"Sigh."
Shen Shan sighed softly. Disappointment spread from his heart throughout his body, leaving him chilled to the bone.
Looking at the amused gazes of several disciples guarding them in the distance, he felt a flicker of mockery himself, though he did not show it.
They had reached late Qi Refining yet failed to advance to the Inner Sect. How much better off were they than the cultivators who had failed this assessment?
They had all lost their hope of reaching Foundation Establishment!
"Gong Xinyuan, second level of Qi Refining. Failed."
The Foundation Establishment steward's voice rang out again. Gong Xinyuan walked toward the line of "prisoners," looking just as devastated.
Her bright eyes had visibly dimmed.
Once demoted to a menial servant, she would not only have no time to cultivate, but also lose her freedom.
Gong Xinyuan's dream of traveling the world had come to nothing.
Amid quiet sobs, despair gradually spread through the line of those who had been eliminated.
Shen Shan and Gong Xinyuan stood together, neither in the mood to speak.
At least they had not burst into tears like some of their peers.
"Have we really become slaves, completely stripped of our freedom?"
After a long while, Gong Xinyuan spoke softly, her dim eyes somewhat vacant.
To glimpse hope only to have it brutally shattered was far too heavy a blow for boys and girls in their teens.
Three years ago, the Spiritual Root test in this very place had given them hope.
Three years later, the same place offered nothing but despair!
"No!"
"Once we have recognized the beauty of this world, we can never again be slaves!"
With his head lowered toward the ground, Shen Shan spoke in a low voice, borrowing a line from the Underworld King's Travels.
"I heard that