"The first assessment is over." He sat on the jade chair and waited for an unknown period of time when an indifferent voice sounded in the hall.
Shen Ping looked over from the corner of his eye. There were only 42 cultivators among the 100 candidates who could sit here. More than half of them were eliminated. There were only three Qi Refinement cultivators left.
He was silent.
Those who could pass must have extraordinary talent in certain skills, but they still fell in the first assessment. And the number of people who could pass the next assessment was probably even fewer.
The purple-robed cultivator walked in, and his gaze descended onto Shen Ping and the others. He said indifferently, "The first test is only to test your skill and natural talent. I didn't expect there to be so many people who are just here to make up the numbers. The second test is extremely important. Rest well and prepare. The test will begin in ten days!"
His figure disappeared. A passage quickly appeared on the east side of the hall. The young cultivator in the special robe of the True Treasure Pavilion walked forward and smiled. "Fellow Daoists, please follow me."
Shen Ping and the other 40 plus candidates followed the young cultivator for about ten minutes before arriving at another hall. There happened to be 42 quiet rooms inside. The girl with the sword-shaped mark between her eyebrows walked straight to the first room on the left.
When Shen Ping saw this, he walked into the second room. The other cultivators entered the quiet room one after another according to the order of the assessment. The quiet room was wide. There was a cushion.
Sitting cross-legged on it, Shen Ping's heart immediately calmed down. There was no longer any dust. He could not help but look at the mat thoughtfully. Apart from that, yhe spiritual energy in the chamber was more abundant than in the outside world.
In such an environment, meditating and cultivating would yield twice the results with half the effort. He did not dare to waste time and hurriedly circulated his cultivation technique to polish his spiritual energy.
The top-grade metal and wood spiritual roots greedily absorbed it.
Cultivation always passes quickly. Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.
Shen Ping opened his eyes. The spiritual energy in his dantian had already increased by a lot, and the effect was several times stronger than using the Spirit Jade Ginseng Ointment in Qingyang City. This made him extremely surprised. It had to be known that although the efficiency of a top-grade spiritual root absorbing spiritual energy was high, there was still an upper limit.
The medicinal effect of the Spirit Jade Ginseng Ointment could easily reach the upper limit. With the same amount of time, cultivation in the quiet room had imperceptibly increased the upper limit of spiritual root absorption.
MVLeMpYr-unofficial-chapter
"There must be some kind of special formation inside."
Just as he was secretly guessing, an indifferent voice suddenly sounded in the quiet room, "The second assessment begins!"
Shen Ping was stunned. Then, he suddenly stood up. The walls of the chamber were changing at a speed visible to the naked eye. In the blink of an eye, it returned to the bronze house.
Whoosh.
Then, light flashed. A bronze disc engraved with strange beast patterns appeared on the wall.
The indifferent voice sounded again. "Third-grade guest elder, Shen Ping, please use your strongest talisman technique to attack the disc. You can pass by shattering it. You can use the talismans stored in your storage bag for this assessment. If you don't have any, you can make talismans here. Reminder, please don't use talismans that exceed the scope of your Qi Refinement Realm."
As soon as he finished speaking, the bronze house flickered again. The jade table appeared. There were different talisman materials on it.
Shen Ping took a look.
The strongest material was a mid-grade Level Two Lightning Talisman. After passing the first assessment, it seemed to have tacitly agreed that the strongest talisman he could make was a mid-grade Level Two talisman.
He did not make talismans. Instead, he took out the low-grade Level Two Lightning Talisman from his storage bag.
Boom!
The talisman was activated. The power of the lightning immediately exploded and bombarded the bronze disc. The strange beast patterns on the disc did not tremble at all.
He was not surprised at all. If this bronze disc could easily be shattered by a low-grade Level Two offensive talisman, the bronze house would not have prepared a mid-grade Level Two talisman for him.
Moreover, from the reaction of the attack just now, even if it was replaced with a mid-grade Level Two offensive talisman, there was no chance of success.
However, Shen Ping still verified it. Although he could not make mid-grade Level Two talismans, he had already prepared a few for emergencies.
Boom.
The disc still did not move. It was just as he had guessed. Shen Ping did not use the talismans to attack again. He sat down cross-legged and stared at the bronze disc in thought. The first assessment depended on the candidate's skill and talent. The second assessment was to use talismans to attack.
Could it be that the True Treasure Pavilion wanted to test the combat strength of a Talisman Master?
Thinking of this, Shen Ping quickly shook his head.
There were specialized battle cultivators in the True Treasure Pavilion. For example, Guest Elder Chong was experienced in fighting and had extremely strong combat strength. There were many such Guest Elders, so there was no need for Talisman Masters to fight.
"Under normal circumstances, it's impossible for a talisman made at the Qi Refinement Realm to destroy this disc. Since the True Treasure Pavilion uses this requirement for the test, it means that it can succeed!"
He pondered for about ten minutes. He stood up and took out all the Lightning Talismans he had stored, as well as the Flamefall Talismans and other offensive talismans. He activated them all and blasted them on the disc.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The continuous low-grade Level Two talismans finally made the bronze disc shake. However, it only swayed.
It was a failure!
This was already the strongest talisman attack he could do.
"Isn't the difficulty of the second assessment too high?" Shen Ping frowned. He thought that his level of Talisman Daoism was not low at the Qi Refinement Realm, but he could only shake the disc. How strong was the level of a Qi Refinement cultivator who could shatter discs?!
He sat down cross-legged again. He opened the virtual interface. He looked at the Talisman Dao Mystique on the golden frame and hesitated. Ever since this mystique appeared, he hadn't used it once.
Shen Ping had never thought of using it because once he did, it meant that he was in a desperate situation. This was his last life-saving method.
Should he use it or not? He hesitated. Moreover, even if he used it, he might not be able to shatter it.
Time passed slowly. An hour later, Shen Ping slowly stood up. He had made a decision. Since he was here, he had to do his best.
"A hundred talismans at most!" He reminded himself. His Talisman Dao Mystique had already increased to the strength of a thousand talismans. Even if he used a hundred talismans, he would only reveal a small portion of their power. "This is my talent. A natural talent in the Dao of Talismans!"
Shen Ping closed his eyes and instilled it into his subconscious. After instilling it thousands of times, he suddenly opened his eyes. He slapped his palm.
Whoosh.
The Golden Light Talisman floated out of the storage bag.
One.
Two.
…
Ten.
Under the control of spiritual energy, the 50 Golden Light Talismans floated around Shen Ping's waist and rotated to the back of his head. All the Golden Light Talismans gathered. When they formed circles, a golden light suddenly burst out from the depths of Shen Ping's eyes.
In an instant, Talisman Dao Mystique erupted. The 50 Golden Light Talismans were instantly ignited and transformed into dazzling talismans. The entire bronze house was drowned by the talisman light.
Soon, the talisman light suddenly shrank and gathered into a circular pillar of light. At this moment, Shen Ping muttered in his heart, Sea of Talisman!
Boom!
The pillar of light seemed to flatten everything in the world and bombarded the bronze disc. The bronze disc shattered.
In an instant, the perfectly carved strange beast pattern seemed to come to life and flickered with a strange light. Then, it surged out of the shattered disc and flashed in the void before entering Shen Ping's arm.
"Third-grade guest elder, Shen Ping. Congratulations on passing the second assessment." An indifferent voice sounded.
Outside the Bronze House, the content of his identity flashed again.
[Southern Flame Continent.]
[Fire Toad Cave, Qi Refinement Cultivator Shen Ping's assessment time: Rank 18 of A Rank.]
The light disappeared. There was no change in the Bronze House. However, in a house not far from the hall, the expression of the purple-robed cultivator who was tasting the spirit tea suddenly changed slightly, and an indifferent and extremely dignified voice sounded by his ears. "The rules of the A Rankings this time cannot be broken!"
The purple-robed cultivator's expression immediately turned solemn. He said in a low voice, "I, Li Yin, am willing to swear an oath. If I reveal the identity of the candidate this time, my cultivation will never advance, and my sea of consciousness will be devoured by ten thousand souls."
As his voice fell, the pressure that enveloped the hall dissipated. The purple-robed cultivator heaved a sigh of relief, but his face revealed a shocked expression. He did not expect that the batch he was in charge of would actually give birth to a candidate for the A-rank.
"Could it be Fellow Daoist Yu's daughter? Most likely." He guessed. If any assessment produced an A-rank, even the cultivators in charge could no longer casually check the assessment process.
…
Inside the bronze house, Shen Ping looked at the strange beast pattern on his arm and frowned. He did not know what this thing was. Would it be dangerous if it landed on his body?
Click.
At this moment, a door opened in the bronze house. After he walked out, he saw the jade chair placed in the hall. But there was no one.
"I was careless. I didn't expect the power of fifty Golden Light Talismans to be so powerful. If I had known, I would have used less." While he was thinking, Shen Ping sat on the jade chair. He picked up the spiritual tea and drank it in one go to calm himself down. When he shattered the bronze disc, he vaguely understood what the second test was about.
The essence of Talisman Dao Mystique was a deeper understanding and use of talismans. He did not know what level he needed to reach to comprehend Talisman Dao Mystique, but no one could do it. However, he did not understand the effect of the last strange beast pattern. He could only suppress this doubt first.
Time passed quietly.
In another bronze house, Yu Qingling, who had a sword-shaped mark between her brows, looked at the special pattern of the Pill Beast on her fair arm, and her youthful and lively eyes revealed a relaxed expression. "Father also said that the second assessment would jam me for a few days. It's not that difficult." She lifted her dress and walked out of the door.
However, she thought of the middle-aged Talisman Master.
"I won't see him this time." The smile on Yu Qingling's lips became even more relaxed. However, she'd only taken a few steps out of the door when her smile froze.