Alex continued to refine Spirit Nurturing Pills for two days. Before he started refining, he even replicated all 100 portions of spiritual herbs, causing their number to be doubled.
He used the Golden Flame Mantra to create the flame. He became familiar with refining pills in these two days without any problem. Now, he was sure that he could refine other pills on his first try, he just needed to replicate the formula of pills from someone, as well as their understanding of alchemy.
Now that two days have passed, it is the day when the disciple selection of Profound Star Sect was about to start. Alex kept all those pills inside his spatial ring and went to the designated location. He had planned to visit the Alchemist Association after the disciple selection is over.
Well, Alex could have directly entered the Profound Star Sect after showing the token given by Zhu Yun to the elders of the sect, however, he chose to participate in the selection because of two reasons. First, his cultivation base suddenly leaped to a higher level, and he was not sure how powerful he was exactly. He wanted to test his strength and fighting demonic beasts during the selection is the perfect way to analyze his own strength.
The second reason was because of 'Gatlin'. Gatlin used to be the ancestor of the Profound Star Sect, however, something happened which resulted in his cultivation being sealed. According to Gatlin, his cultivation was sealed by a Void King Stage martial warrior. With his strength at the Martial Emperor Stage, he was definitely not a match for that cultivator.
Well, after he was sealed, he was thrown to the Wasteland. After a few twists and turns, he ended up entering the Floating Cloud Academy.
Gatling gave him the 1st Volume of Scarlet Flame Saber Technique and told him to comprehend this technique in one month. After Alex returned to the academy and went to meet Gatlin, he showed him that he has successfully comprehended this technique. At that time, Gatlin gave him the 2nd Volume of Scarlet Flame Saber Technique. But this technique was still incomplete. Gatlin told him that there is an inheritance ground hidden in the Cloud Rising Forest. If he could enter the inheritance ground, there are few chances for him to obtain the 3rd volume of this technique.
After Alex received the 2nd volume, this technique's rank evolved from Profound Rank to directly Royal Rank. One can imagine how awesome this technique actually is. And if Alex could get his hand on its 3rd volume, this technique will surpass the Royal Grade and enter an entirely new rank, Emperor Grade. There is only one emperor-grade technique stored in each First Rate Force of the Three Cultivation Lands, and only the leader of these forces is allowed to practice those techniques.
If Alex could obtain them beforehand, he'll have yet another powerful trump card in his possession.
This was the reason why he chose to participate in the disciple selection instead of directly entering the sect through a backdoor.
.....
_Cloud Rising City, City Lord Mansion_
Many young geniuses were gathered here. Alex looked over and estimated that there was at least a few thousand Spirit Sea Stage martial warriors there were also around a thousand Heavenly Completion Stage martial warriors. It was rare to see a Spirit Origin Stage martial warrior like him.
On a tall platform stood ten Crystal Transformation Stage martial warriors of different ages. The younger ones looked to be in their thirties or forties, while the older ones looked to be in their eighties. These ten people were all Deacon in charge of the Disciples Selection of Profound Star Sect. They were also elders of the Outer Sect of the Profound Star Sect.
The oldest one of these ten Deacon Elders, Jude Martin, swept his eyes across the crowd and said slowly, "Today, the disciple selection will start. The time of the selection assembly has been decided to be 10 days. You all might already know that we are going to leave you in a certain area of the Cloud Rising Forest. During these ten days of time, you are not allowed to leave that area, otherwise, you will be immediately eliminated. Other than that, there are no other rules. Also, there is no guarantee of life and death during the disciple selection test. If you are afraid, then you can leave right now!"
Although his words terrorized a few people, no one chose to leave. After all, all of them had the same goal of coming here. They had to become disciples of the Profound Star Sect.
"Since no one is leaving, we'll start the disciple selection now. Remember well, it doesn't matter if your cultivation base is high or low, we don't select disciples based on cultivation bases. We select disciples based on their performance. So, give your 100% during the test."
After Jude finished speaking, he and the other nine Deacon Elders each threw an item toward the sky. The item rose with the wind, and not long after, ten huge flying ships appeared in the sky. These ships have one thing in common, all of their fronts were shaped like a huge green python's mouth.
"The Weapon Pavilion's' Green Python Flying Ship! Each of them is Saint Rank Treasures. Each one of them is worth 100,000 High-Grade Spirit Stones. As expected of the Cloud Rising Sect, even the Deacon elders have a Green Python Flying Ship!"
When Rishi saw these flying ships, his face immediately revealed a look of envy.
At this time, the flying ships were about a hundred meters away from the ground. Alex saw that the people around him were flying up one by one, while some of the Spirit Origin Stage martial warriors had anxious expressions on their faces.
They didn't expect that the first round of the selection competition would be like this.
Alex and Rishi also flew up and landed on the flying ship. Alex looked down and saw about thirty Spirit Origin Stage martial warriors who have not flown up. They all had helpless expressions on their faces as they raised their heads to look at them.
"Look, we thought no one backed off, but thirty of them have chosen to give up on this disciple selection. It is good this way though, after all, with their Spirit Origin Stage cultivation base, they'll be used by others as cannon fodders. They'll die in the forest sooner or later. It is best for them to not participate in this disciple selection." Rishi glanced at the thirty people and stopped for a moment before he continued to say, "The demonic beasts inside the Cloud Rising Forest are all at least Level 7 demonic beasts, equivalent to Origin Sea Stage martial warriors. With their strength, they'll be torn into pieces under the claws of those demonic beasts!"
Suddenly, he remembered that Alex was also a Peak Spirit Origin Stage martial warrior. Afraid that Alex would misunderstand, he quickly added, "Eh, I was not talking about you, don't worry!"
Alex smiled and didn't say anything.
The group of Deacon elders didn't even look at the people. They directly drove the flying ships towards the forest.
Half a day later, Alex saw a vast forest appearing in front of him. Ten flying ships flew in different directions and stood in the void.
"You all wait here."
The Deacon elder on the flying ship said coldly, then flew to the sky above the forest. From time to time, an item would shoot out of his hand. Due to his speed being too fast, no one was able to see what they were shooting out.
"The elders are setting up a formation, surrounding the area." At this time, Rishi took a deep breath and said.
Alex was surprised and looked deeply at Rishi. Rishi has simply too much information in his hand, his background doesn't seem ordinary at all.
After a few seconds, golden lines appeared in the air, extending unceasingly. Finally, they linked together, forming an incomparably large area. It was estimated to be a few thousand square kilometers.
"Let's go down."
The Deacon Elder returned to the flying ship and said in a deep voice. Then, everyone left the flying ship and landed in the area below.
Once they landed on the ground, Rishi pulled Alex and said, "Hurry up and leave, there are too many people here. You're just a Spirit Origin Stage martial warrior, you're too conspicuous to others. They'll definitely try to force you and use you as a cannon fodder."
Sure enough, Alex could feel many pairs of eyes staring at him. However, they had their own concerns, so none of them chose to take action for now. Instead, they formed small teams and left.
Only when he couldn't see the others did Rishi stop panting, and his entire body was covered in sweat. He was just an Origin Sea Stage Level 4 martial warrior, if other powerful people really wanted to come after Alex, he wouldn't have been able to save Alex.
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