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Chapter 897: Chapter 903: Shocking
When the space had regained its serenity, Shen cautiously approached, a hint of fear surfacing on his face as he asked in a soft voice, "Jiu, what is this thing? How can it be so terrifying?!"
Li Zhirui looked thoughtfully at Shen. It should be noted that, even in front of an Eighth Grade Qilin, Shen hadn’t felt a trace of bloodline suppression, but he felt fear towards this withering Spirit Seed.
After pondering for a moment, he said, "It should be a Spirit Seed of extremely high grade, but as for which type of Spiritual Object it is, I’m not very clear."
"However, if nothing unexpected happens, its origin should be the same as the little Qilin, Mu, originating from beyond the realm, not a Spirit Seed nurtured by the Profound Origin Realm."
Since the Spirit Seed had not yet fully regained its vitality, Li Zhirui wasn’t able to accurately determine its grade, but it was at least seventh grade!
"Shen, please take good care of this Spirit Seed for me."
Seeing that Shen was still cowering, Li Zhirui said amusedly, "Don’t worry, there won’t be any more such disturbances."
"By the way, where is Mu?"
The usually lively and active Mu was nowhere to be seen up to this point, which was clearly problematic.
"He’s tied up by me, giving him a lesson to avoid him damaging the Spirit Seed as he did initially," Shen said with a trace of resentment.
"Yes, he indeed deserves a lesson."
Li Zhirui instructed, "Make sure to take good care of this Spirit Seed and don’t let Mu spoil it."
"Don’t worry!" Shen patted his chest, promising.
Li Zhirui inwardly laughed to himself, thinking that for now, you’re bullying Mu, but once he is born, and his cultivation surpasses yours, then there will be a spectacle to watch.
This was not an impossible scenario!
Though Shen was currently a Third Order Spirit Beast and Mu had not yet been born, Mu was an Eighth Grade Qilin whose cultivation could advance rapidly — a situation that could truly materialize.
But Li Zhirui did not remind Shen of this, knowing that having a rival to compete against, enhancing their cultivation by ’crossing swords’, would better improve their cultivation levels.
——
Li Zhirui cultivated in the space for one night.
The next morning, he followed the crowd to the Spirit Testing Square, wanting to see how much difference there was in talent between the common people of the central region and the Secular Clansmen of the Li family.
Perhaps it was because the hour had not yet arrived, the square was noisy.
The cultivators discussed how many more cultivators would appear in this Spirit Testing and what their talent would be like; commoners prayed to all kinds of immortals, hoping their children possessed a Spiritual Root and could thus become cultivators on the path of seeking the Dao.
But on both sides of the road leading to the Great Dao, countless skeletons were piled up, perhaps they could die unnoticed in some corner at any time.
If this was the outcome, would these commoners still eagerly hope for their children to become cultivators?
Standing among the crowd, Li Zhirui seemed to be in a different world from them, watching everything that unfolded with cold indifference.
Ding!
Without knowing when, a bell rang above the square, and the scene immediately quieted down.
Hundreds of cultivators arrived on Spirit Boats, mostly of Golden Core cultivation, with only the leading dozen being of Nascent Soul. 𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘱𝘶𝘣.𝘤𝘰𝑚
From their attire, it was clear they belonged to different Sects.
Typically, Immortal Cultivator Families would not recruit children who had just undergone Spirit Testing but would instead recruit grown guests and clients.
Then, those cultivators spread out and set up their Sect’s banners around the square.
Li Zhirui glanced around and saw that these were all Sects within a hundred thousand miles of the Immortal City, ranging from powerful ones like the Divine Transformation Great Sect of Tianhua Mountain to weaker ones like the Golden Core Sects of Sanxing Sect.
In the central region, openly recruiting disciples like this, there were no Sects or families that merely focused on Foundation Establishment or Qi Cultivation visible; such entities lacked the standing to appear here.
As for how they recruited disciples? Either they pick up children discarded by other Sects due to very poor talent or they preemptively test for Spiritual Roots in commoner villages and take the children back to their Sects.
However, the latter carried certain risks; if discovered, they would be punished.
Speaking of which!
Ten or so Sects each had five members step forward to activate the Great Spirit Testing Array.
"Year 13,852 of the Immortal Tao Calendar, the Spirit Testing Assembly of the Tao-seeking Immortal City officially begins!"
Following a loud declaration, tens of thousands of age-appropriate children entered the Formation.
Li Zhirui was slightly shocked to see that they could test over ten thousand children for Spiritual Roots at once. He thought to himself, ’When I return, I must have Fengwu consider this to reduce the time for family Spirit Testing.’
Hum!
The Formation started operating, with various Spiritual Energies transforming into flowing lights moving within the space, creating a world of dazzling colors.
Almost the moment the lights appeared, a Spirit Light illuminated above a child’s head.
Li Zhirui’s pupils suddenly dilated, exclaiming involuntarily, "Heavenly Spiritual Root!"
This caused the surrounding cultivators to look over, their expressions seeming to say what bumpkin this was.
From their reactions, it was clear that although Heavenly Spiritual Roots were rare, they were not extremely uncommon; perhaps several could appear in each Spirit Testing Assembly.
Li Zhirui immediately thought of the Li family; over the years, tens of thousands of cultivators had been born in the family, but to date, only Li Ming Yao was a Heavenly Spiritual Root!
Soon, the testing of Spiritual Roots was complete, and Li Zhirui swept through with his powerful Divine Sense, arriving at a staggering number.
One thousand thirty-seven!
That is, in the central region, the proportion of commoners harboring Spiritual Roots was as high as one in ten!
And what about the Li family? Even though both parents in each case were cultivators, the proportion of their children possessing Spiritual Roots was not this high!
This was just about the commoners of the central region. If it were about children of cultivators, what extravagant proportion of them possessing Spiritual Roots might there be?
Thinking this, Li Zhirui felt a twinge, "No wonder the central region can thrive indefinitely, with such an astonishing proportion of Spiritual Roots, hundreds of thousands of cultivators are born each year."
In the following rounds of Spirit Testing, the proportion of Spiritual Roots remained at about ten percent, and several Heavenly Spiritual Roots appeared.
With such results, Li Zhirui had calmed down but his mind was constantly deducing what it was that made the commoners of the central region have such an astonishing proportion of Spiritual Roots.
Unfortunately, this knowledge was too profound, and Li Zhirui had never contemplated it before; how could he possibly have any clue now?
The preliminary testing of Spiritual Roots completed, and thereafter, depending on their innate abilities, the children were free to choose which Sect to join.
Of course, Sects had conditions as well; for instance, Tianhua Mountain required at least Three Spiritual Roots, and even if the qualifications were met, there were several rounds of tests to pass before one could join.
However, for those few children with Heavenly Spiritual Roots, the Sects would certainly relax their conditions. If they chose a Nascent Soul or Golden Core Sect, perhaps after just verifying that they were not undercover agents from other Sects, they would directly take them in.
As for whether a Sect would use a Heavenly Spiritual Root as an undercover agent, that was another matter entirely.
