The high platform above the pond was incomparably vast, wide enough for two hundred people to stand with ample space between them. To ensure the observing cultivators had a clear view, four water screens rose up with a great splash. The faces and attire of everyone on the platform were projected onto the water screens, revealing every last detail.
After the adjudicating disciple used a magical artifact to produce the sound of a great bell, the two hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators calmly sat down cross-legged and closed their eyes. A formation was set up around the high platform, ensuring that no sound or movement from below could affect it in the slightest.
After all the Foundation Establishment cultivators had entered a state of meditation, the white-robed Daoist was seen forming a hand seal with a single hand, pointing forward, and shouting, "Suppress!" Zhao Chun and the others felt nothing at all, but the two hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators on the platform looked as if they had suffered a grievous blow.
Their faces instantly turned pale, and some even trembled like chaff in the wind, their shoulders and necks shaking violently. Before half an incense stick's time had passed, people began to break out of their meditative state.
With a point of his horsetail whisk, the adjudicating disciple had a Core Formation cultivator's great hand seize these individuals and remove them from the stage. However, no one in the audience dared to show even a hint of mockery.
These Foundation Establishment disciples had all been meticulously selected by their various great sects, and what they were enduring today was the spiritual pressure of a Profound Division stage expert, which was no small matter. In her four years in the sect, Zhao Chun had never once seen the Sect Master, Master Tusheng.
Fang Dunián of the Perceptive Moon Sect was the first Profound Division stage cultivator she had ever laid eyes on. Even from such a great distance, and with three of their sect's Core Formation elders suppressing the field, his spiritual pressure, like a deep and vast ocean, still rushed over them.
Although Qiu Jianying and Li Su were at the late Core Formation stage, compared to Fang Dunián, their power was like the glow of a firefly to the sun. If she felt this way, what more for the disciples on the platform who were directly facing such pressure?
Beside the adjudicating disciple, a large, nine-foot-tall incense stick as thick as a child's arm was burning. After an entire incense stick had burned down, only half of the two hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators remained. One of the three from the True Spirit Sect had been eliminated.
With a look of vexation, he returned to his seat. Huo Zixun offered him a few soft words of comfort, then let him regulate his breathing on his own. There were still the second and third trials ahead, and he needed to steady his mind.
Besides Liu Xuan, the other True Spirit Sect disciple was also eliminated halfway through the second incense stick. Only after hearing him speak did the other disciples learn that the spiritual pressure grew heavier the longer one endured. The pressure during the second incense stick's burning was fully double that of the first.
He couldn't talk much with the other disciples. After revealing a few pieces of information, he once again entered a meditative state in his seat to regulate the True Qi within his body. As the figures on the high platform grew fewer, the remaining Foundation Establishment cultivators became all the more conspicuous.
By the time the third incense stick had burned out, there were shockingly only five people left on the platform! Among these five people, Liu Xuan was one, and the male disciple from the Crimson Beast Sect who had ridden the Roc to the platform was another.
Of the remaining three, two were disciples of the Glorious Clarity Mountain sect, dressed in pale green and white robes. There was only one that Zhao Chun had not heard Liu Xuan mention before, who was likely from a minor sect.
Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that these five were likely the ones with the best results in this trial. However, as for who would ultimately take the crown, they would have to wait and see.
For the spectators, time flowed like water, but for the five people enduring the spiritual pressure, it felt as though every day were a year. Suddenly, someone moved! It was the disciple from the Crimson Beast Sect.
He finally could not withstand the pressure that rolled in like ocean waves and broke out of his meditative state, his body drenched in sweat and his lips deathly pale. Upon opening his eyes and seeing four others still remaining, he realized he was not the top performer in this trial.
Greatly disappointed, he was woodenly seized by the great hand and removed from the platform. Where there was one, there would soon be a second. A disciple from Glorious Clarity Mountain and the disciple from the minor sect broke out of their meditation one after another and were removed from the platform.
For a moment, only Liu Xuan and another disciple from Glorious Clarity Mountain remained on the platform. The two figures, one in lake-blue and the other in pale green and white, sat at opposite ends of the stage. In his seat, Li Su held his breath, his attention focused.
The hand stroking his beard unconsciously slowed. Liu Xuan had truly given him a great surprise today. Although she was his personal disciple, Liu Xuan was obsessed with the Dao of alchemy, so Li Su had been unable to offer her much guidance, and the bond between them as master and disciple was faint.
Even her Foundation Establishment was something she achieved on her own. One day, she had simply returned to the sect and reported to her master that she had found a spiritual object outside and successfully built her spiritual foundation. Li Su had not been involved in the slightest, not even to act as her protector.
He could only vaguely sense that her spiritual foundation was extraordinary, and her skills in the Dao of alchemy were even more astonishing. But Li Su had never imagined that Liu Xuan's foundation could already rival the top disciples of the three great sects, and that she was even among the best of them.
Liu Xuan recovered her senses only a breath after the disciple from Glorious Clarity Mountain, regretfully missing first place. Yet, she wasn't the least bit annoyed. Without needing the great hand to remove her, she summoned a leaf and drifted gracefully back to her seat.
In contrast, the disciple from Glorious Clarity Mountain, despite winning first place among the two hundred, was still utterly astonished. Among the ten Foundation Establishment cultivators his sect had sent this time, although he couldn't compare to the top-ranked Senior Brother Ning Fu, his own strength was definitely within the top three.
He couldn't believe that the True Spirit Sect, that faded champion of old, could still produce such a genius disciple! Seeing her leave the stage, Li Su opened and closed his mouth several times but ultimately said nothing. Everyone had their own fated path.
It was best to let her be.
"Congratulations, Senior Sister!"
Zhao Chun stood up to welcome her to her seat, offering her congratulations. The other Qi Refining disciples beside them also chimed in with their felicitations, sharing in her glory.
"It's too early for congratulations. It won't be too late to say so after I've passed all three trials."
She was quite confident, pulling Zhao Chun to sit down with her. Zhao Chun saw that her expression was composed, with only a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead. However, knowing the next trial would be even more difficult, Liu Xuan closed her eyes slightly and entered a meditative state to regulate her breathing.
There was only a two-hour interval between the two trials, which was rather disadvantageous for the cultivators who were eliminated later. However, Liu Xuan was an alchemy cultivator. She took out a bottle of pills for restoring one's strength and placed one in her mouth.
Zhao Chun immediately sensed the surrounding spiritual qi surging towards her like a tide.
The other disciples who left the stage had also used medicinal pills to aid their recovery, but their effects were far inferior to Liu Xuan's. Zhao Chun guessed that it must be from a pill formula that Liu Xuan had improved herself, one that was not yet known to the outside world.
The great bell rang out again, signifying that two hours had passed. The two hundred cultivators had to enter the platform once more. After the previous trial, the audience already knew who the true prodigies were, and they couldn't help but fix their gazes on these few individuals, eager to see how their comprehension would measure up.
The second trial: Materializing a Phantom, a test of comprehension. If one's foundation could be built through diligent cultivation after birth, then comprehension was the very thing that barred the vast majority of cultivators from the realm of genius.
Like Zhao Chun with the Dao of the Sword, and Liu Xuan with the Dao of Alchemy, a cultivator might seem ordinary at first. Only when they found the Dao that suited their cultivation would their true comprehension be revealed.
The phantoms materialized by the cultivators on the platform either held sabers, swords, long whips, and various other magical artifacts, or stood empty-handed, forming hand seals to cast techniques. Only Liu Xuan's phantom was peculiar. Beside her was a graceful figure with a blurred face, and suspended above this figure was a massive cauldron.
"She's going to compete through alchemy!"
The one who exclaimed this was a Core Formation elder from the Alchemical Terrace Sect, who was also a Yellow Grade, First-Tier Alchemist. Seeing this, he actually half-rose from his seat, his eyes wide with disbelief.
(End of Chapter)