"Next!"
Fully conscious of his duty as an attendant protector, Lu Yang belted out the call with the utmost sycophancy.
The person lined up behind Daoist Xiantian was, naturally, Daoist Lord Hanhai.
Dai Bufan, however, knew nothing of this; he only knew that Daoist Xiantian had come to take the entrance test.
Daoist Lord Hanhai carried the true air of an expert—sparing with words and cold as frost.
Dai Bufan gently rested two fingers on Daoist Lord Hanhai's wrist, quickly arriving at the result: "A mutated spiritual root—a Lightning Spiritual Root?"
"What is your name?"
"Fang Ya."
Dai Bufan cast his mind back. There was no such person recorded during the character evaluations. Had he come drawn purely by the sect's reputation?
"Fang Ya, is it? I'll remember you. Perform well."
Dai Bufan thought very highly of Daoist Lord Hanhai. If the youth received dedicated nurturing from the Dao Seeking Sect in the future, he would at the very least reach the peak Body Integration stage and become a pillar of the sect.
*As a mere mortal, Fang Ya had no idea what a blessing it was to win Dai Bufan's high esteem. Showing not the slightest hint of gratitude for the goodwill Dai Bufan extended, he simply stood up and walked toward the second trial. Only after joining the Dao Seeking Sect would Fang Ya come to understand what a magnificent fortune he had let slip away today.*
Immortal Fairy looked at Lu Yang in astonishment, not understanding why he had suddenly launched into an internal monologue.
"Next!" This time, it was Meng Jingzhou's turn to belt it out.
The corner of Dai Bufan's eye twitched. He felt more and more like an emperor enthroned on high, with two little eunuchs flanking him to shrilly announce the audience of this or that official.
Earlier, when he had Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou drag away the applicant who faked his spiritual roots, part of his motive had been to swap out the two people standing beside him. Alas, the scheme had failed to bear fruit.
Next in line behind Daoist Lord Hanhai was Daoist Lord Wanfa.
Originally, Daoist Lord Wanfa had planned on casually forging dual spiritual roots and calling it a day, but the three people ahead of him were all single spiritual roots. If he forged dual spiritual roots, wouldn't he be outdone?
No, that wouldn't do.
Daoist Lord Wanfa extended his arm, allowing Dai Bufan to inspect it.
Dai Bufan's cultivation method could probe an applicant's physical condition, but before an adversary on Daoist Lord Wanfa's level, the technique was entirely useless.
Daoist Lord Wanfa was certain that no abnormalities would be detected.
This was his confidence as a half-immortal.
The astonishment on Dai Bufan's face grew increasingly pronounced. "The Everlasting Immortal Physique?"
As the name implied, this was an Immortal Physique that possessed an exceedingly long lifespan. Looking across history from ancient times to the present day, not even five cases could be found; it was extraordinarily rare.
Dai Bufan muttered under his breath. What was going on? It was one thing for this year's batch to be of exceptional caliber, but why were they appearing one after another?
Counting from Gu Junye, this was already the fourth!
The people lined up behind him began to stir with excitement, gazing at Daoist Lord Wanfa with envy. A physique like this was something the Five Great Immortal Sects would fight tooth and nail over!
"What is your name?" Dai Bufan asked.
"Gu Xie."
Immortal Fairy fixed her eyes on Gu Xie and looked him over twice. "Why does something feel off about him?"
"Is there something wrong with him?" Lu Yang asked.
Immortal Fairy took two more looks and said with certainty, "This man is a half-immortal."
"A half-immortal?!" If Lu Yang hadn't already grown accustomed to seeing immortals and half-immortals, the sheer shock of finding this out would have made him cry aloud.
"Yes, he has a rudimentary Dao fruit. He is definitely a half-immortal," Immortal Fairy stated with certainty.
"It seems this matter needs to be reported to Eldest Senior Sister." Lu Yang pondered the situation. This was beyond Senior Brother Dai's ability to handle. For someone of that level to conceal their identity and enter the Dao Seeking Sect, they likely harbored ill intent.
However, Lu Yang did not return directly to Tianmen Peak; doing so might attract Gu Xie's attention and startle the snake in the grass.
After that, Dai Bufan tested roughly two hundred people.
"Water-Wood dual spiritual roots, and naturally attuned to cultivating spiritual plants?" Dai Bufan had discovered another promising seedling.
"If I remember correctly, your name is Zhou Xing'er?"
This was another mortal from the earlier character evaluations.
The mission report had recorded that Zhou Xing'er was born in a remote mountain ravine. Such mountain villages were notoriously prone to favoring boys over girls, and Zhou Xing'er was no exception. It was only a year ago that Zhou Xing'er had happened upon an unusual storage ring by chance—one inside which crops and vegetables could be grown, and where whatever was planted flourished exceptionally well.
Thanks to this special storage ring, Zhou Xing'er had managed to escape the fate of being married off.
Chapter 744