Quinquennial outer sect disciple selection

My first goal is to become an outer sect disciple as quickly as possible which will enable me to access more cultivation resources making my cultivation speed up.

Thinking till this point Fang Hao suddenly remembered that the outer sect disciple selection is going to occur 10 days later and this time the disciple selection is even more special as this will be the quinquennial outer sect disciple selection which means that it only occurs once every five years.

In this sect, there are three types of outer sect disciple selection exams- quarterly, annual and quinquennial. Each of these occurring at the interval of once every three months, once every year and finally once every five years.

The reason there are three of them is for only one reason that is due to the rule that once someone fails a selection exam he has to wait and give another type of selection exam.

For example, if someone fails a quarterly outer sect disciple selection then he has to wait and give the next annual outer sect disciple selection, if he even fails that he has to give the quinquennial outer sect disciple selection to qualify to be an outer sect disciple.

Once a disciple fails all three of the exams, the cycle will repeat but with each cyclic repetition, the reward he shall gain once he passes the selection will be reduced.

For example, the reward of winning the quarterly outer sect disciple selection are 30 spirit enhancing pills. If a person loses the quarterly outer sect disciple selection once and attempts it again in the next cycle he will only be rewarded 20 spirit enhancing pills even if he wins.

The sect has set these rules so that the talented disciples get faster access to more resources while the less talented ones train and bid their time until they are truly ready to showcase their strength rather than being hasty.

The criteria of passing each outer sect disciple selection are also different. For example, in the quarterly outer sect disciple selection, one has to place the first to become an outer sect disciple. In annual outer sect disciple selection, one has to be placed in the top 3 to be eligible to be an outer sect disciple and in the quinquennial outer sect disciple selection, one has to be placed in the top 10 to be eligible.

Looking at the surface the quinquennial outer sect disciple selection appears to be the easiest of the trio with 10 seats available to be taken but the waters of the exam are extremely deep with crouching tigers and hidden dragons all emerging to vie for the chance to enter the Conqueror's pond.

The arrival of the quinquennial outer sect disciple selection means the emergence of all the reclusive geniuses and veteran failures who were bidding their time.

Thinking till here, Fang Hao sighed at the troublesome state of affairs he found himself in.

"Should I just wait till the next outer sect disciple selection? ....Nah, it will take too long. I would have to wait for 3 more months for the next selection. I am also a little interested in the so-called conqueror's pond that is offered as the reward. It is said that the conqueror's pond raises both the talent and the cultivation with one single dip in it! It would surely be beneficial to me."

Fang Hao wondered as he continued to soliloquy:

But the competition would certainly be intense full of people in the high level and peak level of the third stage of the Qi condensation realm, a small cultivator like me who isn't even in the third stage of the Qi condensation realm would just be a small fry to them. Despite the risks the fastest method to gain entrance to the outer court sect would be to win the quinquennial outer sect disciple selection, not to mention that entering into the conqueror's lake would greatly boost my cultivation speed by helping me gain enlightenment of the second stage of the dragon spirit art: Hunger of the imperial dragon and hence shorten the time till my return home.

Fang Hao's eyes always dull black eyes seemed to show a hint of intense longing which quickly turned into intense resolve, as he continued:

To have even a tiny glimmer of hope of prevailing among the numerous dark horses and heroes, I have to at least reach the peak of the second stage of the Qi condensation realm.

It looks like I will have to search for some method to quickly reach the peak of the second level merely eating and sleeping are not enough.

Thinking till this point Fang Hao chuckled at how overpowered the Dragon spirit art was, merely sleeping was enough to grow their internal energy, unlike others who labourously meditated forgoing their sleep in hopes for an increase to their strength and this was merely the first level.

The Dragon spirit art is divided into three levels which correspond to the three major watersheds of the qi condensation stage.

Each level has one active skill and one passive skill.

A passive skill is a permanent passive effect of the cultivation technique when mastered while an active skill is an accompanied spiritual technique that comes with the cultivation technique.

Due to it being usually made by the creator of the cultivation technique and fitted for it they often provide greater strength as they are better integrated with the cultivation technique of the cultivator unlike other standalone spiritual techniques although it is not always but that's usually the case.

The three levels are as follows:

1) Slumbering dragon

One of the passive skills of the Dragon spirit art is that it automatically cultivates, heals injuries and even pacifies the soul during sleep turning one into an absolute beast that does full recovery of all aspects in just a single nights worth of sleep.

The first level of the Dragon spirit art is also accompanied by the active skill: slumbering dragons yawn which imitates the yawn of a great dragon that causes heaven and earth to quake despite making insignificant movements.

This unleashes a soft attack that knocks out the opponent without causing any injury when completely mastered.

Initial mastery of this technique grants the user immense power capable of up to three times the user's strength but the lack of control may cause lower efficiency and unintended internal damage as in Fang Hao's case when he struck Wang Chen causing him to spurt blood.

2) Hunger of the imperial dragon

Once one reaches the second level they unlock the passive ability to devour and consume any item 100%.

The hunger of the imperial dragon comes with the active skill called Dragon sense which smells all entities and determines their power level and attributes within a range of 10 km.

3) Pride of the dragon

Mastering the third level grants user the passive of dominating all creatures with an inferior bloodline by exuding the superior aura of a dragon.

Reaching this level also unlocks the final active skill of the Dragon spirit art which is known as Dragon scale.

Dragon scale grants its user invulnerability against attacks of the same level.

Each of the above technique is the peak of their class standing head and shoulders above the abilities of the same stage.

Unlike cultivation techniques, the active skills can be graded and even given a concrete assessment based on combat power and efficiency of the technique.

The first stage of the Slumbering dragon's yawn's active skill is graded to be the peak of the low-grade mortal ranked when it stands alone but when used by a cultivator of the dragon spirit art it changes the strength of the technique from low grade to mid to high grade to even beyond depending on the user's insight but since each spiritual technique is ranked as a stand-alone technique, it is marked as low grade. While the other active skills- Dragon sense and Dragon scale are ranked mid-grade and high-grade mortal ranked respectively but they are also similarly the peak of their categories.

The real nature of the active skills is that they are basically spiritual techniques that accompany a cultivation technique and hence known as accompanied spiritual techniques or as in the case of a mortal ranked accompanied spiritual technique, they are known as the accompanied martial arts.

Since these techniques are suitable for Qi condensation stage practitioners and mainly rely on internally using the spirit energy to bolster themselves and not outwardly, unlike the earth and sky grade techniques; they are not considered to be true spiritual techniques and therefore also gathering various names such as false spiritual technique or pseudo-spiritual technique.

Only Earth and Sky grade spiritual techniques are true spiritual techniques.