"Regardless of whether they are from the Inner, Middle, or Outer Courts, the first disciple to completely engrave the Small Gathering Star Pattern will receive a bottle of Mental Awakening Pills and three low-grade Star Refilling Pills. The second and third places will receive six and three Mental Awakening Pills respectively, and two and one Star Refilling Pills," Ning Yuchan said slowly.
Upon hearing these rewards, the other youngsters were just listening to the excitement, but several well-born youths, such as Yue Daqi, Lu Xianbing, Zhou Du, Qiao Ruonan, Luo Geng, and others, had their eyes suddenly sparkle with intense brightness.
The reward for the Small Gathering Star Pattern wasn't too bad to mention; after all, Mental Awakening Pills were just commonly made from ordinary medicinal herbs, while the Star Refilling Pills were indeed true Star Pills, containing inherent Star Power.
But one could indeed buy them for twenty taels of silver.
The key was the Mental-locking Golden Pill.
Mental-locking Golden Pills were priceless; officially priced at a thousand taels of gold each, you just couldn't buy them even if you tried.
The reason lay in the effects of the Mental-locking Golden Pill.
The Mental-locking Golden Pill was an extremely rare pill that could strengthen and enhance the power of the Divine Soul. Furthermore, it was said that those who consumed Mental-locking Golden Pills had a ten percent higher chance of successful Star Casting compared to others.
As Ning Yuchan laid out the details of the Star Refilling Pills and Mental-locking Golden Pills before the many youngsters, they immediately boiled over in excitement.
Even the three who had been examining the contents of the Jade stopped.
"Instructor, I feel that though the rewards set by the Taoist Institute are quite substantial, they are out of our league. I reckon these rewards will ultimately be claimed by the three senior brothers of the Inner Court," Sha Youtian bravely said.
As soon as these words came out, the recently excited youngsters were immediately doused with cold water.
Yes, as good as the rewards were, they were out of their reach.
Ning Yuchan, however, shook her head, "Then what do you think the purpose of the Taoist Institute setting these rewards is? If that were the case, wouldn't it be easier to just give them directly to Yue Daqi and his two companions?"
After speaking, Ning Yuchan added, "Have you forgotten what Xu Jin said to Lu Xianbing the day before yesterday?
'If the number of days for Star Pointing truly represented everything, then what's the point of cultivation?'"
Hearing Ning Yuchan bring this up again, Xu Jin and Lu Xianbing felt somewhat embarrassed.
"The number of days for Star Pointing is nothing but the most fair method passed down over thousands of years for testing a cultivator's talent in cultivation. But who can engrave the Small and Great Gathering Star Patterns in the shortest time will largely depend on individual perception, the strength of the Divine Soul, and reasonable allocation of cultivation time.
Engraving Star Patterns consumes both Divine Soul Power and Star Power, but the process of engraving can also, to a certain extent, temper and strengthen the Divine Soul Power. Once a Star Pattern is successfully engraved, the upper limit of your body's Star Power and the speed at which you draw Star Power will increase exponentially, which in turn will boost the progress of your Body Refining.
How you balance it out and arrange your cultivation time is up to you," Ning Yuchan said.
Subsequently, the young ones present asked many questions, and Ning Yuchan answered each one carefully, which Xu Jin listened to attentively.
Many of the questions were ones Xu Jin wanted to ask himself.
At the same time, Ning Yuchan gave a relatively sensible suggestion.
That was to make simultaneous progress in both Body Refining and Star Pattern engraving.
Focusing solely on one aspect was not conducive to cultivation.
And it was even worse to engrave Star Patterns wholeheartedly just for the sake of rewards.
Haste makes waste.
Engraving Star Patterns, superficially just about engraving patterns, actually tested a cultivator's subtle control over Star Power, including the sustained linear output of Star Power, among other aspects.
Xu Jin was a disciple of the Middle Court and, though he was one of the last ranked, it took less than 15 minutes for his turn to read the content of the Great Gathering Star Pattern from the Jade.
Only those parts of the body tempered by Star Power could output Star Power.
Xu Jin placed the Jade below his throat, and a faint trace of Star Power quickly presented a simple Star Pattern in his mind.
It was identical to the Star Pattern on Xu Jin's chest.
It was the simplified Gathering Star Pattern.
In the next instant, like encountering spring, this simplified Gathering Star Pattern began to grow and flourish.
From the simple pattern, twelve branches sprouted, with the tips still growing.
Eventually, a semi-circular lotus-shaped Star Pattern formed and came to a stop.
Xu Jin understood that this must be the Small Gathering Star Pattern.
After a pause of five breaths, the Small Gathering Star Pattern started to grow and change again. Branches and tips proliferated once more until it became a fully enclosed, hollow spherical lotus shape, slowly rotating.
It was truly magnificent!
This was the Great Gathering Star Pattern.
After a full demonstration, Xu Jin suddenly realized that the simplified Gathering Star Pattern, the Small Gathering Star Pattern, and the Great Gathering Star Pattern were actually three different stages of the Gathering Star Pattern.
Immediately, Xu Jin devised his own strategy.
At the current stage, focusing on the Great Gathering Star Pattern was pointless.
As Ning Yuchan said, reading the Jade was limited to 100 breaths a day, as overdoing it could easily harm the Divine Soul.
With limited reading time, he needed to maximize efficiency.
By remembering and observing only the changes from the simplified Gathering Star Pattern to the Small Gathering Star Pattern, theoretically, he could double his efficiency.
Then, when the content of the Jade began to transition from the Small Gathering Star Pattern to the Great Gathering Star Pattern, Xu Jin detached the Jade from his skin, disrupting the flow of Star Power, and then reattached it, injecting Star Power, and a new cycle of Star Pattern transformation began.
It was still the transformation from the simplified Gathering Star Pattern to the Small Gathering Star Pattern.
"Eh, look at Xu Jin, why does he keep interrupting his reading? Is there a problem with his reading process?" Liu Ji, who had been keeping an eye on Xu Jin, suddenly nudged the youth beside him.
Suddenly, many youngsters, including Luo Geng, also noticed Xu Jin's unusual behavior.
But none of them said anything and quietly watched.
Xu Jin, on the day of the Star-pointing Season examination, stole all the spotlight and made a leap into the Middle Court, leaving many youths somewhat unsettled.
Zhou Du of the Middle Court also took notice, especially the performance of a group of youngsters from the Outer Court, which drew his attention even more.
Zhou Du felt it best if Xu Jin had encountered some impediments in his reading.
As for who hated Xu Jin the most, aside from Luo Geng, it was probably Zhou Du.
A fine Inner Court Disciple, disrupted by Xu Jin's commotion, ended up in the Middle Court.
Though he didn't voice it, he was undoubtedly discontented deep down.
But in the next instant, Zhou Du's expression suddenly froze, and he couldn't help but slap his thigh fiercely.
"Damn, how did I not think of that!"
While drawing everyone's attention, Zhou Du suddenly realized Xu Jin's intent, his face showing a look of regret.
The Outer Court youths, including Luo Geng, were somewhat confused watching this.
Zhou Du read the Jade during the review, seeing the complete process, but in 100 breaths' time, he managed only four readings; he remembered just an outline of the Small Star Gathering Pattern, missing the details completely, and would have to continue memorizing tomorrow.
Whereas Zhou Du understood that Xu Jin's interrupted style of reading the Jade likely involved using the interruptions to only look at the process from the Gathering Star Pattern simplified to the Small Star Gathering Pattern.
At the very least, he could have viewed it eight times, and the memory effect should have been better.
In fact, within 100 breaths, Xu Jin had reviewed it a total of nine times.
By the fifth review, Xu Jin had already discovered a faster memory technique.
First memorize the main changes of the Star Pattern, then the branch details.
After viewing it nine times, he generally remembered it, especially the main changes which were very clear.
But when 100 breaths ended, Xu Jin also experienced a slight headache, which must have been due to an overexertion of Divine Soul Power.
The first class in the Middle Court consumed an entire morning.
Most of the time was spent queuing for the Great Gathering Star Pattern.
But during the wait, Ning Yuchan informed a group of disciples about many matters, particularly future cultivation items.
The first goal for all disciples was the Fifth Layer of Dining Dawn. After reaching the Fifth Layer, breaking through to the Sixth Layer was a major bottleneck.
Because it involved refining the head.
Too light and it's ineffective; too heavy and it can damage the brain.
Some people get stuck at the Sixth Layer of Dining Dawn for a long time.
If one breaks through to the Seventh Layer of Dining Dawn, all disciples face the first significant hurdle on the cultivation path.
Star Casting.
Only after Star Casting will one be eligible to learn more powerful Star Patterns and more profound Star Skills.
Perhaps for fear of adding pressure to these disciples, Ning Yuchan didn't elaborate.
She just gave a deadline.
Regardless of Inner, Middle, or Outer Court disciples, if they couldn't achieve Star Casting within two years, they would all be sent away.
After class, it was mealtime.
During the meal, Xu Jin felt that entering the Middle Court was truly worthwhile.
Disciples of the Inner, Middle, and Outer Courts dined in the same hall, with no limitations on staple food. Inner Court disciples, with their badge, got three meats and one vegetable; Middle Court received two meats and one vegetable, while Outer Court got one meat and one vegetable.
Of course, even one meat and one vegetable could be filling, and there was meat, but entering the Middle Court and having three dishes made Xu Jin quite content.
After the meal, Xu Jin couldn't wait to return to his small private room. Swallowing a Mental Awakening Pill, he began attempting to engrave the Small Star Gathering Pattern on the simplified Gathering Star Pattern at the chest.
You don't know how difficult it is until you try to engrave; once he began, he realized it was truly challenging.
Far more difficult than embroidery by more than tenfold.
Controlling the stable output of Star Power was secondary.
The important part was that one must use Star Power to draw a looping path within a Star Pattern in one go.
Only if one path is drawn with a correct loop can the Star Power then be controlled to circulate within this loop, gradually increasing in intensity to complete the engraving.
Xu Jin remembered very clearly from the morning class, from the simplified Gathering Star Pattern to the Small Star Gathering Pattern, the main path increased from three to six, and branch pathways from six to twelve.
But just for the first path, Xu Jin tried for half an hour before successfully forming a correct Star Pattern loop.
The Star Power hadn't been stable for long when the newly formed loop was destroyed and had to be started over.
And starting over didn't last ten minutes before his head started to hurt.
The Divine Soul Power was depleted excessively, including the efficacy of the Mental Awakening Pill he had just taken.
"This is really quite taxing."
"In this situation, even if you focus specifically on engraving star patterns, it would still be difficult to succeed in ten days or half a month. If you're cultivating and engraving at the same time, it could take a month, not to mention the Great Gathering Star Pattern."
In the midst of contemplation, Xu Jin suddenly thought of the Star Lamp.
If the Star Lamp could be used for Martial Learning, could he also attempt engraving star patterns within it?
With this thought, Xu Jin's mind was moved, and he immediately immersed himself upon the Candou Platform.