"It's just a test event, held once a year. Our Zhang family will test the physical qualifications of the children of the people from all over Tianping County to see if they have spiritual roots and whether they have the qualifications to cultivate immortality. When nephew Liu Xian comes to watch, he will know Yes." Zhang Guang explained with a slight smile.
Liu Yu stayed at Zhang's house until evening before returning to his residence. Zhang's house treated guests very warmly, with fine wines and delicacies on jade plates, which were extremely rich. He also had a pleasant chat with Zhang Yuanwai, and agreed that Liu Yu would come to attend the spirit testing conference held by the Zhang family in seven days.
In recent days, the flow of people on the streets of Tianping County has increased significantly, and it is common to see country people with children arriving after a long journey. These people either stay with relatives, stay in inns, or even sleep on the streets.
At that time, Tianping County was bustling with people coming and going, and the idlers in the teahouse were also talking about the annual spirit testing conference held by the Zhang family.
The Zhang family holds such a conference every year. As long as there are children in the family who are over six years old and under twelve years old, they can go to the Zhang family to register and test whether they have the qualifications to cultivate immortality for free.
If it is found that he has the aptitude to cultivate immortality, the Zhang family will adopt the child as an adopted son, give his biological parents a generous sum of money, and settle him properly.
Now there is a steward in the Zhang family named Zhang Zhenshan, who was the adopted son who was found to have the aptitude to cultivate immortality more than 20 years ago. His biological parents were originally farmers in the countryside and were very poor. Now because the child was adopted by the Zhang family, he had already moved to the city and lived a leisurely life.
This good thing has spread for hundreds of miles around, and as soon as this day comes every year, you can see many farmers coming from the countryside with their children.
These people all hoped that their children would be able to detect spiritual roots. For the sake of their children's future and for the sake of a prosperous life, they worked tirelessly to try their luck, which created the temporary prosperity of Tianping County.
The day of the spirit testing conference came in a blink of an eye, and a wide wooden platform was erected in an open space not far from the Zhang family compound.
People who signed up to participate in the spirit testing conference lined up in front of the stage early. County Magistrate Lin was also invited to watch from the high platform. A large number of county government agents maintained order in the venue. The crowds of people who came to watch around the high platform were so crowded that it was very lively for a while.
"Everyone, please be quiet. Noon has arrived and the spirit testing conference will begin now!" Zhang Zhenqi announced loudly after receiving the clan leader's prompt.
After Zhang Zhenqi finished his announcement, he opened a huge mahogany box on the wooden table next to him. After the box lid was removed, a transparent ball the size of a human head was placed in the box.
The ball is crystal clear like a moon pearl. It is a great treasure at first glance. This caused the people around to have different opinions and speculate on what kind of treasure this was.
"Nephew Liu Xian, this is a spiritual instrument passed down from the family, used to test spiritual roots." Zhang Guang introduced to Liu Yu.
Liu Yu arrived very early to watch the spirit testing conference. It was a bit strange that such a scene could not be seen in Huangsheng Mountain.
"Oh! How to test this spirit test bead?" Liu Yu asked since he had never seen it before.
"Nephew Liu Xian, you will know if you keep reading." Zhang Guang gave up and turned around to talk to County Magistrate Lin.
Zhang Zhenqi carefully held the spirit-testing bead and slowly came to the center of the wooden platform. There was a long wooden table in the middle of the wooden platform, with a magic circle carved on the wooden table. There are more than twenty low-level spiritual stones placed in the corners of the magic circle, which may be used to drive the spiritual orbs.
Zhang Zhenqi placed the spirit-testing bead on the magic circle and said loudly: "This orb is called the spirit-testing bead, and it is still an ancestral possession of my Zhang family. Later, every child who signed up for the test walked to this table alone. "
After speaking, Zhang Zhenqi waved to the audience, indicating that the first child could come on stage.
The family at the front of the queue was the banker's family from the countryside. They were a dark-skinned man wearing shabby linen clothes and leading a skinny little boy.
At the signal of the dark man, the little boy lowered his head and pulled the hem of his clothes and slowly walked onto the high platform. It was obvious that this child, who had never seen any big scenes, was very nervous now.
The little boy walked to the table, and at Zhang Zhenqi's reminder, he put his hands on the spirit-measuring beads. After several breaths, there was no response from the spirit-measuring beads. The dark-skinned man watching from the audience had a disappointed look on his face.
At Zhang Zhenqi's signal, the swarthy man went up to the high platform and hugged the little boy with tears in his eyes. The two of them squeezed out of the crowd without looking back and left without looking back.
After someone started, the children who lined up for the test came on stage one by one. But an hour passed, and still no one tested the spiritual root. Zhang Guang's face looked a little ugly. Seeing that he was halfway through the test and still found nothing, he no longer had much hope. It seemed that the Zhang family's spirit testing conference was very grand, but who knew the bitterness in Zhang Guang's heart.
As a family that cultivates immortality, the Zhang family is getting worse with each generation, and there are fewer and fewer descendants with the qualifications to cultivate immortality. This is not a good sign, it is obviously that the bloodline of cultivating immortals is weakening.
The Zhang family had no choice but to come up with a way, which is also a common method for many immortal cultivating families, which is to find children with spiritual roots from mortal families and adopt them as adopted sons to expand the family, increase the number of immortal cultivators in the family, and change their appearance to strengthen the family's strength.
A hundred years ago, the head of the Zhang family spent a thousand low-level spiritual stones to buy this second-grade low-level auxiliary magic weapon, the spiritual bead.
This second-grade low-level spirit-testing bead can only test whether the tester has spiritual roots, but it cannot determine the quality of the spiritual roots. A magical weapon with the same effect as this one, there is also a third-grade intermediate magical weapon called the Spiritual Plate. It can not only detect whether one has spiritual roots, but also determine the specific attributes of the spiritual roots. However, the price is too expensive.
The thousand pieces of low-level spiritual stones used to purchase spirit-testing beads are not a small sum for the down-and-out Zhang family. But for the future of the family, that generation of family leaders resolutely took out this spiritual stone.
Since then, more than twenty spiritual stones have been consumed every year to hold spiritual testing conferences. One hundred years later, the Zhang family has consumed a total of more than 2,000 low-level spirit stones in order to hold the spirit testing conference, which shows how much money the Zhang family has spent.
However, mortals with spiritual roots are very rare and only one in a thousand. Whether a cultivator with spiritual roots can be detected depends entirely on God's will.
When spirit testing conferences first began, a child with spiritual roots would be discovered every few years. In recent years, the Zhang family has been plagued by bad luck. It has been more than 20 years since there was no child born in Huailinggen.
The descendants of the family who have the qualifications to cultivate immortals have also decreased, which makes Zhang Guang, the patriarch, anxious, and the Zhang family's strength has also declined to an unprecedented level. If this continues, the Zhang family may become a mortal family in a hundred years and lose the reputation of a cultivating immortal family. This is the outcome the Zhang family least wants to see.
