"They're moving! They just moved, right!"
"Are all these trees alive?"
"They seem alive, intelligent beings!"
The investigators were also greatly astonished.
They had seen a lot, encountered many strange phenomena, and handled many mysterious incidents, but...
How could they not be shocked seeing trees wriggling like humans?
Didn't a human face just appear on that large tree?
He wasn't mistaken, was he!
"What are these?"
"Treants? Tree spirits? Tree demons?"
"Mother Tree Demon?"
"Can't it be Father Tree Demon!"
Unfortunately, Fan Anyuan and the others were also unsure. If they hadn't been here once yesterday, they would have been just as surprised as the trainees.
Their organization had tree demons, cat gods, and what didn't they have?
The organization was too amazing, too powerful!
Perhaps when they could be promoted to senior members or even core members of the organization, they would be qualified to know such secrets.
With different thoughts in mind, they walked further in.
Passing through the Forest of Tree Demons, soon, an ancient, weathered village appeared before them.
The destination had been reached!
...
Inside the village,
On a tall watchtower.
Fang You, clad in a white robe, stood there, gazing into the distance.
Outside the village was the Forest of Tree Demons... In truth, there weren't many, only twenty-odd tree demons in total, two three-awakened tree demons, and the rest were one or two-awakened.
All of them had been imbued with sentience in the past few days.
As for the tree demons he, Wei Jingwu, Wang Hei, and Gu Shu Qingmu had imbued in the copy space-time, they had long since perished with the passage of time.
There was a limit to their lifespan, and even though a large tree could live for a very long time, imbuiing had its limits.
That spark of spiritual wisdom would fade with the passage of time.
Imbuiing was, after all, just a skill to 'create units,' not to truly create intelligent life.
Or rather, the abilities of Golden Legendary grade strange artifacts were not enough.
Perhaps imbuiing of Red grade could truly create?
This was uncertain.
The birth of Gu Shu Qingmu had many prerequisites.
A recruitment token, a skill book, a breakthrough under pressure, and wisdom gradually born over a long period.
None could be missing.
"However, even if it's difficult to replicate Gu Shu Qingmu, imbuiing is still a tangible divine skill."
"The spiritual spark fades gradually, but it's measured in years. In the short to medium term, each imbuiing is equivalent to creating a permanent combat unit, and not a weak one."
"The pity is, I can't imbue a four-awakened tree demon, and Gu Shu Qingmu can't either... The three-awakened tree demon it imbues with all its might is worse than mine."
There was a tree demon in the outer Forest of Tree Demons that Qingmu had imbued.
Its skill level was slightly inferior.
But it was still a three-awakened, a top-tier combatant on Blue Star. With the Scepter of Glory in hand, it could be created with a mere touch, almost a miracle.
With such a powerful ability, he was still researching how to maximize its potential.
"Imbuiing tree demons is the easiest, and tree demons are not weak in combat, making it the most cost-effective type of imbuiing."
"The drawback is that tree demons are slow-moving. Their defense is decent, but their offense is lacking."
He had also tried imbuing stones and water currents, hoping to create elementals like earth spirits or water spirits, but all failed.
He had also tried imbuing animals.
Imbuiing them was more difficult, consumed more energy than tree demons, and the results were unstable.
Sometimes, the animals would mutate.
In detection skills, they were marked as 'polluted.'
"Similar to becoming a strange entity, but not yet to the extent of transforming into one."
"But it was still a failed imbuiement."
"There might still be details I haven't fully understood. If I can figure them out, perhaps I can find a more cost-effective creature to imbue than tree demons, and even... have a chance to create special individuals like Qingmu."
He planned to take time to try them one by one in the coming days.
However, before that, he needed a sufficient quantity and variety of animals and insects.
Let Little Huan issue a mission.
...
While Fang You was contemplating, Fan Anyuan had already led the trainees into the village.
It was ancient, or rather dilapidated.
Even with some repairs, one could still tell that these were old buildings that had experienced long years. Only the parts that had been repaired or were newly built were habitable.
The vicissitudes of time were evident here.
Stepping onto this land, for some reason, the trainees who had been chattering, nervous, and excited, suddenly fell silent.
They couldn't explain it.
They just felt that on this land, they shouldn't be chattering and laughing; they should be serious, respectful, and reverent.
"Many warriors sacrificed their lives here."
Fan Anyuan looked at the stone path winding upwards, lowered his head slightly, and silently placed his fist over his heart.
After a while, he led the trainees up the steps.
Soon, they arrived before the grand Hall of Inheritance.
"Before commencing the awakening ritual, we must first assess your mystical accumulation. You should also be aware that one can usually only touch upon awakening after accumulating a certain level of mysticism."
Fan Anyuan took out a few items.
—Prismatic crystals embedded in black stone bases.
They were not high-grade items, but they required sufficient accumulation, knowledge, and materials to be crafted, used to roughly detect mysticism.
"The detection is easy; simply reach out and touch the crystal."
Upon touch, the crystal either remained unchanged or emitted a faint, subtle glow, varying in intensity.
The few Flame of Hope members beside Fan Anyuan were trained and could discern roughly, "This one is sufficient, this one is a little short, this one has exceeded it by a lot."
"Those who have enough stand on the left, those who are short stand in the middle, and those with none stand on the right."
The investigators all had mystical accumulation, more or less, some even exceeding the basic line by a lot.
But whether it was more or less, it was all the same in the eyes of Fan Anyuan and the others.
They were all preparing for awakening.
Those with more would just skip a step, and those with less would just need to supplement their mysticism.
He brought up a faceless statue, a statue imbued with dense mysticism, for mystical transfer, and then distributed potions to the trainees.
Finally, he emphasized:
"Go to the awakening ground, find a place to sit, and then drink these two bottles of potion."
"Drink the pale blue one with the floral fragrance first."
"Those who are ready can go."
This, this was it?
The Flame of Hope trainees, having received the potions, walked into the awakening grounds with excitement.
However, the investigators, who "knew a lot" about awakening, were a bit stunned.
It was that simple?
Shouldn't the ritual be more complex, more cumbersome, and more difficult?
But after all, they had trained for a few days and had some understanding of the wonders of the Flame of Hope. Since the Flame of Hope said it was possible, it must be possible.
With the resolve of facing death, the investigators stepped forward.
Yang Chang saw them off outside the stone gate.
He was also somewhat dejected.
Even though this was a good thing, and when they returned, many of them would be awakened individuals, greatly increasing the strength of the investigator team.
But thinking that many of them would never be seen again, those familiar figures would sleep forever, he found it hard to suppress his low spirits.
This was something they had to face.
He had faced it many times, sending off countless investigators, but that didn't mean his heart had become cold.
After thinking for a moment, Yang Chang couldn't help but turn his head and ask, "What's the chance of awakening?"
Fan Anyuan shook his head, "The mentors or the head instructor might know, but I've only just taken over this task. However, since the mentor arranged it this way, the awakening chance must be significantly increased, so don't worry too much."
Yang Chang also believed.
The Flame of Hope had the means to touch upon awakening, the means to reduce the risk of this ordeal, he had great faith in that, but no matter how much it was reduced, it was still a life-or-death trial.
He could only pray.
There were eighty-eight trainees and forty-six investigators when they went in. He hoped that when they returned, there would be half as many figures.
Half was already very high.
But it still meant that half of them would never open their eyes again.
...
Outside the Hall of Inheritance, the atmosphere was heavy.
Yang Chang stretched his neck, peering inside, but saw nothing. The stone gate was like a barrier, separating the outside from the inside, like two worlds.
Time flowed by quietly.
Half an hour.
One hour.
Usually, an hour was a long time for awakening, but he had heard from Fan Anyuan that this awakening was done with potions and would involve a process of boiling mysticism.
Overall, it would take more time.
This was normal, but he couldn't help but feel nervous.
When the time reached about 65 minutes, the first trainee walked out, an investigator.
After leaving the Hall of Inheritance, he couldn't hide his joy, "Captain Yang, I've awakened, I succeeded!"
Yang Chang also showed joy, "What about the others? What's the situation inside?"
The investigator who came out scratched his head, "The space inside seems to be partitioned, and the presiding physician, Silver Bell, instructed us to leave immediately after awakening, so I'm not sure what the situation inside is like."
Yang Chang's tension returned.
This investigator was just the beginning. Soon, more and more people walked out of the Hall of Inheritance, their faces showing unconcealable ecstasy.
They let out quiet exclamations.
Ten people.
Sixteen people.
Twenty-seven people.
Thirty-nine people.
Fifty-four people.
By the time it reached an hour and a half, 54 people had walked out, 54 awakened individuals! Among them, half were investigators Yang Chang was familiar with.
At this point, the speed at which people emerged from the stone gate had slowed considerably.
Sometimes, no one emerged for several minutes.
By the time two hours had passed, Physician Silver Bell walked out, her gaze sweeping around, "65 awakened individuals. The awakening pass rate is quite high, not bad."
It was indeed very high!
Greatly exceeding his expectations.
Yang Chang couldn't hide his excitement either, "On behalf of the Investigator Bureau, I express my sincere gratitude."
Finally, he thought about it and asked, his voice becoming hesitant,
"Physician Silver Bell, then... the situation of the others who failed to awaken... if possible, we'd like to take their ashes back for burial..."
Silver Bell was stunned, "Who told you the others died?"
"The remaining 23 people. 5 failed to awaken and were seriously injured, but their lives were saved. They can recover by drinking more purification potions and resting well."
"As for the other 18 people... they failed to boil their mysticism, and didn't even touch upon awakening."
In other words, the awakening rate this time was actually...
65 ÷ 70!
Over ninety percent success rate!
And no one died!
...
Inside the Hall of Inheritance, the remaining 18 people slowly woke up.
Jiang Tingqiu opened his eyes, glanced at his hands, and pondered for a long time.
"Damn it, I still haven't awakened?!"