Chapter 849: Creativity (1/2)

Chapter 849: Creativity

On the Ancient Road of the Nascent Soul, everything was normal. The cultivators on the Ancient Road of Spirit Severing had made incredible progress. These three stages of talent, cultivation, and age assessments tested one’s foundation, and as such, were of great importance to the various sects and clans. There were already quite a few people from both the Ancient Road of the Nascent Soul and Spirit Severing whose names had been recorded by the sects. As long as they continued to perform well in the following stages, their future good fortune was essentially guaranteed.

Chen Fan was just such a person!

Unfortunately, Fatty and the others had not yet made it onto any of the lists.

In contrast, the Ancient Road of Dao Seeking was in complete chaos. It wasn’t that the proceedings themselves were chaotic, but rather, there was a feeling of unpredictability because nobody was paying attention to who would take first place in the assessments of talent, cultivation and age.

All sorts of conversations were playing out throughout the Ninth Mountain and Sea.

“Just what kind of latent talent does Fang Mu have? And what cultivation base? How old is he?!”

“I can’t believe the stone steles didn’t work! They even changed steles several times. There’s obviously something special about Fang Mu!”

“Oh right, who took first in the talent and cultivation assessments?”

“I wasn’t really paying attention. I’m just wondering whether the age-assessing stone stele will be effective on Fang Mu!”

Back on the Ancient Road of Dao Seeking, Meng Hao was like an unwelcome guest whose style and actions took the wind out of everyone’s sails. He was now, once again, the focus of all attention.

Although he wasn’t in first place… the current first place competitor was being completely ignored.

More and more sects were becoming interested in Meng Hao, and in fact, his name had already been recorded by all of the Three Churches and Six Sects. Furthermore, it was in first place on all of those lists!

Meng Hao bashfully placed his hand on the ‘age’ stone stele, sucked in the energy, solidifying his Immortal meridian to forty percent.

He felt that it was quite a pity that Ling Yunzi was so stingy. Sighing wistfully to himself, he thought of yelling out another complaint about how unfair it all was, but managed to keep his mouth shut. He said nothing, but rather, stood there gauging the other competitors’ columns of light. No matter how high any of those columns were, everyone’s faces were extremely unsightly.

“The age-assessing stage is concluded!” announced Ling Yunzi with the flick of a sleeve. Everyone except for Meng Hao vanished and reappeared on altars further off in the distance.

Meng Hao had now gone from first place to dead last.

This development caused everyone who was competing in the trial by fire on the Ancient Road of Dao Seeking to be very agitated. Virtually, all of them turned to glare back at Meng Hao, inwardly musing about how benevolent Ling Yunzi was. In their minds, someone like Meng Hao should obviously have been disqualified immediately.

“He obviously just doesn’t have enough latent talent, so he used some insidious technique to disable the stone steles. How shameless!”

“There must be something weird about his cultivation base that he doesn’t want anyone to know about. To use such methods to skirt the issue is really detestable. You know, he should be disqualified! Merely getting sent to last place is really showing him mercy!”

“Punish him to sate our anger!”

Everyone on the Ancient Road of Dao Seeking was furious at Meng Hao, especially those who hadn’t made a name for themselves in the previous two stages. Those who had excelled in the assessments of talent, cultivation, and age were especially angry.

“This isn’t fair!” yelled Meng Hao.

“Not fair?” replied Ling Yunzi, glaring back at him. “You didn’t earn any marks in the last three stages, you wasted several stone steles, and even depleted some of the valuable resources of the Ruins of Immortality! You’re lucky to not be disqualified! I dare you to keep yapping!”

Anyone else who was in Meng Hao’s position that received such words and such a gaze from Ling Yunzi would instantly be filled with awe, fear, and concern over the consequences of their words. However, as far as Meng Hao was concerned, he hadn’t come here to join any sect.

“Oh great and powerful senior,” he said, “I know that I was in the wrong. Listen, how about this. Just give me three more stone steles to try out. If they don’t work, then junior will resign himself to his fate.”

Ling Yunzi gaped at Meng Hao, so angry that he almost felt like laughing. Were it not for Meng Hao’s previous performance having attracted the attention of all the spectators outside, he would definitely disqualify him immediately. Meng Hao was turning into a real headache. In the end, Ling Yunzi just pretended he didn’t hear him.

“The sixth, seventh, and eighth stages will assess your divine sense, willpower, and intuition!”

In response to Ling Yunzi’s words, Meng Hao blinked. Inwardly, he vowed that the next time he saw Fan Dong’er, he would definitely show her who was boss, and vent his anger toward Ling Yunzi on her.

“You will pass through these three stages simultaneously. Each of you will find yourself in your own world, filled with unique and strange phenomena, which you will use to create your own divine ability!

“Depending on the results of your creation, you will be presented with a certain number of….” At this point, Ling Yunzi faltered for a moment before speaking the final two words.

“… stone steles!”

When Meng Hao heard the words ‘stone steles,’ his heart began to thump, and his eyes shone brightly.

Ling Yunzi waved his hand, causing all of the altars began to tremble; massive amounts of fog began to accumulate, covering over everyone present. Then, the power of teleportation spread out, and everyone disappeared.

Outside in the Ninth Mountain and Sea, everyone settled their qi and calmed their minds, then focused on the scenes playing out on the vortex screens. It could be said that the first two stages tested fighting, and the third through fifth stages tested the foundation. In that case, the sixth, seventh and eighth stages tested creativity!

For cultivators, creativity required divine sense, willpower, and of course intuition.

Every time the Three Great Daoist Societies held a recruitment event, shocking and peerless individuals would create divine abilities in these three stages that would become incredibly famous.