Huangfu Wuqin

Kong Jiao's pupils reflected the shape of the moon wheel. Confusion showed in his eyes; he had no idea what it was up to.

At the same time, he felt somewhat uneasy.

"For the aptitude screening, I only have two spirit apertures. Even in the Cangwu Sect, that counts as mediocre aptitude. In the eyes of these ancient cultivators, I'm probably the kind of rotten wood that cannot be carved."

"This aptitude screening determines whether I can obtain a fortunate opportunity. What if I fail it?!"

As Kong Jiao fretted anxiously,

the moon wheel before him gradually began to glow, its soft, cold radiance enveloping his entire body.

In that instant, Kong Jiao felt as though he had been immersed in a gentle spring. The cold moonlight covered the surface of his body, flowing like water.

What happened next made Kong Jiao's expression turn solemn.

Wrapped in that radiance, his body became transparent at a visible pace. Looking down, he could even see the blood vessels and meridians hidden within his flesh.

Yet he did not feel the slightest discomfort.

Kong Jiao could not help sighing. "The methods of ancient cultivators truly are strange!"

After a brief moment, the moon wheel in the puppet's hand shone upon Kong Jiao's dantian.

The spirit wheel he had nurtured for nearly three years was completely exposed before the puppet's eyes.

Before he began cultivating, Kong Jiao's spirit wheel had been dim and lusterless.

Nourished by the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture, it had now taken on a hint of deep blue.

Under the illumination of the moon wheel in the puppet's hand, it gained an added touch of brilliant white, like a full moon hanging high in the sky.

The puppet's dark golden pupils settled upon that spirit wheel at just the right moment, carefully examining the jade-like wheel of radiance.

After a short pause, the puppet slowly said, "The spirit wheel is flawless, bright white as jade. Superior aptitude. The aptitude screening is passed."

"Superior aptitude?!" Hearing the puppet's clear words, the strange look on Kong Jiao's face deepened.

At present, nearly every sect judged a person's talent by the number of spirit apertures they possessed.

After all, the number of spirit apertures was tied to a cultivator's cultivation speed.

An aptitude like Kong Jiao's, with two spirit apertures, was as common as dirt.

He had never dreamed that he would one day hear the words "superior aptitude" from someone else's mouth.

"Could it be that ancient cultivators did not judge aptitude by spirit apertures? Did they define it through the spirit wheel instead?" The more Kong Jiao thought about it, the more something felt off.

If they only judged by the spirit wheel and ignored spirit apertures, then what about someone with only one spirit aperture?

Such a person would likely never break through to the fourth realm of the Wheel-Nourishing Realm in their entire life.

And as for a flawless spirit wheel, Kong Jiao had always assumed everyone's spirit wheel was the same as his.

"Could it be that not every cultivator's spirit wheel is complete?"

Absorbed in cultivation, Kong Jiao had no idea how rare those with flawless spirit wheels were.

Perhaps it was also related to how little importance the current cultivation world placed on spirit wheels.

What Kong Jiao knew even less was just how rare the puppet's assessment of "superior aptitude" would have been in the era of ancient cultivation.

Back then, a single remark from an ancient cultivator that one's aptitude was passable would have been enough to send countless people into wild delight.

As Kong Jiao was beset by a thousand worries over the puppet's words,

the latter had already expressionlessly put away the moon wheel in its hand.

It continued in its unhurried voice, "The aptitude screening has ended. Proceeding to the formal examination."

As it spoke, the puppet slowly raised its head. The crescent-shaped brand between its brows erupted with a beam of golden light, shining toward the top of the space.

That was where the light originated. A nameless crystal the size of a human head was embedded there.

The instant the beam from the puppet's brow struck that crystal,

the light cast by the crystal throughout the space abruptly contracted, finally condensing into a light screen three feet wide.

Kong Jiao stared intently at the screen. As it rippled, the radiance gathered into several hundred characters of a cultivation art.

At the very beginning were several words: Moon Wheel Seal

Brightly born of Lunar Yin, grandly hidden within Subtlety.

Turning yin and yang to nourish all things.

The sea of myriad stars encircles the pole, vast as smoke and sea.

At first glance, this cultivation art was obscure and difficult to understand. After reading it through once, Kong Jiao's brows had nearly knotted together.

Fortunately, Kong Jiao was no block of wood. On a whim, he tried incorporating the Moon Wheel Seal into the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture. Comparing it against the cultivation method of the Wheel-Nourishing Scripture, he seemed to gain some insight.

Those parts he had not understood immediately became clear.

"So that's it. This is a Dao art based on the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture. Without cultivating the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture, there's no way to understand it."

Kong Jiao's eyes lit up. He had come precisely for the subsequent cultivation method of the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture.

Though this Moon Wheel Seal was not a cultivation method, it had at least given him a lead.

At the same time, he heard the puppet's familiar tone again.

"Those who master the Moon Wheel Seal within three days may pass this entrance examination."

Once it had spoken, the puppet made no further movement.

Its pair of dark golden eyes merely watched Kong Jiao in the middle of the space, like a statue.

By doing this, it was refraining from disturbing the disciple undergoing the entrance examination.

Kong Jiao understood. After giving a slight nod, he focused on the Moon Wheel Seal before him.

He, too, became motionless. The entire space fell so quiet that a needle dropping could be heard.

A long while passed.

Kong Jiao, who had been still for a long time, suddenly raised both hands.

They began moving in a rhythmic alternation. As his ten fingers interwove, they formed one hand seal after another.

The first attempt failed.

After completing all the hand seals once, he only felt the spirit wheel in his dantian tremble slightly.

Between his hands, there was only a single speck of radiance that flashed and vanished.

His first attempt ended in failure.

He was not discouraged, instead looking once more at the cultivation art displayed on the light screen.

Again and again, he compared it to the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture, so utterly absorbed that he forgot himself.

The focused Kong Jiao did not notice

that when he had formed the hand seals for the first time and that speck of light flashed in his palm, surprise with an almost human quality had flickered in the puppet's seemingly emotionless dark golden eyes.

However, that trace of emotional fluctuation was swiftly replaced by wooden indifference, as though it truly were merely an emotionless puppet.

Half a day later, Kong Jiao began his second attempt.

This time, his hand seals were faster.

The spirit power within his body, stirred by the seals, began to surge. The flawless spirit wheel in his dantian also slowly began to turn.

Kong Jiao could clearly sense an inexplicable force gathering between his hands from the spirit wheel in his dantian.

Bang!

The air trembled.

Kong Jiao felt a burst of radiance bloom between his hands, enveloping an area of three yards around him.

The light was cold and clear, casting Kong Jiao's refined face white as silver paper.

His gaze focused between his palms. There was a crescent-shaped mark the size of an infant's fist, identical to the crescent between the puppet's brows.

The mark stirred restlessly between Kong Jiao's palms.

Feeling the vigorous power contained within that mark, Kong Jiao had the sense that with a single thought, it would shoot forth and unleash an attack capable of crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood.

But with the puppet before him, Kong Jiao did not dare act rashly. He could only withdraw his spirit power and allow the Moon Wheel Seal to dissipate between his hands.

As specks of radiance vanished into the air,

Kong Jiao let out a soft sound of surprise. "Eh!"

The Moon Wheel Seal had dispersed, yet it seemed it had not completely vanished.

His body seemed to have undergone some strange change.

A stream of pure energy appeared in his body out of nowhere as the Moon Wheel Seal dissipated. Like a swimming fish, it moved through his meridians, seemingly searching for something.

Fortunately, it did not harm Kong Jiao.

In the end, that energy flowed into his dantian and entered Kong Jiao's spirit wheel.

In an instant, the spirit wheel shook.

Kong Jiao's mind went blank for a brief moment.

The only thing he could feel was that something seemed to be growing out from the flesh between his brows, branding itself onto his forehead.

The sensation was incomparably itchy.

Just as Kong Jiao raised a hand to scratch it, the sensation vanished again.

He could only reach up to touch the spot on his forehead where the itch had just appeared. He felt a smooth, cold mark. From the sensation beneath his fingertips, he could tell that it was shaped like a crescent moon.

Kong Jiao looked toward the puppet's brow, where there was an identical mark.

"So that's how it is!"

As though it had not noticed Kong Jiao's gaze, the puppet merely said blandly, "Examination passed!"

"Congratulations. You are now an official disciple of the Moon Palace."

While Kong Jiao was cultivating the Moon Wheel Seal within the examination space,

a certain change was also taking place outside at Frostmoon Altar.

Han Dong had sat cross-legged upon the altar for several days. The heavy snow had nearly buried his entire body.

Yet over that time, having absorbed the blood essence of more than a hundred herb-gathering cultivators on Frostmoon Altar, his aura finally broke through its shackles.

Boom!

Blood-red spirit power, carrying bone-piercing killing intent, erupted from Han Dong's body, blasting away all the snow covering both himself and the altar.

Han Dong opened his eyes, which had been shut for so long. A scarlet gleam flashed through his pupils and vanished.

The imposing aura unique to the eighth realm of the Wheel-Nourishing Realm swept across Frostmoon Altar in an instant, shaking the falling snow until it filled the sky.

Standing at the center of the altar, Han Dong swept his gaze around. His feminine eyes held wickedness and arrogance.

Yet there was no one left to admire his current bearing. Frostmoon Altar was covered only in shriveled corpses.

Han Dong's gaze eventually locked onto the direction in which Kong Jiao had disappeared, and a playful curve lifted at the corner of his mouth.

It was not as though he had failed to sense Kong Jiao watching him from the shadows earlier. Rather, he had been at the critical point of breaking through and could not afford any mishap.

Now that he had successfully broken through, he no longer had any worries. Naturally, he would seek out that person who had watched him from hiding and given off a faint killing intent.

Han Dong's notorious reputation was not due solely to his strength, but also to his vengeful nature. He would not allow anyone who had ever harbored killing intent toward him to remain alive.

"To have escaped my search, you do have some skill."

Han Dong's voice remained as calm as ever, as though he were speaking of an insignificant ant.

Just as he was about to head for the place where Kong Jiao's aura had last vanished,

his body abruptly stiffened, as though he had sensed something. He sharply turned his head, his eyes grave as he looked toward the upper reaches of Frostmoon Altar, at the edge of the cliff wall on the left side of the great canyon.

A young girl sat at the edge of the cliff, her long legs, as flawless as carved white jade, swinging idly amid the howling wind and snow.

The gale lifted the hem of her graceful white ru skirt and swept up the loose strands of hair that had escaped her bun.

Her attire was unmistakably that of a refined young lady from a prominent mortal household.

Yet beneath the delicately arranged hair of that demure young girl lay contempt between her picturesque brows. Her gaze was scornful and domineering.

On that face so sacred it seemed beyond mortal compare, her vermilion lips curved with faint mockery. The way she looked at Han Dong was as though she were looking at a dead thing.

With such a beauty before him, who would not want to look twice?

But the instant Han Dong met her eyes, an intense sense of danger arose for no reason.

Han Dong's instincts were terrifyingly sharp. That was why he had escaped the pursuit of so many sects time and again without dying.

Perhaps out of wariness, his mind swiftly searched for information about this girl.

After all, a woman of this age, with such beauty and such horrifying pressure, made it easy to find a matching name.

At last, deep in his memories, he found an image that matched the proud girl standing at the cliff's edge before him.

"Huangfu Wuqin!" Han Dong spoke those four words, and his body unconsciously retreated a step.

Perhaps out of wariness, or perhaps... fear.

Han Dong's words were swept into the wind and snow. They should never have reached the distant girl's ears, yet she heard them.

Her star-bright eyes looked at Han Dong with interest. Parting her pearly teeth slightly, she spoke in a clear, ethereal voice, "Have you seen me before?"

Han Dong did not respond. Upon seeing Huangfu Wuqin openly acknowledge her identity, a fluctuation appeared on his handsome face for the first time.

His body involuntarily took another step back.

Huangfu Wuqin caught that tiny detail. Extending only her slender little finger, she pointed at where Han Dong stood and said blandly, "Move again, and I'll kill you."