Chapter 77: Superior Spiritual Roots (First Release on Jinjiang Literature City)
When they first registered, they had a simple test of their spiritual roots, but this place was different. There was a semi-transparent pillar in front of the main hall, which looked much more advanced than the spirit-testing stone. When they arrived, the previous group had just left.
Before the spirit-testing pillar stood a senior disciple dressed in sect attire. Yao Sisi couldn't discern the disciple's cultivation level, but she saw that the senior disciple had a kind face and said to the group of disciples, "Come, line up according to your age, and place your hands on the spirit-testing pillar one by one. I will test the type and purity of your spiritual roots."
Yao Sisi never knew her spiritual root grade. Moreover, the spiritual root purity mentioned by her seniors was actually the same as the spiritual root grade. However, major sects usually only referred to it as purity and did not use grade to directly define the spiritual root. This was also to take care of the sect's disciples. After all, many sect disciples entered the sect at a very young age. If they were to have a deep-rooted belief that the spiritual root grade would limit their future talents, that would be a great loss.
Therefore, it is very heartwarming that no obvious levels are used to distinguish the spiritual roots of cultivators.
After everyone lined up according to age, the younger ones went first to have their spiritual roots measured. At this time, they were only curious about their spiritual roots and not too nervous. After all, they had passed the registration and the trial, and they were definitely going to join the sect.
When Yao Sisi saw the first child place his hand on the spirit-testing pillar, three colors flashed on the spirit-testing bead, and each color corresponded to a height. Then she saw that the senior in charge of the measurement was as kind as before, and said to the child, "Come on, wait on the right."
Yao Sisi watched several people test and found that the higher the color breakthrough and the more accurate the hue, the better the quality. Those with good quality stood on the left, while those with average quality were placed on the right.
Ning Xiu was about to be measured. At this moment, two colors flashed on the spirit-measuring pillar. Although the position was not very high and the purity was not excellent, the color was very accurate. Yao Sisi saw that the senior paused and then asked him to go to the right side.
Ning Xiu himself was quite satisfied with the result. After all, it was a major sect, and it was good as long as he could join the sect.
Next, Liu Yuan also began the test. His spiritual roots were of three types, and the colors were rather ordinary. However, the person in front paused again, then pointed to the left and told him to stand there.
Soon it was Qi Mu's turn. Yao Sisi noticed that he seemed a little nervous, so she comforted him from behind, "It's okay, go on!"
Qi Mu slowly walked towards the spirit-testing pillar. Although his face was calm, he was somewhat uneasy inside. He was not like Liu Yuan, who did not understand why he did what he did in the past, so ignorance was no excuse for fearlessness. But he had once defied fate and even created a Dao body...
I really don't know what will happen if I test the spirit pillar.
He glanced at his senior not far away, pursed his lips, and placed his hand on it. Two colors appeared on it, very beautiful and pure. Then these colors began to slowly rise. The senior's expression changed from satisfaction to approval, and finally, surprise flashed across his face.
"Not bad, not bad."
She said "good" several times in a row, and finally told Qi Mu to stand on the left and wait.
Slowly, it was Yao Sisi's turn. When she walked up to the Spirit Testing Pillar, the senior said kindly, "Young man, your cultivation is not low. If you had joined the sect earlier, you might have already formed your core. You would be a truly remarkable young talent."
The senior seemed to treat her well. You have to know that she was a cultivator who had cultivated on her own at such a young age, and was only one step away from the Golden Core stage. Even in the inner sect, she would be an outstanding disciple. If she had joined the inner sect earlier and formed her Golden Core before the age of thirty, she would have been a genius that only appeared once in a thousand years.
Yao Sisi politely replied to her previous sentence: "I used to live in a remote place, so I was able to take this opportunity."
After saying that, she placed her palm on the spirit-testing pillar, also curious about how her spiritual root was.
Soon, the spirit-testing pillar displayed two colors, gold and red, both of which were very beautiful, not at all dull, and even a little dazzlingly bright. The red, in particular, seemed to have evolved directly from a color into a flame.
The senior standing to the side revealed surprise. Although he had expected her spiritual root to be good, he was still somewhat surprised. Then, the two colors began to climb upwards and soon broke through the center of the pillar. Reaching this point clearly meant they were already inner disciples. However, the two colors were full of momentum and showed no signs of slowing down. They continued to climb upwards and finally landed at a position similar to Qi Mu's.
Previously, Qi Mu's spiritual root senior had said "not bad" several times, but when it came to Yao Sisi, he said "good" many times, and the joy on his face could not be hidden at all.
Even the way they addressed each other changed. "Young friend, you have great talent. Your future is boundless. Since we've met, it must be fate. Let me remind you, besides entering the inner sect, there's another way: you can directly apply to become a peak master. In our sect, generally, you need to be at the Nascent Soul stage to become a peak master, but there are exceptions. After you finish the third level of the assessment, go and inquire about it!"
Yao Sisi paused: "Peak Master? Doesn't that mean the cultivation resources are worlds apart from those of ordinary cultivators?"
The senior nodded, "Young friend, you are intelligent."
Yao Sisi's interest was immediately piqued, but this was clearly not the time for idle chatter. The senior gave a few simple pointers and then began measuring the spiritual roots of the others.
After she was assigned to the left, Qi Mu approached her and asked, "Miss Sisi, would you like to become the peak master?"
Yao Sisi: "Of course, how could I let this opportunity pass by? After I finish the assessment, I'll just ask around."
After all the members of their group had finished testing their spiritual roots, the sect was in no hurry to have them participate in the next trial. In fact, they said that they had basically passed the test by now.
Soon, a small spirit boat came to a stop, and then directed the group of trial disciples on the left side of the spirit testing pillar to enter the spirit boat, while those on the right side were taken away by others.
Before leaving, Ning Xiu kept glancing this way. Yao Sisi gave him a reassuring look and made a hand gesture with a communication talisman, which reassured him before he left.
Now the group of four has become a group of three again. There were nearly a thousand people who came from a batch of flying boats at first, and everyone was a bit crowded on the flying boats. As a result, after the first screening, only half of them remained. Then the Tianqian Bridge screened out another part. Only about three hundred people walked to the Spirit Testing Pillar.
Then they were divided up again by the spirit-testing pillars, and now there are less than a hundred people on this small boat.
Many of the thousand applicants were already eliminated during the registration process, which shows that it is indeed not easy to get into this major sect.
The key point is that they also have to participate in an additional test in a monster valley. It's not just some of the people on their spirit boat; many of the two hundred people who were just taken away also have to participate.
But apart from the large spirit boat that guides the disciples, there are many other spirit boats in all directions. There are more than a dozen that arrived around the same time as them, and she doesn't know how many more are out of sight.
When Yao Sisi inquired about the sect, she only asked basic questions, such as how to register and pass the assessment. She didn't really pay attention to how many cultivators Xuan Yun Sect had. Judging from today's situation, there must be at least tens of thousands...
The spirit boat flew for a short while and then they were taken to a mountain. The senior brother who was leading them said, "There's a row of houses at the foot of the mountain. Choose an empty one to stay in temporarily. If you get hungry, you can go to the Spirit Dining Hall halfway up the mountain. As for some disciples who still have a third test, don't worry, get a good night's sleep tonight, and I'll take you there tomorrow. Disciples who don't have an additional test, just stay here obediently and prepare to participate in the disciple-acceptance ceremony in a few days. At that time, you will be assigned to other peaks. You're only staying here for a few days, so don't do anything to cause me trouble by fighting for rooms. Understand?"
After saying this, the senior brother who was guiding the group glanced at everyone and, seeing that there were no troublemakers, left with satisfaction.
After he left, Yao Sisi and Qi Mu began to look around at the rooms not far away. Most of them were individual courtyards. They didn't know which disciples lived there. There were several rooms in each courtyard, so they chose a room near each other to stay in, so they could look out for each other.
As for Lingzhai Hall, they didn't plan to go there. Instead, they prepared a hot pot in the courtyard, chatted and relaxed, and discussed tomorrow's trial.
The courtyard was quite well-equipped, with tables, chairs, and benches. They started setting up a pot, which wasn't the traditional kind, but one that Yao Sisi had specially made for outdoor life, and it didn't easily produce smoke when lit.
Not long after the group sat down, a round-faced male cultivator who looked very fortunate walked over. He was one of the cultivators who had participated in the test with them. His cultivation level was not high; he had just reached the Foundation Establishment stage. Yao Sisi had some impression of him because he had come with the group of children to warm themselves by the fire. He was not at all as reserved as the older cultivators; instead, he chatted with the children with a smile on his face, just like a child.
He said, "Fellow Daoist! What a coincidence! I live in that room, very close to yours."
Yao Sisi didn't know what he was going to do, or perhaps he was just a chatterbox and this was just a habitual greeting.
She could only nod and say, "What a coincidence."
The man said, “What a coincidence! I deliberately chose to be closer to you. My name is Qin Fubao. My brother is an inner disciple of the Xuanyun Sect and an alchemist.”
Yao Sisi paused, realizing there was a connection. "Oh, I see." She pointed to Qi Mu and said, "My friend here is also an alchemist."
Qin Fubao was taken aback. "Wow, your friend has a bright future ahead of him! I was so envious when we tested his spiritual roots before, I never expected he would be an alchemist!"
Yao Sisi suddenly wanted to experience Versailles too, because this guy's little expressions were just too interesting. His surprised features were almost jumping out of his face. She pointed to herself: "I am a weapon refiner."
Qin Fubao fell silent at this point, not because he didn't want to speak, but because he was suddenly choked up. He opened his mouth wide in surprise and it took him a long time to utter a sound, "Senior... Senior... So amazing!"
Seeing that his features were indeed striking, Yao Sisi joked, "Just call me Fellow Daoist, calling me Senior makes me look decades older."
Qin Fubao readily agreed: "Fellow Daoist!"
Yao Sisi asked, "I thought you were quite eloquent, so why are you stuttering?"
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and suddenly said helplessly, "You guys are just too enviable. You have such good spiritual roots and you also have the talent for alchemy and weapon crafting. The key is that you haven't neglected your cultivation and your cultivation level is not low. Compared to you, I am really hopeless."
His gaze suddenly shifted to Liu Yuan: "Fellow Daoist, I see that your spiritual root is also very pure. You don't have any other talents, do you?"
Liu Yuan paused for a moment, then suddenly said, "Does serving people count? I think I'm quite good at serving people, and I want to keep doing it."
Qin Fubao choked up: "Fellow Daoist, you're not just teasing me because you're afraid I can't handle the blow, are you?"
At this moment, Qi Mu gave Liu Yuan a look, and he could only say, "Of course I was just teasing you. Does knowing how to raise spirit plants count?"
Qin Fubao: "Count it, count it, how can this not be counted? My brother used to say that I was ignorant and incompetent, and I laughed at him, saying that geniuses are everywhere? But after meeting you all, my outlook on life for the first twenty years of my life has been completely changed."
Yao Sisi asked, "Your brother is an alchemist, so you should have joined the sect much earlier. Why has it taken so long?"
Qin Fubao said awkwardly, "Didn't I fail the first time I participated? Don't be fooled by my brother's skill in alchemy and his many friends. The assessment is a strict requirement of the sect. If you can't pass, you can't enter the sect, unless you're a servant or a guest elder, but I can't do either of those."
Yao Sisi understood. The first one probably couldn't stand the status, and the second one probably lacked the ability. Not just anyone could be a guest advisor.
As they were talking, the hot pot on the stone table was ready. Seeing that he didn't seem to be leaving, Yao Sisi politely asked, "Would you like some?"
Qin Fubao pointed to himself, somewhat embarrassed, and said, "I... I actually came here to discuss tomorrow's monster trial with you guys, but I ended up being too talkative. I definitely didn't come here to freeload!"
Yao Sisi smiled and said, "Don't be shy, I'll get you a pair of chopsticks."
Qin Fubao: "No need, I have my own..."
Then, glancing at their expressions, he belatedly explained, "Look at my physique, I just love to eat too much. I have plenty of delicious food here, you should try some too."
He was very generous, taking out several plates of food from his storage ring, including both cold and hot dishes, and he also brought a lot of fruit. If Yao Sisi hadn't interrupted him, the table would have been almost overflowing, and he would have continued to take more.
Yao Sisi: "Fellow Daoist is really straightforward. What did you want to discuss with us before?"
Qi Mu didn't care about the chubby boy in front of him; his attention was entirely on his own people. Seeing that the meat and vegetables inside were ready, he subconsciously added a piece of food to Yao Sisi's plate. Qin Fubao paused after seeing this, then sat a little further away from Yao Sisi. He said, "My brother helped me find out about the Monster Valley. Actually, the last level isn't difficult, but sometimes it depends on luck."
Yao Sisi took a bite of her food and asked, "What do you mean?"
Qin Fubao didn't keep you in suspense and went straight to the point: "The test for the last round is almost unchanged. You have to bring back a demon beast with a cultivation level similar to your own within three days. It tests your combat ability, but you don't necessarily have to kill it completely. Sometimes you can just finish it off. However, demon beasts are not easy to find. Every year there are losers who fail to find a suitable demon beast to attack."
Yao Sisi: "I understand. Your brother found out where there are monsters in the sect, right?"
Qin Fubao also picked up a piece of food for himself, and it smelled especially delicious in his mouth: "Fellow Daoist is indeed clever! Also... your soup base tastes great, and the dipping sauce is delicious too!"
...
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Author's note: It's almost the end of the month, so don't let the nutrient solution expire and go to waste. Please feed me! Please feed me!
This author loves nutrient solutions; even after the story is finished, they're happy to donate nutrient solutions.
Let me give you a little kiss in advance~
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