Dominating Martial King
Chapter 112 - 112 109 Enlightenment Stele 4th Update

112: Chapter 109: Enlightenment Stele (4th Update) 112: Chapter 109: Enlightenment Stele (4th Update) Zhoou Liangchen followed closely behind Chu Xisheng as he entered.

Upon seeing the scene in front of him, he couldn’t help but raise his thick eyebrows, his eyes showing surprise.

“Could that be the Divine Turtle Wanderer?”

Chu Xisheng, hearing this, withdrew his gaze from the illusory screen and looked ahead.

This place was unmistakably a Han white jade Square stretching dozens of yards, with nine steles about five yards high at its end.

Each of these steles was engraved with a single forceful and vigorous character for ‘Enlightenment’.

These characters, each three yards in diameter, were extremely conspicuous.

However, Chu Xisheng’s first glance fell on the very top of the central stele.

There stood an old man in a green robe with a youthful appearance, white hair and beard, an odd temperament, and an aura that reminded one of an immortal Taoist ascetic.

However, at the lower left corner of his face, there were a few snowflake-shaped white birthmarks.

Chu Xisheng’s pupils suddenly contracted, his expression filled with astonishment and uncertainty.

Before coming to Coastal, he had briefly learned about the life of the Divine Turtle Wanderer.

The appearance of this green-robed old man was exactly the same as the described Divine Turtle Wanderer from the legends.

Especially those white birthmarks, which were the trademark of the Divine Turtle Wanderer.

This person who was called ‘Divine Turtle’ had, in fact, no association with the Turtle Clan.

On the contrary, he spent his life enjoying various kinds of turtles and divine turtles, and in his later years he even subdued an East Sea Divine Turtle that had lived for ten thousand years as his mount.

It was rumored that the Divine Turtle Wanderer had the bloodline of the divine beast known as the ‘Seven-tailed Wind Fox.’

This divine beast also called ‘Wind Beast,’ resembled a ferret with seven tails and could manipulate wind and snow, feeding on various types of fish.

The snowflake-shaped birthmarks on the face of the Divine Turtle Wanderer were the result of this, proof of his half-demon bloodline.

However, the Divine Turtle Wanderer lived thousands of years ago and could not possibly still be alive.

“It should be a Divided Soul of the Divine Turtle Wanderer, or his consciousness, or a projection from thousands of years ago.”

Chu Xisheng contemplated, “It is said that First-grade cultivators can create Divided Souls and avatars, their divine skills are beyond our imagination.”

He then stepped forward, “Let’s go and take a look.”

At this moment, all Ninth Grade martial cultivators who had entered the Secret Realm had gathered there.

They were all sitting cross-legged on the Han white jade Square, looking up, seemingly at something unknown.

Since the steles were engraved with the ‘Enlightenment’ character, this challenge was likely related to comprehension.

As Chu Xisheng walked onto the Han white jade Square, his expression shifted subtly.

He found that the ‘Divine Turtle Wanderer’ atop the stele seemed to be gazing down at him.

“My disciples, comprehension, root bone, Qi Fortune, wisdom — lacking any one of these four is unacceptable, and amongst them I value comprehension the most.

You may study these nine ‘Enlightenment’ steles, and only by grasping the true intent of any one of them, leaving a depth of over three inches on the stele, do you qualify to pass this challenge.

You have one hour as the limit, and those who comprehend multiple steles within the time limit shall receive additional rewards.

Comprehend five steles, and you will be rewarded with two hundred taels of Demon Silver; comprehend seven tablets, and you will receive three Spirit Sky Pills; comprehend all nine, and you will receive a Seventh Rank Magic Artifact; those who fully grasp the intact sword move shall receive my leftover True Yuan to awaken a Bloodline Talent within them—”

Chu Xisheng realized that these were not spoken words of the Divine Turtle Wanderer, but rather thoughts that had been directly transmitted into his mind.

Chu Xisheng immediately looked at the central stele.

At this moment, a peculiar image unfolded before Chu Xisheng’s eyes.

The image was as if it were the illusory screen he had seen, directly projected into his field of vision.

Chu Xisheng was secretly astonished, then also sat down cross-legged and began to closely examine the image in his sight.

The image was dynamic, with only a green sword floating in the center.

The sword’s tip and blade were entwined with countless streams of green Qi.

These streams of green Qi continuously changed, transforming unpredictably and eluding comprehension.

Chu Xisheng initially tried to imitate his experience from comprehending the ‘Vengeance Map’ and aimed to memorize all the details of the image.

But he soon found this to be unrealistic.

It was because the ‘wind’ within the image was impermanent, with no fixed pattern whatsoever.

Chu Xisheng focused steadily, gradually perceiving a profound meaning in the image.

Could this be Wind’s Unpredictable Formation?

Having this epiphany, he then saw the Qi entwined around the sword transform into streaks of sword light.

A good half an hour later, Si Huangquan was the first one to stand up and slashed a deep mark on the stele—a whole six inches deep!

Si Huangquan then moved to another stele and continued his study.

Following him were ‘Shadowless Sword’ Zhuo Baiyun, ‘Corpse Dog’ Li Manshan, ‘White Eyebrow Tiger’ Ying Haobai—

Chu Xisheng discovered his comprehension skills were not bad at all; the time he took to decipher this sword map was actually on par with that of ‘Shadowless Sword’ Zhuo Baiyun, and ‘Corpse Dog’ Li Manshan.

Zhoou Liangchen was the fifth to stand up, getting up before Silver Patterned Tiger Lu Chen.

After standing up, he looked at Chu Xisheng with a hint of puzzlement: “Brother Chu?”

He felt that the Divine Turtle Wanderer’s leftover images were rather straightforward, merely a disassembled residue of a powerful Wind Element sword move.

With Chu Xisheng’s talent and comprehension, he shouldn’t be lagging behind him.

“Brother Zhoou, now that you have understood, you may proceed at your convenience,”

Chu Xisheng glanced at Zhoou Liangchen and then continued to focus his attention on the diagram before him, “I still need to study this further.

It seems there is a hidden mystery within this sword diagram, clearly containing some lingering charm.

What I’m seeing now doesn’t appear to be the whole picture.”

Zhoou Liangchen was momentarily stunned when he heard this, wondering if there truly was a hidden mystery in the diagram?

“Could it be?”

He half-believed and half-doubted as he stretched out his hand and made a chopping motion, and then his expression changed slightly.

This incomplete sword move actually did have some lingering charm, as if it could be further extrapolated and derived—

Zhoou Liangchen should have noticed this, but he was in too much of a hurry to decipher the sword diagram in the shortest time, overlooking these subtleties.

Zhoou Liangchen felt some regret.

However, he had already stood up; the diagram had vanished from his mind, and he could no longer continue his research.

Zhoou Liangchen could only walk to the stele and slashed a five-inch sword mark, then he walked in front of another stele.

Chu Xisheng, however, continued to concentrate his gaze and research the sword diagram based on what was before him.

He had already made some gains, but the pace of extrapolation was very slow.

He could vaguely discern that there were at least three more movements hidden within the diagram and a sequence of True Yuan circulations within the body.

Chu Xisheng was even less willing to give up.

He speculated that the Divine Turtle Wanderer must have had a reason for leaving these remnants of sword moves in the diagram; it was not without purpose.

But as time passed, more and more people around him began to stand up.

Even among the Zhoou family members, three had risen.

Chu Xisheng was not surprised, as these individuals were elites selected by their respective families.

Any one of them had the talent to enter the top ten within the Inner Sect of Zhengyang Martial Arts Hall.

At the same time, doubtful glances were being cast towards Chu Xisheng.

The fastest among them, Si Huangquan, had already left his mark on the third Enlightenment Stele, while Chu Xisheng just sat there, motionless.

This man, rumored to be the number one Ninth Grade Martial Cultivator in the East State, surely could not have such poor comprehension?

Outside the secret realm, the crowd was also displaying puzzled expressions.

Originally, mist shrouded the Ninth Grade Secret Realm, making it difficult to see clearly.

But when five hundred Ninth Grade Martial Cultivators reached the ‘Enlightenment’ Steles, all the mist in the vicinity dissipated.

The crowd at the valley entrance could then glimpse the scene near Han white jade Square.

However, the scene at the Stele was unexpectedly unusual to everyone.

Chu Xisheng, widely favored by many, showed no sign of activity.

“How strange, this test should assess one’s comprehension, yet is his comprehension so weak?”

“Impossible!

A man who understood the Four Layers of Blade Intent at such a young age, how could he be so dull-witted?”

“But how do you explain this?

Even my least promising child has researched two steles.”

In the crowd, the Zhoou couple also frowned slightly.

“Husband?” Du Lingxian looked puzzled and full of questions.

Zhou Xiongba, stroking his beard quietly, said, “Let’s continue watching.”

At this moment, Chu Xisheng was quite helpless.

He had the patience and resolution to continue delving into the secrets hidden in the diagram, but the environment did not allow for it.

Simply because the Martial Arts Points in the virtual screen were dropping, they had fallen by two points in just this moment—

His genius persona was crumbling.

Besides, there wasn’t enough time left.

Chu Xisheng suspected that the mystery hidden in the diagram was the ‘complete sword move’ spoken of by the Divine Turtle Wanderer.

However, his progress was still too slow to be certain he could complete it within an hour.

And what if he was wrong, overthinking it?

Moreover, those who could comprehend seven tablets could receive three Heavenly Origin Pills, while those who could comprehend all nine would receive a Seventh Rank Magic Artifact.

Once the complete sword move was understood, one could also awaken a Bloodline Talent.

Chu Xisheng was extremely eager for these rewards.

Immediately, Chu Xisheng opened the Martial Arts Treasure Vault and looked at the third item—the ‘Qin Muge’s 10-year-old character card (Trial Version)’.

He remembered how quickly he had studied Qin Muge’s Martial Arts in the Fire Bone Cave—it was a performance well above his standard—

This character card could not only grant him all the talents and martial skills of Qin Muge at that age, but it seemed it could also help him achieve Qin Muge’s level of comprehension.

So, was it worth it to exchange this precious Qin Muge’s 10-year-old character card for a Seventh Rank Magic Artifact and a Bloodline Talent?

After a moment’s thought, Chu Xisheng did not hesitate to use forty-five Martial Arts Points to upgrade ‘Light Cloud Jump’ to the Fourth Level, and he used another twenty-five points to bring ‘Wind and Thunder Martial Intent’ to the Second Level.

Chu Xisheng, concerned that his Martial Arts Points would continue to fall, decided to secure his gains first.

At that moment, Chu Xisheng only had thirteen Martial Arts Points left.

Without hesitation, he chose to exchange for Qin Muge’s 10-year-old character card.