The atmosphere in the square reached a fever pitch with the appearance of the Ye family’s two prodigies.
Lin Langtian had also revealed an eighth-grade talent.
For someone who had once been the Demon Emperor, concealing his results from an aptitude-testing stele was as easy as turning over his hand.
On the platform, the Xuantian Sect elder stroked his beard and smiled. He was quite pleased with the promising youths produced by Qinghe City this year.
Whenever the Xuantian Sect recruited disciples, it placed great importance on both talent and bone age.
The younger one was, and the higher their cultivation, the greater their potential.
“Next, unaffiliated cultivator—Liu Ruyan.” The registrar called out loudly.
From among the crowd, a young woman in white, her face concealed behind a white veil, slowly walked forward.
She had a slender, graceful figure. Even with most of her face hidden, she still gave off an aloof, otherworldly air.
It was Liu Ruyan, who had kept a low profile for some time.
After being framed in the Imperial Mausoleum and suffering a decline in cultivation and damaged meridians from absorbing the demonic flood dragon’s blood essence, Liu Ruyan had secluded herself in the outskirts for half a month.
With the all-out assistance of the mysterious master within her ring, she had not only eliminated the residual poison of the demonic flood dragon’s blood from her body, but had also destroyed and rebuilt herself, pushing her cultivation back to the pinnacle of the Qi Condensation Realm.
More importantly, after that life-and-death ordeal, her resolve had become tougher—and her heart colder.
Competing for an unaffiliated cultivator’s quota required going through several troublesome battles. However, with the ring master’s help, obtaining a spot had not been difficult.
Liu Ruyan walked up to the testing stele. Ignoring the probing gazes around her, she slowly raised her slender hand and pressed it against the cold stone.
Buzz!
The testing stele suddenly trembled, then erupted with dazzling light.
It was an incredibly brilliant purple-gold radiance. The light shot straight into the sky, illuminating the entire square.
“What… what’s going on?”
“Did the testing stele break?”
Gasps of astonishment rose from the crowd.
The three Xuantian Sect envoys on the platform abruptly stood up. The old man in particular stared fixedly at the testing stele, breathing rapidly.
“Purple-gold light reaching straight into the heavens… Could this be…”
The old man’s voice trembled as he gripped the back of his chair tightly.
“Bone age: eighteen. Cultivation: peak Qi Condensation.”
The registrar swallowed as he looked at the data displayed on the testing stele. His voice had become noticeably strained.
“Talent… top-tier tenth grade!”
Boom!
The entire square erupted.
A top-tier tenth-grade talent!
On the Spirit Realm Continent, cultivation talent was divided into ten grades.
For an ordinary cultivator to possess a third- or fourth-grade talent was already considered respectable. Those who reached the seventh grade could be called geniuses, while eighth- and ninth-grade talents were rarer than phoenix feathers and qilin horns.
As for tenth-grade talent, it existed only in legends—a supreme prodigy of unparalleled rarity!
In the ten-thousand-year history of the Xuantian Sect, the disciples who possessed tenth-grade talent could be counted on one hand. Without exception, all of them had eventually become supreme experts who shook the world.
“Qinghe City is such a remote backwater, yet it actually produced a supreme prodigy with tenth-grade talent?!”
“My heavens, just who is Liu Ruyan?”
“An unaffiliated cultivator? How could an unaffiliated cultivator possibly have such heaven-defying talent?”
“Shh. Liu Ruyan used to be the Lin family’s adopted daughter…”
The heads of the four great families exchanged stunned looks, their hearts rocked by turbulent waves.
Lin Aotian immediately grew flustered. He had never imagined that Liu Ruyan, whom he himself had expelled from the Lin family, would possess such terrifying talent!
At the back of the crowd, Ye Wushuang stood with her arms crossed, a foxtail grass she had plucked from somewhere between her lips. As she watched Liu Ruyan on the platform, the corners of her mouth curled into an amused smile.
“As expected of the Heaven-Mandated Empress. Even after I hijacked her opportunity and made her suffer so terribly, she still managed to bounce back from rock bottom.”
Ye Wushuang muttered inwardly.
The daughter of destiny certainly had a tenacious fate. But that was fine. This way, she would have even more chances to seize her opportunities.
On the platform, the Xuantian Sect elder could no longer contain his excitement. He flew directly down and landed in front of Liu Ruyan.
“This old man is Li Changqing, an outer sect elder of the Xuantian Sect. May I ask whether Miss Liu would be willing to enter under my tutelage directly? I am willing to accept you as my personal disciple and impart everything I know to you!”
The conditions Li Changqing offered could hardly be called anything but generous.
The personal disciple of an outer sect elder even held a status higher than that of some inner sect disciples.
Although Li Changqing had not expected to succeed, at the very least, he could make a good impression. If he happened to encounter a naïve girl who was easy to fool, wouldn’t that make her his disciple? Li Changqing was already fantasizing about it.
However, Liu Ruyan merely gave a slight bow and replied calmly, “Thank you for your kindness, Senior. I would like to complete the following tests first before making a decision.”
The moment she said this, the surrounding crowd let out a collective gasp.
That was a personal invitation from an elder of the Xuantian Sect—and she had actually refused it?
Li Changqing was stunned at first, then threw his head back and laughed.
“Good! Ambitious! A true prodigy should possess this kind of pride. This old man will await you at the sect!”
Liu Ruyan turned and walked down from the platform. A cold glint flashed in her eyes beneath the veil.
What she wanted was far more than to become an outer sect elder’s personal disciple.
She wanted to become the most dazzling presence in the Xuantian Sect. She wanted to grasp supreme power, then crush beneath her feet every person who had once humiliated or plotted against her!
Especially Ye Wushuang!
Liu Ruyan instinctively searched the crowd and soon spotted Ye Wushuang standing together with the Lin family.
Feeling Liu Ruyan’s gaze, Ye Wushuang not only failed to avoid it, but even winked at her.
For some reason, the moment Liu Ruyan saw Ye Wushuang, her stomach churned. The memory of being drenched in black, foul-smelling liquid surged back into her mind.
She abruptly turned away. Only then did she begin to recover.
“Next, the Lin family—Ye Wushuang.”
The registrar’s voice rang out once more.
The previously clamorous square instantly fell silent.
Every gaze focused on the cool-eyed young woman in the green robe.
Ye Wushuang was as beautiful as her name suggested. Although her features could not be called devastatingly beautiful, she was still worthy of the name Wushuang—unparalleled beauty.
No one looking at her now could possibly connect this image with the Ye Family Ruthless One who had destroyed the Dragon Emperor Sword.
Rumors about Ye Wushuang had spread throughout Qinghe City over the past few days.
Now that she was representing the Lin family, she naturally drew countless eyes.
Ye Wuxin and Ye Wuming stood among the Ye family’s delegation, both wearing unpleasant expressions.
Ye Wuming in particular looked at Ye Wushuang as though he wanted to devour her alive.
“Hmph! I want to see how a useless nobody can pull any tricks in front of the testing stele, even if she did use some crooked method to defeat me!”
Ye Wuming muttered through clenched teeth.
Deep down, he still refused to believe that his second sister, Ye Wushuang, possessed any real talent. He merely thought she had gotten lucky and obtained some heavenly treasure that had allowed her to raise her cultivation.
Ye Wushuang leisurely walked up onto the platform.
She arrived before the testing stele and casually slapped her palm against it.
Everyone held their breath and stared fixedly at the stele.
Three breaths passed.
The testing stele remained completely still.
“Hahaha! I knew she was bluffing! Even the testing stele isn’t reacting. She really is nothing but a complete waste!”
Ye Wuming could not help bursting into loud laughter.
The Ye family members also revealed mocking expressions.
However, the moment Ye Wuming’s laughter fell, a sudden change occurred.
Boom—!
The testing stele, which had shown no reaction at all, suddenly began to shake violently.
The next instant, a purplish-golden radiance far more terrifying than the one produced by Liu Ruyan’s test erupted like a volcanic explosion!
The light was so dazzling that everyone in the square instinctively closed their eyes.
Crack! Crack!
Spiderweb-like fissures began to spread across the surface of the supposedly indestructible testing stele.
“How… how is this possible?!”
The deacon in charge of the test stumbled backward in terror and fell heavily onto the ground.
As the radiance gradually faded, everyone finally saw the results displayed on the testing stele.
“Bone age: eighteen. Cultivation… consummation of the True Essence Realm?!”
The deacon’s tongue nearly tied itself in knots as he read those words aloud.
The entire square fell deathly silent.
