Chapter 55 Hope Or Despair?

Even though the Dark Moon Temple was a demonic sect, there were plenty of young cultivators willing to join the sect's ranks. It didn't matter if he was a genius from a wealthy clan or a cultivator from an ordinary family.

In addition to the annual sect selection in Tangxiang City, there was also a selection in the Temple of the Dark Moon itself. When the candidates at the Tangxiang City looked for the best option among all the sects, those who were joining through the selection process in the sect wanted only one thing.

To join the Temple of the Dark Moon.

In contrast to the selection in the city of Tangxiang, where people were selected on the basis of their cultivation base and only after their arrival in the sect did they find out their physique, here it was quite the opposite. It did not matter what cultivation level you were at, the most important factor in the selection was the physique.

There were many questions from both righteous and demonic sect members as to why there was such a presumably stupid rule, couldn't young geniuses who suppressed their peers by being several levels higher have an ordinary physique?

But the realization struck them quickly, it was too foolish to rely on the cultivation base, because it could be raised on pills or other methods which made them highly undesirable.

As in the case of Tangxiang, the selection for the Temple of the Dark Moon took place annually, and today was the day of that selection.

The central square of the sect.

"There's a lot of eager people," sighed the deacon.

Today was the last day of the selection process, but the number of people wishing to join the sect was still huge, it seemed as if with each passing day they did not decrease but increased instead, this was one of the advantages of the sect, which dominated not only among the demonic but even the righteous sects.

"The candidate whose name I am about to speak must touch this stele." - The deacon pointed to the stele next to him.

Unlike the usual steles where it showed the current cultivation level, this stele worked differently, it revealed the physique of the cultivator who touched it. It was impossible to find such steles in clans, as only the top sects have access to them, and the material to make them was extremely rare even for such sects.

In this world there were not even twenty such steles, and even if there were, they were worth more than their weight in gold, protecting them as best they could.

"Lu Xiang, normal rank physique. Not fit to join the sect."

"Wang Dinian, earthly rank physique. Fit to join the sect."

"Tu Fang, earth rank physique. Fit to…"

"Zhang Ya..." The deacon raised his eyebrows at this name.

He knew it was Elder Zhang's daughter and even though she was his daughter her physique was garbage to say the least, she came every year for testing and the result was the same every time.

"Heaven's not fair..." The deacon sighed, he and many of the high ranking members of the sect sincerely did not understand how she could have the physique of an ordinary rank, her mother and father had a heavenly rank physique and the daughter...

Even though her physique was trash compared to all the members of the sect she was not bullied and no one mocked her, even though she was trash, no one wanted to have a problem with her father, who was known to be one of the most ruthless elders in the sect.

Zhang Ya seemed not to notice their stares, which were filled with curiosity and pity, slowly approaching the stele, she put her palm on it.

"You can go at your-" The deacon tried the softest possible words for fear of her father's wrath, when suddenly his words got stuck in his throat.

As everyone knows, the higher the rank of the physique, the brighter the light will burn near the stele, if the physique was of normal rank, it did not light up at all, if of earthly rank, then it lit up a little bit, and if the heavenly...

At that moment, the entire square was illuminated by a bright light that clearly emanated from the stele.

"It can't be!" The deacon denied furiously, biting his tongue.

"A heavenly physique!" - Suddenly someone from the crowd exclaimed, leading to a huge crowd noise after his words.

Zhang Ya seemed not at all surprised by her result, there was no shock, as if her life as a cultivator did not depend on it but was just an ordinary walk. Smiling slightly, she left the square of the sect under the envious stares.

'That was unexpected…' Involuntarily the deacon thought, already imagining that Elder Yang would be celebrating the result of Zhang Ya extensively all this week, just the thought of the wine that the elder was making by himself made the deacon's throat go dry.

Soon he shook his head, put the thought out of his mind, and continued the test.

"Shui Wu, physique of the normal rank. Not fit…"

"Kong Xiaotian, physique of normal rank. Not fit…"

After finding out that Zhang Ya possessed a heavenly rank physique, many cultivators felt a surge of new strength, as if obsessed with learning their physique's rank, but soon their enthusiasm was completely doused.

Most of the young cultivators fell to the ground sobbing with grief, while others laughed happily even after receiving an earth rank physique, they experienced different emotions, looking at such a spectacle, many would become aghast.

Such a picture could be described as "The rise and fall of hope," there weren't any riots only because they were in the territory of the Temple of the Dark Moon. Not everyone could accept the fact that the path of improvement is closed.

Of course, there have been times when some cultivators have wondered, "Why is he better than me?!" And so they took the matter in their own hands. Many scuffles began in such a way.

And the end result was death, no matter who started it and for what reason, the end was one, the Temple of the Dark Moon executed anyone who instigated such situations, serving as an example to dissuade others from doing the same.

Except for the crazy bastards, of course.

"Too few talents..." Nervously flipping through his notes the deacon sighed, compared to last year there were very few rare physiques, usually only one or two out of ten practitioners with a heavenly physique rank eventually succeeded, the rest awaited death.

Even with the protection of the sect, many died on missions or due to betrayals and competitions with other sects, the path of cultivation lined with piles of corpses and only a few could stand at the top with their heads held high.