The Trials of the Divine Palace

“The conditions for learning these arts and secret techniques… is this?” Ji Ning stared in astonishment at the large row of characters on the bookshelf.

He had already heard from his master that he would have to undergo a simple trial before he could learn the techniques. He had prepared himself mentally, believing that the trial would be relatively easy. But this… was too easy. Clean the mountain path of Mount Innerheart once? Those who could enter the Divine Palace of Immortals were no ordinary mortals; it would probably take them the time it took to drink a cup of tea to finish cleaning the entire path.

Ji Ning casually picked up a sword technique manual and flipped it open. He was secretly shocked. This was at the level of the Lesser Five Elements Sword Manual!

“Wow, this is an Immortal-ranked Ki Refining technique!” Little Qing exclaimed.

“This formation manual… it’s not inferior to the Nine Volumes of Formations!” Uncle Whitewater said, also trembling with excitement.

Ji Ning swept his gaze across the room. On every massive bookshelf filled with countless books, large characters were carved: ‘Clean the mountain path of Mount Innerheart once, and you may choose one technique.’ It was clear that the conditions for choosing any one book on this first floor of the Divine Palace of Immortals were all the same.

The handsome, white-robed man beside him shook his head and laughed. “There’s an old saying on Mount Innerheart. The techniques in the Divine Palace of Immortals, once learned, can allow one to become a Celestial Immortal or an Empyrean God. The divine abilities and secret arts in the Three Realms Palace, once learned, allow one to roam unhindered across the Three Realms.”

“Our master knows the Three Realms in a single dream, so it’s only natural his collection of divine abilities and secret arts is formidable.” Ji Ning nodded.

“This Divine Palace of Immortals has collected countless techniques and divine abilities, from the primordial age to the present day, an uncountable number. Even this lowest floor, the first floor of the Divine Palace of Immortals, can be considered quite good if placed in the mortal world,” the white-robed Silvermoon Brother said.

Ji Ning nodded again.

Right. For a master whose dreams encompass the Three Realms, his collection of various techniques would indeed be astonishing.

“Senior apprentice-brother, the trial for learning from the first floor is this?” Ji Ning pointed at the line of characters.

“That’s right. You must clean the mountain path with a broom in your hands, sweeping layer by layer. Even for a cultivator, it would probably take half a day,” Silvermoon said.

Ji Ning nodded. He could use magic to do it much faster, but using a broom would indeed take quite a bit longer.

“This first floor is too easy, little brother. Follow me up,” Silvermoon said.

“Alright.”

Ji Ning, Uncle Whitewater, and Little Qing followed Silvermoon, the steward of the Divine Palace of Immortals, up the stairs.

They arrived at the second floor of the Divine Palace of Immortals.

On the bookshelves of the second floor was another line of carved characters: “Wipe clean all the tables and desks within the Divine Palace of Immortals. You may then choose one technique.”

“Truly simple,” Ji Ning said, blinking. He glanced down at a sword manual. “This is already comparable to some of the top-tier manuals of the Black-White College.”

“A treasure trove,” Uncle Whitewater said, deeply shaken.

“And this is only the second floor? I’ve never seen such profound techniques!” Little Qing’s eyes were full of greed.

“Haha, let’s go see the third floor,” Silvermoon said with a laugh.

They arrived at the third floor.

On the bookshelf was yet another line of characters: “Remove all weeds within a hundred li. You may then choose one technique.”

Silvermoon explained from the side, “Weeding must be done by hand, pulling out each weed one by one. All the weeds within a hundred li… even doing it one after another, it will take about a month.”

“Difficult,” Ji Ning admitted.

He also noticed that each floor was more difficult than the last. They were all manual labor tasks, but they took more and more time.

“One technique requires weeding a hundred li. How long would it take to learn ten or a hundred techniques?” Little Qing muttered.

“Let’s go look at the fourth floor,” Ji Ning said, continuing upward.

The fourth floor.

The characters on the bookshelf had changed to: “Personally plant ten thousand fruit trees. You may then choose one technique.”

“That seems easier than weeding,” Little Qing said, puzzled.

Ji Ning nodded.

Weeding involved removing all the weeds within a hundred li, which would be an astronomical number.

“You wouldn’t know this, but… these aren’t ordinary fruit trees. They are immortal fruit trees and spirit fruit trees. Naturally, they must be planted with great care. Even for a skilled cultivator, personally and carefully planting each tree one by one… planting ten thousand trees would take at least half a year,” Silvermoon said.

“Half a year?”

“Half a year of hard labor to learn one technique? And this is only the fourth floor?” Little Qing’s eyes widened.

Ji Ning, however, remained calm. He continued to the fifth floor.

Floor by floor, they went up.

The trial for the first floor only took half a day.

The chores for the second floor took three days.

The chores for the third floor took one month.

The chores for the fourth floor took a full half year.

The fifth floor required three years.

The sixth floor required a full twenty years.

The seventh floor required a hundred years.

“This is the eighth floor.” Though full of doubts, Ji Ning managed to keep a calm expression as he arrived at the eighth floor of the Divine Palace of Immortals.

The number of books on the eighth floor was noticeably fewer.

The Ki Refining techniques here had already surpassed the Pure Yang level, reaching the ‘Grand Dao’ level.

Any one of the divine abilities or secret arts here could serve as a clan-guiding technique for the Imperial Xiamang clan of the Grand Xia.

Ji Ning, Uncle Whitewater, and Little Qing’s gazes simultaneously fell on a line of characters carved into the bookshelf: “Serve as a gate-attendant Daoist at the Tristar Crescent Abode for one thousand years. You may then choose one technique.”

“The seventh floor only took a hundred years to learn a technique, but now it requires a thousand years,” Little Qing couldn’t help but say. “Just how long would one have to stay at the Tristar Crescent Abode before they could go down the mountain?”

“But these techniques and secret arts… even the clan-guiding techniques of the Shaoyin or Beishan clans probably aren’t as profound as these,” Ji Ning said calmly. “Let’s go. Let’s see the tenth floor.”

The ninth floor was also the last floor of the Divine Palace of Immortals.

There were only three bookshelves on this floor, and the number of books on them wasn’t large, but they were all true masterpieces. Anyone who could wield any single one of these techniques would be considered a formidable expert in the Three Realms. They could be used as a trump card. This was also the limit for ordinary disciples of the Mount Innerheart lineage. Only true personal disciples, or those with special permission from Patriarch Subhuti, could go to the Three Realms Palace!

“Eh?” Ji Ning was surprised to find that the bookshelves were pitch black, with no characters on them at all.

“Why are there no characters? Does that mean the techniques on the ninth floor can’t be learned?” Little Qing asked, puzzled.

Ji Ning turned his head to look at Silvermoon. “Senior apprentice-brother, the first eight floors of the Divine Palace of Immortals all had trial chores that took longer the higher you went. But the ninth floor… is there no trial at all? And more importantly, do you have to do chores to learn everything in the ‘Divine Palace of Immortals’? If learning a single technique on the eighth floor requires a thousand years as a gate-attendant Daoist, would learning ten techniques require ten thousand years?”

He had originally planned to study for a few decades or a century before returning to the Grand Xia world.

He had made a promise to Yu Wei!

Spending ten thousand years studying on Mount Innerheart?

By the time he got back, the food would be cold!

“Haha… little brother, you are truly quick-witted,” Silvermoon said, gently waving his feathered fan. “The trials of the Divine Palace of Immortals are of two types. One is, naturally, these chores which have no difficulty at all, but simply take a long time. Those who are less gifted in enlightenment, or a bit duller, generally choose this method. Serving as a gate-attendant for a thousand years to learn a powerful technique from the eighth floor—it’s certainly worth it.”

Ji Ning nodded.

Once one became a Primal Daoist, their lifespan was boundless, though they still had to endure the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations. Spending a thousand years for a single powerful technique was indeed worth it.

“This is also our master’s kindness to our Mount Innerheart lineage. The saying goes, ‘The Dao cannot be lightly taught.’ Master has only set up a simple trial,” Silvermoon said. “Of course, for those with high enlightenment and who are truly peerless geniuses, there is no need to do chores. They have a different kind of trial.”

“What kind of trial?” Ji Ning asked.

Silvermoon laughed. “Little brother, did you notice the empty space next to the Divine Palace of Immortals? The space where the humans, members of the beast race, and Fiendgods were gathered. It contains some formation restrictions.”

Ji Ning thought back, then nodded. “Right. There were some formation patterns and restriction runes on that empty ground.”

“That area is the battlefield,” Silvermoon said. “Master has set up nine puppets: a first-level puppet, a second-level puppet, a third-level puppet… all the way up to an eighth-level puppet and a ninth-level puppet. No matter who it is, if they defeat the first-level puppet once, they can choose any one technique from the first floor of the Divine Palace of Immortals.”

“Defeat the second-level puppet once, and you can choose any one technique from the second floor. Defeat it twice, and you can choose twice. Defeat it three times, and you can choose three times. The logic is the same for all of them.”

“Defeat the third-level puppet, and you can choose techniques from the third floor.”

“It’s the same principle. If you defeat the ninth-level puppet, you can naturally choose techniques from the ninth floor.”

Silvermoon looked at Ji Ning with a smile. “Do you understand now, little brother?”

“The trial is simple and clear enough,” Ji Ning nodded, then asked with some confusion, “Defeat it once and you can choose one technique; defeat it twice, you can choose two. Does that mean that the more times you fight, the stronger it gets?”

“You’ll know naturally if you actually go to compete,” Silvermoon said, not explaining further. “But remember this: this competition tests your comprehension of the Dao! Therefore, the use of any divine abilities, any formations, or any forbidden arts is absolutely prohibited. I heard you are a Sword Immortal. Then you must only wield your sword and display your sword techniques. Let the full power of your sword technique speak for itself.”

Ji Ning nodded.

“Doing chores can get you the techniques up to the eighth floor of the Divine Palace of Immortals. But only by defeating the puppets can you learn the techniques of the ninth floor,” Silvermoon looked at Ji Ning. “Little brother, when you can defeat the ninth-level puppet and learn the techniques of the ninth floor, you can then go to the Three Realms Palace.”

“Mm.” Ji Ning nodded, then asked, “Senior apprentice-brother, which level of puppet should I fight now?”

“The lesser sword techniques are of no use to you. Start from a higher point. Since our master accepts you as a disciple, little brother, you must be a rare, peerless genius. How about this… start by trying the sixth-level puppet,” Silvermoon suggested. He had no idea about Ji Ning’s strength.

But he guessed that Ji Ning should be a peerless prodigy.

“Sixth level? The sixth floor?” Ji Ning remembered. The sword technique manuals on the sixth floor were already more profound than even the complete nine stances of the Three-Foot Sword! Any single sword technique they produced would far surpass anything from the Black-White College.

“I am only at the Wanxiang Adept stage,” Ji Ning said, a note of concern in his voice. “Will I be…”

“Don’t worry. These nine puppets left by our master are no ordinary things. They will unleash different levels of power according to the strength of their opponent. As you are at the Wanxiang Adept stage, the Yuan power burst within the puppet will also be at the Wanxiang level. If you were at the Earth Immortal stage, the puppet’s Yuan power would also reach that level. So, this competition tests the Dao! It has absolutely nothing to do with whether you are a Wanxiang Adept, a Primal Daoist, or an Earth Immortal,” Silvermoon said.

Ji Ning was immediately reassured. “Good. Then I will compete with this sixth-level puppet.”

“Let’s go to the competition grounds, then,” Silvermoon said, leading Ji Ning back down the nine floors of the Divine Palace of Immortals to the empty space outside.