Chapter 290: The Endless Mountain
The feeling of the land ripping asunder continued for a full hour before it slowly weakened.
Thick smoke that accompanied a volcano eruption billowed out of the cavern continuously.
The air was filled with hazy ash and it obscured everyone’s vision for a while.
When all of the smoke had cleared, all the organizers looked at each other, their faces full of surprise.
It was obvious that some violent change had happened in that cavern. In this regard, it looked like the freak with the boulder’s heart was most likely dead.
At this moment, an organizer rubbed his eyes as his pupils suddenly shrank swiftly, peering into the cavern entrance with a look of incredulity.
A figure imprinted itself into the eyeb.a.l.l.s of all those a.s.sembled.
This figure was the freak genius that they had been discussing about endlessly just now.
“How… how is this possible?!” The Purple Sun Sect executive, who had been talking negatively the most just now, was utterly flabbergasted.
He’d been the one mouthing off the most, certain beyond a doubt that this so-called genius had long since been devoured by the heavenly fires.
Jiang Chen’s appearance at the entrance to the cavern at this moment was a undisputed slap to his face.
“The fire attribute test is over, can I enter the cavern of ice now?”
Jiang Chen walked up to the organizer and handed his partic.i.p.ant token over, asking faintly.
All of the organizers had exceedingly rich expressions on their faces. It was the head organizer who reacted first and chuckled, “Of course, of course.”
Even though they didn’t know what had happened in the cavern, but was that important now? The partic.i.p.ant had made it through the trial and he had emerged safely, what had happened in the cavern no longer mattered.
The most important thing was, a true genius had appeared!
The four forefathers also learned of what had happened here in the first moment. Thanks to the rules, they couldn’t fight over recruiting this person right now.
But the four forefathers were all ablaze with pa.s.sion in their hearts in this instant, all of them were plotting on how they’d run their recruiting plan.
To finish the path of rebirth in one day, this genius of the heart was enough to make all the premier geniuses of the four sects lose face completely.
He then finished as superior spirit potential in the trial of talent.
His performance in the two most important trials could only be described as ‘perverse’. It wasn’t the type of performance that an ordinary disciple should have at all.
Even if the preeminent geniuses of the sects partic.i.p.ated in these trials, their grades wouldn’t be as thus either.
“When did such a genius appear in the mundane world? No matter what, I must have this pract.i.tioner.” Even Sunchaser had changed the att.i.tude he’d held before the path of rebirth.
He had indeed been prejudiced against the mundane disciples.
But at this moment, those prejudices had completely vanished without a trace. Jiang Chen had used the truth to prove that geniuses still existed in the ordinary world.
However, if Sunchaser knew that the genius beneath the mask was the Jiang Chen that he’d previous said would be destined to die, his expression would’ve been a sight to watch.
“This one has set his sights on martial dao and he ignored all other tests of talent. With such a strong heart of dao, my Purple Sun Sect has the strongest heritage of martial dao of all the sects. Apart from my sect, what right do the others have to recruit this genius?”
Sunchaser had always had a supreme feeling of superiority on the path of martial dao.
The other three forefathers were also continuously making and revising their plans at the moment.
Thousandleaf of the Precious Tree Sect also mentally listed the Purple Sun Sect as his strongest compet.i.tor.
“The Purple Sun Sect already has a genius with an innate const.i.tution. If this genius is also taken by them, then the situation of the four sects being on equal footing will likely be thoroughly broken in a few decades. No matter what, I must recruit this genius to the Precious Tree sect. We must have him at all costs! Although my sect has a bit of a gap with the Purple Sun Sect in terms of martial dao heritage, we rank an undisputed first amongst the sects with our resources. As long as we employ the temptation of superior resources, this genius may not choose the Purple Sun Sect. After all, the Purple Sun Sect already has Long Juxue. Even if this genius goes to them, he will always be regarded as just the one with the second greatest potential.”
Thousandleaf had quickly grasped the pros and cons of the Purple Sun Sect.
The Flowing Wind Sect and Myriad Spirit Sect were in a comparatively weaker position when it came to recruiting martial dao geniuses.
“My Flowing Wind Sect sect is less than the Purple Sun Sect when it comes to martial dao heritage, and less than the Precious Tree Sect when it comes to resources. However, the strength of my sect in uncovering potential is unparalleled amongst the four sects. Add to that my sect’s tradition of dual cultivation, if I can hit this point home, this martial dao genius may come to my sect after all!”
These were the thoughts of Flowing Wind’s Icemist. The flowing Wind Sect had many female pract.i.tioners and all sorts of beauties in the sect.
This was most likely their best point to make if they wished to recruit martial dao geniuses.
As for the Myriad Spirit Sect, although they ardently desired to recruit this martial dao genius, they also knew that they had the least advantage out of all the sects.
However, the Myriad Spirit Sect always had their particular focus in recruitment.
“Although this genius of the heart is a rare find in a hundred years, if this old man were to choose, I would still rather go with Jiang Chen. He can tame large numbers of spirit creatures and setup formations. My sect has never seen this level of spirit creature genius in all our history. I can give up competing for this genius at hand, and I can also use this opportunity to make the other three sects give up competing for Jiang Chen.”
Ninelion was more interested in Jiang Chen, but he never would’ve thought that the genius that everyone was so enthusiastically discussing at the moment was Jiang Chen.
Another five days silently pa.s.sed by.
When Jiang Chen once again walked out of the cavern of ice, the organizers were looking at him with gazes of practically gazing at an immortal.
Alright, so he was a genius of the dao heart.
So he was of superior spirit potential, fine. However, his two attributes were both of superior potential, and ones that were ant.i.thesis to each other at that.
This was unheard of!
“What an insane genius! To have dual attributes means that he will have more choices regarding which martial arts techniques he wants to learn from, and his path of martial dao will naturally be broader. He will have more of an advantage in practical battle. This genius was practically born for martial dao!”
The organizers all had to raise their thumb in approval in their hearts. Even if one was jealous and envious beyond belief of this genius, you still had to admit that he was a defining genius of the ages.
This genius was sure to become a thorn in the side of the sect disciples in the final selection.
They could almost see how many sect disciples would be trampled beneath his feet in the final selection!
The organizer held Jiang Chen’s token and looked at it again and again before recording Jiang Chen’s results in it.
“Congratulations, young man. Your fire and ice potential are all of superior potential. I must say, some of your caliber has a fighting chance with the sect disciples. Good luck!”
This organizer had quite an open demeanor. Jiang Chen smiled when he heard these words, “Thank you for your encouragement.”
Another round of people had been cruelly disqualified after the end of the second trial.
Nearly half of the seventy thousand was gone.
Less than forty thousand made it to the third trial.
An enormous mountain was in front of them in the distance. It looked like it towered into the heavens as it shot straight into the clouds, as if it was on the same level as the clouds. Countless numbers of clouds surrounded the peak, making it look like a mountain of immortals and giving rise to endless imagination.
“This mountain is also known as the Endless Mountain. There are a hundred thousand stairs, and each ten thousand steps is one floor. You will have qualified if you make it to the fifth floor. The sixth floor marks you as above average and the seventh floor marks you with excellent potential. The eighth floor indicates that you are worthy of the t.i.tle of genius, and the ninth floor means that you are on par with the geniuses of the four sects. If anyone can make it to the tenth floor, then you have reason to be proud of yourself. Even the premier geniuses of the sects cannot make it to that floor.”
Although the Endless Mountain was towering, it wasn’t as simple as just increasing numbers of stairs.
“This is a magnetic Endless Mountain. The magnetism of each floor and the difficulty of each floor will double as you pa.s.s them. Therefore, you’ll find it easy at the beginning, but you’ll find each successive step more difficult as you go up. So if you use too much strength at the beginning, you may exhaust yourself before you reach the fifth floor and you will be unable to proceed. Remember, the magnetism of the Endless Mountain will make your body feel heavier as you climb. You will feel your steps become more leaden with each stair you climb.”
The organizer explained the rules in detail.
“Of course, in order to stimulate your potential and reward your advancement, some unique opportunities will await you starting on each floor after the fifth. If you’re lucky, you’ll receive some unexpected gains from there. Of course, you can only linger for two hours before you attempt the next floor, so you only have two hours in which to try your luck. Otherwise, if you tarry for longer than two hours, that means you’ve given up on climbing and the mountain will bounce you out, thus concluding your trial.”
“Alright, these are the rules, begin!”
Jiang Chen looked at the stone steps with golden sparkles at the bottom of the towering mountain, sighing with emotion in his heart.
“A magnetic Endless Mountain! To think that such a mountain exists in the mundane world.” Jiang Chen couldn’t help but sigh.
Perhaps these organizers, including the forefathers, all knew that this mountain had incredible magnetism and it could attract all matter, creating an immense magnetic force field that would dictate its operations.
However, this was only one of its ordinary functions.
The true experts of ancient times would refine the mountain into a treasure, it could be stored and summoned, and they could manipulate it with their hearts.
Jiang Chen was also rather curious as he looked at this enormous mountain. Could it be that this mountain was one of the treasures of those ancient experts?
Figures continued to shoot past Jiang Chen like flying birds. When they landed on the stone steps, they climbed up using hands and feet like monkeys, deathly afraid of falling behind.
Jiang Chen cleared his mind of all thoughts and he took a deep breath in, and he bounded for the stone steps of the magnetic, golden colored mountain.