First Place, Debate of the Myriad Laws
Li Yunjing stood on the observation deck at the top of the mountain, looking down at the Taiyi Mountain Range that stretched for thousands of miles.
The sea of clouds surged beneath his feet, and the golden sunlight bathed him, giving him a dazzling golden edge.
The mountain wind blew his blue Daoist robe, making it flutter loudly, as if he were a banished immortal descending to earth.
"So this is what it feels like to be on top of the world," Li Yunjing thought to himself.
At this moment, the cultivators who were observing the battle erupted in exclamations.
"He reached the summit! Li Yunjing reached the summit!"
"He actually surpassed Chu Lingxiao! He got first place in the first round of the assessment!"
"Unbelievable! I remember he was only at the Golden Core stage before!?"
On the high platform, the elders and sect leaders of the various sects also stood up, their faces filled with shock.
Li Yunjing's behavior was truly baffling to them.
Li Yunjing was famous, and they had indeed heard of Li Yunjing name.
After all, when the Immortal Alliance announced the list of True Disciple, they highlighted Li Yunjing's name.
At that time, Li Yunjing was still at the Golden Core stage, and the elders and sect leader paid attention to him for a while because of this.
They stopped paying attention to Li Yunjing after that because there was no news about him. Little did they know that Li Yunjing's performance this time would amaze everyone.
A moment later, Chu Lingxiao also reached the top of the mountain.
He looked at Li Yunjing, who was standing in the center of the observation deck, and his expression was rather unpleasant.
He never imagined that he would be defeated by an unknown person.
But Chu Lingxiao was, after all, a top-tier prodigy; a loss was a loss, and he made no excuses.
He walked up to Li Yunjing, looked at him sharply, and said in a deep voice, "I lost this time, but this is only the first round. I won't lose to you again in the later rounds."
"I'll be waiting," Li Yunjing said calmly, his tone utterly indifferent.
Chu Lingxiao gave him a deep look, then turned and walked to the side to begin regulating his breathing and recovering his spiritual energy.
Another incense stick's time passed, and the disguised Devil Cultivator also reached the mountaintop.
He feigned a gentle demeanor, walked up to Li Yunjing, cupped his hands in greeting, and said with a smile, "Congratulations, Fellow Daoist Li, on winning first place in the first round. Truly admirable. My name is Wang Beichen. May we become friends?"
His smile was genuine, and his eyes were clear, revealing no flaws whatsoever.
It was as if the person who had previously used the Bewitching Mind-Bewitching Incantation on the Path of Immortal Ascension immortality, intending to kill Li Yunjing, was not him at all.
Li Yunjing looked at him, a faint, cold smile playing on his lips, "Heh!"
The two exchanged a glance, understanding each other without saying a word.
A war without gunfire has already begun in secret.
Li Yunjing ignored the guy and walked to the edge of the viewing platform, looking towards the Path of Immortal Ascension.
Xiao Tianxing and Zhao Fan are still struggling to climb.
It took them a quarter of an hour to reach the summit.
Upon arriving at the observation deck, the two were covered in sweat, panting heavily, and on the verge of being out of breath.
Without even greeting Li Yunjing, the two sat down on the spot and began to regulate their breathing.
Li Yunjing silently walked to the two of them and stood guard over them.
Half an hour later, all the cultivators still on the Path of Immortal Ascension finished their assessments.
Ultimately, out of more than 30,000 participating cultivators, only 127 successfully reached the top and advanced to the second round.
The rest were either eliminated by pressure, trapped in their Heart Devil Tribulation, or lost their lives.
The final rankings were quickly compiled, with Li Yunjing taking first place by a significant margin, Chu Lingxiao second, Luo Qingyan third, and Li Changfeng fourth.
Wang Beichen ranked seventeenth, a respectable result that didn't arouse any suspicion.
When the rankings were posted on the Xuantie notice board in the main peak square, the entire Mount Taiyi was in an uproar.
"Li Yunjing is number one! Li Yunjing is truly number one!"
"I knew he could do it! That final sprint on the Path of Immortal Ascension was absolutely awesome!"
"Chu Lingxiao kept claiming he would get first place, but things didn't go as planned. I wonder how angry he must be?"
Discussions were incessant, and within a short hour, Li Yunjing's name had spread to every corner of Mount Taiyi.
Everyone knows that a young sect leader from a small sect has suddenly appeared and surpassed many top geniuses.
After the results were announced, Xiao Tianxing and Zhao Fan finished their meditation.
Both of them were ranked within the top 100 and reached the top within the allotted time, so they passed the first round.
When the two learned the results of the first round, Zhao Fan was even more excited than Li Yunjing, as if he himself had won first place. "Brother Li! You're amazing! You actually surpassed Chu Lingxiao! You took first place! I was completely stunned when I saw it from halfway up the mountain!"
"Just lucky." Li Yunjing smiled faintly.
"What luck! That's skill!" Zhao Fan patted his chest and said, "I knew you weren't an ordinary person, Brother Li! Now that you've won first place in the first round, the pressure in the later assessments will be much less!"
After talking with Zhao Fan for a while, Li Yunjing pulled Xiao Tianxing aside.
Then, Li Yunjing told Xiao Tianxing about Wang Beichen.
Upon learning this, Xiao Tianxing's face turned grave. "No wonder it was so dangerous on the Path of Immortal Ascension; someone was causing trouble."
"Senior Brother Xiao, let's report to the Immortal Alliance and seek their support," Li Yunjing said. "We don't know how many Devil Cultivator will arrive this time; we must have the Immortal Alliance control the situation."
Xiao Tianxing nodded. "Okay, I'll take care of it right away."
An hour later, the second round of assessment officially began.
The assessment was held at the Myriad Laws Pavilion of the Taiyi Immortal Sect.
The Myriad Laws Pavilion is the library of the Taiyi Immortal Sect. It has nine floors and houses hundreds of thousands of volumes of cultivation classics from High Antiquity to the present.
This debate assessment will be held in the main hall on the first floor of the Myriad Laws Pavilion.
In the center of the hall, there was a huge white jade table, behind which sat seven expressionless elders of the Taiyi Immortal Sect, forming the judging panel.
There was also a circle of elders and sect leaders from various sects who had come to watch the debate.
On either side of the hall were seats for the 127 cultivators who had advanced.
True Person Qingxuan personally served as the chief judge, sitting in the very center of the white jade table. His gaze swept across the entire hall as he slowly began to speak, "The second round of assessment is the Myriad Laws Pavilion debate. The rules are as follows: Each cultivator will randomly select a text and, within the time limit of one incense stick's burning, interpret and explain the core content of the text. The judging panel will score the answers, with a maximum score of ten points, six points being the passing mark. Those who fail will be eliminated."
"The assessment will now begin."
As soon as he finished speaking, a disciple of the Taiyi Immortal Sect stepped forward, holding a brocade box filled with Jade Slip, and walked up to the first cultivator.
The first to take the stage was Li Changfeng, the young sect leader of the Heavenly Sword Sect.
He drew a sword manual, which perfectly matched the path he cultivated. With his profound sword skills, he spoke eloquently, demonstrating a thorough understanding of the manual's contents.
Ultimately, the judges gave him a high score of eight.
The cultivators who took the stage next performed exceptionally well, while others made numerous mistakes and were quickly eliminated.
Chu Lingxiao was the seventh to go on stage, and he drew a scroll of the Taiyi Immortal Sect's core Cultivation Method, the "Taiyi True Scripture".
This is a Cultivation Method comparable to the "Supreme Unity Pure Subtlety Scripture," with each Cultivation Method having its own advantages.
"The Taiyi One is the primordial Qi. Before the Limitless, it resided in chaos, formless and without image, soundless and odorless, neither born nor dying, neither increasing nor decreasing..."
Chu Lingxiao's interpretation was precise and insightful, and he even pointed out several areas for improvement, which won him a round of applause.
Ultimately, the judging panel gave it a high score of 9.5, temporarily placing it in first place.