16 - The Ascending Dragon Sect selection (05)

Many held their breath as Qingyi released his full Qi, the subtle blue glow covered in silvery threads exploded, the runes running down the thundercloud sword's blade pulsing intensely.

'I'll end this with a single blow,' Qingyi decided, stepping forward while swinging his sword.

The disciple didn't flinch at the power of Qingyi's aura.

He was at the seventh stage of the Qi Refinement Realm while Qingyi was only at the sixth. Even his spiritual root was of a higher level, so he wasn't afraid.

Raising his sword, he parried Qingyi's blow, but the next moment, he regretted it.

His arms trembled and he felt his Qi being suppressed.

Looking at his sword, his eyes widened. Qingyi's blade was sunk into his, the metal melting like butter under the Qi surrounding the thundercloud sword.

Silence.

No one spoke a word as the melted tip of the sword fell to the ground with a metallic clang.

Qingyi only smiled slightly as he retracted his blade. He had expected it.

It was one of the biggest reasons why he preferred to try his luck with a fused bloodline instead of simply evolving his current one.

It was simply too broken!

The sword spirit root increased sharpness and strength to a level where Iron Body realm cultivators could even use their bare hands as swords, while the lightning spirit root added the destructive power that was lacking.

If that had been a human body instead of a sword, it would probably have been cut in half, and even if it hadn't, all its meridians would have been destroyed by the lightning root.

Turning around, Qingyi saw Tianming's fallen face, his mouth open as he tried to understand.

How on earth had he cut the sword of a top-level cultivator so easily?

'Calm down!'

Tianming lowered his head.

He still had a spiritual root of a much higher level than Qingyi's and was two cultivation stages above, as well as being supported by a powerful family.

His gaze then flicked to Feiyan, who was smiling at Qingyi, as if he were her sun.

He was dumb, but not dumb enough to be unable to understand what she wanted, and that only made him despise himself even more.

Whenever his eyes fell on her body, any desire to move on disappeared. He just wanted to have her all to himself, for all eternity.

Why on earth couldn't she just accept being a concubine? Why did she have to insist on becoming an official wife?

There would be no shortage of riches for her as a concubine. Did that damned wife status really make her go that far just to provoke him?

"It was quite a... demonstration," Elder Tian said, taking everyone's attention.

He had to admit, fused spiritual roots were terrifying.

Even as a powerful Iron Body Realm expert, he still felt a slight threat from Qingyi's blade.

It wasn't something that could kill him, but it was certainly enough to draw blood.

"This humble one thanks Elder Tian for the compliment," Qingyi bowed respectfully to the elder before returning to his seat, ignoring the suppressed whispers among the recruits and disciples.

Soon, the tests began again, but they didn't attract much attention from anyone. Mediocre disciples, no great talent revealed itself.

Only two other young people with seventh level spiritual roots managed to defeat the outer disciples, all the others ended in a draw or defeat for the recruits.

The separation wasn't long either. The outer disciples gathered up those who had failed and led them out of the Sect. Soon, only fifty recruits remained.

Elder Tian stopped in front of the recruits, his eyes sweeping over everyone there before he let out a disappointed sigh.

This batch of recruits had been very disappointing. Even with a few surprises, it simply wasn't enough.

There were about five young people with seventh-level spiritual roots. They were talented, but far from being true geniuses.

In all the previous selections, there was at least one disciple with eighth level spiritual roots, sometimes even ninth level roots.

But in this one, the most impressive thing he saw was Qingyi's spirit root, which was only a fifth-level spirit root.

Regaining his composure, he waved his hands in the air as he stepped onto the arena floor. A marble table rose from the ground as fifty tokens appeared in the air, falling onto it.

They were wooden tokens, identical to each other, bearing the image of a dragon and a place for the disciple's name, all with one exception, a golden token.

"These are your disciple tokens. As long as you are an outer disciple, they are everything to you.

If you lose them, the punishment will be severe. Without them, you won't be able to go on missions, you won't have access to the Sect's facilities or receive your monthly salaries as disciples," Elder Tian explained, taking the golden token.

"This is the golden dragon token, given to disciples the Sect sees great potential in. By receiving this token, not only will they have a private residence, but they will also have twice the resources of ordinary outer disciples."

Elder Tian studied the features and emotions of each of the recruits with seventh level spiritual roots. The only ones who stood out among them were Feiyan and Tianming.

But neither of them pleased him. Feiyan looked like a vile woman who would cling to any man, while Tianming was even worse.

A pathetic man, staring at a woman clearly uninterested in him like a dog in heat, unable to control his own murderous intent.

'The Xu family is lucky not to depend on this young man...' he shook his head. The Xu family had many competent heirs and Tianming was far from the line of succession.

The mere fact that Tianming was from a family as powerful and with as much land as the Xu family would probably be enough for Elder Tian to choose him, but thinking about the young man's personality, the old man hesitated.

His gaze swept over everyone there, until it stopped on Qingyi, one of the best surprises of this test.

He was an extremely handsome young man, but he didn't show a hint of arrogance.

His face was always calm, his smile always kind and his white clothes always immaculate.

Even when that lustful woman pushed herself against him, he didn't show an ounce of lust.

'That's what a true orthodox cultivator should be like... if his spiritual root was at least one level higher...' Elder Tian gritted his teeth and, raising his gaze, made a decision.

"Long Qingyi, one step forward."