The Adjutor’s weren’t without weaknesses. The most glaring of which was that they couldn’t have any other Linked Insect for combat purposes if they were linked to one. This wasn’t really wasn’t much of a detriment considering there were still other methods to tame insects to use them as minions. They simply couldn’t operate them with extreme precision, and they also couldn’t use them as transportation. Without being linked there was no way to hide inside an Insect. This basically stopped the use of a Warp Worm as a method to travel underground, but it was still possible to ride on the back of a large landbound or aerial insect.

There were also a few who might find it weird to have the Adjutor stored inside their own Hive Body, which then made the butler following them around something of a liability. The Adjutor’s have next to no combat power and besides their capability as a computer, they can only perform simple activities that a servant, or butler, could handle.

With the help of the researchers on the Inner World, Sage rapidly figured out a method to cheat. The Timeless Eyes allowed him to view the Crux of a subject very quickly, showing him all the different transformations required for the Essence Seal. Then he entered all of these into the Adjutor and used its computing power to track the pattern of change. Once the timing and series of change was deciphered, then he could use the Adjutor as a reference so he could focus on properly forming the Essence Seal. In a way the Timeless Eyes told him what buttons to push and the biocomputer told him what order to press them and when. The analogy sort of falls apart at the end as the actual creation of the Essence Seal is more like carving a sculpture completely within one’s own mind’s eye and then using Qi to create it in the real world.

It took some practice to get the hang of it, but soon enough he mastered the creation of Essence Seals and moved on to learning to properly use them. This took a bit longer, but he eventually mastered the technique ‘Release the Masterpiece’. Even so, he didn’t end the trial yet. Once he completed it with cheats, he spent the time in practice to learn how to do it without any help. It turns out his estimate was wrong. Even after having already perfected the technique with assistance it still took him two centuries to finally master the technique. He only trained with it a few hours each day, but even if he spent more time he probably wouldn’t have finished in half the time.

After spending so much time, he still finished the trial before even reaching the halfway point. He wasted three hundred years to fully study and master the technique in every way, yet that still wasn’t half of the seven hundred he had to finish the task.

Upon demonstrating the technique for the projection of the bearded man, there was finally a break in the man’s bored countenance, “Magnificent! Bravo! It’s been so long.”

The man moved over to where he was sitting and helped him up, “Great work! Another new member of the workshop!”

Before Sage could raise any of his concerns about obligations he would have to fulfill or tasks he would have to undertake he found himself shoved outside and sitting in front of the Stone Tablet. Wait, was that it? That was way too abrupt.

There wasn’t any sort of induction ceremony or even a rulebook. He felt like he’d just been kicked out of a moving vehicle. Sure, he was thankful for the ride home, but who does that? In fact, he thought about activating the Stone Tablet again just to yell at that projection, but then he realized there was something new inside him. He used his Spiritual Sense to carefully examine himself and found a glowing mark upon his Nascent Soul. It reminded him of a brand burned onto skin, except the skin in this case was the immaterial skin of his Nascent Soul. His Nascent Soul could change its shape, but even when it did the brand remained. The design that was detailed by the brand was indistinctive. He could tell there was a mark, but if he tried to examine it closer it ‘felt’ like it was becoming blindingly bright and it blocked him from being able to get a good look at it. Of course, since Spiritual Sense was more like a sense of touch than vision it was more like a searing sensation that blocked him from knowing what he was touching.

While he couldn’t get a close ‘look’ at it, he could feel an aura emanating from it and it was very similar to the man in the Stone Tablet. He could only assume it was related to the ‘workshop’. It didn’t seem to be doing him any harm at the moment but if he tried to target where it was attached to his Nascent Soul it immediately flared up with a vicious energy. He examined it for a few hours, but he made no progress in discovering anything else about it. In the end he was only sure that it came from his time in the Stone Tablet and any attempt to tamper with it would cause an injury to his Nascent Soul.

It’s just my luck that I worry about something for so long and it turns out to be way too simple to complete.

Thinking over it further, he realized that perhaps it was only so simple because he’d put so much effort into worrying and planning to tackle it. Instead of feeling cheated he should feel validated by all the effort he put into it. Even if he could go back in time and had a perfect prediction of how it would go, he still wouldn’t dare to take the trial lightly. Once his Nascent Soul was drawn inside, he had immediately recognized that he was trapped and the Stone Tablet really did have the power to destroy him.

After succeeding at the trial, he walked out to greet Lang Feiyan and she was ecstatic. None of them had to enact the contingency plan and they were all eager to get back home. They’d been away for more than three hundred years, but it was still better than being gone for seven hundred. Many of their friends and family had passed on, but they could reunite with all who were Cultivators.

It might seem like the whole of the Lang Clan were Cultivators, but that wasn’t true. Many enjoyed living a relaxed life as a member of a powerful clan. Even if they didn’t cultivate there were plenty of other ways for them to make a living, especially since they got plenty of free handouts from the clan. Of course, even the weakest of them still had a Jade Sky Mantis body. Well, to be more specific they had a similar variation. Just like his two wives had slightly different bodies than himself and he’d also made changes to it since then, the Lang Clan members had also modified themselves. Those who reached a high rank in the clan were given permission to learn the true Merge technique and could make their own changes for their own personal families. There were also those who married normal humans or demi-humans and created various hybrids. Human Seals prevented any excessive prejudices or bullying to happen and if they were unhappy with their body with enough achievements they could also get the right to Merge and Mutate one more to their liking.

In fact, the new technique that Sage, as well as some of the researchers had mastered, was very extraordinary in these regards.