Chapter 164 - A Test of Potential
Translator: JayCakes
Editor:
“Only the complete state of the innate realm?” Next to that red-faced elder were 7 other elders, each with three disciples by their side. When they sensed Xiao Yun was only at the innate realm, there were a few elders that couldn’t help but smirk.
Compared to these people’s expressions, Manager Qin smiled calmly. He casually waved his hand and brought Xiao Yun onto the balcony.
“Oh, all the people have arrived!” Manager Qin flashed a smile and bowed towards everyone gathered. The men in robes on the balcony bowed back. He continued, “You’ve met Temple Master Jiang before. This is the disciple I brought over from the Moonwind Kingdom, Xiao Yun.”
“Yes, I’ve met Temple Master Jiang.” Xiao Yun greeted the old master.
“No need to be so polite. “ Temple Master Jiang calmly glanced over at Manager Qin, his eyes immediately lit up and landed on Xiao Yun. In this eyes you can see a particular light. He smiled and said, “Ah, sure enough, it’s the young genius. Your name was not lost on me - it has quite a bit of presence. I hope you can prove yourself even here at the core temple.”
“This disciple will not let Temple Manager down.” Xiao Yun responded.
“Yes.” Temple Manager Jian nodded slightly.
“Not living up to expectations? As someone who is only at the complete stage of the innate realm?” A few of the nearby listeners furrowed their brows and laughed.
“Why does temple manager Jiang look upon this person so favorably? Is he a family member?” Some people thought to themselves.
“No matter, even if this Xiao Yun was Temple Master Jiang’s relative, he can’t violate the core temple’s rules. Our people have the chance to rank high. As long as the geniuses we uncovered don’t rank near the bottom, we will receive our reward.” A few managers thought carefully. Only these managers seemed calm and didn’t really think much about these matters.
After knowing Xiao Yun’s battle record, his confidence towards Xiao Yun increased.
“Apparently Manager Jiang also came. Is it time to start ranking these disciples?” The robed elders said with a smile in their eyes. By his side were three youths and a young maiden, all of them were geniuses. As soon as these people entered the core temple, he would receive his corresponding credits and redeem his reward.
When they reach this level, if they were able to improve just a little bit, they would be able to become Half Step Essence realm cultivators. Therefore, even though it’s a small step, the impact is quite large. Within the Sect, Half Step Essence realm cultivators are considered to be of high status.
“Okay, now that everyone is here, let’s get started with the ranking.” Temple manager Jiang said as his eyes became more serious.
“That’s a good feeling.” The managers beside him smiled.
There were a total of 8 managers here. Each of them were in charge of recruiting new disciples into the Heaven Origin Sect from the various countries. Other than manager Qin, beside everyone was around 2-3 genius disciples. This was their harvest.
Including Xiao Yun, there was a total of eighteen people, seventeen male and one female. These youths were all very young, around sixteen years or so, there was almost no one older than seventeen.
After the instructions were given, Xiao Yun and the seventeen other people lined up near the edge of the platform.
Temple manager Jiang stood next to a crystal pillar on the platform. Next to temple manager Jiang were two youths in their early 20s, representatives of the core temple.
“You are all geniuses among geniuses within your own country, there is no bound to your future. However, within the core temple, there are many people like you. So if you want to gain more resources, you must have the corresponding strength.” Temple master Jiang gazed at the eighteen youths and said, “Within the core temple, your strength when you join is not the only criteria, your innate skill is more important. Only those with innate skill that is strong enough can reach the highest peak of martial arts.”
After pausing for a bit, temple master Jiang continued, “Anyways, if your innate skill is not enough, even if you have reached the later stages of the True Essence realm, your future potential is limited.”
The youths below the platform silently listened to temple master Jiang speak, since this is relevant to their future.
“Therefore, innate skill is the most important thing. But of course it’s not only innate skill, you must also be diligent.”
After listening to this, among the eighteen people, a couple let out their breaths.
These two people were a weak looking youth and a girl with a threatening aura. They were both Innate realm cultivators, if their current cultivation determined whether they would win or lose, they would definitely won’t be able to rank high, especially that girl who had seemed incredibly nervous.
Because she was only in the Innate realm, she was at a disadvantage. If she was ranked by power, she would rank near the end. Now, it seemed like she had a better chance. After she heard temple master Jiang speak, her eyes glimmered and she breathed a sigh of relief.
However, Xiao Yun wasn’t much disturbed. He calmly listened to temple master Jiang speak.
“Within the core temple, there are a total of sixty five new disciples and one hundred and eighty older disciples. Whether you’re old or new, you’re given resources based on your rank. Your batch is eighteen people - we will give you a preliminary ranking.” Temple master Jiang continued, “Since all of you recently joined, ranking will be in two steps. First we will look at your innate skill, then we we will look your current strength. The score for innate skill will be higher, you will be graded on a hundred point scale. Your current strength score will be based on your placement in the competition. You will get five points per win and fight a total of four rounds. If you win all of them, you will get twenty points.”
“One hundred point scale?” Hearing this, the youth below started to mutter among themselves. Some were happy, some were nervous. The innate skill test was out of one hundred points. That means even if those with high innate skill lose during the strength test, they will still be able to rank decently.
“The Heaven Origin Sect sure is fair.” Xiao Yun quietly nodded his head. This way, those with high innate skill but were born into a situation where they couldn’t get training don’t have to worry. As long as they receive sufficient resources, they can improve by leaps and bounds, surpassing those who currently have high cultivation.
“We will proceed with the testing of innate skill.” Temple master Jiang said solemnly.
As temple master’s Jiang’s voice rang out, the young men behind him stood forward.
“Liu Zhong, come here to get tested.” The young man glanced at the roster he held in his hand.
“Yes!” A youth responded with enthusiasm and trotted over to the the crystal pillar in front of him.
This was a three foot seven crystal pillar and at the top of the pillar was a shiny crystal ball. There were some vague runes on the crystal ball, carving out a complex formation. Inside you can see countless images.
This was the testing crystal ball. Not only was this precious crystal ball made of ten thousand essence crystal, a extremely complex formation was carved on it. It’s normally difficult for even ordinary countries to get this kind of testing crystal ball, it’s something they had because they were the Heaven Origin Sect.
“Channel your essence or martial spirit through the crystal ball, which will give you your grade.” The middle age man instructed.
Temple master Jiang stood to the side, waiting for the tests to be completed. The eight managers also stood to the side and watched silently, they looked at the spirit bodies with a glimmer of hope in their eyes.
Liu Zhong walked to the crystal pillar, his eyes were feverish and focused ahead, and silently channeling his inner essence. A strong force emanated from his open palms. If you looked carefully, you could see an earth colored essence within the crystal ball. The formation within the crystal ball immediately excited the essence inside.
Ssss!
The crystal ball flickered and a earth colored circle appeared around it. Finally, the waterline on the crystal pillar began to rise. There were markings from one to one hundred, symbolizing the spiritual abilities of the examinee or the quality of a martial spirit.
During the test, the higher the marking reached, the stronger the innate ability. There are spirit bodies, half-spirit bodies, psuedo-spirit bodies, and twin-spirit bodies etc. The martial spirit is also like that. Some people have only awakened 10% of their potential, other have awakened 20%, and will often be a bit stronger. However, there could still be a large difference in innate ability, so if you want to know the true worth of a person, you cannot forgo tests like these.
When the marker on the crystal pillar started to rise, almost all of the people on the platform were captivated. Especially the portly manager who had chosen him, his entire body was full of stress.
In the span of a breath, the marker increased by ten, and it looked like it would continue to rise. Liu Zhong nervously looked at the continuously rising marker as he continued to channel his inner essence towards the crystal ball.
Finally, the marker stopped at twenty seven.
“It stopped?” Liu Zhong saw the marker had stopped and the earth colored essence no longer rose. He furrowed his brows and continue to channel his essence to try to make the marker rise, but the crystal ball was no longer absorbing his essence and the marker did not have any signs of rising.
“That’s enough, you can stop now.” The young man said while looking at him.
Hearing this, Liu zhong reluctantly removed his hand. Immediately after, the crystal ball shimmered and the earth colored essence within the crystal ball disappeared. On the crystal ball, a rune started to light up, and there appeared a three foot long curtain of light.
A row of words appeared on this curtain of light.
Liu Zhong: Earth attribute, spirit body is worth 27%, inferior constitution!
“Inferior?” Looking at this one word, Liu Zhong’s eyes sank - he couldn’t hide the disappointment on his face. “How can it be inferior? I had the fastest cultivation within the Falling Moon Kingdom. How can I be inferior?”
This result made him extremely disappointed.
“That’s enough, your innate ability score is twenty seven points.” The man said, “This is your Identity Token.”
After he was done speaking, he took out a Access Card to give to Liu Zhong. This Access Card had all of his information, including the result of the innate ability test he just took. All the disciples in the core temple had one.
“Twenty seven points?” Liu Zhong took the Access Card and walked dejectedly to the side.
“Don’t be discouraged. In Nanjian, anyone who had a spirit body was already considered a genius. Your spirit body is worth 27%, that is not low. First look at the result of others.” The portly manager comforted him.