Chapter 81

The Ninth Mountain Patriarch gently waved his hand, and four brilliant golden beams shot forth from the four runes on the mountaintop, forming four pillars of light that converged upon Zheng Fa.

Zheng Fa unconsciously sat cross-legged on the ground; as his eyes gently closed, he seemed to see rivers and mountains flowing, the sun and moon rising and setting, the cycles of seasons flourishing and withering.

When he came back to his senses, the snow-white mountaintop and the Ninth Mountain Patriarch were gone.

Only four golden runes remained, stretching from heaven to earth, filling the entire world before him.

Just one glance, and Zheng Fa felt he would faint…

He vaguely understood why even the Ninth Mountain Patriarch had failed to comprehend the True Form of Mountains and Rivers Rune—this thing, in terms of complexity alone, was on an entirely different level from any rune diagram he had seen before.

Whether the rune diagrams in the Seventh Young Master’s study or those drawn by Sister Zhang, they were all isolated shapes.

But the True Form of Mountains and Rivers Rune before him could almost be called a grand assembly of rune diagrams.

They pressed against one another, hand in hand, heart to heart, interconnected, dancing together like participants in an ecstatic bonfire party.

From afar, Zheng Fa had thought these were four runes.

But up close, he realized they were in fact a composite of countless rune diagrams—he could hardly even identify which diagrams composed these four runes, because most of them bore no resemblance to the basic elemental runes.

It was like the joke Zheng Fa had seen before—

I’ve just learned one plus one, and you’re taking a calculus final?

This is way beyond the syllabus!

The people of the Xuanwei Realm probably felt even more lost than he did.

There were two problems here:

First, why could isolated rune diagrams combine so harmoniously, appearing as if they had always been one whole? And what function did such rune combination serve?

This was also something Zheng Fa could not understand.

His knowledge of rune arts was insufficient to unravel this question.

But another problem was easier for him—most Xuanwei Realm cultivators had no way to deal with unfamiliar rune diagrams.

Based on the Xuanwei Realm’s current analysis of elemental runes, they mostly just drew a rune once, observed its effect.

Then they grouped runes with identical effects together, finally selecting the simplest one as the base elemental rune.

This method was essentially like Shen Nong tasting a hundred herbs—I don’t know what this thing is, let me take a bite first.

They had yet to develop a universal method.

Before topology developed, almost no one regarded polyhedra and spheres as the same thing; when there was no standard for classification, classification itself became impossible.

White Nascent Soul, rely on you!

Zheng Fa looked up at the myriad rune diagrams above, trying to apply the patterns from his notebook to these unprecedented rune forms.

…

Among the colorful clouds below the mountain was a vast plaza, where those who had descended from the plank path had gathered.

The Seventh Young Master was in low spirits.

He felt he could have climbed farther, but his fear of heights still hindered his performance.

While wallowing in self-pity, a figure suddenly stepped before him, interrupting his brooding.

The Seventh Young Master looked up—it was Zhou Gan.

Zhou Gan glared at him, his expression clearly hostile.

The Seventh Young Master did feel a twinge of guilt—he had been too arrogant up there, perhaps truly disrupting the other’s assessment.

Thinking of the other’s purple-tier innate talent, he grew even more nervous.

“What do you want?”

Upholding the principle of not losing face even if losing the argument, the Seventh Young Master asked coldly.

“You said earlier that your rune art was taught by him—is that true?”

Surprisingly, Zhou Gan seemed more concerned about this point.

“...About half,” the Seventh Young Master straightened his chest: “Mostly it’s my extraordinary talent!”

Zhou Gan eyed him skeptically, as if weighing whether he was telling the truth.

As the two locked gazes, a golden beam of light suddenly pierced the sky from afar.

Everyone looked up and realized the light originated from the Ninth Peak.

Within the golden light, a cross-legged figure stood out clearly.

The complex, dizzying rune diagrams before him were now exposed to all.

“Zheng Fa!”

The Seventh Young Master recognized the cross-legged figure.

Zhou Gan, however, stared at the rune diagrams, frowning as if attempting to decipher them.

More people grew curious about what the cross-legged figure was doing—and soon they found out.

Some rune diagrams, as if drawn by Zheng Fa, flew off from the four runes and landed beside him, swirling around him, illuminating his figure.

Slowly, these complex rune diagrams stretched, twisted, deformed, and finally transformed into shapes that appeared remarkably simple.

“Elemental runes?”

Zhou Gan murmured, his eyes fixed on the elemental runes swirling around Zheng Fa, a dawning realization in his gaze: “He’s deciphering rune diagrams! I’ve never seen these elemental runes—he actually has a method to decipher them?”

The Seventh Young Master snapped back to reality, glanced at him, then at the others.

He noticed their gazes toward the elemental runes were all dazed.

Probably none of them had ever seen such things.

“You said you learned from Zheng Fa—so what… what did he require?”

Zhou Gan looked at the Seventh Young Master, pursed his lips, and suddenly asked.

“Require?”

The Seventh Young Master froze, not understanding his meaning.

“I mean, does he teach anyone? Or does he look for something else? Spirit stones? Innate talent? Character?”

Zhou Gan explained.

The Seventh Young Master finally understood—he was here to steal his teacher!

He felt a sudden urgency.

No way—you’re a genius, why the hell are you thinking of becoming a disciple after one setback?

What about the rest of us?

Why not stay proud and defiant?

“Cough! His requirements are extremely high!” the Seventh Young Master cleared his throat: “Take me, for instance—I sent him plenty of spirit stones, but those were trivial!”

“He first looks at innate talent! Even someone as gifted as me barely scraped in!”

“But what he values most is character!” the Seventh Young Master warned Zhou Gan: “A proper, pure disposition is the bare minimum; after entry, you must serve tea, carry water, act as servant, endure humiliation, and prove your reverence for your master—you, a genius like you, won’t endure such suffering!”

Zhou Gan stared at the Seventh Young Master, slowly nodding, as if he understood.

“If you take everyone, then he doesn’t seem to be picky at all,” he suddenly said.

“...Huh?”

…

On the Ninth Mountain, Zheng Fa felt discouraged—White Old Man had clearly lost this round.

He had only managed to decipher less than one-tenth of the elemental runes.

He understood why—quick methods had their limits, and this method was originally derived from patterns of basic rune diagrams.

Even Sister Zhang considered this method to cut straight to the essence.

But Zheng Fa knew it was merely an exam trick—slightly better than picking the shortest option among three long ones, yet still gambling on probability.

Looking at the elemental runes swirling around him, Zheng Fa shook his head and prepared to rise.

“Old man finally got lucky!” The Ninth Mountain Patriarch suddenly appeared, praising him: “An unprecedented rune art talent!”

“Huh?”

“The total number of elemental runes old man ever deciphered in his life? About as many as you’ve just uncovered!”

“...”

Was White Nascent Soul really that strong?

Zheng Fa turned to look at the four runes, and his former reverence and admiration for the original Ninth Mountain Patriarch instantly faded.

“Let me think… with talent like yours, you may choose two items from what old man left behind.”

…My reverence for the Patriarch, Zheng Fa, is as vast as heaven and earth!

The Ninth Mountain Patriarch pointed at the four runes; as they shimmered, two vermilion doors appeared on the mountainside.