A surprising news reached the Qingyun Clan disciples two weeks later. A Sect Envoy was coming to select talented disciples. It was not just any Sect Envoy, but a representative from the Verdant Sword Sect, one of the five major sects operating within the Azure Hills Kingdom.
The Verdant Sword Sect accepted disciples from clans and surrounding counties in the Azure Hills Kingdom once every two years, and the selection criteria were strict: cultivation level, martial soul grade, combat ability, and whatever intangible qualities the sect's evaluators considered worth their time.
The news moved through surrounding cities and into the Qingyun Clan compound the way exciting news always does, fast and loud and slightly distorted by the time it reached each new set of ears.
By the third telling, some people had inflated the Sect Envoy's ranking to an inner elder. By the fifth, ten spots had somehow become hundred.
Lin Feng heard the correct version from Elder Shen directly, delivered with her customary economy of words: ten spots available for contention, for every young talents within the surrounding five counties in its territory; Clear River County, Grey Cloud County, Ironwood County, Silverleaf County, and Blackstone County
Whether Clan disciples or Rogue Cultivators, everyone could participate. The assessment was in one month.
He nodded and thanked her and returned to his room.
"One month." He sat on his mat and thought carefully.
Entering the Verdant Sword Sect was the logical next step for him. The clan could take him only so far. It had no high-tier technique library, no masters above the Houtian Realm, and no exposure to the wider world that a cultivator with his potential would eventually need.
Staying in the Qingyun Clan indefinitely meant putting a ceiling on his growth, and Lin Feng had no intention of accepting ceilings. It also paved the way for him to be free and more confident in displaying his talents.
"I must earn myself a spot."
Lin Feng was determined to succeed, grow stronger as a cultivator, and defy all odds... even the heavens, if it came to that.
---
The month before the assessment was the busiest he had spent since finding the valley cave.
In the intermediate training group, he worked with an instructor named Elder Dao Wei, a lean, weathered man who had the particular patience of someone who had spent years teaching cultivators of wildly uneven talent.
He assigned Lin Feng to the standard curriculum without fanfare, and Lin Feng absorbed it efficiently, learning the technical framework of basic Qi circulation arts that the technique library offered while already knowing, privately, that the War God Art rendered most of them redundant for his specific needs.
He used the library not for techniques but for information, by studying maps of the Azure Hills Kingdom, Records of cultivation realm thresholds until the peak of Houtian Realm, and notes on pills, weapons, and beast classifications.
The kinds of foundational knowledge he had been building through experience but could supplement through reading.
At night, he continued hunting down beasts.
He had pushed deeper into the mountain range over the past few weeks and was encountering Spirit Beasts now with some regularity. Spirit Beasts were a significant step up from Savage Beasts.
A First-Order Spirit Beast was significantly stronger than a First-Order Savage Beast and possessed cultivated Qi, internal energy shaped by a higher level bloodline and years of natural practice. The devouring energy they yielded was correspondingly richer.
His cultivation had crossed into Meridian Opening, the seventh sublayer of the Body Tempering Realm, and was approaching its peak.
The Acupoint Awakening sublayer, the eighth, required a specific kind of focused internal work and reaching Mastery Understanding proficiency level that the War God Art's first stage, Battle Awakening, aligned with well. He was close to breaking through.
Mastery Understanding of Battle Awakening Stage requires one to sense and utilize the War Intent within their blood. While Intent Understanding requires one to embody the War Intent. These requirements must be met before Lin Feng could advance to the second stage of the War God Art, Iron Blood.
...
With ten days remaining before the assessment, he had an encounter that reminded him how visible his reputation was becoming.
He was in the outer market area of the nearest town, buying a small supply of medicinal herbs to supplement his recovery from a challenging hunt, when two disciples from a visiting clan's group recognized him.
"That's the one from Qingyun Clan with a trash soul who beat their top talent," one of them mocked, not quietly enough though. "Story made it to our side of the hills. People thought it was a joke at first, hahaha."
Lin Feng ignored them. He did not stop walking.
"Hey!" the second one called. "Trash soul! Show us what your mighty Martial Soul looks like."
He kept walking, ignoring their taunts. One of them laughed out loud and stepped in front of him, blocking the narrow lane between the market stalls.
He was young and broad looking, wearing the kind of expression that came from having enough backing to be comfortable making someone else's life difficult.
"A good dog does not block the path," Lin Feng said, not so much as pausing his steps.
Something in the tone and aura of Lin Feng from up close made the young man pause. He didn't want to backdown, but there was something in the flat certainty of it that was harder to dismiss than anger or fear would have been.
He could only grit his teeth and clench his fists as Lin Feng walked past him. But looking at the mocking gestures of the bystanders, he didn't want to loose more face so he moved to attack.
A market guard timely appeared at the end of the lane, hand on his weapon, eyeing the scene with a disapproving gaze.
The young man from the visiting clan made a decision right there as he stepped aside.
Lin Feng walked through. Behind him, he heard one of them mutter: "What is that guy's problem?"
---
Lin Feng was sitting on the steps of the outer dormitory that evening when Qingyun Gu, one of the younger outer disciples, came running toward him with the breathless urgency of someone carrying news they considered unmissable.
"They posted it!" Qingyun Gu said, skidding to a stop. "The assessment schedule! The Sect Envoy arrives in nine days and the test is going to be a multi-stage format tournament of combat. They're only taking in those who ranked in the top ten and Elder Shen said the competition would be fierce since there would be at least two thousand participants across the Clear River County!"
Qingyun Gu looked at him expectantly with his large, bright eyes. "B-but..." He hesitated, then decided to say it anyway, "do you think someone with your... Martial Soul grading... can really get a spot?"
Lin Feng looked at him calmly, then smiled and ruffled his hair playfully.
"Don't worry Gu. My cultivation progress and what I can do in the tournament should be my concern only," he said.
Qingyun Gu blinked. "R-right. Sorry." He shuffled off, somewhat deflated.