Chapter 24: This is What You Call... (1/2)
Chapter 24: This is What You Call...
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
At the same time, on the Stellar Peak, the Sect Leader's solemn face was looking at the silver sword in front of him. After he lightly knocked the sword, he hesitantly said, ”He's really in this group of people... Fifth Martial Sister, what do you have in mind?”
At the other end of the bamboo room, the woman in white wore a rare serious expression. ”I can even identify the candidate... The one who can crack my chain of quest can't be just an average person.”
The Sect Leader said, ”Little Ling'Er told me that, and I've personally looked him up... Based on his apt.i.tude, I really can't see him be worthy of the t.i.tle 'The Chosen One'.”
”Tsk, since when did you a.s.sume success only based on potential alone? If you insist on looking for potential alone, can you even train a person with a Heavenly Spirit Root?”
Facing his Junior Martial Sister's contempt, the Sect Leader coughed and said, ”Fifth Martial Sister, did you forget about Ling'Er again?”
”... d.a.m.n, in short, even if he only has Five Elements Spirit Root, no, even if it's just a Six Harmonies Spirit Root, I am not wrong. Not to mention that this Age of Chaos and The Chosen One concepts, all of these bullshxt, were raised by you. I designed this trial just to help you identify this particular person. If you doubt that...”
The Sect Leader hastily waved his hand to interject. ”I do not doubt you. I just feel a bit strange... Forget it, since you've said so, then there should be no mistake. I'll give serious attention to The Chosen One. If necessary, I will even invoke my privilege as the Sect Leader.”
The Junior Martial Sister sneered. ”If you are even reluctant to use your privilege, then what is the point of you still being the Sect Leader? You might as well abdicate your position to me, then I will show you how to be a good Sect Leader.”
The Sect Leader pretended that he did not hear her and left the hut without a thought, leaving behind the woman in white with her mouth twitching.
The Sect Leader only allowed the Heavenly Sword Hall Elders to be the judge in the additional trial. However, the woman in white was currently a non-active Elder, so she was not eligible to attend and could only wait outside, but...
As she looked around the room, a greedy smile appeared on her lips. Although the Sect Leader was famous for being frugal, he was still the leader of a great sect. This bamboo room was his personal cultivation room, so there were definitely many hidden treasures here. Usually, the Sect Leader would either set up a restriction to prohibit unconcerned persons from entering or guard the place himself. Thus, the woman in white never had the opportunity to strike, until now... This was a G.o.dsent opportunity for her!
Then suddenly, she felt her eyes blurred. The next moment, she was already standing outside the bamboo room. Needless to say, the indoor restriction array activated and kicked her out.
”What the, so watertight! Your heart is really small!”
While she was complaining, the woman suddenly noticed a glimmer on the table.
”... Did that idiot forget to bring his gla.s.ses again?”
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In an instant, the Sect Leader appeared in the Mystical Cloud Hall and took his seat.
The other Elders stood up to greet him, ”Welcome, Sect Leader!”
”Ah, Junior Martial Brothers and Sister, no need to be so polite. I am late, so I should be the one to offer an apology to everyone.” The Sect Leader cupped his hands in front of him and slightly bent over. However, everyone could see that it was a half-hearted apology.
Second Elder Liu Xian loudly coughed. ”Sect Leader, since all the people have arrived, I think we should begin, right? Just now, the other Elders and I have come to an agreement that from those fifteen people, we can only accept three people at most.”
As long as the most important one was included in it, the Sect Leader didn't worry about those numbers. He had verified that candidate twice, once at the Ru Family Inn, and once on the Golden Bridge... Unfortunately, he couldn't watch that candidate's progression after that due to his other important matters. Even after he had finally managed to squeeze out time to oversee the gathering, he had to spend it to deal with his Martial Sister's antics. Otherwise, he would have definitely paid more attention to this matter of great importance.
Thinking up to this point, The Sect Leader sighed and waved his hand. ”Let's begin, no need to delay any further.”
Thus, the additional trial began.
There was nothing fancy in this trial. After the door of the Mystical Cloud Hall had been opened, a gentle white light shrouded the entire room. Then, several disciples in black and white clothing, politely yet with a cold and detached manner, led the partic.i.p.ants to stand before the hall to wait for the trial. In the hall, there were nine pairs of eyes sharply scrutinizing them, as if cutting them in millions of tiny pieces.
This was all there was to it in this additional trial; there were no rules or complicated procedures. Whether one was qualified to stay or not, it all depended on the Elders' fiery eyes. Of course, the Elders would carefully open their spiritual eyes in order to deeply a.n.a.lyze the true potential of each partic.i.p.ant. Through their experience, although they could rely on their intuition alone to correctly judge a person's potential with an accuracy of seventy to eighty percent, but in this Immortal Gathering, they could not afford to be negligent. Even the Sect Leader had opened his Stellar Gaze, which could not only see through the present, but could also gain insight into the future... Thus, the Sect Leader could determine even the rarest Spirit Root.
However, this kind of trial was too uncomfortable for the partic.i.p.ants; this was basically similar to slaves being exhibited to potential buyers. Because of that layer of white light, the partic.i.p.ants were completely unable to see the face of the judges, and thus, they could not determine whether they got a good result or not based on the reaction from the judges; they didn't even know what kind of standard would be applied to judge them.
While all of them were feeling apprehensive, a disciple in black and white said, ”Everyone please walk to the front of the hall one by one.”
”Walk to the front one by one? Is there no arrangement on who walks first? Is it good to be the first or the last? Should we go faster or slower?”
While most of the partic.i.p.ants were plagued by these issues, one determined youth had marched to the front of the hall in big strides.
But contrary to the partic.i.p.ants' expectation, it was neither w.a.n.g Lu nor the consistently well-performing Hai Yunfan. Instead, it was the prince from the Great Ming Kingdom, Zhu Qin.
This was Zhu Qin's last ditch effort. With top performers like w.a.n.g Lu and Hai Yunfan around, the opportunities for him to s.h.i.+ne were few... Indeed, Zhu Qin himself was not that confident, but at least, he needed to show his resoluteness.
He was only ranked ten in the Cloud Wave Map; not because he was more indecisive than the partic.i.p.ants who ranked higher than him, but because he exerted himself too much at the Golden Bridge. This resulted in him being too exhausted, so he took a rest in the Cloud Wave Map for quite a while. Thinking about it afterwards, he always regretted that decision.
Zhu Qin did not want to leave the wrong impression to the judges. He heard that the Spirit Sword Sect put heavy emphasis on one's character. Therefore, he would show them his character!
One step, two step... His pace was steady. It did not seem that this youth's mind was nervous at all. However, as he walked forward, the entire hall remained silent.
Was this a good or bad decision? No one knew...
But after Zhu Qin, the next one to walk forward was w.a.n.g Zhong... This ex-errand boy might not have Zhu Qin's decisiveness, but he was clever enough. Because when he saw Zhu Qin walk forward, he noticed that w.a.n.g Lu actually had the intention to move, but was too lazy to contend for the first place against Zhu Qin.
”No matter. If w.a.n.g Lu doesn't want to contend, I will...” Although he had been independent of w.a.n.g Lu, w.a.n.g Zhong knew about his ex-master's ability and judgment very well. However, regardless of how inconceivable his ex-young-master's judgment was... in the end, it would mostly turn out to be right.
Therefore, w.a.n.g Zhong became the second to walk forward. When he turned around, he saw that w.a.n.g Lu seemed to be laughing at him.