Many held their breath as Ling Tian unleashed his sword Qi, the faint crimson light wreathing his wooden blade pulsing with fierce intensity.
Sword Qi? That's impossible. Elder Su frozen in disbelief.
I'll finish this in a single strike
Ling Tian move forward as his sword came down in a wide arc.
The disciple didn't back down from Ling Tian's Sword Qi, he simply he didn't recognize it.
He raised his blade to parry it, but regret that decision in an instant.
His arms shook violently as he felt his Qi being crushed under an invisible pressure.
His gaze dropped to his sword, eyes going wide. Ling Tian's wooden blade had buried itself into the metal, the steel dissolving like wax beneath the sword Qi radiating from it.
Silence.
Ling Tian withdrew his blade with a faint smile. He had already anticipated the reaction will be this.
It was no small part of why he carried such confidence. He was a sword master, after all.
He was simply in a different class entirely.
Turning, Ling Tian caught sight of Han Jian's stricken expression, jaw slack as he struggled to make sense of what he'd just witnessed.
How had he cleaved through a real sword with nothing but wood?
Get a hold of yourself.
Han Jian dropped his gaze. He still had a powerful family behind him.
His eyes drifted to Yun Xi, who was gazing at Ling Tian the way one might look at the sun.
He wasn't foolish enough to misread what was between them, and that realization only sharpened his contempt for Ling Tian.
Yet whenever his eyes found her, every impulse to surrender withered away. He wanted her for himself, entirely and forever.
What was a woman of her standing doing beside a commoner? Someone of her birth deserved someone of equal standing.
"That was quite the... demonstration," Elder Tian remarked, drawing every eye back to him.
He would admit it — sword Qi was a fearsome thing.
Even standing at the Heavenly Spirit Realm, he had felt a faint, unmistakable edge of danger from Ling Tian's sword Qi.
Not enough to threaten his life, but more than enough to leave a mark.
"This humble one is grateful for Elder Su's kind words," Ling Tian said, offering a respectful bow before returning to his place, unbothered by the hushed murmurs rippling through the crowd.
The assessments resumed shortly after, though few paid them much mind. Unremarkable disciple after unremarkable disciple, nothing worth remembering. It didn't drag on long.
The outer disciples gathered the failures and escorted them from the Sect. Before long, only fifty recruits remained.
Elder Su came to a stop before them, his gaze sweeping across every face before he exhaled a quiet, disappointed sigh.
This batch had been middling at best. A handful of geniuses were scattered among the rest, but not nearly enough.
A few had cultivations beyond their years and spiritual roots of reasonable quality. Talented, certainly, but nowhere near the threshold of true genius.
In every previous selection, there had been at least ten such disciples. High cultivations, exceptional spiritual roots, the whole lot. This time, the only ones who had genuinely caught his eye were Ling Tian and Yun Xi, both with cultivations that far outpaced their age, and spiritual roots of the rarest, highest quality.
Composing himself, Elder Su raised a hand as he stepped onto the arena floor. A marble table rose from the stone beneath him, and fifty tokens materialized in the air before raining down upon its surface.
Wooden tokens, each identical to the next, a dragon carved into the face, a space reserved for the disciple's name. All of them alike, save for one. A single golden token rested among them.
"These are your disciple tokens. For as long as you remain outer disciples, they are everything," Elder Su said, lifting the golden one between his fingers.
"Lose them, and the consequences will be severe. Without them, you cannot undertake missions, access the Sect's facilities, or receive your monthly stipend."
He turned the golden token over slowly. "This is the Golden Token, bestowed upon those the Sect considers to hold exceptional promise. Its bearer is granted a private residence and twice the resources allocated to ordinary outer disciples."
His gaze moved across the recruits, reading their expressions. Only three stood apart from the rest — Ling Tian, Yun Xi, and Han Jian. Though between the first two, he found himself genuinely torn.
Han Jian was never truly under consideration. A pitiful sight, a man pining openly after a woman who had no interest in him whatsoever, incapable of reining in his own murderous intent.
The Han family's fortunes hardly rest on this one, Elder Su thought, shaking his head. The Han family had no shortage of capable heirs, and Han Jian was nowhere near the line of succession.
His gaze settled on Yun Xi.
She came from the Yun family — not as powerful as the Han, but her talent alone could change that. She could be the foundation upon which her family rose.
The Yun family mentioned their young lady would be sitting the examination, but said nothing of this. It took two separate tests before I was even certain it was her.
She should have no problem; with her family supporting her, she will grow on her own. Which means the golden token should go to…
Then his eyes moved toward Ling Tian.
Strikingly handsome, yet without a trace of arrogance about him. His expression was composed, his smile unhurried and genuine.
Even with Han Jian's killing intent pressing against him like a drawn blade, the young man hadn't so much as flinched.
That was what a true cultivator looked like. Not only was he the highest potential among all of the recruits, but he also had those strange spiritual roots…
Elder Su lifted his gaze and reached his decision.
"Ling Tian. One step forward."
"Unacceptable!" Han Jian's voice boomed across the arena, his gaze darting between the wooden token clutched in his own hand and the golden one resting in Ling Tian's.
All eyes were fixed on him. Was this fool mad? He had surely seen that recruit's brutal fate.
"Are you questioning my judgement, Young Master Han?" Elder Su's gaze turned to ice, though he pressed no further than those words.
"Yes!" The young master stepped forward. "I am a son of the Han family! I refuse to let some lowborn peasant walk away with what is mine!"
"Nothing here is yours. Ling Tian surpasses you." Elder Su's killing intent flared, forcing Han Jian to bow his head in sudden defeat.
But even so, the young master didn't give up.
"My big sister is an elder of the Sect. I demand an explanation!" He roared, his eyes bloodshot.
The elder stiffened, very nearly losing his composure, yet ultimately let out a long, weary breath.
"I'll be speaking with Elder Han regarding your situation."
"You'd better!" Han Jian snarled.
Elder Su ignored the insolence. He had more important matters to attend to.