Chapter 508: Chapter 508: Five-star Divine Texture

Drifting across the sky were dense clouds; smoky wisps curled up against the blueness of the atmosphere like genies. As the air in Cloud Hall became saturated with anticipation and the forthcoming of gloom, the hazy mist that enveloped the land slowly dispersed. With the rays of golden light peeking through the scattering morning mist, a woman's shadow materialized under the soft daylight. The silhouette of Letitia's slender and elegant figure was suddenly apparent on the grounds.

As the woman silently stood there, she observed the young man deep in thought. Deeming it enough to survey for a while, she floated away gracefully.

Biting her lip anxiously as she rubbed her cheek with her palm, Letitia thought that what she had done was actually a reckless and unwise gamble. As soon as she had tersely placed the stakes at hand, she was confronted with an immense backlash due to the Cloud Hall elders pressuring her; and it was not long before she would crack.

Even though Imogen, Saint Morphens, and a small portion of the elders did not complain straight to her face, there were times when she had caught on fleeting moments of hesitancy as if they wanted to question her decisions. Letitia was almost definitely certain that they did not understand what she wanted to accomplish.

Exhaling deeply with a far-off gaze, she was well aware of the arduous consequences her actions could bring. As the stakes were too high, the odds were stacked against her. It was far from unlikely that she would end up losing the Cloud Hall for good.

As soon as she strode out of the Cloud Hall, she furrowed her eyebrows at the sight of Emanuel and numerous other elders aggressively walking towards where she stood. Shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun, she had also noticed that walking beside the big group of elders were various leaders of third grade clans and third grade sects.

These clan leaders and sect leaders were significant people, as they represented varying powers and authorities in the Cloudy City. Moreover, they had always been vassals of the Cloud Hall. Letitia had a definite guess of the reason why they had suddenly gathered together with the elders. If it ever so happened that the Cloud Hall was destroyed, whether it be from natural disasters like devastating earthquakes or sweeping tsunamis that could heavily impact the state of the whole city, all of the clans and sects would find themselves in great peril.

Sighing to herself as a headache started to work its way towards her temples, she thought that maybe what they were trying to tell her was true; maybe it was not a wise decision to pin all the hope on Zen to resist Eddie. 'Ah, here they come, ' she thought warily, already expectant of the onslaught of protests from the elders.

“Miss Ning, please do think twice! How can a dignified fourth grade sect place all of its hope on a man like Zen?”

“Miss Ning, I have remained loyal and devoted to Cloud Hall for two hundred years and I am willing to serve Cloud Hall until I die,” one of them pleaded with earnest eyes. “However, I cannot bear to see it collapse just because of some cultivator at the Illuminating Soul Realm.”

Amidst the sudden chaos, a clan leader shouted from the side, “The only way is to hand Zen over!”

All kinds of voices echoed throughout the hall and the dissonance of it all rang in her ears aggravatingly. Words of anger, bitterness, and helplessness reflected on the way they raised their voices at the Cloud Hall leader. It was akin to a dam that burst from pressure, a raging river that uncoiled like pythons, as their vehement disagreements washed over and threatened to choke her under the current. Even though she was the respected leader of the Cloud Hall, nothing could have stopped the assault of sounds surrounding her, imprisoning her very being as she could not even find a way to escape the crowd.

After pushing and pulling through the throng of people, Letitia finally managed to inhale a bout of fresh air as she broke through and left them arguing over themselves.

Stumbling and breathing heavily, she returned to her Ice Palace and almost slumped against the door. The woman was nothing short of stupefied over what just happened. As she watched the ice phoenix float towards her and land softly on her right shoulder as a form of comfort, she sighed sadly. Biting her lip and drooping her head, she winced and unwittingly spit out a curse, “I cannot lose..”

However, there was no one to blame but her own self. It was her own doing that she remained as stubborn as a mule--once she had chosen a direction, nothing would be able to change her mind. Moreover, her personality was being resilient; even if she encountered numerous troubling difficulties on the road to her goal, she would still choose to suffer all kinds of consequences along the way, boundlessly bearing the burden and relentlessly advancing forward.

With all the commotion happening in the Cloud Hall, Zen clearly knew that Letitia was under so much pressure.

What was worse was the fact that Eddie could suddenly drop by unannounced in the Cloud Hall. And what was she going to do then? The man she had put her faith into, Zen, could only concentrate as of the moment on drawing the divine textures.

Reflecting heavily on the events that had occurred for the past days, it was getting more and more likely that she could not save Cloud Hall after all. Even if Zen had a soul which had already reached the Fighting Soul Realm, he would be exhausted by working intensively every day to draw the runes. Within twelve hours of each day, he spent eight hours continuously working on the runes, and the remaining four hours would be consumed for energy restoration. Although he was a capable man, it took just about everything in him to painstakingly draw them; it definitely maximized the capabilities of Zen's soul.

For the first and second days of working on the runes, everything had appeared to be fine as the man never complained or showed fatigue.

However, tragedy struck on the third day which gave them deep-seated worries and anxiety. When morning came, Zen almost did not want to wake up from his sleep. As they had all figured out, excessive extraction of his soul force drained him and made his soul extremely tired. Furthermore, the lack of sleep made it impossible for him to replenish his energy. ꞦÅɴǒ𐌱ĚṤ

As the days progressed, Zen had no choice but to wear the Soul-nurturing Jade every day, the one that Dillon had gifted to him. At the same time, he started to take some soul nourishing pills.

Perpetually working on the runes severely exploited his soul force and exhausted him to the bone like no other. However, the silver lining of the whole process was the fact that his soul became more stable as time passed by and a faint coat of jade-green glow surrounded him.

The Fighting Soul Realm was admittedly not the highest level the soul could enter. This was because just above the Fighting Soul Realm was the Jasper Fighting Soul Realm. Although this was the case, it would still take nonstop rigorous training and interminable tempering of one's soul to cross the threshold of the Jasper Fighting Soul Realm. With Zen's current strength being used and depleted on the runes, entering the next realm was not something Zen could easily envision.

During the period when Zen worked incessantly, Letitia often took the time to visit Zen and observe his progress.

Dropping in to pay him a quick visit was something the woman did for reassurance. In the face of immense pressure coming from the different parties of the Cloud Hall, witnessing Zen work earnestly made her slightly relieved. Although she felt apologetic that the young man exhausted himself tirelessly, she was still responsible for the future of Cloud Hall.

Along with the preparations and countermeasures they were doing, the Cloud Hall was also doing its best on closely monitoring Eddie's movements. According to the information the Cloud Hall had gathered from their latest discussion, Eddie seemed to be looking for a way to recover Eden's warrior spirit after leaving the Oracle City.

All cultivators across the land knew the consequences of losing their warrior spirit; it was a devastating event that they all dreaded to think about. As those who had witnessed such an incident could attest to, not only would the warrior never be able to recover from such a blow, there was also a high possibility that the warrior would even lose all confidence to continue living in this world.

Recovering the warrior spirit of a cultivator was definitely a difficult feat. This was due to the fact that even if they had somehow repaired it, there would still be burdensome side effects that could affect the warrior. An example of this would be the likelihood of developing amnesia. Furthermore, the mind of the cultivator might even be damaged. Another condition for the warriors who had lost their warrior spirits would be the dependence on other people. This was because if they were left unattended or uncared for, it would be significantly harder for them to recover with the passing of time. As the warriors often felt deeper about their sufferings and pitied their conditions, falling into depression worsened their state of mind. That was the most probable reason as to why Eddie did not immediately seek vengeance and stomp through the Cloud Hall. The man had prioritized the finding and restoration of Eden's warrior spirit first.

This news might have been the only relatively good news for the people of Cloud Hall. At the very least, it had helped them buy quite a bit of time.

Before they had even noticed, half a month had already passed. With their days spent anxiously moving around their sects and occasionally looking towards the sky in case their opponent had decided to make a move, time passed by with relative ease. On the nineteenth day, a total of four thousand and nine hundred divine textures were finally completed. With that, what remained was the last three five-star divine textures, also the most crucial ones out of them all.

The impending three five-star divine textures cost four thousand supreme life vitality crystals--and that was only for the materials. Additionally, they were also the most critical divine textures in the sect-protecting array. All the over four thousand divine textures of the sect-protecting array would be able to work on the premise that these three five-star divine textures were put into place.

The three were significant and valuable in their own ways. The first five-star divine texture was named “Light of Water.” This was due to the fact that this particular divine texture was able to gather the power of fourteen hundred divine textures and was capable of condensing them into a sect-protecting enchanted barrier.

Just as the first one had been of utmost importance, the second five-star divine texture termed the “Wrath of Thunder” was also revered for a different way. The particular divine texture focused on bringing offensive powers, one that could unleash an attack similar to thunder tribulation.

Last but definitely not the least was the third five-star divine texture known as “Mad Trap”. The divine texture served as a trap that would only be activated at the opponent's trigger.

These three five-star divine textures were not created by Zen himself. Although the young cultivator was confident that he would be able to complete these three divine textures, the materials needed to produce them were just too precious and scarce. Even the smallest mistake or a slip of hand could make all his efforts go to waste.

Unfortunately, the problem was not the fact that the Cloud Hall could not afford the life vitality crystals themselves. Rather, it was more of the actuality that some materials needed were not available to acquire within a short period of time even if they had the resources to purchase them. Now that they were faced with a formidable and powerful foe, Zen was not willing to take any risks to lose.

Placed in front of Zen was a huge piece of parchment that could be used for drawing runes. Picking up the wooden brush and gripping it lightly, he let a trace of the cyan dragon's soul infuse into the brush in preparation of what he was about to do. Without hesitation, Zen positioned the tip of the brush on top of the paper and as it touched the surface, a bright beam of light streamed out which had contained strong power of the Water Law.

Divine textures that ranged from one to four stars did not have a high requirement for the Law Power as it did not need much to be produced. However, the process of drawing the five-star divine texture necessitated the individual to be proficient in the Law Power. An exhibition of this would be the “Light of Water”, as one had to be adept in the first layer of the Water Law power, otherwise, it would basically be impossible to finish it.

For instance, there were some divine texture experts in the Upper World that were able to successfully cultivate the Fire Law and Thunder Law with their own capabilities, but some were not able to draw the “Light of Water”. This was due to the fact that being able to activate the properties of the materials in the ink came hand in hand with having a complete comprehension and command of the Water Law.

While closely inspecting the radiant beam of light that rippled like water on Zen's brush tip, Felix gasped in surprise at the sight.

The man could also draw five-star runes with ease, however, what he was currently seeing was something extraordinary. 'Why does drawing a five-star rune need such a strong Law Power?' he wondered, especially amazed at the handiwork Zen was doing on the parchment. With curiosity and anticipation apparent on the way he gazed at Zen's hand as it gracefully danced atop the paper while holding the brush, he contemplated that Zen was indeed special, 'Is this guy sure that he is drawing a five-star rune, and not a six-star or seven-star rune?'

“How strong will the power of this rune be once it is activated?!” The man sitting beside Zen exclaimed as he could not help but feel expectant of the results.

In the Central Region, the highest level a rune could be was six-star. Moreover, only a few old men in the Runic Tower in the whole wide world could manage to summon enough power to make it. However, none of them would employ such potent Law Power!

This was also the exact reason which made divine textures extremely powerful. If one had to compare it with the runes, the power of a singular five-star divine texture could be equivalent to an eight-star rune in the Central Region. In the end, it was the motivation Zen needed, as he was confident in making the sect-protecting array to be able to completely resist Eddie and his powers.

The brush strokes of the runes exuded the kind of aesthetically pleasing visual that calmed Zen and Felix as they were akin to tiny streams of water that flowed with radiant splendor. As the lines gracefully intertwined with each other, it depicted such a beautifully complex piece that reflected the wishes of the one drawing them.

It took Zen a couple of hours before finally finishing the drawing of the “Light of Water”. As he finally perfected the last stroke of his brush, he lifted the pen from the parchment and could not help but feel a sense of satisfaction and relief at seeing his complete drawing. The young man smiled a little to himself while he stretched the hand he had been working with; it had been a tedious four hours of being hunched over his worktable.

Splash!

The people roaming in the hall emitted sounds of surprise and delight as they heard the melodious sound of flowing water that surrounded them. It had seemed like the divine texture which could be compared to a skillfully done landscape painting had sprung to life. The picture radiated a soft and gentle sensation as it gave the impressions of a salty breeze by the seaside and the welcoming mellow waves.

After the liquid-like ripples on the runes gradually subsided, the aura emitted by the Water Law slowly disappeared and it left behind the plain expanse of the rune. Without the unobtrusive sounds of water, the place had become quiet again.

Zen glanced at Felix who appeared to still be fascinated by the brief showcase of the rune's power and then nudged him into reality. “I am ready to do the next one.” Zen nodded at him and calmly stated.

At that exact moment, their ears picked up on a ruckus from the entrance of the hall. Both men looked questioningly at each other at the same time, wondering what the commotion was all about.

“For the past few days, Letitia has announced that she's in closed-door cultivation. Well, I think that's only an excuse! She's just trying to hide and avoid facing the problem as it is,” one of the people loudly protested. “The Cloud Hall is on the verge of collapsing. How could she hide in her mighty Ice Palace all alone and refuse to come out?” a high pitched voice complained outside before continuing, “She's being irresponsible!”

“She must give us an explanation!”

“I heard that Zen was drawing some useless runes here. It's just a sect-protecting array. What can it do, anyway?! Either capture that mongrel and hand him over or force Letitia out!” more of them demanded angrily, as they started to come closer to where Zen was working.

The loud cacophony of voices which had started far away came nearer by the minute and it was not long before a group of dissenting people appeared at the entrance. This was not good as Zen might not be able to focus with all his might.

The face of Zen's companion turned red with anger at the sudden intrusion of the mob forming outside. Moreover, he had looked downright murderous at the thought of people about to barge inside and interrupt Zen's process of drawing the runes. It was the most crucial moment for Zen to finish the sect-protecting array and yet the bumbling idiots raging at the entrance did not understand the severity of the situation.

“What is the noise about?!” The normally good-tempered Felix could not help but bellow in wrath as he wished to stop the fools from causing more disturbance than they already did.