41: Chapter 41, First Trial

After Su Qinghan's interlude, the menial assessment registration officially began.

The queue was very long, and Qi Yang waited for a full two hours before finally moving to the registration desk.

The person in charge of registration was a young Inner Sect Disciple wearing embroidered white robes.

He had the cultivation of the Qi Refining Tenth Layer, and his brows were filled with condescending arrogance.

Usually, this kind of Inner Sect Disciple felt that even glancing at an outer Sect menial Disciple would dirty his eyes.

"Name, age, cultivation, Spiritual Root!"

The Inner Sect Disciple did not even raise his head, quickly recording on the roster with a brush in his hand.

"This old man is Qi Yang, one hundred years old this year, Qi Condensation Third Layer, Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root."

Qi Yang hunched his waist and replied in a hoarse voice.

Snap.

The brush in the Inner Sect Disciple's hand dropped directly onto the table.

He suddenly raised his head, looking at Qi Yang like a monster, his young Face filled with disgust and mockery.

"One hundred years old? Qi Condensation Third Layer? Still a trash with a Five-Element Mixed Spiritual Root?"

The Inner Sect Disciple laughed out of extreme anger and slammed the table hard.

"Old thing, have you gone senile! This is the inner Sect menial selection! Not a shelter! What are you, a piece of trash whose body is half-buried in the dirt, coming over here to meddle in this excitement? Get lost immediately! Don't dirty my eyes!"

The outer Sect menial Disciples waiting in line around them also burst into jeers, pointing and gesturing at Qi Yang.

In their view, Qi Yang was simply having pipe dreams, a toad lusting after a swan's meat.

Facing the pressure and angry scolding of the Qi Refining Tenth Layer Inner Sect Disciple, Qi Yang did not get scared into kneeling and begging for mercy like the other menial Disciples.

He raised his head without servility or overbearingness, his turbid old eyes looking straight at that Inner Sect Disciple, and unhurriedly pulled out a red sandalwood plaque engraved with the four characters "Special Grade Herb Garden" from his bosom, slapping it onto the registration table with a smack.

"This Senior Brother, although this old man is a piece of trash, this token was personally bestowed by Great Elder Li Changyuan of the Outer Sect."

Qi Yang's voice was not loud, but it clearly spread all around.

"Article seventy-two of the Sect rules explicitly states that anyone holding a Special Grade Herb Garden jade token possesses absolute autonomy and enjoys the priority participation right in all public assessments of the Sect!"

Qi Yang pointed at the jade token on the table, a cold sneer pulling at the corner of his mouth.

"As an inner Sect elite, Senior Brother wouldn't even fail to understand the Sect rules, right? Or is it that Senior Brother feels your Face is bigger than Great Elder Li's rules?"

As soon as these words came out, the audience was dead silent!

The mockery on that Inner Sect Disciple's Face froze, turning instead into a shade of green and white.

He stared fixedly at the jade token on the table symbolizing Great Elder Li Changyuan's authority, his back molars grinding with a clicking sound.

Of course he knew this token!

Not long ago, Great Elder Li Changyuan's grandson Li Ao was crippled, and Great Elder Li Changyuan was on the verge of going mad; who would dare to provoke his bad luck at this time?

Let alone an ordinary Inner Sect Disciple like him, even an Inner Sect Elder would not dare to flagrantly violate the rules set by Great Elder Li Changyuan!

"Good! Very good! Old thing, you dare to use Great Elder Li to suppress me!"

The Inner Sect Disciple trembled with anger, but he was utterly helpless.

Gritting his teeth, he picked up the brush, made a fierce stroke on the roster, and wrote Qi Yang's name down.

"Take your number tag and get inside for the assessment!"

The Inner Sect Disciple smashed a wooden plaque onto Qi Yang's body, his gaze venomous to the extreme.

"I'd like to see how many incense sticks a trash with a Qi Condensation Third Layer Spiritual Root like you can survive in the assessment!"

"Thank you, Senior Brother, for your fulfillment."

Qi Yang steadily caught the wooden plaque, patted the dust off it, and slowly turned to walk towards the assessment area.

Looking at Qi Yang's hunched yet exceptionally steady back, the Inner Sect Disciple was so angry he almost vomited blood.

He swore that once the assessment started, he would definitely make the people inside properly "take care" of this reckless old thing!

The first stage of the inner Sect menial assessment was set in an open space behind the outer Sect square.

Hundreds of menial Disciples who obtained number tags were brought here.

In the center of the open space, discarded Spiritual Plants piled up like a small mountain, emitting a pungent, foul stench.

These Spiritual Plants were originally precious grade 2 medicinal herbs, but at this moment they were all withered and black, and their surfaces were even covered with a layer of nauseating gray mucus.

The person in charge of this stage of assessment was an Inner Sect Spirit Plant House Steward wearing a cyan robe.

This person was named Steward Zhang Tong. Although he looked ordinary, the spiritual power fluctuations emanating from his body were incomparably thick, impressively a powerhouse of the Qi Refining Twelfth Layer!

Steward Zhang Tong carried his hands behind his back, his cold and sharp gaze sweeping across all the menial Disciples present, and his voice sounded like a giant bell.

"The first stage of assessment: process the polluted Spiritual Plants sent from the waste pill room!"

"These grade 2 Spiritual Plants were contaminated by the composite poisonous miasma that exploded inside the Pill Furnace during Alchemy failures."

"Your task is to completely strip away the toxins on these Spiritual Plants within the time of one incense stick, and restore their original medicinal properties! Those whose purity reaches sixty percent pass! Those who fail are directly eliminated!"

As soon as these words were spoken, all the menial Disciples present instantly gasped a breath of cold air.

Strip away the composite poisonous miasma? This was simply making things difficult for others!

Common sense in the Cultivation World was that the Spiritual Root attribute determined the nature of the spiritual power within a Cultivator's body. The geniuses with Dual Spiritual Roots and Three Spiritual Roots had incomparably pure spiritual power within them.

If they encountered toxins of a single attribute, they could still forcibly expel them with spiritual power.

But the composite poisonous miasma contained five types of violent toxicities of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth. Once it entered the body, it would frantically destroy the Meridians, making it utterly impossible to guard against!

"How is this possible to achieve? We don't even dare to touch them, how can we strip away the toxins?"

"This is deliberately making things difficult for us!"

The menial Disciples complained bitterly, but forced by the pressure of the Qi Refining Twelfth Layer powerhouse, no one dared to protest loudly.

"Begin!"

Steward Zhang Tong let out a cold shout, and a stick of incense was ignited.

The menial Disciples could only brace themselves and step forward, each grabbing a handful of polluted Spiritual Plants to begin processing.

Soon, screams rang out one after another.

"Ah!!! My hand!"

A Qi Condensation 6th Layer menial Disciple attempted to use fire-type spiritual power to forcibly burn away the poisonous miasma on the Spiritual Plants.

As a result, as soon as the fire-type spiritual power made contact, that composite poisonous miasma acted as if it had met a catalyst, drilling along his palm into his Meridians!

His entire arm turned black and ulcerated at a speed visible to the naked eye, hurting him so much that he rolled all over the ground and screamed repeatedly.

"Idiot! The composite poisonous miasma has all the Five Elements. Using a single spiritual power to go head-to-head is simply courting death!"

Steward Zhang Tong let out a cold hum, waved his hand, and several law enforcement Disciples immediately stepped forward to drag the screaming menial Disciple out.

With this previous lesson before them, the remaining menial Disciples were all scared out of their wits and no longer dared to use spiritual power, only able to wash with the most primitive clean water or roast with Mortal fire.

But these Mortal methods were completely useless against the composite poisonous miasma of the Cultivation World.

Time passed bit by bit, and emotions of despair spread across the open space.

Meanwhile, Qi Yang, squatting in the corner, almost couldn't help laughing out loud.

"Composite poisonous miasma? This is simply heaven sending me rations!"

Qi Yang lowered his head, greedy light flashing in his turbid old eyes.

Others feared this composite poisonous miasma like venomous snakes and scorpions because their Spiritual Roots were pure and unable to be compatible with the Five Elements.

But who was Qi Yang? He was a Mixed Spiritual Root with all Five Elements!

Inside his Dantian was a perfect Five Elements Grindstone that could grind all Five Elements forces to pieces!

Qi Yang unhurriedly grabbed more than a dozen grade 2 purple-leaf orchids from that pile of discarded Spiritual Plants.

He did not foolishly use spiritual power to directly force out the toxins like others, but instead feigned a clumsy appearance, condensing a weak water ball in his left hand and a dim flame in his right hand, beginning to slowly roast and wash the Spiritual Plants using the alternating water-fire method.

On the surface, this was completely a blind cat running into a dead mouse kind of peasant trick, comical to the extreme.

But in reality, under the cover of his wide sleeves, the Five Poisons Nourishing Spirit Art inside Qi Yang's body had already frantically operated to the extreme!

He transformed that weak Five-Element spiritual power into countless invisible threads, silently piercing into the interior of the Spiritual Plants.

As soon as those terrifying composite poisonous miasmas made contact with Qi Yang's spiritual power threads, it was like hungry wolves encountering fatty meat, frantically drilling along the threads into Qi Yang's body!

"Come right on!"

Qi Yang roared wildly in his heart.

As the poisonous miasma entered his body, it was filtered once by the medicinal power of the grade 2 wuxiang pill in an instant, and then heavily smashed into the Five Elements Grindstone in his Dantian!

Under the frantic crushing of the grindstone, the five violent toxicities of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth were forcibly stripped and fused, finally transforming into wisps of incomparably pure dark green Poison Wood Spiritual Power, merging into the depths of the sealed Qi Sea!

Refreshing! So refreshing!

Qi Yang felt that he was like a parched sponge, frantically absorbing nutrients.