The prouder the master, the higher their standards for a successor. After all, they cannot afford to lose face. That was very important. The talent of these two was far better than that man's. Only, these two had no experience with talismans—they were complete novices.
Wu Qingyi narrowed her eyes and decided to observe carefully.
"Who is leading the mission to the chasm for Wuji Sect?"
She had been too busy making talismans lately to keep up with outside news.
"Replying to Madam, Wuji Sect is led by Mo Yang Xiānjūn."
"Mo Yang Xiānjūn?"
Wu Qingyi opened her eyes in surprise.
"Isn't Mo Yang Xiānjūn in seclusion? Looks like this trip to the chasm won't be optimistic."
Her expression grew heavy.
Since the anomaly appeared in the chasm tens of thousands of years ago, demonic creatures often invaded the Immortal Realm. Both spiritual immortals and demon immortals had launched several clean-up operations.
But every thousand years, the monsters would return in full force. They were impossible to eradicate.
"The chasm is a rift left behind after the battle between the Demon God and the Heavenly Gods. It's getting more dangerous now. I heard that besides demonic creatures, there's also some strange thing this time."
The male attendant's expression darkened after recalling the rumors.
"That is just frontline news. The sect will find out the real situation. But with Mo Yang Xiānjūn leading, no evil spirit can be feared."
When Mo Yang Xiānjūn was mentioned, everyone immediately thought of his immense strength. Even his opponents had to acknowledge his power.
Wu Qingyi's tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed.
"You are right."
She shifted her gaze back to the spirit mirror, hoping to find a promising disciple among those people.
Inside the Immortal Palace, Song Wanníng was still immersed in tracing symbols. Although the symbols were unfamiliar, her spiritual power was exceptional, making the symbols easy to handle.
The more she drew, the smoother her strokes became.
Song Wanníng gradually grew interested. She didn't care if it was a test or not. She was completely absorbed.
Time passed without her noticing. Suddenly, she looked up and realized she had finished all the symbols. Her expression was stunned. She was surprised she had drawn every symbol.
Still not fully detached, she felt a strange closeness to the symbols in her heart. Since there was still time, she decided to try drawing more.
Without tools, Song Wanníng simulated the process in her sea of consciousness. This time, no symbols were guiding her strokes; she had to sketch them from memory. Though the symbols looked the same, drawing them entirely by herself was many times harder.
She failed midway through her first attempt.
The symbols scattered, transforming into bits of energy drifting in her sea of consciousness.
Song Wanníng frowned. She would have to slow down and not rush. Calming herself, she reviewed the drawing method again and started anew.
Failing again, she tried again.
Failing once more, she tried yet again.
Song Wanníng persevered. After countless failures, she finally succeeded in carving the first symbol within her sea of consciousness.
At this point, sweat drenched her forehead. Her spiritual power was severely drained, forcing her to stop. Opening her eyes, the symbols around her had vanished, leaving only the mat beneath her.
She swallowed a pill, and a gleam appeared in her eyes.
"This talisman drawing is really hard—harder than alchemy!"
She exhaled deeply and began meditating to restore her spiritual power, unaware that Wu Qingyi in the Immortal Realm had already risen from her bed in shock.
The male attendant's eyes widened. Pointing at Song Wanníng's image, he stammered without speaking a word.
"Sh-she…"
What kind of prodigy was this?
Wu Qingyi snapped back to her senses and slammed the table, her gaze shining with excitement.
"She just started learning talisman drawing and somehow accidentally mastered void talisman drawing? What kind of monster is this?"
Wu Qingyi sighed deeply. She had herself learned drawing talismans, talisman treasures, and immortal talismans before finally mastering void talisman drawing.
This test was supposed to challenge everyone's spiritual power, but no one expected this girl to teach herself and take it straight to the highest difficulty—and succeed. The more she thought about it, the more alarmed she became. Missing out on such talent would be a huge loss.
The male attendant gradually recovered and looked at Wu Qingyi dazedly.
"Is this what they call 'fools have their luck'?"
This person had never touched talisman drawing before yet managed to break into the highest realm in one try.
"She is not a fool. If she were, there would be no smart people in the world."
Wu Qingyi smiled faintly.
"She has never studied talisman drawing, so she is free from fixed ideas about it…"
That was why she had this unexpected success.
Now, Wu Qingyi focused all her attention on Song Wanníng's progress.
Meanwhile, Huo Jinchuan had just completed the first test but felt no joy—only growing unease. It felt like the Heavenly Dao was warning him. Huo Jinchuan felt restless. His first thought was that Song Wanníng must have arrived.
Among these people, Song Wanníng's Luck was his greatest threat. He clenched his fists, darkening his face with fighting spirit. His talent for talisman crafting was unmatched by these people. He had been secretly studying talisman treasures for a long time. These others probably hadn't even touched a few talisman treasures. How could they be his opponents?
"Looks like I have to speed up."
He looked up, hoping his impressive performance would gain recognition from the big shots behind him.
Once he obtained the inheritance, defeating Huo Yang would only be a matter of time.
Huo Jinchuan was full of fighting spirit, unaware Wu Qingyi hadn't glanced his way once.
...
After passing the first test, Song Wanníng entered a new room. Strangely, as soon as she appeared, the talisman brush and talisman paper vanished. She froze, her eyes flickering with confusion. Without tools, how could she draw talismans?
Looking around, she saw only white walls and nothing else.
What was this test?
Song Wanníng wandered the room but could not figure it out.
Just then, a ferocious beast suddenly charged out. It roared angrily, and flames rose everywhere, instantly engulfing Song Wanníng.
Her expression tightened as she launched an attack. But her face quickly fell. No matter what she tried, she could not attack. Her usually sharp sword moves had all disappeared without a trace.
Seeing the beast charge, she could only swing her fists wildly, but was slammed hard and thrown against the wall.
===
Didn't I just say yesterday that I found a bunch of new novels that caught my interest? Well… after a quick search, I already have 59 new novels on my list. Most of them are in the 15–200 chapter range, so not too crazy length-wise.
And yeah, like I mentioned before, for casual reading I usually rely on the Google Translate extension. I'm honestly too lazy to "think" when I'm reading—if I read raw Chinese, my brain has to actually work, but with English my brain just automatically processes the meaning without effort (￣▽￣).
But here's the thing… I've kinda gotten used to how bad MTL translations can be. If you've read enough MTL, you know exactly what I mean (lol). And since my eyes are now spoiled by my own translations, whenever I read raw MTL I'm like, "Hah? What's going on??" (－‸ლ). Basically, my comprehension for raw MTL has gotten worse.
Of course, I can still manage stuff that's not too messy—like modern settings, or maybe some xianxia. But when I tried reading 杀道侣后,修仙界恶女成魔门老祖 (After killing her Taoist partner, the evil woman in the world of immortal cultivation became the ancestor of the demon sect), I could follow along and understand the gist… but wow, it was painful to read (ಥ_ಥ).
So in the end, I decided to just pick it up for translation instead (After Killing Dao Partner, the Villainess Becomes the Demon Ancestor). Each chapter's word count is short, kinda like The Invincible Money-Grubbing Fairy or The Cube Queen's Apocalypse Feast. Right now it's at 184 chapters and still serializing. Honestly, at my pace, I'll probably finish catching up with it in just 2 days.
And maybe after that, I'll add a couple more serialized novels from the batch I found yesterday during my novel hunt. Decisions, decisions…
Oh, and one more thing! From now on, I'll also try to make my novel covers as close as possible to the original ones. Of course, sometimes I might still make my own version too, but I'll do my best to stay faithful to the original designs (*≧▽≦).