Chapter 1368

"An eight-layer enchanter, terrifying beyond belief!" A young onlooker eating melon couldn't help but voice his awe.

"Brother, you're not from around here, are you?"

A local melon-eating bystander beside him could tell his identity just by using his toes to think.

"Big brother, how do you know I'm from out of town? Can you read faces?"

"Bah! Where would he learn to read faces? It's just that your information is way too outdated." Another passerby immediately began mocking.

"What's going on? Big brothers are above, this little brother begs for guidance." The young man who had spoken first humbly bowed to ask for advice, neither servile nor overbearing.

Being bowed to and asked for advice so easily, their vanity was immediately satisfied, and they promptly acted as all-knowing big brothers.

"Do you know Master Lin Cheng? The Empire's newly advanced eighth-rank enchanter."

"I've heard of him, so what?" The young man pretended to be a clueless newbie.

"Master Lin Cheng contributed a complete compendium of inscriptions to the Empire, even foreign princes came to seek his guidance. Now you know, don't you, hmm?" The passerby who revealed the truth proudly puffed out his chest, as if he himself had contributed the complete compendium of inscriptions.

"I see, I've learned a great deal."

The young man now understood, and once again lowered his head in a bow of thanks, but no one knew that as he lowered his head, a trace of coldness and killing intent flashed in his eyes.

It turned out the Empire's emergence of a strong practitioner capable of eight-layer inscription engraving was all because of this Lin Cheng. The purpose of the Kingdom sending him was also to investigate this Lin Cheng. It was said that the Kingdom's battlefield had suffered a full-scale counterattack precisely because of the appearance of this legendary craftsman.

If not for him, the Kingdom's century-long grand plan would not have been so threatened.

Although it was an investigation, if there was a chance, he would also strike to kill without mercy. Even ordinary people knew that inscription engraving was difficult—not just ordinarily difficult, but extremely difficult to enter. An enchanter might need to imitate for several years, conducting tens of thousands of simulations before possibly succeeding in engraving, and to reach double-layer engraving was even harder still.

But the premise that engraving inscriptions was difficult was that these inscriptions came from different compendia of inscriptions.

The inscription heritage from the ancient period was not only discovered by the Tianwu Empire; the various kingdoms of the Western Regions had also made discoveries. Then, regarding the heritage of enchanters, there was almost a gap, and the inscriptions discovered were scattered here and there.

This also led to subsequent enchanters, who had finally figured out the interactions between inscriptions, finding it increasingly difficult when enchanting.

The Tianwu Empire actually possessed a complete compendium of inscriptions—this was not good news at all.

Given the Tianwu Empire's pace of development, with a complete set of inscriptions, it would only take them a few years to achieve an industrial revival, and by then, they would leave the entire Western Regions kingdoms far behind. No, he had to find a way to obtain a copy of the inscription compendium and bring it back.

However, when he inquired about news of the inscription compendium, he discovered that all materials related to the complete inscription compendium were within the Zaoshigong Society, and borrowing was not permitted—one could only view and study them within the Zaoshigong Society.

The original batch of magical recording devices were comprehensively recalled by Chairman Huoerde; unless one was the chairman of a Zaoshigong Society in another city, they had to come in person to receive one.

This was key to the Empire's industrial revival—how could it be so carelessly lent out for external reading? The prevention was against leaks; if it were to fall into the hands of other Western Regions kingdoms, Huoerde's crime would be enormous.

Even if these inscription compendia would eventually fall into the hands of the Western Regions kingdoms, at least for now, he could delay it as long as possible.

The later the Western Regions kingdoms obtained it, the more it meant a lead for the Empire.

The afternoon competition proceeded as scheduled.

The morning tested the limits of inscription engraving; the afternoon tested creativity.

Within the allotted time, participants would demonstrate entirely new uses through inscription engraving, to be evaluated by Lin Cheng and five judges to determine the final scores, with the highest scorers advancing to tomorrow's semifinals.

The morning's results far exceeded everyone's expectations. Another batch of contestants should have been eliminated, but reluctantly all had to be retained, with the afternoon creativity competition used to carry out further elimination.

If ability is the foundation of an enchanter, then creativity is their ceiling.

All beauty comes from imagination. Without a good imagination, lacking creativity, how could one become a good enchanter?