you will achieve in the future, and create a scene for it. It does not necessarily be trying to breakthrough to another realm like she is doing now.." she explained.
"Is that so.. what if she failed in this trial?" asked Duan Li.
If he were to face the same scene.. breaking through to the immortal realm?
That is extremely scary for him right now.
"Hahahaha! Don"t worry boy! The runic formation will test you of the most difficult tribulations and trials first. If the students failed, their memory of it will be wiped out and will start another of a lower difficulty than before!" laughed w.a.n.g Guozhi as he explained.
"However, you will only have three chances in total, if you fail them all.. then naturally, you failed the second test!" he added.
The lady called Ran Yang stepped forward at this point, of which Ling Yu looked towards another direction, avoiding her line of sight from being the same as her.
"If I may add a few more points, the runic formations will plant you plausible artificial memories so that there is no incongruicy during the test which may harm the mental state of the student." she said.
"Furthermore, the runic formations used ancient inscription of time magic that could slightly peer into one"s lifetime.. thus, the artificial memories planted are true to some extent.." she added with a smile towards Duan Li.
"Right. In other words, when you are in the illusion, you will feel like you have lived a lifetime when in fact, you are not." Continued w.a.n.g Guozhi.
...
After a while..
The berserk aura surrounding Xiahou Yu finally began to calm down as she slowly reined in her aura back.
"It seems that she had managed to put her spiritual Qi back under control! As I expected, she is quite talented like me! Hahahaha!" laughed w.a.n.g Guozhi happily.
Xiahou Yu is his niece, thus he is extremely satisfied with her performance in this trial.
"Not just that.. look at her aura.. she had already consolidated her foundation to reach the Early stage of nascent soul realm in one go.." said Ling Yu in surprise.
It usually took an average on one week to consolidate the foundation of the early stage in nascent soul realm, but the fact that she had completed it after undergoing a trial meant that her talent and luck is extremely high!
The monitor then turned misty as it slowly reverted back into a normal reflective mirror.
The body of Xiahou Yu who was sitting at the center between the four pillars jolted a bit.
Her eyelashes trembled as she slowly opened her eyes.
"I.. I did it.. Haa.." she exhaled as she wiped the sweat off her forehead.
"That was.. it seemed so real.. the memories of it is still intact in my mind.." she said.
"En! And this will prove beneficial for you in the future during your breakthrough to the nascent soul realm as you already remembered what it feels like! Consider this as a gift for pa.s.sing through the most difficult trial for you!" laughed w.a.n.g Guozhi again with crossed arms.
"Duan Li.. its your turn now.." said Ling Yu.
Honestly, she was quite worried with Duan Li. His potential is already of that in the Sky grade.. who would know what scene would the runic formations decided to show him later on?
No one has ever yet been tested with sky grade potential and he would be the first one in the Jiu Empire throughout its history to experience it.
Furthermore, eventhough the runic formation is of low-level and harmless.. it has its drawbacks as well. Which is control factor.
The four students sitting on the pillars will act to stop the illusion magic from going out of control. But so far, everything was within the standard operating procedure.
What if an anomaly like him were to be in it?
After some contemplation, she shook her head slowly thinking that she was worrying too much.
...
Duan Li walked forward and sat on the center of the formation as he relaxed to breath slowly.
Ran Yang repeated the previous conditions for the hypnosis magic on Duan Li as she flicked her finger to start the test.
Flick!
Duan Li"s body jolted.
...
In a kingdom far away, in a royal palace, an old man wearing delicate white robes with long white beard was meditating on his chair with serene and calm expression. His white hair danced mysteriously as the cool breeze blowing on him through the big open window from the balcony.
(Author"s note: This is the same old man whom appeared on chapter 1)
However, his relaxed face suddenly contorted and he fell off from his chair.
Putong!
Aiyoh!
"W-what? Another anomaly?" he said with bated breaths as he used his arms to support himself onto the chair.
He looked towards the ceiling where various constellations of the stars in heaven and earth were drawn intricately. This is also where he previously saw the stars of the Nine heavens to merged together.
As he looked closely, his beard trembled as his eyes and mouth opened wide in horror.
"T-the position of the stellar bodies have randomly swapped - ouchh!" he bit on his lips after speaking while stuttering.
What the h.e.l.l is going on?!
...