Lu Yun entered a regular space that had nothing special about it. A man dressed in a silver combat outfit stood in its center, regarding him with a stern expression.
“You may pass this first level if you defeat me with the Argent Snow in your hand.” The man beckoned to Lu Yun.
“You’re a physical manifestation of the rules?” Lu Yun asked, in no hurry to start a fight. He’d seen this kind of manifestation before. The Talisman, Formation, Weapon, and Pill Kings of the Hongmeng were such spirits. They possessed the peak battle strength of their realm, making them stronger than the eleven potentates.
However, their state also subjected them to certain rules that forbade them from taking action as they would.
“Yes.” The man nodded. “Argent Snow is one of the eight great soul weapons and suppresses a portion of order. I am the spirit of the Argent Snow order. That is enough nonsense. You will learn more about Argent Snow if you defeat me.”
“Alright.” Lu Yun waved the weapon in his hand, refraining from activating its power. He gripped it like a bat and smashed it down on the weapon spirit’s head.
The spirit of Argent Snow matched Lu Yun’s current level of strength—major World Manifest with soul force of initial grandmaster. He was a bit taken aback to see the young man use Argent Snow’s physical form against him.
Challengers usually activated the weapon’s power to send a flurry of snowflakes against him, utilizing their strongest moves. Today, however, this young man sought to hit him on the head with the stick itself?
The spirit of Argent Snow was very disgruntled.
He shook his hand and sent one hundred and eight snowflakes drifting through the air, forming a formation that wasn’t quite a formation, a boundary that wasn’t a boundary.
Lu Yun’s swift movements immediately slowed, as if he’d sunk into a bog. Though the pristine snowflakes meandering through the air didn’t fly with any forcefulness, they seemed to be edges of a blade all the same. They raised oscillations through the void and sliced through Lu Yun’s body as they floated down from the air.
The scene wavered in front of Lu Yun and he returned to the Argent Snow tablet.
“Is that the power of Argent Snow?” he murmured to himself as he stood in front of the stone tablet.
He’d only brought a probing move to bear; he wanted to test how the power of Argent Snow differed from what Xing Heng once wielded.
It would seem that they were vastly different.
“While I can break through his Domain of First Snowfall with brute force, my skill in utilizing Argent Snow is far beneath his.” Lu Yun reviewed how the one hundred and eight snowflakes hadn’t stirred any destructive ripples in the air, but had been able to slice through his body nonetheless.
If they’d been in the outside world, that would’ve been enough to claim his life.
“Powerful supplemental grandmasters are indeed far above their peers when they utilize soul weapons.” Quick analysis showed Lu Yun that while he’d deployed peak major World Manifest strength and his own combat arts just now, he’d still been killed in a single move.
“Let’s try again.” He stepped forward into the trial once more.
“Just now, you…”
“Eh? You remember me?” Lu Yun paused to see the spirit greet him.
“All of the spirits in this realm are my replica, so of course I remember you.” The spirit rolled his eyes. “The other ones you’ll meet in the trials to come will be me as well. Enough nonsense, let us continue. You’ll need to deploy the strength of Argent Snow to defeat me.”
He shifted forward, his body as if the weapon and raising eddies of snowflakes with his movement, manifesting the Domain of First Snowfall once more.
Lu Yun didn’t spring into motion when he saw the snowflakes. He quietly observed the drifting snow and the ripples they raised. Those ripples weren’t present when either he or Xing Heng used Argent Snow.
If his budding conjecture was correct, the Snowsword Sect didn’t possess the true Argent Show heritage either.
His body shattered the next second, and he once more entered the realm of trial after momentary thought.
“Why aren’t you hitting back?” asked the spirit of Argent Snow. Since he was the manifestation of rules, there were no shifts of emotion from him.
“How do you create the ripples in the snowflakes?” Lu Yun asked.
“You lack the Argent Snow legacy?” the spirit countered instead.
“Yes.” Lu Yun nodded.
“Then you might comprehend it after suffering a few more beatings.” The spirit made his move again and churned Lu Yun to pieces with one hundred and eight snowflakes.
This was Lu Yun’s third return to the stone tablet. Formula dao simulated everything he’d experienced and how the spirit had utilized spirit force when he made his move.
He was so strong that Lu Yun’s formula dao could only capture the barest hint.
“If I can’t capture even the ripples of the first level in the first domain, the others will be much harder,” Lu Yun mused.
“I say, friend, you’ve gone in and out three times. Can you do it or not?” came a mystified voice behind Lu Yun. “If you fail the trials a couple times in a row, you better go back to closed door cultivation or you’ll suffer an extreme blow to your confidence.”
Lu Yun turned back to see a chubby young man regarding him with curiosity.
“Friend, how many levels have you passed?” the young man asked.
“Not even the first level of the first domain,” Lu Yun responded truthfully.
“…ahem!” The young man coughed awkwardly and didn’t know how to respond.
“Thank you for your reminder, senior brother. I shall now continue.” Raising cupped fists to the young man, Lu Yun once more set foot into the trial.
Curiosity flashed through the chubby young man’s eyes. “That is indeed the first level of the first domain… Strange, that guy’s strength is obviously at a higher level, so it shouldn’t be difficult for him to pass this one. So why…”
Lu Yun’s body appeared once more before the chubby young man could finish his thoughts. This time, he only looked curiously at Lu Yun instead of addressing him.
Lu Yun’s eyes were shut tight as he used formula dao to analyze the strength that the spirit of Argent Snow had brought to bear. After eighteen breaths, he set foot into the trial with his eyes still closed.
He reappeared after two more breaths, then entered again. Back and forth and back and forth, he tried a couple hundred times.
The young man’s cheek spasmed.
“Hoi, friend! What are you doing? Are you addicted to beatings?” He grabbed Lu Yun.
“I’m a Star Sect disciple, a few beatings is nothing.” Lu Yun shook his head—his formula dao had finally grasped a wisp of the spirit’s motions. There was the true heritage of Argent Snow inside that wisp. Though it wasn’t complete and wasn’t even a full technique, he would quickly be able to determine more thanks to formula dao.
