The difficulty of the sixth Glazed Stele had increased dramatically, just as expected.
When the four great geniuses saw Jiang Chen appear, none of them found it particularly surprising. Deep down, they had already come to regard Jiang Chen as a genius on their own level.
However, upon spotting Third Young Master Ji at Jiang Chen's side, each of them felt a flicker of mockery stir in their hearts. They certainly didn't believe Third Young Master Ji had any business attempting the sixth Glazed Stele.
Still, considering that Third Young Master Ji was only ranked in the third tier on the Young Lord Rankings, and had precious little time remaining inside the Glazed Pagoda, a desperate gamble was understandable. After all, successfully comprehending the sixth Glazed Stele would grant a six-month extension.
"Brother Ji, clear your mind of distractions and focus on your comprehension," Jiang Chen reminded Third Young Master Ji.
The content of the sixth Glazed Stele appeared deceptively simple — it was nothing more than a piece of calligraphy. The entire work contained barely two hundred characters.
Yet each of those two hundred characters seemed to harbor some strange and profound conception. Strung together, they formed an ineffable, almost mystical artistic intent.
The task of the person attempting comprehension was to grasp the artistic intent within the calligraphy, immerse oneself in it, and extract the martial truth hidden in this style of calligraphy-based combat art.
There was no denying it — the design of this particular stele was fundamentally different from every previous one. But its difficulty had undeniably increased as well.
Calligraphy as a discipline was inherently esoteric, and embedding martial truth within calligraphy was an even more unique innovation.
Jiang Chen studied it carefully. One by one, the characters seemed to spring to life, like celestial beings dancing gracefully across the page. Each character possessed its own distinctive charm, leaving an aftertaste that lingered endlessly.
"Calligraphy becoming martial arts — this has existed since ancient times. Such elegant pursuits seem to be quite popular. But those who truly achieved the pinnacle of martial arts through calligraphy were few and far between. In fact, there may have been none at all. I wonder whose hand created this calligraphy-based combat art. It certainly appears to be extraordinary."
Jiang Chen studied the work a while longer, then suddenly furrowed his brow. "These characters — they don't appear to have been written with a brush at all. They look more like someone used a sword as a pen, imitating the intent of calligraphy. Otherwise, how could these characters possess such sharp, piercing edge?"
In his previous life, Jiang Chen had encountered many calligraphy-based combat arts. Works with this kind of razor-sharp edge were rare indeed.
"So this trial really does test a person. If you approach it purely from the standpoint of calligraphy's artistic intent, you'll inevitably miss the martial truth. You have to adopt a swordsman's mindset and enter this artwork — one that presents itself as calligraphy but is in truth swordsmanship — before you can truly comprehend it…"
After careful observation, Jiang Chen had formed his own judgment.
Only someone with Jiang Chen's breadth of experience and keen eye could have identified the crux of the problem so quickly.
The four great geniuses had been sitting beneath the sixth Glazed Stele for some time already. In the beginning, each of them had tried to enter the work through the lens of calligraphy, but they kept hitting dead ends.
Even the most brilliant young lord–level geniuses in the Glazed King City were completely at a loss when they couldn't find the thread.
However, as time passed, they gradually latched onto something subtle — they discovered the truth of the sword within the calligraphic forms themselves. Approaching it from the angle of swordsmanship, they began to faintly discern a path forward.
Once they made that discovery, their comprehension process flowed much more smoothly.
Now, seeing Jiang Chen and Third Young Master Ji join them, the four geniuses secretly found it amusing. They wondered whether these two newcomers could break free from the calligraphic mindset and shift to a swordsman's approach.
Jiang Chen, relying on his extraordinary insight, did not lose his way in the art of calligraphy. He quickly found the correct trajectory of the sword.
Third Young Master Ji, for his part, actually had a genuine fondness for calligraphy. But from that angle, he had tried numerous approaches and found not the slightest clue.
Third Young Master Ji was not the sort of person to be rigidly conventional. After several hours without finding any leads, his instincts told him he needed to change his thinking entirely.
The return of his bloodline had gradually awakened certain inherited memories in his spiritual awareness. Though those memories were still vague, they had nonetheless sharpened his comprehension and clarity of thought in subtle but unmistakable ways.
Staring at those characters brimming with piercing sharpness, a sudden spark of inspiration flashed through Third Young Master Ji's mind. "The brushstrokes writhe like dragons and snakes, and they radiate extreme sharpness. Rather than calligraphy, this looks more like carving. Could it be that these weren't written with a brush but carved with a weapon?"
Once Third Young Master Ji found that spark of inspiration, his ability to dig deeper was formidable. Very quickly, he had worked his way onto the path of swordsmanship.
Delight surged through him. Cross-referencing his insight only deepened his certainty — this was indeed a set of sword techniques. The calligraphy was merely a convincing veil designed to mislead.
"Hahaha, so that's it, so that's it!" Third Young Master Ji was overjoyed. This discovery genuinely thrilled him beyond measure.
He couldn't help glancing over toward Jiang Chen, and at that very moment, Jiang Chen's gaze — brimming with intelligence — swept over to meet his.
Their eyes locked, and Third Young Master Ji felt a fresh jolt of astonishment. "So Brother Jiang Chen has already uncovered the secret of the sixth Glazed Stele. Remarkable — his comprehension is truly terrifying. If I hadn't absorbed his True Dragon blood, my own clarity of thought and intuition could never have been this sharp."
At that thought, Third Young Master Ji's admiration for Jiang Chen rose yet another notch.