There were several deacons standing in the main hall. After seeing the four people entering the hall, one of the deacons came up to them and introduced the four people into the side hall.
"You guys just wait here, the assessment will start in a quarter of an hour."
After saying that, the deacon withdrew.
In addition to Jing Yingrong and the four of them, there were five other people in the side hall who were also outer disciples who participated in the individual assessment like them.
Those five people all recognized Jing Yingrong and others, and came over to greet them politely. Shu Pinghui soon chatted with them, while Wu Yaochen smiled and listened but said little.
While others were chatting, Yin Xueze approached Jing Yingrong and asked in a low voice: "Did you say something to him?"
Jing Yingrong: "Which 'him'?"
Yin Xueze's expression was distorted for a moment.
He glanced at Wu Yaochen's back, took two steps back, and lowered his voice.
"...the one with the surname Wu."
Jing Yingrong thought for a while: "I didn't tell him the secret of your technique or the solution."
Yin Xueze looked at Jing Yingrong steadily, and Jing Yingrong looked at him calmly.
Yin Xueze looked away.
"He was testing me, and I'm not sure how much he really knew."
Jing Yingrong: "You don't want him to know?"
"nonsense."
"Why?"
"It has nothing to do with him."
Jing Yingrong asked in confusion: "Didn't you say, 'As long as it's suitable'? He is a very suitable candidate, isn't he?"
Yin Xueze was choked by these words, his lips moved, and there was rare confusion between his brows and eyes.
"I……"
As soon as the words came out, the door of the side hall was pushed open. The deacon from before stood at the door and said: "Everyone, come out."
Yin Xueze swallowed back his words. He closed his eyes, avoided Jing Yingrong's questioning gaze, and walked out first.
They returned to the main hall. In the center of the hall, there is a thick stone tablet about two feet high. There is a vertical groove on the stone tablet, and a vertical tube-shaped translucent crystal is embedded in the groove. The lower end of the crystal bulges into a ball shape, about four feet above the ground.
In addition to several deacons, there were also three elders present. The elder in the middle glanced at the disciples and said: "The first assessment of cultivation will be conducted by you and others together, and subsequent assessments will be conducted separately. Now, the cultivation assessment begins."
After the words fell, the other two elders stood at the pillars on both sides of the hall, one on the left and the other on the right. They took out their respective identity tokens and printed them somewhere on the pillar. When they took the tokens away, a pattern similar to runes appeared on that spot.
Immediately, a "clatter" sound was heard in the hall, and two silver chains hung from above, with octahedral-shaped crystal stones hanging from the ends of the chains.
That is a shadow tracing stone, which can record images and sounds within a certain period of time. Depending on its size, shape, quality, etc., there are differences in the length of time it can record, the wide and narrow range, and the clarity of audio and video.
The entire process of the single-person assessment will be recorded by the Shadow Tracer Stone. This was already stated in the jade slip issued when applying for the assessment, so no one in the room was surprised by this.
The elder continued: "You will take your turn to come forward and inject spiritual power into the Chao Ling Crystal beads. You don't need too much, just a little."
The nine people looked at each other, and then Wu Yaochen stepped out from the crowd and said, "I'll go first."
He first handed his identity token to the elder, then walked to the stone tablet, placed his palm on the sphere at the lower end of the Chao Ling Crystal, and injected a spiritual power into it.
The sphere starts to turn red rapidly from the bottom, from bottom to top, as if it is poured into some kind of red liquid. The red color continued to rise, entering the tubular part of the Chao Ling Crystal, and then stopped after rising for a while, as if it had solidified and remained motionless.
The elder carefully inspected the height of the red part of the Chao Ling Crystal and said: "The early stage of the golden elixir is close to the middle stage. Wu Yaochen, right?"
Wu Yaochen: "It's my disciple."
The elder stretched out his hand, and a deacon brought up a jade slip and placed it in the elder's palm.
The elder read out the contents of the jade slip in front of everyone: "Wu Yaochen, his cultivation level when he entered the school was: Foundation Establishment Dzogchen. How long ago..."
After finishing reading, he quickly exchanged glances with the other two elders. Because they were in agreement, he said without hesitation: "The speed of cultivation is improving very quickly. Yes, you passed this assessment."
Wu Yaochen: "Thank you, elder."
He took back his identity token from the elder, and then another deacon came over and guided him to participate in the second assessment.
The remaining people came forward one by one to accept the cultivation assessment, and Jing Yingrong ranked last, intentionally or unintentionally.
The cultivation levels of Shu Pinghui and Yin Xueze were almost the same as Wu Yaochen's, and they passed the first assessment without any suspense. Among the other five people, two passed smoothly, and one regretted his position because his cultivation progress was too slow. There was another person whose cultivation was neither fast nor slow. The three elders had different opinions. After consultation, they still reluctantly gave the disciple a pass and allowed him to pass.
There was only one person left, and he happened to be lined up in front of the mirror. After injecting spiritual power into the beads of Chao Ling Crystal, the red color that appeared was a little lighter, almost water red, and after the upward trend stopped, it had the feeling of trembling and swaying.
When the elder saw it, his face suddenly darkened and he said coldly: "You have recently taken a large number of pills that increase your spiritual power. It is suspected of cheating!"
The disciple's face was pale, sweating on his forehead, and he said in panic: "Elder Mingjian! This disciple was only seriously injured while hunting monsters some time ago, and had to take some healing and soul-replenishing elixirs. He definitely did not intend to cheat. !”
Hearing this, the elder became even more angry and reprimanded: "What kind of healing elixir can make spiritual power weaken to such an extent?! Could it be that you have encountered someone who sells fake elixirs and inferior medicines? Bastard!"
The elder flicked his sleeves, and the token hit the disciple's chest. The huge impact it carried caused the person to fly away and hit the wall of the hall.
"A small punishment, if you dare to do it again, you will be punished according to the sect's rules!"
The disciple got up in embarrassment, picked up the token and ran away in despair.
Ji Jie Bi lamented: "After all these years, there are still people playing this kind of clever trick with a sense of luck. No ordinary person can get the pill that can hide the top-grade Chao Ling Crystal."
Ji Sha Jian: "No matter how many years it takes, it will still be the same. This kind of person will never be missing."
Ji Yanzhu: "Mirror, Mirror, it's your turn."
Jing Yingrong: "Yeah."
She walked over and handed the identity token to the elder, then stood in front of the stone tablet, her palms touching the beads, which felt slightly cool to the touch.
Ji Sha Sword: "The time has come to test your spiritual control."
Jing Yingrong said nothing.
She diluted the spiritual power again and again, extracted a trace of it and poured it into the bead.
A deep, almost black red spreads from the bottom of the bead.
Jing Yingrong: "..."
Fortunately, the red color stopped where she hoped.
The elders looked at the different color in the Chao Ling Crystal, and they all showed expressions of surprise.
"Your cultivation level is...the early stage of Golden Core? How can you have such pure spiritual power in the early stage of Golden Core?"
