Heavenly Dao Academy is located on a very open mountain plateau. Behind it is the area at the edge of Boundless Wastes that is filled with fog all year round. Looking out from the mountain gate, you can see the fog in the distance like a huge gray curtain, blocking the skyline.
The enrollment period is fixed for three days every year. The monks who come to participate in the enrollment assessment come from as far as two thousand miles away. This year, because the news has spread so widely, there are nearly 20% more applicants than in previous years, and the square outside the main entrance of the college is packed.
When Lin Feng arrived, there were probably more than 3,000 people standing in the square, with a wide range of ages. The youngest looked to be only twelve or thirteen years old, and the oldest looked to be two to three hundred years old. They were all kinds of people with different backgrounds, and they all came with one purpose - to pass the assessment and enter Heavenly Dao Academy.
The registration office is on the east side of the square, with a row of long tables, and behind it are about a dozen staff members wearing uniforms who are responsible for registering information and issuing bone age test cards.
Lin Feng walked over and waited in line for about a quarter of an hour. When it was his turn, the registration staff raised his head and glanced at him, then handed him a white jade sign with a professional expression and no trouble:
"Name, where you come from, and current cultivation level."
"Lin Feng, Rogue Cultivator, Mid God King Stage."
The staff member paused with the pen in his hand, raised his head, and took another look at Lin Feng. His expression changed from professional to serious.
Rogue Cultivator of Mid God King Stage came to take the admissions examination - this is not without precedent, but it is very rare, because with this level of cultivation, ordinary sects will rush to get it, so there is no need to take the examination.
But the rules stated that there was no limit on cultivation level, only bone age, so he had no reason to stop Lin Feng.
He lowered his head again, finished writing, and handed over the jade plaque:
"Take this to measure bone age, stand in front of the test stone on the right, and the stone will automatically display."
Lin Feng walked over with the jade sign. On the right side was a blue stone pillar half a man's height. The surface of the stone pillar had been polished very smooth by people's palm prints. The surface was covered with precise array patterns. It was an ancient array device specially used for bone age determination.
There are still a dozen people queuing up ahead.
Lin Feng While waiting, a boy of sixteen or seventeen years old came over and asked in a voice that only two people could hear:
"Brother, how old are you?"
"That's impossible to say."
The young man was stunned for a moment, not understanding the answer.
The people in front finished the measurement one by one, and the measured numbers ranged from decades to two to three hundred years. The staff recorded them one by one with a calm expression. They saw hundreds of such numbers every year.
It's Lin Feng's turn.
He placed the palm of his right hand against the sensing surface of the blue stone pillar.
The array pattern of the test stone lights up, and the light flow flows on the surface of the stone pillar, collecting data, calculating, and then usually a number will appear in the display area at the top.
The entire process usually lasts three to five seconds.
This time, it lasted nearly twenty seconds.
The formation pattern of the test stone circulated the energy several times, as if it was repeatedly confirming a conclusion that it could not believe, and then the display area at the top lit up.
The numbers emerged.
The staff member lowered his head while recording, glanced at the number, and stopped.
Then he raised his head and confirmed it again.
Then he lowered his head again and wrote a line in the record book. After writing, he raised his head, very calmly, but there was some emotion hidden in his voice that he tried hard to suppress:
"Bone age: two years and three months."
In the square, the surroundings were noisy, but when people nearby heard this number, it suddenly became quiet.
Then the quiet range expands and spreads out.
"How much?"
"Two years and three months, that's... more than two years old?"
"Mid God King Stage, your bone age is more than two years old? This..."
"According to the growth rate here, we will reach Mid God King Stage in just over two years. This is not a genius, this is..."
"What is this?"
The staff member next to the test stone finished writing that line and took another look at the potential index display bar.
In that display column, what should have been displayed was a grade mark, from "ordinary" to "excellent" to "unbelievable", which was the grading system used by the academy for four thousand years.
This time, there are only two words in the display column:
Overflow.
The staff member stared at those two words for a long time, raised his head, took a deep breath, maintained professional composure, and said to Lin Feng:
"Lin Feng, the bone age and cultivation data have been recorded, you can prepare for the second level."
Lin Feng Withdrew his hand from the stone pillar, nodded, and walked forward.
Behind him, the sixteen-year-old boy who asked him his age stood there with his mouth still open and had not yet recovered.
Heaven-Ascending Stairway of the Heavenly Dao Academy is the venue for the second level assessment and is also one of the most famous landmarks of the college.
There are 3,600 steps extending from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain. There are no guardrails, only a straight upward stone staircase. The slope is extremely steep and almost vertical visually.
But this is just a cosmetic challenge.
The real test is that each step of Heaven-Ascending Stairway has a formation, exerting increasing gravity suppression on those who step on it. The first level is only twice the normal weight. Every time you go up a level, the suppression increases by a fixed amount. At level 1,000, the suppression is 30 times your body weight, at level 2,000, it is 80 times, and at the top of level 3,600 - the theoretical limit suppression is 300 times your body weight.
Those who have passed the assessment over the years and reached level 3,000 or above are all directly awarded elite status by the college.
Those who made it to the top, a total of seven people over the past four thousand years, have all become legendary names in the college and have monuments erected in the corridors to commemorate them.
This year's more than 3,000 participants were divided into several batches, with 30 people in each batch going up the stairs at the same time.
Lin Feng was classified into the eleventh batch.
Among the eleventh batch, there are three people with the highest potential who were identified by the bone age test this year - a fifteen-year-old girl with a bone age of fifteen years and a cultivation level of Early Divine General Stage; a twenty-year-old boy with a bone age of twenty years and a cultivation level of Peak Divine General; and a thirty-two-year-old young man from a certain superior sect with a bone age of thirty years and a cultivation level of Early Divine Marquis Stage.
And Lin Feng, whose bone age is more than two years old and whose cultivation level is Mid God King Stage.
His data had been spread throughout the square after registration. Most of the thirty people in this group looked at him before he set foot on Heaven-Ascending Stairway, with a mixture of curiosity and some vague expectation in their eyes.
"Start."
The timekeeper lowered the flag.
Thirty people stepped onto the first step at the same time.
At the first three hundred levels, basically everyone can still maintain a normal pace, but everyone can feel the increasing pressure that is slowly accumulating. At the four hundred level, the first group of people with weaker physiques begin to slow down, and their steps begin to become heavy.
At level 500, someone started to gasp.
At level 600, the first person stopped, held on to the edges on both sides, lowered his head and gasped for air.
At level 800, nearly half of the thirty people began to slow down significantly. Several people's faces turned red and their collars were wet with sweat.
At level 1000, the 32-year-old Early Divine Marquis Stage is currently the fastest walking, but his steps are obviously heavy, and his shoulders are somewhat arched under the continuous downward pressure, relying on his spiritual power to protect him.