Many people had braced themselves for Yi Tianyun’s skill level, but when they saw it was truly a First-Grade Divine Rune, they froze for a moment before erupting in laughter. It was incredibly awkward with so many people watching. None of the other participants were slouches, yet he had spent ages just to inscribe a First-Grade Divine Rune. How utterly humiliating!

After all, since he had just joined, everyone assumed Yi Tianyun’s rank wouldn’t be high, but they never expected it to be *this* low.

"Test it." Yi Tianyun signaled for the Testing Steward to test his Divine Rune. From beginning to end, he didn’t even deign to spare Lin Li a glance.

The Testing Steward shook his head. ’A First-Grade Divine Rune is so pathetic. A casual punch would shatter it, so what’s the point of testing? If it weren’t for the rules, I would’ve just given it a score of one point right away.’

Seeing Yi Tianyun’s calm expression, the others also shook their heads. ’Where did this brat come from? How can he be so composed in a situation like this?’

POW!

The Testing Steward landed a heavy punch on Yi Tianyun’s armor, its power equivalent to the fifth level of the Body Refining Stage. Upon impact, the Divine Rune on the surface rippled slightly but, incredibly, did not break! The result stunned the Testing Steward. ’That’s impossible,’ he thought. ’A typical First-Grade Divine Rune should break from an attack at this cultivation level.’

The others were also slightly stunned. ’It actually held?’

"The Divine Rune Pen he’s using seems to be high-grade. It’s at least at the Spiritual Artifact Level!"

Someone with a sharp eye immediately noticed that the Divine Rune Pen in Yi Tianyun’s hand was at the Spiritual Artifact Level. It finally dawned on the crowd. ’So the Divine Rune Pen gave it a boost. No wonder a single punch couldn’t break it.’

"What a waste of a good Divine Rune Pen! Using a Spiritual Artifact-Level pen to inscribe a First-Grade Divine Rune is an outrageous waste!" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Exactly! If I had it, I could definitely create something much stronger! But he’s using it to inscribe a First-Grade Divine Rune. It’s just laughable."

...

They all shook their heads, thinking it was a tremendous waste.

In any case, one thought was shared among them: the Zhu Family was a joke for sending someone so low-skilled to make a fool of themselves!

"No wonder. I’ll increase the power a bit." The Testing Steward nodded and increased the force of his attack on the armor, bringing it to the level of the seventh level of the Body Refining Stage.

POW!

He threw another punch, but it still didn’t break!

This made the Testing Steward frown. ’It still hasn’t broken?’

’The enhancement from this Divine Rune Pen must be incredible. I’ll increase the power again!’

POW!

A strike with the force of the seventh level of the Body Refining Stage, and still, the defensive Divine Rune on the armor did not break!

This time, the rest of the crowd was stunned. ’Even with the boost from the Divine Rune Pen, it can’t be *that* strong, can it? That was an attack at the seventh level of the Body Refining Stage, equivalent to what a Second-Grade Divine Rune can handle.’

"I refuse to believe this!"

The Testing Steward increased the power again. He rained punches down, but the Divine Rune stubbornly refused to break. He had already increased the force to the ninth level of the Body Refining Stage, yet the Divine Rune remained intact!

Immediately after, he increased his power again, reaching the first level of the Spirit Refining Stage. He slammed a heavy fist down, but while the blow landed, the Divine Rune wasn’t shattered. It remained just as it was, completely unshaken!

Shock. Everyone was completely shocked. ’A First-Grade Divine Rune withstood an attack from the first level of the Spirit Refining Stage and didn’t break? This is unbelievable! Is this really a First-Grade Divine Rune? We must have seen it wrong, right?’

At this, the mocking smiles on everyone’s faces froze. They could no longer bring themselves to laugh.

"Is that really a First-Grade Divine Rune? I think we saw it wrong. It has to be a Third-Grade Divine Rune! Even if it’s not Third-Grade, it’s at least Second-Grade or higher, right?"

"Exactly! How could a First-Grade Divine Rune possibly hold out for so long!"

"Hurry up and check it again! It’s definitely a Divine Rune of the Second Grade or higher!"

The clamor started up again. If it was a Divine Rune of the Second Grade or higher, then this result wouldn’t be strange at all.

The Testing Steward was even more shocked internally. He knew he hadn’t held back at all, yet he was completely unable to break this Divine Rune.

"What’s going on? Are you certain it’s a First-Grade Divine Rune?" Just then, Li Tianlong, who had been seated up high, stood up and looked in their direction.

"Pavilion Master Li, I’m certain it’s a First-Grade Divine Rune, not a Third-Grade..." the Testing Steward replied with a bitter smile. ’How could I possibly have misjudged it?’

Li Tianlong immediately descended from his seat. Normally, this round didn’t require his personal attention, but now he had no choice but to come down and see for himself what was happening.

Li Tianlong walked up to the armor and examined it for a moment. A look of shock filled his eyes. He turned to Yi Tianyun and exclaimed, "This really is a First-Grade Divine Rune..."

"This is unbelievable. It is indeed a First-Grade Divine Rune, but its inscription difficulty has reached the peak level of a Third-Grade Divine Rune..." Li Tianlong commented. "This is no ordinary First-Grade Divine Rune, but a Triple First-Grade Divine Rune! Meaning, three First-Grade defensive Divine Runes have been fused into one. The resulting effect has skyrocketed to the level of a Third-Grade Divine Rune. How could an ordinary attack possibly break it?"

After the authoritative Li Tianlong delivered his assessment, everyone was stunned. Patriarch Wang was dumbfounded, Zhu Tianhong’s eyes widened in disbelief, and the sneer on Lin Li’s face froze solid...

Every Divine Rune Master had heard of reinforced Divine Runes, which involved layering them. The more layers stacked, the greater the difficulty, and the power would increase dramatically.

It looked like a First-Grade Divine Rune, but its difficulty rivaled that of a peak Third-Grade Divine Rune! An average Divine Rune Master truly could not inscribe such a thing. The required precision was far too high; the slightest deviation would result in complete failure, with no chance to salvage it.

That’s why most would rather inscribe a Third-Grade Divine Rune than attempt these Multiple Divine Patterns. The reason was simple: if you failed while inscribing a Third-Grade rune, you could immediately try again. But if you failed on the third layer of a Multiple Divine Pattern, the first two layers were destroyed along with it.

And yet, this incredibly difficult Divine Rune was inscribed by Yi Tianyun. Everyone was left dumbfounded. He had fiercely answered their earlier jeers and ridicule with this silent rebuttal!

’A First-Grade Divine Rune is garbage? Then all of theirs were garbage, including Lin Li’s!’

Li Tianlong’s words carried absolute authority, so of course, everyone believed him. It was just that the revelation came so suddenly it left them speechless.

"You didn’t even check it properly. This is a dereliction of your duty!" Li Tianlong frowned. A serious error had nearly been made. The Testing Steward lowered his head in shame. He had only given it a cursory glance; seeing it was a First-Grade Divine Rune, he hadn’t bothered to inspect it closely. ’Who would have ever thought it would be a Multiple Divine Pattern?’

It wasn’t that he was ignorant of Multiple Divine Patterns. It was just that given the general skill level of the contestants, he never expected one to appear. And yet, here it was!

"There’s no need to continue testing. Award it a perfect score. Withstanding an attack from the eighth level of the Spirit Refining Stage would be no difficult feat for it. I never expected to see a Multiple Divine Pattern here. This counts as our oversight. It’s just a shame the maximum score is only ten points, otherwise, I’d definitely give it twelve!" Li Tianlong directly awarded it a perfect score. It couldn’t go any higher; the rules had been set and weren’t easy to change.

Li Tianlong glanced at Yi Tianyun with satisfaction and smiled. "You’re the participant sent by the Zhu Family, correct? Not bad."

This result made everyone’s eyes widen even further. Those who had mocked Yi Tianyun for wasting a Spiritual Artifact-Level Divine Rune Pen were now completely silent. How could they possibly dare to utter another word? A Multiple Divine Pattern, after all, required immense talent to inscribe.

Lin Li’s expression was incredibly foul. He had just been mocking Yi Tianyun’s First-Grade Divine Rune, and now this "Multiple Divine Pattern" had appeared. It was a vicious slap in the face.