A Mentor's Grace, Tempering the Body

"Good."

Seeing the resolve in Chu Bai's eyes, Zhang Cheng paused in stroking his wine cup, then smiled in deep approval.

He looked at the young man before him and sighed inwardly.

Before today, he might have regarded Chu Bai as no more than a promising junior and a useful subordinate.

But when Chu Bai said he wanted to see Qingzhou, Zhang Cheng suddenly realized that in a few years, this young man might stand alongside Foundation-Building Cultivators like himself as a colleague.

The Great Zhou Immortal Dynasty had a rigid hierarchy.

White Ordination cultivators could work themselves to the bone, yet their ceiling was merely Subordinate Eighth Rank. But anyone who climbed the Heavenly Ladder during the Qingzhou Heavenly Examination and received Azure Ordination had, in effect, secured a ticket into the Immortal Dynasty's upper ranks.

After Foundation Establishment, an appointment began at Subordinate Seventh Rank.

That was no mere change in authority. It was a complete leap in both life and political standing.

Had it been another subordinate, Zhang Cheng might have offered a word or two of caution: seek a secure post with real authority in Anping County first, and do not reach beyond your grasp.

But he knew the ambitions of Chu Bai, whom he had recruited.

He still remembered Chu Bai's performance at the Heart Inquiry stage of the Immortal Clerk selection examination he had presided over at the Great Wall Prefecture Dao Academy.

Before that trial of proliferating illusions and probing of the Divine Soul, this young man alone had possessed a Dao Heart like a stubborn stone weathered for ten thousand years. Let wind lash and waves batter it: he would raise his sword to question the heavens and press forward, never retreating.

Such a Dao Heart was the sharpest spear a seeker