Chapter 413 - Grand Exhibition (1/2)

The increased difficulty was only felt by the participants. For the audience, they were only concerned about how the participants were faring and if anyone was doing better than the rest.

Unfortunately, the grand concealing formation put in place by the Timeless Flame Sect made it difficult for them to do so. Not only were their perceptions restricted, even their visions were blurred.

This made it literally impossible for them to identify the numerous inscription runes drawn by the participants, much less the level of perfection of these completed inscription runes. This left only one obvious way for the audience to gauge the progress of the participants – by the number of inscription runes completed.

Very quickly, this became the only way for the audience to gauge how well a participating inscription master was faring.

Those who were able to attend the Inscription Meet as part of the audience were mostly powerful martial artists in their own right. At their level, they could already be said to possess an almost photographic memory.

Since they had already seen where everyone was standing before the grand concealing formation was activated, the blurring of these participants' figures did not stop the audience from identifying them at all.

”Look, Senior Apprentice Brother is already at his twelfth inscription rune! That's more than double that of those beside him!”

”Senior Apprentice Sister is slowly picking up her speed!”

”Grandmaster Xingyu is on fire! He is already on his fifteenth inscription rune!”

However, not everyone was happy with what they saw.

”Why is Junior Apprentice Brother being so slow? He is usually much faster than this!”

”What's the matter with Sheng'er? Why isn't he drawing any inscription runes at all?!”

With the increased difficulty brought about by the field of energy disturbance, many participants were struggling to accomplish what would have been rather simple to them under normal circ.u.mstances.

This caused the speed of many participants to slow down significantly, and those with slightly weaker energy control were unable to even draw a single inscription rune!

Faced with such a sight, their supporters could not help but feel anxious.

However, these participants were not the only ones who had yet to draw a single inscription rune.

Many among the audience quickly discovered an interesting peculiarity. The duo standing right before the stage actually had not completed any inscription runes either!

This duo was naturally the two main characters of the Inscription Meet – Grandmaster Xiqin and Manor Lord Lu.

Therefore, the audience could only assume that there must be another reason why the two of them had yet to begin – a reason that none of them could figure out.

”Why aren't you doing anything? Are you too busy thinking about how to explain away your imminent defeat?” Grandmaster Xiqin taunted with a confident smirk on his face.

Lu Tianzi glanced over at him.

He was unable to see Grandmaster Xiqin's facial expression under the effect of the grand concealing formation, but he could at least make out the confident posture of the senior inscription master.

However, Lu Tianzi was not interested in pointless banter, at least not in a situation such as this.

He simply shot Grandmaster Xiqin a quick glance before turning away to scan across the arena, carefully observing the other participants.

”Hah! Not even going to bother defending yourself?” Grandmaster Xiqin scoffed at Lu Tianzi's silence. ”I initially thought that I would give you a head start as a form of handicap, but I guess that is unnecessary after all. As expected, you are nowhere near capable enough to even try competing against me.”

With that, Grandmaster Xiqin stopped paying attention to Lu Tianzi.

He took a quick glance at the three judges seated on the stage before finally pulling out the dagger that had been given to him earlier. It was the same dagger that had been given to every participating inscription master.

What happened next could only be described as a grand show of inscription techniques.

As Grandmaster Xiqin got to work, his hands moved so quickly that it was impossible for most people in the audience to catch.

While most inscription masters were more than capable of processing inscription materials at breakneck speed, Grandmaster Xiqin went one step further, processing multiple inscription materials at the same time. He quickly extracted the useful portions of each material and combined them together to form one inscription rune after another.

He alone worked at the speed of multiple inscription masters combined, as though the energy disturbance field had no effect on him whatsoever.

The elegance and proficiency in his movements were simply breathtaking, dazzling even to those who did not understand the intricacies of the art of inscriptions. His practiced precision made it simply too obvious that this was nothing difficult to him at all!

”As expected of the Head Inscription Master of the Timeless Flame Sect's Yellow Spark faction. This is already second nature to him,” someone from the audience exclaimed in awe.

”Looks like there is a reason for his earlier confidence. Grandmaster Xiqin is still one level above the rest.”

”How can anyone compete against that? It seems like the victor will be Grandmaster Xiqin in the end.”