Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

Time flies like water, and in the blink of an eye, it has been ten months.

Lin Zhao sat cross-legged in the room, his spiritual energy flowing around him like water ripples. His cultivation was steadily progressing to the eighth level of Qi Refining, just one step away from the ninth level.

And these newly recruited disciples are about to face the first "mini-exam" of the Dao Asking Hall.

It is said that there will be an even more crucial "grand exam" in the fourth year, which will earn a lot of points, and the points will be related to the foundation resources that each person can obtain.

Lin Zhao got up and opened the door, just in time to meet Xu Chuan who was rushing over. The two of them walked towards the Bluestone Square in tacit agreement.

On the way, Xu Chuan's "gossip" spirit returned, and he lowered his voice to say, "The latest information is that the overall points ranking has changed again!"

The Mad Dragon Taoist, Pei Yue, came from behind and achieved a perfect score in all forty-three categories, firmly securing first place!

Linglong Fairy followed closely behind, achieving a perfect score in forty subjects. Little White also achieved a perfect score in thirty-seven subjects.

He clicked his tongue twice. "At this rate, their points have probably already exceeded five thousand, enough to exchange for a Foundation Establishment Pill!"

"Foundation Building Pill..." Lin Zhao's gaze fell upon the distant mountain peaks, his tone calm. "It's not that easy. First, one's cultivation must reach the twelfth level of Qi Refining perfection. Second, one needs a suitable Foundation Building spiritual object to assist in its creation."

In the cultivation world, spiritual items are generally divided into 'heavenly materials' and 'earthly treasures'. 'Earthly treasures' originate from the nourishment of spiritual veins, and their grade is related to the spiritual veins;

"Heavenly materials" are born from the intersection of heaven and earth and nature. Their grade may not be extremely high, but they often possess special and miraculous effects.

The Azure Jade Liquid and the Heavenly True Water that Lin Zhao bought from the Azure Sea Pavilion are both rare and precious materials.

The spiritual items needed for Foundation Establishment and Core Formation also mostly belong to this category.

Xu Chuan scratched his head: "That makes sense. Speaking of which, you quietly got full marks in twelve subjects, and with the other courses, you must have almost two thousand points, right? Exchanging them for a Foundation Establishment Pill within three years shouldn't be too difficult."

Lin Zhao didn't respond. In fact, if he wanted to, his achievements might not be inferior to those three prominent figures.

Having emerged from the sect's Inquiry Staircase, the true nature of "Lin Zhao of Heaven," nurtured by the sect, has become clear to him—

That was very likely the prototype of some kind of innate supernatural talent he possessed.

Supernatural powers should be a realm accessible only to Core Formation cultivators, but his cultivation level was too low, and through a series of fortuitous events, he created the "Celestial Sword Path".

This led to the premature appearance of supernatural powers, which then took over the reins.

Although the two have now merged again, becoming a more complete "Celestial Being Lin Zhao", he is endowed with unparalleled comprehension and deductive abilities.

Lin Zhao's ability to quickly comprehend runes and integrate them to create forms such as the Four Elements Sword Dragon was due to the effect of this supernatural power.

However, the more this supernatural power is used, the more one's mind and will gravitate towards the "Heavenly" side, becoming indifferent and ruthless.

If this continues, there's a possibility of him "transforming into the Dao." He dares not use it lightly.

His intuition told him that the true method of control lay in the later chapters of the "Taihe Yangyuan Gong," since the concept of "unity of heaven and man" originated from this practice.

Although Lin Zhao felt that even without this technique, he would gradually comprehend it over time, since it was his innate divine ability.

Master Mingxuan once mentioned that this cultivation method came from a Core Formation True Person within the sect, but the follow-up will have to wait until at least the end of the 10-year Inquiry period.

As for Foundation Establishment, it cannot be achieved with just one pill.

The Foundation Establishment Pill serves three main purposes: providing spiritual energy, increasing the chances of breakthrough, and protecting the cultivator's essence and reducing the risk of death in the event of failure.

The Foundation Establishment stage represents a leap in life level, and the quality of the Dao Foundation one forges determines the upper limit of one's future path.

Many of these geniuses in the sect come from families that have reached the Core Formation stage or even possess heavenly spiritual roots. Foundation Establishment may not be difficult for them, but to lay a high-grade Dao foundation, they still need opportunities, resources, and the right guidance.

It is said that if a cultivator with a Heavenly Spiritual Root does not reach the highest level in Foundation Establishment, the difficulty of breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage after Core Formation is several times that of an ordinary cultivator.

These annual small tests and subsequent major tests determine the final evaluation of the disciples by the Hall of Inquiry.

The evaluation of the Dao Asking Hall is crucial for accepting disciples who have reached the Core Formation or even Nascent Soul stage.

While they were pondering, the two had already arrived at the Bluestone Square.

The Core Formation Realm cultivators, who hadn't appeared for a long time, also arrived. The five Core Formation Realm cultivators hung high on the cloud platform, exuding a majestic aura, their gazes sweeping over the more than ten thousand disciples below as if they were tangible.

There were no extra speeches; the host, Mingjing Zhenren, simply announced the rules: the winners advance, and the losers are eliminated.

Each arena battle is limited to half an hour, including rest time. The faster the battle ends, the longer the rest time will be.

After nearly a year of cultivation in a superior environment, most of these disciples have advanced to the late stage of Qi Refining, with more than 500 reaching the ninth level of Qi Refining. Their speed of progress is astonishing.

The competition began.

With his solid foundation and the ability to use the Four Elements Sword Dragon and other forms, Lin Zhao defeated five people in a row and entered the sixth battle.

At this moment, his opponent was a young man dressed in unremarkable black clothes with an ordinary face.

This person had excellent control over his aura; standing on the platform, he was like a stubborn rock, without revealing the slightest bit of sharpness.

However, after merging with the Heavenly Lin Zhao, Lin Zhao's increasingly keen divine sense detected a trace of extremely restrained emotion in this person, a feeling that sent chills down his spine.

Its level of danger even slightly surpasses that of Yan Chiheng, whom he had previously fought!

Lin Zhao felt a chill run down his spine: "Another hidden genius... This sect is full of hidden talents, geniuses are really worthless."

He quickly calmed himself down. After all, his overall ranking was almost over a thousand, and this time he was mainly there to see the skills of his peers.

"start."

With a thought, Lin Zhao sent out four precious orbs, preparing to summon the Four Elements Sword Dragon.

However, the young man in black opposite them moved even faster—no, it couldn't even be called a "movement".

He simply raised his right hand calmly, holding a sword. The blade was as white as jade, long and slender, with faint ice-blue light patterns flowing across it, as if it contained starlight.

Then, with utmost simplicity, he swung the sword tip downwards.

There was no earth-shattering momentum, no dazzling burst of sword light.

The next instant, without warning, more than a dozen extremely condensed, almost invisible, icy blue sword energies appeared in the air several meters above Lin Zhao's head. They seemed to have been there all along, only revealing themselves now, ignoring space, and falling towards Lin Zhao!

Unbelievably fast! An attack trajectory that defies all logic!

Lin Zhao was shocked. The Four Elements Pearl didn't have time to take form, so he could only hastily condense a shield of spiritual light above his head, which was composed of rapidly rotating four-colored runes.

laugh--!

A soft, tearing sound. That shield, powerful enough to withstand a full-force attack from a cultivator at the tenth level of Qi Refining...

The moment it touched the icy blue sword energy, it was easily pierced like a hot knife through fat, its spiritual light dissipating! The sword energy's momentum remained undiminished.

The protective aura emanating from Lin Zhao's robes passed right through it, without even a moment's delay!

The aura of death was clearly present on Lin Zhao!

He could even "sense" that the sword energy contained a power capable of annihilating a soul!