Taking a step forward, Li Mu once again appeared in that vast white world.
The moment he entered, Li Mu's gaze landed on the Fu-lu floating in front of the table. Then, he sighed softly.
This was a Purple Heaven Thunder Talisman. As he expected, from the 44th stone step onwards, he would have to write the Earth-level Fu-lu.
The Purple Heaven Thunder Talisman was the most common representation of the Earth-level Fu-lu.
The Purple Heaven Thunder Technique was a fifth level Abhijna. Li Mu could borrow the "Confrontation" technique to release the Purple Heaven Thunder, but with his own mana, he could not directly use it.
The Fu-lu was nothing more than a sealing of spells. Spells that he could not use naturally could not be made into talismans.
Therefore, at present, he could not draw the Purple Heaven Thunder Talisman.
The young man in front of him, although he looked like he only had Spirit Concentration, he must have hidden his cultivation level.
However, this was also because his skills were not as good as others. There was nothing to complain about. If he could not pass the trial and get the talisman, he could only swallow his pride and see if he could get one from the Fu-lu School.
Li Mu himself did not have much prestige in the Fu-lu School, but the Empress did. Using the tiger's skin to pull the banner was his strength.
Li Mu cast away these distracting thoughts. Even though he knew it was impossible, he still had to try. If he failed, he would be transported to the lowest stone step like most people.
He was about to pick up the talisman pen, but his hand suddenly stopped.
The talisman pen on the table seemed to be different from the ones before.
Before the 43rd step, he had used a normal talisman pen. The body of the pen was made of wood, and there were runes carved on it. This was to ensure that the cultivator's mana would not destroy the talisman pen when he was using the talisman.
At this moment, the talisman pen in his hand seemed to be made of metal but not metal, wood but not wood. Holding it in his hand, it seemed to be weightless. More importantly, after holding the pen, Li Mu had an illusion that the mana in his body seemed to have broken through the bottleneck of the Abhijna and reached the Creation realm.
He looked at the Purple Heaven Thunder Talisman again and saw that the talisman had disappeared. He started to draw again from the beginning. The order of the Purple Heaven Thunder Talisman was gradually imprinted in his mind.
Li Mu stared blankly at the strange phenomenon in front of him. It was only now that he understood what Elder Xu meant. The fourth stage was both a trial by fire, and also good fortune.
With Li Mu's own magic power, he could only reach the 43rd step.
The reason why he couldn't move forward wasn't because of his talent or any other reason, but because his cultivation was limited.
But from the first three trials, the Fu-lu School did not care about the cultivation of the trial-takers. The first and second trials tested the most basic Exorcism Talisman. The third trial tested the Fu-lu. Although it was a new Fu-lu that he had never seen before, the Dharmic powers required to write it did not exceed the Exorcism Talisman.
In the fourth trial, Li Mu wrote the Fu-lu. When he reached the limit of his own Dharmic powers, the rules of the trial seemed to change.
He had never drawn the Purple Heaven Thunder Talisman before and did not know the order of the talisman. He also did not have the Dharmic powers to write the talisman. But in this trial, the Fu-lu School had given him everything he needed.
All he had to do was control his Dharmic powers and write the talisman step by step.
It was probably the same for the cultivators behind him.
The Dao of Fu-lu. Writing the talisman was not difficult, and controlling the Dharmic powers was not difficult. The difficult part was to smoothly write the talisman while ensuring that the Dharmic powers of each talisman were stable. The transition of Dharmic powers between different talismans was a problem of multitasking.
The higher the level of the Fu-lu, the more complex the talisman was. The more Dharmic powers changed, and the higher the probability of failure.
At this time, the use of talent was revealed.
Li Mu did not have much talent, but he had a cheat.
He held the talisman brush and did not immediately start writing the talisman. Instead, he practiced dozens of times in the void and memorized the talisman characters of the Purple Heaven Thunder Talisman. Then, without using the talisman materials, he felt the process of the Dharmic powers changing as he wrote the talisman. He repeated this dozens of times before he looked at the talisman paper on the table.
He lifted the brush and began to write slowly.
At the main peak of Mount Baiyun, in the Dao Palace.
Hyun Jinko closed his eyes. He also held a talisman brush in his hand. His wrist moved slowly in the void, but it did not seem to be of his own accord.
In the Art of Dark Light, Li Mu's body was still covered in a cloud of fog. But if one looked closely at the hand that extended out of the fog, one would realize that his hand and Hyun Jinko's hand moved in the same direction.
After a while, Hyun Jinko opened his eyes and said, "The talisman is complete."
The Fu-lu School recruited disciples not based on cultivation, but on talent. In the fourth stage, when the Fu-lu that the trial-taker wrote exceeded the limits of his Dharmic powers, the peak masters would lend their Dharmic powers and insights to them.
This was also a fortune that the Fu-lu School gave to the trial-takers.
They had worked hard to reach the fourth stage. Even if they could not enter the Fu-lu School in the end, they would still have some insights into the Fu-lu Dao.
Over the millennia, countless people were inspired by this and created new Fu-lu Dao. They established their own sects outside and became the external branches of the Fu-lu School.
For the Ancestral Court, the trial of the Dao of Talisman was not only a selection of disciples, but also a way to pass on the Dao.
The Ancestral Court of the Fu-lu School was established. Apart from strengthening the sect, it also had the heavy responsibility of spreading the Dao of Talisman.
The peak master of the Jade Emperor Peak, Zhengyang Zi, looked at the scene in the Dark Light Technique and said, "Even if he borrowed your Dharmic powers and insights, it is still incredible that he could draw the Purple Sky Thunder Talisman on his first try …"
Hyun Jinko's eyes were filled with anticipation. He said, "I wonder what his final step will be …"
In the white world, Li Mu slowly put away his brush. The Fu-lu on the table was complete.
The scenery in front of him changed again, and he returned to the 44th stone step.
The fourth stage of the trial was different from what he had imagined. He did not need to worry about his Dharmic powers, nor did he need to worry about the order of the talismans. The only thing he needed to do was to maintain an extreme calmness in his heart and write the talismans step by step.
In theory, as long as there was no limit to the amount of Dharmic powers he could use, he could walk as many steps as there were on the stone steps.
Li Mu raised his head and took a look. The young man from before had already disappeared beyond the 50th step. However, he was not worried and slowly walked up to the 45th step.
In the square in front of the main peak, everyone's gaze was on the two figures left on the stone steps.
Apart from these two people, all the other trial challengers had already completed the final trial. The strongest among them had only passed the fifteenth step.
The first person to pass the first three stages, the figure shrouded in fog in the scene, had already reached the 45th step.
As for the young man who came later, he was already beyond the 50th step.
Not to mention the ordinary disciples, even the elders of the sect were witnessing such a scene for the first time.
Once again in this strange world, Li Mu's mood was completely relaxed as he faced the sword talisman.
Elder Xu was right. The fourth stage of the trial was indeed an opportunity.
Shi Mu didn't have the ability to draw these magic charms by himself. However, he was bound to gain a lot of insights after this experience. So, he could draw these magic charms after his cultivation had advanced. Then, it would be easy for him to do so.
Purple Cloud Thunder Talisman, Sword Talisman, Soul Lock Talisman, Frost Talisman, Fire Dragon Talisman … Li Mu walked up the higher steps step by step. When he looked ahead, the young man's figure could already be seen.
A few steps in front of him, the young man looked back. His usually calm face finally showed some seriousness.
In the palace of the main peak, several heads and the headmaster of the Fu-lu School had been silent for a long time.
Not long after, Hyun Jinko opened his eyes and said, "A few more steps and it will be the Heaven-level Fu-lu."
To draw an Earth-level Fu-lu, one had to be at least in the Creation Realm.
The Creation Realm referred to the elders of the Fu-lu School, people who had spent their lives studying the Fu-lu Dao. Non-cultivators of the Fu-lu School, even if they were in Dongxuan, might not be able to draw an Earth-level Fu-lu.
As for the Heaven-level Fu-lu, only the heads of the Fu-lu School and above could maintain a high success rate. Because the materials for talismans were precious and rare, the entire Fu-lu School could only produce a few in a year.
At this moment, the young man in the first place took another step forward and reached the Heaven-level Fu-lu. Before this, no one had ever reached this step.
Zhengyang Zi looked at the headmaster of the Fu-lu School and said, "Senior Brother, the Heaven-level materials are precious. Should we stop this person?"
The headmaster of the Fu-lu School shook his head and said, "If the news of stopping the trial spread, the Fu-lu School would become a joke in the cultivation world."
As soon as he finished speaking, the young man had already stepped onto the next step.
This time, he stayed there for almost an hour before he finally opened his eyes.
His body was still in place, indicating that he had drawn a Fu-lu of this step.
At the same time, Li Mu had also reached the next step.
At this step, the Fu-lu he had drawn had already reached the high grade of the Earth-level. One more step and it would be the Heaven-level Fu-lu.
The young man in front of him had already drawn a Heaven-level Fu-lu. If he did not have the same secret as Li Mu, then he must have hidden his cultivation level. His true cultivation level should be above that of Dongxuan.
The cliff of the first stage of the trial could test one's bone age and filter out the majority of people who wanted to fish in troubled waters. However, it could not do anything to true experts.
This person might have come to cause trouble for the Fu-lu School. For the time being, Li Mu did not know how much courage this person had. He only knew that if he wanted to obtain that one and only talisman, he would have to walk in front of this person.
Without hesitation, he lifted his foot and stepped onto the next step.
In the strange space, Li Mu's body appeared once again.
In the air in front of the table, golden light formed a Fu-lu. This Fu-lu was formed from countless complex runes. Even if an ordinary person only glanced at it, they would feel their head swell.
It was no wonder that Heaven-level Fu-lu was so difficult to form into a talisman. Even Dongxuan and Transcendence could not guarantee the success rate. These runes were too complex. It was very difficult to guarantee that there would be no mistakes. Even the slightest mistake would cause all the previous efforts to be wasted. The precious materials and the extremely low success rate caused the Fu-lu School to only produce a few in a year.
It was no wonder that when Yuzhen Zi extorted that head, his expression was so pained. For a peak head, this level of Fu-lu was no different from cutting off his flesh.
This time, Li Mu was not in a hurry to draw a talisman. Instead, he looked around and sized up this strange world.
As far as his eyes could see, everything was white.
At first, Li Mu thought that this was some kind of illusion. Later on, he gradually realized that this should be a Flask Heaven Space.
The table in front of him was real. The talisman brush, talisman paper, talisman materials were all real. The Fu-lu that was drawn was also real. The Fu-lu School had really invested a lot in this trial. The materials needed to make a Heaven-level Fu-lu Talisman Liquid were all wasted. It was a great loss.
The young man in front of Li Mu had clearly succeeded. If Li Mu wanted to be in the same position as him, he would have to draw this Heaven-level Fu-lu.
Li Mu slowly let out a sigh of relief. He chanted the Heart Calming Mantra again and began to study this Fu-lu composed of complex talisman characters.
Two hours later, on the fifty-fifth stone step, Li Mu slowly opened his eyes.
Next to him, the young man did not move forward. Instead, he looked at Li Mu with deep shock in his turbid eyes.
With his half-step Transcendence cultivation, he still needed to use all his strength and a certain amount of luck to be able to draw a low-grade Heaven-level Fu-lu.
How could he not see that this person's true strength was only in his divine arts?
Even if he didn't use his magic power or comprehension to draw a talisman, this Fu-lu was truly drawn by him.
A strange light flashed in the young man's eyes. At this moment, the person in front of him gave him the feeling of a three-year-old child holding a two-foot-long spear and performing a set of spear techniques that even he felt inferior to.
He glanced at Li Mu and walked up the next step.
Li Mu observed his back and found that this person's body was between illusory and real. It seemed that his guess was right. What was left behind on the stone steps was only a shadow. His body had entered another space.
The fourth trial seemed to be on this mountain peak, but it was actually in the Flask Heaven Space created by the Upper Realm powerhouses of the Fu-lu School.
Li Mu meditated on the spot. Not long after, the young man's figure on the stone steps in front of him suddenly solidified.
In the next moment, his body was teleported out.
Obviously, he'd failed in this grade of talisman.
The young man appeared below with a gloomy face. He looked up at the remaining figure on the stone steps.
There was no one in front of him. Li Mu sighed in relief and slowly stood up.
If this person advanced another step, the pressure would be great.
If he failed on this step, Li Mu would have to successfully draw the Fu-lu of the next stone step and successfully obtain the talisman.
At this time, in the main peak's palace, several heads finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"That person has finally failed."
"How can it be so easy? Even if the Head Teacher personally makes a move, I'm afraid he can't guarantee it."
"Li Mu has been at ease all this time. The next Fu-lu should not be difficult for him."
Hyun Jinko was about to pick up the brush when the Fu-lu School's Head Teacher suddenly walked to his side and said, "Let me do it."
Hyun Jinko smiled and said, "Senior Brother, don't worry. I can still help him with the spiritual power and comprehension of the Fu-lu School."
The Fu-lu School's Head Teacher looked at him and smiled without saying anything.
Hyun Jinko was stunned and said in disbelief, "Senior Brother, are you thinking of …"
…
Li Mu stood on the 55th step, guessing in his heart. According to his experience, on the next step he would need to draw a low-grade Heaven-step Fu-lu or even a medium-grade Heaven-step.
However, judging from how quickly that young man was eliminated, the latter was more likely.
He wasn't worried about this. So long as the talisman brush was able to provide him with sufficient Dharmic Energy, then it wouldn't be a problem even if it was a mid-grade heaven-rank talisman brush.
With that thought in mind, he slowly took a step forward.
It was still a familiar space. Li Mu looked at the empty space in front of the table. Amidst the golden light, Li Mu felt a wave of dizziness and took a few steps back.
He looked at the extremely complicated rune in front of him and stood there in shock.
He thought that a low-grade Heaven-ranked Fu-lu was already complicated enough, but he didn't expect that he was too naive.
At this moment, Li Mu felt like he had just learned about multipliers and was asked to solve advanced mathematics problems using integral and differential theory.
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