Passing the Test

Wang Xiaohu clicked his tongue. "That guy is so arrogant. Isn't he afraid the Immortal Master will blame him?"

Zhou Qing smiled. "Cultivation is about casting off falsehood and preserving truth, forging ahead with courage and diligence. If you don't even dare face or express your own true desires, what immortality are you cultivating? What Dao are you pursuing? Wei Xu's performance might even win the Immortal Master's approval."

Wang Xiaohu's eyes lit up. "So that's how it is. If I pass, I'll act like him too."

"That would be far too affected," Zhou Qing said. "Those who learn from me live; those who resemble me die. Everyone should have their own Dao. Blindly copying others will only produce the opposite result."

Wang Xiaohu nodded in wholehearted admiration. "So there's such profound meaning behind it. Brother Zhou Qing, how do you know all this?"

Nothing to it—I'm simply good at making things up, Zhou Qing thought.

He smiled. "Read more. Reflect more."

Amid their banter, it was already Zhou Qing's turn to take the stage for the test.

When Zhou Qing stepped onto the platform, the Immortal Master gave him a friendly nod.

Naturally, he had heard their discussion just now.

Seeing that Zhou Qing was only seventeen or eighteen, at an age when young men were often frivolous and impetuous, yet possessed such a steady temperament and his own understanding of cultivation, the Immortal Master could not help taking a liking to him. He hoped Zhou Qing would pass the test.

The Immortal Master placed the jade stone in Zhou Qing's hand and gently instructed him to focus his mind, calm his breath, and sense the spiritual energy between Heaven and Earth.

Though he had prepared himself beforehand, Zhou Qing could not stop his heart from pounding at this moment.

There were two things troubling him.

First, he feared failing the test. If that happened, cultivating immortality would become nothing but a mirage, and he would likely regret it for the rest of his life.

Second, he feared that the Immortal Master before him would discover his ability to manipulate magnetic fields. He did not know what that meant to Cultivators. If the man mistook him for some evil fiend and struck him down, things would become truly disastrous.

If the lure of cultivating immortality had not been so powerful, then for the sake of safety, he should never have come before Cultivators at all.

Zhou Qing pretended to close his eyes and concentrate as the Immortal Master had instructed, while secretly generating a magnetic field spanning one zhang around himself.

His heart rose to his throat as he covertly watched the Immortal Master's every movement.

Only when he saw no unusual reaction from the Immortal Master did Zhou Qing finally relax.

It seemed the Immortal Master had not noticed anything unusual about him.

He then used his magnetic field to capture the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth nearby.

Though this spiritual energy was called qi, it was actually more like a formless, invisible energy similar to a magnetic field. It too possessed specific frequencies.

Through his explorations over the past few years, Zhou Qing had discovered five distinct frequency bands in spiritual energy fluctuations, corresponding to the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

Generally speaking, Cultivators corresponded to a particular one of the five elements.

For example, Wei Xu, who had passed the test earlier, possessed a Fire Spiritual Root. Thus, when he was tested, the jade stone glowed red, with nine rings of light, signifying that he had nine spiritual roots.

When Nie Yunxi was tested, the jade stone emitted a black radiance, showing that she possessed a Water Spiritual Root. Its thirteen rings of light signified thirteen spiritual roots.

Zhou Qing himself possessed no spiritual roots and therefore could not resonate with spiritual energy, but his magnetic field could capture spiritual energy from all five frequency bands.

Out of caution, Zhou Qing ultimately chose one band of spiritual energy at random and drew it over.

The jade stone in his hand began to emit a white glow.

This was the manifestation of metal-attributed spiritual energy.

The white light formed only a thin ring around the jade stone.

It was not that he was deliberately hiding his abilities. He had already pushed his power to control magnetic fields to its limit, yet he could still only make the jade stone produce a single ring of light.

It seemed magnetic fields were not terribly efficient at capturing spiritual energy, roughly equivalent to only one spiritual root.

Still, he had succeeded at least.

And as his strength increased, so too could the intensity of his magnetic field.

What it might become in the future was still impossible to say.

Zhou Qing was overjoyed and hurriedly looked toward the Immortal Master, only to discover that the man was frowning deeply, looking lost in thought.

His heart immediately sank again. Could there have been an error in the test? Don't tell me the Immortal Master has noticed something strange about me.

Chen Qingxuan also felt somewhat troubled.

He had a favorable impression of the young man before him, and if there were any possibility, he wanted to let him pass.

But the result of the test was simply too poor to amount to anything.

One had to know that the number of a person's spiritual roots greatly limited their future prospects in cultivation.

For this reason, the cultivation world divided spiritual roots into nine grades.

Those with one to nine spiritual roots belonged to the ninth grade.

With nine spiritual roots, the limit was the peak of the Qi Refinement Realm, with little chance of reaching Foundation Establishment. With only one spiritual root, one's limit would very likely be restricted to the first level of Qi Refinement.

By the same logic, ten to eighteen spiritual roots constituted eighth-grade aptitude, corresponding to the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Of course, such limits were not absolute, but since they were called limits, breaking through them was naturally a task of a thousand hardships and ten thousand difficulties.

The young man before him had only one spiritual root. Though he now qualified to cultivate, under normal circumstances Chen Qingxuan would not consider accepting him.

Yet the young man's temperament struck him as truly rare.

Thus, he could not help feeling conflicted.

After a long while, Chen Qingxuan finally nodded. "You pass."

Yes!

Zhou Qing could not stop himself from shouting inwardly. If the Immortal Master had not been right in front of him, and if so many people were not watching below the stage, he would have wanted nothing more than to throw back his head and howl, venting the excitement in his heart.

Even though he had lived two lives and had long shed the restless impulsiveness of youth, he still found it hard to remain composed when faced with something he had dreamed of so fervently: cultivating immortality.

Zhou Qing suppressed the excitement in his heart, bowed to the Immortal Master, and then stepped down from the Linxian Platform.

He had wanted to greet the little fatty, but before he could even come down, the impatient boy had already rushed onto the platform. Zhou Qing could only make his own way toward the edge of the crowd.

The treatment he received upon leaving was truly the complete opposite of when he had entered.

He and the little fatty had slipped in quietly while people were not paying attention, but as he came out, he had become the focus of everyone's attention.

Many people craned their necks and pressed toward him. He had no time to make out their faces; all he saw were luxurious robes and finery, along with people shouting at the tops of their lungs.

Just as he was struggling to squeeze his way out, a squad of soldiers suddenly parted the crowd and cleared a path leading to the Immortal Gathering Pavilion.

When he reached the entrance of the Immortal Gathering Pavilion, he found his father already waiting there. Clearly, the dignitaries of Cloud Prefecture City upstairs had summoned him.

Old Man Zhou had never expected that his son, who had already failed twice, would pass the test on the third attempt.

He was clumsy with words. Though excitement filled his heart, all he knew to do was pat his son on the shoulder and look at him with joy in his eyes.

An official from the City Lord's Mansion was handling reception at the entrance. He was a slick-looking man with a pair of thin goatees. He came over with a smile. "Young Master Zhou, the City Lord and the gentry of Cloud Prefecture City have laid out a feast upstairs. Please hurry and attend the banquet with Master Zhou."

Old Man Zhou and Zhou Qing had both been complete unknowns in Cloud Prefecture City, yet this Goatee could accurately identify them. Evidently, during the brief time Zhou Qing had spent testing on the platform, someone from the City Lord's Mansion had already inquired into his background.

Master Zhou?

Old Man Zhou was delighted to hear it. So one day, I too can be called Master.

Cultivators truly held a different status. Qing'er had merely passed the test and had not even begun cultivating formally, yet his standing had already risen with the tide.

But when he thought of his son soon leaving with the Immortal Master, with no telling when they would meet again, sorrow could not help rising in his heart.

Most parents who sent their children to sect examinations were the same. They hoped their children would pass and bring honor to the family, yet when they thought of the coming separation, their hearts were inevitably filled with melancholy.