[Ding! Enhancement commencing...] [Enhancement failed!] [Notice: Consumed materials (metal spiritual root, wood spiritual root, water spiritual root, earth spiritual root) have been destroyed!]
The mechanical voice echoed through Zhao Hao's mind.
Every word was a massive hammer, smashing his last hope to pieces.
He had lost the gamble.
Not only had he failed to enhance his fire spiritual root, but all that remained inside him now was a single, pitifully frail, low-grade fire spiritual root.
His fate would probably be even more miserable than being refined directly into a corpse. Had he known, he would have tried that twenty-percent chance of destroying one spiritual root first, saved his own skin, and gotten into the sect before worrying about anything else.
Zhao Hao's limbs were cold and stiff. He could no longer even smell the thick stench of blood around him.
"Next."
The deacon's emotionless voice rang out.
Like the final summons to death before the court of the King of Hell.
The last boy ahead of Zhao Hao stepped forward, and the Spirit Testing Stone lit up in three colors.
The deacon's expression eased slightly as he waved a hand. A disciple immediately stepped forward and led the visibly delighted boy with three spiritual roots off to the other side.
Now Zhao Hao stood at the very front of the line leading to the Spirit Testing Stone in the square.
Every gaze converged on him.
The black-robed deacon's ash-gray eyes pinned Zhao Hao in place.
He raised his withered hand slightly, black vapor curling around his palm, ready to take a life at any moment.
"What are you dawdling for? Get up there!"
The Demonic Sect disciple behind him gave him a hard shove.
Zhao Hao stumbled and pitched forward, instinctively pressing his palm against the cold, rough Spirit Testing Stone.
He closed his eyes in resignation.
So be it.
At least dying in a cultivation world would be a novel experience compared to working myself to death in a rented room.
One breath.
Two breaths.
The expected agony of his soul being torn apart never came.
A deathly silence hung over the square, as though even the sinister wind had stopped.
Just as Zhao Hao began to think he was already dead and could no longer feel pain, dazzling red light erupted from where his palm touched the Spirit Testing Stone!
Humm-!
That red was pure to the utmost, without the slightest trace of another color.
The entire gloomy square was instantly engulfed by that overpowering crimson.
A blood-red halo shone on every face. Even the black Soul Summoning Banner now looked like a festive strip of red cloth.
The black-robed deacon, who had been about to bring his palm down, abruptly froze with his entire arm in midair.
Within his sunken sockets, his eyes widened into perfect circles, almost bulging out.
A fire of shock ignited deep within his ash-gray pupils.
How was this possible?!
He stared fixedly at the Spirit Testing Stone, waiting, waiting for a second and third color to appear after that red.
But ten breaths passed.
Twenty breaths passed.
The crimson light on the Spirit Testing Stone remained steady, pure, and proudly aloof.
Only... the light seemed considerably dimmer than the heavenly spiritual root phenomenon recorded in the sect's ancient texts.
That thought merely flashed through the deacon's mind before a towering wave of ecstasy drowned it.
So what if it was dim?
Perhaps the boy was simply too weak!
Who knew? It might even develop a second time later.
This pure color was unquestionably a fire-attribute heavenly spiritual root, one in ten thousand!
He'd struck it rich!
This time, he'd truly struck it rich!
The contribution credit for discovering a disciple with a heavenly spiritual root could be exchanged for enough resources to take him from his current foundation establishment early stage all the way to foundation establishment late stage!
After all, disciples of Devil Dao Sects like theirs were rats crossing the street in the outside world, hated by everyone.
Even the lineage powers within the territory governed by the Extreme Yin Sect were mostly unwilling to send their children there to cultivate demonic arts.
Thus, lacking a good source of recruits, the Extreme Yin Sect generally had disciples of poor aptitude.
Even the sect master, Old Ancestor Extreme Yin-the foremost cultivator in the Extreme Yin Sect, who had already reached golden core completion-possessed only two spiritual roots.
The muscles in the deacon's face twitched violently.
His face, as cold and rigid as a corpse, twisted under the extreme change in expression. He actually forced out a smile, though the angle of his spreading lips was more chilling than a grimace.
He abruptly withdrew the hand frozen in midair, then split the square's silence with a voice so shrill it seemed to tear:
"Fire! It's fire!!"
"Pure to the utmost, without a single impurity... a fire-attribute heavenly spiritual root!"
He seemed afraid others would not believe him, or perhaps he was trying to convince himself.
His voice rose into a trembling roar. "Fortune has finally come to me, Jia Ren!!"
His piercing cry echoed over the square.
Everyone was stunned by this earth-shaking reversal.
The boys who had just been found to possess four-element spiritual roots had envy written all over their eyes.
Those with three spiritual roots, who had been feeling rather pleased with themselves moments earlier, were even more consumed by jealousy.
And the Demonic Sect disciples who had been gloating over his misfortune now looked at Zhao Hao with a trace of awe.
"You... what's your name?"
The deacon forcibly calmed himself and moved a little closer to Zhao Hao. His voice was dry, but deliberately gentle.
Zhao Hao was still rooted to the spot.
Enhancement failed... a heavenly spiritual root?
The system could work like that?
He answered blankly, "Zhao... Zhao Hao."
"Good! A fine name!"
The deacon nodded emphatically. The hand that had been about to smash the crown of his skull now gave his shoulder a friendly pat.
"Zhao Hao, from this day forward, you are an inner disciple of our Extreme Yin Sect!"
As he spoke, his eyes shifted slightly, and a suggestive look appeared on his face.
"A disciple with a heavenly spiritual root is a matter of great importance. We must make you a soul lamp and identity jade disc of the highest grade."
"Just relax. I need to take a wisp of your vital essence blood to seal away for our records."
Without waiting for Zhao Hao to respond, the deacon pressed two fingers together like a sword. Black light flashed at his fingertips, moving too quickly to follow, and lightly sliced Zhao Hao's fingertip.
Pain pricked his finger.
A drop of crimson blood flew uncontrollably from the wound, and the deacon caught it neatly in an exquisite dark-green jade vial.
The instant the stopper went in, Zhao Hao's heart sank.
The feeling that something important had been seized and held in someone else's hands made him uneasy all over.
Vital essence blood?
Why should recording my identity require treating me so differently from everyone else?
Could this old bastard have some other scheme in mind?
Intense wariness instantly rose within Zhao Hao, but he dared not let any of it show on his face.
He merely put on the expression of someone recovering from a fright, a little dazed and obedient, and lowered his head without saying a word.
Until he had the strength to resist, even the slightest unusual move could bring death upon him.
"Very good." The deacon tucked the jade vial into his robes in satisfaction, his smile growing even more frightening.
"Come along. This is no place for you anymore. I'll personally take you to register with the inner sect."
"You lot, keep testing the rest."
Jia Ren gave the order to the nearby Demonic Sect disciples.
Then he turned and led the way for Zhao Hao, his manner quite agreeable.
Zhao Hao kept his head lowered and followed silently behind him.
Just as they were about to leave the square and turn onto a quiet path leading deeper inside, Zhao Hao glanced out of the corner of his eye at a nearby black rock polished as smooth as a mirror.
In the rock's reflection, the deacon was looking down at the dark-green jade vial inside his robes.
His lips curved into a smile of incomparable greed.
That was not the joy of discovering a genius, nor the excitement of seeing the sect rise to greatness.
It was the longing that seeped into a jackal's very bones when it spotted the plumpest prey.