Falling in Love to Escape the Original Book Plot [BL]-Chapter 421: Inscriptions Master Challenge 2
"There is simply no way to handle ice porcelain. How can fellow Daoist Zhen etch an inscription on it if he can’t handle it?" A male cultivator asked and sighed.
"This fellow Daoist is right. It’s impossible to etch the big dipper sword inscription on ice porcelain."
"I don’t believe it." Someone said and quickly continued.
"Where does ice porcelain come from? How is it collected if it can’t be handled? Most importantly, why collect something that can’t be used?" He asked, and the surrounding cultivators immediately got interested.
After all, the cultivation world was generally practical, and few would bother collecting something that couldn’t be used.
"This fellow Daoist has a point. Why would anyone collect something useless?"
"You have misunderstood." A female cultivator said and began explaining.
"Ice porcelain forms within a jelly-like sac. The sac protects it but melts away when placed in a special water solution."
"After the ice porcelain is removed from the sac, it becomes brittle and can’t be used in its original form."
"No one could deal with the soul-eroding worm, but junior brother Shen did it. Maybe fellow Daoist Zhen can also create a miracle." Someone muttered.
"What’s the use of ice porcelain?" Another asked.
"It’s usually crushed and used as a bonding material in weapons refining. Even then, few masters can handle it."
"It seems the elders are really determined to force a loss."
Hearing this, several people looked at the stage, and a female cultivator lowered her eyes with a complicated expression.
"I secretly want them to be slapped in the face." She muttered, but everyone was a cultivator, and the surrounding people heard it.
"Despite their monstrous talent, fellow Daoist Zhen and junior brother Shen are human after all. They can’t know everything." Someone sighed, and several people nodded. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺
On stage, Yang Zitao shook his head and continued his announcement.
"Each of you will have five pieces of ice porcelain, but you are only required to produce one inscription." He said and quickly continued.
"Assessment has three aspects."
"The first aspect is successfully etching on the ice porcelain, and it carries five points. The second aspect is the grade of the inscription, which carries one point. Finally, the third aspect follows the third requirement and carries four points."
Zhen Yuan sighed when he heard this.
’They are really setting us up for failure.’ He thought with a complicated expression.
Although he had read about ice porcelain, he had never seen it, let alone used it.
Most importantly, his inheritance had nothing on how to use it in its original form.
That said, Zhen Yuan didn’t give up.
After all, he could see laws and felt he might be able to find a solution when he saw the ice porcelain.
"Any questions?" Yang Zitao asked, and the two opponents shook their heads.
Seeing this, Yang Zitao narrowed his eyes with a thoughtful expression.
"Are you going to wager?" He asked, and the two people subconsciously looked at each other.
Xuanyuan Ze was casual when it came to romantic relationships but was cautious about other aspects of his life.
At this time, he was instinctively against a wager because he couldn’t draw the inscription.
After all, he had seen what happened in the previous nine challenges and didn’t dare to blindly wager that his opponent could also not draw the inscription.
"No wager." He said, and Yang Zitao turned to Zhen Yuan.
"Let’s get to it." The man said, and Yang Zitao nodded before signalling an elder to set up the materials.
"You may use your inscription brush and liquid. However, everything else can only be what is provided." He said.
After that, Zhen Yuan and Xuanyuan Ze walked to the materials table and began checking the goods.
There were exactly ten boxes and two bottles on the table. On closer look, each box had a jelly sac while the bottles had water.
Seeing this, Zhen Yuan narrowed his eyes.
He originally thought that the provided ice porcelain would already be removed from their sacs.
However, the reality was better than he expected, and his mood subconsciously improved.
’Things may not be as dire as I expected.’ He thought, picked five boxes and a bottle, before returning to his worktable.
However, he didn’t immediately start working.
Instead, he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes and began meditating.
Three weeks passed in the blink of an eye.
During that time, Zhen Yuan opened his eyes a few times but only to examine the jelly sacs before closing his eyes again.
On this day, Zhen Yuan opened his eyes and stood up.
’Time to test my ideas.’ He thought and took out his law scripting brush.
When Zhen Yuan first saw the provided materials, he immediately thought of inscribing the ice porcelain without removing them from the sacs.
This technique was almost impossible for ordinary inscription masters.
However, Zhen Yuan had the experience of drawing the absolute domain Talisman.
Since the Talisman couldn’t be drawn on paper, Zhen Yuan learned to draw it in the air and then transfer it to the body.
Similarly, he planned to draw the big dipper sword inscription in the air and then push it inside the sac and onto the porcelain.
This solution was pretty easy to figure out.
However, Zhen Yuan couldn’t figure out a way to activate the inscription three times without shattering the ice porcelain.
After all, the inscription couldn’t be activated when the ice porcelain was still inside the sac.
In the end, Zhen Yuan considered many solutions and eventually settled on one.
Since the ice porcelain couldn’t be reinforced, he could only take advantage of the activating power.
However, this was easier said than done, and it took several weeks for Zhen Yuan to narrow down his options to two concepts: extremes and balance.
If he could manipulate the activating force to create an effect of ’extreme brittleness generates toughness’ or manipulate the force to perfectly balance the brittleness, wouldn’t the ice porcelain be able to withstand several activations?
