Chapter 9. Mastering Inscriptions, raising cultivation
The memories on Inscriptions comprised the bulk of the little soul fragment that Lin Xiang absorbed, and they were also very obscure and difficult to understand. For Lin Xiang, fusing with them took a few hours.
In the late afternoon, Lin Xiang finally opened his eyes. He smiled while resisting the severe headache he felt.
The inscription techniques that originated from the Divine Realm were beyond exquisite and utterly profound. They were not something that the lower planes even dare hope to compare with! They could not only increase the level of equipment, but also the strength of medicines.
Once his skill in Inscription reached a sufficiently high level, he could also engrave his body with two inscription arrays - there was one that enhanced the speed at which he would gather true essence, and another that could speed up his flow of true essence during combat, effectively increasing combat strength - these methods were also already known by Lin Xiang.
This was the sum of countless millennia of knowledge within the numerous dimensions of the Divine Realm. And it was only a tiny fragment. The lower planes might possibly have had some similar techniques, but most were without a doubt lost in the passage of time due to destruction of ancient sects or other such reasons.
Sky Spill Continent's engraving inscription technique can only increase the level of equipment; moreover, it can only do so by a tiny amount. To compare this with the Divine Realm's techniques was truly comparing the Heavens and Earth.
Lin Xiang raised himself to stand. Suddenly a wave of nausea swept over him. The massive amount of information emerged from within the recesses of his mind. It was a pain that came with a certain virtue.
At that time he also felt relieved. To his knowledge, it really appeared that he could use the materials from the Sky Fortune City to create many Inscriptions from the Divine Realm.
With this in mind, Lin Xiang skimmed through the manual on Inscriptions that he bought and over time wrote down a list of materials.
This list included inscription materials to create the most simple and basic of Inscriptions in his memory, the same one that Lin Ming must have created in the novel.
…
Early during the next morning Lin Xiang visited Lin Xiaodong and asked him to order him 100 gold taels worth of Sky Worm Silk.
Sky Worm Silk was a crucial ingredient for Lin Xiang's needs.
Lin Xiaodong was curious about the reason why Lin Xang needed the Sky Worm Silk, but made him no problems and agreed to help him acquire it.
After leaving the Lin family branch, Lin Xiang walked through the various stores and bought the rest of the materials required.
Sky Wind Grass juice, rank 3 desolate beasts' blood, long-tailed cicada's molt, ice bound shrimp… Ling Xiang purchased these materials in a frenzy.
Not all names perfectly matched those in his mind from the soul fragment, but Lin Xiang was still able to purchase everything that should be necessary to create the Overwhelming Symbols.
Since Lin Ming in the novel succeeded in creating inscriptions, Lin Xiang was fairly confident in doing the same.
In a short amount of time, Lin Xiang spent seven hundred gold teals on various materials. Paired with the 100 gold taels spent on Sky Worm Silk, he only had 400 gold taels remaining.
Fortunately, at noon of the same day at the city square, Wang Yigao, true to his word, gave Lin Xiang the remaining 950 gold taels he promised. He had to do it or otherwise his reputation in the Sky Fortune City would be ruined.
Although Wang Yigao's reputation among commoners was not good in the first place, it was mostly among the common folk and the nobles did care much about it. However, if it became known that he lost a martial duel and then went back on his promise, then this dirty reputation would accompany him for the rest of his life among martial artists and nobles. Thus, his father gave him a thousand gold taels to repay his debt to Lin Xiang.
Judging by Wang Yigao's grim and bloodthirsty expression, Lin Xiang knew that this young master would surely want to bring him more trouble in the future, but he was still glad for this timely donation.
After receiving the money, Lin Xiang walked along the main street straight back to the Grand Clarity Pavilion.
Although he fused with the memories of the soul fragment, an inscription master cannot create Inscriptions with just dry knowledge. In order to be able to create actual inscriptions, he had to practice body and mind spiritual coordination in order to fully integrate the soul's memories within his body.
To not waste the materials he bought, Lin Xiang first started practicing by using true essence to draw Inscription Lines and Symbols in the air in accordance with the memories from the soul fragment by using his finger.
It was a very tedious and mentally taxing process, but Lin Xiangs still patiently practiced, repeatedly drawing symbols for thousands of times. As he practiced again and again, his soul and body gradually began to sync and his movements became smoother.
Because his soul force was drained so much, from time to time he would take a break and use this time to study the introductory inscription manual.
With his existing knowledge on inscription, it was very easy to read this book. Although this manual could not teach him anything new, it was still beneficial to help him better understand the Inscriptions of Sky Spill Continent.
From that point onwards, Lin Xiang stopped going out into the mountains to train and entered secluded cultivation in his room for several days.
His routine consisted of alternating between practicing Inscriptions on end and then fully focusing on cultivating with the True Essence Chaos Formula while waiting for his soul force to recover.
Every evening before sleep he would also push himself to the very limits and completely exhaust his soul force. At that time he would feel dead tired like a zombie and would need to sleep for more than ten hours to recover, but every time he woke up the next day, his soul force would have grown by a little and by extension his perception was becoming more and more acute.
Because Lin Xiang revolved the True Essence Chaos Formula so much, even using it while practicing inscriptions, true essence eventually overflowed from the surface of his muscles and spread throughout his entire body.
He broke through to the Second Stage of Body Transformation!
Body Transformation's 1st Stage was Strength Training where true essence is mainly concentrated on the surface of the muscles.
Then with the advent of the 2nd Stage of Body Transformation, true essence penetrates deeper into the muscles and pervades the skin.
This was the starting stage of the Second Stage of Body Transformation!
Not only would one's strength increase due to the qualitative change of larger true essence reserves, but the muscles and skin would also be more durable. Although one wouldn't become invincible, thanks to it a sword that would have easily sliced you before would only give you a slight cut. The overall combat effectiveness would also increase by a small margin.
However, Lin Xiang's goal was the 3rd Stage of Body Transformation. He was still far from achieving it.
Since he had already reached the Second Stage, Lin Xiang decided to finally take his first formal steps toward creating actual inscriptions.
He had just made a breakthrough and felt completely refreshed and full of energy, so he felt that it was a perfect time for him to give a shot at creating real Inscriptions.
After using his true essence to practice formulating seals for thousands of times, Lin Xiang finally began the formal steps for inscription that involved materials.
This was how most inscription masters started, but Lin Xiang didn't want to casually waste the materials he had before gaining the most basic proficiency in soul force control.
In general, inscriptions not only required good perception, but also needed a good teacher, financial support, and most of all, a powerful soul force. That's because in the inscription process one had to control the engraving marks by using their soul force to draw the energy structure.
Lin Xiang's soul force talent had already been measured as a child.
Usually a martial artist's Soul Force Talent would be weaker or at best the same as their Martial Talent.
In the case of Lin Xiang, he had an Inferior 3rd Martial Talent, while his soul force talent was slightly higher at Middle 3rd Grade. It could be considered decent for a mortal family with no history of martial arts, but it certainly wasn't anything outstanding.
In general, Martial Artists in the Body Transformation stage did not have many reasons to use their soul force. Apart from using his soul force to read a jade slip, it was Lin Xiang's first time utilizing this form of energy in any other way.
At this moment, his materials were already processed. He began to mobilize his soul force in accordance with the memories from the soul fragment, moving it with his mind.
All living beings had soul force, but an average person is not able to consciously move it even if they want to. It required a Soul Law Formula, and daily rigorous practice.
Many Inscription Masters had managed to memorize the varieties of symbols and basic structures, but if their time studying a Soul Law Formula was inadequate, it would result in them not being able to use soul force. If one could not use soul force, then the material could not be utilized. As a result, they would not even have the qualifications to waste Inscription materials!
As soon as Lin Xiang began to revolve the Soul Law Formula, a feeling of familiarity came from the depths of his memory.
The expert from whom Lin Xiang acquired the experiences of using the Soul Law formula must have practiced it a truly terrifying number of times during his life. With this kind of familiar feeling, it was as if Lin Xiang had been practicing inscription techniques for his entire life and it saved him a lot of effort. He did not need to worry about not being able to utilize Soul Force.
Lin Xiang gently stretched out his hand and the invisible power of his soul force lifted up the Sky Wind Grass juice that was prepared on the side. As Lin Xiang commanded in his mind, a drop of Heavenly Wind Grass juice began to change into various shapes under his control as he practiced, sometimes stretched into filaments, sometimes condensed into crystal droplets.
He was amazed by the level of ease that he was able to do all this.
In the 'Introduction to Inscription Techniques' it was said that for those with great talent it would take a month to grasp a Soul Law formula, while a person with poor comprehension might practice hard for half a year and still have no results.
Each Inscription Master has their own personal Soul Law formula. The Soul Law Formulas naturally had their different rankings, as some were worse and some were better.
Inscription Masters thus naturally regarded their own Soul Law Formulas with great love and care. It was something that they might not even pass down to their disciples, because the Soul Law Formula would directly influence the ability to utilize the soul force. It was of the highest importance to an Inscription Master!
Without a shadow of doubt, the Overbearing Soul Tactic that Lin Xiang inherited from the soul fragment was at the apex of Soul Law Formulas.
Thanks to Lin Xiang's incomparable familiarity with this Soul Law Formula, his third-grade soul force talent could in practice be on par with a fourth-grade or even fifth-grade soul force talent! These were the precious advantages he gained by devouring the soul fragment of an expert from the Divine Realm.
Next, Lin Xiang moved his fingers in the air. With a sparkling light coming from his fingertips, the drop of Sky Wind Grass juice mixed with true essence and quickly formed a beautiful and mystical symbol.
The symbol was smaller than a fingernail, yet it contained complex fluctuations of energy.
Even within the same symbol, because of the subtle differences in texture, amount of energy applied, technique and other factors, ten thousand Inscription Masters would have ten thousand different manifestations. And within these there would be those of lesser or greater profundity.
Lin Xiang wasn't sure how good the symbol he made was, but he was still satisfied with it.
Then he began to create his next symbol using half a drop of Barbarian Wood Roots extract.
He was very careful while drawing the symbol and didn't rush things.
As his fingers smoothly formed seals, one symbol after another was produced by his fingers.
He would sometimes fail and several gold taels worth of materials would be destroyed in the process, but after he practiced the same symbols for thousands of times, his error rate was in the minority.
'Processing Sky Worm Silk…finished!'
The tense Lin Xiang let loose a breath of relief. Sky Worm Silk was the most expensive of the materials he used.
Then there were five more runes left.
Four…Three…Two… One…
'Done!'
The moment Lin Xiang finished drawing the Inscription, dozens of symbols floating in the air shined and with a flash coalesced into an Inscription the size of square inch. It quietly hung there suspended in the air.
Lin Xiang felt mentally tired, but as he looked at the completed inscription floating in air, he felt nothing but joy!
Unlike Lin Ming, Lin Xiang's cultivation was already at the Second Stage when he attempted creating an Inscription, so from the beginning until the end he never lacked true essence and was also able to afford more failures. In addition, instead of practicing thousands kinds of various symbols and lines, Lin Xiang spent the majority of his time mastering the dozen symbols necessary to create the Overwhelming Symbol in particular.
As a result, his first Inscription was created on the first attempt!