In the immortal journey, time knew neither sun nor moon. On this day, Wei Yuan finally perfected the forging and tempering of his sinews and flesh. His physical strength surged, just in time for the sect minor examination. This minor examination was aimed only at Wei Yuan's cohort—a temporary test that was originally of little significance, offering mediocre rewards that were only really useful to a handful of people like Wei Yuan.
However, in recent years, the Reform Faction's moves had grown increasingly bold. Beyond centralized instruction, they were now brewing a unified disciple recruitment system. This meant revoking each hall's Perfected cultivators' authority to select their own disciples; instead, the Palace of Grand Beginning would recruit centrally during the Immortal Sect Unified Examination, and admitted disciples would be allocated upon arrival. Each hall would only be allowed to choose apprentices from among those accepted by the palace. Naturally, True Monarchs would retain a certain quota of independent picks, but even these would be strictly limited.
The Traditionalist Faction naturally pushed back fiercely, and the clashes between the two factions escalated day by day. Against this backdrop, as the very first cohort of disciples under centralized instruction, how Wei Yuan, Bao Yun, and their peers measured up against the Traditionalist disciples became of paramount importance. After all, when it came to which faction was superior, nothing spoke more persuasively than the disciples they had cultivated over the past three years.
Thus, several True Monarchs moved to elevate the minor examination's importance by an entire tier, splitting the test into two parts. The first part remained a clash between the two factions, using an arena tournament format to determine rankings. The second part was combat against selected foreign races.
After three years of study, nearly half the disciples had already established their Dao Foundations, while most of the rest had achieved Great Accomplishment in Body Casting, merely waiting for an opportunity to forge their Dao Foundations. According to the conventions of the Palace of Grand Beginning, the Dao Foundation stage marked the formal beginning of one's immortal journey, granting one the qualifications to campaign against foreign races.
On the first day of the minor examination, the clashes between the two factions were nothing short of spectacular.
Xiaoyu had successfully cultivated the Immortal Sword Great Sun, the ultimate pinnacle of the Great Sun Sword-Embracing Scripture. Over hundreds of years, countless people had practiced this method, yet fewer than one in a thousand ever succeeded in cultivating the Immortal Sword Great Sun. With an immortal sword in hand, Xiaoyu naturally swept all before him.
Bao Yun had reached Great Accomplishment in Spirit Refinement, standing just one step shy of the Dao Foundation. Though she had not yet reached the Dao Foundation stage, her Daoist arts possessed extraordinary power, and she was armed to the teeth with numerous treasures. With every gesture she made, several gods and demons manifested in turns above her head, vying with one another to lend her their might. She too swept through her opposition, battering many Traditionalist Dao Foundation disciples until they were left thoroughly battered and crestfallen.
Compared to Bao Yun and Xiaoyu, Cui Yu was slightly less dazzling, but the Cui family possessed profound heritage, and his hoard of treasures was on par with Bao Yun's. His ancestral blessing was also an immortal sword, so his offensive prowess was only a hair behind the two of them. In the end, he took down four Traditionalist recipients of ancestral blessings all by himself, cutting a truly glorious figure.
By now, Wei Yuan had fully tempered his sinews and flesh. His body was lustrous like jade, looking exceedingly fine, and he was genuinely tough as iron. Even if he were to face Xu Du's magical artifact again, Wei Yuan would only suffer minor flesh wounds; there would be no more piercing straight through his body. Whether by coincidence or not, Wei Yuan's very first opponent in the minor examination was Xu Du.
When enemies cross paths, their eyes blaze with fury. To say nothing of Wei Yuan, Xu Du had recently been targeted by Xu Henshui at every turn, forced to endure endless torment. Every few days, the ancestors of the Xu family took turns dressing him down, and half of his cultivation resources had been seized by Xu Henshui. Only after Xu Du's parents made inquiries every which way did they learn the truth: because Xu Du had injured Wei Yuan the last time, Xu Henshui had been utterly humiliated by Zhang Sheng, so Xu Henshui had turned around to settle scores with Xu Du.
Unfortunately, Xu Henshui possessed peerless talent and was a direct grandson of an ancestor; no matter what he did, Xu Du could only swallow his grievances. As for arguing or reasoning, Xu Henshui had only appeared frail and helpless when facing Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli; among the younger generation of the Xu family, not a single person could last ten exchanges against him, and most were put down with a single slap.
If what Xu Du had felt that day was envy and resentment, now, meeting Wei Yuan again, nothing remained but pure hatred.
Magical artifacts were forbidden in the sect minor examination; one could only rely on Dao Foundations and pelt the opponent with Daoist arts. Right at the opening, brilliant light radiated from Xu Du's hands as he hurled several Daoist arts at Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan charged straight out from the barrage, lunging with an outstretched hand that nearly grabbed Xu Du by the head. Xu Du jumped in fright and instantly retreated. After all, he had established his Dao Foundation quite some time ago and was swift on his feet, whereas Wei Yuan's speed and agility were fairly ordinary at this point, leaving him entirely unable to catch up.
Yet while Wei Yuan could not catch Xu Du, Xu Du's Daoist arts could not put a scratch on Wei Yuan either. In the blink of an eye, Xu Du ran out of Dao power. Horrified, he could only flee in circles around the arena. Wei Yuan's physique, however, was downright monstrous; his stamina was at least eight to nine times that of disciples of the same realm in the Hall of the Bright King, and ten-odd times greater than Xu Du's. He gave chase relentlessly, having no concept of what exhaustion felt like.
Chased until he had nowhere left to run, Xu Du circled the arena hundreds of times, eventually retching and vomiting as he fled. Wei Yuan had almost caught him several times, but fell just a hair short every time, leaving him to chase from behind while sighing, groaning, and shouting. Xu Du felt as if Wei Yuan's shouts were right at the nape of his neck and did not even dare look back. In the end, he collapsed from utter exhaustion, only for Wei Yuan to gently pin him down with a foot. Wei Yuan feared that stepping too hard would make him vomit again.
After defeating Xu Du, Wei Yuan's next opponent went down in the exact same fashion, except that this time Wei Yuan pursued in silence, without shouting and hollering to scare his foe. Having no idea whether Wei Yuan was close or far, the opponent could only run blindly with head down until collapsing from exhaustion. However, Wei Yuan's matches took so long that by the time he finished with his second opponent, the Traditionalist Faction had already conceded defeat overall.
Originally, back then, they had agreed that each person would fight four opponents; Wei Yuan ended up fighting two fewer, and Bao Yun had covered them for him.
Only when the contest ended did Wei Yuan learn that Xu Du had actually received an ancestral blessing as well—though as for what had been bestowed back then, everyone had long since forgotten.
For the second part—combat against foreign races—the Palace of Grand Beginning had chosen the Mountain Folk.
When the two-zhang-tall Mountain Folk lumbered into the arena, Wei Yuan suddenly recalled a question from the written test. Only now did he understand why taking two hundred and seventy-three heads in a battle of over eight thousand elite armored soldiers against the Mountain Folk was hailed as a great victory.
The Mountain Folk before Wei Yuan was draped in animal skins and clutched a tree trunk in his hand. Wei Yuan barely reached above his knees. Looking down at Wei Yuan, the Mountain Folk unleashed an earth-shaking roar and swung the tree trunk straight down at his head!
Wei Yuan dodged aside. The tree trunk slammed heavily into the ground, kicking up gravel that pelted Wei Yuan with loud thuds, stinging with surprising pain. Enraged by the missed strike, the Mountain Folk bent low and swung horizontally, sweeping the tree trunk along the ground toward Wei Yuan.
The weapon Wei Yuan had chosen was still a twelve-foot spear. Originally a Dao Foundation-grade magical artifact, Wei Yuan had not yet established his Dao Foundation and could only wield it as an ordinary spear. Seeing the tree trunk sweeping in with world-shattering momentum, Wei Yuan planted the spear upright, choosing to block it head-on!
With a dull boom, wood splinters flew as the tree trunk snapped in two under the tremendous collision. Wei Yuan was knocked back several zhang, his feet sinking deep into the ground, plowing two deep furrows.
A flush rose to Wei Yuan's face, and a sweet, metallic taste welled up in his throat. The muscles all over his body bulged and rippled incessantly. Though it was a grueling clash, he had withstood the Mountain Folk's full-force blow head-on!
The Mountain Folk fared little better; he shook the hand holding the broken trunk repeatedly, ultimately forced to switch it to his other hand.
Having caught his breath, Wei Yuan strode forward and thrust his spear toward the Mountain Folk's knee. Without thinking, the Mountain Folk stomped down with his foot, unaware that Wei Yuan had planted the butt of the spear firmly into the ground, bracing it motionless! As the foot stomped down, an agonized howl erupted as the spearhead pierced clean through the sole, bursting out the top of the foot.
Beneath the giant's foot, Wei Yuan held the spear with one hand while bracing his bent elbow against the sole of the foot, miraculously withstanding another full-powered stomp. This was Wei Yuan's second direct contest of strength against the Mountain Folk.
Howling in pain, the Mountain Folk lifted his foot. Wei Yuan retrieved his spear in the same motion, darted between the giant's legs like a galloping steed, and slashed with the spear, tearing a massive gash across the inner thigh.
Battered and wounded repeatedly, the Mountain Folk roared in fury, half-crouching to seize Wei Yuan. But Wei Yuan was remarkably nimble; having already circled behind the giant, he took advantage of the crouch, aimed his spear upward, and drove it with all his might straight into the front of the giant's groin!
The Mountain Folk's roar of agony reverberated through the entire arena. Every male watching, whether from the Traditionalist Faction or the Reform Faction, clamped his legs tight on pure instinct.
After that, the battle became simple. Wei Yuan swung his spear to smash the Mountain Folk's ankle, and once the giant crashed to the ground, thrust clean through his throat. It had to be said that the Mountain Folk's body was extraordinarily tough; Wei Yuan could now shatter boulders with a single spear strike, yet it took several heavy blows to crush the giant's ankle, jarring Wei Yuan so hard that blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
With the Mountain Folk slain, the tension gripping Wei Yuan's heart finally loosened. He broke into a drenching sweat, and only then did he realize that every inch of his body throbbed with agony as darkness crept across his vision. Fortunately, the Daoist presiding over the examination fed him an elixir in the nick of time, keeping him from blacking out.
Though brief, the battle had been intensely fierce. Innumerable minute fissures and wounds riddled the interior of Wei Yuan's body; had the medicinal potency of the elixir not sustained him, he would have spewed a mouthful of blood long before.
Chapter 59