Even after stepping down from the stage, Wei Yuan's heart still pounded like a drum. Before this, he had only seen foreign races in books and in phantasms cast by his teachers. This had been his first time fighting one in the flesh, and against a Mountain Folk giant whose individual combat strength was terrifyingly high.
The Mountain Folk were an expansive race inhabiting the south and southwest of Great Tang; just beyond the border ranges of Yongzhou lay Mountain Folk territory. There were two kinds of Mountain Folk: one stood slightly shorter than humans and moved through the peaks like the wind, while the other was the giant Wei Yuan had faced. The two kinds differed drastically in size yet shared the same origin and bloodline—a marvel of creation that truly inspired awe.
Wei Yuan paid special attention to the Mountain Folk because their domain lay just outside Yongzhou. Although Yongzhou was not the Mountain Folk's main target of conquest, small raiding parties crossed the border from time to time. Moreover, they were ferocious and bloodthirsty. In antiquity, humans had been part of their diet; even today, Mountain Folk would boil and eat any human they captured.
The baseline combat strength of a Mountain Folk giant was equivalent to a Dao Foundation cultivator. The one Wei Yuan had fought belonged to the weakest tier, and to ensure absolute safety, the Palace of Grand Beginning had long since drugged them to destroy their higher faculties, leaving only raw battle instincts to hone the disciples. A true Mountain Folk giant was not only cold-blooded and savage, but also cunning, vicious, clad in full armor, and equipped with specially forged weapons. Had one of those been let loose, Wei Yuan's chances of survival would have been slim.
After Wei Yuan, his classmates took the field one after another. More than a dozen arenas had been laid out in the vast valley, and battles unfolded simultaneously. Against foreign races there were no restrictions, allowing everyone to unleash every trick at their disposal.
Empowering a top-grade dharma sword with the Dao Foundation Immortal Sword Great Sun, Xiaoyu struck with boundless might, cleaving a Mountain Folk giant in two with a single slash.
Bao Yun had yet to establish her Dao Foundation, but she was equipped to the teeth with top-grade dharma artifacts. In her hands, a glazed jade bottle blazed with radiant light, blasting the Mountain Folk giant with a tempest of potent Dao arts until it collapsed, scorched black.
Yan Ming tossed out two dharma spheres, which burst to reveal a pair of Whale-Shark Warriors. Standing three zhang tall, they loomed well above the Mountain Folk giant. With strength matching the mid Dao Foundation stage and fighting two against one, they cut the giant down in the blink of an eye. However, such spheres were single-use items with no cultivation restrictions on their activation, making each one worth a staggering hundred thousand liang of immortal silver. Yan Ming had effectively spent two hundred thousand liang of immortal silver to buy a decent exam rank, only to receive a reward worth roughly two thousand liang.
Yet Yan Ming drew no mockery for this. Instead, he reaped a chorus of praise and astonished gasps. There was only one reason: those two hundred thousand liang had been earned by Yan Ming himself over the past three years. Back then, the blessing he received from the Patriarch had come from the jade pendant at the Patriarch's waist. That pendant held the power of a Sumeru mustard seed—which was to say, it had literally been the Patriarch's purse.
A boon from the Patriarch's own coin purse was truly terrifying.
Aside from those few, several other disciples employed various methods to claim hard-fought victories, but most students tasted bitter defeat. The Mountain Folk giants possessed thick hides and rugged bones; ordinary Dao Foundation dharma artifacts barely inflicted light scratches. Those who lacked lethal offensive techniques could deplete all their Dao power without dealing a single grievous blow. As a result, more than half of even the disciples who had already cast their Dao Foundations fell in defeat.
Over the entire exam, only thirteen students managed to defeat the half-crippled Mountain Folk giants—not even ten percent of the total. Disciples of the Palace of Grand Beginning were inherently proud and had never taken foreign races seriously. Only after facing one head-on did they truly understand that the savagery of foreign races was no mere tale.
When both parts of the examination concluded, Wei Yuan placed fourth among the five Reform Faction disciples who had received a Patriarch's boon. It was an acceptable, steady showing that earned him three bottles of Origin-Nourishing Pills.
However, out of everyone present, only Wei Yuan had clashed head-on against a Mountain Folk giant without being pushed back. Taking Wei Yuan's display as an example, the disciples of the Hall of the Bright King had all howled and charged into head-on brawls with the giants, only to suffer catastrophic defeats; even two who might have otherwise won ended up losing.
One genius disciple from the Hall of the Bright King had tried to imitate Wei Yuan to the letter. Grabbing a long spear, he circled behind a giant and thrust it into the creature's groin. But the giant collapsed in agony and accidentally sat squarely on the disciple. The disciple was crushed into severe injury and thus defeated.
After the minor examination, rumors circulated that the Hall Master of the Hall of the Bright King had approached True Monarch Xuanyue hoping to take Wei Yuan under his wing, but was turned down. Another rumor claimed the Hall Master had known all along that Sky Azure Hall would never let Wei Yuan go, and had only visited to flaunt a sudden windfall before True Monarch Xuanyue.
What Wei Yuan never expected after the minor examination was that the cleansing and tempering of his root and bone had to continue!
By this point, he had finished reading every single Yin-Yang secret manual. He knew everything he was supposed to know, along with everything he wasn't. Armed with this knowledge, he tried to reason with his eldest senior sister.
His eldest senior sister, however, never reasoned with anyone.
She made it clear: never mind a little bird growing into an eagle—even if an old eagle spat blood, the cleansing would proceed precisely as ordained.
Wei Yuan rose in revolt, only to be ruthlessly suppressed. The process held so much shame that it could have filled an entire sheet of jade paper, crushing any thought of future rebellion.
Fortunately, Wei Yuan had not yet cast his Dao Foundation, leaving his eldest senior sister's peerless skill of forcibly uprooting a Dao Foundation with no target. Otherwise, he would have experienced the exquisite agony of wishing for death, wishing for life, dying only to revive, and hovering between life and death.
His cultivation in the Blood Merging realm continued as before, except the pills were replaced with Blood Splendor Pills. Costing two hundred liang of immortal silver each, he took three a day. Their taste defied description, far worse than Origin-Nourishing Pills. After just three days, Wei Yuan felt that the toad life was simply not worth living.
He ate them for three whole years.
When he mastered Blood Merging, Wei Yuan's blood turned a faint pink, as dense as flowing quicksilver. His physical body grew sturdier, his speed surged, and his recuperative ability rose dramatically. Were he to take the sect minor examination now, he could beat his own four opponents and still take on two more.
After Blood Merging came Jade Bone, the forging of every bone and all marrow in the body. The pills for the Jade Bone realm changed to Bone-Forging Pills, taken three times a day at four hundred liang apiece. The very first pill made Wei Yuan question the toad life itself. Then he ate them for two years.
The cleansing during the Jade Bone realm continued unabated.
Upon perfecting Jade Bone, Wei Yuan's bones became as translucent as red jade, almost clear to the eye. His speed increased once more, allowing him to advance and retreat like lightning, and his strength exploded, though his body's toughness did not change much. Had he taken the minor examination then, only three to five people would have lasted three exchanges against him. Even if an opponent possessed a completed Dao Foundation, Wei Yuan would have needed only bare fists and kicks to overpower most of them. Facing an armored Mountain Folk giant at that point, Wei Yuan would have held absolute certainty of victory.
Next came Spirit Refinement, requiring Spirit Gathering Pills at seven hundred liang each, which took two years to master.
After taking those pills, the toad life became truly worse than death.
Time flew like a white steed flashing past a chink in the wall. Wei Yuan finally achieved great success in Spirit Refinement, bringing his Body Casting to full perfection, awaiting only the right opportunity to condense his Dao Foundation. Exactly ten years had passed since Wei Yuan had first set foot upon the immortal path.
This year, Wei Yuan was sixteen.
The toad was ten.
At the crack of dawn, Zhang Sheng sat before Wei Yuan to conduct his final evaluation.
Inside Wei Yuan's sea of consciousness, the visualization chart was vibrant and brimming with life, having developed a spiritual resonance of its own. This was the hallmark of perfecting Body Casting. The jade toad was even more lively; when Zhang Sheng's divine sense swept across, it cheekily blinked an eye.
By the standards of the Palace of Grand Beginning, however, this visualization chart was entirely unremarkable. It held no auspicious beasts or immortal birds, no gods, demons, immortals, or buddhas, nor any immortal swords or divine armaments. Only the shadow coiled inside the full moon was somewhat peculiar.
Yet Wei Yuan and Zhang Sheng knew just how agonizingly difficult it had been to fill this chart.
Over the past several years, everyone in Sky Azure Hall from True Monarch Xuanyue on down had turned a blind eye to the shadow that had reappeared within the round moon, never mentioning it. So long as the shadow did not expand the visualization chart any further, they treated it as though it did not exist.
After inspecting the chart in meticulous detail, Zhang Sheng sighed—lamenting for Wei Yuan, and lamenting for his own ten wasted years. After a dazed pause, he said, "Come, follow me to see the Patriarch."
By now, Wei Yuan had developed Dao power of his own. Standing upon a flying sword, he was as steady as a boulder. The sword shot forward like lightning and touched down at the main Sky Azure Hall in the blink of an eye. The last time Wei Yuan had set foot here was nine years ago.
At the center of the great hall sat an old Daoist with white hair, a long beard, and a kind, benevolent countenance, his complexion as ruddy as an infant's. Nudged by Zhang Sheng, Wei Yuan hurried forward to offer formal obeisance. This seemingly genial old Daoist was none other than True Monarch Xuanyue, master of both Sky Azure Hall and Water Moon Hall.
To the True Monarch's left and right stood three True Persons each, with Perfected Fenhai occupying the second spot on the left. Today, all six True Persons of Sky Azure Hall and Water Moon Hall were present, making for a truly solemn gathering.
After receiving his greetings, True Monarch Xuanyue bade Wei Yuan rise, his eyes cracking slightly open as he saw through Wei Yuan inside and out. Wei Yuan now stood over seven chi tall, a head taller than ordinary men, his skin holding a contained, jade-like luster without the slightest blemish.
As for his looks, Perfected Fenhai had remarked when Wei Yuan was a child that he was handsomer than Zhang Sheng, which had made Zhang Sheng sulk for three full months. Now that he had grown into his features, the gap between him and Zhang Sheng had widened a bit more.
Yet Wei Yuan had been steady and dignified from a young age. His brow and features were sharply defined, holding an underlying edge completely distinct from Xu Henshui's unadulterated, delicate beauty.
True Monarch Xuanyue looked at him for a long time before letting out a desolate sigh. He said slowly, "This visualization chart possesses an innate, boundless grandeur. Integrated into a seamless whole like heaven and earth, it never required any cleansing in the first place. We were clinging to preconceived forms before."
Hearing the True Monarch's words, the faces of several True Persons turned rather sour. Over the past decade, the pills for Wei Yuan's cultivation had been the bulk of the expense, but the cost of cleansing his foundation had not been small either. Now the True Monarch was claiming the cleansing had been pointless—a bitter pill for the True Persons to swallow.
How could it be pointless? Two of the True Persons instantly bristled, ready to argue with the True Monarch. After all, a True Monarch was not infallible.
One True Person spoke up with fervent conviction: "Patriarch Xuanyue, forgive me, but I cannot agree with that! Cultivation places purity above all else; this is an unalterable truth since time immemorial! How could purity ever be useless? A Dao Foundation can never be too pure! It is like a sheet of pure white jade paper that somehow got a black speck on it..."
Those capable of attaining the realm of a Dharma Idol True Person were all individuals possessing talent, perseverance, and fortune in full measure. Moreover, they almost all shared a common trait: an obsession with absolute purity. To them, catching sight of the slightest impurity was like seeing a sesame seed fall onto a sheet of white paper—they could never rest until it was scrubbed away.
When condensing their own Dao Foundations, every last one of them had wished they could purify their immortal embryo a hundred or a thousand times over; even if there were no impurities left, they still had to hammer it a few more rounds just to feel at ease.
Wei Yuan's immortal embryo was unprecedented in scale, but in terms of purity, it lagged far behind. Any random piece of it was worth hammering a dozen times over, a prospect that seemed immensely satisfying.
With eyes like torches, the True Persons saw impurities everywhere they looked, feeling more uncomfortable the longer they stared. They wished they could step into Wei Yuan's shoes and squeeze out every single impurity with their own hands.
Besides, if cleansing truly had not been needed, why say so only now? The pills and cleansing grew more expensive with every realm. Had he spoken up a few years earlier, the True Persons would not have been bled completely dry.
True Monarch Xuanyue offered Wei Yuan a few more words of encouragement, then said, "After ten years of bitter cultivation, you now need to seek the opportunity for your Dao Foundation. The decennial Grand Examination of our Palace of Grand Beginning is fast approaching. Participating is the duty of every Dao Foundation cultivator. Though you have not yet achieved a Dao Foundation, your perfection of Body Casting can be considered equivalent to one. After a decade of bitter toil, the time has come for you to serve the palace. Zhang Sheng!"
"This disciple is here."
"You will accompany Wei Yuan to this Grand Examination. Take my token shortly to the palace stores to draw all necessary dharma artifacts and supplies."
Zhang Sheng accepted the order. True Monarch Xuanyue then bestowed several pills and dharma artifacts before telling Wei Yuan to go back and prepare. From start to finish, one of True Monarch Xuanyue's hands remained tucked inside his sleeve, never once showing.
After Zhang Sheng departed, True Monarch Xuanyue's voice rose again: "Purity is not meant to be understood as you people take it. The Dao follows nature; sometimes, impurities are also part of the Great Dao..."
"... Forgive this disciple, but I cannot agree!"
"Come, come, come! This True Monarch will use only two fingers to teach you what it means to respect your master and honor the Dao!"
Chapter 60