[Sword Dao Supreme: You are born with extreme comprehension in the Sword Dao and possess a unique understanding of it. When paired with Sword Dao cultivation techniques, your progress becomes hundreds of times more efficient!]
"Another red talent?"
"And this time it is Sword Dao Supreme?"
"Good, good, good! So that is how you want to play it, huh? One bad pull, one good pull!"
Su Ming recalled the Business Genius talent from his last simulation. It was not entirely useless, but its effect had been minimal at best.
This time, however, Sword Dao Supreme paired perfectly with his Taixu Sword Art.
[After obtaining Sword Dao Supreme, you immediately began cultivating the Taixu Sword Art without pause!]
[One year later, you successfully advanced the Taixu Sword Art from Beginner to Minor Accomplishment.]
[At the same time, you also cultivated Taixu Sword Intent!]
[When Ye Chuxue saw you emerge after a year of secluded cultivation, she noticed that your cultivation had become even more profound, and streams of Sword Intent now lingered around your body.]
[At this moment, you also noticed Ye Chuxue. After you gave her a large amount of resources, she broke through to Foundation Establishment within a year.]
"You broke through? Do you know the truth now?"
[Ye Chuxue looked at you with a complicated expression. She had never imagined that the truth of this world would be so dark.]
"What should we do next? Qingyun Sect has already issued a wanted order for us throughout all of Qingzhou!"
[Ye Chuxue now regarded you as her backbone and began asking what your plans were from here on.]
[You told her to remain in the Desolate Village and cultivate for the time being, while you would be leaving on a long journey, perhaps for one or two years, perhaps for three to five.]
[Before leaving, you told her to do her best to reach Foundation Establishment Great Perfection before you returned. At that time, you would take her to the Fallen Immortal Secret Realm to break through.]
[Ye Chuxue naturally knew what kind of place the Fallen Immortal Secret Realm was, so she agreed without any hesitation.]
[You left behind a large amount of resources plundered from Qingyun Sect for Ye Chuxue, while you yourself headed toward Youzhou.]
[This time, you intended to leave Qingzhou and see what the situation was like in the other regions.]
[Based on the information currently available about the Canglan Realm, you still had no idea what the true situation of the world was.]
[Half a year later, you successfully arrived at the border of Youzhou.]
[You had previously learned that the overall power structure of Youzhou was divided among four top forces: the Pill Sect, the Sword Pavilion, the Yin-Yang Sect, and the Feathered Ascension Sect.]
[And just like Qingzhou, Youzhou's forbidden land was the Fallen Immortal Secret Realm located within the Heavenly Abyss at the border between the two regions.]
[Your main purpose in coming to Youzhou this time was to seize cultivation resources.]
[Qingzhou was now filled with wanted notices for you everywhere, so infiltrating the Myriad Demons Sect or the Wind Thunder Sect again would be rather difficult.]
[The first force you went to was the Sword Pavilion!]
[With the Sword Dao Supreme talent, you were naturally drawn to the Sword Pavilion.]
[You concealed your cultivation at the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining, then came to register at the Sword Pavilion, intending to join it.]
[However, when you arrived at Heavenly Sword Mountain of the Sword Pavilion, you discovered that the place was packed shoulder to shoulder with people who had come to register.]
[At the same time, you overheard all kinds of discussions about the Sword Pavilion.]
"This time, how many people do you think will successfully join the Sword Pavilion?"
"That is hard to say. No one has successfully joined the Sword Pavilion in the past three years."
"Sigh! The Sword Pavilion's recruitment requirements are truly too high. But I heard that the benefits for every disciple who successfully joins are exceptionally good. Their cultivation resources are several times what other sects provide!"
"Is that not obvious? Just look at how many disciples the Sword Pavilion has from top to bottom!"
"Even though the Sword Pavilion has few disciples, every single one of them can fight ten opponents alone!"
...
[Listening to the discussions around you, you gained a rough understanding of the Sword Pavilion's basic situation.]
[What surprised you was that although the Sword Pavilion recruited disciples every year, it had not successfully accepted a single disciple in thirty years.]
[You could not understand what the Sword Pavilion was thinking. Its recruitment standards were unbelievably strict.]
[In your view, this completely did not match the style of a major sect recruiting disciples.]
[Although it had to be admitted that the Sword Pavilion's benefits were excellent, the extremely high threshold made people shrink back in fear.]
[Three hours later, it was finally your turn.]
[The person in charge of the assessment brought you before a stone stele and gave you half an incense stick's worth of time to comprehend it on your own.]
[As for what exactly you were supposed to comprehend, he did not say. He simply left you there alone and walked away.]
[You glanced at the person beside you who was also taking the assessment and asked what the content of this test was.]
[The other party gave you an impatient look.]
"You are asking me what it is? I want to ask you the same thing!"
"The Sword Pavilion's assessments have always been like this. Some of those who failed even think the Sword Pavilion is playing tricks on them, using a broken stone to test them."
[Seeing this, you stopped asking questions and closed your eyes to sense the stone stele before you.]
[In the next instant, you sensed a faint trace of Sword Intent from the stone stele!]
BZZZ! BZZZ! BZZZ!
[Very quickly, the stone stele began to tremble, and the Sword Intent within it resonated with you.]
[The disciple responsible for the assessment, who had only just left, instantly returned to your side and looked at you in shock.]
[He had never expected that you would connect with the Sword Intent within the stele the moment the assessment began. This was something the Sword Pavilion had never encountered since its founding.]
"Congratulations. You have passed the assessment! Come with me!"
[The young man led you away from the testing grounds under the stunned gazes of everyone present.]
[Not long after, you were brought into a great hall.]
[The young man spoke toward the empty hall.]
"Pavilion Master! This is the only disciple who passed the assessment this year, and..."
[At this point, the young man gave you a deep look before continuing.]
"And he passed it extremely quickly. It only took a few breaths."
[As soon as his words fell, you suddenly felt an intense Sword Intent rush toward you, and the Taixu Sword Intent inside your body almost could not help but rise up in resistance.]
[Fortunately, this Sword Intent came quickly and disappeared just as quickly.]
[You successfully suppressed the Taixu Sword Intent that was on the verge of erupting from within you.]
[An old man with white hair appeared before your eyes and sized you up a few times.]
"A genius of the Sword Dao! Heaven truly blesses my Sword Pavilion!"
"Lin Tian, you may withdraw first."
[After sending Lin Tian away, the Pavilion Master of the Sword Pavilion gave you a meaningful look.]
"You are not at the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining, are you?"
[The moment those words were spoken, a storm surged in your heart.]
[You had not expected your concealment technique to be completely transparent before the white-haired elder.]
[Just as you were about to use the Great Void Technique to flee, the old man's next sentence shocked you even more.]
"Do not worry. There are no Bizarre Insects in the Sword Pavilion. Everyone here is a normal human."
"What? Everyone in the Sword Pavilion is a normal human?"
When Su Ming saw this, he was so startled by the contents before him that he nearly jumped.
In the current Canglan Realm, there was actually still a cultivation force made up entirely of humans.
And it was such an open and obvious force at that. It was something Su Ming never would have imagined, even in death.
He could not understand how they had managed to survive safely for so many years, nor how they could guarantee that every disciple was an Awakener.
The assessment???
...