Chapter 1391 - First Stage!
Everyone nervously and excitedly followed behind Old Liu. Feng Zhang walked closer to Lin Yun and whispered, “Junior Brother Lin, the astral energy ocean of my violet palace has reached two thousand feet. I feel that I’ve already reached the pinnacle of the Lesser Elysium Core Realm, and I can try to make a breakthrough into the Greater Elysium Core Realm in two months. The Golden Dragon Bone Soup is more terrifying than I expected. Even my physique has transformed.”
Liu Qingyan nodded his head in agreement. After all, the Golden Dragon Bone Soup contained eight complete saint elixirs, not to mention the blood, essence, and marrow from the Golden Dragon Bone. They had significantly benefited from the soup, an opportunity that disciples of saint clans wouldn’t have.
The two were grateful to Lin Yun. This was equivalent to them inheriting Qin Cang’s opportunities. If Lin Yun didn’t bring them to the Profound Wither Island, they wouldn’t have been able to obtain an opportunity in the Seven Treasured Glazed Tile PaG.o.da.
The opportunity in the Seven Treasured Glazed Tile PaG.o.da was ma.s.sive enough, but Lin Yun even brewed the Golden Dragon Bone Soup. Without them, they wouldn’t have much of a chance of making it through the test to join the Sword Sect.
Everyone was happily chatting as they headed to the test venue, but w.a.n.g Yuruo was the only one who wasn’t happy. She also drank the Golden Dragon Bone Soup, but she was still in the Empyrean Realm since she had missed the opportunity from the Profound Wither Island, unlike the rest.
She wouldn’t partic.i.p.ate in the test. If Ye Ziling was accepted into the Sword Sect, she would follow Ye Ziling as her maid. This also meant that it would be hard for her to learn any martial techniques from the Sword Sect, and she wouldn’t be able to receive the treatment of a disciple. But she was still young; she was only seventeen this year and had strong talent.
Ye Ziling treated her as a younger sister, so she would try and find ways for w.a.n.g Yuruo to join the Sword Sect. With how benevolent w.a.n.g Yuruo was, she might have had her opportunities in the Sword Sect.
But just when they were about to leave, the Flowing Cloud Sect’s party came over, and Jiang Tao was amongst the party. This surprised Lin Yun because Jiang Tao was no different from a disabled person ten days ago.
He was sure it would be hard for him to recover his full strength from those injuries. Lin Yun never expected that Jiang Tao would recover. Most importantly, Jiang Tao’s aura was stronger than ten days ago.
“The Jiang Saint Clan is also here for the test. This fellow is lucky, and his senior gave him a saint elixir. Not only did it allow him to recover from his injuries, but he also became stronger. The Flowing Cloud Sect seem to place great hopes on him and gave him a lot of pellets.” Feng Zhang whispered.
The Jiang Saint Clan was one of the ten Saint Clans in the Ancient Barren Domain, so it wasn’t strange that they would have such a powerful foundation. But Jiang Tao couldn’t be considered a direct descendant, so it was weird that they would give him a saint elixir.
“Lin Yun!” Jiang Tao immediately jumped out when he saw Lin Yun, disregarding the Flowing Cloud Sect’s senior stopping him. “Where’s my Nine Profound Pellet?”
“I naturally refined it. Speaking of which, I have to thank you for the Nine Profound Pellet. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to make so much improvement in my cultivation technique in ten days.” Lin Yun smiled. What Lin Yun said was true, and he greatly benefited from the Nine Profound Pellet.
Jiang Tao examined Lin Yun closely. It was just as Lin Yun had said. The aura Lin Yun was giving off was much stronger than ten days ago. This instantly made his face flush red with rage because the Nine Profound Pellet belonged to him, but Lin Yun had refined it instead.
“Just you wait!” Jiang Tao was calmer this time as he gritted his teeth, “Hmph. I know your ident.i.ty. It turns out that you’re pretending to be weak. But you’re also foolish to refuse internal recruitment. You’ll only lose your reputation by partic.i.p.ating in the test! As for you guys, you guys can only dream about joining the Sword Sect. At that time, not one of you will be able to come out from the test!”
Since Jiang Tao was still furious, he vented his anger toward Ye Ziling and the others.
“What did you say?” Feng Zhang and Liu Qingyan were furious because Jiang Tao was no different from a rabid dog.
But Jiang Tao continued with a sneer, “Let us see, then. Not one of you from the Fleeting Cloud Sword Sect will be able to escape!”
He already learned of Lin Yun’s origins from the Jiang Saint Clan. The various big clans already knew of Lin Yun’s name, and there wasn’t anyone who didn’t know about him. Lin Yun had replaced Qin Cang as the first on the Empyrean Ranking following Qin Cang’s defeat. Most importantly, Lin Yun also had the Great Saint Origin on him, which would only bring him destruction.
He learned that many people wanted to see how strong this strongest genius on the Heavenly Path was. The Empyrean Ranking was just the Empyrean Ranking because those who partic.i.p.ated in the test had long reached the Elysium Core Realm. So if they could step on Lin Yun in the test, who wouldn’t be willing?
Not to mention that they might even be able to openly take the Great Saint Origin from Lin Yun, so many people were waiting to fight him. This was why Jiang Tao looked forward to seeing how these people were trashed on the test.
Looking at Jiang Tao leaving with his head held high, Feng Zhang and Liu Qingyan gritted their teeth with dark faces.
“Let’s not bother with him and head to the Sword Sect first.” Old Liu comforted everyone and led everyone towards the Sword Sect. Along the way, he would tell everyone about the rules of the test. The test had a total of three stages, and the difficulty of those stages would increase as one went further.
Most importantly, no one knew what the second and third tests were, only the first was known.
An hour later, everyone arrived at the foot of the Sword Sect’s mountain. This place was filled with people, and all the swordsmen from the Ancient Barren Domain or other ancient domains were there. Anyone could tell that they were all swordsmen just from the sword intent that they were emitting.
The first stage of the test would be climbing the mountain. Many people had arrived long ago, waiting and occupying the best spots. The path to the Sword Sect might seem like an ordinary flight of stairs, but there was an ancient sword at the mountain gate that emitted a powerful sword aura. So it wouldn’t be easy for one to get through the gate.
They had to leave behind their aura in the ancient sword to make it through the first stage. So the test had already begun, and everyone was queuing in an orderly fas.h.i.+on because it didn’t matter who was the first or last to take the test.
“The Jiang Saint Clan is here!” An exclamation resounded that instantly drew everyone’s attention over.
“That’s the prince of the Jiang Saint Clan, Jiang Tian!”
“The Jiang Saint Clan has millennia of history, and their younger generations are all out now. It looks like they’re here for the saint disciple’s quota, and they seem pretty confident!”
“Is that Jiang Tian? He’s a monster. He’s only twenty-five, and his cultivation is at the Heavenly Elysium Core Realm!”
“I heard his name is already on the Elysium Core Ranking at the twenty-thousandth!”
The discussions in the surroundings piqued Lin Yun’s interest. When he turned his head over, he saw a youth donned in a purple robe, surrounded by a group of people.
Lin Yun fell into deep thoughts when he looked at Jiang Tian. If he was given another five years, he wouldn’t just stop at the Heavenly Elysium Core Realm. Then again, it was still impressive that Jiang Tao reached the Heavenly Elysium Core Realm at the age of twenty-five with his name on the Elysium Core Ranking.
But not all Heavenly Elysium Core Realm experts were the same. In the Heavenly Elysium Core Realm, cultivators had to agglomerate astral energy in their bodies. It was said that those powerful Heavenly Elysium Core Realm geniuses could agglomerate nine stars to light up the sky above their elysium cores.
The entire group following behind Jiang Tian should be direct descendants of the Jiang Saint Clan, and each had terrifying cultivations. They were all at the Greater Elysium Core Realm and much stronger than Jiang Tao. Was this the foundation of the Jiang Saint Clan?
This gave Lin Yun a direct understanding of Saint Clan’s foundation, and it seemed that the Profound Azure Prefecture had still limited his outlook. There were forty-eight of them who have gathered behind Jiang Tian, pa.s.sing through the crowd with no one daring to stop them.
“Isn’t this a little too extravagant?” Liu Qingyan’s mouth widened with disbelief.
But Old Liu was calm as he explained, “This is the foundation of the Ten Saint Clans. They’re far stronger than the other saint clans. There are many saints in the Ancient Barren Domain, so you can imagine how strong the top ten clans are.”
The Jiang Saint Clan’s arrival had caused an enormous uproar, causing many people to whisper amongst themselves. But someone nearby heard what Liu Qingyan said and laughed, “You’re ignorant. You’ll know how shocking it is when Xiahou Yan appears!”
“Xiahou Yan?!” Liu Qingyan became emotional when he heard that name. “Is it the super genius with the Innate Sword Saint Physique and Innate Sword Heart?”
“Who else can it be, aside from him? He was refused when he wanted to become a disciple under the Radiant Sword Saint. There are rumors that the Radiant Sword Saint will take in a disciple on this test, so he’ll naturally come as well.” That person continued, and his eyes were filled with admiration and respect when he spoke of Xiahou Yan.
“Something like that happened?” Lin Yun asked.
“There are many more like him,” said Old Liu. “Senior Radiant is one of the three Sword Saints in the Eastern Desolation. So many genius swordsmen wanted to become his disciple. But after what happened eighteen years ago, when Jian Jingtian was expelled from the sect, the Radiant Sword Saint has never taken in another disciple. Even a genius like Xiahou Yan was rejected.”
Lin Yun could no longer maintain his composure when he heard that. It was different from what he had expected. When he heard Jian Jingtian calling him ‘Junior Brother,’ he thought that the Radiant Sword Saint had taken an eye to him on the Heavenly Path, wanting to take him in as a disciple.
But Old Liu said that the Radiant Sword Saint had never taken in a disciple for the past eighteen years. Even a genius like Xiahou Yan was rejected. So did he get everything wrong right from the start?