"Luck. It must be luck!" Wang Hao told himself over and over. 'A useless servant, a cook who only knows how to light fires and prepare meals, can't be that strong.'
"Die! You'll never make it past twenty zhang!"
Guarding the twenty-zhang zone was a brown Earth Bear, its body two full sizes larger than the Wind Tiger's.
The Earth Bear was known for its strength, ranking in the top three among Low Tier Demon Beasts. One swipe of its paw could shatter metal and sunder stone. Even Wang Hao wouldn't dare claim he could gain the upper hand in a direct confrontation.
"ROAR!"
Seeing Mo Qi, the Earth Bear roared furiously and, without a second thought, charged straight at him.
THUD THUD THUD!
Its four paws thundered on the ground like a steel war chariot, unstoppable.
But in Mo Qi's eyes, the Earth Bear's movements seemed clumsy and slow.
He lightly tapped his toes on the ground, leaped into the air, and dodged the Earth Bear's charge.
The Earth Bear hadn't expected the tiny humanoid thing before it to be so fast. Unable to brake in time, it smashed headfirst into the corridor wall.
BOOM!
With a tremendous crash, a huge crater was smashed into the corridor wall.
The Earth Bear, meanwhile, was dizzy and disoriented. Its limbs felt light, and it collapsed onto its rump, revealing a tuft of white fur on its chest.
'A perfect chance!' A glint flashed in Mo Qi's eyes. As his leaping body descended, he closed in on the bear, his long staff aimed straight for the patch of white fur.
The Earth Bear not only possessed immense strength but also an extremely tough defense. Unless one's Realm was far superior, allowing them to kill it with overwhelming destructive power, it was very difficult to slay.
But it had a fatal weakness. The area covered by the white fur was the most vulnerable point on its entire body—the location of the Earth Bear's heart.
Mo Qi knew this very well. Over the years, he had butchered far too much bear meat, and Earth Bears were no exception.
SHHNK!
The long staff plunged through the patch of white fur, piercing the heart in a single strike.
The Earth Bear didn't even have time to cry out before it collapsed, its life expiring.
From their encounter to its death took less than a breath's time. Another one-hit kill.
"This..."
Everyone in the main hall was dumbfounded. Was this another coincidence?
He just happened to dodge the Earth Bear's attack, the Earth Bear just happened to crash into the corridor wall, and then it just happened to expose its weak point, which Mo Qi just happened to strike?
Once or twice could be called a coincidence, but so many coincidences piling up were no longer a coincidence.
Was he really just a Kitchen Hand?
At this moment, Mo Qi had reached the thirty-zhang mark. Guarding this spot was a black Humanoid Puppet.
"Kill!" The Puppet wasted no words and made no superfluous movements. It opened with a killing blow.
It was different from a Demon Beast. Engraved within its body was a special Array core that allowed it to execute various fighting techniques, unlike a Demon Beast that could only attack on instinct.
POW!
Caught off guard, Mo Qi took a punch from the Puppet and was sent flying.
Mo Qi rubbed his chest where he'd been hit. It was a little sore, but there was no serious damage.
Just then, the Puppet shadowed his movements, following up with another attack.
"This time you're dead for sure!"
Seeing Mo Qi sent flying by the Puppet, Wang Hao and Fang Min were overjoyed. They knew that the Puppets in the trial didn't just know fighting techniques; they also knew how to chain their attacks.
For a novice running the gauntlet, the best way to deal with this kind of Puppet was to escape its attack range as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, if you got tangled up with it, the Puppet's combo attacks were not so easy to take.
Although Mo Qi could see the Puppet's moves clearly, he didn't know how to counter them. Gritting his teeth, he could only endure the Puppet's attack, lower his head, and charge forward to grapple with it.
Then, under the stunned gazes of the crowd, he savagely lifted the Puppet over his head and smashed it brutally onto the ground.
BOOM!
No one knew just how strong Mo Qi's full-force blow was, but the Puppet he had slammed down had its limbs shattered and its torso broken into pieces.
Mo Qi didn't stop there. He picked up his long staff and began to thrash the immobilized Puppet, not stopping until it was completely destroyed, reduced to a pile of scrap metal.
Uncle Niu had told him that when you make an enemy, you either don't strike, or you strike without mercy. Until you are certain your opponent has completely lost the ability to fight back, you must not let your guard down or be careless.
This...
The Inspector Elder's mouth twitched. This wasn't a fight; it was a street brawl.
The many spectating disciples, including Liu Ruyan and Liu Hong, didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
It was clear that Mo Qi had never learned any offensive techniques or Combat Techniques. His strikes and dodges, though swift, were truly amateurish. He was just taking his opponent's hits while flailing wildly.
This method of clearing the trial was completely unprecedented.
It only worked because Mo Qi's physique was strong enough. If it had been anyone else, they probably couldn't have even withstood a single punch from the Puppet.
"Why do I feel like he's not the one taking the trial, but the final boss guarding it? The Demon Beasts and Puppets are the real underdogs here."
"I don't know about all that, but I know one thing: a prodigy is about to be born."
"I'm afraid things won't be easy for Chef Mo. Wang Hao won't let him off. Didn't you see the look on Wang Hao's face? It's like he just swallowed a fly."
"Sigh. Chef Mo doesn't have a powerful backer. I'm afraid Wang Hao will toy with him until he's dead. What a pity."
"His only chance now is to be noticed by a grandmaster and taken on as a disciple."
"It'll be tough. The last stage tests Spiritual Energy Affinity. Chef Mo has no talent for cultivation, so he'll probably get zero points again, just like in the first stage. Even if he gets a perfect score on this stage, his total completion rate will only be sixty points. Sixty is considered excellent, but it's not enough to attract the attention of the grandmasters."
"Sigh, the heavens are jealous of talented people."
Hearing this discussion, Wang Hao was furious at first, but then he began to feel relieved.
'That's right,' he thought. 'So what if Mo Qi passes the trial? The best he can do is sixty points. Without a powerful expert to protect him, with my status, wouldn't it be easy to toy with him until he's dead?'
'The face I lost today, I will reclaim with your blood and your life in the future!'
Seeing Mo Qi arrive at the forty-zhang mark, about to beat an ape-like Demon Beast to death with his staff, the Inspector Elder hurriedly opened the Obsidian Gate.
"Mo Qi, stop! For this stage, you only need to reach the end. You don't have to fight them!"
These Demon Beasts and Puppets weren't terribly expensive, but the Inspector Elder had hand-picked each one.
There were only ten in total, and in such a short time, Mo Qi had already killed three and crippled one. The Inspector Elder's heart ached at the loss.
Mo Qi's raised staff froze in mid-air. The eyes of the half-dead ape-like Demon Beast were filled with terror.
'Who the hell is the Demon Beast here, me or you? Do you have to be so terrifying?'
Mo Qi scratched his head. He had thought he needed to fight his way through, killing them one by one.
"Elder, may I have that tiger and the brown bear?"
The Wind Tiger and Earth Bear were top-quality ingredients. Mo Qi's professional habits were kicking in.
"No!" the Inspector Elder refused immediately.
"I suppose I'll just fight my way through, then. It'll be good combat practice," Mo Qi said threateningly, rubbing his chin.
"Don't, don't, don't! You can have them, alright?"
Seeing Mo Qi raise his staff, about to finish off the ape-like Demon Beast, the Inspector Elder hurriedly stopped him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
He was the one at fault to begin with for not explaining the rules clearly. That, combined with Mo Qi's stunning performance in these three stages, had made him cherish this talent, so he didn't hold the "threat" against him.
With Mo Qi's reaction speed, and without getting tangled up with the Demon Beasts and Puppets, he finished the rest of the corridor with almost no obstacles.
Although he had wasted a little time at the start, he still ultimately received a perfect score of twenty points.
At this point, Mo Qi's total completion score had reached sixty points.
The final stage was to test Spiritual Energy Affinity, also known as Spiritual Energy Absorption Rate.
A Cultivator's Cultivation speed was related not only to their Talent Spirit Root, but also to their Spiritual Energy Affinity.
Why was it that in the same environment and with the same resources, some people achieved great things while others achieved little?
It was because their absorption and utilization rates for Spiritual Energy were different. The higher the Spiritual Energy Affinity, the more efficiently they could absorb every bit of their Cultivation Resources, resulting in less waste.
Just when everyone thought that Mo Qi, who had no cultivation talent, would once again score zero, an astonishing number appeared on the light screen.
Twenty points—another perfect score of twenty!
"This is impossible!" Fang Min's face turned pale. She looked at the Inspector Elder. "Elder, I suspect Mo Qi cheated! He has no cultivation talent and can't even condense True Essence. How could he possibly have any Spiritual Energy Affinity?"
It wasn't just Fang Min; everyone present had the same question.
It was like a mute, unable to even speak, claiming they could sing with the voice of an angel.
It completely defied common sense.
How could they know that while Mo Qi couldn't circulate True Essence through his Meridians like a normal person, every single fiber and shred of his flesh and blood could absorb Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy?
Furthermore, he had already completed the Second-Turned Live Fetus of the Nine Transformations into Spirit, allowing him to absorb and convert Spiritual Energy with nearly one hundred percent efficiency. His Spiritual Energy Affinity was naturally frighteningly high.
The Inspector Elder carefully inspected the testing Array and found no problems. He had Mo Qi test again, and the result was still a perfect score of twenty points.
With everyone watching, it was impossible to cheat.
Although he couldn't understand the reason, Mo Qi did indeed possess an incredibly high Spiritual Energy Affinity.
With this, Mo Qi's final trial completion score reached a high of eighty points!
This score placed him in the ranks of prodigies. The Void Sect hadn't encountered such a situation in several hundred years.
"Congratulations, Senior Brother Mo! Congratulations!"
"Hahaha, Senior Brother Mo is truly no mere fish in a pond. Having met wind and cloud, you are about to Transform into a Dragon!"
"This is a bottle of Spiritual Essence Pills. Please accept it as a congratulatory gift from your little brother, Senior Brother Mo."
"I have a thousand-year-old ginseng here as well, a gift for you, Senior Brother Mo."
When Mo Qi walked out of the Obsidian Gate, a crowd of disciples swarmed him, smiling, greeting him nonstop, and trying to curry favor. Even the way they addressed him had changed.
Before, the more polite ones had at most called him Chef Mo. Now, every single one of them was referring to themselves as his junior brother.
This was the respect that came with talent and strength. It was cynical, but it was the truth.
With a completion score of eighty points, he was certain to be fought over by the various experts of the Void Sect, all wanting to take him as their disciple.
Calling him "Senior Brother" now wasn't just a safe bet, it was a profitable investment.
In the future, they might have to respectfully address Mo Qi as "Senior Uncle," or perhaps even "Grand Uncle."
Fang Min's face was deathly pale, as if all the strength had been drained from her body. If she hadn't been leaning against a pillar, she would have collapsed to the floor.