The testing began. Young men and women stepped onto the glowing crystal platform one after another. Elder Kwan watched, his face hard and still as a cliffside. The crystal would hum, and a light would glow inside it, showing the person's true talent.
For most, the light was weak. A dim, mixed-up glow of three or four muddy colors. Mortal Grade. They walked away with their heads down.
Some were better. Their light was brighter, showing two clear, solid colors— a mix of two elements. Earth Grade spirit roots. They stood a little taller.
Then came the stars.
Li Jin stepped up. The crystal glowed with a sharp silver and a steady brown. Earth Grade, Metal and Earth. Good, but not great. His face was tight as he stepped down.
Li Yue moved forward. The crystal hummed a pure, clear note. A single, deep emerald-green light bloomed inside it, lush and strong as an ancient tree. The crowd murmured. Heaven Grade, Wood. A true prodigy. Elder Kwan gave a small, slow nod.
Bai Zixin marched up next, her injured arm held tight. The crystal didn't just glow—it crackled. A violent flash of violet-white lightning shimmered within it. Heaven Grade, Thunder. Rare and fierce. The crowd gasped.
Yun Lian seemed to drift onto the platform. The light that answered was a soft, swirling silver-grey, like morning mist you couldn't catch. Heaven Grade, Wind. Another rare genius.
Three Heaven Grades. The best the lands had to offer. It was a good day for the sect.
Then, a figure in a plain black cloak shuffled forward from the back. No one noticed. Just another face in the crowd.
Li Wei stepped onto the platform.
At first, nothing. The crystal was dark and silent.
Elder Kwan frowned. "Place your hand—"
But the crystal began to tremble. Not a hum, but a deep, unhappy shudder, like a bowl too full of water. A wisp of strange, grey light flickered inside. Then another. Then, the light began to swirl—a tiny, wild tornado of every color and no color at all, spinning faster and faster.
The shaking grew violent. The crystal, made to measure kings and geniuses, began to whine like a bent piece of metal.
Elder Kwan's eyes went wide. "Get back!"
It was too late.
CRACK-BZZT—BOOM!
The sound was like ice breaking over a deep lake. A spiderweb of bright cracks raced across the crystal's surface. The chaotic light inside flared once, blindingly bright.
Then the orb exploded.
It didn't shatter into chunks. It burst into a cloud of fine, glittering dust that rained down on the platform like sad, broken stars. The humming stopped. A dead silence fell over the thousands of people.
Everyone stared. The testing orb was gone. Just… gone. A pile of glittering dust where a treasure had been.
Elder Kwan stared at the dust, then at the cloaked figure standing in the middle of it. His stern face was slack with shock.
A mountain wind chose that moment to blow down into the plaza. It caught the edge of the black cloak and pulled.
The hood fell back.
There he stood. A young man with calm eyes and a quiet face, now dusted with the sparkling remains of a shattered legend.
Li Wei.
The silence broke.
"That's the one from the tournament!"
"He destroyed it!"
"What kind of spirit root breaks the stone?!"
Li Jin's face twisted like he'd been punched. Li Yue's calm mask cracked into pure shock. Bai Zixin and Yun Lian forgot their pride and just stared, mouths open.
Elder Kwan stepped closer, his voice rough. "You…" He looked from the dust to Li Wei's face, and he understood. This was the boy from the report. The one the Sect Leader had marked. The report had not warned him about this.
The test of Talent was over. Li Wei hadn't just passed. He had broken the very tool used to measure it. His secret was out. He stood there, no longer hidden, at the center of a storm of whispers and staring eyes. The real test was only just beginning.
The shocked silence was broken by the rustle of fine robes. Two more Azure Lotus Sect elders, drawn by the strange surge of energy and the sudden silence, appeared beside Elder Kwan. Their eyes were not on the glittering dust, but fixed on Li Wei with a hunger he knew too well—the look of men who had just found a priceless, wild treasure.
"Elder Kwan, this incident clearly demonstrates a latent, unstable power best guided by the Alchemy Peak—" one began, his voice smooth.
"Ridiculous!" cut in the other, a woman with sharp eyes. "Such raw, unformed energy is a matter for the Formation Masters to study and stabilize!"
Elder Kwan held up a hand, his voice cracking through their argument like a whip. "Enough! The assessment is not complete. A broken tool does not change the rules. He has not been measured for Effort or Will." His flinty eyes bore into Li Wei. "You will complete the trials. All of them. Step down."
The other elders frowned but fell silent. The law of the assessment was absolute.
Li Wei gave a slight nod and stepped off the ruined platform. The crowd's stares felt like physical pressure. He pulled his focus inward, folding the immense, dense ocean of his 10th Stage cultivation in on itself, layer upon layer. He pushed it down, compressed it, until it felt merely… deep, instead of bottomless. To any observer, his aura now radiated the clear, strong pressure of the 9th Stage of Qi Gathering. Impressive, even staggering for his age, but it now fit within a known category. A Heaven-Grade-level genius.
The next test was announced. The Measure of Effort: Cultivation Base.
Aspirants lined up before another elder holding a smooth, milky-white jade disc. Each placed a hand on it. It would glow, showing both their cultivation stage and their bone age, ensuring no one too old was trying to sneak in.
"Minimum requirement: Seventh Stage of Qi Gathering. Maximum age: Twenty years," the elder declared.
The line moved. Many from the earlier Mortal Grade group were at the 5th or 6th Stage. The jade disc glowed a weak red, and they were dismissed with a single word: "Disqualified." Their shoulders slumped as they walked away, their journey over.
Li Jin placed his hand. The disc glowed a strong silver. "Eighth Stage, Qi Gathering. Age: nineteen. Pass."
Li Yue's touch made it glow a rich emerald. "Ninth Stage, Qi Gathering. Age: eighteen. Pass." A murmur of respect.
Bai Zixin (eighth Stage) and Yun Lian (ninth Stage) also passed.
Then, a young man Li Wei had not noticed before stepped up. He was tall, with hair the color of rust and an aura that radiated heat. He wore expensive red robes. He placed his hand on the disc with a confident smirk.
The jade disc did not just glow—it blazed with a fiery orange light so intense people nearby took a step back.
The elder's eyebrows shot up. "First Stage, Foundation Establishment. Age: twenty. Pass."
A wave of awe and fear rippled through the crowd. Foundation Establishment! At twenty! While everyone else was struggling in Qi Gathering, this person had already built his foundation and stepped into a new realm of power. He was in a different league.
The young man's name was Zhuo Hong. He was from a wealthy merchant clan from a distant trading city, not one of the three local clans. As he stepped back, he swept his gaze over the other top talents—Li Yue, Bai Zixin, Yun Lian—his expression one of casual superiority. They met his gaze with wariness. A Foundation expert, even a young one, was a real threat.
His proud eyes then found Li Wei, the boy who had broken the orb. He expected to see fear, or at least serious concern. Instead, Li Wei's gaze was… empty. Not defiant, not scared. Just looking through him, as if he were a mildly interesting piece of scenery. Li Wei had just faced a Foundation Establishment assassin and broken him. A freshly-advanced young master was not a threat at all.
This indifference was like a slap to Zhuo Hong's pride. His smirk vanished, replaced by a flash of hot anger. Who was this Qi Gathering brat to look at him like that? He made a mental note. In the combat test, he would teach this arrogant country boy the true meaning of the gap between realms.
Li Wei placed his hand on the jade disc. It glowed with a steady, deep grey light, strong and solid.
"Ninth Stage, Qi Gathering. Age: sixteen. Pass," the elder announced.
Sixteen. Ninth Stage. Even among the Heaven Grades, it was outstanding. But next to Zhuo Hong's Foundation Establishment, it was deliberately made to look merely excellent, not impossible.
The crowd was now divided. Some watched Zhuo Hong with fear and respect—the obvious, overwhelming favorite. Others watched Li Wei with burning curiosity—the mysterious breaker of tools. The final test, the Measure of Will, was next. A test of combat. The arena was being prepared. The tension sharpened into a knife's edge.