Chapter 84: Aptitude and ability

——(POV third person)——

As they were moving in numbers, they could map the place easier so they did just that. With this, they also could detect large beasts faster and were able to avoid them. Li Huang and Hu Anjing know what this formation meant to the sect, so even a second loss here could mean a second that another group could find the formation.

It didn't take long and in only 4 hours they were in front of the massive formation. The formation was located in a cave, right after its entrance. The cave was probably a lava tube, which is formed by volcanic activities but the team didn't need to explore it so they didn't investigate.

"Okay, we rest a little here until all of us are in fighting shape." Hu Anjing said as she stood in front of the formation. The disciple that Cai ZhenKang had beaten was getting better very fast as Li Huang donated more pills to him, but he still needed an hour or two more to completely get back on his feet.

Hu Anjing Looked at Li Huang and sent him a sound transmission.

~'Do we distribute pills to everyone?'~ she asked as she wasn't sure if it was a good idea.

~'Yes, it is important that everyone is in their top form all the time so I don't think the sect would have any problem paying us for those pills…'~ Li Huang said. He know that the sect wouldn't have a problem with that, these are just necessary expenses.

Hu Anjing nodded to his words.

"Before we start, each of you has to get some pills from junior sister Ye Ling so get in line." She said and with the help of Li Huang, they decided on a reasonable portion of the pills for each person, and soon everybody had enough pills to come back from death's door.

Li Huang used only a tiny bit of his reserves here as he had multiple storage rings of pills as backups.

'Now no one can say that I brought them with me for nothing.' Li Huang was happy about the massive storage that he has with him.

…

One hour later, Hou Junxiong was good to go and the team was ready to enter this formation.

As they stepped on the formation they all got to know how many points were needed for the formation to activate. It needed one million points to open.

"Does everyone have 100,000 points?" Li Huang asked other disciples. It didn't take long for him to know that many of them didn't have enough points.

Luckily the trio of Li Huang, Hu Anjing, and Ye Ling gained enough points from giant giant apes that they could easily put in the required points.

After the 1,000,000 points were deducted, the formation glowed for a second, and all ten disciples of the heavenly sword sect disappeared from the cave.

…

All the disciples were gathered inside the test location. It was a simple room with one large pillar at the end of it.

"Let's go toward the pillar with vigilance." Hu Anjing said and everyone else nodded.

As they got closer to the pillar, suddenly a ghost-like figure appeared that made everyone other than Li Huang and Hu Anjing, alert. They didn't panic as they have seen such a thing before in the formation that they have gone to recently.

This ghost-like old man waited for a second and after that spoke.

"Welcome. In this test, you will test your innate talent or aptitude. Regardless of how you score, you will pass this test but higher scores result in harder tests but better fortune. " He explained this round's test.

"To test your aptitude, all you have to do is to simply touch the pillar, and the number of stars that will light up show your result." The old man said and vanished like how he suddenly appeared.

'This old man really likes to act all mysterious…' Li Huang thought.

The disciples decided to touch the pillar in the same order that they were selected.

Hu Anjing went up and touched the pillar without any hesitation. The stars slowly lit one after another until all ten stars were shining.

She got back from the pillar as she eyed Li Huang.

~'what do you think?'~ she asked with pride.

~'Even I could say that you are a ten.'~ Li Huang didn't play her game and answered her playfully.

Before she could hit Li Huang, he got close to the pillar to test his aptitude.

'The fact that it has only ten grades shows that there is an upper limit to this device.' Li Huang thought.

Putting his hands on the pillar, the stars started lighting up slowly.

One star… four stars… nine stars… ten stars.

Li Huang got back as he send Hu Anjing a sound transmission.

~'Apparently I'm a ten too.'~ He said.

Hu Anjing used all her willpower to stop herself from punching Li Huang in front of others.

Now it was Ye Ling's turn and she got nine stars.

After that others also went up. Dai Bao got eight, Lai Xinyue got nine and it was Jin Fen's turn.

He looked at Lai Xinyue for a second and then frowned at Li Huang and walked toward the pillar.

Taking a breath, he put his hand on the surface of the pillar and the stars started shining.

One star…one star… still one star.

The next stars didn't shine at all, meaning that Jin Fen's aptitude was only one.

Dai Bao snickered and used this chance to humiliate Jin Fen.

Li Huang narrowed his eyes at this revelation.

'I mean he has a trashy personality but he is not trash. So it only leaves one possibility…' Li Huang analyzed this and didn't like what he got to know.

'Huh, so one star. Fine by me, the sun is one star too but is the brightest.' Jin Fen smirked and using his unimpeachable logic used the sun as a metaphor.

If earth's scientists come to know this, they could experience firsthand how does one coughs up blood.

Even Li Huang who didn't know what was going on inside Jin Fen's head, was surprised when Jin Fen looked confident instead of heartbroken when he got away from the pillar.

After that, all the other disciples also finished this test with 71 points out of 100 possible points.

When all of them were done with the test, a portal opened at the end of the room.

"Enter this portal to get to the next test." The old man only talked this time and didn't show himself.

They all entered the portal now that they had the confirmation to do so.

In the next room, the style was the same, just that the pillar was bigger.

The old man entered the scene again.

"This test is is on ones ability. It shows how strong you are when it comes to using that innate talent of yours." The old man said.

"For this test, all you have to do is to punch the pillar as hard as you can and you will be graded again from one to ten." The old man said and faded into the floor.

'I can swear I have seen something like this.' Li Huang thought but couldn't put his finger on it.

Hu Anjing was the first one again. As she was going in front of the pillar, Li Huang send her a sound transmission.

~'Just don't break it.'~ He said.

Hu Anjing didn't answer him and just punched the pillar with her full power.

Even before the full force of the impact was felt, the device was showing the number 10.

After that Li Huang went up and tested himself.

He punched with his full force and although it was weaker than Hu Anjing's punch, he still got 10.

After him, Ye Ling went and also scored 10.

Others went and Bao Bao got 5 while Lai Xinyue got 6.

The confident Jin Fen also went up and punched using his [Evil God transformation] technique and also got a 10.

'Now tell me if I have only one star.' Jin Fen thought to himself and missed the whole point of this test. It didn't mean that all 10 stars are equal, it showed how much of your 'aptitude' you are using, so his ten showed that he is using all of his 1 star aptitude potential.

Regardless of how Jin Fen thought, this test finished with a total of 65 points.