Chapter 722 – Test of Insight
With a wave of their hands, ten square platforms were created in front of the city. On every platform, four pillars generated a yellowish dome array like a barrier.
"For 2,000 years, our sword sect is known to be the holy land of sword masters. Countless swordsmen joined us and prospered as sword saints! Among all sword sects, we are ranked first in every category – Wealth, resources, techniques, cultivation methods, strength, environment, disciples, elders, and influence in Wu Dynasty Empire! By coming here, you've made the right decision!"
The next elder added, "Every decade, our sect's doors are open for outsiders to join our sect. It's a tradition to welcome new blood, and we're delighted to see many candidates here. I'm sure that some of you might emerge as a new sword saint in the future after receiving our guidance and the support from our sect!"
Hearing their background, many players were excited. The local swordsmen's eyes gleamed as they had been waiting for this moment.
After boasting about their sect enough, the elder stopped beating around the bush.
"Because of the recent influx in otherworlders, our sect has decided to change a few rules. Instead of limiting candidates' bone age between 16 and 20, we shall allow anyone under the bone age of 25 to test your luck! Secondly, we will not restrict the cultivation base!"
Hearing the new rules, many local cultivators rejoiced. The players were also relieved as they might have a chance to join a sect in-game.
But the announcement was not over.
"Last time, we only had two exams because we required the candidate to be stronger than the 3rd-stage. However, this time, since we allow many candidates to join this test, we shall increase the number of exams to five. If you pass three of five exams, we shall accept you as an initiate of our sect. If you manage to pass all five, we shall welcome you as an outer disciple! In addition…"
The speaking elder smiled at Miaomiao and paused before he continued.
"If you pass all five exams, you will have an opportunity to challenge an inner disciple to a duel. If you win, you will be promoted to an inner disciple right away! Oh, I need to warn you beforehand. The number of inner disciples of our sect is limited to one thousand. Once every year, top-ranked outer disciples can forcefully challenge an inner disciple to a duel to steal their seat. If an inner disciple loses, they lose their inner disciple seat to the victor. However, if they win, they get the wagered spirit stones and gold coins of the challenger."
The message was directed to Miaomiao, who had the qualification to defeat any inner disciple with his raw cultivation base and physical strength. The elder still believed that Miaomiao could easily skip the initiate and outer disciple rank right away.
"For the sake of fairness, the cultivation base of all candidates will be suppressed to the 1st-stage while they are taking the tests! There will be no exception even if you're the king of this country!"
Miaomiao laughed at the elders' attempt to appeal as fair administrators. They just gave him hints, but a moment later, they told the others that they were FAIR.
"Now, let's begin with our first assessment exam. First, we shall evaluate your insight. Candidates, come up on the stage. Grab a wooden sword and attack one of the boulders!"
Ten obelisk boulders with gold cryptic runes rose up on each platform. They exuded the aura of metal Qi, but no real Qi leaked out to harm the young candidates. Weapon racks magically appeared from nothingness and stood at the sides of the platforms.
A hundred disciples of the sect flew toward the platforms. They began sorting the crowd and asked them to form queues, assisting the elders.
Suddenly, Miaomiao kicked the ground and leaped to the nearest weapon rack. He grabbed a wooden long sword and jumped to the platform in front of him, ignoring the disciples.
"S-Sir? O-Oh, Young Master Mao? N-Never mind."
The outer disciple shut his mouth and let Miaomiao do whatever he wanted.
The elders in the sky grinned as they didn't give out any hint and the meaning behind the different sizes of each boulder. They let all candidates, including Miaomiao, figure it out.
Miaomiao inwardly laughed and stood in front of the largest boulder at the center. Then, he glanced at the smaller ones.
As soon as Miaomiao stepped on the platform, he sensed that his cultivation base was sealed. Now, he could only muster the physical strength of a 1st-stage mortal. Even so, a Chaos Seraphim's physical strength was not the same as humans.
After observing the largest boulder for a while, Miaomiao figured out something. It was 5 meters tall, but the residual metal element Qi was the strongest here. Moreover, Miaomiao couldn't see a flaw or a weak point of this rock. Its array was also perfect, which was impossible for a first-stage cultivator to damage it.
"Interesting."
Miaomiao laughed and walked away from the largest boulder. He picked the second largest rock on this platform and leisurely slashed it with the wooden long sword.
The wooden sword cut through the invisible barrier array of the boulder and left a deep cut mark on the surface. Then, the boulder lit up and displayed a number.
100
'Full point, maybe?'
RUMBLE
Suddenly, all boulders on the same platform vanished, and a new set of 10 boulders appeared.
Miaomiao gazed at the number and scoffed. He thought of the day when he took a similar assessment test and lost to Xie Tian.
'I doubt any protagonist will show up here and ruin my spotlight. I'm no longer a mob but a hidden boss character. None of these noobs can surpass me.'
While Miaomiao was reminiscing the past, one of the elders gave out a verdict.
"Pass! Full 100 points!"
Hearing the result, Miaomiao lightly snorted and leaped back toward his bodyguards, who had been clapping for him.
"Good job, young master! I know you can do it!" Mao Hao clapped the loudest.
"Stop embarrassing me."
"What's there to be embarrassed about? You scored a full point, and you even saw through a newbie trap on your first try! Well done, young master!"
The other three bodyguards also nodded in approval. As they had been receiving guidance from Mao Shan and Mao Cheng, they knew what kind of tests the sect's disciples had gone through. They, too, practiced against these boulders many times in the past.
As Miaomiao and his bodyguards chatted, Chase overheard them. He mustered his courage and asked the young master.
"Congratulations, sir. You are so strong! But what is this test all about? I don't understand."
Mao Hao and the others sneered at Chase as they wanted to see the others fail. However, Miaomiao was generous toward his man-made protagonist-to-be.
"It's a test of external martial arts and insight. You need to destroy the array of the boulder and leave a mark on it. If you fail to destroy the array, you won't be able to put a dent in the boulder. But if you pick a boulder that is too weak, you might end up destroying it, and you might not get a good score. Therefore, you pick the strongest boulder that you can put a dent on it with your external art and physical strength. You have to go out and experience it to understand what I mean."
"… Wow."
Chase sweated profusely as he didn't understand anything. He turned toward the platforms, which were now crowded with people.
Many players and local cultivators chose to copy Miaomiao by picking the second largest boulder and hitting them with wooden swords. However, their scores varied.
"54. Barely pass!"
"37. Too weak! Fail!"
"45. Fail!"
"12. You're overestimating yourself? Fail!"
The crowd was confused as they couldn't understand how they failed. A player began protesting.
"Senior, what's the secret behind this?! How come I only get a low score, but that YOUNG MASTER got a full score? Is this exam rigged?!"
The elders ignored the player. They continued overseeing the platform and used their metal Qi to summon new boulders for new candidates.
On the wall, a hundred outer disciples had been recording the scores of each candidate. Although they didn't know their names, they took a photo of candidates and put a number below the portraits.
.
Observing Miaomiao was the sideline was a high-level player. Currently, he was ranked 7th on the leaderboard with his level 120.
His in-game name was Raoul. He donned himself in a crimson wolf leather gear and a wolf mask. His weapon of choice was a bastard sword and a short sword. Combined with his 2 meters in height, he looked like a monster instead of a human.
Raoul had heard that the Celestial Sword Sect was recruiting disciples, so he came here to take his chance, hoping to get free skill books in-game. And now, he witnessed a strange event, which he had suspected to be a game story or a small event between a special NPC and a character.
'I'm glad I come here. That must be the rumored NPC. Those elders seem to be respectful to this guy, so he must be some sort of a young master of a lord or something. I wonder if I can make a good impression to get his attention.'
Raoul approached the group. Unfortunately, the first round of exams had started. Miaomiao hopped on the stage and easily scored 100 points.
Raoul narrowed his eyes as he noticed something odd in Miaomiao's behavior. He went to the largest boulder first and frowned. Then, he proceeded to ignore the strongest boulder and pick a weaker one to hit.
Curious, Raoul walked closer to the bodyguards of Miaomiao and pretended to sit nearby.
When Miaomiao returned, he chatted with Chase, and Raoul heard something interesting.
'Hoh? If I hit a boulder that's too strong for me, I get low points. If I hit something that is too weak, I get low points. So, I need to find something that matches my strength?'
Raoul stood up and rotated his joints, warming up his body. He followed the crowd and queue to take the test.
When it was Raoul's turn, he took his time to inspect every boulder on the stage. Minutes later, he picked the 4th largest boulder and hit it with a wooden long sword.
Raoul managed to cut through the array barrier and left a shallow mark on the boulder. Then, a number appeared.
"79! Pass!"
Raoul clenched his fist. He was proud of his decision and wits.
'There you go! This is how you play the game. The hints are there, but players have to pay attention or they will miss it!'
He left the platform smirked. He even took several screenshots of astonished expressions of other players and local NPCs.
Suddenly, a loud voice occurred behind him. Someone who took the test after Raoul caused a loud commotion.
"86! PASS!"
Raoul widened his eyes and turned around in shock, "WHAT?!"
.
Chase widened his eyes and stared at his score in disbelief. He simply followed Miaomiao's hint and hit something that he could damage. He even picked the 2nd smallest boulder with a slightly dimmed array barrier, hoping to get a passable score.
But in the end, he got 86, which was confusing.
"Are you serious? It's this easy?"
He turned to Miaomiao, who had been observing him from afar.
Miaomiao and the bodyguards gave him a thumbs up.
"…"
Chase returned to Miaomiao's side and asked him right away. He didn't notice that a giant wolf man had been stalking behind him.
"Sir, how come I have a high score? How does this even work?"
Miaomiao laughed, "They said earlier – This round is a test of insight. As I said, you just need to break the array barrier and hit the boulder without destroying it. What you need to inspect is not the boulder but the array around it. Had you failed to destroy the array with your physical strength, you would have gotten a bad score!"
"So how come I got a high score even though I picked the weakest stone?"
"Hahaha! I sliced the array in half, then I left a mark on the boulder. But in your case, you fricking smashed with the sword's blunt side instead of cutting it. That's why your score got deduced as a penalty for that error. Had you cut it properly, you would have gotten a full score like me!"
"O-Oh?"
Chase was embarrassed. He scratched his nose, feeling bad that he got too nervous on the stage.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶