Chapter 13 Sword Character Immortal Palace (2/2)
Without hesitation, Lyu Liang joined the crowd in trying to obtain a copy of the manual, since everyone was cheating in this sense. Who would want to miss the manual that prepared them for the test to come?
After an hour, Lyu Liang finally got his hands on a copy of ”Manual for qualifying for entry into Sword Character Immortal Palace” and was making his way through the crowd out of the building. Like the people who bought the manual, Lyu Liang flipped through the manual there and then.
The format of the test was rather simple, consisting of only two items.
The first item was a test of Spiritual Root. In a stricter sense, this was not a test, but rather, a selection. The method of test in the past was for the each candidate to touch a testing stele at the gates of Sword Character Immortal Palace. The candidates were required to mobilize their willpower and the stele would be able to gauge the nature of his Spiritual Root. If he possessed more than one Spiritual Root or a special Spiritual Root, he would move on to the next higher level in the test. If he possessed a special bodily constitution, he would be exempted from the rest of the tests and directly becomes a disciple. Candidates who possessed a single Spiritual Root would have to draw lots for the duals which would allow the victor to proceed to the second item of test. The Five-element Bead in his body had provided him with five body constitutions, which would categorize him as having a special body constitution. Lyu Liang did not want to be high-key about his body constitution, so he hit four of them straight away, leaving only the Fire Spiritual Root for use.
The second item was a trial which involved risks to one's life. At the start, each candidate would be given a token. There would then be a powerful figure to lead them to the hills behind the suzerain where the practice field was. The field would be filled with monsters and beasts which had attained the Late-stage of the Foundation Establishment. However the exact spots where these Foundation Estalishment level beasts and monsters were, were already been sealed up, so the candidates could be at ease. Within a one-month period, the candidates were to obtain as many tokens as possible. At the end of the month, the candidate with the most number of tokens would be considered as successfully passing the trial.
To Lyu Liang however, these tests and trials were not the most challenging part. In fact, the most difficult thing was written as a line of tiny characters at the last page of the manual, which said that the requirement for qualifying disciples would be one cultivator who had attained the Qi Refining stage.
This requirement was new to Lyu Liang, who whose confident was instantly dampened! However, since he had come all the way here, and had made it on time, Lyu Liang was determined to give it a try. His plan was to conceal cultivation level and keep it at the Peak of Qi Refining stage. He was not going to be put off just by a line of tiny characters, to give up so easily!
Calming his nerves, Lyu Liang turned in the other direction. This place was rightfully called the number one shop in Tianshui. It carried goods such as magic treasures needed for the Early-stage of Qi Refining all the way to the Late-stage of Void Return. There were all kinds of rare treasures, talismans and medical pills. There were even immortal standard magic treasures! Lyu Liang's eyes feasted on all these treasures. However, he was wise enough not to squander his money although he could well afford a Gold Core stage magic treasure. However, if he were crazy enough to buy one of those treasures, people would start noticing him and that would disadvantage him.
Eventually, Lyu Liang decided to buy some talisman. The talisman was graded into five standards, namely the beginner standard, low standard, medium standard, high standard and immortal standard. The beginner standard talisman was at the Middle Qi Refining stage, and was therefore most suitable for Lyu Liang's use, without it piercing his eyes.
Although the power of attack of a beginner standard talisman was limited, the good thing about it was that it would not exhaust any of the user's magic powers, therefore the user's capability would not be revealed and exposed. Anyways Lyu Liang had already thought through his plans. He would use the talisman to defeat his opponent later on. At most, people would just think that he was just some rich man's son.
He bought 100 fire-natured beginner standard talisman using 500 lower grade Primordial Stone from 10 different talisman counters. Thereafter, he emerged from Tianshui Court and bought 400 more fire-natured beginner standard talisman using 2,000 over lower grade Primordial Stone before he left, feeling contented.
Once he was out of the market place, Lyu Liang found an inn for cultivators and resided there. Lyu Liang had to spend 800 lower grade Primordial Stone over the next forty days because Tuishui was overwhelmed with cultivators who came to attend the recruitment ceremony.
Left with a month, Lyu Liang had practiced very hard and manifested the effect of the moves belonging to the Peak level of Qi Refinement. The effect was acceptable. Apart from Joyful Sword Essence, the second move of Heart Swordsmanship, the rest was satisfactory. Once he mobilized the second move, his cultivation level would naturally be elevated to the Early-stage of Foundation Establishment. As for his Devil Qi, Lyu Liang continued to conceal it. The only thing he was unable to eliminate was the passive Steel Nerves and Iron Bones which came about from cultivating Devil Reshaping Technique. If someone ever started to be suspicious, he could explain the effect away with his coincidental ingestion of an unknown fruit.
A month's time passed in a flash and finally the day for the recruitment ceremony arrived. It was extremely crowded on the town square outside the Sword Character Immortal Palace since early in the morning. Scanning the area, Lyu Liang estimated that there were around 10 thousand people! In terms of the strength and capabilities of the cultivators, they were all at least at the Qi Refining stage and this had made Lyu Liang anxious.
”Snort! Don't be deceived by what you see. There are also quite a number of candidates who are at Foundation Establishment level, some are at Gold Core level and some even came from the Devil Clan and Demon Clan. How dare these candidates with such basal aura had also come. Did they really think that the Sword Character Immortal Palace was that desperate!” Blackie's voice sounded from Lyu Liang's sea of consciousness.
So this was the truth! Not everyone who came abided by the rules. There were actually many among them who thought they could just sneak in! At the thought, Lyu Liang regained some of his confidence. Lyu Liang could see that from afar, the Tao partners, Li Zidao ad Li Yun'er were also among the candidates.
Following three long sounding chimes of a bell, a great pressure came upon all the participating cultivators. Some among them could not bear the pressure and fell to the ground, spitting blood. At the moment they fell to the ground, numerous cultivators cladded in yellow robes flew out from the Sword Character Immortal Palace to pick up those who fell and carried them afar off in a flash.
”A warm welcome to the palace's recruitment ceremony which is held once in a decade. Those who fell to the ground just now were not qualified to enter for the tests. I have sent my Gold Core disciples to clear them away. Following this, we will begin the first item, which is to test of Spiritual Root.” An authoritative voice sounded between the heavens and the earth. Simultaneously, the entire audience on the square became silent.