At this moment,
Once he entered the formation, the overwhelming pressure from outside did indeed deliver a certain impact to Jiang Chen. However, it was clear that the crushing force of this formation was not meant to kill — it was meant to test.
This kind of test did not merely evaluate a martial artist's physical defense, but also their martial will and their level of spiritual consciousness.
This was not a killing formation brimming with murderous intent, nor was it a despair-inducing entrapment formation. It was purely a trial formation.
Jiang Chen sat within the formation, calm and composed, feeling its overwhelming pressure and gradually acclimating to its rhythm.
"Not bad. One and a half shichen have passed, and I don't feel too strained. It seems the Nine Transformations of Gods and Demons has been quite effective in tempering my physical body. My bodily durability is on par with those so-called half-step Sovereign realm cultivators. As for martial will — in my past life at my Heavenly Emperor father's side, I witnessed countless great powers across the myriad heavens. Naturally, I would not bow before this kind of formation pressure. And as for spiritual consciousness, the tempering of the Heart of Rock and the Divine Ability of Seven Apertures Spiritual Resonance have elevated my spiritual perception far beyond that of cultivators at the same level. Put it all together, and this formation practically seems tailor-made for me."
If these advantages were all he had, then while Jiang Chen could endure within the formation for a long time, it would not surpass those supreme geniuses of antiquity.
But Jiang Chen happened to possess formidable formation talent — the inheritance of formation arts from the Danxiao Ancient Sect, which allowed him to adapt to this formation's rhythm with remarkable speed.
A genius who understood formations and a genius who did not — the difference within this formation was only natural.
Though this Glazed Glass Royal City contained the will of antiquity, and the formation's power was far beyond what Jiang Chen could dismantle, he could still find better ways to cope within it. These subtle adjustments were enough to let him outlast everyone else by a meaningful margin.
Before he knew it, Jiang Chen had actually grown to enjoy this feeling of being tempered within the formation.
The relentless waves of crushing pressure,说是 a trial, were in truth also a form of refinement for the martial artist.
The further one progressed, the more pronounced the tempering effect became.
"Washing sand to find gold. This formation's pressure strikes again and again — battering the body, battering the martial will, battering the spiritual consciousness. It's like forging iron: the formation is the furnace and the hammer, and I am a block of fine steel, receiving its thousand strikes and hundred refinements."
Jiang Chen repeated this kind of self-suggestion to himself, over and over.
As time pressed on, the formation's intensity continued to escalate.
Jiang Chen's pressure grew ever greater. Yet these mental affirmations kept him standing firm within the formation, unyielding.
……
By now, the outside world was already awash with astonishment.
The other seventeen groups of geniuses had all been expelled. Now, within the formation, only he remained — alone.
Like a lone skiff spinning amid a vast ocean, yet never once being swallowed.
"Pill King Zhen still hasn't come out! What a genius! Is it true that the capable can truly do anything?"
"Two full shichen. Who would have thought that Pill King Zhen's martial talent would be this fearsome as well? Once he's crossed the two-shichen mark, he can at least break into the top two hundred on the Genius Ranking, right?"
"How enviable. I'm not asking for Pill King Zhen's level of talent — even a third of what he has would be enough to bring glory to my ancestors."
"You wish. Pill King Zhen is the foremost alchemist of our Glazed Glass Royal City. If you had even a third of his talent, you'd be comparable to an average Ninth-Rank Pill King at the very least."
"Heh, that's true."
"Take a guess — how long can Pill King Zhen hold out? Will he break the previous record?"
"Whenever it comes to Pill King Zhen, anything is possible."
"That's right — Pill King Zhen seems to create miracles every single time!"
Around the Glazed Glass Royal Tower, similar exclamations of admiration rang out everywhere. Some people had even lost the capacity for jealousy entirely.
All that remained was endless envy, endless reverence.
Because everyone knew that Pill King Zhen was simply not on the same plane as them. Being jealous of Pill King Zhen served absolutely no purpose.
Young Master
Yes — the psychological shock he had received was no lighter than that of anyone else present.
Everyone knew that Pill King Zhen was an alchemical genius, the foremost in the field of alchemy.
But his martial talent had always been kept under wraps — very little was known about it. Even Ji San, who was Jiang Chen's sworn brother, had been kept largely in the dark.
At this moment, Ji San wore a bitter smile, his feelings a mixture of exasperation and admiration. "Brother... here I was, worrying on your behalf, and you were the one staying perfectly calm. How laughable — I was even comforting you before..."
Ji San knew perfectly well what it meant to endure beyond two shichen within this formation.