I turned my attention back to the wall. I could swear I've seen this line art before. I virulent figure it out on the first panel so I walked a little deeper. On the fifth panel, I finally recognized a word. You heard correctly, a word. This wasn't art at all, it was text. Well, to be more precise it was both.
This was one of the many languages I had learned from my tutors. However, it was obscure, and the tutors had little information to supply on it. My understanding was probably elementary school level.
Now that I recognized the language, I could find and recognize more of the words on the wall panels. I used my linguistic expertise and the text in front of me to start filling in the missing pieces of my understanding.
It didn't take long for me to understand that the majority of the text was useless. It was the story of a village boy who slew a monster and became king. A fairly generic story. To my delight, hidden inside the story was a scripture of the sword art the boy fictional boy used to slay the monster.
I was able to figure this out after deciphering four panels. It was now worth my time to decipher the remaining panels. I wasn't terribly worried about chasing treasures. The treasures were all fake, they'd only help my point tally. This scripture seemed to be the real deal, it would help my strength. I doubted it would be so easy to acquire such a technique in the future. Either the architect of this trial didn't expect anyone to understand this dialect and thought it would be funny to hide something so valuable in plain sight or they had left it deliberately as a hidden prize.
The next two hours crawled away slowly as I brought empty journals, lanterns, scrap paper, ink, quills, a dust brush, a ladder, and even a desk out of my storage ring. Soon the hall looked like an active archeological excavation. I studied every inch of the panels as I carefully inched my way forward along the hall. I was pretty sure if I walked too deep, I'd trigger the trial. I'd decipher the meaning of the words by reading them in context in the uninspired story. Then I'd fill the newly interpreted words in on my copy of the scripture. Slowly the scripture became more and more complete.
The technique I was interpreting was a sword art. Its name was Ancient Dancing Sword Art. I was now positive this was an Easter egg left by the architect of this trial. I didn't know if I would get points for deciphering and learning this art, but it was far more valuable to me than whatever trinket lay at the end of this trial.
Just as I was starting to get a migraine from the mental labor, I filled in the last piece and held a complete copy of The Dancing Sword Art in my hands. Even with an open Sea of Soul, Zoey was not the studious sort. I lamented that this brain was so easily fatigued by scholarly endeavors.
I gave myself a five-minute mental break while I cycled qi through my meridians, especially those connected with my sea of soul, to help cool the raging migraine. The qi helped remove the spots that had gathered in my vision and dull the high-pitched hum. The pain was still present, but I decided to press forward and learn the technique.
The technique was just as described. It was a series of sword techniques that flowed together smoothly like a dance. As I read, and, more importantly, understood the text on the walls began to light, the ground began to quake and my lanterns were blown out by a strong breeze. Motes of glowing qi flew out of the words on the wall and formed a hologram of a boy in front of me—the boy-king from the story I surmised.
The boy-king began to dance about, slashing rhythmically. It was hypnotizing. After one complete rotation of movements, I copied the image's movements. I was never one for dancing in my past life and I hadn't really gotten the opportunity in this life. The experience was amazing, it was like being transported to another world where only the rhythm mattered. I thought I even heard a melody.
It took three more rounds of movements before I had corrected my errors and achieved initial success in the technique. Once I had, the motes of qi in the hologram and text flew into me and I felt as if I had an even deeper understanding of the technique. The feeling soon passed and my surroundings were plunged into darkness in the absence of the glowing qi. I resummoned my frostfire orbs.
I checked my system to see the changes. It turned out the Ancient Dancing Sword Art was a skill and a technique just like my Frostfire Sutra. My skill level was already level four and the technique was at great accomplishment. That must've been the work of the qi motes. Even my talent couldn't give me such great accomplishments in such a short time.
Ancient Dancing Sword Art (Divine-Spirit Grade) [Great Accomplishment]: The technique exclusive to the elites of the Dancing Sword Sect. Rumor has it that this technique was designed by a young farmhand with a love for dance who conquered a mighty beast and was appointed ruler of the land. The technique features elegant, rhythmic slashes. The rhythm is misleading and will lead opponents into feints. This technique relies on using qi as internal force and is costless, except when emitting sword lights.
Dancing Sword Slash: +200٪ Sword Qi Dmg, +200٪ chance to inflict Confusion
Cost: 0 qi/min
Dancing Sword Light: +2000٪ Sword Qi Dmg, +200٪ chance to inflict confusion
Cost: 1 qi
What?! That story was real? It was so cliché. It felt great to have a powerful new technique, but now I felt dirty as if I had learned the technique out of tabloids.
I gathered my things, just in case I wouldn't be able to return, and turned to look at the subject I had been avoiding.
Just beyond the last panel with writing on it, a humanoid figure lurked in the dark. It freaked me out when I first saw it, but after I illuminated the entire passage, I could see that it looked like a large marionette without strings. It was most likely the trial here.
I walked to the edge of the last panel and assumed the basic stance of the Dancing Sword Art. I assumed the trial would likely be easier to clear with the art. I stepped forward and the marionette sprung to life. It rose like it was on strings though I couldn't see any. Then it aggressively attacked me with a very bold sword style. Sure enough, the graceful movements of the Dancing Sword Art were the perfect counter.
The puppet charged forward and slashed straight at my jugular. I easily danced to the side, opposite the automaton's momentum. I flourished my sword and sent a sword light at the puppet's neck. Unable to block, the light connected and left a deep gouge.
This would've felled a man, but I was fighting a synthetic entity, so the fight continued. I continued dancing away from attacks and returning my own attacks when the marionette's guard was down, targeting the neck whenever I could. With one last slash, the puppet was beheaded and the entire body seemed to disintegrate, probably returned to the sect for repairs.
In the place of the puppet was a golden wheel with a chain to hang it on. I was suddenly reminded of flag football and had a foreboding feeling about the intent of the examiners. I tried to store it away inside my ring and nothing happened. Yup, the examiners were encouraging us to fight each other over these useless trinkets.
The intent was clearly to attach these auster baubles to our sash or belt to attract the greedy gaze of our fellows, but they never said that was what we had to do. I decided to tuck the trinket in an inside pocket of my robe instead.
It was then that I realized I still had my upper robe tied about my waist. The temperature here was almost freezing and I was totally unbothered by it. My cultivation of yin qi must be improving my resistance to cold. The boys and Rachel probably thought I was a freak, especially with my frostfire bringing the ambient temperature well below freezing. Rosie had been hiding in my pendant ever since Zach smothered her with attention or she'd probably be complaining too.
I walked beyond where I fought the puppet and found what could only be described as a control panel on a pedestal. There was a dial that seemed to be pointing at 1%. I turned it to point at 100%, and simultaneously the wall sconces brightened along with channels in the floor. They weren't depleted after all, they were just in power-saving mode.
After I turned it to 100% a feminine robotic voice sounded through what I presumed to be the entire inheritance. "Lock one disengaged. Congratulations, Zoey Seeker, for being the first to complete a trial. Seven outer locks remaining."
Apparently, I didn't take too long to study the sword art if I was still the first. The trials must be hard. I thought about the marionette. Without the new sword art, my existing techniques would've struggled to defeat it. The battle would've taken much longer and the outcome would've been decided by brute force instead of finesse. And I was a freakish outlier. It was likely all of the trials were lengthy. They may or may not offer a solution like mine, but if they did, then the solution would take time to consume.
These outer trials also forced us to divide and conquer. If anyone wanted to eliminate the other participants and monopolize the trials, they would consume too much time and lose out on the more valuable rewards deeper in the inheritance. I almost wished this were a real inheritance, I really liked this layout.
I returned to the intersection to wait for the boys. It hadn't been four hours yet plus the ominous orange glow was no longer present down their path so something had changed. At the very least they weren't eliminated when I heard the scream. Opposite my own hall, the lights were bright, but the path I came from originally, which was opposite the trial the boys took, it was still dark.
If the layout was as I suspected, then the path we were on formed a ginormous square. At the corners of the square, the paths extended a little to the trials. Each completed trial would light half of a side of the square. The next trial would likely be where the halves meet. The only question was whether the next trial would unlock once the other half was complete, or if it would take all eight outer trials to be completed first.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of trials being completed one by one. No names were named after mine. Apparently, that was an honor only for the first person. It could also be considered a curse.
Finally, the fifth trial was completed and the hall intersecting mine lit up. I waited for the boys to emerge, but no one came out.