Chapter 74 – 72: Spirit Testing Convention (Two in One – Subscription and Monthly Ticket Request)_1
On the morning of the following day, while the brilliant moon had not yet completely vanished, a ti when one would normally be sound asleep, the entirety of Qingfeng Town was brightly lit as though in the midst of a bustling celebration.
Throngs of young boys and girls were rushing through the streets, heading toward the center of Qingfeng Town.
In the town’s central square, a simple elevated platform had been constructed.
Over a thousand youths were gathered together, waiting anxiously, and more adolescent boys and girls continued to pour in.
Within the crowd, one could see a thin boy with a resolute gaze, his clothes disheveled, his face sared with filth—looking every bit the beggar.
In order to attend the Spirit Testing Event, he had set out ten days in advance, traveling alone, covering over twenty li each day, begging along the way, enduring great hardship just to arrive in Qingfeng Town on ti.
The slender youth heaved a sigh of relief, and with difficulty, he pushed through the onlookers to join the long queue, making his way toward the center of the square.
As the number of people grew, the spacious square beca overcrowded, and even the stone-paved roads were filled to the brim.
Around the entire square, nurous adults stood to one side—n and won, old and middle-aged—each anxiously awaiting the test results of their children.
As ti passed, the number of individuals who had co for the testing had surpassed one thousand five hundred, with more scattered youths joining in bits and pieces.
Due to the favorable weather in recent years, the population of ordinary humans in Qingfeng Town and the surrounding villages had increased significantly, resulting in more participants at the Spirit Testing Event than in any previous year.
An hour passed, the moonlight faded away, and as rays of sunlight pierced through the clouds, shining upon the earth, a solemn bell resounded.
All heads turned to gaze at the loft above the square from where a man in gray robes slowly erged, and in the blink of an eye, appeared atop the elevated platform in the square.
Every person in the square looked up with devout respect, beginning to offer their salutations.
Standing on the platform, looking down upon them all, Lin Xingli’s expression was calm, betraying no emotion.
“All rise, I, Lin Xingli, will preside over this Spirit Testing Event, and I now declare, the Spirit Testing Event begins!”
“Everyone, form a line. Those under ten and over thirteen years of age, leave at once. The rest, maintain order, refrain from creating disturbances, or forming riotous crowds, or their eligibility to be tested will be imdiately revoked!”
Lin Xingli’s fierce gaze swept over the crowd, and those upon whom it alighted felt a chill as if dunked into an ice pit, drenched in cold sweat.
Before long, over a hundred youngsters stepped out from the crowd—all either under ten or over thirteen years of age.
Seeing the opportunists leave, Lin Xingli no longer paid attention to those on the square.
He took out a completely silvery-white, translucent stone from his storage bag and placed it on the low table in front of him.
The stone was approximately the size of a brick, a Spirit asuring Stone used for testing the Spiritual Root—a common item in the Cultivation World, each valued at nearly a hundred Spirit Stones, indeed not cheap.
It is said that within large Sects and noble clans, the Spirit asuring Stones are of a much higher grade, with great accuracy, and they can even detect rare and special Spiritual Roots in Cultivators.
The Spirit asuring Stone used by the Lin Family was the most ordinary kind, with a slight probability of missing a Spiritual Root, but the chance was not significant.
After placing the Spirit asuring Stone on the surface of the table in front of him, he ford several Law Decrees with his fingers, and a streak of golden light entered the stone. In half a breath’s ti, the lifeless stone block buzzed several tis.
After watching its surface beco even more smooth and transparent, and the buzzing stopped, tranquility was restored.
Having finished the preliminary preparations, Lin Xingli pointed to a queue not far in front of him, signaling for a young boy standing at the front to co forward for testing.
Seeing Lin Xingli’s gesture, the boy seed to freeze in place in disbelief,
After a round of laughter from the crowd, and not until prompted by the boys behind him, did he nervously make his way forward.
At this mont, the boy’s emotions were complicated, his expression frantic.
Before the Spirit Testing Event began, he had always looked forward to the start of the testing, but now that it had truly comnced, he feared that he might have no Spiritual Root, and thus entirely miss the path to the Immortal Realm.
With an uneasy heart, he took a step forward, the few short steps to the Spirit asuring Stone seeming as difficult as a journey of dozens of li.
Ti seed to stretch on forever, but finally, he reached the Spirit asuring Stone.
Infused with a sliver of Spiritual Power, so that his voice could spread throughout the entire square, clear for all to hear, Lin Xingli pointed at the Spirit asuring Stone in front of him and spoke.
“Place your hand upon this Spirit asuring Stone. Those with a Spiritual Root will cause the stone to flash with different colors, representing different types of Spiritual Roots. If no color appears, it signifies a lack of destiny with the path of immortality. You will have to accept your fate!”
Heeding Lin Xingli’s instruction, the boy wasted no ti in placing his hand on the Spirit asuring Stone, eagerly watching for a reaction.
Several monts passed, yet the Spirit asuring Stone remained inert.
The boy’s face turned deathly pale, he withdrew his hand and left the square in a daze.
Lin Xingli’s expression remained unchanged; without saying anything, he waved his hand, signaling the next youth to step forward and take the test.
After more than an hour, over two hundred people had been tested without any causing the Spirit asuring Stone to react, leaving Lin Xingli feeling sowhat disappointed.
Although giving birth to an offspring with a Spiritual Root was not easy, with a population of a hundred thousand in Qingfeng Town, there must be at least one individual with a Spiritual Root, right?
If not, these past few days would have been a waste of effort.
The reason he had taken on the task of conducting the Spirit Testing was also for the high rewards offered by the family; for every individual with a Spiritual Root he brought back, the family would reward him with ten points of rit, and even more for those with exceptional talent.
Coming to this place with such sparse Spiritual Energy, where he would delay his own cultivation for over ten days and endure the arduous journey, if he didn’t bring back at least one individual with a Spiritual Root, it would be a huge loss.
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