Martial World (Web Novel)
Chapter 1651: Attention of Peers

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The two old divine runic masters idled at the door for some time, clearly wanting to go in and ‘sit’. But, Lin Ming didn’t share this intention at all. After a brief conversation, he quickly came up with an excuse that he had to hurry up with the divine runic symbols and closed the door.

Looking at the closed door, the two old men glanced at each other with dismay. They were also people with status and yet they had to spend their days here guarding the door of a junior. But, there wasn’t anything they could do about it. Besides Lin Ming, who else could draw up the improved Heavenly Fire Symbol and Heretical God Symbol? Even Empyrean Minor Violet had taken an extreme liking towards Lin Ming’s divine runic symbols and would occasionally ask about them.

“The situation doesn’t seem too good…” The tall old man said, stroking his beard.

Although they didn’t enter the room they were still able to vaguely get a sense of his progress. During these past several days, Lin Ming didn’t seem to have made any headway in the production of the divine runic symbols and instead seemed to have caused some explosions in his room. That brief accident just now was not just an ordinary failure, it might have been a problem with the creation of the energy structure.

When Shadow Overflow had tried to copy Lin Ming’s divine runic symbol, it had also been a problem with the energy structure that had caused the entire divine runic symbol to collapse.

This left them both feeling worried. Was there a problem in drawing up the Heretical God Symbols? If so, would Lin Ming be able to finish the task on time?

In fact, it wasn’t just these two old fellows that were paying attention to this.

After the Divine Rune City Auction ended, many divine runic masters had yet to leave. They often visited the Divine Runic Masters Guild, hoping to observe the Heretical God Symbol and the improved Heavenly Fire Symbol.

Originally, this sort of request was a bit outrageous. After all, these two divine runic symbols involved a great deal of secrets. If the Divine Runic Masters Guild refused, they wouldn’t have anything to say about the matter.

But what surprised them was that these requests were actually not refused by Song Wen.

All divine runic masters, as long as they applied, could examine the Heretical God Symbol and Heavenly Fire Symbol for three days. But in order to apply there was a condition: divine runic masters had to exchange some of their attainments. In other words, some of their skills and secret techniques in drawing up divine runic symbols.

When Song Wen put forth these request, even Old Xue had to clap his hands in praise. Old Xue couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. Although this Song Wen normally seemed like some virtuous and magnanimous character, the truth was that he was a dirty bucket of water filled with tricks.

As for Old Xue himself, he was the opposite. Although he seemed crafty and greedy on the surface, when it came to his own benefits he was honest with his bottom line.

This led to Song Wen having a good reputation with everyone referring to him as a gentleman. In truth, Song Wen was only a miser that took advantages of others. As for Old Xue, he had a poor reputation. Many people called him an old dog but Old Xue had never truly taken advantage of others.

However, Old Xue knew that wanting to copy the improved Heavenly Fire Symbol and Heretical God Symbol was impossible. The past results of Shadow Overflow were the best example of this. Even if they lent out these divine runic symbols for other divine runic masters to examine and research, they wouldn’t be able to produce any results.

On the other hand, with these divine runic masters exchanging their attainments to the Divine Runic Masters Guild, the Divine Runic Masters Guild would have tremendous benefits!

After all, every divine runic master would have different discoveries and experiences when drawing up a divine runic symbol. For instance, if 100 divine runic masters were to draw up a Heavenly Fire Symbol there would be 100 different techniques. Even though the main runic structure was the same, the subtle differences between them were infinitely varied!

Absorbing the experience of a single divine runic master wasn’t much at all, but if one could absorb the experiences of many divine runic masters, that was a highly valuable asset!

The truth was that most of these divine runic masters were well aware that it was impossible for them to unravel the Heretical God Symbol and the improved Heavenly Fire Symbol.

Even though they had no hope of unraveling it, they still wanted to experience it and study it themselves.

These two divine runic symbols had a soaring fame in the outer world. Even though many divine runic masters knew this was a trap, they still willingly leapt into it!

This was the craziness caused by one’s curiosity and enthusiasm towards the divine runic arts!

For many divine runic masters, even just looking at the Heretical God Symbol had them feeling satisfied.

More and more divine runic masters came and exchanged their attainments for the chance to look over the Heretical God Symbol and improved Heavenly Fire Symbol.

However, as more and more people studied these two divine runic symbols and even conducted research on them, they came to a horrifying conclusion.

That was that the degree of difficulty in drawing up these two divine runic symbols had reached a terrifying level!

Just looking at the tiny runes that comprised the structure of the divine runic symbol, there were 2000-3000 of them.

They feared that even if they knew all the techniques needed to draw these two divine runic symbols and also knew how to fuse together the Asura Heavenly Dao, if they wanted to draw these divine runic symbols themselves, the difficulty would likely be several times greater than that of an ordinary sixth grade divine runic symbol!

It was hard to imagine just how Lin Ming had completed one!

As they all remembered that Lin Ming said he would complete 500 Heretical God Symbols within three years, all of them felt that this was unbelievable. This was simply a mind-boggling workload!

If Lin Ming couldn’t complete the 500 Heavenly Fire Symbols within three years, then Empyrean Lionheart wouldn’t say anything. After all, at the time, Empyrean Lionheart hadn’t placed a condition on Lin Ming to complete the 500 improved Heavenly Fire Symbols within three years.

But Empyrean Minor Violet was different. If Lin Ming wasn’t able to fulfill the promissory note on time, then the points he obtained would be taken back!

For a time, many divine runic masters focused their attention on the Divine Runic Masters Guild. These miraculous divine runic symbols left their hearts itching with desire and not wanting to leave.

Much less, Divine Rune City was considered a holy land of divine runic masters. With so many divine runic masters gathered here they could share and exchange their knowledge. To these long-lived people, three years wasn’t anything at all. They would rather stay here and see if Lin Ming could finish this intimidating task.

But Lin Ming secluded himself in his divine runic room, not allowing anyone to enter.

During these days, there were no more movements of the black dragon egg. Lin Ming invested all of his focus into drawing up the divine runic symbols. His hands cut through the void, leaving behind lines of glowing energy…

Time passed like sand in the wind, unknowingly marching by.

At the start, Lin Ming didn’t have any problems drawing up the Heavenly Fire Symbol. But concerning the Heretical God Symbol, the process was still as slow as before.

One after another, several small incidents occurred. Luckily, after Xiao Moxian was left covered in soot due to the black dragon egg incident, she had kept her guard up so all troubles were quickly resolved.

After that, Lin Ming became increasingly skilled in his drawing process.

One month….

Two months…

Three months…

The discarded materials piled up as high as hills. But during this process, Lin Ming became increasingly skilled and familiar with drawing up the improved Heavenly Fire Symbol and Heretical God Symbol. He accurately captured all of the small changes in the energy patterns between the lines.

Slowly, Lin Ming finally became able to draw up two complete Heavenly Fire Symbols in one day. His success rate in a situation where he was conserving his soul force had reached 99%!

As for the more difficult Heretical God Symbol, Lin Ming’s success rate was only 80 some percent. Moreover, he could draw at most one a day.

This led Lin Ming to make a decision. He would spend the majority of his energy drawing up the improved Heavenly Fire Symbols and through this process constantly enhance the level of his divine runic arts.

As for the Heretical God Symbol, he would leave that on the backburner until his skill in the divine runic arts reached a certain level. Once he could guarantee a 95% success rate, he would then start drawing them up en masse.

Doing this would save the most time.

And at this moment, the divine runic masters from Minor Violet Heavenly Palace that were keeping guard outside of Lin Ming’s divine runic room felt a bit restless.

During this long period of time, Lin Ming hadn’t come out to hand over any divine runic symbols.

This left them feeling weak at heart.

Finally, Zhao Chang couldn’t help but knock on Lin Ming’s door.

Xiao Moxian frowned. First she confirmed that Lin Ming hadn’t been disturbed, then she laid down an isolating array formation before she opened the front door with a dark and gloomy face.

Facing Xiao Moxian’s eerie face that was illuminated by the dim light and the murderous gaze in her eyes, Zhao Chang stiffened and awkwardly coughed several times. He slowly explained, “Fairy Maiden Xiao Moxian, we are here to receive the divine runic symbols. At the time, Sir Lin said to Empyrean Minor Violet at the auction that he would deliver what he had completed every three months.”

Zhao Chang spoke with an upbeat and warm tone, as if he were trying to flatter Xiao Moxian.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Moxian remembered that Lin Ming had indeed said this.

Pulling her ear for a moment, Xiao Moxian walked back inside and took out the completed Heretical God Symbols from a jade box on the divine runic table. Then, she handed them over to Zhao Chang.

The stack was thin and light. After a quick count, there were only 10…

This was because in order to save time Lin Ming decided to take things one step at a time. In a high intensity drawing process, he would first start with the improved Heavenly Fire Symbols to hone his craft further.

As Zhao Chang looked at the mere 10 Heretical God Symbols in his hands, he nearly choked on himself and fainted.

“This… is it?”

During these three months, Lin Ming had only drawn 10! Wasn’t this far too slow!?

The promised deadline was three years. At this speed, in three years Lin Ming would only be able to draw 120. This was far away from the goal of 500!

“That’s right, this is it. At the time I remember it was said that only completed divine runic symbols would be handed over, but it was never stated how many needed to be handed over per month, right?”

Xiao Moxian rhetorically asked. Zhao Chang was speechless. Indeed, at the auction, Lin Ming only said he would turn in what he had completed every three months, but it was never stated how many would be turned in.

The short and fat old man beside Zhao Chang couldn’t help but remind Xiao Moxian, “Fairy Maiden Xiao Moxian, please remember that the agreement was that if the promissory note couldn’t be fulfilled in three years, then the 5 billion points and dragon saliva grass must be returned.”

The short and fat old man kindly reminded as he felt that it would be difficult for Lin Ming to complete this task. After all, he too had studied the Heretical God Symbol created by Lin Ming and felt that even with his own ability, if Lin Ming were to teach him by hand how to draw up a Heretical God Symbol it would still not be easy at all. There would definitely be a high failure rate.

To complete 500 in three years was a bit too imposing of a condition. After all, in his eyes, Lin Ming was still a youth, not much different from a little child.

Although these two old men had a good character and spoke from the kindness of their heart, Xiao Moxian still didn’t appreciate these two old fellows squatting in front of the door every day. She impatiently said, “Thank you for the advice, but please do not worry yourselves. It has only been three months, moreover, Big Brother Lin has more to draw up than the Heretical God Symbols; he still has to draw up the improved Heavenly Fire Symbols!”

“Improved Heavenly Fire Symbols?” Zhao Chang repeated, startled. There was trouble in completing the Heretical God Symbols and yet Lin Ming was still drawing up the improved Heavenly Fire Symbols? He felt that Xiao Moxian had the heart and manner of a child and liked to mindlessly boast. But, he had the good manners and heart not to break apart her little act. He once again kindly reminded her, “The Heavenly Fire Symbols don’t seem to have a deadline. Perhaps it might be better to focus on the Heretical God Symbols alone for these three years.”

“…Sure.” Xiao Moxian simply didn’t have the interest or patience to keep on bantering with these two old men. She mumbled a response and then slammed the door shut.

The two old men jumped back as their faces were almost struck by the stone door. They couldn’t help but glance at each other in dismay.