Chapter 83
This piqued Xu Jintang's interest, and she sat up slightly. "Tell me about it."
"Hmph, don't try to trick me into revealing anything now. The Tilting Scales cannot be summoned until you reach Fifth Tier."
Xu Jintang frowned. "Fifth Tier?"
"Anyway, you should focus on your cultivation. Once you reach the Fifth Tier, I'll naturally come out." With a cold snort, the child's voice disappeared again.
Xu Jintang stroked his chin and muttered softly, "So my special ability is called the Tilting Scales."
After the child's voice disappeared, the Green-Membrane Archaeopteryx dared to speak, "That child just now... was he the one who forced me to become your contracted beast?"
"I think so," Xu Jintang replied.
The Ice Soul Dragon within my spiritual sea of consciousness suddenly spoke up, "His energy is very strong, even comparable to my peak."
Xu Jintang fell into deep thought.
Brother Long was Tenth Tier divine beast at his peak, yet that kid is so strong.
After thinking for a while, Xu Jintang got up and went into the cultivation room, sat cross-legged, and calmed his mind to slowly enter a state of cultivation.
The next morning, Xu Jintang woke up on time.
After I got up, the official delivery drone from Have You Earned Money? at my door.
Xu Jintang went to the window, opened it, and took the goods from the drone.
She unpacked the package and took out the upgraded disguise mask inside, which she had found at a high price on a second-hand website.
The upgraded disguise mask is so effective that it can fool ability users below the Peak Eighth Tier. It is extremely rare and can hardly be bought in stores or on the official website. It can only be purchased at a premium in the second-hand market.
That's why it only arrived today.
After verifying that the disguise mask was in good condition, Xu Jintang put it on, switched his voice and appearance, locked the door, jumped out of the window into the yard, and then silently left the house.
When I arrived at the Inscription Master Competition venue, it was still early.
Many contestants were resting and chatting in the waiting area.
As the champion of the previous competition, Jiang Xiangyang's reputation still extends far and wide, and many people are chatting with him around him.
Xu Jintang silently walked to a corner and sat down.
The moment her bottom touched the seat, many people heard the noise and looked over. Then, the contestants closest to her immediately surrounded her enthusiastically.
"This must be Miss Qian, right? I heard how amazing you were during the preliminaries."
"I heard you're from the Federation Inscriptionist Association? I've never seen you there before."
At this moment, Jiang Xiangyang also turned his head and looked over here.
Upon seeing Xu Jintang, he smiled and stood up, taking the initiative to greet her, "Miss Qian, how have you been?"
Xu Jintang had no choice but to stand up and return the greeting, "Yes, we meet again."
At this moment, a staff member from the competition walked in. "Dear contestants, the rules for today's elimination rounds will be announced and announced shortly by Sun Yuantian president of the Federation Inscriptionist Association. Please wait a moment."
"Miss Qian." A familiar voice sounded from behind.
Xu Jintang turned around and, sure enough, saw Xue Zhongqi wearing a ghost mask.
This kid has two different attitudes, one in front of others and one behind their back.
He acts all refined and cultured in public, but behind closed doors with the experimental class, he's all smiles and jokes, never serious at all.
Xu Jintang replied, "Hmm. But why is President Sun hosting the competition today?"
Xue Zhongqi stopped beside her and explained politely, "Our Inscription Master competition isn't that competitive, so the subsequent elimination rounds will be conducted by setting exam questions. The main competition will be about who can answer the questions better."
"Only the presidents of various associations are qualified to set exam questions for this kind of competition. Today, it's probably President Sun's turn to be the question setter."
As soon as he finished speaking, Sun Yuantian walked into the scene accompanied by two staff members.
The noise at the scene immediately disappeared.
Sun Yuantian smiled gently, his gaze sweeping across the entire room. "Hello everyone, I am Sun Yuantian, the president of the Federation Inscriptionist Association. Today, I will be the one setting the questions for the elimination rounds and overseeing all matters."
Xu Jintang looked up.
That's really true.
After the preliminary rounds, only thirty-two players remained on the Inscription Master side.
Under the guidance of the staff, the contestants quickly took their seats.
Each person has a long table with all the materials for crafting inscriptions and a box containing discarded inscriptions on it.
Xu Jintang opened the box and glanced at it. Inside were discarded inscriptions that had been stored for too long, causing the energy inside the inscriptions to leak out and thus rendering them unusable.
"You should all have seen the discarded inscriptions on the table. These ten discarded inscriptions are the test for this elimination round. You have two hours to do your best to repair these discarded inscriptions. The final score will be related to the number of inscriptions repaired and the quality of the repaired inscriptions. The higher the score, the higher the ranking. At the end of this round of elimination, only the top sixteen will advance. Please keep up the good work."
Sun Yuantian smiled slightly, his gaze sweeping across the entire arena. "The match begins."
As soon as he finished speaking, the proctoring system beside him beeped and started timing.
All the inscription masters in the arena lowered their heads solemnly and began to concentrate on repairing the inscriptions.
Xu Jintang was completely stunned after hearing this.
There's even something like repairing runes in a competition?
She has absolutely no experience with this.
The other competitors around them quickly got into the zone, clearly indicating they had practiced beforehand.
Xu Jintang's gaze fell on the discarded inscriptions on the table.
It's not a big problem.
She learned how to create inscriptions very quickly, so she'll probably be able to repair them just as easily.
Xu Jintang cleared his throat, lowered his head, took out the Yellow Sand Fire Cloud Brush, and began to try to condense threads of spiritual energy.
Because inscription masters rely on their own abilities to inscribe, it is difficult for cheating to occur, and the staff did not set up any special barriers during the competition.
Xu Jintang could catch a glimpse of the contestants' movements at the next table with just a turn of his head.
The player at the next table first condensed threads of mental energy, then slowly injected them into the discarded inscription. As the threads of mental energy were injected into the formation, the discarded inscription gradually began to glow faintly.
It appears to be slowly restoring its energy.
Xu Jintang suddenly realized.
It turns out that it's not much different from making inscriptions; it's just a matter of redrawing and engraving the abandoned array.
After understanding the repair techniques, Xu Jintang lowered his head and began to try it out.
When the first thread of spiritual energy was embedded into the abandoned formation, the discarded Inscription Talisman in his hand indeed began to glow.
But less than two seconds later, the Inscription Talisman in his hand suddenly exploded and was completely destroyed.
It was previously scrapped because the Inscription Talisman had lost its energy, but it can still be repaired.
But this time, the damage was caused by an explosion.
At the same time, the proctoring system emitted a "beep" sound and popped up a notification:
[Number of inscriptions repaired but failed: 1]
Xu Jintang was stunned.
Failed?
She clearly did exactly what the player at the next table did, so why did it suddenly explode?
The commotion caught Sun Yuantian's attention. He put his hands behind his back, stepped over, and was stunned to see that it was Qian Duoduo who had failed to repair it.
He quickly realized what was happening.
Miss Qian had never received any systematic training courses from the association before, and it's very likely she hadn't learned how to repair abandoned inscriptions.
Chapter 83
Xu Jintang stared at the completely ruined inscription on the table, lost in thought.
The reason why an array explodes is basically only one: the spiritual energy injected exceeds the array's maximum capacity.
Xu Jintang quickly understood.
She pursed her lips and took out a new discarded inscription. This time, she didn't rush to inject threads of spiritual energy into it, but instead examined the original formation of the inscription for a moment.
After clarifying the details of the array pattern, Xu Jintang was able to re-condense the threads of spiritual energy.
Every inscription master has their own habits, so the size and thickness of the spiritual energy threads they condense will also vary.
The explosion that just occurred was because the spiritual energy she injected was incompatible with the original formation.
Xu Jintang took a deep breath and began a new attempt.
Sun Yuantian was not far away, watched the situation silently. Seeing that Xu Jintang did not give up after one failure, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Time passed slowly, and the atmosphere in the examination room was exceptionally quiet.
An explosion rang out every now and then, signaling that another player had failed to repair their runes.
Xu Jintang spent even longer on his second attempt to repair the inscription.
But this time, halfway through the process, the inscription still did not explode.
Xu Jintang slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, focusing his mind on the discarded inscription in his hand, continuing to concentrate on the repair.
Half an hour later, the discarded Inscription Talisman in his hand regained its luster.
Xu Jintang's eyes lit up; he had succeeded.
At the same time, the proctoring system next to it popped up a notification: [Successfully repaired 1 abandoned inscription]
Xu Jintang breathed a sigh of relief and quickly continued trying to repair the second one.
Once you've had a successful experience, things become much easier afterwards.
The repair time for the second discarded inscription was reduced by half, and it was successfully completed in just 15 minutes.
Xu Jintang became more and more skilled, repairing one item after another.
After surveying the area, Sun Yuantian glanced at the remaining time in the match; there were still ten minutes left.
Jiang Xiangyang has been performing most consistently, has now completed the restoration of the tenth inscription.
He smiled as he stood up and clasped his hands in greeting to Sun Yuantian.
Sun Yuantian returned the smile and gestured for him to enter.
Before leaving the stage, Jiang Xiangyang glanced back at Xu Jintang's position. Seeing that she was still repairing the tenth inscription, he silently withdrew his gaze, turned around, and walked out of the competition venue.
More and more Inscription Master players completed all the repairs and got up to leave.
Only a few contestants remained on site, rushing to finish their work in the last few minutes.