Li Yan looked at the four people in front of him, his heart was quite shocked. 'A first-rate family is indeed extraordinary. Three Nascent Soul cultivators have arrived at the very beginning.' In his perception, there were three Nascent Soul cultivators among the four people in front of him. It was just that with Li Yan's cultivation, he couldn't accurately judge their specific realms. Among the four, there was also a peak Golden Core, or perhaps even a Pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator. Especially the young man with eyes as deep as an abyss, his aura was much more restrained than the other two middle-aged Nascent Soul cultivators beside him. His black hair was casually draped, and his long black robe gave people a feeling of being as deep as an abyss or a sea. The appearance of these few Nascent Soul cultivators immediately silenced the entire square. Li Yan found that many people's gazes towards that young man were full of fervor. He was lost in thought.
Soon, all eight of them had walked up to their seats on the platform. The young man in the long black robe sat in the very center. Huchen Wandong sat beside him. And on the other four seats on his two sides, a middle-aged Nascent Soul cultivator and a late-stage Golden Core old man sat on one side at the same time. The First Lady, Xie Xiaoxiao, was next to the middle-aged Nascent Soul cultivator. Ye Luoyan sat beside the late-stage Golden Core old man.
On the other two seats on the other side, another middle-aged Nascent Soul cultivator sat down. Beside him sat the Second Branch's Chi Dongli. The other table was empty.
Li Yan also followed the crowd's gaze and looked at these people. It was just that he was a little strange why there was still an empty seat above. Just after the few people above had settled down, four figures flew directly to the center of the field from a corner of the square. The four of them, with a flicker of their figures, stood still on the ground. They were four old men. They all had early-stage Golden Core cultivation. After the four of them arrived at the center of the field, they bowed to the young man in the long black robe and the other three.
"Paying our respects to the old ancestor. Can we start the competition for the successor now?"
The young man in the black robe sitting in the center raised his hand and gently flicked it, lifting the four of them up. This person was surprisingly the old ancestor of the Huchen family. His appearance was actually so young. Although Li Yan had had his suspicions when he heard it, he still couldn't help but marvel at how young he looked. In fact, this Huchen ancestor was at least five hundred years old. It was either that his technique was exquisite, or that he had a way to preserve his youth.
The Huchen ancestor looked around and then spoke in a loud voice.
"Today is the day of my Huchen family's competition for the successor. However, this is a family matter, and I have not invited many other fellow Daoists. These three are not outsiders, so they naturally need to be present to witness. It's just that they are usually elusive, and one only hears their names but does not see them. This time, it has given these juniors of my Huchen family a chance to meet them." As he said this, a smile appeared on the Huchen ancestor's face.
As his words came out, most of the Huchen family members sitting on the two sides were puzzled, but many people had already guessed the identities of these few people. Li Yan squinted his eyes, and Zhuo Lingfeng beside him also lost his stoic look, a grave expression appearing in his eyes.
"These are the old ancestor of the Xie family, the old ancestor of the Ye family, and the old ancestor of the Chi family. They are my Huchen family's in-laws, hehe." As he spoke, the Huchen ancestor gestured with one hand, pointing to the three people respectively. Although he did not point them out one by one, after he said this, just from the positions where the three family heads' wives were sitting, it was already clear to everyone.
The one with the weakest cultivation here was the old ancestor of the Ye family, the old man with an aged appearance, with a Pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivation.
"I had also invited the sect master of the 'Farewell Snow Sect' to come, but he had something to attend to, which is a pity." The Huchen ancestor said, pointing to the empty seat beside the Chi family's old ancestor, with a look of regret on his face.
And as his words came out, Huchen Wandong's body, who was beside him, trembled slightly and imperceptibly, and then he returned to normal.
And Li Yan noticed that when the Huchen ancestor said "Farewell Snow Sect," Huchen Wuding's face turned pale, and Zhuo Lingfeng beside him also's breathing became a little heavy. At the same time, he clearly felt that many people in the audience were looking at Huchen Wuding. Among these gazes, many contained coldness and ridicule. The gaze from Huchen Wanli was full of ridicule and sarcasm. How could Li Yan not understand now?
'So the 'Farewell Snow Sect' is the sect where Huchen Wuding's mother and Zhuo Lingfeng belong. The Huchen ancestor said he invited them, but he may not have really invited them. The strength of the sect master of a last-rate second-rate sect may not even have reached the Golden Core. Even if he was invited, how would he dare to come? Besides, one of his disciples was a daughter-in-law who had run away from the Huchen family. Coming here would only lead to gossip.'
"Alright, it's getting late. Tingchun, you announce the rules of the competition." The Huchen ancestor did not want to say more. After a few simple words, he looked at the four people in the square. These four were the Golden Core elders of the Huchen family.
The old man he called "Tingchun" bowed slightly. The other three elders dispersed and came directly to the steps below the seats of the Huchen ancestor and the others, and sat down cross-legged.
Huchen Tingchun was a ruddy-faced old man with a full head of silver hair, each strand like a needle, looking extremely mighty. After he had bowed to the Huchen ancestor, he stood up straight and looked at the steps on both sides.
"The competition is divided into two rounds. The first round will select the top ten. The second round will be a final between the ten. The final winner will be the next successor of my Huchen family. Then the first round will begin now." Huchen Tingchun spoke very crisply, getting straight to the point in two sentences. Then he looked at the Huchen ancestor on the main seat. The Huchen ancestor smiled and nodded.
After Huchen Tingchun received permission, he also walked to the front of the steps in the next moment, sitting cross-legged opposite the three elders from just now. Then the four of them raised their hands in unison and made a yin-yang hand seal in front of their chests. Instantly, a surging spiritual energy rose from their hands. Then the four of them shouted in unison, "Go!" Four dazzling beams of light shot directly into the sky from their chests. A huge ball of light immediately appeared in the sky. As soon as the ball of light appeared, nearly a hundred small, gray light shields descended from it. These small light shields, like small cages, landed on the square below.
"All participating disciples, quickly enter the light shields. Each person can only enter one light shield. The competition will begin in ten breaths and end in half an hour. This round will test your basic pharmacology, which is the foundation of all of my Huchen family's immortal arts." Just as the light shields landed, the family head, Huchen Wandong, stood up. His gaze swept over the two sides, and he shouted in a deep voice.
The moment his shout fell, there was first an uproar on the two sides of the steps. Then, under Huchen Wandong's cold gaze, they quickly and uniformly responded, "Yes, Family Head!" Then, dozens of figures, like moths to a flame, with a series of sounds of breaking through the air, shot from the viewing platforms towards the small black light shields on the square. Among them were Huchen Wuding, Huchen Huiqing, and others.
And Huchen Wanli gave Huchen Wuding a sinister smile and said through a voice transmission, "I'll send you back to your servant mother in the first round." Then he flashed away.
Huchen Wuding, who was about to move, looked at Huchen Wanli with an even colder gaze. At this time, his shoulder was gently patted by a smooth, white jade hand. "Wuding, no matter what that guy said just now, don't take it to heart. It's just a trick to anger you. Let's go. There's only half an hour." It was Huchen Huiqing. She had just seen Huchen Wanli's lips move as he looked in this direction, and she had guessed something.
Huchen Wuding looked at Huchen Huiqing with a calm expression and nodded. The two of them leaped up and flew towards the center of the square.
After Huchen Wuding had also flown to the square, Huchen Jianghai on the other side witnessed all of this. He chuckled, the corners of his mouth turned up, and he also turned into a streak of light and disappeared from the spot.
On the main platform, Huchen Wandong bowed slightly to his several fathers-in-law. "This competition is about the most basic pharmacology. Each light shield will contain ten thousand kinds of herbs that have been divided into fragments. They have to rely on their own abilities to reassemble these fragments into complete herbs within half an hour. The one who assembles the most herbs will win. There is no right or wrong here. Only by assembling correctly can they be put together. Otherwise, they can only try piece by piece. In that case, they may succeed, but it will take at least a few days or even longer to complete. In order to prevent cheating, outsiders' Divine Senses cannot enter the light shields, nor can they see the actions of the competitors inside. But the more complete herbs one assembles, the darker the color of their light shield will become." Huchen Wandong seemed to be explaining to the several guests, but his voice resounded throughout the entire venue, and everyone here heard it clearly.
"At the same time, this kind of competition is extremely mentally exhausting. So some disciples may not be able to continue for half an hour due to insufficient Divine Sense, and will be directly ejected from the light shield." After Huchen Wandong finished speaking, he sat down. The Nascent Soul old ancestor of the Xie family, the Nascent Soul old ancestor of the Chi family, and the old ancestor of the Ye family nodded.
After Li Yan heard this from the steps, he couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air. He had also studied the way of poison quite a bit over the years, but this was the first time he had heard of such an assessment. A medicinal herb was crushed into pieces, and then reassembled according to one's own understanding. This required a very detailed study of each herb, and even a very clear understanding of its internal texture and the direction of its meridians.
"This poison cultivation family's cultivation has reached such a perverted level." Li Yan couldn't help but sigh in his heart. On the other hand, Zhuo Lingfeng beside him, apart from having restrained his aura, had returned to a state of calm as an ancient well, as if he was very confident in Huchen Wuding.
And behind them, there were also many gasps. Many people were whispering.
"Why is this successor assessment so difficult? I've heard of the previous assessments. The basic pharmacology test only tested the uses of some unorthodox herbs. And there was also the distribution of raw materials to refine the corresponding medicinal pills within a specified time. At that time, the rankings were determined by the rank of the successfully refined medicinal pills."
"This assessment was personally set by the old ancestor, so it is naturally different."
"Half an hour. I wonder how many I can assemble if I go in?"
"I don't know. The light shield isolates Divine Sense and also prevents people from cheating through voice transmission. So I can't know what the family head meant when he said that a medicinal herb was separated into fragments. How big are the fragments..."
Just as the people on the viewing platform were whispering, the expression of the Huchen ancestor in front of them remained unchanged, but a sneer appeared in his heart. 'How can I not know what you families are thinking? Forcibly raising cultivation, or hiding cultivation, do you think I will arrange a fight as you wish?' Although he was looking at the square, he was secretly paying attention to the ancestors of those few families. Just now, when Huchen Wandong announced the content of the competition, he had clearly sensed the faces of the three family ancestors twitch.
'You families are all coveting my Huchen family. We'll see who becomes the final winner.' The Huchen ancestor sneered in his heart. A cultivator's path was full of dangers. A single careless mistake would lead to eternal damnation. The same was true for sects and families. Everyone wanted to annex others and strengthen their own family.
And the other few family ancestors were cursing the Huchen ancestor in their hearts. 'This old ghost is too cunning. The content of today's competition that we found out before was all fake without exception.'
After Huchen Wuding entered the light shield, he felt his vision go dark. Then it was as if he were standing in an endless void. It was quiet all around, a void. There were no sun, moon, or stars in the sky, as if the entire world was left with only one person.
And just as he was looking around, a majestic voice came from the void. "In three breaths, the competition begins."
At the same time as the voice came out, tens of thousands of herbs appeared densely in the void. To Huchen Wuding's astonishment, they instantly split into tens of millions of fragments. Some were a small section of a root, some were just a small cross-section of a stem, and some were even more extreme, like an edge of a leaf.
"Within half an hour, the one who reassembles the most complete herbs wins." The majestic voice sounded again.