#1019 - Goodbye Master Fu Sheng
Jun Wuxie looked into the void, waiting for the aged and profound voice to respond.
This time, the voice finally responded to his question.
“Having accepted the basic inheritance, you are now considered a successor of my Primordial Artifact Dao. If you want the complete method, you must ascend to the eighth level and accept the eighth level's trial.”
“There's still a trial?” Jun Wuxie asked, puzzled, “If it's just the predecessor's Primordial Refining Dao, isn't obtaining the Six Yang Primordial True Fire and the Extreme Cold Sacred Spring enough to meet the conditions? According to the information in the True Explanation, the most important thing in the Refining Dao is to possess a special flame and a special spring for quenching weapons. What other trials are there?”
“The trial is to see if you are truly suitable to receive the complete inheritance. What you mentioned are only objective conditions, but to obtain the complete method, you must also possess a temperament that satisfies me.”
After the voice finished speaking, the mysterious pattern in the center of the hall lit up, evolving into a spatial gate.
“Go, accept the trial on the eighth level. If you pass the trial, you will not only obtain the complete method, but also other benefits. Your Refiner realm will directly step into the Saint Artifact Refiner domain.”
The voice said, then changed its tone: “If you fail to pass the trial, I will take back the inheritance you have obtained, including the Extreme Cold Spring, stripping away the origin of the Extreme Cold Sacred Soul and the origin of the Six Yang True Fire!”
“Senior, you're going too far. Those were all obtained by me through my own strength. This is a domineering clause!”
“Well, you're right, this is a domineering clause. Within this Trial Tower, if you want to obtain my complete inheritance and receive benefits from me, you can only follow my rules.”
“May I weakly ask, can I quit now?”
“Will you quit?” The aged voice said with great certainty, “You won't quit, otherwise you wouldn't have appeared here after passing the sixth level trial. Giving up halfway doesn't suit your personality.”
“Who said that? Timely loss mitigation is the wise choice.”
Jun Wuxie said this, but his footsteps moved towards the spatial gate.
Of course, he couldn't quit. He never had the habit of retreating in the face of difficulty. If he retreated when encountering difficulties, he wouldn't have reached where he is today.
“Young people nowadays, are they all so unwilling to admit defeat? But your body is very honest.”
The corners of Jun Wuxie's mouth twitched slightly. How could his body not be honest?
Knowing that the complete method was on the eighth level, and having already reached the seventh level, how could he not go up and take a look?
The eighth level's scenery was different from the seventh level.
This was no longer a hall, but a valley, with green mountains and clear waters, the songs of birds and the fragrance of flowers. The environment was very serene, like a paradise.
When Jun Wuxie arrived here, he immediately saw two courtyards deep in the valley, separated only by a flowerbed of several tens of meters.
The courtyards were simple, but particularly exquisite, built from green jade bamboo and life spirit wood.
Next to the courtyard was a clear pond, and a green jade bamboo forest.
In the flower bushes in the valley, butterflies danced, bees collected nectar, birds flew through the air, and groups of fish floated to the surface of the pond, leisurely swimming.
He saw three people, in front of the two small courtyards, under an ancient pine tree.
They were sitting at a white jade stone table, two men and one woman.
The two men were both middle-aged men in their forties, with refined and elegant temperaments, very heroic and handsome. The woman's age could not be discerned, her face was very young, with captivating beauty, but her temperament was mature. She was sitting next to the table, watching the two men play chess, with a smile on her face.
“Divine Sense Illusory Body?”
Jun Wuxie naturally saw that they were not flesh and blood bodies, but illusory bodies.
It seemed that their illusory bodies had been living on the eighth level of this Trial Tower.
If it was an illusory body transformed from a Divine Sense imprint, how could it be maintained for so long?
This made him feel very strange, because if a Divine Sense imprint manifested, it would be consumed. As time passed, it would eventually disappear, and the time would not last too long, at most a few days.
“Could this be the temperament trial? I can't be careless and enter a illusion without knowing it…”
He suddenly became vigilant. Although he believed that the owner of the Trial Tower would never harm him, otherwise he would not have left the inheritance, if he fell into an illusion and failed the temperament trial, it would be troublesome.
Thinking of this, he cautiously walked towards the three people playing chess in front of the two small courtyards.
He hadn't walked far when the man on the right among the two middle-aged men playing chess suddenly turned his head to look.
At the same time, the man flicked his finger slightly, and ten snow-white chess pieces broke through the air and instantly landed on both sides of the road in front of Jun Wuxie.
The ten chess pieces landed on both sides, five on each side, separated by equal distances, floating in the air, emitting a brilliant light.
Jun Wuxie saw that the chess pieces turned into nine snow-white jade hearts in the light.
On the road ahead of him, strands of runes lit up, quickly covering the entire road surface corresponding to the heart-shaped chess pieces.
Jun Wuxie didn't have time to think about the chess pieces and runes. His gaze was fixed on the middle-aged man who threw the chess pieces, and his face showed surprise.
“Wuxie, what are you waiting for? Are you afraid that you can't pass this temperament trial?”
The middle-aged man suddenly spoke.
Jun Wuxie's gaze instantly became fervent, and his face showed excitement: “Master Fu Sheng, is it really you?”
“It's your teacher, is it different from what you saw back then?”
Fu Sheng's eyes were slightly moist. This was his only successor in his life, and he felt proud of him.
Because his successor's understanding of talisman dao was extremely high, and his martial arts attainments were at their peak in the same realm, amazing and brilliant, this was a heaven-defying talent!
“Master Fu Sheng…” Jun Wuxie's throat was slightly dry. He smiled and said, “Master is much more handsome than when this disciple first saw you. With Master like this, going out will definitely become a 'master-killer', fascinating the world's grandmas.”
“Does your teacher look like he owes you a beating?”
Fu Sheng glared at him, and then gave a slightly awkward smile to the woman beside him.
“Hurry up, stop dawdling, come over, walk through the talisman formation section ahead, let your teacher see if your heart has turned black these years.”
“…” Jun Wuxie was speechless. He looked at the ten heart-shaped jade chess pieces on both sides and said, “Master Fu Sheng, what if my heart turns black? You know, the lower realm is so cruel. If your heart isn't black and your face isn't thick, how can you survive?”
“Heart turned black? If your heart turns black, your teacher will help you dig it out and replace it with a red one.”
Fu Sheng said with a smile, holding the white jade chess piece in his hand.
“Alright, let your inheritance be cut off, hide in the quilt and cry every day, who's afraid of who?”
Jun Wuxie joked and stepped onto the path of the talisman formation.
Those runes quickly merged into his body.
In an instant, he had the feeling that his entire heart was being probed clearly, and even his hidden subconscious seemed to have not escaped the perception of the talisman formation.
Even if the one testing him was his master Fu Sheng, it still made him feel uncomfortable.
This feeling of being spied on completely, with nothing left, was really terrible.
The heart-shaped chess pieces on both sides of the road began to light up with blood-red light.
As Jun Wuxie's footsteps continued to move forward, one chess piece after another turned into a red heart.
When it came to the sixth chess piece, it actually glowed with black light.
This stunned Jun Wuxie, his face full of black lines.
He continued to move forward.
The color of that chess piece became deeper and deeper, so black that it shone, so black that it was terrifying!
But the seventh chess piece was a blood-red light.
The eighth, ninth, and tenth chess pieces!
Except for the sixth, all the other nine were red hearts, only that one looked particularly conspicuous, so black that it was almost dripping ink.
“Cough, um, has my temperament trial passed?”
Jun Wuxie was a little unsure. Although the others were red, the sixth one was too black, wasn't it?
Really, he himself felt that the blackness was a bit exaggerated.
Although he never thought he was a good person, being this black was a bit much, wasn't it?
“Tsk tsk, you kid, your heart is really black, being able to be this black is truly rare.” The middle-aged man opposite Fu Sheng had a particularly aged and profound voice, “I think you might as well change your name to Jun Black.”
Hearing this voice, Jun Wuxie was stunned for a moment. Wasn't this the one who gave him the inheritance on the seventh level?
He didn't expect the illusory body to look so young, but the voice was so old, giving a very strong sense of disharmony.
“I… does this count as passing?”
Jun Wuxie saw that the man seemed to have a teasing tone, so he should have recognized him, right?
“Alright, come over, you've passed.”
The middle-aged man laughed, revealing a very satisfied smile.
“Disciple greets Master Fu Sheng, greetings to the two seniors!”
Jun Wuxie came to the stone table and saluted Fu Sheng and the other two respectively.
“No need to be so polite.”
Fu Sheng looked at him with a smile, and then let out a sigh full of emotion and sigh.
“Young man, fortunately your heart has a black side, and it's black to the extreme, otherwise you would have had difficulty passing this test today.”
The middle-aged man opposite Fu Sheng said.
The corners of Jun Wuxie's mouth twitched slightly, and he said, “Senior, are you specifically looking for successors with black hearts?”
“Of course not.” The middle-aged man laughed and said, “The ten chess pieces represent the three souls and seven spirits respectively. A person's heart must be kind and upright, with the compassion it should have, in order to uphold the original intention, and at the same time it must be black enough, with a ruthless side. If it's just pure kindness and compassion, it's destined to be unable to accomplish anything, unable to walk on this path, I don't want such a successor.”
“Conversely, if at any time, the heart is as black as ink, then it is unscrupulous, doing things without any bottom line. Such a person is also not worthy of obtaining my complete inheritance.”
"Doesn't Senior mean that we should be ruthless and cruel enough when facing enemies, decisive in killing?"
Jun Wuxie understood his meaning.
"That's right, that's exactly what I mean."
The middle-aged man nodded in satisfaction.
"Wuxie, you didn't expect that we, master and disciple, would meet again so soon, did you?"
Fu Sheng was filled with emotion.
Jun Wuxie was puzzled by this, and said, "Master Fu Sheng, back in the Lower Realm, you said that you hoped that when we meet again in the future, this disciple's Dao of Talismans would have surpassed you. It seems that you thought it would be a long time before we could meet again."
"Yes."
Fu Sheng nodded, indicating that the him in the Lower Realm and the him here were different imprints of divine sense.
The imprint of divine sense in the Lower Realm was too weak to sense the existence of the imprint of divine sense in the Upper Realm, so he would say such a thing, but the imprint of divine sense in the Upper Realm could sense everything that happened to the imprint of divine sense in the Lower Realm.
"What you see now is the imprint of divine sense that your teacher left behind before that battle, sealed in this eighth layer of the world with a talisman formation, so the illusory body of divine sense has always existed. Because the consumed energy of divine sense cannot escape, it will be absorbed back by us, which is equivalent to never being consumed."
"So that's how it is. I was wondering how it could exist for so long. How could there be a starry sky talisman formation evolved from the Primordial Dao of Talismans in the seventh layer..."
Now everything is clear. The master of this Tower of Trials is not only a Primordial Artifact Refiner, but also Master Fu Sheng, and that woman.
"Come, let me introduce you. This is Shen Lian, a Tenth Realm Saint-level Artifact Refiner, the founding ancestor of the Artifact Refining Holy Sect." After Fu Sheng finished speaking, he turned to look at the smiling woman beside him and said, "This is Hua Yi, my wife, your Shimu, and also Shen Lian's younger sister."
Jun Wuxie was stunned, then bowed and said, "Disciple Jun Wuxie greets Shimu!"
"No need to be so polite, sit down, don't stand there."
Hua Yi had a kind smile on her face, and her voice was very gentle and pleasant.
"Thank you, Shimu."
Jun Wuxie sat down at the stone table, looked at the chess game on the table, and actually had many questions in his heart, but he didn't know how to start.
"Not bad, not bad. In just two or three years, you have cultivated from the ninth level peak of a Spiritual Talisman Master to the tenth level peak, and you are almost about to break through to the realm of a Half-Step Saint Talisman Master."
Fu Sheng was very satisfied with Jun Wuxie's progress in the Dao of Talismans.
"Is that fast?" Jun Wuxie sighed and said, "This disciple's martial arts realm is almost at the Saint King Realm, but my Dao of Talismans has not yet broken through to the Saint Realm."
"It's already very fast, and you are cultivating both the Dao of Talismans and martial arts. Most of your time is spent on cultivating martial arts. If you had spent all your time on cultivating the Dao of Talismans, you would have become a Saint Talisman Master long ago."
Fu Sheng didn't hold back in praising his proud disciple.
He then asked, "How is the Lower Realm? After the cataclysmic torrent, are there still living beings in the Lower Realm?"
His illusory shadow of divine sense could not go out. Apart from being able to sense the divine sense in the Lower Realm, he knew nothing about other things in the Lower Realm.
"Yes, although many living beings in the Lower Realm died under the cataclysmic torrent, the vast majority survived."
He immediately briefly explained the matter of the cataclysmic torrent in the Lower Realm.
Whether it was Fu Sheng, Shen Lian, or Hua Yi, they all looked at him with shocked expressions.
Even existences like them, who had once stood almost at the pinnacle of this world, found it unbelievable, as if they were listening to a legendary story.
"Your talent growth intensity at that time was not even as high as the growth intensity of the strong in the Dark Universe Small Realm, yet you killed tens of thousands of their myths and even killed the Dark Emperor?"
Was this something that people in the same realm could do?
It sounded like a fantasy!
"If I had known you had such an experience, what would I have tested you for? I would have directly let you come to accept the inheritance!"
Shen Lian's eyes became very fiery when he looked at him, and he even had a hint of admiration.
One person used his shoulders to support a realm, blocking all the dark powerhouses. Even if he died in battle, his obsession would not be extinguished, and he would continue to fight until all the dark invaders died before he fell.
What kind of will and belief would it take to do this?
This young man, whether it was his comprehension, strength, or temperament, was unparalleled in the world, and only seen in ancient times!
"I will not allow you to do this again in the future!"
Fu Sheng grabbed his arm, his eyes reddening.
This was his disciple, and also the person who gave him hope to live a second life, but he had experienced such tragedy and despair in the Lower Realm.
If it were someone else, who could have survived?
The fact that he could come here today was a miracle!
But such a miracle cannot be replicated. If he were to take such risks again in the future, would there still be hope of survival?
"Such things should not happen again in the future. The Upper Realm is different from the Lower Realm. If we really face such a situation, the Upper Realm should have many strong people who can fight against it, instead of being almost powerless to resist like the Lower Realm."
As Jun Wuxie spoke, he looked at Lian Shen and said, "Senior, you are a Tenth Realm Saint-level Artifact Refiner. Does that correspond to the Eternal Saint Realm in the martial arts realm?"
"That's right, it's equivalent to the peak of the Small Heavenly Position in the Eternal Saint Realm."
"Senior is so strong, how could you also... Could it be because of the strong from the Dark Universe?"
"Strong? We artifact refiners are not good at fighting. Among the strong in the Eternal Saint Realm, we can only be considered at the bottom." As he said this, he looked at Fu Sheng, "If you want to talk about strength, your Master Fu Sheng is much stronger than me. He is a Primordial Talisman Master, but didn't he also fall? That era was too dark. A prosperous age gave rise to us Eternal Saint Realms, but we still couldn't stop the invasion of darkness."
When the invasion of darkness was mentioned, the expressions of the three of them became extremely solemn. After all, there were too few existences at their realm, far less than in the Dark Universe, and they always faced the fate of being besieged.
