Thinking of this, Xue Fuyao set her mind completely at ease and stayed quietly by Gu Nian's side.
At this time the Wang Household had already gathered all of their children aged between five and fifteen to prepare for the spiritual root testing.
At the same time, people from the Zhou Household, the Wu Household, and the Zheng Household were also rushing toward this side.
"Senior Sister, don't these lineages all have reserved quotas to enter the sect directly, why do they still need testing?" Xue Fuyao asked curiously.
Ever since taking her along by her side, Gu Nian called her little Junior Sister at every turn and also had Xue Fuyao call her Senior Sister.
Hearing her question, Gu Nian explained softly, "These lineages indeed have reserved quotas that can allow disciples within the lineage to enter the Yuanji Sect directly for cultivation, but these quotas are limited after all. The entire Cloud City only has ten quotas, and these ten quotas do not happen every year; instead, they come only once every ten years."
As for how these ten quotas should be distributed, that was the business of these lineages in Cloud City themselves.
"So that's how it is." Xue Fuyao revealed a thoughtful expression. "Then why do those older children need to be tested as well? They should have already started cultivating by now."
As soon as she finished speaking, Xue Fuyao noticed that among these people of the Wang Household who had come to test their spiritual roots, many of them looked to be around ten years old, yet there were no traces of any cultivation on these people's bodies.
"Little Junior Sister, you wouldn't know about this, would you? Although these people tested their spiritual roots early on, they don't start cultivating immediately. Some cultivation lineages or Aristocratic Clans will have children who test for spiritual roots but don't have very good talent-just middling ones-soak in medicinal baths first."
Medicinal baths decocted from all sorts of rare spirit medicines, soaked in for a few years, nourish the meridians and fleshly body to lay a good foundation for future cultivation while also having a probability of raising the spiritual root purity.
Hearing Gu Nian's words, Xue Fuyao could not help widening her eyes, thinking to herself no wonder most cultivation geniuses walked out from lineages or Aristocratic Clans while it was extremely difficult for geniuses to be born among rogue cultivators.
Aside from the gap between bloodlines, there was probably also a gap in foundations amidst this.
No wonder not a few rogue cultivators would ultimately choose a lineage faction. Aside from seeking protection, it was probably because the cultivation resources those factions casually produced were things they couldn't even dare to imagine when they were rogue cultivators.
Soon, the people of the other three lineages also brought their lineage descendants, and the spiritual root testing officially began.
Because among these people, most had already tested their spiritual roots, testing them again now was merely to confirm the results of soaking in medicinal baths these past few years. The focus this time was still those five- or six-year-old little children.
Xue Fuyao watched those people who had already finished testing their spiritual roots. Single Spiritual Roots, Dual Spiritual Roots, and Triple Spiritual Roots stood in different places respectively, while Quad Spiritual Roots and Five Spiritual Roots stood in another place with downcast expressions.
Quad Spiritual Roots and Five Spiritual Roots were almost the worst talents; even if they joined the sect, they could only start out as Menial Disciples.
A Menial Disciple, to put it nicely, was a disciple; to put it harshly, was just someone who did odd jobs. Moreover, unless they encountered an opportunity, it was forever impossible for Quad Spiritual Roots and Five Spiritual Roots to break through the Foundation Establishment Realm, and they also needed to put in dozens of times more effort than others in cultivation.
And within a lineage, if these Quad Spiritual Root and Five Spiritual Root disciples did not want to be completely abandoned by the lineage, then only a single purpose remained for them, and that was bearing children.
In her previous life, Xue Fuyao once heard that in order to be able to possess talented disciples, a lineage had set birth quotas for every single member within the lineage. If they did not fulfill the birth quotas, they would suffer punishment.
Just at this moment, a little girl who looked to be only five or six years old, wearing twin-bun hair knots and with a sweet appearance, walked onto the testing platform.
When her small hand was placed on the Spirit-Testing Stone, one red and one black beam of light quickly appeared.
"Water and Fire Dual Spiritual Root, Water Spiritual Root purity ninety percent, Fire Spiritual Root purity ninety-five percent."
"What a pity." Gu Nian looked at the little girl who had just finished testing her spiritual roots.
A Dual Spiritual Root, and moreover one path was ninety percent in purity while one path was ninety-five percent in purity. Such a talent existed as an outstanding figure even within the Yuanji Sect.
It was simply a pity that the attributes of these two spiritual roots were water and fire, and furthermore one was strong and one was weak.
Water and fire are incompatible, and the difficulty of this person's cultivation was even harder than that of Five Spiritual Roots.
Xue Fuyao naturally knew about this matter as well, watching with some sympathy the somewhat pale-faced girl. Clearly, she also understood what her spiritual roots represented.
The reason multiple spiritual roots are slower in cultivation than a single spiritual root is, apart from spiritual roots requiring more time, because spiritual roots of different attributes mutually generate and restrain one another-just like the simplest water restrains fire, fire restrains metal, metal restrains wood, wood restrains earth, and earth restrains water.
Among these, the most obvious one is this water-restrains-fire line, which is the acknowledged talent of being ruined upon awakening. The others might still be able to struggle a bit.
Especially since this person's spiritual root purity was water-weak and fire-strong.
Conversely, where there is restraint there is naturally generation, such as wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water, and water generates wood.
If a Dual Spiritual Root happened to be one of these combinations, then the cultivation speed was about the same as a single spiritual root.
Above this, there was still a Chaos Spirit Root, which meant gathering the five spiritual roots of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, and moreover the purity of these five spiritual roots had to reach one hundred percent.
"Go stand over there first." Lin Qing sighed, speaking in a gentle tone as she pointed toward the Dual Spiritual Root group to the side.
The little girl did not know whether she understood or not, nodding woodenly with stiff steps as she stepped down from the platform.
Xue Fuyao noticed that after the little girl walked into the group, everyone who had tested before all subconsciously avoided her, forming a blank space around her, with each person's face carrying an expression of either disdain or mockery.
Xue Fuyao only glanced at it and withdrew her gaze; after all, this person was hardly someone whose turn it was for her to pity.
The law of the jungle prevails in the Cultivation Realm. Although this person possessed Water-Fire Spiritual Roots, she still had a lineage, and moreover her spiritual root purity was high. Even if cultivation was difficult, her lineage would not abandon her.
Compared to most rogue cultivators, she was already very fortunate.
The spiritual root testing quickly ended, and next came discussing which people would enter the sect.
First were the Single Spiritual Root and Dual Spiritual Root disciples. The Yuanji Sect was definitely going to take them away. After these people entered the sect, Single Spiritual Root disciples would directly become Inner Sect Disciples, whereas Dual Spiritual Root disciples needed to look at spiritual root purity and what kind of spiritual roots they were.
A portion of them would also become Inner Sect Disciples, with the remainder becoming Outer Sect Disciples, only becoming Inner Sect Disciples after officially establishing foundation.
As for the remaining Triple Spiritual Roots, Quad Spiritual Roots, and Five Spiritual Roots, they would directly become Outer Sect or Menial Disciples.
Of course, the Four Great Clans still held this year's ten quotas, and these ten quotas could directly send disciples of any talent into the Yuanji Sect and become Inner Sect Disciples.
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