Chapter 17

Rui got out of bed and stretched.

The last few days had been extremely productive and he was able to reach the sixth level of the [Heavenly Runic Mantra], which meant he was already at the half way point to achieving the rune gathering stage.

As he spent most of his time either cultivating, studying at the library and training/exchanging pointers with his group, the progress they all made was quite significant in that short period of time.

Rui had felt anxious while waiting for the physique testing the past few days. As he already had the knowledge that he possessed the Heavenly Rune physique, he wasn't anxious about finding out what his physique was, but instead he was anxious about the reactions the reveal of his physique would cause.

Since he spent time with the other talented kids, his anxiety slowly faded, as the talent and progress the others demonstrated wasn't inferior to his. It made the whole group far more harmonious that they all progressed with relatively similar pace, though some like Rui were a bit further ahead.

The one that had the greatest progress so far was Song Liwu, followed by Xiong Liliang and then Rui.

Song Liwu was understandable, as his luck was off the charts and made Rui question his whole existence, while on the other hand, Xiong Liliang made progress in a different way than the others. As his body was extremely malnourished and rugged when he came in the academy, the progress he made was much more apparent when looking at him. Each day he became more energetic and that haggard appearance was since long gone.

Having finished all his preparations for today, Rui heard the gong and walked to the gathering grounds.

Ten minutes later, the assembly was held.

"As you all know, today the Physique talent testing will commence. Unlike the previous tests, this one is pretty straightforward and the reason for delay is due to the resources needed to complete it successfully."

"You will all enter a designated array where we will try to stimulate your physique to act out by giving each of you a drop of demon blood. As you've probably learned from your recent classes, demons are one of the other races other than us humans that can cultivate, but they mostly focus on their physical strength. For that reason, blood from a demon stimulates the innate strength of a physique and makes it act out."

"Despite that, sometimes the demon blood isn't enough to induce a physique awakening if the blood is too weak, for such reason, the ones that don't awaken, will be going into a second physique test with a much more powerful demon blood, to successfully awaken the physique."

All of the students in the crowd cheered in excitement. It was another opportunity for them to get higher resources and better teachings, since the new rules would be taking place in this physique testing.

Rui felt that their hopes were meaningless, since they would literally be gambling with their physiques. It was like rolling a dice, if your luck was low, you wouldn't get anything, though Rui himself was a special occasion.

It was clear that his talent came from his bloodline and not by his innate luck, though probably the system somehow helped him. He had already gathered quite a few free attribute points from the daily quests, but he still held on to them.

[status]

[Age 14

Level: 7

Cultivation rank: First light stage

Character personality path: Society born Demon

STRENGTH 12

DEXTERITY 13

CONSTITUTION 15

INTELLIGENCE 59

WISDOM 22

CHARISMA 30

Free attribute stats: 18

Luck: 1

ABILITIES

Ansuz Lv.1: Passive, rune of truth. +25 Intelligence.

Gives high resistance to illusions, charms and brain washing.

Scales with intelligence

Heightened intelligence Lv.1: Passive +15 Intelligence, +5 Wisdom.

Gives the ability to process things much faster.]

After each stage of the [heavenly runic mantra], he would gain quite a significant amount of stat points randomly, though his luck didn't increase in the least. His level had reached seven though, not that far way from level 10.

Although he didn't know why the status didn't showcase the innate abilities of his physique, he figured that he would find out in the future. Skills and abilities were different to the system, as it displayed the so called "abilities" on the status and the other "skills" into the skill tree.

As the stat increases were frequent, he tested each time they went up and found that the significance of one point wasn't a lot, but four to five points made a massive difference. He had already noticed the the amount of runic energy he could wield and absorb was twice or thrice the size of others with his unique eyesight.

After researching it quite a bit, he found that the reason was his intelligence and wisdom stats. Though he did feel that his cognition and thinking speed were much faster than when he was on earth, the large amounts of stats he had on them made him wonder if they had any other use, and indeed they did. With every increase in intelligence and wisdom, his control and amount of his runic energy increased.

Though he didn't know about the correct formula that was applied, he understood as to how the stats were counted, somewhat.

As for his unique vision.

Rui felt quite embarrassed when he asked around about it. Apparently, he was the only one that could see the runic energy and other phenomenon related to it. He researched the heavenly rune physique and found that it indeed possessed such a property, but it was in a much milder scale usually. What was even more surprising however, was the fact that he had a second mode on his vision. If he focused his runic energy on his eyes he could see the insides of walls and even the flow of runic energy inside bodies. It was like some sort of x-ray vision.

Rui knew it had something to do with the [perfect heavenly rune physique] he possessed thanks to the system. It was clear that its grade was higher than the normal version.

After the elder finished his speech, every class was escorted inside a small tunnel. As Rui walked on the path, he noticed that the door ahead was covered in a membrane like energy. Passing through it, he felt the same feeling he did on the first test.

After entering the area, he looked around in amazement, as the place was covered in dense runic energy, much denser than the one outside.

A large altar was at the center with nine floating crystals surrounding it. It looked like one of those sacred ritual sites.

All of the students looked around in amazement, but not as much as the first time they entered such an area. Last time Rui didn't possess the unique vision he did now, thanks to that he couldn't see the flags on the corners of the area, however this time he could see them.

It was clear that this was a formation of incredible strength, the weak point being located at the center of the altar. If one didn't possess his unique vision he would never be able to find the weak point of the array.

Suddenly the system prompt popped up in front of him.

[Your understanding of formations has increased to initial level]

[Formation arrays are a fundamental power of nature and can naturally appear in the wild.

You have successfully found the weak point of the array.]

[Quest has been created]

[Unknown Array

You have stumbled upon an unknown array and found its weak point. The system is interested in its structure.

Quest clear conditions: Reach a certain understanding of the "Unknown Array"

Time Limit: 11 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds.

Quest Reward: Varied depending on user's understanding]

Rui looked at the new quest in disbelief.

'What the fuck is this? You expect me to study an array I've never seen in my life? I barely knew that arrays existed, what do you mean with initial understanding?'

Rui grumbled and swore to himself, as the people around looked at him like he was some sort of freak.

After calming down, he couldn't help but sigh. It seemed that his physique testing wouldn't be as smooth as he hoped, as he would have to focus all his strength on studying the runes of this array.

He didn't really need to participate in this test anyway, since his physique was already awakened to its fullest. In fact it was already activated far beyond its fullest, reaching another stage.

After a while, all the students were placed inside the altar, packed close to one another.

Ordering them to sit down and concentrate, the teachers distributed what looked like a blood red tear. Rui held it in his hand and felt how hard it was.

He used analysis.

[Demon blood.

Demon blood that belongs to a low ranking demon: Attaban.

Description: Extracted blood from the Attaban race, having a major amount of rejuvenation effect]

Rui recalled the demon classified as Attaban. They resembled the satyr/faun from his previous life, but with a more disgusting and emaciated appearance.

Seeing that the other's around him swallowed the demon blood and started cultivating, Rui did the same. Surprisingly, the blood crystal tasted like candy melting in his mouth.

[You have ingested low grade demon blood]

[Absorbing all the energy through the heavenly rune physique]

[Absorption complete]

As soon as Rui closed his eyes to concentrate on absorption, he opened them in disbelief.

He stared at the system windows in shock. After a few seconds of swearing inside his head, wanting to make sure that he did absorb it, he looked at his energy, but found no significant changes.

Opening his status, he found that his strength and constitution had increased by three each.

'So it did get absorbed, what the hell… I guess I'll focus on studying the array then.'

Making up his mind, he looked beneath him.

He had directly sat upon the weak point of the array just in case something like this happened. Completing the quest would surely bring him incredible benefits, so even if he had no idea how arrays worked, he still decided to try.

Glancing around and making sure he was inconspicuous, he placed his hand on the rune patterns carved on the floor. Thanks to his unique vision, he could see countless lines of energy being absorbed into the rune mark, making it glow with a black light. The rune was unique, not like any other runes he had seen.

Although the energy in his vision had no defining color, he could still distinguish the elements inside it by focusing. The energy was like light, once together the color was white, but once split, it would create countless different variants.

Unlike Rui, who was goofing around, trying to analyze the array, all of the others were focused on absorbing the demon blood with peaked concentration. As the phenomenon of stimulating the physique and promptly awakening it took a long time, most of the teachers stood on standby and cultivated. Some kept guard to make sure that no accidents happened, but this made Rui's actions less noticeable.

Since they were packed like sardines, Rui didn't have space to move around, but was still able to study the array as much as he could.

The energy that was supplied to the rune was evenly distributed around the array, its flags outside the perimeter surging with energy. The energy came from a central point above the array, like a waterfall falling on top of the center of the array.

If one were to see the array from outside, he would notice that the flags were gathering and propelling the energy toward the center of the array.

After a while of observation, Rui frowned as he couldn't find anything more to study. Since his understanding of formations and arrays was almost non-existent, he was already out of ways to study this peculiar array.

Being out of options, he placed his hand on the floor and used the analysis skill. The analysis skill was his most useful skill, especially since he was just a beginner in cultivation. Being able to analyze things and people gave him a significant advantage. Sadly, unlike people, using analysis on objects required him to be in contact with the object.

[Mid-Level Sealing Array.

Description: A self sustaining array that generates its own energy through the use of 'sealing flags'. It seems to be a simplified version of a more powerful array. Increases cultivation speed by 12.85% and at the same time makes time flow 0.52% faster.

Materials: Twelve Sealing Flags created by an array master of considerable strength, a runic tablet containing the "Seal" runic pattern, thousands worlds gold dust used to initiate the array and a heavenly demon's blood crystal.

Construction: The runic tablet will be the center of the array. Place the twelve flags in a circular formation around the center of the runic tablet, making sure that each flag is exactly ten meters away from the center. Take the thousand worlds gold dust and sprinkle it on top of the runic tablet and afterward place the demon's blood. The appropriate chant is required and the array is complete.]

Rui's eyes opened wide as he read the description. He had no idea what these ingredients were, but the description was far more detailed than the other times he used the analysis skill.

It seemed like the system either, already had the knowledge of these ingredients and how the arrays were placed, or it analyzed everything in that short amount of time and made guesses as to how it was constructed.

Taking a deep breath to calm down, he tried to infer as much information as possible from the description he was given. Before he could even come to a stable conclusion, the system prompt popped up.

[Quest Complete]

[Level up! One free stat point has been rewarded.]

[Your understanding of arrays has increased to apprentice level]

[Calculating]

[Rewards will be distributed in a short period of time, please wait]

[calculating]

Rui's face crumpled once again. He felt like he was used by the system, like a robot being told what to do. He didn't even study it himself, just the system identifying it was enough for it to give the quest reward.

Before he could swear, the quest rewards appeared.

[A free stat points have been rewarded]

[Calculating]

[An array replica of the "sealing array" has been generated]

[calculating]

[User is now able to use the "sealing array" without any restrictions or materials needed for ten minutes a day]

Rui's mouth opened wide in stupor. Slowly that stupor turned into a grin, as his expression was full of bliss.

This was an incredible thing, being able to increase his cultivation speed for ten minutes a day was better than no minutes at all, especially in such an early stage.

The reason this array wasn't used daily was because of the materials required to run it were extravagant. Unless you were the emperor who could spend money like drinking water, no one would use it daily.

However, thanks to the system, he could now use it freely without any materials required.

'I guess the identify skill is an ability of mine now, so of course the system counts it. After all I had to complete a hard quest to get the skill'

Rui deluded himself, trying to reason with his actions.

After calming down his excitement, he looked around and found that everyone was still trying hard to awaken their physiques. Not wanting to stand out anymore, he closed his eyes and cultivated.

An hour passed.

Slowly, people started opening their eyes, as major changes appeared in the surroundings. Some people were full of aura, while others had astral images of creatures floating above their heads. Some people even had physical changes happen in just a short hour.

However, there were those that had minimal changes as well, people that awakened with the weakest physiques, the mortal physiques.

Opening his eyes due to the commotion surrounding him, Rui glanced at the people with the most abnormal reactions. Even those that had awakened with the so called 'weakest physiques' had some sort of aura surrounding their body, but there were people that didn't successfully awaken their physiques, most of them being from the S class, while some being from lower classes.

Although Rui could probably fake the fact that he didn't awaken a physique and get another, better quality blood crystal, he didn't do so. He didn't want to stretch his luck thinner than it already was.

Stimulating his physique using runic energy, a sacred aura emanated from his body as well, matching and overshadowing the others. The image of a giant gate covered in clouds appeared behind his head.

This was the visual his physique would produce when stimulated. Although he had never done it, he knew it was possible through observing the students that just awakened their physiques. His physique had the ability to be completely hidden, only being distinguished by his white pupils, but once stimulated it would show its full power.

A teacher came over and did a head count. Most of the people inside the array had awakened their physiques and the ones that didn't didn't exceed five.

Four of the five individuals were from the S class and the last one was from the E class.

Rui didn't recognize the E class student, but he knew everyone in the S class. Three of them were even close to him.

Huo Liang, Ning Yinin and Xiong Liliang. The three of the had not awakened their physiques with low level blood. The other one was a young noble from the Lei clan, a young man called Lei Shan.

"Huo Liang, Lei Shan, Xiong Liliang, Ning Yinin and Laohu Shen, please come stay inside the array, everyone else please exit."

A teacher separated the individuals that didn't awaken their physiques and moved everyone else outside the array.

After thoroughly inspecting them, making sure that they didn't awaken their physiques, they were each given a blood crystal with a much darker and ominous tone. Rui couldn't use identify from far away, but he was sure it was at least high grade.

Rui sighed in relief at the fact that he didn't fake it, just to get another blood crystal. The instruments the teachers used would for sure discover an anomaly, as they scanned every part of the body and energy changes. He wasn't confident in fooling them and would only make a laughing stock of himself if he didn't succeed.

Unlike the first batch, the second batch took much longer, as the quality of blood crystal was of a much higher grade.

Many looked on with bated breaths as the hours went by, waiting in anticipation as to why this bunch weren't able to awaken like the rest. In the meantime, everyone's physiques were analyzed and written down, Rui included.

The teachers were surprised to find that he had awakened the heavenly rune physique and some were even suspicious that he had somehow awakened earlier. Awakening an Extreme rank physique wasn't as simple as consuming low level demon blood. Thankfully the academy elder put the thing under wraps, as he already had certain information and knew Rui's background.

Three hours passed before someone succeeded in awakening their physique.