182: Chapter 182 The Assessment Begins

Another day passed, and thousands of people had already gathered in the plaza outside the mountain gate, with the number continuing to rise.

At a certain moment, seemingly because the number of people had reached a certain threshold, the entire mountain gate began to tremble.

The source was on the left. Everyone turned to look, and the massive mountain that had previously stood on the left side of the gate split down the middle amidst violent tremors.

The two sides of the mountain continued to move, the distance between them growing wider and wider, until they stopped after separating by several hundred zhang.

A jade staircase appeared in the middle of the mountain, about three hundred zhang wide, extending upwards from the plaza outside the mountain gate. The back half was hidden in the clouds and mist, impenetrable even by Divine Thought.

Subsequently, everyone saw the Spiritual Qi around the mountain begin to churn, eventually converging to form a Spiritual Qi giant nearly a hundred zhang tall.

The giant was lifelike, not much different from an actual Immortal Master. He wore a cyan Daoist robe, and his beard and hair were completely white. Although he wore a smile, his vacant eyes revealed that he did not possess much intelligence.

Everyone present was a knowledgeable Prodigy, and they easily discerned the true nature of the jade staircase and the Spiritual Qi giant.

The jade staircase was a Divine Artifact, likely appearing at this moment to conduct the entrance assessment, and the Spiritual Qi giant was the spirit of this staircase.

Divine Artifacts have spirits, but they do not possess much intelligence; they are more like a pre-set program.

The Spiritual Qi giant spoke in a clear, resonant voice that enveloped the entire plaza.

"Welcome, everyone, to the entrance assessment of the Kunxu Immortal Sect."

"You need to ascend the staircase before you and travel as high as possible. As long as you meet a certain standard, I will issue the corresponding identity token based on your performance."

"The tokens are divided into five grades: Utility Disciple, Outer Sect Disciple, Inner Sect Disciple, Personal Disciple, and the highest, Sequence Disciple."

Originally, the Kunxu Immortal Sect's assessment only opened once every few decades; this opening was not a coincidence of timing.

Rather, it had been exactly fifty thousand years since the assessment was last opened, and the gathering of so many people in the plaza had caused the Divine Artifact to misjudge that it was time to initiate the assessment.

"Now, the assessment begins!"

As soon as the Spiritual Qi giant gave the order, someone immediately rushed onto the staircase. Seeing that the first few people had no issues, others also began to climb.

Those who entered the Secret Realm this time were considered Prodigies in the outside world, so there was no situation where anyone was eliminated right at the start.

Lin Qing looked back at the Disciples of the Three Sects behind him. These Disciples were also looking at him with questioning eyes, and Lin Qing nodded at them.

"Go ahead."

Everyone swarmed up, and Lin Qing followed closely behind them, also beginning to climb the stairs.

As soon as they stepped onto the staircase, the Disciples felt a pressure descend upon them, and their steps involuntarily slowed down.

Although Lin Qing also felt the force, it had no effect on him, yet he still followed behind the crowd at a leisurely pace.

Although there were thousands of people here, it was still too small relative to the scale of the staircase, which was several hundred zhang wide. After all, the Kunxu Immortal Sect fifty thousand years ago could not have had only a few thousand people participating in an assessment; it was designed to accommodate hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people.

Thus, all the Cultivators in the plaza quickly climbed onto the steps. At first, there were people chatting and laughing, but as they climbed higher and the pressure gradually increased, everyone fell silent and climbed quietly.

Finally, half an hour later, the first person was ejected. The Spiritual Qi giant, which had been silent for a long time, spoke:

"Age: 195, Cultivation: Early Stage of the 8th Rank, Strength: 1 star, granted an Outer Sect Disciple token."

Then, a token flew out from the top of the staircase and landed precisely in the arms of the person who had returned to the plaza.

Although he was the first to be eliminated, being able to reach the 8th Rank before the age of two hundred was already quite impressive, so the starting point for this assessment was an Outer Sect Disciple.

With the first, the second soon followed.

"Age: 157, Cultivation: Early Stage of the 8th Rank, Strength: 1 star, granted an Outer Sect Disciple token."

Then, more and more people were eliminated. However, being ejected was not the only means of elimination; some people simply retreated a few steps under the pressure and also received an evaluation and a token.

Everyone gradually understood what the star rating for strength meant. Simply put, it was the strength of combat power within the same rank; under the same cultivation level, the higher the star rating, the stronger the combat power within that rank.

The batch of people ejected at the beginning were almost all at the Early Stage of the 8th Rank, so Ling Shu was also quickly ejected; after all, she had only entered the 8th Rank for a year.

"Age: 112, Cultivation: Early Stage of the 8th Rank, Strength: 2 stars, granted an Inner Sect Disciple token."

It seems that the issuance of this token is also related to age. The Disciples before and after Ling Shu only received Outer Sect Disciple tokens, while she received an Inner Sect one.

Their strength was not much different; the only difference was that Ling Shu had just turned one hundred, while those people were almost over one hundred and fifty.

Originally, these people could have left, but they did not. They wanted to wait for the assessment to end and see what kind of evaluation the top Prodigies who were famous across the Central Continent would receive.

Furthermore, there was little point in leaving. Most of them did not have maps and had no idea where the nearest places worth exploring were.

Even if some knew, the distance was too great. It would take them too long to get there, enough time for the higher-level Cultivators who would be eliminated later to catch up with them.

Ling Shu also did not leave, but chose a spot in the plaza to recover from the exhaustion caused by the pressure of the stone steps.

After a stick of incense, Cultivators at the Middle Stage of the 8th Rank began to be eliminated. A few more Disciples of the Three Sects had been eliminated before this, and they also went to join Ling Shu, sitting cross-legged in the plaza to wait.

By this time, the 8th Rank Early Stage Cultivators had not all been eliminated. Among the crowd of 1-star 8th Rank Middle Stage Cultivators, there were occasionally a few 6-star 8th Rank Early Stage Cultivators mixed in.

This indicated that those who obtained a 6-star strength rating possessed the ability to fight across ranks.

Time passed, the main group climbed higher and higher, and more and more people were eliminated.

"Age: 185, Cultivation: Late Stage of the 8th Rank, Strength: 3 stars, granted an Inner Sect Disciple token."

This was Mu Yao, and following closely behind her was Xue Ling.

"Age: 179, Cultivation: Late Stage of the 8th Rank, Strength: 3 stars, granted an Inner Sect Disciple token."

At this point, the Disciples of the Three Sects, except for Lin Qing, had all finished the assessment. Now, the only person Lin Qing knew around him was Yang Jingchuan.

The Three Sects naturally had a few people at the Peak of the 8th Rank who came, but they were all over two hundred years old and did not enter this Secret Realm.

After all the Disciples of the Three Sects were eliminated, Lin Qing did not intend to walk slowly anymore. They were currently in the main group, while a small portion of people had already disappeared into the clouds and mist above.