After secretly leaving a Flying Thunder God Mark on Steward Ye, Naruto left Yellow Maple Valley once more, thoroughly satisfied.
Before that, though, they happened to arrive just as the sect opened its gates for its once-a-decade recruitment of new disciples.
Over a thousand youths with promising aptitudes came from Cultivation Families large and small to join Yellow Maple Valley.
Among them were even two brothers with the same rare Spirit Root: the Thunder Spirit Root, renowned for its destructive power.
The brothers' arrival drew the full attention of the valley's leadership.
Even Lei Wanhe, a Core Formation Stage elder who had been in seclusion for years, made an exception and emerged to examine their aptitudes.
He then declared publicly that if the brothers succeeded in reaching Foundation Establishment, he would take them as disciples and teach them himself.
The announcement naturally left their fellow disciples green with envy.
But those brothers were not the only gifted newcomers in this batch.
There was, for instance, a boy surnamed Li from a small family. His progress was astonishingly fast, seemingly no slower than that of someone with a rare Spirit Root.
Naruto had no memory of him. He was probably a minor character.
Another newcomer, a boy surnamed Wang who was only seven or eight, was even more remarkable.
Not only was he a direct descendant of the great Wang Cultivation Family, but he had also been born with Profound Yin Eyes. He could cultivate the Scarlet-Eyed Divine Light, a technique lost for centuries that could counter all manner of ghosts and evil spirits.
Naruto was intensely curious about those eyes. When he had the chance, he planned to get a pair for himself.
He wanted to see how the unusual eyes of the Cultivation World compared with the Sharingan, the