The month-long examination had ended. All the young talents who had participated returned to the Imperial City and gathered once more outside the Heavenly Gate. The crowd was a sea of people.
Outside the Heavenly Gate stood a jade platform. This was the Divine Platform used to open the Heavenly Gate, and it had already stood for over a thousand years.
Many seats had been set upon the jade platform, where countless great figures had gathered.
They all looked down below.
Sect masters, heads of martial residences, the various marquises and princes—even the Jade Ripple Great Emperor himself had arrived, seated at the very top of the jade platform with an aura of ruling the world.
Naturally, aside from these great figures, some instructors from the Heavenly Emperor Academy had also appeared on the jade platform. Every one of them bore an extraordinary demeanor as their gazes swept over the young martial artists below, searching for promising talents.
Each of the Heavenly Emperor Academy's four courtyards had figures at the level of Vice Dean presiding over it.
More than thirty thousand young martial artists stood in the square.
They had only just returned to the Imperial City. Most of them looked utterly bedraggled—some were severely wounded, some had become crippled, and some had already died, their bodies wrapped in burial cloth!
Only a small number of top experts bore no visible injuries.
Upon the jade platform, the various marquises and princes gathered together. They wore magnificent robes and sat in their chairs, while the Earth Martial Essence Qi radiating from their bodies twisted the surrounding air.
Thus, the martial artists below the jade platform could not see the true forms of those great figures at all.
A faint smile rested on the Celestial Elephant Marquis's face as he spoke with