Chapter 35 Talent Test

The next day, a ray of sunlight shone in from the window, and Bu Gong in the room slowly opened his eyes. He had not fallen asleep because he was practicing.
This room was the reception room at the outer gate of Xianyang Sect, and it was quite spacious. Bu Gong and the others hadn’t officially entered Xianyang Sect yet, so Bu Gong and the twenty or so children who had passed the first level were temporarily staying here.
As for the children who failed the test yesterday afternoon, they were directly sent back to their homes by the disciples of Xianyang Sect; “Knock knock knock…” Just as Bu Gong opened his eyes, not long after, he heard a knock on the door.
“Get up!” A somewhat unfamiliar voice suddenly sounded outside the door; Bu Gong walked over slowly, opened the door, and a young man about twenty years old, wearing work clothes, appeared in front of him.
The young man looked handsome, but he had a rustic air, as if he had been working as a laborer. Bu Gong looked at the young man and said, “Senior Brother, what can I do for you?”
When Bu Gong was looking at the young man, the young man who looked a little rustic was also looking at Bu Gong slightly; when he heard Bu Gong’s question, the young man hurriedly concealed the envy in the depths of his pupils and said, “Junior brother, Elder Yi asked me to inform you that he is going to take the ‘Talent Test'”, with a little respect in his tone.
“Oh? Thank you very much, senior brother. Please wait a moment, I will go and call them.” After saying that, Bu Gong turned and walked into the house.
The young man standing at the door was looking at Bu Gong’s back, and murmured in a low voice with a bit of longing: “I heard that this junior brother in front of me was directly admitted as an outer disciple as soon as he came in; unlike me, I have been in Xianyang Sect for two or three years, but I am still a nominal disciple.” At this point, the young man shook his head and showed a wry smile at the corner of his mouth.
In fact, in the Xianyang Sect, disciples are divided into four categories, so their treatment is also divided into four types, namely: registered disciples, outer disciples, inner disciples, and core disciples; for example, Lin Xin, Wu Likun, and the woman named Han Qing whom Bu Gong met yesterday should all be core disciples.
Because the core disciples of Xianyang Sect had to have a cultivation level of at least the third level of the Kūya Realm; and someone like Bu Gong, who had already reached the third level of the Shaping Body Realm before entering the sect, and was only seventeen years old, was directly promoted to an outer disciple of the sect.
And yesterday, Elder Yi told Bu Gong to directly participate in today’s assessment. If he passed the assessment, he would be promoted to an inner disciple again. Inner disciples are the upper-middle level of the Xianyang Sect’s disciples. In the entire Xianyang Sect, there are not many inner disciples, only about two or three hundred.
This is not a lot, because the entire Xianyang Sect, although not too big for Sang Yunzhou, has seven or eight thousand disciples; as for the core disciples, there are only twenty or thirty of them. Apart from the inner disciples and core disciples, the others are all outer disciples and registered disciples.
As for registered disciples, they still need to be observed for a long time before deciding whether to make them outer disciples. The registered disciples of Xianyang Sect actually have no access to real cultivation. Each of them will only get a simple spell to absorb immortal energy, but that is only for strengthening and nourishing the body.
These disciples were also those who passed the first level of entry test but were eliminated in the second level ‘Talent Test’. They basically handled some miscellaneous tasks in Xianyang Sect; “Huh… Who made them have poor talent?” At this time, the young man in front of the gate sighed slightly, as if a little self-deprecating.
About a minute or two later, Bu Gong appeared at the door again, and behind him were the twenty or so little boys who passed the first test yesterday. They still looked sleepy at this time, and some were even yawning.
Seeing this, the young man at the door didn’t say much, just frowned slightly; then he said to Bu Gong: “Junior brother, please follow me.” After that, the young man turned around and led the way.
After walking for about a quarter of an hour, Bu Gong and his group were led by the young man to the edge of a square. Bu Gong looked up and found that the square, which was several hundred meters in radius, was already bustling with people and noisy.
Hundreds of children were seen gathered around the edge of a high platform in the center of the square, chatting with each other in groups of two or five.
Bu Gong slowly swept his eyes across the crowd in the square and saw many unfamiliar children’s faces; looking at the number of these children, Bu Gong smacked his lips and said: “There must be at least six or seven hundred people.”
However, Bu Gong did not see Lin Xin, Wu Likun and others. Come to think of it, they went to Xuanhuo City to pick up those children, probably on a whim, wanting to go out for a stroll. How could people with such high cultivation as them often wander around in Xianyang Gate?
Bu Gong followed the young man to the square. At this time, there was also a person in the square who was responsible for counting the number of people. It seemed that he was probably a disciple deacon of the Xianyang Sect.
Bu Gong looked up and saw that they were several young men in their twenties. They were dressed better than the young man who had just called him. They were wearing white robes with a floating white cloud embroidered on the corner of their robes. Seeing the embroidery on the corners of these young men’s robes, Bu Gong’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if he had thought of something.
Bu Gong remembered that yesterday, Lin Xin, Wu Likun, and the others seemed to have a white cloud embroidered on the corner of their robes, even though their clothes might be different colors. He then turned and said to the young man who had brought him here, “Senior Brother, may I ask what the white cloud on the corner of the robes of those Xianyang Sect disciples in the field represents?”
Bu Gong’s tone was a bit doubtful, and he turned his head to look at the young man beside him. After hearing Bu Gong’s words, the young man pondered for a moment, and then said with a bit of bitterness: “That is the symbol of the official disciples of Xianyang Sect. Only those who have become outer disciples or above have it. Nominal disciples like us don’t wear that embroidery on our daily clothes.”
“Oh?” Bu Gong said in surprise when he heard that, then turned his head and looked towards the square; he saw those young men in white robes counting the number of children.
About half an hour later, a slightly old and heavy voice echoed: “Prepare for the second test for novice disciples of Xianyang Sect”; as this voice sounded, the originally noisy and boiling sounds in the square also became silent in an instant.
They all turned to look at the source of the sound, and saw an old man in gray clothes, with half white hair, a slightly hunched back, a sparse beard, a somewhat old face, and a somewhat cloudy but very creepy gaze; anyone who met his gaze would involuntarily look away.
I saw the old man slowly walking to the high platform in the square, and behind him were two old men; and when the two old men occasionally glanced at the old figure in front of them, there was a look of awe in their eyes.
Obviously, the old man who just spoke is more than he seems.
At this time, everyone in the square turned their eyes to the central platform. The old man on the platform waved his sleeves, and everyone saw that the platform with a radius of dozens of meters was covered by a transparent invisible energy shield.
However, the seemingly invisible and intangible shield was emitting astonishing energy fluctuations; but only cultivators could sense the terrifying nature of these fluctuations, while ordinary people could only feel a faint invisible pressure from it.
Then the old man stretched out his right hand and grabbed the air. The high platform in the center of the square suddenly cracked under the shocked gazes of many people. Then a bronze stone tablet about half a meter wide and two meters high emerged directly from the ground.
The ground was cracking and rocks were flying everywhere, but the people present did not hear any roar coming from it. This showed that it was probably because of the energy shield surrounding the platform.
The bronze stele that was pulled out of the ground rose about half a meter above the ground, and then fell to the ground; at this time, the platform that was originally divided into two had closed up. When the stele fell on the platform, people outside could clearly see that the platform shook a few times.
However, the aftermath of the vibration did not reach the platform at all; then the old man swept his sleeves, and the flying dust and gravel on the ground were all swept away. At the same time, the invisible energy shield that originally covered the platform also disappeared.
The children in the audience looked at the frail old man in front of them, who performed miracles with a wave of his hand. There was fear and a faint yearning in their eyes: “This is an immortal. I wonder if I can reach this level after I enter the Xianyang Sect?” There was a lot of discussion in the audience. The children saw the old man’s extraordinary skills with their own eyes and were whispering to each other.
Regardless of the children’s psychology, the hunchbacked old man on the high platform casually glanced at the audience. Suddenly, the whole scene became quiet and you could hear a pin drop. “Since you can stand here, it means that you are already registered disciples of Xianyang Sect. As for what level you can reach in the future, that depends on your own efforts.”
At this point, the old man paused slightly and continued: “Of course, today’s second level talent test is also very important. ‘Talent’ is one of the conditions that determines what level you can reach in the future. Of course, this is not certain; the final result depends on you. Okay, without further ado, let’s start the test.”
After saying that, the old man turned around and walked down the platform step by step. The thin figure quickly disappeared from everyone’s sight. After the old man completely disappeared, the scene became a little more lively, and various sounds gradually rose again.
At this moment, Elder Yi and the old man beside him exchanged a glance, then said loudly, “The second round, the talent test, begins now. Those who are to be tested, please come on stage in order.”
After he finished speaking, he and the old man beside him came to the bronze stone tablet and stood on its left and right; then a young man about fifteen years old with delicate features walked up to the platform and walked towards the stone tablet.
Bu Gong was looking at the stone tablet on the platform at this moment, feeling somewhat puzzled. He thought to himself, “Isn’t this a talent test? Why would they create such a stone tablet?”
Bu Gong was staring at the young man who came onto the stage with curiosity in his eyes. He wanted to see how the talent test was conducted and how the stone tablet on the platform was used.
Elder Yi, who was standing by the stone tablet, saw the young man walk onto the platform. His eyelids twitched slightly and he said, “There is a palm print on the stone tablet. Press your palm on it. No matter what happens, don’t move. I will notify you when the test is completed.”
With a hint of excitement in his eyes, the young man looked up at the not-so-tall bronze stele. Sure enough, there was a palm print about an inch deep at about two-thirds of the height of the stele from the ground.
The palm print looked as if someone had pressed it lightly. The concave edges were sharp as knives and smooth as a mirror. The bottom of the palm print had clear textures and a vivid image, just like the first living palm model.
The young man on the platform bit his lip slightly, stretched out his right hand a little nervously, and gently pressed on the palm print; as his palm sank into the groove of the palm print, the young man suddenly felt a mysterious air, which quickly flowed from the stone tablet through his arm, throughout his body, and then quickly flowed out of his body.
That feeling was indeed there, but it lasted for a very short time, as if it disappeared in a flash; “Second-class talent, a registered disciple” an old voice woke the young man from his daze; and after hearing this, the young man’s previously confident and determined eyes dimmed for an instant, but recovered immediately.
“Even if I’m just a registered disciple, I’m still considered a disciple of Xianyang Sect, right?” He comforted himself in his heart; “Next…” As Elder Yi’s voice sounded, the young man also walked down the platform, and another child about thirteen years old walked towards the platform.
“Fourth-level talent, an outer disciple, next one…”
As the voices rang out, the children in the audience who had not been tested were full of confidence, with confidence clearly revealed in their eyes; while those who had been tested had faces full of surprise, while others had dull eyes.