Proficiency Panel

Cloud Sword Sect.

Outer Sect Trial Peak, Refining God Platform.

Su Yu woke with a start, his face pale and his body drenched in cold sweat. Before he could gather his wits, a voice rang beside his ear: "Su Yu, tenth place in the third trial, Divine Will."

On a raised platform, several Cloud Sword Sect stewards looked over Su Yu's information and gently shook their heads.

"His result in this trial is quite good, above average."

"However, his Spirit Root is merely a Low-grade Spirit Root, and his comprehension in the second trial was also low. On top of that, he is already sixteen, right at the threshold."

"Eliminate him."

"Eliminate him. Agreed."

This year, more than three hundred people took the Cloud Sword Sect novice disciples test, but there were only thirty spots.

Although Su Yu's third result was fairly good, his Low-grade Spirit Root and poor comprehension were glaring flaws. His performance in the third trial was not enough for the Cloud Sword Sect to make an exception and admit him.

As the young men and women on the Refining God Platform woke one after another, the results of the third Divine Will Stage were announced.

This trial tested the stability of one's spiritual platform foundation and the strength of one's will.

That was why it was called the Divine Will Stage.

"Brother Yu, you did so well in the third trial. You should have a chance of entering the Cloud Sword Sect, right?" Su Qingyi, a younger clansman from the same lineage, said with a hint of envy and reluctance.

His results in the first two trials had been decent. He had a Medium-grade Spirit Root, and his comprehension had reached lower-middle grade, but his Divine Will ranking in the third trial had fallen to somewhere past sixtieth.

With that result, entering the Cloud Sword Sect was basically impossible.

Su Yu did not respond. This younger clansman had always been rather arrogant. He did not truly think Su Yu had a chance of entering the Cloud Sword Sect; he was merely making a point of Su Yu's result.

If Su Yu had placed in the top three in the third trial, perhaps the Cloud Sword Sect might have made an exception and accepted him as a novice disciple.

But tenth place...

With his Low-grade Spirit Root and low comprehension, it was basically impossible.

A woman beside them knitted her brows and softly rebuked him, "Qing Yi, don't talk."

"Big Sister, I truly think Brother Yu can do it. After all, his result in the third trial was even better than yours," Su Qingyi said in a low voice after glancing at Su Yu.

The woman said nothing.

The three of them came from the same lineage. The woman was Su Zhi, eldest daughter of the Su Family, a cultivation lineage of Jiang City, and the most talented among the three.

Her Spirit Root was upper-middle grade, her comprehension was upper-middle grade, and her Divine Will result, twenty-first place, was likewise above average.

There should be no problem with her entering the Cloud Sword Sect.

Sure enough.

A steward on the nearby high platform let his aura spread as he shouted, "Silence! The list of those selected as Cloud Sword Sect novice disciples will now be announced."

"Gongsun Yi, Chen Bailai, He Xiu, Su Zhi, Lin Danlang..."

"Those whose names were called, remain. Everyone else, leave the Cloud Sword Sect."

Su Qingyi did not hear his own name. His face full of unwillingness, he followed the crowd out of the Cloud Sword Sect's Outer Sect, looking utterly lost. He did not even notice that Su Yu beside him wore a somewhat dazed expression, nothing like someone who had just been eliminated.

Several elders of the Su Family were waiting outside, including the Su Family Patriarch, Su Peng, Su Zhi's father.

When they learned that Su Zhi had successfully entered the Cloud Sword Sect as an outer disciple, Su Peng and the other Su Family elders were overjoyed.

Su Peng was broad and sturdy, still resembling a burly middle-aged man despite his green robes. At that moment, he looked excitedly toward the Cloud Sword Sect's mountain gate and repeatedly said, "Good, good, good! Xiao Zhi has entered the Cloud Sword Sect. Our Su Family now has hope!"

After his excitement subsided, Su Peng looked at the dazed Su Yu and the despondent Su Qingyi, then comforted them. "Neither of you need lose heart. Though failing to enter the Cloud Sword Sect is indeed a great regret, if you remain in the lineage and cultivate with peace of mind, your future achievements may not necessarily be any worse."

"You must know that True Lord Moon Worship of Moon Worship Immortal City in our Great Moon Prefecture once wished to join the Great Moon Palace in his youth. Yet because his Spirit Root was only low-grade, he was turned away at the gate and could only become a Rogue Cultivator."

"But now, the Moon Worship Immortal City founded by True Lord Moon Worship has become one of the foremost immortal cities in Great Moon Prefecture."

"The two of you should remain in the lineage and cultivate diligently. Your starting point is even higher than True Lord Moon Worship's was."

Upon hearing True Lord Moon Worship's story, Su Qingyi visibly perked up. Under the Family Head's rousing words, an extra gleam appeared in his eyes.

True Lord Moon Worship had only possessed a Low-grade Spirit Root, yet he had been able to establish Moon Worship Immortal City.

And he, Su Qingyi, possessed a Medium-grade Spirit Root. In the future, he might not be inferior to True Lord Moon Worship.

Su Yu did not feel much, but as he looked at everything before him, it still felt rather dreamlike. How had he pulled an all-nighter playing games, gone to sleep, and woken to find that the entire world had changed?

The name True Lord Moon Worship sounded somewhat familiar. Wasn't he an early-game minor Demon Path boss in the game Su Yu had played?

Still muddled and confused, Su Yu followed Su Peng and the other lineage elders back to Jiang City.

On the road.

They even ran into members of the Lin Family, another cultivation lineage from Jiang City.

The Lin Family had likewise sent one clansman into the Cloud Sword Sect this time, but he had barely scraped in at the bottom, nowhere near the Su Family's eldest daughter, Su Zhi.

Thus, when the Lin Family members saw the Su Family group, their expressions were not very pleasant.

"Hmph, move!" Lin Kui, the Grand Elder leading the Lin Family party, snorted coldly and urged the spirit horse beneath him to speed up. He did not want to see the Su Family.

Jiang City was a small city near the Cloud Sword Sect, with a population of only a little over a hundred thousand. The Su Family and Lin Family, two small cultivation lineages, each controlled half of it.

Three days later.

Su Yu returned to the Su Family. Originally, as a collateral descendant of the Su Family, he could only live in a small house on the family's outskirts. His parents had died when he was young, and he had been raised by the lineage—a standard orphan protagonist opening at the starting point.

However, after he returned, the lineage had cleaned out a courtyard for him within the main residence and assigned him a young, beautiful maid to attend him. Since he possessed a Spirit Root and could walk the path of cultivation, he was a cultivator.

Every cultivator was a core figure within a cultivation lineage, the key to its prosperity.

Naturally, Su Yu's treatment in the Su Family would not be poor.

After receiving this month's allowance from the Grand Elder—one Low-grade Spirit Stone and thirty jin of Low-grade Spirit Rice—Su Yu returned to his courtyard.

"Low-grade Five Element Spiritual Roots." Su Yu sat cross-legged and pondered. His physique had balanced Five Elements Spiritual Roots.

Such a balanced physique was not common, but Low-grade Spirit Roots in all five elements were of no damned use.

The previous owner of this body had cultivated the Su Family's cultivation technique, the Wutong Greenwood Art, a Wood attribute technique that could be cultivated up to Qi Refining Stage Nine.

He had only recently begun cultivating and was currently at Qi Refining Stage One.

To be honest, such a technique was not bad.

For an ordinary Rogue Cultivator, even obtaining a technique that could be cultivated to Qi Refining Stage Three or Six was no easy matter.

It was not that he was picking and choosing which cultivation technique would be best for him. He had no other techniques available to choose from.

Rather, it was the lines of words that appeared before his eyes whenever he focused that left him uncertain and alarmed.

Name: Su Yu.

Cultivation: Qi Refining Stage One.

Lifespan: 16/98.

Technique: Wutong Greenwood Art (Level One, Proficiency 1.6%).

Spells: Wood Vine Technique (Proficiency 3.4%), Spirit Nurturing Art (Proficiency 6.5%).

It was a very crude panel.

Yet looking at this panel gave Su Yu an unreal feeling. His expression was blank as he murmured, "Did I transmigrate, or did I enter a game?"

After thinking for a moment, Su Yu called to the maid in the courtyard, who was sweeping while secretly stealing glances at him. "Lin Dong, come here for a moment."

Bei Lindong's pretty face immediately reddened. She hurried over in small steps, lowered her head, and said, "Young Master Yu—ah, it hurts!"

The next instant, Bei Lindong cried out in pain. Her eyes wide, she covered her cheeks with both hands, tears glimmering in her eyes as she looked at Su Yu in grievance. She did not understand why he had pinched both her cheeks at once.

Su Yu's expression did not change, nor did his heart skip a beat. He withdrew his hands after pinching the girl's cheeks and said, "If you want to look, just look. You don't need to sneak glances."

Bei Lindong's cheeks immediately turned crimson. She lowered her head again, not daring to look at Su Yu, feeling as though her secret had been exposed and becoming unbearably shy.

She did not notice Su Yu's thoughtful expression.

It hurt?

Did NPCs feel pain? Personal testing confirmed that they did. Su Yu pondered inwardly, True Lord Moon Worship was indeed a minor boss at this point in the game, but what the hell was the Cloud Sword Sect? There was no Cloud Sword Sect in that game, and the place where Moon Worship Immortal City stood was not called Great Moon Prefecture either.

So, was it a coincidence?

Was this not a game world?