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Ink Continent.

Chess Player City.

Chess Player City was the capital of the Ink Kingdom. It lay in a remote, barren region and, by rights, was unfit to serve as a capital. But what could you do when the headquarters of the Black and White Divine Palace stood there?

In the world today, immortals ruled mortals.

Countries were merely tools immortals used to govern mortals. For that reason, the nations of the Nine Continents had few armies, only yamen runners. When war truly broke out, the immortals themselves stepped in to resolve it.

For mortals, gaining the right to cultivate immortality was the greatest opportunity life could offer.

Every spring, the Black and White Divine Palace held a disciple selection in Chess Player City. It accepted anywhere from one hundred to five hundred people each year, while hundreds of thousands took part.

The new year's enrollment was underway. When Ning Ye arrived, he saw Chess Player City packed with people, shoulder to shoulder. Young people had come from everywhere to take part in the selection, their eyes filled with hope. After all, anyone who entered the Black and White Divine Palace could soar to the heavens from then on.

Because so many people had come, every inn in Chess Player City was already full. Fortunately, many locals had opened their homes to visitors, and the mortals of Chess Player City made a tidy profit from it every year.

As a former cultivator, Ning Ye wasn't short of money. But his ugly face, pitted and mottled with red and white, had frightened quite a few people. He'd had to pay a full thirty percent extra before he finally found a reasonably quiet house.

It had been three months since he parted ways with Xin Xiaoye and Qing Lin in Apricot Forest.

He wondered how his senior brother and senior sister were doing. Had they entered Haotian Sect and Taiyin Sect?

Now, gazing at his ugly reflection in the mirror, Ning Ye sighed and lay down on the bed. With a slight shift of his mind, his body remained in the room, but his consciousness appeared before a vast palace.

This was the Thousand Mechanism Hall.

He had obtained this thing by chance all those years ago. Back then, he had been no more than an ordinary intelligence analyst. During an outing in the wilderness, he had seen something descend from beyond the sky. Thinking it was a meteorite, he had followed it, only to witness a majestic palace falling from the heavens. Then he had arrived in this world, and the palace had come with him.

Or perhaps this was where it had belonged all along. After wandering through countless worlds, it had returned to its original home, bringing along one extra person.

With his consciousness lodged in the Thousand Mechanism Hall, Ning Ye casually waved a hand. The mysterious glow of the Ancient Kunlun Mirror rose from within the palace, and countless wondrous symbols shimmered in the air, reflecting a bizarre and fantastical scene.

Although he had lost his cultivation, the Heaven Asking Art valued profound understanding over methods. What he had lost was his cultivation, not his knowledge of the Heaven Asking Art, so he could still use it, barely.

Of course, without a foundation of cultivation, he couldn't calculate anything truly important.

Fortunately, the future was hard to predict, but the past could be known!

The idea Ning Ye had once entertained could finally be put into practice.

Ning Ye activated the Kunlun Mirror and set it to work divining the hexagrams.

Before long, a line of text appeared on the Kunlun Mirror, recording the method for the Black and White Divine Palace's disciple examination. It wasn't a core secret, so learning it with the Kunlun Mirror was easy.

"So that's how it is?" Ning Ye fell into thought as he studied the examination method.

Overall, the Black and White Divine Palace's selection process was fairly ordinary. At least, Ning Ye had no trouble passing. His aptitude was good to begin with, and he had cultivated for three years. Though all his cultivation was gone, his experience remained. Even his body had grown accustomed to being nourished by spiritual energy, which would make cultivating again much easier.

The problem was that the final stage involved a personal selection.

In other words, even if someone passed every test, the Black and White Divine Palace would still send someone to choose disciples in person. Those chosen would gain a master, while the unchosen would become ordinary outer disciples.

That was a serious problem.

Ning Ye knew that his biggest problem right now was simple: he was too ugly.

He had ruined his own appearance, leaving his face covered in sores. He hadn't even spared the rest of his body. Immortals sought the Heavenly Dao and followed the will of others, and they all pursued beautiful things. Even their spells tended to shine in brilliant, dazzling colors. That was what people meant by an immortal's air and bearing.

But a pockmarked face paired with an immortal's air and bearing? It was truly a blemish on the image!

If he had peerless talent, that might have been different. The problem was, Ning Ye's aptitude was only average.

A person's aptitude could be seen. That meant that even if Ning Ye performed better than everyone else during the selection and won first place, it would only prove he had performed well. Average aptitude was still average aptitude; he couldn't fake it.

With an ugly face and ordinary aptitude, winning an immortal master's favor would be almost impossible.

Then should he simply become an ordinary outer disciple and climb his way up, one step at a time?

He could, but Ning Ye couldn't accept that.

It wasn't that having a master was all that important. Rather, Ning Ye knew how difficult the road ahead of him would be, full of countless trials and dangers. If he backed down at the very first hurdle, what would he do when he encountered even greater trouble later?

Backing down could become a habit.

Give up once, and you might give up every time.

At that thought, a fierce fighting spirit rose in Ning Ye's heart.

As his first small goal, this was something he could only succeed at. He would not fail!

Three days later.

Below Nine Palaces Mountain, Immortal Seekers from every direction packed the slopes.

A hundred thousand people had gathered there, making for a truly spectacular sight.

At high noon, the light suddenly dimmed. The sky turned black and white; the heavens grew dark, while the earth shone in daylight. Even the blazing sun overhead lost its radiance.

An immortal from the Black and White Divine Palace flew out, whisk in hand. He had a long face and a pair of conspicuously protruding ears, and he came flying through the air atop a jade chessboard.

Those who recognized him whispered:

"That's Xifengzi."

"Who's Xifengzi?"

"You don't even know? Immortal Master Xifengzi is one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars of the Divine Palace, the master of the White Hall. His standing is second only to the sect leader, the three grand elders, and Hand of the Chess Player Yue Xinchans. He's a mighty expert at the peak of the Immaculate Realm, as famous as the master of the Black Hall."

As the crowd buzzed with discussion, Xifengzi began to speak.

Without so much as raising his voice, his words thundered in every direction. "This disciple selection is simple. All candidates will enter the valley ahead and leave once the sun sets. The Divine Palace will judge your performance."

As he spoke, Xifengzi flicked his whisk and vanished. The world returned to normal.

But a mist-shrouded valley had appeared before the crowd.

That simple?

Everyone looked at one another. Then, with a sudden shout, they charged together into the valley.

Sigh. You don't know, do you? Sometimes, the simpler something seems, the more complicated it is. Seeing them rush ahead in such a frenzy, Ning Ye wasn't in a hurry. He strolled leisurely behind them and entered the valley last.