Chapter 93 – Understanding (2/2)

“And from there he developed his fighting style, an arsenal of powerful stances. This was how he undisputedly became the strongest cultivator of his era…”

“I haven’t been in the outside world for a while now, but I’d imagine all of you have heard stories about him…”

‘This has to be just the tip of the iceberg…’ Lin Zi Yan was shocked by what she was looking at. All the stories she had heard did not justify the scale of even a fraction of what the Glacial Emperor left behind.

Pu Yuan continued, “If the Glacial Emperor wanted worldly power, the Zhou dynasty would have ended long ago.”

Everyone in the hall was a citizen of the Zhou dynasty. From history lessons and stories they had learned how many forces worked together, and how many armies had to fight to establish the dynasty’s solid foundation. On one hand, they were shocked to hear that this legendary figure could have challenged the authority they had grown up respecting. On the other, they were convinced that just being in this labyrinth was an eye opening experience. An experience that planted many new ideas and concepts about power, wealth, and runic stances.

To everyone in the temple, who had been close to losing their lives while exploring the Bloodmist labyrinth, the Emperor’s power and craftiness were too great to be compared to anything or anyone they knew. Therefore, they were in awe of this artifact in front of them which gave him power great enough to challenge the supreme authority of their time.

“Whether or not you can inherit the Emperor’s legacy is up to you now!” Pu Yuan said calmly. “You are looking at the test! If you can see what the Emperor saw between these lines and figure out just what kind of stance he acquired from this jade disc, you pass!”

“To figure out what the Glacial Emperor did back in the days?” After Pu Yuan revealed the subject of the test, everyone’s burning hearts were swiftly frozen. To figure out some runic secrets, dreamed up by a person who was strong enough to challenge a whole nation, was definitely an impossible task.

“I know what you are thinking, but when the Emperor gained enlightenment on his stances from these texts, he was just a Warrior. At first, he only learned a Spirit stance from it, but this stance was refinable and after years of reinventing and perfecting, the stance became no weaker than a Sky stance.”

“Of course, I don’t expect you to show me a Sky stance. If you can show me you’ve figured out the basic structure of the Emperor’s stance he invented from reading this disc, I will let you through to the next round!” Pu Yuan added as he squeezed out a gentle smile on his face in hopes that it would help to calm the crowd down.

“What?!”

“Sky stance!?” Pu Yuan’s words shook the crowd causing everyone’s eyes to get even bigger.

Sky stances were something only mentioned in legends. They were not mentioned even once in the history records of Zhou dynasty’s thousand years reign.

Legends about Sky stances are like the stories about the three sages, conceptional and unproven. While some say they don’t exist, some cultivators firmly believe the Holy Conservatory existed and that people who reached that mythical realm do in fact have a chance to learn Sky stances.

“Go! What are you waiting for?” Pu Yuan waved his arm and the green and blue light pillars shone down and became numerous runic seats.

“You will only be able to clearly see the text on this jade disc while sitting on these, and keep in mind you only have three days. If I am not satisfied with your results, I will send you out of this realm.” After leaving this message, Pu Yuan disappeared into the light pillar on top of the jade disc.

After a brief moment of silence, the crowd blew up.

“What? I don’t see anything meaningful on this jade disc at all! I don’t believe anything that geezer said, Sky stances are something made up in stories, and in these stories, the stances are taught by sages in rainbow colored robes.”

“I have to admit, this Glacial Emperor character is very powerful, but really? A Sky stance? Come on, What’s next? We’re all actually in a dream right now?”

“Zi Yan, do you believe him?” Ye Wei heard the crowd’s speculation, but he needed help to digest all the information he had just been given.

Ye Wei was not a believer, but then he thought about the Mystic Mount presence in his Sentient, and he started to realize that the stories he heard might actually be true. The sages, the mountain, at this point he felt like he was too opened minded to judge anything correctly.

“There is no harm in trying. If we can’t get a Sky stance out of this then no harm, but if we get lucky, and all this is true, we might get a share of what the Glacial Emperor left behind!” Lin Zi Yan too didn’t quite know what to believe; her frown was slowly disappearing as she tried to calm Ye Wei down and figured out herself that she should not be frustrated over a great chance to maybe strengthen herself.

“We only need to show him a part of what the disc says. The test might be easier than we all assume it to be.” She added.

“Yeah, you’re right!” Ye Wei smiled and walked to one of the seats.

After long heated conversations, most of the cultivators decided to give it a try. But three days is too short of a time for someone to learn a stance out of nowhere; realizing that there was so little time, they sat down as Pu Yuan instructed and started trying to decipher the disc in front of them.