Immortality and Cultivation: Starting with Improved Spirit Rice

Chapter 100 Even among geniuses there are differences.

Ahead stood a magnificent hall radiating a blue glow, with the three ancient characters "Xili Hall" inscribed on the plaque.

Xue Qing stopped and pointed to the palace gate to signal to the three of them.

"This is the Analyzing Hall, also known within the sect as the Investigation Hall."

"Once inside, you can directly participate in a preliminary test for new disciples. The results of the test will be immediately reflected through the formation. This is a process that every new disciple must go through."

Looking at the three people with different expressions, Xue Qing smiled and said, "However, you don't need to feel too much pressure. There will be many opportunities in the sect in the future."

Before entering Tongming Mountain, everyone had a different background and enjoyed vastly different cultivation resources.

What Tongming Mountain truly values ​​is one's Daoist heart, learning ability, comprehension, and personal talent. A preliminary test proves nothing; it's merely to give the sect a general understanding of your capabilities. There will be many more opportunities to prove yourselves in the future.

After listening, Zhao Cheng'an nodded respectfully on the surface, but secretly thought to himself:

On the path of spiritual practice, falling behind at one step leads to falling behind at every step; this principle applies everywhere.

Moreover, over the past few months, he had finally managed to finish studying all three major sections of basic content issued by Tongming Mountain, and his divine sense had also been greatly honed, so naturally he would not take this assessment lightly.

He turned his head slightly and looked at the two people beside him.

Luo Qingyi was pursing her lips, a hint of eagerness on her face.

She reached out and rolled up the sleeves of her wide purple robe, revealing a section of her fair arm, and waved her fist at Zhao Cheng'an, appearing quite lively.

Meanwhile, Ning Zixu, who was on the other side, still looked serious, but after noticing Zhao Chengan's gaze, he nodded slightly.

The three of them walked side by side and stepped into the gate of the Xili Hall.

hum.

As a dazzling white light flashed through the hall, Zhao Cheng'an felt the space around him slightly distort, and Luo Qingyi and Ning Zixu's figures vanished without a trace in an instant.

A slight feeling of weightlessness came over me, as if my body was falling downwards.

But this feeling only lasted for a moment before quickly returning to normal.

Zhao Cheng'an stood in a separate, bright space, where a large white jade workbench appeared out of thin air in front of him.

He rubbed his throbbing temples, a hint of surprise flashing through his mind.

Although the feeling of weightlessness was faint, his divine sense was extremely sharp, and he immediately noticed the abnormality.

"The space here must be inscribed with some kind of profound divine calculation formula."

Zhao Cheng'an pondered to himself, "It's somewhat similar to the Heavenly Evolution Algorithm in the Netherworld Soul Jade. Moreover, when I participated in the Dao Examination in the Floating Scale Cave Heaven, the monsters and cultivators simulated in that tower seemed to have used similar methods."

"It seems that the methods of the Calculators have long been widely adopted in the Dao Court and the Golden Core Dao lineage. It's just that my cultivation level was too low before, and I had never come into contact with the formulas, so I didn't realize the mystery of it."

Before he could continue to ponder, a soft light shone from the white jade workbench.

The first assessment, the Natural History Connection Test, has officially begun.

As the light flashed, one projection after another rapidly coalesced above the workbench.

The first thing to appear was a spiritual herb that emitted a faint blue light, with some black soil attached to its roots.

Zhao Cheng'an glanced at it and then picked up his pen to write down the answer.

"Red-Eyed Grass prefers shade, and the soil where its roots are attached is slightly acidic. The leaves are scorched and curled, not because of lack of water, but because of excessive intake of fire-attribute spiritual energy, resulting in burns."

66

The second sample consisted of two spirit fish kept together in a puddle, their scales shimmering with a faint golden light.

Zhao Cheng'an paused for a moment, recalling the records in "Notes on Symbiosis and Variation".

"The reason why the scales of the red-striped fish are tinged with gold thread algae when they are raised together is because the gold thread algae releases trace amounts of metallic spiritual energy in the water, which is absorbed and settled by the fish scales."

Natural history was the most time-consuming part.

However, this is precisely the area where Zhao Chengan's foundation is most solid.

Thanks to his experience of studying spiritual plant cultivation day and night during his time at the Imperial Academy of the Seven Kingdoms, coupled with his repeated discussions with Luo Qingyi on the Immortal Ship, most of these questions were easy for him to answer.

He hesitated slightly on a few questions about the dating of monster bones and the texture of rare minerals, losing a few points in the process.

He quickly passed the first hurdle.

After catching my breath, I calmed my exhausted mind.

The second assessment then began.

A broken magical artifact appeared out of thin air in front of Zhao Cheng'an.

It was a green-bladed flying sword broken in two, and most of the runes that originally flowed on the sword had faded and peeled off.

The instructions from the formation were clear: he was required to complete the missing runes on the flying sword within a specified time.

This test not only examines a cultivator's memory of runes but also their ability to perform on-site calculations; it is entirely a contest of fundamental skills.

Zhao Cheng'an activated the Observation Formula, and the blue eye in his sea of ​​consciousness slowly opened.

The runes inside the flying sword were clearly visible to him.

Manipulating patterns, swift movement patterns, golden blade patterns —

This flying sword uses the most common basic runes of the gold and wind elements, and the missing parts are obvious at a glance. He picked up the gold-threaded rune brush on the white jade table and filled in the missing runes one by one with smooth and flowing movements.

The first few rounds were almost effortless for him and went exceptionally smoothly.

However, as the assessment rounds progressed, the magical artifacts that appeared before him began to become increasingly strange.

Later on, some of the magical artifacts even had rune structures inside that Zhao Cheng'an had never seen in the ancient books of Tongming Mountain.

Unable to directly access his memories, he could only rely on his own divine sense to deduce the operating logic and missing parts of those unfamiliar runes bit by bit.

Each simulation is a tremendous drain on one's spiritual energy.

Fine beads of sweat gradually began to appear on Zhao Cheng'an's forehead.

His breathing became heavy, and his temples throbbed with a dull, aching pain.

They persisted until the seventeenth round.

What appeared before them was the embryo of a complex magical artifact called "Mysterious Magnetic Lock".

This magical artifact requires the earth-attribute "gravity pattern" and the lightning-attribute "magnetic lock pattern" to be nested as a primary and secondary element. The rune domain space is extremely small, and the margin for error is extremely low.

Zhao Cheng'an was already mentally exhausted, and his vision was becoming blurry.

He gritted his teeth, forcing out the last bit of clarity, and controlled the golden talisman brush to outline the final coupling path on the surface of the magic artifact.

However, due to the extreme fatigue of his spiritual energy, his fingers trembled slightly the moment he put pen to paper.

"Sizzle."

A subtle fluctuation of spiritual energy exploded on the surface of the magical artifact.

The gravity pattern that had just been drawn, due to structural deviations, instantly caused a violent attribute conflict with the adjacent runes.

The spiritual light on the entire embryonic artifact flickered violently for a moment, then dimmed completely.

Engrave failure.

Zhao Cheng'an looked at the magic artifact that had failed him in the end and sighed helplessly.

He turned to look at the hourglass beside him; the fine sand inside had completely run out.

The second round of assessments has now concluded.

"Splash!"

The scene in front of Zhao Cheng'an suddenly changed, and at the same time, his condition returned to normal.

The once cold, white jade workbench and the broken embryonic magical artifact vanished instantly, replaced by a boundless ocean. Waves crashed against the rocks, creating a deafening roar.

Before he could even steady himself, the seawater in front of him began to boil violently.

A massive monster covered in bluish-black scales emerged from the sea, radiating an overwhelming sense of oppression.

Zhao Cheng'an's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately knew the content of the assessment.

This third round of assessment tests practical skills and on-the-spot adaptability.

He had to determine the type and weaknesses of the beast in a very short time, and then use targeted spells to deal with it.

A blue light flashed in Zhao Cheng'an's eyes as the microscopic calculation formula rapidly processed in his mind.

"This is a sea-devouring beast. Although it is huge, it has no scales on its belly and is afraid of fire-attribute bursts."

The answer quickly came to him.

Zhao Cheng'an rapidly crossed his dry fingers, forming hand seals.

In the illusion, one cannot use their own true spirit runes to fight enemies, which tests one's spellcasting speed, mastery of different spells, and, more importantly, mentality. Fortunately, Zhao Chengan is quite good at these aspects.

"Blazing Fire Technique!"

With a low shout, a ball of blazing fire condensed in the void, transforming into a stream of fire that struck the vent on the beast's abdomen with pinpoint accuracy.

boom.

The beast was severely injured and let out a painful howl. Its massive body crumbled inch by inch in the raging flames, eventually dissipating into countless blue specks of light.

Before Zhao Cheng'an could even catch his breath, another violent tremor struck the sea.

Then came the second head, and then the third head.

The monsters that appeared afterward were increasingly powerful, and their attacks became faster and faster.

Zhao Cheng'an's spiritual energy was rapidly depleted, and his meridians felt a dull, stinging pain, which slowed his movements, making him unable to keep up with the speed of the beast's attack.

But at that moment, another flash of inspiration struck him.

"Damn it, how could I have almost forgotten about that?"

He suddenly recalled the simplified spellcasting method that Ning Zixu had taught him on the immortal ship.

"Simplifying the edges of the runes will reduce some of their power, but it will increase casting speed again."

Zhao Cheng'an had a sudden inspiration and immediately did as instructed.

He forcibly dismantled the complex magical structure in his mind, retaining only the three core rune nodes.

"disease!"

A needle of ice, several times thinner than usual but almost twice as fast, shot out instantly and pierced the flying fish beast's eye with pinpoint accuracy.

Thanks to this simplified spellcasting method, Zhao Cheng'an managed to persist for two more rounds despite his spiritual energy being almost depleted.

Until, beneath the sea surface, a colossal, mountain-sized, armored tortoise, exuding a terrifying aura of late-stage Qi Refining, slowly emerged.

The spiritual energy within Zhao Cheng'an's body had been completely depleted.

He looked at the huge, dark shadow crashing down, a helpless, bitter smile on his face.

In the end, he collapsed.

It's black in front of you.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself no longer in the vast ocean, but standing once again in the spacious hall of the Xili Palace.

"Buzz!"

A soft white light slowly took shape in mid-air, eventually transforming into an exquisite white jade token, which gently floated into his palm.

Zhao Cheng'an looked down and saw that the front of the token had three large characters written in a vigorous and elegant seal script.

—A genius!

Zhao Chengan was slightly taken aback.

He has always been a simple, reserved, and taciturn person.

This evaluation was far more impressive than he had imagined.

"Looking at it this way, my grades shouldn't be too bad." Zhao Cheng'an breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself with a touch of smug satisfaction.

He put the token away and stepped out of the main hall.

Beside the trees outside the main hall, Xue Qing waited quietly as before. Not long after, the wooden door of the main hall was pushed open again, and Luo Qingyi and Ning Zixu walked out one after the other.

"It seems you did well in your studies."

Upon seeing Zhao Cheng'an and the others there, Luo Qingyi immediately smiled.

The group of people, like students checking answers after an exam in their previous lives, huddled together with curiosity and took out their newly acquired white jade tokens.

The word "genius" was written on Ning Zixu's token.

On Luo Qingyi's token, the words "Demon" were clearly written.

Zhao Cheng'an looked at the token in Luo Qingyi's hand that emitted a faint purple light, and then looked at the one in his own hand. He suddenly felt that his "super genius" grades were not as good as he had imagined.

Xue Qing walked over with a smile, his gaze sweeping over the three people's tokens.

Seeing the subtle expressions on their faces, he couldn't help but laugh and explained, "You don't need to be confused. The preliminary test at Tongming Mountain is graded in seven levels."

"Those so-called geniuses that are everywhere in the mundane world," are actually just average in our Tongming Mountain. Even among geniuses, there are differences."

Xue Qing pointed to the token in Ning Zixu's hand, "In the assessment results, 'genius' is ranked fifth, 'super genius' is ranked fourth, and Junior Sister Luo's 'monstrous talent' corresponds to the third."

Zhao Cheng'an was inwardly astonished. "As expected of the Golden Core lineage, they are truly impressive. Even a simple introductory test reveals their true capabilities."

Luo Qingyi puffed out her cheeks, somewhat unconvinced.

She considered herself exceptionally talented, possessing a water-based celestial spiritual root and having received the best education in her family since childhood, and had never slacked off in her cultivation.

Unexpectedly, in the preliminary assessment at Tongming Mountain, he only received the third-class "prodigy" rating.

This means that there are actually two whole levels above her.

Luo Qingyi felt somewhat unconvinced and couldn't help but ask, "Senior Brother Xue, what are the prices for the remaining two levels?"

Xue Qing smiled, his expression becoming more serious.

"This second rank is called 'Taoist Child'."

"That is, the so-called child of the Great Dao. Even someone with a heavenly spiritual root like Junior Sister Luo needs to cultivate and comprehend things after birth in order to step into the Dao."

"But Dao children are different. They are born with a breath of innate true spirit energy, and some even have primordial runes in their bodies at birth, and possess innate supernatural powers and techniques."

For them, cultivation was as simple and natural as eating and drinking for ordinary people; there were no bottlenecks before reaching the Foundation Establishment stage.

"As for the highest level, the first rank, it is called 'Seeing Alone'."

Xue Qing's eyes held a hint of longing as he continued, "This title comes from the idiom 'to see the unique after clear understanding.' Such people not only possess top-tier talent, but their comprehension is also unparalleled."

There was once a cultivator with exceptional talent who successfully established his foundation at the age of twenty-four and became an elder of his sect. Such talent and cultivation speed are extremely rare even in the entire East Sea Region.

"Even in our Tongming Mountain, which is a prestigious lineage of Golden Elixir Daoists, it is not uncommon for us to have no one who scores first-class for several consecutive years."

"However, there are quite a few people at the Dao Child level. Every year there are a few. For example, there are already two this year. One is Xiao Buqi from the Xiao family of Qingchuan, and the other is Tantai Mingyue from the East Sea, who is said to be a descendant of a true dragon."