"The first test is strength! Choose a Strength Bronze Pillar to lift. You have three chances; your highest result counts!" He Yanjun ordered.
"Yes!" The thin-lipped man with gloomy eyes immediately stepped forward, then chose the lightest bronze pillar and laboriously lifted it in both arms.
"First attempt, weight: 600 jin!" He Yanjun announced flatly.
Duan Xiang set down the stone pillar, then walked to one slightly heavier than the last and lifted it again.
After three attempts, He Yanjun said evenly, "Test participant Duan Xiang, final strength test result: 700 jin. Next, Chen Lin!"
He Yanjun then called out the name of the second person to be tested.
When Head Instructor Lu Cheng, who also held a list in the distance, saw Chen Lin's detailed information, a flicker of surprise passed through his eyes.
He said to the friend who had just arrived beside him, "Old Shen, this eighteen-year-old kid is a martial student from Lieyang Martial Arts School? He's coming to take the War God Temple's entry test at such a young age? How is his talent? Why didn't he enter a martial academy to cultivate?"
"His talent is indeed very high. As for why he did not go to a martial academy, the reasons are difficult to explain. Part of it was also because I misjudged people and failed in overseeing civic affairs." Shen Honglang explained with a bitter smile.
"Heh! Difficult to explain? Then this kid must have offended someone and been tripped up behind his back! At a time like this, these people still refuse to mend their ways! They truly deserve death!" Lu Cheng's face darkened as he complained angrily.
Shen Honglang could only shake his head with a bitter smile, unable to say much more.
"Perhaps this kid merely came to broaden his horizons and does not have the strength to pass the test." A martial artist with a round, plump face, looking like a wealthy old man, walked in and joined the conversation.
"Could it be that City Lord Li knows something about this youth?" Shen Honglang asked back, immediately somewhat displeased.
"Hahaha! I do not! I was merely saying so. Master Shen, please do not take it seriously!" City Lord Li's gaze flickered as he laughed it off.
"Without knowing anything, City Lord Li still jumps to such a conclusion. It seems the recent demon beast attacks on the Outer City were not entirely accidents after all." Lu Cheng clearly did not think much of Nanqing City's city lord, and he returned the jab in a mild, mocking tone.
City Lord Li's face instantly turned extremely ugly. Suppressing his anger, he smiled and cupped his hands toward the two men before turning to leave. His figure quickly vanished onto the second floor of the hall; he had come and gone in a hurry.
"Brother Lu, was it really appropriate to treat City Lord Li that way? No matter what, he is still a fourth-rank official of Yan State." Shen Honglang looked worried.
"What is inappropriate about it? He has made so many blunders governing Nanqing City, and so many people have died. Am I not even allowed to criticize him? Trash who got his position through the back door should be thrown outside the city to feed the demon beasts!" Lu Cheng said through gritted teeth.
"I truly do not know what the Temple Lord is thinking. With the strength of our War God Temple, taking territory spanning ten or twenty cities would be no difficult task. Why does he keep letting these wine sacks and rice bags occupy the people's livelihoods and political power?" Shen Honglang had long been disgusted by the actions of certain Nanqing City elites, and he could not help asking.
"The Temple Lord surely has his own considerations. We do not stand high enough, and what we consider cannot possibly be as comprehensive as the Temple Lord's. So we can only complain; we cannot put our ideas into action." Lu Cheng shook his head, equally unable to understand, as he explained.
"Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore. Look, Chen Lin from our martial arts school—his result is out!" Shen Honglang lost interest in continuing the topic and quickly changed the subject.
When Chen Lin stepped onto the field to choose a bronze pillar, he did not hesitate much. He directly chose the 1,000-jin bronze pillar, intending to see whether he could lift it.
Everyone watched the young Chen Lin, curious about his final result.
Chen Lin stood before the bronze pillar, wrapped both arms around it, and suddenly exerted force through the soles of his feet.
The 1,000-jin bronze pillar was slowly lifted beneath Chen Lin's tremendous strength.
Ten centimeters, twenty centimeters, thirty centimeters...
Chen Lin's face flushed red, veins bulging across both arms. At the same time, he continuously adjusted the points where his legs bore force, drawing upon every shred of strength in his body and applying it to the bronze pillar.
As the bronze pillar rose bit by bit, everyone's eyes widened round.
If 700 jin of strength was the minimum threshold for an early-stage Martial Master, then 1,000 jin was the upper limit of the early-stage Martial Master realm.
Most early-stage Martial Masters possessed between 700 and 800 jin of strength. Few could surpass 800 jin.
Those early-stage Martial Masters whose strength exceeded 800 jin were generally people born with divine strength.
Yet before their very eyes, an early-stage Martial Master with a full 1,000 jin of strength had appeared alive and in the flesh. They were so shocked that they did not know what expression could convey their feelings at that moment.
With great effort, Chen Lin shoved the bronze pillar representing 1,000 jin into the ceiling above his head, and the scene fell into an eerie silence.
In the end, He Yanjun, as the examiner, was the first to recover. Suppressing the astonishment deep within his heart, he announced somewhat excitedly, "Test participant Chen Lin, first attempt, weight: 1,000 jin!"
Many of the martial artists taking the test underwent drastic changes in expression. The shock in their eyes was no longer concealed in the slightest.
Duan Xiang's eyes were wide, and beyond the shock, there were traces of jealousy and venomous resentment in them.
Chen Lin's cousin, meanwhile, looked at Chen Lin's result with envy in his eyes, along with a faint trace of melancholy.
Hearing this, Chen Lin smiled and stretched his somewhat sore, numb muscles and bones. Then he directly chose to end the test, actually giving up his remaining two chances.
He Yanjun was not particularly surprised by Chen Lin's decision. Since he had already displayed 1,000 jin of strength, whether he used the next two attempts no longer mattered. He therefore announced loudly once more, "Test participant Chen Lin, final strength test result: 1,000 jin! Next, Pan Ran!"
Seeing Chen Lin's performance, Head Instructor Lu Cheng immediately stroked his beard and smiled in satisfaction. "This kid is not bad. At such a young age, his physical body has been tempered so perfectly. Not bad, very good indeed! I wonder how capable he is in actual combat!"
"Chen Lin is no slouch in actual combat either. Among the martial students of the same class at Lieyang Martial Arts School, basically none are his match. If he had not been harmed by someone's schemes, one of this year's martial academy upper school slots would certainly have been his." Shen Honglang explained with a sigh.
"With such strength, why waste time at a martial academy? The Hundred Thousand Mountains are where he truly ought to go!" Lu Cheng said with a face full of disdain.
Chen Lin knew nothing of the conversation between Lu Cheng and Shen Honglang. After finishing his test, under the complex gazes of the other test participants, he returned to the waiting area.
At this moment, he had a more precise guess regarding the data in the jade book within his mind.
A physical strength of 100 corresponded exactly to 1,000 jin of force.
By that conversion, each point of data corresponded to 10 jin of his own strength.
It seemed that in the future, he would no longer need to take any strength tests to know exactly how much strength he possessed.
"Not bad, Chen Lin. When did you quietly break through to Martial Master without saying a word? Does anyone in the Lineage know about this?"
"They do not." Chen Lin grinned.
"??" Chen Yu was first covered in question marks, then shook his head and said, "You really know how to keep your composure."
Chen Lin merely shook his head at that, saying nothing more.
The strength tests for the dozen or so people ended quickly.
Among them, quite a few had only barely reached 700 jin. Faced with a testing tool completely different from stone locks, many martial artists who had harbored lucky hopes were eliminated.
In the end, after this round of selection, more than half the martial artists who had been only a hair short of the passing line were screened out. Only nine people remained to enter the next test.
"You few, follow me!" He Yanjun instructed.
Before you continue