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nChapter 85: Meg’s Guardian

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nAt the end of every year, every clan and household would become extremely busy.

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nEvery household had to say goodbye to the old year and welcome in the new spring. Businesses needed to settle all their accounts. Those who needed to be rewarded were rewarded, and those who needed to be given a bonus were given it. Public officials needed to be adjusted; those who needed to be promoted were promoted, and those who needed to be demoted were demoted. Every clan would prepare for their own end-of-year competition, evaluating and selecting their top disciples. Those who needed to be praised would be praised, and those who needed to be reprimanded were reprimanded.

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nLong before Su Chen returned from the Scarlet Mountain Range, the Su Clan had already begun preparations for the end-of-year competition.

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nThis was the meeting of the Su Clan’s third-generation disciples; an opportunity to compare their martial arts and skills, displaying their loftiness.

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nIt wasn’t just the crown of strongest disciple that attracted people. Disciples who were strong would fight for the crown, while younger ones would contend for a position of their own. Whenever the end of the year drew near, everyone would be bitterly engrossed in cultivation, making their last preparations for the great battle.

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nSu Tong, the Su Clan’s grand elder’s beloved grandson earned third place in the last competition. Perhaps because he had been stimulated by Su Chen, not long ago he had also headed to the Scarlet Mountain Range. Of course, he didn’t go because of punishment, and he had also taken along a few escorts, so the safety of his journey greatly increased. While the amount of experience that he gained might have suffered as a result, when he returned from the Scarlet Mountain Range, his entire person’s temperament had become stronger overall.

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nSu Ling’er, the granddaughter of Fourth Elder Su Meixi, was fourteen this year. A year ago she had gone to her mother’s clan and had returned not long ago. Her strength had risen from the seventh layer of Body Tempering to the eighth layer. Her target was not to obtain the crown this year, but next year. At that time, Su Chen, Su Qian and the others would be over sixteen and wouldn’t be able to participate in the competition. At that time, the title of the strongest Su Clan’s third generation member would be Su Ling’er’s to claim.

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nIn addition, Su Yue, Su Xing, and the other Su Clan’s disciples were all using their own methods to struggle for recognition.

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nOf course, the two that people paid the most attention to were still Su Chen and Su Qian.

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nSu Chen did not need to say anything. Ever since returning from the Scarlet Mountain Range twice, he shone like a sun in midday among the Su Clan’s third-generation individuals. No one dared to humiliate him because he was “blind”.

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nAs for Su Qian, he had disappeared.

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nNo one knew where Su Qian had gone. However, based on Su Keji’s expression, everyone could tell that he was supremely confident about the outcome of this year’s end-of-year competition.

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nOn the twelfth day of Su Chen’s return from Shadow Mountain, the end-of-year competition was now only three days away.

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nToday, as per usual, Su Chen was cultivating in the back mountain.

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nUnlike other people, Su Chen only cultivated his Origin Skills.

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nTang Zhen had translated another two of the ancient Arcana scripts. They were a large fireball technique and a technique called Meg’s Guardian.

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nIn ancient times, because the Arcana Race’s history of studying and using Origin Energy had just begun, there was a common practice of using one’s own name to name the Origin Skill. For example, similar styles of defensive barriers would have different names and different shapes and sizes as long as they had different Origin Energy Patterns.

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nThis was completely different from the current age. Current defensive barriers had become more and more polished over the tens of thousands of years. As the overgrowth of techniques was pruned, what remained was mainly the most cost-effective Origin Skills. Although this method increased the practicality of most Origin Skills, it had also decreased the variety of Origin Skills. The skills became more homogenized, and individual peculiarities began to decrease. Simply put, a standard procedure had been implemented. In comparison, the defensive magic barriers that ancient Arcana techniques created could have various flaws and insufficiencies, yet because of this they would also have their own unique characteristics.

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nFor instance, current Origin Skills were primarily aimed towards using the smallest amount of Origin Energy and activate the barrier Origin Skill in the shortest amount of time. In order to preserve the most usage of Origin Energy, when these barriers were broken they would often release a powerful, surging attack. Li’s magic barrier had done just that. However, Meg’s Guardian followed a completely different train of thought. The inventor of this magic barrier had never considered how to utilize the Origin Energy most effectively and efficiently. In his eyes, the only reason for magic barriers to exist was to defend!

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nSo how could one reach the peak of defensive abilities?

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nThe barrier’s inventor used a unique train of thought to address this problem – unlimited superimposition.

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nTruthfully, the defensive capabilities of Meg’s barrier were quite average. However, the barrier had a unique characteristic – it could be layered an infinite number of times. As long as one wanted it, one could continue to layer on barrier after barrier.

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nHowever, every time an extra barrier layer was added, the amount of Origin Energy consumed would be increased additively. For instance, if one Meg’s Guardian required two White Stars of origin Energy, the second Meg’s Guardian would require four, the third would require six, and so on.

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nThis was also the reason why Ulrich had not used this technique in such a way from the very beginning. Its consumption rate was just too great.

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nHowever, although it was quite weak, one could not deny that under special circumstances this barrier would have uses that could exceed one’s own cultivation layer.

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nUntil this point, Su Chen had not discovered a defensive Origin Skill of his own, so he wasn’t picky. Having learned this Origin Skill, his survivability had greatly increased.

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nThe large fireball was very representative of a traditional attack Origin Skill. It was a very commonplace, standard skill, present from ancient Arcana techniques to current Origin Skills. There wasn’t much more that could be talked about. Su Chen had actually wanted the Origin Energy Bullets. This powerful Origin Skill could create single or multiple bullets. However, its pattern was simply too complicated, and Tang Zhen had not been able to translate it even now. Translating cultivation writings required extreme caution. After all, if one mistake was made, it could result in a loss of life while cultivating.

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nIn fact, what Su Chen wanted most was the Shadowform Substitute, which was the best Origin Skill to increase one’s survival. It was extremely useful for escaping and could be applied even at the Yang opening Realm. Unfortunately, this Origin Skill was even more complicated compared to the Origin Energy Bullets, so he could not hope for it in the near future.

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nTen days of cultivation coupled with wanton, crazy use of Origin Stones allowed Su Chen’s grasp of these two Origin Skills to greatly increase.

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nSu Chen had already grasped five different Origin Skills. Adding on these two meant that Su Chen now controlled seven. For a beginner Qi Drawing Realm Origin Qi Scholar, this was already quite a few.

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nMost Origin Qi Scholars wouldn’t learn so many Origin Skills; in fact, most people only needed to learn one or two. After all, these were all low-level Origin Skills which would be abandoned in the future. No matter how many he learned now, they would not be very useful as he progressed. When considering the fact that cultivating Origin Skills didn’t increase one’s cultivation base, very few people were willing to waste so much time on this aspect.

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nHowever, to Su Chen, who could see the Origin Energy motes, increasing his battle prowess was equivalent to increasing his cultivation rate as he could more effectively kill beasts. Thus, he didn’t share the same worries that other people had. When adding on the two huge hauls that he had recently earned, he had no other place to expend his Origin Stones. Thus, he was only afraid of having too few Origin Skills, not having too many.

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nTwelve days of cultivation had allowed Su Chen’s strength to once again increase significantly.

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nAs he was cultivating, Mingshu suddenly ran over. “Young Master, Young Master!”

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n“What’s the matter?” Su Chen casually added a third barrier of Meg’s Guardian to himself. Under situations where he wasn’t being attacked, the barrier would only disappear automatically after an extended period of time. Su Chen didn’t bother waiting, directly utilizing Meg’s Guardian’s characteristic of unlimited superimposition to practice his control. Although this would greatly increase his rate of Origin Energy consumption, didn’t he have plenty of Origin Stones?

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nWith money, one could afford to be more reckless.

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n“Su Qian has returned,” Mingshu replied.

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