Ling San's Talent
The second trial that they were in the midst of didn't have a ti limit but instead would continue forever until ten people completed the Illusory Garden Formation's rune.
But because the rune's difficulty was at the peak of the low Yellow-grade, only Xue Bai was able to complete it quickly. Everyone else was stuck, trying to understand the rune's intricacies slowly.
Of them all, the only two Xue Bai guessed would be able to complete it quickly were Lin Fu and Ji Ruxi, and now, back in reality, he found this to be true.
Ji Ruxi no longer had a rune near her, which signified her completion of it, while Lin Fu was no different. However, Lin Fu wasn't doing sothing simple after completing it.
After completing her Illusory Garden Formation, Ji Ruxi simply found an empty corner, sat down in a lotus position, and started to ditate in preparation for the next and hopefully final trial. But Lin Fu didn't.
Instead, he was standing tall, explaining the intricacies of the Illusory Garden Formation to everyone in the second trial!
"Fellow brothers of the Northern Continent, this Illusory Garden Formation is a difficult one, not because of how complex it is but rather because of how unorthodox it is." So once you understand the fundantal parts of it, engraving the rune would be as simple as drinking water!" Lin Fu spoke as he lectured everyone remaining in the secret realm. It didn't even matter whether they were from the Gen or Kun Empire; he treated everyone similarly and allowed them to listen to his profound words.
"Take a look at the top right of the rune, just above where the fourth diamond ets the 'Wei' character. If you look carefully, you'll see a miniature part of the top half of the middle Yellow-grade Mystic Grandmist Formation. This ans that the Illusory Garden Formation is similar to the mist variants of illusory formations. Taking this into account..." Lin Fu spoke aloud to the joy of everyone inside the secret realm.
The man's words were clean and precise, to the point where even a child would be able to understand them with little to no difficulty. Moreover, with how easily he managed to lead the students toward the proper way to engrave the rune, it went without saying that Lin Fu understood the Illusory Garden Formation well.
Even Xue Bai in the back could only inwardly nod toward the man's words. Enemy or not, Lin Fu was right about his words. Indeed, the Illusory Garden Formation was a formation that would unleash a large mist when completed.
However, it wasn't as simple as that. The mist the Illusory Garden Formation would create was very different from the mist the Mystic Grandmist Formation would create.
The mist in the Mystic Grandmist Formation would dull a cultivator's natural sense of direction and make them forever lost inside it. But the Illusory Garden Formation was much weaker than the Mystic Grandmist Formation, being only a low Yellow-grade formation. So its effects would instead simply unleash a thick mist that was similar to the thick mist of Spiritual Qi often found inside herb gardens, hence the na Illusory Garden Formation.
It was also because of this fact that the Illusory Garden Formation was so complicated to engrave. In order to engrave it, you basically had to engrave half a middle Yellow-grade formation rune while also engraving the rest of a low Yellow-grade one.
In order to create one Illusory Garden Formation, you had to engrave one low Yellow-grade formation rune and half a middle Yellow-grade one. No matter how one looked at this, it was a bad deal.
So, with no one wanting to do so much work for a weak bottom-of-the-barrel formation, the Illusory Garden Formation eventually fell into obscurity and was barely known to the general public.
Xue Bai knew all of this, though, from Mirage's inheritance, but there was an underlying question now out there. How did Lin Fu figure all of this out?
Just a few hours ago, the man was monts away from slamming his head into the ground out of frustration, but now he was an expert on it. What did Xue Bai miss out on while he was watching Ling San?
Just as Xue Bai was wondering what the hell Ling San was up to, Mirage's voice sounded in his head.
"Ling San successfully comprehended his phantasm, but it is pitifully weak. I'm going to speed up the ti in this dream world to help fix his deficiency, though, so he won't be an embarrassnt for you. However, about Lin Fu, I wasn't paying too much attention to him, but I did sense a strand of spiritual sense breach through the secret realm. I think he has outside help. How he got it, though, I have no idea." Mirage spoke as calmly as ever.
Xue Bai, though, didn't understand much of the first part of his speech and asked sothing in return.
"How is his phantasm weak? It doesn't even have a tattoo form yet." Xue Bai asked back in his mind, confused.
Mirage had told Xue Bai that a phantasm had a few stages of evolution. First was what Ling San was at: the Embryonic Stage. Here, the phantasm had just barely started to take shape and was nothing more than a small embryo inside the cultivator's soul.
Cultivators at this stage either didn't have a deep enough understanding of the Dao of Illusion or simply had little to no talent in the field. Moreover, a cultivator at this stage couldn't even use their phantasm for combat yet or even be able to affect the environnt. You need to go to the next stage to do so.
The second stage, the Tattoo Stage, was where Xue Bai was currently. At this stage of understanding, the phantasm would take shape and would usually appear as a tattoo on the body of the cultivator. However, unlike standard tattoos, the phantasm wouldn't appear unless the cultivator used it.
Xue Bai had his own phantasm, and it took the shape of a snowflake. Why? He had no clue. And to further annoy him, Mirage gave him a half-answer.
'It usually just takes the shape of sothing close to your soul. Your surna ans snow, and your given na ans white. Maybe, deep down, you like snowflakes or sothing. Honestly, as long as a cultivator's phantasm doesn't take the shape of sothing vulgar or deaning, no one cares about it.'
An annoying answer, but since Mirage refused to elaborate, Xue Bai was once again forced to swallow a bitter pill.
You know, when he first found Mirage, Xue Bai thought his life would be all sunshine and rainbows and that every single bottleneck he had would be broken down by the eternal wisdom that a Sovereign treasure would have, but nope. Instead, Xue Bai was left with more questions than before and regretted even finding Mirage in the first place.
It was, as the saying goes, Ignorance is bliss.
Back to Ling San's phantasm, however.
Since the boy was in the Embryonic Stage, he shouldn't have any power yet, so how could Mirage say that it was weak? Xue Bai was confused and wanted answers. Thankfully, Mirage was kind enough to answer his questions this ti.
"You're right. During the Embryonic Stage, I can't see how strong it is yet, but I can see its potential, like how even if it's still a cub, you can see how strong a demonic beast is by its bloodline, race, how big the egg is, and other factors. Phantasms aren't much different. Thanks to the inheritance that I graciously bestowed on you, yours was like a baby phoenix. However, Ling San's... I would be complinting this thing to call it a sparrow." Mirage bluntly said:
"It's that bad?" Xue Bai couldn't help but ask. Mirage was far too old to joke around, but his evaluation of Ling San was so low that Xue Bai couldn't believe it.
"I told you earlier. His mother barely has any talent, and that heavily influenced Ling San's innate talent. While we saw that his mother had a cultivation base and, therefore, had Martial Veins, I don't think it was innate. Most likely, she was like you and got a Martial Vein soti during her life, unnaturally." Mirage repeated.
Even though many protagonists in cultivation novels would rise from a village boy in the mortal world with no talent into an existence that rivaled the heavens themselves, genetics still ant a lot.
For 99.99% of people, the strength of their parents determined how strong they would end up. If their father was a Spirit Fusion realm expert, they would nine tis out of ten also beco one, while on the other side, if their father was a Qi Sea realm martial artist, nine tis out of ten, they would also only beco a Qi Sea realm martial artist.
While having parents without Martial Veins didn't guarantee a child would have them, it was an extrely high possibility that they would. In contrast, if the parents didn't have Martial Veins, there was a high possibility that their children wouldn't either.
However, when it ca to half-and-half parents like Ling San's, it was essentially a toss-up. It could lean toward the mortal parent, the genius parent, or just even out sowhere in the middle. All possibilities had an equal chance of success.
And from what Mirage was saying, it seed that Ling San's Martial Vein talent had sowhat evened out. But despite that, his talent leaned toward his untalented mother.
Either Ling San got a bad roll in the genetic lottery, or there must've been a huge gap between his father and mother for such a situation to occur.
It was a sha, but what could Xue Bai do? He had a plethora of fortuitous encounters in his mories that could transform Ling San's talent, but would it be worth it? Having to grow a low-tier genius would cost far more than growing a mid or even high-tier genius.
The counterargunt for this was that Ling San would be much more loyal and less rebellious than a high-tier genius, but Xue Bai had so confidence in his charisma.
'I'll give it until I leave the Gen Empire. If he doesn't show anything special, I'll just leave him here to be a decent pawn for Feng Fei.' Xue Bai thought with slight disappointnt.
He did enjoy formations, but that wasn't where his true ambition lay. Xue Bai wanted to focus on his Dao of Space and Sword Law. Everything else, even his alchemy pursuits, were just a ans to an end and ways to get money. So having Ling San, a potential formation master, follow him was an extrely tempting prospect.
But it seed that he had his hopes too high.
Shaking his head with so disappointnt, Xue Bai continued to look at Lin Fu, who was just wrapping up his lecture.
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