Chapter 201: Two Nines (1)
As Su Yu's willpower entered the wall, a starry sky unfolded before him.
It was vast and boundless.
Countless stars were flickering around him.
"What is this?"
Su Yu was curious. At the same time, he was also feeling somewhat excited. He felt like he was looking at something incredible. His consciousness started drifting around randomly amid the vast cosmos. After a short while, he seemed to have attracted a nearby star.
When the star flew over, Su Yu noticed that it was no star. Instead, it looked like a large pot…He was momentarily stunned, but he recovered immediately after.
"So I'm not building my own technique from scratch. Instead, there's a template?"
It was no wonder that his martial uncle and teacher had insisted that he would know what to do after entering.
The big pot continued flying toward him. When it reached him, it started hesitating. After flying around him for a bit, it flew away.
"Eleven shining dots..."
Su Yu was able to get a clear look at that big pot. There were 11 shining points in it. That signified that this was a character technique with 11 support points.
"That's way too little. Even Teacher’s character technique has more support points. Also, this is a pot. It would be so lame to use it in battle."
Su Yu did not give chase. That pot looked completely unimpressive. He was starting to understand what he was supposed to do here. Like catching Divine Characters, he had to use his willpower to capture one of these templates.
His consciousness continued floating around. After a while, he saw a hammer. It had 11 shining points. Yeah, that was too weak. He rejected it.
He also saw a spear with 13 shining points. That was a decent one. He decided to shortlist it. The spear had even more support points than his teacher's sword. It was acceptable.
"Most of them are weapons..."
Su Yu realized that in this offensive wall, most of the templates took the form of weapons. Perhaps it was more efficient for one who walked the path of offense to fill their Divine Characters into a weapon.
"Maybe I should look for a saber..."
Su Yu continued looking around. It was rather difficult to see the shape of those stars without getting near them.
After some time, he finally saw a saber. Unfortunately, it only had 10 shining points. He rejected it and continued his search.
He saw a lot of stars. Thus, he was in no rush. He could take his time here.
Suddenly, the Divine Characters in his sea of willpower trembled. Next, three Divine Characters appeared in front of him.
Lightning, blood, and kill.
Su Yu was slightly stunned by the sudden appearance of his Divine Characters. However, he wasn't too surprised. This space was not reality. Instead, it was more akin to a space within one's sea of willpower. It was normal for his Divine Characters to appear here.
The moment his Divine Characters appeared, some of the stars around him shook.
Then, one star after another started flying toward him.
"Huh?"
Su Yu was confused for a bit, but he soon realized that his Divine Characters were taking the initiative to look for suitable character techniques.
Could Divine Characters actually do something like that?
After a while, a large number of stars gathered around him. They came in all shapes and forms. Swords, spears, sabers, halberds, hatchets, forks, and so on. Some also came in odd forms such as hammers, cauldrons, and chains.
At least 20 templates had gathered around him. And more than half of them had at least 10 shining points. The most impressive template was that of a sword. It had 15 shining points.
The sword seemed to have achieved resonance with his kill character. Both were pulsing at each other. The two had probably caught each other's eyes.
Su Yu looked at the template. He was tempted. This was the template with the highest number of shining points he had encountered so far. But right that moment, the lightning and blood characters started rejecting the sword. They shook unhappily, showcasing their dissatisfaction with the sword.
"They don't like it?"
Su Yu frowned. Bai Feng had said that he might not be able to use all his existing Divine Characters in the template he found.
Some Divine Characters were not compatible with some character techniques. He would only be able to use these Divine Characters independently. But with two of his Divine Characters rejecting the sword, he was starting to hesitate.
Was he supposed to give up on these two? But they were his earliest Divine Characters. He was unwilling to give up on them.
"It's better to find a weapon compatible with all three Divine Characters. That way, none of the Divine Characters would go to waste."
Su Yu continued looking around.
As for the sword, he kept it shortlisted as well. It was quite good with 15 shining points. It was a pity that it was incompatible with two of his little brothers.
As he roamed around, he encountered more and more stars. Some would fly around him for a bit before leaving.
Clearly, Su Yu wasn't the only one picking a character technique here. These techniques were picking a suitable owner as well.
After a while, Su Yu frowned. He hadn't been able to find a technique with more than 15 shining points. The sword was the strongest technique he had found thus far, but it was incompatible with the blood and lightning characters.
While Su Yu was considering taking that sword, a nearby star caught his attention. The star was rather small. It also wasn't as bright as the other stars. It even looked slightly dim. However, all three of his Divine Characters were hovering around that star.
His three Divine Characters were not rejecting this star. However, they weren't resonating with it either. They acted like they were meeting a stranger. They basically radiated indifference.
The star was dim and small. Thus, Su Yu was also having a hard time seeing the actual shape of the star. After a while, he finally found that it was actually a ball. He curiously studied the ball, but due to how dim it was, it was also hard for him to see the number of shining points in the ball.
"Is this a template as well? Why does it look so weak? The three characters do not reject it, but there's no resonance either..."
The tiny ball of light revolved around the Divine Characters like a child. It was both curious and shy, not daring to approach the Divine Characters yet unwilling to leave.
And when Su Yu tried approaching it, it even moved away from him.
That piqued Su Yu's interest. He started wondering if he had encountered something incredible.
After paying more attention, Su Yu finally saw that there were some indistinct dots of light within the ball.
"1...5...8..."
Su Yu was shocked after he made his count. There were actually 18 dots of light within the small ball. He even wondered if he had counted wrongly. Even that massive sword earlier only had 15 shining points, and the sword was so bright that it was almost blinding. But this dim and small ball had 18 shining points in it? So it was a character technique with 18 support points?
Was it really that incredible?
"Jackpot?"
Su Yu was greatly shocked. From some of the books he had read in the past, it was said that some treasures had the tendency to hide their radiance. Was this an example of that? So it was actually a powerful technique pretending to be ordinary?
"Eighteen shining points and the three Divine Characters do not reject it. Have I stumbled upon a treasure?"
Su Yu was ecstatic. Was he really that lucky? Being a ball, this character technique did not look too impressive, but it had 18 shining points. And that was very impressive.
In fact, none of the templates Su Yu had encountered earlier had a higher number of shining lights. Filled with excitement, he made his choice. He would pick this ball. What a fine ball!
It hadn't been easy for him to encounter a template with 18 shining points. He would stop hesitating. His willpower started spreading and wrapped around the ball. Using the method his teacher had told him, he started dragging the ball into his sea of willpower. The moment he did that, this ball would be his.
From then on, his character technique would be finalized. He would be adding Divine Characters into the character technique for a long period of time. In fact, he would continue doing it even after reaching the Skysoar Realm.
The ball seemed rather obedient. The moment he wrapped his willpower around it, it started approaching him. He was about to fully tame the ball. Suddenly, the golden book that had been silent all along suddenly shook.
Su Yu could hear the clear sound of something shattering amid the silent cosmos.
Su Yu was completely stunned by what he saw next. The ball...had broken down. It had shattered into pieces.
"What the hell?"
Su Yu was dumbfounded. The book in his mind would usually only do something when he activated it. Why had it suddenly decided to break the character technique frame he was about to tame?
"What's going on? What's the book doing? Is it trying to monopolize the sea of willpower? No, that's not right. The cultural weapon, skull, and Divine Characters have been able to enter the sea of willpower just fine. That's a technique with 18 shining points!"
Su Yu was furious. He had finally found something good with great difficulty. He even thought that he had been blessed by the heavens to encounter something this good. What was the meaning of this? The technique hadn't even resisted. Just look at how obedient it was. Why did the book destroy it?
After smashing the ball, the book returned to silence and ignored Su Yu.
Su Yu cursed inwardly. With no other choice, he could only set his sights on the sword with 15 shining points. At the very least, that technique resonated with the kill character. He could only say sorry to his blood and lightning characters. He would have to wait until he reached the Skysoar Realm before adding them into the character technique as regular characters.
He sent his willpower over and started pulling the sword over. While doing so, his kill character pulsed, helping him lure the sword over.? ? The sword felt harder to attract than the ball from before. In fact, he had felt zero resistance from that ball. This sword, on the other hand, felt rather heavy when he tried pulling it. After a while, when he was starting to feel exhausted, the sword finally started entering his sea of willpower.
Su Yu paid close attention to the book in his sea of willpower. The book was not going to act like an asshole again, right? Right as that thought crossed his mind, the sound of something shattering rang out.
Su Yu was dumbfounded. The sword had broken apart as well.
"Fuck you!"
Su Yu was furious. What was the meaning of this? The book was hell-bent on not allowing any character technique to enter his sea of willpower. Just like that, the two best character techniques he had found were gone. Just what was going on exactly?
...
At the same time.
Outside the world within the wall.
When Bai Feng saw Su Yu's trembling body, he frowned and asked doubtfully, "Why is he not done yet? What is this kid doing in there?"
Chen Yong was feeling doubtful as well. He said, "I felt his willpower shaking earlier. He should have formed a character technique already. Why is his willpower all silent again?"
He couldn't understand. Why did the formation stop?
Bai Feng asked, "Did he fail the formation?"
"That generally won't happen. If he really did fail, then it can only mean that he's very unsuitable for this path of cultivation. In that case, the multiple character faction might not be the right choice for him."
Bai Feng was alarmed. "That can't be the case, right?"
Was Su Yu really incapable of forming a character technique? In that case, wouldn't that kid be completely incapable of inheriting their teachings?
Chen Yong was unsure. He said, "That is very rare. Over so many years, almost nobody has ever failed this. Even if someone has a bad talent, that person would only encounter trouble while filling up the character technique with Divine Characters, not during the formation."
"Almost nobody?" Bai Feng raised his brow. "Senior Brother, don't tell me that someone had really failed this before."
Chen Yong explained, "That was a long time ago. I think only one person had failed this before. I don't know the exact circumstances, but there was a record about it. Around 200 years ago, a student came to form his character technique. He picked a powerful technique with dozens of shining points. But after leaving the wall, no sign of that technique was found despite him insisting that he had formed the technique.
"According to the records, he wasn't even able to enter the wall anymore after that. As for everyone else, even after failing the first time, they could keep trying. That person only had a single attempt. Eventually, he switched to a different faction.
"He claimed that he had really formed a powerful character technique. It was a very unique technique that was dim yet possessed a lot of shining lights. It was also compatible with his Divine Characters. The process had been very smooth. But he didn't know why it disappeared after he left the wall.
"The third principal speculated that some misleading Divine Characters might have entered the wall, resulting in the formation of fake character techniques in the wall. Back then, this created quite a ruckus in the academy. Many students were worried that they would encounter such a character technique as well.
"But for hundreds of years after that, such an incident had never happened again. Thus, a few decades ago, someone refuted that possibility. They speculated that the student from back then had probably failed the formation and was merely lying to save face. As for why the student hadn't been able to enter the wall a second time, that remains a mystery."
Bai Feng blinked. "Is that real? Why am I not aware of that?"
"That's only a story in some unimportant records. There really isn't any need for you to know it."
Chen Yong was rather indifferent to the story. He smiled and said, "There has only been one example over so many years and even that might be a lie. So this piece of information isn't really that useful. If I hadn't read those random books, I wouldn't have known about this story either."
"That's good to hear..."
Bai Feng was relieved. He looked at Su Yu again, wondering why that kid was taking so long.