“Success!” A disciple finally activated a dao bone and shouted. He was one of the few by this point. The others maintained their hard work.
After a while, several other talented disciples also activated their bone.
Some managed to light their bones up but couldn’t fully activate it. This meant only getting ten points.
Some bones didn’t react at all as the examinees tried their best to use their pillar of life. Alas, the runes couldn’t force a reaction. A few wanted to cry as a result.
If they couldn’t get ten points now, it meant that they would certainly be eliminated in the next trial. This was truly a time of crisis.
“Buzz.” Huang Ning activated his dao bone. A primal aura rushed out with immense force, causing the nearby disciples to shudder.
“Amazing, Senior Brother Huang Ning’s talents are incredible.” One disciple said with admiration.
“That’s one.” He became confident, looking like he was on top of the world.
He glanced over at Gong Qianyue, wanting to show off and gain her attention. Unfortunately, she was in a state of total focus to comprehend her own dao bone.
Huang Ning was somewhat disappointed by it but he regained his focus for a second dao bone. If he could successfully do another one, he would get another reward from the sect, twenty points, and a powerful merit law.
As time pa.s.sed, the crowd had mixed emotions. The happy ones had a successful activation and won twenty points. The sad disciples couldn’t muster any reaction from their bones.
“Activate!” Zhan Hu roared and his dao bone became resplendent. A beastly aura erupted like a storm and runes emerged on the surface of the bone.
“Senior Brother Zhan Hu did it too.” One disciple said.
Zhan Hu chose a high-level black dao bone. This was about as high as possible given his cultivation, truly a difficult task.
He was slightly pale due to the effort required to activate this particular dao bone. He earned twenty points and chose not to try again. In reality, he was already very satisfied in winning this personal challenge.
His next cultivation realm would turn him into an Enlightened Being. Black merit laws were no longer that tempting. He wanted to train in some earth-level ones next.
He sat down and meditated to recover while glaring at Li Qiye who still had his hand on the dao bone.
The guy seemed to be sleeping like always. Of course, Zhan Hu wasn’t in a hurry. It was only a matter of time before Li Qiye’s certain loss and utter humiliation.
“Clank.” A sword hymn interrupted everyone’s session. Qianyue’s dao bone started emitting strands of sword light containing powerful flowing runes in a continuous rotation.
It felt as if a divine sword had been unsheathed, ready to cut down its foes.
Numerous disciples became frightened. Some couldn’t help retreating because they couldn’t handle the pressure.
“That’s worthy of being the best dao bone here.” Many became envious.
Qianyue has successfully activated the dao bone for ten points. This was impressive because it was the hardest one here. It has been several generations since the previous successful attempt.
She didn’t stop there. “Clank! Clank! Clank!” Sword images began forming by the runes.
The runes then intertwined together to form mantras and incantations. “Rumble!” Each connection resulted in a powerful blastwave.
Some of the disciples were nearly blown flying. Fortunately, the elders reacted quickly enough by separating the area around her to save them.
“What is she doing?” One disciple who has never seen these runic collisions asked.
“This is an attempt to derive a merit law out of that dao bone, a high-level earth one.” An older disciple explained with admiration.
“Wow, she is really the best in our sect.”
Remember, a derivation required being at the sacred level like Ping Suoweng. Now, she was attempting to do a derivation on a high-level bone - quite an ambitious undertaking.
“Is it possible?” A disciple was frightened by the powerful shockwaves.
“I don’t know, I think there’s a chance because she has an inborn true fate.” A talented peer replied.
In fact, even Zhang Yue and the elders were watching with bated breath. Seniors like them couldn’t do this but she might be able to!
“Clank!” A sword hymn echoed across the nine heavens along with rampaging slashes. A divine sword made from the runes emerged from the dao bone, containing a mighty sword dao.
“Is this it?” The spectators were captivated by this scene.
“It’s happening.” Zhang Yue and the elders’ breathing became heavier.
“Boom!” Unfortunately, the divine sword shattered right on the cusp of success. The resulting explosion sent Gong Qianyue flying.
The elders and Zhang Yue immediately took action to stop the explosion and were pushed several steps backward.
“It failed…” One said with regrets. Albeit, this process was still amazing enough.
“Still not an inborn true palace, not enough to do so.” Gong Qianyue shook her head and sighed.
“You’re already amazing enough.” The oldest elder in charge consoled: “It has been a while since this dao bone was comprehended by someone. You managed to activate it, that’s matchless already. Though the runic combination failed, this is far beyond what most can do.”
He was telling the truth. She hasn’t reached the sacred level yet still managed to take this step, definitely worthy of being their brightest disciple.
It didn’t take long before everyone stared at her with both adoration and respect.
“Buzz.” Suddenly, another dao bone was activated.
“Haha! I did it, that’s two dao bones!” Huang Ning laughed and looked around with pride.
He was the first to activate two dao bones - a testament to his talents.
“Senior Brother, you’re definitely among the top three in terms of talents.” One guy immediately praised and said something obvious.
“Junior Sister, I activated two earth-level dao bones.” He happily told Qianyue, wanting to impress and win her favor.