Chapter 509 - Team Up

“Next,” the senior disciple said again. Seeing Xiao Chen standing still, he frowned slightly, seemingly to be a little impatient.

“Oh.” Xiao Chen came back to his senses. At this moment, he had already thought of a solution, but he didn’t know if it was useful. Without haste, he calmly walked up to them. Meanwhile, his Divine Sense had probed into the inside of the Spiritual Meridian Test Stone.

After that, he put one palm on the palm print just as normally like others, but the Spiritual Meridian Test Stone made no response. In fact, as he had expected, the Spiritual Meridian Test Stone could not show light beams quickly once it detected something strange about his Spiritual Meridians.

At this point, Xiao Chen immediately injected a stream of Mystic Power into the Spiritual Meridian Test Stone. With his current cultivation and Divine Sense, he could trick a small Spiritual Meridian Test Stone without anybody knowing it.

By using the Mystic Power, he quickly sealed the 12 small channels leading to the top of the Spiritual Meridian Test Stone. Then, a burst of spirit energy rushed out from each of his five fingers, went through the channels above, and turned into five beams of light. Of course, they were fakes, though the five beams of light were indeed pure white. Seeing such an amusing scene, everyone around couldn’t repress their smiles, and eventually, they all burst into laughter.

At this moment, the faces of the two Elders who were in charge of the Spiritual Meridian Test became extremely ugly. They thought, “He only has five Spiritual Meridians. Well, it is no big deal, but these five beams of light with different lengths and thicknesses are not the same at all. They simply look like clowns among all the other Spiritual Meridians.”

“He… His Spiritual Meridians are excessively short and small. Hahaha!” Finally, some people couldn’t help bursting their sides with laughter. They had no malicious intentions. It was just that these five uneven and short light beams of Spiritual Meridians looked really funny.

Some young girls also stared at the five light beams on the Spiritual Meridian Test Stone as if they were looking at something fresh and interesting. They covered their mouths with smiles and said, “They are indeed small and short. I’ve never seen such short and small Spiritual Meridians before. Puff!”

These girls were somewhat pure, so they didn’t understand the hidden meaning in the “short and small” said by those male disciples when they teased Xiao Chen. Therefore, the girls didn’t blush a little when they repeated these words.

But being a quite bashful man, Xiao Chen felt a little embarrassed at the moment. He exerted more strength and rose the five beams of light a little higher. However, because his spirit energy was unstable, these beams kept flickering, which made more people laugh out loud. “Look! They can even dance. Haha!”

This time, all the people here roared with laughter. Even the two Elders ran the Spiritual Meridian Test, who originally wore ugly looks, felt a little amused. They had never seen such funny Spiritual Meridians after living so many years.

But the senior disciple next to the Spiritual Meridian Test Stone, who was in charge of the Spiritual Meridian Test, did not laugh. He looked serious and said, “Well, Junior Brother, you can go down…” “Puff!” In the end, he could no longer hold back his laughter and burst with laughing, holding his sides.

After laughing for a while, he looked up again and said seriously, “Sorry, I mean no harm. You can go down…” At the end of his words, he almost burst into tears because of trying not to laugh.

Xiao Chen frowned a little. “Am I that funny? Are these people out of their minds?” Just as he was about to leave, the Elder on the left suddenly stopped him. “Wait, show me your jade note of place in the academy.”

Obviously, this Elder began to doubt if Xiao Chen got his place by some dishonest means.

Helplessly, Xiao Chen took out the jade note and handed it to him. After the Elder felt the information in it for a while, a strange look flashed in his eyes. Then he returned the jade note to Xiao Chen and said, “All right. You can go back now.”

Xiao Chen walked back to the crowd and looked at Chu Qi next to him. He frowned and asked, “Is it that funny?”

Chu Qi was still expressionless and remained silent, standing there still like an iceberg. However, after a while, she couldn’t help laughing a little. A trace of smile flashed across her face, but the next moment, she became an iceberg again.

Xiao Chen was instantly stunned. “I made this icy beauty smile a little. It seems that I performed successfully.” Not far away, Jiang Qianqian’s eyebrows were slightly furrowed. She thought to herself, “He has the cultivation of the Nirvana Realm. How is it possible that he only has five Spiritual Meridians?”

After the Spiritual Meridian Test, the more than five hundred new disciples followed their Senior Brother to the next location. Before the gorge, there were only two Elders who were in charge of the test left. The Elder on the left side frowned deeply and said, “I just found out that the information in his jade note was left behind by Perfected Immortal Chongyang. That is to say, Perfected Immortal Chongyang selected Xiao Chen.”

“Is that true?” The Elder on the right was clearly very surprised. He muttered to himself, “How could the Perfected Immortal Chongyang choose this person with such a poor aptitude?”

“That’s why I found it very strange.” With this, the Elder on the left looked at the Spiritual Meridian Test Stone. “There shouldn’t be any problems with the Spiritual Meridian Test Stone…”

The elder on the right narrowed his eyes and walked toward the Spiritual Meridian Test Stone. He put his palm on it and immediately sensed a trace of Mystic Power that remained there. His face suddenly changed, and he said, “That guy has done something to the stone!”

“What did you say?!” The expression of the Elder on the left also changed. In a hurry, he walked over and placed his palm on the Spiritual Meridian Test Stone. As expected, he also felt a little fluctuation of the remaining Mystic Power in it.

The expressions of them changed drastically. “The inside of this Spiritual Meridian Test Stone is extremely exquisite. How could an ordinary disciple’s Divine Sense probe into it? Moreover, he could do it secretly under our eyes without us noticing it. This kid…”

The backs of two Elders were covered with cold sweat. Meanwhile, they looked in the direction in which the new disciples left. The Elder on the left murmured, “This is our dereliction of duty. We can’t tell anyone about it. If the matter is exposed in the future, Perfected Immortal Chongyang should be the one to take the blame. After all, he chose this guy…”

About 30 minutes later, all the new disciples arrived at an empty valley, which was surrounded by mountains. Although it was late autumn, there were red flowers and green trees around. Groups of butterflies danced trippingly. In the distance, there was a clear, gurgling spring flowing. Even the water of the spring got some of the Mist Mountain’s Spiritual Qi. After those ordinary people living along the lower stretch of the spring drank the water, they could even enjoy longer lives with fewer illnesses.

The Spiritual Qi here was already abundant. Compared to many other places in the Wastelands, it was a relatively good place. Many newcomers here felt very relaxed and happy. It was not that they had never been to such a place with abundant Spiritual Qi, but they felt that even the Spiritual Qi in the flower valley at the foot of the Mist Mountain was so rich, the Spiritual Qi at the top of the mountain must be much thicker. For a moment, many people became more attracted to the Cloud Mist Academy that was well within reach now.

Xiao Chen also nodded in his heart. “Just in a flower valley at the foot of the mountain, the Spiritual Qi is more abundant than it is in the places of some sects in the Violet Manor. The Cloud Mist Academy deserves its reputation. No wonder so many people dream of entering it.” He also began to look forward to entering it. However, he saw only a tip of the Cloud Mist Academy’s iceberg.

A Senior Brother stood up and clapped his hands, saying, “Well, everyone, be quiet. Next are the tests set up by the three Perfected Immortals. All of you need to pass these tests by yourselves. You have to arrive at Mountainside Square before the sunset tomorrow. Otherwise, you fail the test and have to take it once again in September next year. If you fail again at that time, you will be expelled from the Cloud Mist Academy.”

Another Senior Brother added, “I know that some of you have reached the Nascent Soul Realm, but please don’t try to fly on your sword. After all, the restrictions made by the three Perfected Immortals are not so easy to break. There will be many formation traps along the way. Besides, there are fierce beasts in the illusory land. Our Cloud Mist Academy is not a shelter, so we don’t want the weak. Some places are very cruel, which may threaten your lives. If some of you want to give up, you can leave now.”

The crowd began to talk about it, and many people felt uneasy, especially the girl of 16 or 17 years old. However, they had strived hard to get the places of this academy, so they had to give it a shot even if they would face the most dangerous places in the world.

After the few Senior Brothers made sure that there was no objection, one of them said, “Well, then you can freely form your teams with a maximum of 20 people in each team. Remember, from the moment you left this valley, each act of all of you will be recorded by the Spiritual Formation, including how many fierce beasts you have killed, how many formations you have broken, and finally how much time you have spent. All of these are related to your future. Therefore, you should try your best to get better results as long as you can keep your lives.”

After listening to the speech, the new disciples immediately began to team up. Of course, instead of forming a team, they were looking for a team to join in. Most of them were very young, about 16 or 17 years old. Although they were talented, their current cultivation was no better than the students in their twenties. Therefore, the majority of them, who were still in the Core Forming Realm, looked at the few Nascent Soul Realm cultivators with their pleading eyes, hoping that any one of them could allow them to join in.

Jiang Qianqian had reached the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, plus she had a beautiful face. Thus, most people rushed up to team up with her. Of course, these were people in the Nascent Soul Realm. Jiang Qianqian would never choose to team up with people below the Nascent Soul Realm. She would not even look at the people in the early stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

The reality was cruel. After today, they would be brothers and sisters of the same sect. But this test was related to whether they could be valued in the future, so no one was willing to take weak ones with them. Therefore, no matter how talented these new disciples who were still in the Core Forming Realm were, they were still burdens even if they might reach the Nascent Soul Realm or the Nirvana Realm within three years. No one was willing to team up with them in this test now.

Moments later, the Nascent Soul Realm cultivators had formed their teams. Though reluctant, some of them took in a few cultivators in the Core Forming Realm. Now, there still left some Core Forming Realm cultivators standing on the spot, not knowing what to do next. Regardless of their pleading or pitiful gazes, none of those Nascent Soul Realm cultivators were willing to leave their teams to lead them now. After all, everyone was selfish.

The following test would be fraught with dangers. Any team without a single Nascent Soul Realm cultivator would be wiped out. There was no other possibility.

“Sister, can you lead us?”

At this time, a few young girls of sixteen or seventeen years old came up to Chu Qi and asked. They blinked their big watery eyes and looked at her pitifully.

These girls were pretty. In previous, they wanted Chu Qi to be their team leader. But seeing that Chu Qi was as cold as ice, they did not dare to talk to her. Now when they could not find anyone else to lead them, they had no choice but to come over to her.

Girls around 16 or 17 were the most adorable. Their delicate and touching looks could especially make people feel it reluctant to refuse them. Xiao Chen frowned a little and said, “Chu Qi, take them with you.”

Chu Qi nodded and looked at the group of newcomers who couldn’t find any team to join in. “All those below the Nascent Soul Realm come to my team. Females only.”

For a moment, all the girls rushed over, leaving the rest of the boys. With bitter faces, these boys even wanted to cry. Xiao Chen looked at them and said, “All you guys come to me.”