But that was just a background issue in his current emotional state. He wasn’t feeling hope right now; he was angry. He was furious at Zhou Li and disappointed with the Sea God Emperor. He wanted nothing more than to tear Headmaster Yao to shreds along with the City Guard marshals who had dared touch his disciples. It was this seething rage that made him summon red ink instead of blue.
It splashed across the page despite his slow movements. He poured his heart and soul into every stroke of the three-dimensional poem. Every character resonated with him, as did the whole. It seared itself into his soul as he wrote.
Disappointment douses the hearts of the needy;
Man is left wanting and ever-yearning.
Kindling the flames of love and caring;
Never questioning his devotion.
Devotion was key. Strong emotions were everything. Whereas before it was love that drove him, now it was a burning desire to avenge his disciples, the Alabaster Group, and this city. Moreover, he wanted to avenge himself. Like before, the characters created their own paper as they solidified into a talisman. And the heavens raged above him as it formed.
Cha Ming looked up and grinned. Then he did something most would consider insane. He stored the talisman in the Clear Sky World. “If this were the real world, I’d be very afraid of you,” he said. “But this isn’t the real world. There is no plane backing you. You’re just an illusion, and you can’t exceed your maker. The plane is unlimited, but you are not.”
The heavens roared, and a lightning dragon smashed down on Elder Ling’s cabin. The cabin, which was littered with protective formations, lasted a surprising length of time against the torrent of lightning. Cha Ming didn’t defend against it; he simply grinned. He was a peak-marrow-refining cultivator, and his skeleton was practically indestructible. Forget his fist strength, his vitality was overwhelming compared to most cultivators, on par with a half-step transcendent. One level higher, and he’d be able to regenerate his body from a single drop of blood. If he was facing the plane, he wouldn’t dare do something so risky. But against a mere formation powered by top-grade spirit stones? Even all its stored energy couldn’t fight against him.
But that wouldn’t stop it from trying. The heavens raged and sent strike after strike against him. The world crumbled around him as the formation sent everything it had. He flicked from world to world, setting to setting, and in each one, he met fiercer and fiercer lightning. Still, there was one thing he didn’t face: the mystical gray lightning at the end of the transcendent tribulation. The formation was incapable of it, so Cha Ming simply bore with the strikes, and eventually, they weakened.
Several hundred strikes later, Cha Ming was standing on a stone platform. His badly scorched body regenerated in an instant. “Do I pass?” Cha Ming asked.
“You do,” the voices said. The golden characters representing talisman artists turned a light shade of violet. Then they turned to gray. “No further trials are available until energy stores have recuperated. You may go.”
A portal appeared, and Cha Ming walked through it. He caught the gray emblem in front of the awestruck elders. It was the same gray as the headmaster emblem. As a transcendent elder, his station matched that of the headmaster and exceeded it in some ways.
“You only hold your position because of a corrupt prime minister,” Cha Ming said. “You’re just a glorified elder pushing your peers around for your selfish motives. Step down peacefully, and I won’t make things difficult for you.”
Yao Lan glared at him as though Cha Ming had killed his mother. “I’m still the headmaster, so your words mean nothing. Besides, everything I did, I did for science.”
“Science is meaningless on its own,” Cha Ming bit back. “It’s only useful when it helps people better their lives. You rejected our faction because we prioritized good over science, and you chased us out. You tried to have us killed so you could monopolize resources. Who’s the true enemy of science then, you or me?
“For what you’ve done, I’m throwing everything right back at you. You’ve called into question Haijing Academy’s neutrality and conspired against the Alabaster Group? Fine. As punishment, I swear now that if the Obsidian Syndicate doesn’t vacate Haijing Academy immediately, I’ll make them. Do any of the elders disagree?”
Headmaster Yao looked back, but they all looked the other way. A couple dozen elders flew down to support the headmaster, who was now coughing up blood and pale as a sheet. “You’ve gone too far,” one of them said.
“Have I?” Cha Ming asked. “Complain to someone who cares.”
They struggled to retort but couldn’t. Cha Ming simply didn’t want to waste time with their perverse reasoning. They tried helping up the collapsed elder, who, to Cha Ming’s surprise, began chuckling. His laughter became increasingly high pitched, and his eyes suddenly filled with lightning. Cha Ming’s eyes narrowed as he saw that Headmaster Yao had undergone a devilish transformation. He’d also activated a consumption ability.
“Good, good, very good,” Headmaster Yao said. “I’ve never been bested at anything in my life. It’s a real eye-opener.” He took out the gray medallion that represented his authority over Haijing Academy. “Since you’ve bested me, there’s no need to keep you around. When you disappear from this plane, I’ll be the true winner.” He poured qi and soul force into the medallion, and Haijing Academy’s formation began to glow. All the energy in Haijing Academy gathered toward Headmaster Yao.
Cha Ming looked at him almost pityingly. With his strong soul and formation arts, he knew the formation inside and out. He poured a wisp of transcendent qi into his grand-elder
