Meanwhile, on the right side of the raised platform.
Two monks from the Golden Sun Temple sat side by side, each wearing his own expression of serenity, while their voices passed between them in a way no one else could detect.
Secret voice transmission.
The tall, lean monk's brow shifted slightly. His voice narrowed to a fine thread and slipped into the ear of the stocky, round-faced monk beside him. "Junior Brother Jingyuan, this batch of candidates is quite promising. That seventeen-year-old boy has excellent natural aptitude. If we recruit him into the temple, reaching the Inner Qi realm within twenty years would be no idle dream."
Jingyuan did not open his eyes, but the smile at the corner of his mouth faded a little.
"Senior Brother, the admission slot is the bait, not the objective."
The tall, lean monk neither agreed nor disagreed.
Jingyuan's transmitted voice was slow and steady, delivering each word distinctly.
"The elder's decree was clear. Wang Gongqin betrayed the Golden Sun Temple, stole its treasured saber, and practiced the Nine Evils Blood Refinement Technique. He has become a thorn in the temple's eye. We failed to capture him in the last encirclement. Now he has broken through to the fifth blood qi stage and has been appearing frequently around Yunlin County. If we delay any longer and he joins another major power or masters a higher level of the Blood Origin Evil Art, recovering the saber will be even harder."
The tall, lean monk tapped a finger lightly against his knee.
"So this admission slot..."
"Is a bounty."
A shrewdness that temple life had failed to polish away crept into Jingyuan's transmitted voice.
"Anyone who fights his way through today's assessment will be at least at the peak of the Qi-Blood Third Level or at