Maze

Qixi Festival—rolling around begging for a girlfriend~

Zhu Xun quickly led them to another room and handed a record to the examiner in charge of this location.

That record contained the names and points of the seven additional point earners, including Zhou Heng. Only they needed to be recorded—no one knew how many of the remaining twenty-four would be eliminated, and what right did the losers have to leave their names?

"My name is Han Yulian, and I am your final examiner!" A voluptuous beauty stood before them, introducing herself. Around twenty-four or twenty-five years old, she exuded a mature charm that made the budding youths' hearts flutter uncontrollably, their gazes involuntarily sweeping over her ample chest and round, pert rear.

In terms of looks, Shen Xinqi was no less beautiful, but when it came to allure, she couldn't hold a candle to her.

"This final test is a maze!" Han Yulian took out a folded map, opened it, and stuck it to the wall. As she turned her back, swaying her plump hips in a tempting manner, many of the youths blushed and placed their hands below their stomachs to hide their embarrassment.

The paper depicted the maze's route, extremely complex.

Han Yulian pointed to a door beside her. "This is the entrance to the maze—" Then she pointed to another door nearby. "And this is the exit. If you can make it out within half an hour, you pass. For every two minutes you finish early, you earn one point!"

"You now have half an hour to memorize the path!"

This was the final test!

A test for martial artists, and it wasn't a direct fight of strength, but all this random stuff?

The youths were all puzzled, but they had no right to criticize the Nine Spirits Sect's recruitment rules. They had no choice but to accept it, focusing intently on the map on the wall, committing it to memory.

After thinking it over, Zhou Heng found the Nine Spirits Sect's approach quite reasonable.

The first test assessed endurance and willpower, the second combat ability, and the third memory and comprehension. If someone could pass all aspects, they were naturally a talent among talents!

In terms of memory, he was an absolute genius. As for comprehension—he had already grasped three styles of the Heaven-Soaring Nine Styles; what couldn't he master?

In just five minutes, he had memorized the entire maze's route, even able to construct a three-dimensional map of it in his mind. He closed his eyes, relaxing his mind to recover the mental energy spent in the previous round.

Seeing Zhou Heng's calm and composed demeanor, Han Yulian felt a flicker of anger—this kid was closing his eyes to rest at a time like this!

What an arrogant fool, thinking he could memorize the entire maze path after just a few glances?

Hmph, let such a conceited brat be eliminated!

Han Yulian's patience was thin. Before long, she began pacing beneath the map, and that was disastrous. Her chest was so full that each step made her heavy peaks tremble, stirring up turbulent waves.

This dazzled the youths' eyes, their gazes constantly shifting up and down, making distraction inevitable.

But some had strong willpower. Figures like Shi Qingfeng, Zhang Zijun, and Chang Kang completely ignored Han Yulian, focusing solely on memorizing the maze's path. They all aimed to catch up in this round and snatch the top spot.

Soon, half an hour passed.

Han Yulian took down the map from the wall and said, "Let's begin. You, first!" She pointed at someone at random.

That person showed a delighted expression. Now that the map was removed, the earlier they started, the fresher their memory would be—since this was forced memorization, it would inevitably fade over time.

He wasted no time and dashed through the door, disappearing around a corner in an instant.

"You, second!" After waiting a minute, Han Yulian pointed to the second person.

Every minute, she sent the next person off. This gap was enough to keep them sufficiently apart, with little chance of meeting. Even if they crossed paths after taking wrong turns, without paper or pen, they couldn't compare notes, and who would dare trust that the other's chosen fork was correct?

Fewer and fewer remained. Han Yulian held a grudge against Zhou Heng and deliberately put him last—since this kid was so cocky, let him taste the consequences!

"You, go!" Finally, Han Yulian pointed her finger at Zhou Heng.

Zhou Heng nodded and stepped through the door.

The maze was dimly lit. The walls on both sides reached the ceiling, making it impossible to leap over obstacles and cheat. After turning a corner, he saw lit torches spaced at intervals, illuminating the surrounding area.

Zhou Heng remained calm. A three-dimensional map formed in his mind, clearly pinpointing his location. His steps were light, never taking a wrong turn, heading straight for the exit.

He made no mistakes, so his speed was naturally much faster than others. Before long, he caught up to someone ahead. Using the Flying Cloud Steps, he flashed past. The person behind didn't dare give full chase—who could be sure Zhou Heng wasn't leading them astray?

Though Zhou Heng ran at full speed without error, the maze was still quite large. Winding around, it took a full ten minutes before he finally reached the exit.

He strode out.

Han Yulian was drinking water from a cup. When she saw him, she let out a "pfft," spraying water everywhere, then coughed violently.

Impossible!

This kid had come out in just ten minutes! How could it be!

It wasn't that no one had come out. Shen Xinqi, having started early, had been out for seven or eight minutes, earning five points. Two others from the earliest group had also arrived, barely within the half-hour limit.

Since those who started first had no idea of the order of those entering later, Shen Xinqi and the others didn't know how long Zhou Heng had taken, so they weren't surprised. They were, however, puzzled by Han Yulian's sudden coughing fit.

"You, you, you—" Han Yulian stared at Zhou Heng as if she'd seen a ghost.

"Senior Sister Han, what's wrong?" In that short time, Shen Xinqi had already struck up a rapport with Han Yulian.

Han Yulian realized her loss of composure and quickly took out a handkerchief to wipe the water from her lips. She stared blankly at Zhou Heng for a long time before asking, "What's your name?"

"This Humble One is Zhou Heng!"

"Zhou Heng?" Han Yulian picked up the record in her hand and saw that Zhou Heng's name topped the list with five points!

That meant he had cleared the entire Bronze Man Formation!

Han Yulian hadn't known who Zhou Heng was at first, but now that she discovered he was only at the seventh layer of Body Refining, her expression shifted repeatedly before finally settling into a sigh. She wrote a few strokes on the paper.

Shen Xinqi leaned over to look and saw that beside Zhou Heng's name, a new line had been added: "Ten minutes, reward of ten points."

What, clearing it in ten minutes!

Shen Xinqi's pretty face also changed color. She couldn't help but glance at Zhou Heng, her expression flickering with uncertainty.

She found herself increasingly unable to see through Zhou Heng now.

Twenty minutes later, a few more people emerged, but by then half an hour had already passed since Zhou Heng, the last to set out, had left. That meant everyone still inside the maze had failed.

Counting heads, only a mere nine people remained!

Once every five years they recruited disciples, yet in the end only nine passed—an average of fewer than two per year!

Those who passed naturally had joy written all over their faces, but when they learned that Zhou Heng had walked out of the maze in just ten minutes, the others were startled at first, then dismissed it. After all, what use was a good memory? Cultivation didn't rely on memory!

If I can't memorize a technique in one day, can't I take two or three? What difference would a couple of days make to cultivation?

With that mindset, everyone secretly criticized the Nine Spirits Sect's method of selecting disciples.

"Follow me!" Han Yulian led the nine away to an elegant courtyard, where Zhu Xun was already waiting.

"Excellent!" Zhu Xun smiled at Zhou Heng and the other eight. "Congratulations, you've passed the final assessment and become disciples of the Nine Spirits Sect! Now, state your names so we can register you in the records!"

After the nine gave their names and ages one by one, Han Yulian fetched nine white tokens from inside the house and handed one to each of them.

Zhou Heng took his and looked it over. One side of the token bore the characters "Nine Spirits," while the other was blank—similar to Feng Tengyuan's token, except one was black and the other white.

This was likely the lowest-ranking token in the Nine Spirits Sect.

Han Yulian quickly explained: "Upon entering the sect, you are outer disciples. If you break through to the Blood Refining Realm, you can be promoted to inner disciples. The sect does not consider age; only cultivation level determines seniority. If you encounter a fellow disciple at the tenth layer of Body Refining, even if they are younger than you, they are still your senior brother or senior sister!"

"Inner disciples have black identity tokens. When you break through to the Blood Refining Realm, you can come here to exchange your token!"

"Above that, there are purple tokens and gold tokens!"

"The purple token represents the Spirit Gathering Realm and belongs to the sect's elders."

"There is only one gold token—that belongs to the Sect Master!"

"Remember this: offending your superiors is a grave disrespect in the sect and will be severely punished!"

Zhu Xun took over the conversation and said, "Alright, all of you follow me. I'll arrange your accommodations."

"Yes, Senior Brother Zhu!" Zhou Heng and the other eight nodded.

Soon, they arrived at a large courtyard. Zhu Xun assigned them lodgings—one room per person, so there was no need to separate men and women. After everything was settled, Zhu Xun said, "Every ten days, an inner disciple will come to answer your questions about cultivation. Work hard and don't disappoint the sect's hopes!"

With that, he left.

At that moment, people began streaming out of the various rooms in the courtyard—about a hundred or so in total. Four youths stepped forward and blocked Zhou Heng and the other eight, each of them radiating arrogance.

It looked like trouble was coming.