Test

This city was quite big. He didn't know if other cities of the Zhou kingdom were as big as this or not, but in his opinion, this city really was quite big to be just a border city.

There wasn't much that had changed from before. He had visited about 2 years ago, and the shops were still similar with just some minor improvements.

The streets were crowded, even though it was quite early morning.

People of his village mainly came here for trading grains, fruits, and some livestock to earn coins. There was a special area in this city made only for trading with local villages situated nearby the city.

He made his way deeper inside the city to find a good inn for his stay here. He knew one of the cheapest ones where he had stayed last time, but since people were misunderstanding his status, he thought it better to maintain the facade for the time being.

He wasn't truly poor. The spatial ring he was wearing contained a lot of spirit stones. He didn't know the true value of spirit stones, but after reading the notes left behind by Senior Hu Tian, he knew that even in the upper world they were valued very much. So, he didn't doubt how priceless they were in this world.

Not to mention, his ring contained higher and superior-grade spirit stones, which were rarer even in the upper world. He doubted that spirit stones of that grade even existed in this world. So, right now, he might be the richest person in this city.

As he was walking through the streets, he noticed that there were a lot of cultivators in this city. In fact, they were more than the mortals walking on the streets, which was quite unusual.

He had to find someone to get information from.

"We are recruiting for exploration of the Dark Forest. Strength required is the peak of Stage 9 of Qi Refinement or higher"

As he was contemplating what to do, he heard a shout from a man. When he looked over, he saw a group of 7 young people.

They were all wearing the same type of clothes, and he had no doubt that they were from the same sect or some prestigious clan.

There were 3 females and 4 males in the group. The three girls were beautiful, and one in particular was even more stunning than the others.

If it was any other 15-year-old boy who had seen her, they might have been captivated by her beauty. But to Jiang Hao, it didn't matter much.

Although she looked beautiful and he praised her beauty internally, that was it. He wouldn't fawn over someone just because they were beautiful. His heart wasn't so weak as to be swayed by someone's looks.

The reason he even paid attention to them was because of the shout he had heard.

This group of young disciples was recruiting people for the exploration of the forest.

He was about to find the inn, but that could be done later. This might be his chance to get as much knowledge as he could from these people. After all, they were disciples of a sect, and the knowledge they had definitely surpassed that of ordinary cultivators.

As he was about to respond, he noticed many cultivators moving toward them. It seemed like they, too, had the intention to join the group.

He sighed internally and made his way toward them. Since he had already decided, it wouldn't hurt to try at least. If he got selected, then it would be good. Even if he didn't, it wouldn't affect him much—he just had to find other sources.

There were a total of 24 cultivators who responded to their recruitment process.

"Good, good. We actually only need one person to complete our group, so please don't mind if we test you guys a little bit."

The man who had shouted earlier greeted all of them happily.

"Of course, we don't mind it, Senior. It will be an honor to be tested by the people of the Mountain Sword Sect."

Someone replied instantly.

Although these people were not so obvious in looking in the direction of the girls, how could they hide it from Jiang Hao's eyes?

Not everyone was like Jiang Hao, completely ignoring beautiful girls of this level.

Jiang Hao also noticed that the group of 7 people wasn't ordinary and had also noticed their attention, but they acted oblivious to it as though it happened all the time.

As he was thinking about how they were going to test them, a disciple of the Mountain Sword Sect slapped a small bag tied to his waist, and a big pillar fell in front of him.

Jiang Hao was surprised. So, that bag was spatial storage just like his ring.

The pillar was pure white and looked quite sturdy.

"This is an Impactful Pillar. It is given to every Qi Refinement disciple in the Mountain Sword Sect.

"It is used to measure strength, and unless we reach a certain level of strength in the Qi Refinement realm, we are not allowed to advance to the Foundation Establishment Realm.Cool, isn't it?"

This disciple was really quite cheerful.

"All you guys have to do is punch this pillar—the stronger, the better.This pillar will change its color according to the strength of your punch.

There are 7 colors, similar to the rainbow, with red being the lowest and violet being the highest. If two people have the same color, then we will judge by the intensity of the color released by the pillar. I hope everyone understood what I just said."

"Of course, Senior!"

"Good. Let's start the test!"

The pillar was quite heavy, and now that it was on the ground, it felt immovable because it got attached to the ground completely.

After that, the disciple of the Mountain Sword Sect moved away from the pillar and stood at an appropriate distance.

"Then I will take the first chance."

The man who had responded both times was the first to make a move.

He seemed quite confident. He was burly in appearance and looked much stronger than the others around him.

Jiang Hao didn't care who went first because the winner would be decided by strength not by the order of testing. Even among the 7 disciples of the Mountain Sword Sect, none posed a real threat to him because he didn't feel fatal danger from them when he observed them.

The only one who give him sense of danger was the girl who was the most beautiful. But he had no doubt that he would be able to hold his ground against her to, even if he might not be able to defeat her,he would definitely be able to escape from her without even using ring.

This was also the reason he wanted to tag along with them—they didn't pose much of danger to him.

The burly man arrived in front of the pillar, released his full strength, and took a stance for punching.

The moment he released his blood qi, it was obvious that he was at the peak of Stage 9 of the Qi Refinement realm.

"Haahhh…" he shouted and punched.

"Thummmmmm…"

A loud, crisp sound originated from the point of impact, and the color of the stone began to change from pure white to red, then from red to orange, orange to yellow, and finally stopped at faint green.

"Amazing, you can reach green color. Although it is only faint, it is still green nonetheless," the disciple praised him, and everyone could see the burly man becoming quite satisfied with the praise.

"Now, next!"

Since Jiang Hao was standing at the back, he could clearly see that many cultivators were hesitant after the display from the burly man. They felt they were definitely not as strong as him, so why go and embarrass themselves?

However, there were still some people who wanted to try at least, so a few of them stepped forward.

The next person achieved faint yellow color.

After seeing that, he left immediately because he knew he wouldn't get selected. Similarly, the people who had been hesitant before also left one by one.

The burly man almost believed he would be selected and looked quite smug. Jiang Hao didn't care about his smugness. Since very few cultivators were left and they were still hesitating to move, he made his way to the front.

When people saw that someone else was willing to try, they shifted their attention to him and were stunned for a second.

Jiang Hao looked quite slim and didn't appear to have a strong body. But the reason they were stunned was because he was quite handsome and also very young.

All the disciples present were about 18 to 20 years of age, while the cultivators trying to get selected were all above 20 years old.

But Jiang Hao was only 15 years old, and his clothes didn't match his appearance at all. After the refinement of his old body, his skin looked even smoother than the girls present here.

Although the girls didn't show much on their faces, they were intrigued by his appearance.

Jiang Hao was aware of everyone's gaze, but he didn't care and made his way to the stone pillar.

The burly man became a little dissatisfied when he saw that, but he was still confident in his strength. There was no way he was going to lose to this skinny guy.

After Jiang Hao arrived in front of the pillar, he didn't take any punching pose. Before anyone could figure out what he was doing, he punched.

"Thuddd~"

Again, a loud, crisp sound echoed from the impact between his fist and the pillar. The sound was even louder than the first punch made by the burly man.

Everyone was stunned.

The colors of the stone changed—from red to orange, orange to yellow, yellow to green, green to blue, and finally from blue to indigo before stopping.