116: Chapter 116 The Assessment Ends

In the blink of an eye, the day before the assessment ended arrived.

Deep within a hidden space a thousand miles underground, after many days of secluded cultivation, Lin Qing had successfully brought his Origin Visualization Method to Perfection, joining the automatic operation of his larger cultivation system.

Finishing his practice, Lin Qing slowly rose to his feet, his gaze falling once again upon the world core quietly floating in the center of the space.

At this moment, even the composed Lin Qing felt a rare trace of nervousness in his heart.

Aside from the first few months when he first embarked on the path of cultivation, it had been a long time since he had felt such anxiety—a mix of anticipation and apprehension.

The object before him was simply too unique; after all, it was the root of an independent world, containing the Origin Dao essence of an entire realm.

Taking a deep breath, Lin Qing cleared his mind of distracting thoughts and adjusted his state to its Peak, slowly extending his right hand toward the world core before him.

He was no longer as defenseless as he had been over ten days ago. At this moment, his muscles were tense, his Spiritual Qi was spread out in layers, and his Physical Body, Meridians, and Divine Soul were all on high alert.

At the same time, he mobilized the Spiritual Qi that he had refined over the past dozen days through the continuous operation of his seventh-rank Cultivation Technique, gathering it onto his right hand.

Finally, amidst the tense atmosphere, Lin Qing's right hand touched the surface of the world core.

However, the terrifying impact he had anticipated did not come; he simply and calmly grasped the world core in his hand.

A flicker of astonishment flashed in Lin Qing's eyes.

"Are you trying to mess with me?"

After a moment of confusion, countless clues connected in his mind, and he suddenly understood.

The five-colored spiritual light radiating from this world core was clearly the pure power of the Five Elements.

Perhaps because the quality of the spiritual energy was too high and too pure, it had been unable to be absorbed by the Cultivation Technique automatically running within his body, which had caused him to overlook such an obvious characteristic.

Now, with his right hand also covered in Five Elements spiritual energy, the world core no longer erupted with any repulsive reaction. Instead, it became incredibly docile, like a wanderer returning home, gently clinging to Lin Qing's fingertips without the slightest resistance.

With the treasure successfully in his grasp, a brand-new problem arose before Lin Qing: how to take it away?

Without needing to think, a treasure of this level had long surpassed the category of ordinary spiritual materials and could absolutely not be contained or borne by an ordinary Storage Ring.

Lin Qing had even taken out a Storage Ring from an ordinary Demon Court Disciple to conduct an experiment. As expected, the moment they made contact, the Storage Ring instantly shattered, and the various miscellaneous items inside scattered all over the ground.

He did have a Divine-Grade Storage Ring given to him by his Revered Master, Jue Chenzi, which was of a higher grade and had a more stable space.

But this ring was incomparably precious; not only was its space immense, but it also had the functions of concealment and summoning others.

The world core was too overbearing. Once the containment failed and the Divine-Grade Storage Ring was also burst open, it would be a truly heavy loss, so he dared not try it lightly.

"Could it be that, just like in novels, I have to take it directly into my body?"

Lin Qing frowned, feeling conflicted.

To be honest, he was extremely reluctant to adopt this method of storage. Having the Origin of heaven and earth reside within his body carried unknown risks and unpredictable hidden dangers. A slight carelessness could lead to the Origin energy scouring his Meridians, disrupting his Dantian, and destroying his Foundation.

Compared to risking storage in his Physical Body, he would even prefer to risk trying his Revered Master's ring.

Just as he was frowning and deep in thought, unable to make a decision, the world core in his palm seemed to possess a spirit of its own. The soft five-colored flowing light dissolved, drilled into his palm, circulated through his limbs and bones, and finally settled into his Dantian spiritual sea.

"Well, at least I don't have to worry about that anymore."

Feeling no discomfort, Lin Qing's heart relaxed, and he immediately focused his internal vision.

He saw that within his Dantian, his Spirit Pill was still firmly entrenched in the center of the spiritual sea, constantly condensing and growing larger.

And that five-colored world core was floating very obediently above the Spirit Pill, rotating and sinking slowly without haste.

It did not seize control of the spiritual sea, did not impact the Foundation of the Spirit Pill, and did not disrupt the operation of his Spiritual Qi.

Not only was it extremely well-behaved, but the world core also emitted wisps of Five Elements spiritual energy, with its intensity deliberately controlled, slowly merging into his Spirit Pill.

Lin Qing clearly perceived that his own cultivation efficiency had greatly increased, directly being pushed to the upper limit of what he could currently bear.

Now, even without the blessing of the Chuyun Immortal Sect's Spirit Gathering Array, he could break through the shackles and promote to the eighth rank within about a year. Of course, with the Spirit Gathering Array's blessing, this progress would not speed up further, because he had already reached the limit.

Although he also knew that this overflowing Five Elements spiritual energy was merely a side effect of the world core, and as his cultivation increased, or in situations where it was not participating in the circulation of heaven and earth, the world core's spiritual energy would be exhausted, and this boost would eventually gradually decrease or even disappear for him.

But even so, in the current situation, this was already a massive Opportunity, and the true function of the world core had yet to be developed.

With the world core successfully collected, Lin Qing moved, once again using his Evasion Technique to penetrate the thousand miles of rock layer and return to the surface, quietly waiting for the end of this assessment.

Although he knew that taking away the Origin of the Secret Realm would definitely have a huge impact on this world, Lin Qing was confident that the benefits he could bring to the Chuyun Immortal Sect in the future would definitely be greater than a Secret Realm that could only be used for assessment.

The time for all outsiders to enter the Secret Realm could only last for one month. This was also one of the rules of this independent Secret Realm. Once the time limit was reached, no matter where they were or what they were doing, they would be forcibly teleported away.

Time passed slowly, and the Prodigies in the Secret Realm reached their time limits one after another. One figure after another was ejected, returning to the outside plaza.

Lin Qing raised his hand to recall the spherical Magical Artifact he had previously placed in the high altitude of the Secret Realm for full-area monitoring.

Their batch of Immortal Sect Disciples were the last to enter the Secret Realm, so naturally, they would be the last to be ejected.

Finally, the one-month assessment time limit reached zero.

The scene before his eyes instantly blurred and twisted, and then Lin Qing's figure reappeared on the central plaza of Chuyun City.

No one knew that with his departure, this assessment Secret Realm, which had existed for ten thousand years, was quietly ushering in its final decline.

Having lost the support of the world core, the vitality of the entire Secret Realm was rapidly passing away.

The originally lush green leaves were withering at a speed visible to the naked eye; the blooming flowers were rapidly shriveling and wilting; the lively fish in the rivers were also moving more and more slowly, turning over their bellies; and the rich Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth was also slowly dissipating and thinning.

It was just that this process was extremely slow, and relying on the remaining Origin resonance between heaven and earth, the Secret Realm could barely survive for a period of time.

And this change might only be noticed after ten years, when the Chuyun Immortal Sect opened the entrance assessment again.

On the outside plaza, the Divine Artifact Spirit Mirror floating high in the sky was not withdrawn.

This Divine Artifact was specially refined for the assessment. In addition to real-time monitoring of the Secret Realm scenes, it also had the function of publicly displaying the assessment point rankings.

Point submission platforms had long been built all over the plaza, and the Prodigies who had successively left the Secret Realm stepped forward to verify their points.

Every time someone finished submitting, the high-altitude Spirit Mirror would display the relevant information and refresh the rankings in real-time. Finally, the top five thousand Disciples of the assessment would obtain the qualification to join the Chuyun Immortal Sect.

"Yang Tao, Spirit Realm, points 97956, age twenty-eight, final score 6765."

"Wang Jin, Mortal Realm, points 9531, age twenty-seven, final score 2382."

Because Spirit Realm Cultivators had much higher combat power than Mortal Realm, there were subtle differences in the point calculation rules for Spirit Realm and Mortal Realm Cultivators. But overall, it also followed the rule that the higher the cultivation level and the younger the age, the higher the comprehensive score.

Countless people looked up at the leaderboard, some happy and some sad.

Just as the leaderboard continued to refresh and the rankings constantly changed, a familiar name suddenly rushed to the top of the list, instantly igniting the entire venue!

"Sun Shaoping, Mortal Realm, points 25791, age twenty-one, final score 12895!"

This score was terrifying. Although only about one-tenth of the people had been counted, even if he was surpassed later, with such a terrifying score, Sun Shaoping stepping into the Chuyun Immortal Sect was already a certainty, without any suspense.