Li Guanqi witnessed the entire scene through his mind's eye, feeling that having this elder punish Zhao Yuanlin served little real purpose.
Yet he did not intervene. Purpose or not, he did not care—as long as Zhao Yuanlin got a beating, that was enough.
The lightning whip lashed down, instantly tearing Zhao Yuanlin's flesh open. His skin and muscle turned charred black, wisps of faint smoke rising from the wounds.
"Aaargh! Stop! Don't—"
"Why?! What right do you have to hit me?!"
"Aaargh! Help! Don't... don't hit me anymore!"
Wretched shrieks echoed into the heavens as Xu Zhengjie lashed him seven or eight times in total.
"Zhao Yuanlin! So what if you have a heavenly spiritual root? With such vile conduct, my Great Xia Sword Sect will never take you!"
Zhao Yuanlin lay crumpled on the ground, his breaths growing shallow, yet his eyes remained fixed on Li Guanqi with venomous hatred.
Sensing this, Li Guanqi suddenly spoke up.
"Since that's the case, Elders, why not let me test my spiritual root?"
With that, Li Guanqi stepped before the spirit-testing orb.
He turned his head toward Zhao Yuanlin, who lay on the ground like a dead dog, and said, "Weren't you eager to see whether a beggar like me has a spiritual root?"
"Then keep your eyes wide open and watch closely... don't you dare blink!"
He did this for one reason: to utterly crush Zhao Yuanlin's pathetic pride beneath his heel.
As for calling himself a beggar...
Li Guanqi did not care in the slightest about exposing such so-called weaknesses. Once you laid your own weaknesses bare yourself, they ceased to be weaknesses.
In the cultivation world, strength reigned supreme!
Meng Linhai fell silent as well. Tianjin Peak had just lost a disciple with a heavenly spiritual root.
Yet recalling the sect's precepts, his expression gradually hardened.
"One with such a character is better left discarded!"
Xu Zhengjie looked at the youth facing the crowd and said in a deep voice, "Good! Test him!"
"Even if you only have a three-attribute motley spiritual root today, my Tianlei Peak will still take you!"
The youth offered a slight smile. Under the watchful eyes of thousands, he slowly stepped onto the testing platform.
Li Guanqi took a deep breath. He, too, had no idea what spiritual root he possessed.
All these years, he had been able to sense that his grandfather, Su Xuan, was formidable—immensely formidable.
His grandfather had gone to such great lengths to procure so many medicinal herbs for him; his spiritual root surely could not be too bad...
Many a time, he had seen the heavenly treasures held in his grandfather's hands glowing with faint luminescence.
As his palm closed around the crystal orb, the entire square fell pin-drop silent.
Zhao Yuanlin clamped his lips shut, his eyes glued to the transparent crystal sphere.
Radiance swirled across the orb as lights of eight different colors shifted continuously.
This was the process of determining which elemental root was present.
Only the final color and the intensity of its glow would reveal the quality of the person's spiritual root.
Just as everyone waited for a few breaths, the flashing light across the crystal orb grew increasingly frantic.
*Bang!*
A sudden cracking explosion rang out!
The crystal sphere shattered into pieces!
For a moment, everyone on the square stared at each other in stunned disbelief.
A look of frantic madness broke across Zhao Yuanlin's face as he pointed at Li Guanqi and sneered, "Hahaha! Trash! You're nothing but a piece of trash!"
"Even the spirit-testing orb shattered! You're probably not even fit to possess a three-attribute motley root!"
"Hahaha! You were born with a wretched life! You lowborn cur!"
These words instantly sparked outrage among the crowd, for quite a few people below the platform possessed three-attribute motley spiritual roots.
Even so, many of them would still be selected to enter the sect depending on how their roots manifested.
Meng Linhai's brow furrowed, his impression of Zhao Yuanlin sinking to absolute rock bottom.
With a flick of his hand, a ray of golden light flew out and instantly sealed Zhao Yuanlin's mouth.
"Noisy!"
With the orb shattered, Li Guanqi was left standing in a daze, awkwardly scratching his head.
"Um... I don't know why this thing blew up."
"I don't have to pay for it, do I?"
Suddenly, the elders seemed to recall something. They exchanged glances, each seeing sheer disbelief in the other's eyes.
Meng Linhai was taken aback by their expressions, his throat bobbing slightly.
In a dry, strained voice, he asked, "Could you all... be thinking of that?!"
Lan He instantly leapt into the air, calling out sharply, "Quick! Go to Tianzhu Peak and bring the Spirit-Testing Stele!"
Watching the elders of the various peaks fall into a frenzy of confusion, none of the onlookers knew what was happening.
At that moment, the outer sect's Eldest Senior Brother, Zhou Zhi, murmured, "Could it be... a king-grade spiritual root above the heavenly grade?"
Shock filled Jiang Su's eyes as she said in a hushed voice, "Could it really be? In all these years, a king-grade root has only appeared once, twelve years ago, hasn't it?"
Zhou Zhi gave a slight nod and said solemnly, "Indeed. That person is our current Eldest Senior Brother, the Sect Master's disciple, Wu Bing."
"They say Eldest Senior Brother is currently in closed-door cultivation, breaking through to the Core Formation realm!"
"If he can break through within three years, he'll be a Core Formation cultivator before the age of thirty!"
All at once, the elders' gazes toward Li Guanqi changed. Xu Zhengjie, the second elder of Tianlei Peak, looked almost ravenous with greed.
Before long, four inner sect disciples who had already reached Foundation Establishment flew through the air, carrying a pitch-black stone stele over a zhang tall as they descended upon the testing platform.
The pitch-black stele weighed several thousand jin, and across its surface were carved numerous names.
Looking through them one by one, every single name without exception was followed by the inscription: *King-Grade Spiritual Root!*
The very top name, however, was completely unfamiliar to everyone, and the characters etched behind it were not 'King-Grade.'
That name had not shifted from its position for ten thousand years.
Li Guanqi walked naturally up to the stele and pressed both hands into the carved palm indents.
*Hum—!*
The stele trembled. Immediately after, a wisp of eight-colored luminescence manifested across a hundred zhang of the sky.
Then, all the colors vanished one by one, leaving behind only a single hue of colorless white light!
Seeing this, the peak elders' brows furrowed tightly.
"Could he truly have no spiritual root... then why did the spirit-testing orb burst?"
Yet the halo of light only grew vaster, until it encompassed the entirety of the Great Xia Sword Sect.
A colossal halo spanning a full thousand zhang hung suspended high in the sky!
The pitch-black stele was now steeped in that white radiance, turning completely milky white.
A profound, ethereal voice resonated within Li Guanqi's mind.
"Name of the tested."
"Li Guanqi."
*Hum—!*
An invisible shockwave swept outward in an instant.
The tremor rippled outward for a hundred li!
Immediately after, the winds and clouds between heaven and earth shifted violently as countless ribbons of colorful radiance began to slowly orbit the Great Xia Sword Sect.
Those colored beams drifted like innumerable silk ribbons, carrying all manner of wondrous, mystical auras.
This celestial anomaly thoroughly stunned everyone present. Right after, one sect-protecting barrier after another rose with a thunderous roar to prevent prying eyes from outside.
Li Guanqi's name abruptly appeared at the very bottom of the stele.
Then, the name began to climb steadily upward, closing in on the very first name on the stele!
Under the shocked gazes of all the elders, Li Guanqi's name slowly surpassed that name untouched for ten thousand years, taking the supreme spot at the very top!
A line of shimmering golden characters snapped into existence.
The voice of the stele's spirit boomed across the sky!
"Li Guanqi, saint-grade spiritual root! Void spiritual root!"
This sudden turn of events left everyone at a complete loss, though many wore expressions of bewilderment.
"What on earth is that? A void spiritual root? Doesn't that mean having no root at all? How can that count as a saint-grade root?"
"..."
Yet amidst the noisy clamor, Zhao Yuanlin stared blankly at the composed youth on the platform, his face like dead ashes.
Paying no heed to the crowd's confusion, the elders of the eight peaks cast aside all dignity and instantly swarmed the youth.
Everyone spoke at once: "Choose Fire! Choose Fire! Our offensive might is peerless, and I can teach you artifact crafting! Alchemy works too!"
Meng Linhai grew frantic, shoving the long-browed elder aside as he shouted, "Piss off! For sheer offensive power, nothing beats Metal! For a sword cultivator, practicing metal-attribute spiritual energy is like adding wings to a tiger!"
"Choose Water! My Tianshui Peak is full of female disciples! Finding a Dao companion is easy!"
"Choose Earth! I... Earth... argh, I'll take you as my closed-door disciple! I'll give you all of my monthly stipend!"
"Come to my Tianmu Peak! I'll have the Peak Master take you as his closed-door disciple!"
Suddenly!
A soft cough rang out. It was none other than the sect's Disciplinary Arbiter, Qin Xian.
The old man said with a solemn face, "This old man isn't opposed to taking an apprentice either."
Yet the eight peak elders could not care less right now about whether he was the Disciplinary Arbiter. They retorted on the spot: "You haven't taken a disciple in three to five centuries—what the hell could you teach him?!"
"Uh... that is, Arbiter, it's nothing personal... don't go making things hard for me later."
"Peak Master! Peak Master, come quickly! Why are you in closed-door cultivation at a time like this?! A disciple with a saint-grade spiritual root! If you're a step late, he'll be gone!"
"Big Brother! Break out of seclusion! Come to Tianmen Cave to snatch him!"
"Hey! What are you cursing at me for? Hurry and come snatch him, it's a disciple with a saint-grade spiritual root!"
Right after, countless figures enveloped in radiant light came streaking over from behind the peaks of Mount Tianjian.
Li Guanqi felt as if he were being seized tightly by dozens of large hands, his clothes nearly torn to shreds.
Yet right at that moment, a sharp rebuke abruptly rang out!
Everyone froze instantly, hurriedly straightening themselves up.
A man clad in a green robe could be seen treading upon iridescent clouds as he descended.
He possessed an otherworldly bearing, with sword-like brows, starry eyes, and a resolute countenance.
It was none other than the Sect Master of the Great Xia Sword Sect, a cultivator at the Great Perfection of the Nascent Soul realm—Lu Kangnian!
Chapter 12