"Then what if I use a Fate Skill to take advantage of others to pass?" Li Qingxian asked suddenly, a smile on his face.
"Let me ask my superiors..." The examiner looked helpless.
A moment later, the examiner nodded. "Fate Masters may use any and all of their methods. However, I advise you not to harm anyone. I heard that during the Middle Grade Cyan Cloud Examination a couple of years ago, some Fate Masters secretly killed many people, causing the examination to end prematurely."
"I was just asking," Li Qingxian said.
The examiner led Li Qingxian through the second gate, then pointed ahead and said, "You can enter the Thorny Land from here. The rules are written on the noticeboard to the side. You should read them again."
Li Qingxian thanked the examiner and looked ahead.
Before him was still an ordinary green field, but about a hundred feet ahead lay a muddy swamp.
Within the gray-black swamp, mud churned and weeds floated. Steel puppets stood amidst it all, holding bows and arrows, continuously firing at the passing examinees.
From time to time, an examinee would be hit by an arrow. Some pressed on, while others raised their hands in surrender, and the puppets would cease their attack.
Li Qingxian walked over to the noticeboard and, along with many other examinees, carefully read the rules for the second stage of the examination.
In this stage, the items Cultivators could use were expanded. Daoist Cultivators were permitted to use Spirit Talismans, but they had to be made on the spot.
This stage only began once one stepped into the swamp, so Li Qingxian sat down on the grass, took out his talisman-making materials, and began creating Spirit Talismans.
After finishing each one, he placed it in a plain cloth bag at his waist, making sure the examiners could see to avoid accusations of cheating.
At first, the examiners didn’t pay Li Qingxian much mind, but they soon found themselves looking at him with exasperation.
Li Qingxian crafted one Spirit Talisman after another, with no end in sight.
Once his Magical Power was depleted, he would immediately perform Visualization on his Spirit Platform and quickly recover. Once recovered, he would resume his work.
In the distance, Song Baige and the others couldn’t help but curse Li Qingxian with a laugh; he really was afraid of dying.
After advancing to the Eighth Grade, Li Qingxian’s Qi Meridians were long and sustained, his Four Directions Child had become stronger, and his Magical Power was incredibly profound.
One hour later, Li Qingxian finally stopped making talismans.
The examiners glanced at Li Qingxian frequently. Even if he were making talismans that consumed the least amount of Magical Power, this had gone on for far too long.
Seeing this, Song Baige asked from afar, "Old Qiu, back when the Ten Thousand Talisman Scholar was at the Eighth Grade, could he make talismans for an hour straight without using Elixirs to replenish his energy?"
Qiu Ye shook his head.
"That’s got to be close to five hundred Spirit Talismans, right? Playing it like this, what’s the difference between this and bringing them from the outside?" Wang Buku said.
"Look at that group of examiners. Their necks are about to snap."
Li Qingxian stood up, stretched his body, and walked over to the examiner stationed before the swamp. "Sir, I’m ready to take part in the second stage of the examination," he said.
The examiner stared into Li Qingxian’s eyes. "The timer starts the moment you step into the swamp. Afterward, as you enter the river and pass through the forest, I will be observing from the side. My superiors will also be using Magical Artifacts to monitor and record every detail. Be mindful."
"I understand. Can I use Life Artifacts now?"
"You may."
Li Qingxian first stood at the edge of the swamp, observing the trial.
The swamp area was relatively simple. One just had to wade through the mud and dodge the arrows from the ordinary puppets.
Once in the pool, the difficulty increased sharply. Puppets would suddenly emerge from underwater and fire—not with ordinary bows and arrows, but with faster, more concealed crossbows.
In the forest further ahead, the difficulty increased yet again. The puppets there no longer shot arrows but frantically threw all sorts of hidden weapons, making them impossible to defend against and unavoidable.
The catch was that in this examination, one could not defeat the puppets or destroy the hidden weapons and arrows. At most, you could only catch them with your hands, but even a hidden weapon expert couldn’t possibly catch them all.
After finishing his observation, Li Qingxian summoned one Life Artifact after another.
In a large wooden house not far away, dozens of huge silver mirrors lined the walls, reflecting every corner of the examination ground.
Four Upper-Grade Purple-Robed Officials sat in the center, arranged in the four cardinal directions, watching the silver mirrors before them.
Outside the circle of Purple-Robed Officials, rows of Red Middle-Grade Officials stared at the silver mirrors.
The Life Artifacts, invisible to ordinary people, were visible in the silver mirrors.
"Where did Mr. Gangfeng’s son get so many Life Artifacts? How could the Life-Seeking Sect bear to pass the Immortal-Seeking Bee on to him?"
"That Celestial Gazing Mirror is also a rare find. Add to that the Destiny Measuring Ruler and the Destiny Scale... he’s left no stone unturned. I estimate he might get through this second stage without a scratch and achieve Super Armor."
"Not necessarily. There are plenty of Fate Masters who have Life Artifacts but lack the strength to use them. He’s young. No matter how talented, his proficiency with Fate Skills is limited."
"Correct. Fate Skills are accumulated bit by bit. It’s difficult to achieve much before middle age."
"He’s casting a skill. Let’s see what he does."
After summoning four Life Artifacts, Li Qingxian consumed his Magical Power to cast a Fate Skill.
Soon, through his Life Artifacts and Fate Skill, he determined all the details of the puppets: their positions, angles, firing speeds, frequencies, patterns, and so on.
Compared to the complex Astrology of a person, the patterns and information of these puppets were mere child’s play.
Li Qingxian wanted to emulate Jiang Youfei by constructing a complete, real-time map in his mind to help him pass more easily, but he only got halfway before stopping.
His strength was insufficient.
Having no other choice, Li Qingxian summoned the Destiny Disc gifted to him by Shen Xiaoyi and channeled his Magical Power into it.
The inner and outer rings of the Destiny Disc spun gently, then shot out streams of light that entered Li Qingxian’s eyes.
A dozen breaths later, the scene before Li Qingxian’s eyes changed dramatically.
Over the surface of each puppet, an identical transparent puppet appeared, enveloping the original like a transparent shell.
These transparent puppets would fire one second in advance, and the real puppets would fire one second later, perfectly matching the transparent ones in range, speed, point of impact, and every other detail.
Five Life Artifacts were arranged in five directions, circling in the sky.
Li Qingxian pulled a string of Spirit Talismans from the leather pouch with his right hand. Light Body, Feather, Flying Wind, Vajra, Iron Armor, Water Walking, Wave Treading—he used one of every Spirit Talisman he had ever learned.
Li Qingxian’s entire body was wreathed in light.
The nearby examinees stared, their eyes wide.
This was especially true for the Martial Cultivator examinees. They had originally thought this stage would give them a huge advantage, since Martial Cultivators not only have better movement skills but also quicker eyes and hands than those in Literature or Daoist Cultivation. But with so many Spirit Talismans in play, Li Qingxian outclassed even a Seventh-Grade Martial Cultivator.
Li Qingxian carefully checked himself over, nodded, and stepped into the swamp.
His shoes didn’t sink, his body didn’t fall; he trod on the swamp as if it were solid ground.
SWOOSH...
Li Qingxian blurred into an afterimage, a powerful gust of wind stirring around him as he charged forward.
Every few dozen feet along the path, a puppet fired rapidly.
But then, a scene that astonished all the examiners unfolded.
It was as if Li Qingxian had eyes in the back of his head. No matter how the puppets fired, he always managed to dodge ahead of time.
Before an examiner could even finish a sip of tea, Li Qingxian had already crossed the thousand-foot swamp and stepped into the five-hundred-foot-wide pool.
Li Qingxian ran across the surface of the water. Even when puppets burst from beneath to ambush him, he dodged ahead of time, just as before, maintaining his high speed.
Soon, Li Qingxian charged out of the pool and into the dense forest.
The moment he entered the forest, large nets fell from all directions, followed by a dense barrage of hidden weapons that shrieked through the air.
Yet Li Qingxian miraculously used the tree branches and trunks for cover, evading the nets and hidden weapons, dodging and weaving through the tight spaces.
The trajectories of all the hidden weapons and arrows seemed to be influenced by the power of fate, always landing one step behind him.
Even when faced with a massive, omnidirectional attack with no blind spots, Li Qingxian was able to use natural cover like trees to evade it completely.