The 10th peak

The head-examiner chose to personally escort Shangsheng Gaofeng to his new residence on the 10th peak, opting to have his second in command take over the subsequent examinations. Having the head-examiner escort Gaofeng was quite the honor, as few would ever be able to enjoy such a high status. The only one's qualified were those of the 10th peak, leaders of similarly large forces as the Holy Temple and Emperors. The list was short. The head-examiner didn't exactly walk with Gaofeng, however. Instead, he flew up into the air and brought Gaofeng with him to travel at a speed so fast that mortals wouldn't even be able to tell that they had passed by. This powerful monk was still very considerate to Gaofeng, however, as a mere mortal, and thus made sure to properly protect Gaofeng from any discomfort or harm that could possibly happen due to the high speeds they were traveling.

When Gaofeng first laid eyes on the mountain which was going to become his new home, he got a sense of being minute. This mountain was gigantic, to the point of Gaofeng not being able to wrap his head around such an astonishing natural phenomenon. Of course, seeing the mountain didn't mean arriving at the mountain, as its size dictated that they would see it far before actually arriving at it. After what felt like two hours, they finally arrived at a grand temple built on the peak of a grand mountain. The temple was a deep blood-red color with golden decoration and highlights, making it seem truly divine. The temple was surrounded by a large garden with its own gigantic lake and rows upon rows of spiritual trees with supple fruit and even multiple divine trees. Outside this garden of trees there was a field stretching as far as the eye could reach, filled with all sorts of heavenly medicine plants.

The most eye-catching thing in the garden was an enormous tree the size of a small mountain. The tree could have looked like a willow tree to the untrained eye, but Gaofeng recognized it as a Divine Enlightenment tree. This kind of tree had the mysterious quality of not only inducing enlightenments to those who cultivated underneath the tree, but it also simply increased the pace of the comprehension of anyone sitting underneath the tree. The greatest part of this tree, however, were its fruits. They could be considered more precious than even divine pills and had the effect of permanently increasing the perception and comprehension ability of the person who ate it. The effect was so massive that even a talentless fool could become a cultivation genius, and a cultivation genius could become akin to a koi transformed into a divine dragon. This strengthening by the fruit didn't merely increase the perception and comprehension ability of a cultivator by a set amount, but instead multiplied their innate talent. The exact multiplication wasn't commonly known, but Gaofeng, as a descendant of the Shangsheng family, knew the approximate multiplication which was about one hundred times of one's innate ability.

The reason this fruit wasn't used by every rich clan for their descendants to improve, however, was the length of which it took for a single fruit to grow to completion in addition to the absolute rarity of the three in itself. Only one fruit could grow on the tree at a time, and it took ten thousand years for a single fruit to grow to maturity. Additionally, one such Divine Enlightenment tree could only ever produce ten fruits before its lifespan ended. Such stringent time requirements made even clans like the Shangsheng clan be unable to easily give such fruits to the younger generation. The Shangsheng family could certainly procure this fruit if desired, and multiple Shangsheng branches had their own Divine Enlightenment tree, but they were still so scarce that family members had to perform great contributions to the clan to be awarded with such a fruit. Gaofeng wouldn't have personally been able to get one, but his father definitely could have used his own credit to buy him one. However, Gaofeng knew there was a Divine Enlightenment tree here and insisted on his father saving his contribution merits for something else. Gaofeng would rather earn the Divine Enlightenment fruit of the Holy Temple than his father having to spend his merits he had gained from repeatedly putting his life on the line for the family.

When the Head-Examiner was sending Gaofeng off in front of this gigantic temple, he decided to pass on to him the scroll he had obtained relating to the innate Holy Yin-Yang physique as it would help his new junior on his path. Receiving the scroll, Gaofeng felt an intimate connection with it at once, as if naturally understanding that this scroll would be beneficial to him even before he opened it. Gaofeng looked deeply at his elder before putting his palms together in front of his chest "Thank you for this grace, elder. I will not disappoint your expectations." The elder nodded slightly before saying "Holy Abbot Shen Hai is in deep seclusion at the moment, and the senior brother of the 10th peak is currently out gathering experience in the mortal world, thus you will have to find your own way around until they are available to guide you." After leaving these words the head-examiner flew off, leaving Gaofeng right outside a gigantic pair of doors. These doors had intricate engravings of different divine beasts such as dragons, phoenixes, kun-pengs, immense stallions with 12 legs, sea-monsters with 7 heads, majestic birds with three eyes and a gigantic snake-like beast stretched all the way around the doors as if acting as a barrier between them and the rest of the world. Gaofeng recognized most of these beasts from his extensive reading, but a couple were unknown even to him. This truly proved the deep heritage of the Holy Temple, as even Gaofeng with his family's resources had never heard their names. It might have been accidental that he hadn't read the right books, however, so he didn't take it to heart.

A normal 12-year-old's reaction to all of this new and exciting environment would be to impatiently start exploring, or perhaps one would be worried or scared or reverent, but Gaofeng was no ordinary 12-year-old. How could he be with a heart-realm on the level of people thousands of years his senior? The young boy calmly walked up to the door and put his hands on it. And, without even having to push, the doors soundlessly swung open, revealing a grand hall within. The hall was completely empty of a living soul, but there were some artifacts displayed alongside the walls. Gaofeng didn't pay much attention to these, however, and instead chose to walk to the end of the hall, each of his steps echoing throughout this vast open space. At the end of the hall there was a small pool filled with what Gaofeng recognized as spirit essence. This liquid was highly beneficial for cultivation and would help strengthen the body of any cultivator in it. Such an effect was especially beneficial for those in the body-strengthening realm as well as cultivators who chose to primarily cultivate their body. Gaofeng's Holy Yin-Yang physique could truly extract the greatest value possible from this pool, but he was in no rush to start his cultivation yet. If he had wanted to cultivate, with his family's resources, how could he still simply be a mortal? The answer was that he couldn't. Since he had come here, he naturally couldn't waste his time, however. Thus, he sensed the connection to the opportunity granted by the prayer beads, and his initial speculation seemed to be correct as the place this nudge lead him towards was somewhere deep within this majestic temple. This fell in line with his knowledge of the location of the golden tablet, and so his eyes lit up with joy.