Wei Hao was dazed by the scene before him. It took a long time for him to recover his senses, and the amount of arrogance in his heart shrank.
At this moment, several flying swords flew towards them. For each sword that dissipated, there was a Heavenly Mist Sect disciple, each followed by several 7 to 18-year-olds.
There were both male and female youths. As they landed, they too had similar expressions to Xiao Tian Wen's group as they stared at the scene in front of them.
All the Heavenly Mist Sect disciples that brought the youths gathered at the side of a stone wall and started talking about the mortals taking the test.
"Senior brother, how many of these people do you think can get to join the sect?"
"A hundred at most or less."
After waiting a while, all the other youths who had been recommended arrived at the sect, a white robed middle-aged man scanned the area. Then he emotionlessly said, "Among the lot of you, only a few will be selected to be Heavenly Mist Sect disciples. The amount of talent you have in accordance to your spiritual roots will determine the cultivation resources given to you in order to become a cultivator. Among you some can become nominal disciples, outer court disciples, inner court disciples, core disciples and finally the highest true disciples."
"Heavenly Mist Sect's disciple acceptance consists of only one stage. The Spiritual Root Testing Stage. The spiritual root are divided into five known grades, Mortal, Houtian, Xiantian, Earth and Heavenly. Each of these grades are categorized into five phases: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. "
"Of course there are rare cases of there being mutated spiritual roots who are even rarer in the cultivation world. Those who pass the test stand on the right side of my hand otherwise you stand on the left side."
The white-clad middle-aged man scanned the area. Then he emotionlessly said, "The reason I am talking so much is because among the lot of you, only a few will be selected to be Heavenly Mist Sect disciples."
All of the youths cried out in shock. Xiao Tian Wen snickered inwardly when he heard this. He counted more than 500 people taking the test.
Xiao Tian Wen glanced sideways and saw a purple robed haughty teen who still had his eyes closed as though he was indifferent to what was going on around him.
There was a white bloused girl with a lofty and fairy like appearance. Yet, her entrancing looks and figure carried a cold expression that seemed to freeze everything around her.
Xiao Tian Wen had a feeling that the reason why the teenage boy did not want to fit in was out of disdain and the girl merely did not want to.
"Come, the first person," The middle aged man raised his hand and pointed towards 16 or 17-year old boy, strong and with bright piercing eyes, promptly stepped forward from the far left group. Anxiously, he bowed to the middle-aged man before touching the stone wall.
The ancient looking stone wall seemed to have lines of different colors and divided into 5 stratums with a hand shaped imprint on it.
The moment he touched the stone wall, a white color appeared across it with four shimmering lights.
The middle aged man looked apathetically at the boy before raising his voice to the crowd.
Four elements – it was mortal spiritual root!
Failure!
The youth suddenly lost all strength. Face looking bleak and eyes blank, he moved to the left in silence.
Then another youth was selected. He moved forward with a fearful expression.
"Mortal spiritual root, fail!"
"Mortal spiritual root, fail"
"Five element- Houtian-grade spiritual root, pass."
…
99 people in a row all failed the test before the houtian grade spiritual root. Up until now there was finally one person to the right of the middle-aged man.
Everyone continued proceeding to the stone gate where more than half of them were rejected.
Only those with a houtian grade and above spiritual root could get to pass the Spiritual Testing Stage.
In the blink of an eye, there were only a couple dozens of people left with the haughty teen, the white bloused girl, Wei Hao, Qing Feng and Xiao Tian Wen.
There had yet to be a single Heavenly spiritual root amongst the tested yet.
There were tens of Xiantian spiritual roots and the rest were all houtian-class which were accepted.
The middle aged man could not hide their looks of disappointment as they placed their remaining hope in the last dozens of people.
It was Wei Hao's turn. All of his previous pride disappeared from his face. Looking pale, he stepped forward.
The moment he placed his hand on the stone wall, a roaring sound rang out, scaring everyone.
Bang! Boom! Boom!
A yellow line on the stone turned incredibly bright.
Earth element, Earth grade spiritual root!
The middle aged man's eyes lit up as he asked, "What's your name?"
Wei Hao quickly replied respectfully, "Immortal, my name is Wei Hao."
The middle-aged man nodded. He then smiled and said with a slightly flattering voice, "So you are the one Martial Teacher mentioned. Good, good good. Wei Hao, stand to the right."
Wei Hao felt adulation and walked toward the right under everyone's admiration. His eyes were filled with arrogance and contempt as he looked at the crowd. He felt unbeatable.
"Motherfucker, he is one lucky dog," Qing Feng murmured to Xiao Tian Wen while curling his lip.
"Next" the middle aged man pointed towards the haughty young teen as he said that.
Finally, the haughty man opened his eyes as he turned to look at the white bloused girl not too far away. Giving a slight grin, he headed for the stone wall.
His actions attracted everyone's attention.
It was as though he was a born ruler where every single move he made would attract the gazes of the masses.
Xiao Tian Wen looked at the stone wall intently.
Frowning slightly, the white bloused girl raised her head and her eyes followed the haughty teen coldly too.
The haughty teen stopped himself before the stone wall and placed his hand on the wall but there was no indication of color.
"Hehe."
After a temporary silence, giggles spread from the crowd.
"What's he putting a show on for when he doesn't even have a spirit root?"
"I know, right? And here I was thinking that he was someone incredible, he is nothing but tra…"
Oo! Oo!
Right then, a bizarre howling sound came out of the stone wall as the stone wall flickered with a purple color with endless brilliance.
"Heavenly grade, lightning variant spiritual root!"
The middle aged man yelped out loud.
When he heard that, Xiao Tian Wen's heart skipped a beat too.
According to the Cultivator's Compendium of the five types of spiritual roots, the Heavenly spiritual root was the best in the mortal or middle worlds but above it was an immortal grade spiritual root which is can be counted with one hand. Immortal Spiritual Root Grade had extra elements other than the five phases which were yin, yang and chaos element. It is known that those with Chaos element Immortal Spiritual Grade are the closest to dao affinity and can become Immortal Emperor powerhouses . However for mortal level worlds a heavenly spiritual root was extremely rare and a variant spiritual root, containing elements such as thunder, ice, light and darkness et cetera was even rarer.
One could say that a Heavenly spiritual root could only be found in one out of 10,000 men. Yet, a variant spiritual root was tenfold rarer than that.
Naturally, a variant spiritual root only had a single element as well and was a type of Heavenly spiritual root. However, that did not mean that it was stronger than the usual five elements; it was just extremely rare.
The haughty youth smiled and went to right side of the middle aged man with ease without waiting for his go ahead.
Up the sky a handsome looking youth observing the assessment from the sky excitedly said with a whisper, "Junior brother, stand guard over here. I'll go inform the peak master and be right back."
"Yes, yes. Hurry on, senior brother," The fat youth near him replied hastily.
Right then, the white bloused girl outside the stone gate moved as well.
"Hold on, senior brother. We can wait till this one's done too," The fat youth called back the handsome one.
Nodding his head, the handsome man watched the white bloused girl keenly, seemingly even more nervous than her.
When she placed her hand before the stone wall, there was no color on the water barrier still.
This time round, no one dared to mock anymore.
"Could it be another variant spirit root?" The eyes of the flying cultivators widened in disbelief.
Everyone else watched the stone gate with bated breath.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Suddenly, a layer of frosty line appeared from the stone wall!
"Heavenly grade, ice variant spiritual root!"
Everyone gasped.
"It's been 500 years since a variant spirit root has appeared at Heavenly Mist Sect! But now, there's two in one go? No, I've got to hurry and report it to the peak master!"
The handsome youth drew out a flying sword and sped towards the sword shaped peak, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Everyone else watched the haughty youth and the white bloused girl with looks of admiration and respect.
"Next," the middle aged man said while pointing towards Qing Feng after calming his emotions.
Qing Feng quickly ran up to the middle-aged man without caring about the stone wall. He knelt to the ground and kowtowed a few times. He said, "Immortal, may you enjoy a long life! My name is Qing Feng. You have already tested so many people, so you must be tired! Why don't you rest for a while? I'm in no rush, it's no problem."
"Shameless," different people voiced out their opinion about Qing Feng even Xiao Tian Wen was left speechless.
The middle-aged man laughed out loud. He had tested so many people whose faces were filled with fear, yet this clever youth here, without the slightest bit of fear, was trying to win favor with him. He smiled at him as he patted his shoulder and said, "Go take the test first."
Stepping forward Qing Feng placed his hand on the stone before it moved from the white segment to the orange one with five elements showing.
Five elemental Houtian Spiritual root!
The moment Qing Feng saw his talent, he was extremely happy because he was chosen. Without waiting for the middle-aged man to tell him to move towards the right, he quickly took out a small metallic box and presented it front of him. Qing Feng wisely said, "Immortal, my father found this by accident in the mountain but was unable to open it. I specially brought it to give to Immortal."
The middle-aged man chuckled and shook his head. He was about to refuse Qing Feng, but as he scanned the box, his pupils suddenly contracted and his face suddenly lit up. "Not bad! This is at least a 500-year-old ginseng. Looking at the jade box, it was sealed by a cultivator. No wonder your father couldn't open it." He paused, then said with a slightly faltering voice, "I'm in need of a nominal disciple for my alchemy. Are you willing to be my Chen Xi's?"
Qing Feng, surprised, got up quickly. He had finally hang onto this middle aged man's thigh. He exclaimed, "Yes, Master Xi, I am willing!"
The middle-aged man said, while chuckling, "Since you'll be my nominal disciple, I won't mistreat you. You can cultivate just like the other disciples. Go stand to the right."
Qing Feng was very excited inside. He ran to the right side and gave Wei Hao a triumphant stare.
The faces of all the youths that failed turned pale. All of them felt very depressed. A few even started crying.
The middle-aged man frowned. He shouted, "Send away all those who started crying."
A few of the Heavenly Mist Sect disciples stepped out. They quickly took the ones that started crying and casually disappeared in swords of light.
The middle-aged man pointed at Xiao Tian Wen.
Xiao Tian Wen took a deep breath. He nonchalantly walked toward the stone wall, his mind completely blank. Praying silently in his heart, he couldn't help but remember his ultimate goal.
"This is where my journey to supremacy starts!" Xiao Tian Wen thought as he gazed towards the sky.