Chapter 4 - Examination Starts!

" He's one of the core elders of the Flying Sword Sect, an expert at the Nascent Soul Realm."

Qing Yi's mouth opened slightly as she focused her eyes on Xuan Hao, she was shocked beyond belief upon listening to the chatter surrounding the young man walking besides the Sect Master.

Around twenty years old? Already reached the Nascent Soul Realm?!

"Everyone, since you've come all the way here to join the examination of my Flying Sword Sect, I won't waste anymore of your time. Now, I'll announce that the Flying Sword Sect's first round of examination will officially begin!" After briefly welcoming the younger generation, Feng Chen directly announced the start of the examinations first round.

The first test was divided into two steps. Firstly, to test the bone age and making sure nobody over the age limit entered and secondly, cultivation.

Those with a bone age less than eighteen and a cultivation level at the third stage of Qi Condensation directly entered the second stage of the examination.

The first part was not difficult. Most of the people who could appear here agreed with the request and was tested.

Children under the age of fourteen had a whole other set of tests they had to go through, so as to make it fair for them to be able to enter as well. After all, having a child the age of ten reach Qi Condensation stage three was a little too much to ask.

The first part was not difficult and mostly served so as to separate the children from the young adults. The second part of the examination was the difficult one.

The second part was the actual battle, where the ordinary would be removed and the extraordinary would shine brightly.

At that time, those who managed to pass the first round of test would be led by an outer elder of the Flying Sword Sect to a demon beast forest not too far away from the Flying Sword Sect for the true trial.

The forest of demon beasts under the Flying Sword Sect was exceptionally large, but the demon beasts inside were not strong. Under the management of the Flying Sword Sect, the strongest was only at the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation Realm.

After the participants entered the forest of demon beasts, every demon beast that they killed would be recorded by an elder. In the end, the elders of the Flying Sword Sect would rank all of them according to how many demon beasts they managed to kill.

In the end, the top 1000 people would become Outer Court Disciples of the Flying Sword Sect, the top 10 would be promoted directly to Inner Court Disciples if their performance was satisfactory.

This, however, was not what caused most of the youths present to give their all. The most attractive part was to appeal to the higher-ups of the Flying Sword Sect and be accepted as a personal disciple.

Becoming a personal disciple of any of the three core elders would be the same as ascending the heavens in a single step.

It was also worth mentioning that it wasn't just because one's cultivation realm was higher than others, the higher one's ranking would become. The second part of the examination was not about their cultivation realm, rather, it focused on evaluating the youths' combat strength and their ability to react to different and most certainly deadly encounters.

Even if they were at the 3rd stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, if you could still not kill at least a few demon beasts that were above you in cultivation realm, you would most likely not be able to enter the top 1000.

Similarly, if your cultivation base was high, but the combat strength you exerted did not match your cultivation base, then even if you were at the 6th stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, you might not end up in the top 1000.

While the thousand spots did sound like quite a lot, people from all over the northern region of the Heavenly Sky kingdom had gathered for the examination.

More than ten thousand people had gathered and were left for the second part of the examination. Meaning nine out of ten people would be eliminated.

What the Flying Sword Sect used to test the bone age of the people present was a special kind of spirit tool called a talent tester, as it could measure a person's cultivation base as well.

This kind of tool wasn't considered to be valuable, even Qing Yi's clan had a few laying around.

After Feng Chen announced the beginning of the first test, the people in the examination ground began to test in an orderly manner.

"Ying Lu, bone age 16, Qi Condensation Third Stage, Pass!"

"Tao Tao? Bone age 17, Qi Condensation Fifth Stage, Pass!"

"Yuan Meow, Bone age 19! Disqualified!"

"Fang Fan, bone age 15, Qi Condensation Second Stage, Disqualified!"

"Meng …..."

Most of the people who were able to appear here had a prior understanding of the Flying Sword Sect's standards for accepting disciples. Most of them had passed the test. Apart from a few who tried to cheat the system and squeeze in, most of them were qualified.

Xuan Hao, who was located on a platform standing above the examination ground looked down at the group of little fellows in the examination ground.

"hah…"

Xuan Hao only wanted to sit quietly inside the pavilion and scout around with his divine sense to pick up a talent and bring him or her in as a disciple. Sadly, the two Wang brothers had other ideas for him and the moment they saw him spreading out his divine sense, they came up with a devious plan.

"Ah, this child Xuan Hao is still young and is going to pick his first disciple! Feng Chen, why don't you take him with you for the start of the examination?"

"Yes, yes! This way he will be able to see the new blood of the sect personally, it will definitely be easier to pick a disciple this way!"

"Hmm… Indeed, I also chose my first disciple this way. Xuan Hao, why don't you come? If you just stay here you won't be able to see the young ones personally."

"… Fine, I will come."

Not even getting a chance to refuse, Xuan Hao was chased out of the pavilion and now stood quietly besides the Sect Master Feng Chen on the platform.

"Sigh…"

The first test had just begun, so Xuan Hao decided to throw the thoughts of the two scheming muscle heads aside and focus on trying to find a disciple.

"Natural talent 4, no…."

"Talent at 6, no."

"Ah, someone with a talent of 9, why couldn't you just have one more! Still not good enough and the fellow also looks like a troublesome type…"

"Sigh…"

Almost half of the first round of tests had passed, and Xuan Hao had still not found a person with 10 or more talent.

Not to mention more than 10, the highest was still only at 9.

"I've taken it for granted. Even within the Flying Sword Sect, Ling Song, who is know as the number one person in the younger generation only has a talent of 15" Xuan Hao shook his, and was slightly disappointed with the younger people trying to get into the Flying Sword Sect. It seemed like the side quest would probably be impossible if nobody with decent talent showed up.