Chapter 4

C4 – Top Talent

“Wang Shan!” The Test Officer called out the name with a sense of resignation, eager to wrap up the testing process.

​Wang Shan strode confidently toward the Divine Stone, ignoring the murmurs of the crowd. He placed his right hand on the stone, and before the Test Officer could even think of tampering with the results, the stone flashed blue—a startling transformation that occurred in less than a second before shifting to a brilliant purple hue.

This spectacle silenced all the skeptics in the room. When Zhang Bao was tested, the purple lasted merely a second. But now, five minutes into Wang Shan’s test, the purple on the Divine Stone not only persisted but shone even more intensely.

“What in the world is happening?” The Test Officer, who had dismissed Wang Shan as a nobody reliant on nepotism to pass, was dumbfounded. Wang Shan had just demonstrated a level of talent that was exponentially greater than Zhang Bao’s—by a factor of a hundred thousand.

“My boy is truly extraordinary!” Wang Tianxia exclaimed, equally astonished by the turn of events.

​The audience, witnessing the test, was left in awe. They had never before seen such a display of prowess. But the show was far from over. The purple light vanished from the Divine Stone, only to be replaced by a color they had never seen before: gold.

​The sight of the golden hue sent shivers down the spines of the assembled Two-star Experts. “How is this possible? Golden talent is one in a million!” they murmured among themselves.

Life-and-death challenges were not uncommon in this world.

Once issued, a challenge could not be declined.

Wang Shan gazed down at Zhang Bao with a smirk. “Come on up if you’re not scared of dying.”

Zhang Bao was convinced that Wang Shan’s test success was nothing but the result of cheating.

“How could someone like you, who’s been unable to cultivate since childhood, suddenly manifest such talent? It has to be cheating! I’ll expose the truth once I defeat you on that stage and show everyone who you really are.”

Full of confidence, Zhang Bao ascended the challenge stage, determined to put an end to Wang Shan.

“You’re nothing but garbage! Prepare to die!” Zhang Bao gritted his teeth as he activated the Water Condensing Arts throughout his body.

His form shimmered with undulating water, and the air around him was thick with a potent aura of menace.

Remarkably, Zhang Bao had mastered a technique that only One-star Cultivators were capable of learning.