Chapter 4303 — The Selection Rules

Ling Yuanqing paused deliberately for a while, letting the crowd slowly digest the shock in their hearts, and only when everyone's breathing had steadied did he continue.

"Very well. Now let us invite Vice Academy Head Wei Hebei of our academy to explain the selection rules to everyone." With that, Ling Yuanqing nodded toward the fierce-looking man seated to his right—this, presumably, was the Wei Hebei he had spoken of.

"Fellow cultivators, when the Eastern Continent Morning Star Yellow-Rank Academy selects disciples, we have always looked only at aptitude and nothing else. Those with good aptitude may enter; those without, no matter how deep your background or how far your connections reach, it is useless. Those who take crooked paths will never achieve greatness. You may all keep watch over one another—if anyone harbors a lucky thought and secretly plays tricks, I, Wei, will be the first to kill him!" Wei Hebei rose and addressed the crowd.

He too needed no amplification artifact to speak. Ling Yuanqing's voice could stir the mind and spirit, while Wei Hebei's voice was cut from the same cloth as his appearance—at first listen, it stood out as utterly savage, as though he truly would kill a man at the slightest disagreement; coupled with the terrifying power of his Initiator Stage cultivation, it left everyone in the hall trembling with fear.

Not a single person dared breathe too loudly, or even tilt their head the slightest bit, lest they be mistaken by the man on the platform for one scheming to take a crooked path. So they sat bolt upright and listened as Wei Hebei continued.

"As for the selection rules, they are not as complicated as you imagine—just three simple conditions." Wei Hebei looked down over the crowd and said, "First, your cultivation must be at the Golden Core Stage or above. This is the most basic threshold, and I trust you all already know it well. Second, those with a single-element spiritual root attribute are eliminated outright; you must possess at least two elemental root attributes, because this point directly determines the ceiling of your power. As for exactly why—those who understand, understand; those who do not, I will not explain to you. Go ask someone yourselves. I have no time to explain so much to you."

At these words, the crowd below exchanged glances. A small number showed looks of understanding, but far more wore expressions of blank confusion. Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao were the same—regarding this second point Wei Hebei had raised, why spiritual root attributes directly determined the ceiling of one's power, they were completely at a loss.

By Wei Zhao's long-standing understanding, spiritual root attributes did indeed determine one's cultivation talent—especially as they bore directly on which heart methods and martial techniques one could cultivate. A person with fire attribute, for instance, could only cultivate fire-element heart methods and martial techniques. But he had never heard that this somehow directly determined the ceiling of the power one could attain.

Cultivators with multi-element spiritual root attributes did indeed enjoy no small advantage in the choice of heart methods and martial techniques—one could say it influenced the strength of one's power to a considerable degree. But Wei Zhao had never believed that this directly determined the ceiling of one's power.

One still needed sufficient fortuitous opportunity. If a cultivator with multi-element spiritual root attributes could one day become an Initiator Stage expert, did that mean a cultivator with single-element spiritual root attributes could not?

Holding this doubt in his heart, Wei Zhao wanted to ask the Ghost Thing about it, but on second thought—though the other had once been a top-tier existence on Cloud Terrace Island, the Ghost Thing was, after all, of the spirit beast clan, and whether in cultivation methods or paths, it was utterly different from human cultivators. The two were simply different matters altogether, and this was likely something it did not know.

While Wei Zhao was puzzling over it, Wei Hebei on the platform, just as he had said of himself, could not be bothered to explain anything to the crowd and simply went on laying out the selection rules.

"Only those who meet the above two conditions may take part in the third test—that is, unleash with all your strength the martial technique you are most skilled in and most powerful at, and strike this miniature examination formation before me. Of course, if there are those whose specialty is not attack but defense or something else, you may also speak up; this examination formation can test that as well, only in a different manner." Wei Hebei paused, then waved his great hand and said, "Very well, those are all the selection rules. Now our academy's staff will distribute test tokens to you all. Follow your token numbers and come forward one by one in order to be tested!"

With that, Wei Hebei sat back down in his seat. At the same time, staff members wearing academy robes bearing the words "Morning Star" began handing out test tokens to everyone in the hall, one by one.

And as the crowd fixed their eyes on the staff, they could not help but discuss matters among themselves. For the Eastern Continent Morning Star Yellow-Rank Academy's disciple selection, with Academy Head Ling Yuanqing appearing in person, such a grand spectacle and mighty display—they had assumed the selection process would be terribly complicated and stringent. Who would have thought it would be so simple?

In everyone's expectations, such a selection should at the very least have pitted them against one another in combat to reveal their strength and determine who was superior. Yet unexpectedly it was merely these three meager conditions—not even a need to fight, at most just striking the examination formation once.

Wei Zhao, however, did not find it all that surprising. A moment's thought made it clear: nearly ten thousand people were here to take part in the selection. If they were to arrange round after round of duels and ultimately produce however many victors, how much time and effort would that consume?

Setting aside that combat alone made it hard to intuitively measure a person's aptitude and would fail to meet the most basic selection requirements—even if each person were allotted just a single match, the time and effort required would be immeasurable. Even at two hundred matches a day, it would take at least a month or more!

What was more, Wei Zhao had already heard that the Eastern Continent Morning Star Yellow-Rank Academy's disciple selection this time would not simply end here. The Zhenduan sea region was merely its first stop, which meant there were at least a second and third stop to come. If every stop were handled this way, anyone would collapse from it.

To conduct a selection quickly and effectively, there was in fact only one way—just as Wei Hebei had said: set two hard thresholds, screen out a small portion of people, then give them a chance to demonstrate themselves. Those whose performance caught the eye of the academy's grandees could naturally be congratulated, but those whose performance fell short—well, there was nothing to be done.

"This selection method is certainly convenient, but isn't it a bit too simple? It might let us miss out on a genius," Huang Xiaotao said in surprise from beside him. Many others present shared the same doubt. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to—)

!!