Cha Ming woke up feeling relaxed and refreshed. His mixed emotions, the ones he didn't know existed, had sorted themselves out subconsciously. Strangely, despite his repeated failures over the past few months, he felt quite confident in being able to pass the upcoming examination.

After washing his face, Cha Ming ate a large breakfast of rice porridge, vegetables, and pickles—one of the reasons he had picked this hotel in the first place. He especially enjoyed the hotel's bamboo dish. It was difficult to combine its texture and taste in just the right proportions; the chef here had done it by adding a complementary mushroom.

A brief walk followed breakfast. He took in the city's sights and enjoyed watching the people's routine walk to work. The examination's start time coincided with the standard work start time, one hour after dawn. He arrived just five minutes before the cut-off time.

"Cha Ming, you made it," Feng Huoshan said as he walked to the registration desk.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Cha Ming replied in a cheerful tone, a stark contrast to his stressed disposition the day prior. He signed up at the registration desk by presenting his bronze ninth-grade emblem. It contained all the pertinent information required. "Brother Huoshan, who will be conducting the examination?"

"A grand master artist," Feng Huoshan said, shaking his head. "He is sent by headquarters to ensure impartiality."

Cha Ming nodded and waited with the other thirteen examination candidates. Judging by their expressions, they were not confident in their abilities in the slightest. Many were pale and sweaty, unable to contain their anxiety. This was all despite having cultivations in the foundation-establishment realm, a minimum requirement to even attempt creating magic talismans in the first place.

There was one lone exception to this general trend. A girl stood apart from the rest. She wore a blank expression, and her eyes were closed. And despite her gorgeous looks, no one made a move to speak to her. She had silver hair that sunk down to her waist, and her skin was pale as fresh winter snow.

"Are you not nervous about the examination?" Cha Ming asked, hoping to liven the atmosphere.

"No need," she said softly. She didn't bother explaining herself, so Cha Ming could only shrug helplessly. He wasn't sure whether it was arrogance or general unfriendliness.

"So you've practiced sufficiently, then?" Cha Ming prodded. The woman frowned, and suddenly he felt like he had just plunged into a murderously frigid pool. His strong soul allowed him to recover quickly. By reflex, he activated Eyes of Pure Jade and peered at her figure. What he saw surprised him.

Instead of the yellow tinge or ochre coloring he had expected when exposed to her murderous aura, he instead saw a halo of resplendent jade light. It hugged her body, spreading out two inches from her skin and hair. The color felt kindly and pure.

Is this a merit halo? he thought. He immediately reevaluated the young woman.

"Oh?" she said, looking toward him. Her eyes still hadn't opened, but he felt a piercing gaze examining his very soul. "My apologies, kind sir, I just don't take kindly to casual conversation. I find it flippant and irrelevant. But I feel comfortable around you, so I will make an exception."

Cha Ming shot her a nervous smile. "I take it that your reputation precedes you. Were you standing alone on purpose?"

"Yes," the girl said, blushing. "My name is Luo Xuehua . Like the snowflake."

"Mine is Du Cha Ming. The same Cha Ming as investigating ," Cha Ming said.

"How accurate," Xuehua said. "What did you discover with your investigation?" Cha Ming was caught off guard by the question but immediately recovered. After all, her disposition had changed after he observed her with Eyes of Pure Jade. It shouldn't be surprising that she had noticed his probing.

"I discovered that you are surely a righteous person," Cha Ming replied. "That you have done much good in this world."

The girl smiled bitterly. "If you could see what I see, you would not feel the same way."

Seeing that Xuehua had not opened her eyes yet, Cha Ming's curiosity got the better of him. "What do you see?"

"Darkness and shadows," she replied softly. "And blood, fire, and gold. Families torn apart and kingdoms crumbling. An hourglass with not much time remaining."

Cha Ming shivered. Not knowing how to react to these dark words, he could only remain silent and focus on the upcoming exam.

A middle-aged figure in gray robes appeared a half hour later. He looked over the fourteen candidates and motioned for them to follow. To Cha Ming's surprise, his body moved without his consent. He continued moving along in this fashion until they arrived at a large stone room where fourteen mannequins and fourteen desks stood ready. Each desk and mannequin were separated from the others by intricate formations that Cha Ming assumed would prevent explosions from spreading. They would only need to concentrate on the examination candidate.

"Well?" the man barked. "What are you all waiting for? Take a seat."

Cha Ming and the thirteen others scrambled to find a desk. Cha Ming ended up second from the end, right beside Luo Xuehua. She still hadn't opened her eyes. He wondered whether it had to do with a special technique she cultivated.

"Here are the rules," the examiner said abruptly. "Firstly, you will have seventy-two hours to draw ten unique magic-grade talismans. Their efficiencies must exceed sixty percent. You will use your own ink, brush, and paper. Using pure elemental evanescence is forbidden for the purposes of achieving a higher rank via augmentation. However, although it is rather wasteful, you can use it as you would normal ink or as a blend.

"Do not worry about the safety of the other examination candidates, as they will be shielded from any ill effects of your talismans. However, your eyes will not be shielded, so it is your responsibility not to lose concentration in the case of a distracting explosion. Any and all attempts to willfully distract other examinees is strictly forbidden. It will not only disqualify you from the exam, but your current qualifications will be revoked, and you will be banned from the association. Any questions?" Cha Ming and the others shook their heads. "Good. Begin!"

Cha Ming immediately began painting his first talisman, the Five-Fire Cremation Talisman. He began by expertly drawing the five fires and embedding them into the paper. He then proceeded to draw the first, the second, and the third line in expert fashion.

As he drew, each line required increasing amounts of focus and control, greatly slowing down his progress. The five symbols and ten lines took him a mere ten minutes, but the next thirty took him the remainder of an hour. The next ten lines, the most difficult and least stable of the set, would take him an entire hour to paint.

Time ticked by, and soon he only had five lines remaining. Sweat dripped from his brow as he struggled to contain the liquified elemental essence with his qi and incandescent force. The line trembled, wanting to rampage and break free, incinerating not only himself but his entire surroundings.

Suddenly he saw a flicker of light from a failed talisman nearby. His concentration broke, and the talisman unraveled and began the inevitable explosion.

***

"Damn, it looks like he failed his first attempt," Feng Huoshan said from an observation balcony.

"That's normal," another master artist said beside him. "Though I still don't know why you pay so much attention to the boy."

"He's young, and he knows things," Huoshan replied. "And he's a fair bit kinder than some old geezers I know. In short, he's worth befriending. Someone like you wouldn't understand."

The fat man beside him shrugged. "That may be. Let's see how he deals with this disastrous failure. It takes a lot of qi and spiritual force to stop an explosion. That will mean more recovery time and fewer chances to paint talismans in the long run."

"Who knows," Huoshan said. "But I have faith in my little friend. Eh? What is he doing?" Feng Huoshan looked on in amazement as Cha Ming did nothing to prevent the explosion. He didn't even raise a simple qi shield to defend himself. "Is he suicidal?"

A fierce explosion, much larger than the previous failures, expanded and threatened to break the formations surrounding Cha Ming. Huoshan was surprised to see the examiner flash across the room to reinforce the formation. As the cloud of smoke dissipated, they saw the semblance of a man sitting cross-legged with unharmed blue robes. The desk had been smashed to smithereens, but the dummy itself had recovered. Cha Ming now looked more like a burned corpse than anything else.

"Cha Ming!" Feng Huoshan yelled and jumped out toward the young man's examination enclosure. However, as he drew nearer, the examiner looked at him coldly and motioned for him to stop.

"Watch," the middle-aged man said, releasing his intangible grasp on Feng Huoshan. Taking in a deep breath, Huoshan realized that the burned skin and hair on Cha Ming's "corpse" was rapidly regenerating. It only took a few minutes for his hair and skin to regrow. Only ashes remained of his previously burned skin. After recovering physically, Cha Ming only took an incense time to recover his incandescent force and qi before starting once more. This time, he painted from the floor, not bothering to ask for another desk and chair.

"A body cultivator?" Feng Huoshan asked.

"Obviously," the examiner said, his voice thick with disdain. "Now get back upstairs and don't utter a peep. He obviously let the explosion hit him to conserve his qi and mental strength, bearing with the pain to gain additional chances for success."

Having been thoroughly reprimanded, Feng Huoshan flew back up to the observation deck.

"What a freak," the fat man said. "How can he stand to get hurt like that, and on purpose to boot. One's body is a temple, and one shouldn't let it be harmed for any reason.

"And this is why your defensive talismans are the best, Brother Luo Ming," Feng Huoshan said. "And it is also why you have the largest temple among the masters. By the way, shouldn't you at least show a modicum of support? He will be painting the talisman you taught him. It's a pity you don't value him more. I'm sure he could help you out in the future."

"What's the point?" Luo Ming said, pulling out a bucket of fried chicken. "I have no patience for research, so what's a few extra runes? My curiosity was piqued. Nothing more."

***

Cha Ming's confidence wasn't shaken in the slightest as he painted the talisman a second time. He simply continued as if nothing had happened. What did shake him was the glimpse he caught of Luo Xuehua. She had been calmly painting her talisman with her eyes closed. He began to wonder whether she could open them in the first place.

He pushed this thought out of his mind and pondered it no further. After ten lines, he'd gotten to the difficult part. He kept focused as he painted red line after red line. This time, there was no quivering until he got to the third to the last line. It was his best attempt at creating this talisman yet. With a look of joy on his face, he finished the least-grade magic talisman. The paper turned five shades of red as it resonated with the energy of heaven and earth.

Your completion is noted, a voice spoke to him mentally. He looked toward the examiner, who nodded. Throw your talisman at the dummy for evaluation. Cha Ming didn't hesitate and threw it at the fragile-looking wooden dummy. Five fires burst out and raged around it, concentrating their efforts in cremating its wooden body until nothing remained. Naturally, they failed miserably in their attempts. The only remaining trace of its power was a sign on the dummy.

Least-Grade Talisman, 71% efficiency.

Cha Ming had succeeded, but he was a long way from finishing the examination. This happened to be his most proficient talisman, and the next five wouldn't be a walk in the park. Not to mention the final four he would need to complete. Since he had finished a fire-based talisman, he proceeded to begin drawing an earth-based talisman. Fire fed earth, so his previous actions would interfere the least with the Lone Mountain Suppression Talisman.

Contrary to the burning brush motions from before, his pose was stoic and sturdy, his brush strokes stable and certain. He was a living mountain. This talisman had ten characters but still only fifty connecting lines. It was only slightly more complicated than the Five-Fire Cremation Talisman. However, he had much less practice with it and could only trust in luck for success.

As Cha Ming and Xuehua painted, the other examinees struggled to produce anything of substance. It took a full ten hours for the first to produce something passable. It was a simple wood healing talisman with an efficiency of six tenths—a bare pass. Other successful products trickled in soon after, but it was clear that this rate of completion wouldn't bring them a passing mark. On average, each talisman could only take seven hours. They would be hard-pressed to complete the examination and could only trust their fates to chance.

On the fourteen-hour mark, Cha Ming successfully created a talisman that summoned an illusory mountain, which bore down on the practice mannequin and crushed it with impunity. After recovering, a score of 73% efficiency was recorded, and Cha Ming moved on to the next one. Shortly after, Luo Xuehua finished her third talisman, once again an ice-element talisman. It summoned a thousand silver snowflakes to strike various vital points on the mannequin. Its efficiency was frightening—93%! This was the highest recorded efficiency yet during the examination. In fact, it seemed like an insurmountable record. Cha Ming suspected that the ice element resonated with her icy demeanor.

Another sixteen hours passed, and by the thirty-hour mark, Cha Ming finally managed to produce the Nine Blades, One Dao Talisman, the self-taught talisman which gave him the most difficult time. He barely passed with a mark of sixty percent. Unfortunately, almost half of his time had elapsed. It would be difficult to make up the lost time. He maintained his calm composure and proceeded to the Myriad Ice Shield Talisman.

***

"There it is, the Myriad Ice Shield Talisman!" Luo Ming exclaimed.

"Aren't you a little too excited?" Feng Huoshan teased. He had remained seated the entire time, unlike a certain slovenly friend who left periodically for meals.

"I can't help it, it's truly my favorite talisman," Luo Ming said, licking the grease from his fingers. "It captures the very essence of cultivation. Evolution, strength, and absolute defense. It has no undesirable qualities. With enough Myriad Ice Shield Talismans, one would never get injured."

Feng Huoshan rolled his eyes at his friend's usual banter. Fortunately, Cha Ming didn't disappoint. After two tries and four hours, he managed to complete the talisman. However, only thirty-eight hours remained for the final six talismans, so Huoshan couldn't help but feel nervous for his young friend.

"Hua Dong, how proficient is he in the Eight Treasures Healing Talisman and the Five Poisons Talisman?" Huoshan asked. The man had just joined them in the spectator stands.

"He's terrible," Hua Dong replied. "Cha Ming's success rate doesn't exceed 25% for both. It will be difficult for him to finish. Speaking of which, does anyone know which other four talismans he has under his belt?" The other two shook their heads and looked on with rapt attention.

***

Condense! Cha Ming yelled mentally, forcing the Eight Treasures Healing Talisman into submission. Then, after receiving his instructions, he threw it at the mannequin. It glowed green, and a value of sixty-five percent floated up. Unfortunately, generating the talisman had taken him six hours. This was better than average but left him with very little time. Forty hours out of seventy-two had elapsed. Painting talismans was getting increasingly difficult. Recovering mental energy became more strenuous as time passed.

With hands shaking from unpleasant memories, he began painting the Five Poisons Talisman. The backlash on the Five Poisons Talisman was much more brutal than the others, but he didn't have the qi or mental energy to divert in the case of a failure.

Two hours passed before he failed his first attempt. The runic lines collapsed, and a five-colored fog invaded his body. Excruciating pain shot through his limbs as he exerted the power of bone forging to force the poison out of his pores while simultaneously recovering his mental energy and qi. This process alone took another two hours to complete.

The next three attempts resulted in failure as well. Fifty-six out of seventy-two hours had passed. Gritting his teeth, he attempted once more. After so many consecutive failures, he noticed that the poison had a sensitizing effect. Each subsequent poisoning made the pain increasingly unbearable. To have any chance in completing the examination, he needed to finish this next one. Therefore, he took extra care and painted at half pace. Before long, four hours had passed. It was the sixtieth hour, and only three lines remained.

It was then that a blinding flash of light emanated from the shield next to his. The man had been attempting a dangerous lightning-based talisman, and the recoil of the failure was especially intense. The examiner was forced to disperse the shield and save him, but not before his right hand was scorched black. While it wasn't impossible to heal it via expensive spirit medicines, his ability to paint might be impaired for the rest of his life.

This shocking sight caused Cha Ming's poison talisman to destabilize ever so slightly. Unfortunately, he knew full well that it was the beginning of the end. After painting two more lines, the talisman began to shake uncontrollably.

I can't fail here, Cha Ming thought. The poisonous thread unraveled before his eyes, threatening to destroy the talisman. I can't fail here, he repeated. He sent out his incandescent force and qi, firmly grasping the shuddering thread. Its wild nature made Cha Ming cough up blood. Fortunately, he avoided spraying it all over the talisman and ruining it.

Submit! he yelled mentally. That was when he heard a snap. It wasn't the string that broke, but the invisible bindings on his soul. As soon as the binding was broken, he felt an even purer incandescent force pouring toward the talisman and preventing it from collapsing. His soul had advanced to the peak of the incandescent soul realm. Without hesitating, he used his qi and soul to guide the ink and draw the remaining lines. They fell into place, and the talisman shimmered after completion.

Cha Ming let out a sigh of relief as he threw the Five Poisons Talisman at the dummy, and its external coating dissolved while assessing it.

Least-Grade Magic Talisman. Efficiency—61%. A bare pass.