Chapter 316: There Was Never a Thing Called Absolute Fairness
Rows of young men and women were seen taking ordeals of illusions in the plaza under the hot sun.
Young men and women would emerge out of their trials every two hours, with some wearing beaming smiles and others, ashen looks.
“I did it! I made it into the Heavenly Palace!”
“How could this be? Why wasn’t I able to tough it out?”
“This is impossible! This is outrageous!”
A great majority of those who emerged wore glum, sullen looks on their faces, completely unable to swallow the fact that they failed to make the cut. All of them had been lauded by many to be geniuses before they came, and they found it to be utterly impossible to get eliminated so easily.
Yet, those people failed at the trial of illusions, which was the last round of the series of selections.
Lu Xuan himself formulated the illusory scenes. All of those young men and women would then be subjected to all manner of tests in the illusions, be it in terms of courage, resilience, character, tendency for betrayal, and more.
Only a handful managed to pass the test, and there were even several batches that saw none being able to make it out successfully.
In a high-rise building within the Heavenly Palace base, Duan Shan and the rest of the 12 military governors gathered around.
As the first among the disciples that the Heavenly Palace took it, all of them came back to hold the fort, although none would come to cause trouble.
“Great way of going about with the selections. This would easily filter out all those who are either of impure intent, shaky resolve, and cowardly.”
Duan Shan commented as he watched batches after batches of young men and women who either passed or failed to make the cut below.
None of them knew how Lu Xuan would go about with the selections before they came for the tests.
The series of tests was meant for selecting the best among the 200 thousand who came to join the Heavenly Palace, after all. Those who did not make it in the age and talent requirement were eliminated early, with all who remained being of the right age, the right talent, and possessing decent potential.
To the 12 military governors, all of those people were undoubtedly the best there could be found. Those young men and women would have been considered seed candidates to be high on the priority list for further nurture, back in their respective sects and clans.
They even knew that the other organizations that they originally belonged to, which included even the likes of the Special Task Force, the Dragon Fang Special Forces, and several others, sent representatives to the scene to select potential candidates from those who failed to make the cut.
It was especially so in the case of the organizations serving the government, as their capacities for fostering capable people were so high that they could have taken in all 200 thousand of them.
The feat of selecting 2000 among them all was deemed too difficult to be executed by many.
After all, all of those people were at different points of training. Some had only begun to train, while some others were considered quite accomplished as they were. They were also a great many cultivators who were at Baodan Grandmaster and Martial Arts Legend levels as well.
If they were to be selected purely based on their combat prowess, the processes would have been extremely unfair to those who had only begun to train.
No one expected Lu Xuan to come up with such a way of selecting the candidates.
All of them knew that all those people would be subjected to many trials and tribulations in the illusions, in a very short period.
While it was made clear to all of them that it was all just illusions, the process nonetheless served well for honing the subject in question. It was especially given that the true, original character of those who were subjected to the illusions would be laid bare for all to see. There was simply no way of concealing their true character.
All those who made it past the trials of the illusory formation were no doubt the best among the elites to make it past the test for joining the Heavenly Palace.
Be it resilience, character, courage, and whatever other factors involved, only the best among the best would be able to make the cut.
In truth, it was made clear to everyone that only those who were of extreme talents would be able to make it that far in the first place. As such, talents were no longer the highest among the list of priorities in that test.
On the contrary, the quality of their character was deemed to be of utmost importance instead.
In Lu Xuan’s perspective, talents were hardly of any importance at such a level, unless the one in question was someone whose talents were far beyond reasoning, like Yun Ling’er. Talents would otherwise be a minor factor in one’s path in cultivation from then on out.
Lu Xuan even had the means to boost the innate talents of all those people involved. He had all manner of alkahestry resources and cultivation methods up for the job at his disposal, after all.
Talents could be transformed, but not necessarily so with one’s character and temperament.
The saying of “the child is the father of the man” had its fair points after all.
While Duan Shan and the others were nowhere near Lu Xuan when it came to the state of mind and being, but they were able to see at least that much.
However, all of those people wore peculiar, puzzled looks on their faces soon enough. They caught wind of the news that Lu Xuan picked someone out in that sea of candidates personally.
Furthermore, that someone was a girl!
The news sounded weird to all of them who were present.
Lu Xuan’s unfathomably formidable prowess meant that there were countless who wanted to study under him. However, with the exception of Ling Yu, who was considered an honorary disciple of his, no one heard of him taking anyone else as his personal disciple before.
All of them naturally understood the vast difference between an honorary disciple and a true, personal disciple.
All of them were curious as to just how extraordinarily talented one had to be to catch Lu Xuan’s attention.
All 12 of the military governors knew just how prideful that young master of theirs was, and no common man would be considered worthy of his notice.
“Yun Ling’er.”
All of them committed that name to memory, as that would possibly be the young master of the Heavenly Palace in the future.
Even the 12 military governors knew well enough that their status would not be able to compare to that of Yun Ling’er in the future.
Yun Ling’er, who was handpicked by Lu Xuan as his personal disciple at the moment, was looking rather puzzled.
That young man who was so incredibly handsome that she had wanted to flirt with and add as a friend on social media was actually none other than that legendary Lu Xuan, Palace Lord of the Heavenly Palace.
She felt that it was like riding a roller-coaster at the moment.
She wondered just how she became a personal disciple of the Palace Lord just like that.
Furthermore, she was said to be the only one at the moment.
All of that made her feel very, very pleased with herself, and excited.
It was especially so after seeing the envious and jealous looks all those other young men and women shot at her. The experience was beyond ecstatic.
She wondered if she should just post on TikTok and brag about it for a bit.
“This is unfair! Why could she be the disciple of the Palace Lord himself, yet all of us get eliminated instead? We want an explanation!” a young man dressed in elaborate clothing pointed at Yun Ling’er and said.
All the other young men and women around him nodded in agreement. All of them were wondering why that happened.
It was especially so given that Yun Ling’er looked plain and unassuming. While there was no doubt that she had decent looks, she was still nowhere near appearing truly outstanding.
Furthermore, she was currently only wearing a common middle school uniform, and that made her look even more plain and commonplace.
All of them wondered just what Lu Xuan saw in her enough to make her his disciple.
The examiner shot looks at each other, as they had no idea why that happened in the first place as well.
“I shall tell you all why then.”
Lu Xuan was seen descending slowly from the sky as all of the examiners looked baffled.
Sunlight shone on him, making him look even more dazzling and extravagant.
He looked so brilliant that he was seen to be nothing short of the gods told in legends.
“You want fairness, eh? I’d tell you all then, that the first truth about cultivation, is that there is no such thing as absolute fairness in the world.”
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m