Third Trial

"Phew, that was a close call."

Shen Zhen landed on the other side of the door, after escaping the attack of that pale-skinned cultivator and right into a hallway paved entirely in dull golden rocks.

He had no idea what his strength stands relative to a cultivator at the peak of the Golden Core Realm. But if it came to combat, he was not sure to be able to hold on for long because strong or not, he had no combat experience. After all, his fight against Flayers was his first experience in antipersonnel combat and that too he only won thanks to his overwhelming strength.

"But, at least, I am finally here."

In front of him was a hallway made out of dull Golden stone which glowed softly, covering the entire path in a soft glow. There was no other source of light besides the glow of the walls and the ceiling, but those were enough for a Cultivator's sharp eyes. Sheng Zhen could clearly see in the hallway.

Sheng Zhen inspected the golden rocks, knocking at them a few times to inspect them closely.

"Unrefined Sandstone Essence", he quickly identified the stone.

'This was not in the Celestial Architects Journal, but it makes sense. Even a Nascent Soul cultivator will find it impossible to break through these rocks, much less Golden Cores", Yun Cang would not want anyone to reach his legacy by cheating. Yun Cang made sure that no one else knew about the actual trial, other than himself, not even the Celestial Architect who designed the whole space. And Sheng Zhen had no idea what was the actual content of the trial was, as the Celestial Architect whose journal he referred had no idea either.

He looked forward and started to walk. The corridor was not long, just a mile or so, basically, a few steps for a cultivator, before it ended with another silver door with identical Turtle or more accurately, a Xuanwu's head.

But what astonished him was what was written on it.

"Third Trial, what, why Third. Where are first and second?"

"Because you already cleared those",

A high-pitched, almost childlike voice spoke and Sheng Zhen immediately jumped back at the sudden voice. He had not detected anyone around but looking down, he saw the defaulter.

"You!", Sheng Zhen looked at Xuanwu's head which just spoke now.

"Yes me", the bust cheekily retorted, "You should be happy, you know. I have been here for Thirty Thousand years but you are the first one to gain the privilege to enter directly in front of the Third Trial."

"Why?"

"Humm...maybe because the pill you fed me was very tasty", the bust liked his mouth almost like a human."

Sheng Zhen narrowed his eyes, "Don't lie, I know everyone had to offer a Flawless Grade pill just to enter."

"True True,..but no one fed me a Flawless pill they themselves made", Xuanwu looked him straight in the eye, "All just give me pills someone else made."

'Well, it is not like anyone can make Flawless pill whenever they want, other than him that is', Sheng Zhen absently mused.

"So here you are my very very young Friend, at the Third stage of Trial."

The Silver Door opened, and the Xuanwu motioned Sheng Zhen to enter.

The Room in which Sheng Zhen entered, was small, and bare of anything except a bookshelf filled with old bound tomes in the middle.

"The Third Trial is simple", Sheng Zhen turned to see a silver Xuanwu the size of a dog, casually floating beside him. Seeing it, he was puzzled. At first, he assumed that Xuanwu was some Celestial Machine, similar to Advanced Robots with AI from his previous life. It was not uncommon for Celestial Architects to make something like that. But the more he sees it, the more he thinks that is not the case. 'But the what is it,...or perhaps it is a he.'

Xuanwu continued, oblivious to Sheng Zhen's musing, "You see the bookshelf, yes, it is filled with tomes containing Pill recipes. Every single book contains a single but detailed Pill recipe."

"All Pill recipe is complete, except a single one. And your task is to find that incomplete Pill Recipe. Find it and you move forward, choose wrong and you lose". Saying his piece, Xuanwu turned towards the door and somehow merged back into it.

Sheng Zhen walked towards the bookshelf and looked at the Alchemy recipes in front of him. To any other Alchemist, being able to get hands o this many recipes would be heaven, but for Sheng Zhen, who had Skyword, this was nothing.

Finding the incomplete recipe is a classic Alchemy test a Master gave to his student. Differentiating an incomplete or wrong pill recipe from a right one is not easy, and requires a thorough understanding of Alchemic laws and ingredient properties.

But with hundreds of pill recipes, it would take a lot of time to go through each and everyone, time that he didn't have. The Yin Sea sect had already entered much earlier than him, and they could reach the inheritance sooner than him if he did not hurry up.

Sheng Zhen stopped and thought for a moment.

'Skyword had the ability to tell truth from false, doesn't it. Perhaps that could work."

He released his Spiritual Energy and lifted each and every Tome in the air. The front pages of the tomes opened and he inked a new line into each tome.

'The Alchemic formula in this tome is complete.'

Smiling, Sheng Zhen summoned the Skyword, "Each and every tome here, I want it."

The Skyword split into hundreds of tomes and the copies of tomes flew in front of their original. With a single mental command, each copy opened, showing the front page he just wrote on.

"Show me the truth and punish the lies"

And just like that, every mistake, ever misinterpretation in the tome began glowing in the red. But Sheng Zhen's attention was on the phase he wrote.

'The Alchemic formula in this tome is complete.'

Fo every tome that had complete Alchemic formula, it should be true except the one Tome which had incomplete Alchemic Formula.

And sure enough, a copy floated in the middle, and the phrase on it glowing in red.

"Found Ya."