After climbing the stone steps for half an hour,
the crowd finally reached the mountaintop.
The view suddenly opened up.
A vast stone plaza stretched out before them. Its ground was paved with enormous white stones patterned with clouds, smooth and hard, and its far edge was nowhere in sight.
This was the welcoming plaza in front of the Azure Cloud Sect's mountain gate.
The plaza was enormous, large enough to hold thousands of people. Dozens of ten-foot-tall white jade pillars stood around it, their tops carved with simple cloud patterns, ancient and imposing.
Beyond the railing surrounding the plaza, milky-white clouds rolled and churned.
The clouds hung low, like a vast white sea.
Beside the distant cliffs, several pavilions had been built into the mountainside, their upturned eaves half-hidden in the mist, silent and solemn.
By now, the plaza was already packed with people.
Countless young men and women filled most of the open space, their dark throng stretching as far as the eye could see.
Everyone stopped in their tracks and instinctively slowed their movements, not daring to speak loudly.
No one dared behave recklessly in front of an immortal sect's mountain gate.
The young men and women widened their eyes and looked around.
Some stared up at the pavilions wreathed in mist, others gently touched the cool, smooth white jade pillars, and still others kept gazing at the towering peaks in the distance, their eyes full of curiosity and nervousness.
"My heavens, this is the Azure Cloud Sect?"
"Just this mountain-gate plaza is more than ten times bigger than the Martial Arena in our prefectural city."
"The air feels much fresher than it did down the mountain."
Soft murmurs of astonishment spread through the crowd.
Su Yun stood toward the back of the crowd and slowly exhaled.
He lifted his head and surveyed the entire plaza.
White jade and bluestone, mountains ringed by a sea of clouds.
It truly was an immortal sect.
Magnificent.
He'd seen countless descriptions of immortal sects in TV shows and novels in his previous life, but standing here in person felt completely different.
Whoosh—
A sudden sound of something tearing through the air came from the horizon.
It instantly drowned out every other sound in the plaza.
Everyone froze, then looked up in unison.
Beneath the azure sky, a streak of green light cleaved through layer upon layer of clouds, hurtling down at tremendous speed.
A man in green robes stood atop the streak of light.
He was tall and straight, one hand behind his back, standing on a three-foot-long green sword.
The sword glimmered, Sword Qi coursing around it. It held him steady as the wind howled, his figure never wavering for even a moment.
Flying on a sword!
The plaza erupted at once, cries of astonishment rising one after another.
"My heavens! He really is flying on a sword!"
"So this is what a cultivator can do? Riding a sword through the sky!"
"That's so cool... If I could learn to do that in this lifetime, I'd die happy!"
Countless young people stared fixedly at the figure in the sky, their eyes blazing with fervent envy.
Su Yun also looked up, his gaze locked on the green-robed cultivator.
His heart raced beyond his control.
The sword-flying scene he'd seen only in movies and novels in his previous life was now unfolding right before his eyes.
High above, the wind howled as the sword cut through the air. The cultivator stood in midair, looking down upon the countless mortals below.
So cool.
This was cultivation.
This was power beyond the reach of ordinary people.
The green streak of light descended slowly, finally landing on the raised platform at the center of the plaza.
The green light faded, and the green-robed cultivator put away his sword and stood upright.
He was an old man.
He wore a simple, ancient gray Daoist robe, its cuffs embroidered with faint Azure Cloud patterns.
His face was aged, his expression calm. He showed not the slightest trace of a fierce aura, yet carried a natural detachment, as though he stood apart from the world.
The old man stood on the platform with his hands behind his back.
He merely stood there, and the noisy crowd fell silent at once.
No one dared make another sound.
Liu Qing's gaze swept calmly over the thousands of youths below. His voice wasn't loud, yet it carried clearly across the entire plaza.
"Young friends, you've come from far away. Thank you for your effort."
"This old man is Liu Qing, an outer-sect elder of the Azure Cloud Sect."
"The rules are the same as in previous years. Anyone under the age of eighteen may take part in the spiritual-root test."
"Anyone caught cheating, falsifying their age, or fabricating their background will have both legs broken and be thrown off Azure Cloud Mountain."
"I'll say no more. The Disciple Recruitment Ceremony begins now."
As his voice fell, Liu Qing casually flicked his wide sleeve.
A white jade stone, half a person's height, appeared out of thin air on the platform.
Its surface was rough and unadorned. It looked utterly ordinary, yet a faint white halo seemed to shimmer around it.
"This is the Spirit Testing Stone."
Liu Qing pointed at the stone. "Press your palm against its surface and calm your mind. There's no need to deliberately activate anything."
"The Spirit Testing Stone will sense the spiritual roots within your bodies. The color of its glow will determine your grade."
"No light means no spiritual root;
white light means a false spiritual root;
green light means a low-grade spiritual root;
blue light means a mid-grade spiritual root;
purple light means a high-grade spiritual root;
golden light means a heaven-grade spiritual root."
"The higher the grade, the better your cultivation talent."
A straightforward set of rules, easy to understand.
Everyone below held their breath and committed every word to memory, their eyes fixed on the Spirit Testing Stone.
No one wasted time talking. The crowd began lining up of its own accord.
The long queue wound across the plaza, orderly and neat.
More than ten outer-sect disciples of the Azure Cloud Sect, dressed in matching blue cloth uniforms, stepped forward on either side of the plaza to register the applicants one by one.
Names, ages, and hometowns were all recorded.
Once registration was complete, the testing began.
"First, Wang Hao!"
A dark-skinned youth hurried onto the platform. His palms were slick with nervous sweat as he tremblingly pressed one against the Spirit Testing Stone.
A few seconds passed.
The Spirit Testing Stone showed no reaction, remaining a murky grayish white.
Liu Qing's expression remained unchanged as he said coolly, "No spiritual root. Disqualified."
The youth's face turned deathly pale. With his head hanging and his spirit crushed, he walked off the platform.
"Next, Li Xue."
A girl in plain clothes stepped forward and lightly touched the Spirit Testing Stone with her fingertips.
A faint white glow flickered across its surface for two seconds, then vanished.
"False spiritual root. Her sensitivity to spiritual energy is too weak for cultivation. Disqualified."
One person after another stepped forward to be tested.
The results were much the same.
Either there was no light, or there was only a pale, feeble glow.
Now and then a faint green light appeared, but it was dim and murky, marking the worst kind of low-grade spiritual root.
An outer-sect disciple stood at the side of the platform, expressionless as he called out each result. The disqualified youths left with their heads bowed, while those who passed waited on the left side of the platform.
The cheers in the plaza gradually died away, replaced by muffled sighs.
Test after test, disappointment after disappointment.
More than a hundred people had been tested in a row. Even the best among them had produced only a faint green glow, putting them at the very bottom of the low-grade spiritual-root rankings.
That was just enough to meet the Azure Cloud Sect's minimum standard for accepting outer-sect disciples.
On the platform, Liu Qing stood with his hands behind his back, his brow slightly furrowed.
Disappointment was hard to hide in his aged eyes.
His gaze swept over the queue below as he inwardly shook his head.
Each generation was worse than the last.
There were plenty of youths of the right age in the Southern Region this year, far more than in previous years, but their talents were shockingly poor.
More than a hundred people, and not one had reached mid-grade.
There were hardly any even passable prospects.
Beside him, two young outer-sect disciples in charge of registration lowered their voices and muttered.
"The elder looks displeased again."
"Of course. The last three recruitment rounds have been worse than the one before. These days, even low-grade spiritual roots count as good."
"How long has it been since we got a mid-grade spiritual root? I remember there were only two in the last round."
"The Southern Region is a remote, barren place to begin with, and spiritual energy is scarce. It's lucky if anyone is born with a spiritual root at all. Where would all these promising prospects come from?"
They kept their voices low, but a few people nearby still heard them.
The youths in line grew even more nervous, their palms sweating as the oppressive mood in the queue deepened.
Su Yun stood midway through the line, quietly watching the tests one after another.
He could see the pattern clearly.
False spiritual roots and low-grade spiritual roots accounted for nearly everyone.
The threshold for cultivation was even harsher than he'd imagined.
Out of ten thousand ordinary people, there might not be a single one with a low-grade spiritual root.
He lowered his eyes and looked at his own thin, weak hands, uncertain of what to expect.
What kind of spiritual root would I have?
Could I really just be an ordinary mortal, with no chance of cultivating immortality?
As he fretted, a sudden shout erupted from the front of the platform!
"It's glowing! Blue light! It's blue!"
"My heavens! It really is blue!"
Everyone looked up at once, toward the platform.
A youth in a white brocade robe stood there, his palm pressed firmly against the Spirit Testing Stone.
A clear, bright, pale-blue glow flowed along the jade's patterns, shimmering across its surface. The light was gentle and pure, far brighter than any of the low-grade spiritual roots tested before.
The blue light remained steady and undimmed, shining brilliantly.
"A mid-grade spiritual root!"
The outer-sect disciple announcing the results raised his voice sharply.
On the platform, Liu Qing, whose expression had remained cold until now, smiled.
He stepped forward, regarded the youth in white robes warmly, and nodded.
"Not bad. Your talent is average."
"Join the outer sect of the Azure Cloud Sect and devote yourself to cultivation. Within a month, you'll be able to draw spiritual energy into your body and reach the first level of Qi Refining."
At those words, the plaza erupted.
A thousand envious gazes fixed on the youth in white.
The young men and women in line looked at him with envy, their eyes filled with jealousy and longing.
A mid-grade spiritual root.
That was the difference between heaven and earth.
Those with low-grade spiritual roots cultivated slowly and accumulated impurities. It was commonplace for them to spend their whole lives stuck in the early stages of Qi Refining.
But those with mid-grade spiritual roots outclassed nine out of ten of their peers right from the start. They cultivated faster and absorbed purer spiritual energy.
As long as nothing went wrong, they were sure to enter the immortal sect and leave the mortal world behind, leaping through the dragon's gate.
In the crowd, the three youths in fine clothes who had mocked Su Yun earlier stared fixedly at the platform, their expressions complicated.
"I can't believe a mid-grade one actually showed up..."
"He's so lucky. With talent like that, he's set."
"I wonder if I'll manage to get at least a green glow when it's my turn..."