The flying boat was neither fast nor slow. About half an hour later, it arrived at Junguan Mountain Gate.
After staying in front of the mountain gate for a moment, a ray of light shot out, and the Junguan Mountain Protection Formation opened. The flying boat entered the Junguan directly. After traveling for about half a quarter of an hour, it stopped on a large flat land.
This piece of flat land is about the size of a football field. Directly in front is a main hall, and the door is closed at this time.
On the flat ground, four or five groups of people had gathered together, including several adults and some children.
"Those who came early should all be monks from the family." Zhao Qingfeng chuckled.
This elder is a talkative elder, without the airs of a foundation-building monk. He always smiles when he meets everyone. This is probably why he is very popular in the family.
After grandma put away the flying boat, Zhao Qingfeng explained to several children with great interest:
"Generally speaking, the children who come to visit the county by flying boat are either brought by each family themselves, or sent by the county hall of the following counties. The furthest county hall, such as Qiu County, with the speed of their flying boats, It takes five hours to get here, so they should have arrived at the county town yesterday..."
"Those who are within two or three hours usually come directly this morning and set off at the earliest hour..."
Following his introduction, more and more flying boats landed on this flat land. Less than half an hour before Sisi time, more than twenty airships had already landed, bringing nearly 600 people.
Not long after, Zhao Qingfeng went out to get a stack of number plates and came back, giving one to each child. Yang Zhen picked it up and saw that her number plate said "Gengzi No. 7".
"Our Zhao family's native place is in Changshan," Zhao Qingfeng explained: "I will lead some of you later to find our team at the Changshan County Hall. The immortal of the county hall will take you in."
There are nine counties in Shuyang County. Changshan is ranked in the Geng position this time, which is relatively low.
After saying this, he said hello to Mammy and Qin Wan, and then led Yang Zhen and the other seven people away.
Mammy and others are still staying where they are. These children will have a spiritual root test after entering Junguan. Only after passing the test can they be considered as official schoolchildren of Junguan. Only then can they send the children’s daily necessities inside. This time lasted for about an hour or two. Grandma didn't want to go back and forth, so she simply waited in the square.
Yang Zhen and the others soon arrived at the crowd in Changshan County. There are about twenty children in this group, and after adding the seven people from the Zhao family, there are exactly thirty children. These are all the children in Changshan County who have manifested spiritual roots this year.
At this time, three bells rang "dang dang dang" in the square, and the closed doors of the main hall slowly opened to both sides.
"It's time!" shouted a voice.
"All schoolchildren, please enter in order of their number plates -" the voice continued to order.
There was a commotion among the crowd, and soon a team came out and walked towards the palace gate. Immediately afterwards, the second team followed.
Soon it was the turn of the Changshan County team, and Yang Zhen followed the crowd into the hall.
This hall is much smaller than the square outside, but all the children stand together according to the rules of their respective counties, so it doesn't seem crowded.
There is a high platform in the center of the hall, about five feet high. A middle-aged monk with a square face is standing on it with his hands tied, looking down at the crowd in the hall with stern eyes.
When all the children came in, they heard this man say in a low but majestic voice: "Let me introduce myself, I am the supervisor of the school. I am responsible for the management of your life and the inspection of your conduct..."
"The first thing today is to re-verify your spiritual root qualifications. Anyone who fails to meet the requirements will be removed from the competition!"
As soon as these words came out, there was a sudden uproar in the crowd.
Every year when spiritual roots are manifested, there will be one or two substandard "products". The so-called unqualified means that the total length of these children's spiritual roots is less than five inches, and none of them even exceeds one inch.
Every year in the first month of the year, the disciples stationed in their hometowns will have an important task, which is to search all the school-age children in their hometowns to find those who have manifested their spiritual roots. Every time one is found, the sect will give a reward. If you have excellent spiritual root qualifications, the rewards will be even more generous.
On the contrary, if there is any omission, once discovered, severe penalties will be imposed.
However, the method for the disciples stationed in the village to detect spiritual roots is relatively simple, which is to use the spiritual eye technique. Those unqualified spiritual roots will also sparkle under the detection of spiritual eyes, so they are regarded as qualified ones. In order to deliver one more immortal cultivator, the county government often turned a blind eye to this.
Each county may or may not accept such qualifications. However, even if they accept it, due to their extremely low spiritual root qualifications, it will be difficult for these people to achieve success on the path of immortality, and in the end they will only be a little better than ordinary people.
In previous years, Shuyang County has also been hesitating between accepting and not accepting children. If the number of children is small this year, the standard will be lowered; otherwise, it will not be accepted.
But this time, judging from the prison guard's attitude, he planned to shut these people out. This caused those children who felt that their spiritual abilities were not good enough to fall into a state of fear.
Yang Zhen was also a little worried.
After Geng Changce finished speaking, he stopped talking. A young monk who was standing at the bottom of the steps stood up and then ordered: "Everyone, please ask teams A, Ding, E, Xin, Ren, and Kui to go to the left, and each student will place their palms on the Ouija board in order. Up, lasts for one breath..."
"Teams B, C, Ji, and Geng, go to the right..."
The nine teams were divided into two teams. Yang Zhen discovered that after such distribution, the number of children in the two teams was not much different, except that Changshan's team fell last to the team on the right.
One child after another passed the Ouija board's test. Every time a person passes by, a secretary will guide the person toward the back hall and record his name, place of birth, spiritual roots, qualifications, etc.
After half an hour, the queue gradually became shorter, and more than a hundred children had passed the test.
At this moment, a clerk was heard shouting: "No. 19 with the word Wu, the total length of the spiritual root is about three inches and a half, and the longest spiritual root is less than one inch. Unqualified!"
A dark-faced boy was pushed out.
The boy looked frightened and his mouth was open, but he couldn't say what he wanted to say.
"Please go back." Secretary Shu pointed in the direction of the palace door and motioned for him to go out.
The boy looked at the palace door with a fearful expression and hesitated.
"Hurry up!" Secretary Shu urged impatiently.
"Puff!" The boy suddenly knelt down and cried loudly.
"My dear immortal masters, please don't drive me away..."
"My parents will beat me to death..." the boy cried, "They borrowed a lot of money this time and invited the villagers to dinner to celebrate my becoming a fairy boy. The village also exempted my land rent and returned it to me. Dad arranged the work. If I go back, all these will be gone. Then how can I pay back the money my family owes..."
"Please, I am willing to stay here and serve you as a cow or a horse. Please don't drive me away..."
The hall was silent, with only the boy's pleading lingering and echoing...
