Zhang Xiaozhu closed the door behind him, and his footsteps receded.
Pei Ye stood quietly, gazing at the wall covered in small beads, some new, some old.
The meditation chamber was tucked deep away, its wooden door thick and heavy. There was only one small window high on the wall.
Morning sunlight spilled inside, dust drifting gently through it. The still air seemed filled with countless souls. The boy pressed his lips together, then, after a long while, reached out and plucked down a bead.
This one looked quite old, perhaps six or seven years. The white amber had discolored slightly, but it remained very well preserved.
Pei Ye knew why the Immortal Platform had found such a set of beads on Sword-Belly Mountain. No matter how many were lost outside, only those they successfully sent back were incorporated into the [Mirror Dragon] and [Heart Mirror].
But of course, another pair of eyes had looked through them first.
Pei Ye raised it before his eyes and gazed deep inside.
"Yuquan Mountain, [Sea Moon Carries the Tide], Qiu Canglu, twenty-three years old, provisionally ranked twenty-second in the Sword Manual. The Register Compilation Assembly's verdict: acceptable." The white-bearded elder presiding over the assembly was Chen Lihuai, the most senior sword instructor at the Shaolong Sword Cultivation Academy. He had come from Heavenly Mountain in his youth and had spent nearly thirty years at the Shaolong Sword Academy, ever since its founding. "The assembly's assessment: Qiu Canglu's sword realm surpasses that of nineteenth-ranked Qu Ying of Five Swords, but clearly falls below that of sixteenth-ranked Song Zhishu, Knower of Antiquity. Furthermore, he is older and should rank below twentieth. Moreover, twenty-third-ranked Bai Weiyu, twenty-fourth-ranked Wen Jiao, and twenty-fifth-ranked Wang Jinhong are of similar age, yet their sword realms fall below Qu Ying's. None