Mingan’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if thinking of something. She pressed her palms together and sighed softly: “Daoist Ju speaks truly. When Elder Pei comes out of seclusion, he will be the youngest Tribulation Transcendence stage elder in the spirit realm. At that time, with the sect’s power greatly increased, how could we compare? Speaking of unparalleled geniuses, how is Elder Pei not one?”

Liu Changning withdrew her divine sense, her tea-colored eyes glancing at the little black bird who was still in a daze.

She asked an irrelevant question: “If the earth fire magma in the elder’s body is refined, will you not need this junior anymore? With the elder’s level of cultivation, even as a servant of the Yun Shi Xian Gong Palace Master, your status would surely be supreme. If you return to normal, will you treat this junior as a stranger?”

Pei Ziyuan was feeling gloomy, his heart sour. His small eyes as big as mung beans vigilantly swept over the group of eager male cultivators coveting beauty.

Upon hearing the slightly profound question from the woman before him, he transmitted mentally, blurting out: “Of course, what use would this old ancestor have for a useless good-for-nothing like you?”

Liu Changning plucked at his raised tuft of feathers, half-squinting her eyes: “A useless good-for-nothing may not be useful, but can still help the elder cool down!”

Her slender fingers imperceptibly explored his dense black feathers. Because she was too familiar with every sensitive spot on the bird’s body, when her slightly cool fingertips imperceptibly scraped along the edge of the bird’s body.

The little black bird was originally feeling vindicated, but his half-drooping eyes suddenly widened. He found to his shame that the embarrassment hidden under his thick feathers suddenly grew hot…

Clamping his legs together in anguish, he lowered his head sneakily to investigate the strange coolness causing the abnormality in his body, but found nothing.

The female cultivator in front of him looked at him innocently, her face full of concern: “Huh? Why is the elder’s feathers ruffled again?”

Pei Ziyuan with his ruffled feathers: …

While the person and bird were facing off, the queue testing spirit roots in front had moved forward a large section again.

Suddenly a burst of exclamations erupted from the front. A male cultivator wearing a light blue robe actually caused the spirit testing stone to emit a green glow. The light grew stronger and stronger, and the entire spirit testing stone rotated rapidly in his hand, turning the whole sphere indigo blue.

“Up… upper grade wood spirit root.”

The disciple responsible for testing had a shocked expression as he announced the test result, his voice trembling at the end.

No wonder he was so excited. At this point, half the queue for testing spirit roots had already passed. Normally, cultivators with superior aptitude were all at the front of the queue.

Traditionally, the further back in the testing queue, the worse the cultivator’s aptitude. Yet unexpectedly, halfway through the queue, they discovered an excellent seedling with an upper grade single spirit root.

Looking closely, this male cultivator’s appearance was also quite outstanding. The disciple responsible for testing spirit roots imperceptibly raised his eyes to look at the ten great elders at the front. Sure enough, there was a satisfied look in the elders’ eyes.

The disciples who had not yet had their spirit roots tested were also full of envy and jealousy.

“Sister Li, is that single spirit root male cultivator the one we met halfway up the mountain earlier?”

Two female cultivators at the end of the queue were whispering to each other.

The slightly older Sister Li raised her head, her face showing a hint of resentment. She snorted: “I think so! What good aptitude, but it’s a pity he’s just a man. In the end he’s narrow-minded and will never amount to much.”

“But that’s a single spirit root, sister. With good luck, he might become a true disciple of one of the ten major sects.”

A flash of envy passed through the younger female cultivator’s round eyes.

Sister Li glared at her, apparently used to scolding people. Hearing these words, she opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t say anything sarcastic. She turned her head, her gaze happening to sweep towards Liu Changning at the end of the queue.

She had noticed Liu Changning from the moment she was the last to ascend the azure cloud ladder.

Earlier, because there were disciples from the ten major sects maintaining order on both sides of the queue, she had not been able to go forward to make trouble.

Now that a single spirit root disciple had appeared, everyone’s attention was at the front.

Jealousy at work, Sister Li’s frustration was hard to dispel. Seeing Liu Changning at the end of the line, her narrow eyes narrowed into a straight line.

She raised her voice, saying in an ambiguous tone: “Little Sister Huang, you don’t understand. This male cultivator will leap the dragon gate in the future. He will no longer be the kind of low-level, frivolous female cultivator that can approach him. Speaking of which, that good-for-nothing is also pitiful. She pretended to be aloof before, but didn’t expect that in the blink of an eye, someone else could transform from a worm into a dragon. How delightful! I’m afraid that good-for-nothing won’t even have the chance to be a furnace.”

The young woman’s voice was extremely loud. Soon the group at the end of the queue followed her gaze to look at Liu Changning, their gazes more or less tinged with mockery.

Sister Li’s words were already extremely insulting, but Liu Changning’s expression did not change. She raised her hand to leisurely tuck the loose hair by her ear behind it.

She raised her eyes to meet the provocative gaze of the older woman.

Her almond eyes were deep and calm, the sharp light like lightning.

Just one glance falling, equivalent to the divine sense of a true immortal enveloping Sister Li’s head without reservation.

With Sister Li’s late Foundation Building aptitude, she simply could not withstand the pressure of such a gaze.

She clutched her head, her face pained. She opened her mouth wanting to call for help, but found she couldn’t open it. She couldn’t mobilize any spiritual energy in her body.

Her companion beside her was oblivious, everyone’s expression unchanged.

She panicked, not even knowing who had suddenly caused the chaos in her sea of consciousness. Clutching her head, she moved her eyes with difficulty, scanning around. The only suspicious thing was the cold gaze of that female cultivator at the end of the queue.

But she had only looked at her once, how was this possible?

As the pressure on her sea of consciousness grew heavier and heavier, she was no longer able to investigate who had done this to her. Her narrow eyes were filled with fear, her legs shaking, as she knelt straight down to the ground.

The yellow-robed woman standing to the side saw this and thought Sister Li was nervous about the trial.

She hurriedly comforted her, but didn’t notice anything unusual about her at all.

—

After this series of events, none of the disciples who went up afterwards were able to display superior aptitude.

That yellow-robed woman and Sister Li’s aptitude was not good. Because of the fright earlier, by the time it was Sister Li’s turn to go up, she was swaying with every step, already earning the dislike of the Golden Core cultivator conducting the test.

On the spirit testing stone, the five-colored spirit roots were dim and lightless.

The Golden Core cultivator judging on the side had an unpleasant expression, directly announcing her selection result for today: “Lower grade five spirit roots, eliminated.”

Sister Li’s face was ashen as she staggered out of the crowd.

“With such a mentality, even if one’s aptitude is high, they may not go far on the path of cultivation.”

Liu Changning raised an eyebrow, chatting idly with Pei Ziyuan via mental transmission as she walked forward to the testing platform.

“Oh? What kind of mentality does the elder think can defy the heavens and ascend in one step?”

The little black bird spread its wings and flew to her shoulder, looking at the light orb on the jade pillar, and said: “There are three thousand great ways, but holding fast to one’s own method is the way to transcend levels.”

Liu Changning reached out her hand, placing her finger on the spirit testing stone. Multitasking, she asked in return: “Elder, with such cultivation, you must be a person of firm resolve. I wonder what your method is?”

As soon as these words fell, the little black bird was silent for a moment. When it lowered its gaze again, what was reflected in its eyes was a dazzling ice-blue light stretching ten thousand zhang.

The spirit testing stone kept rotating in the white-robed female cultivator’s hand, emitting a brilliant light from the spirit orb that stretched ten thousand zhang.

The color on the sphere changed from blue to ice blue, with Liu Changning’s palm as the center, the halo grew larger and larger, enveloping the entire trial arena.

The Nascent Soul stage elders on the high platform stood up straight, their eyes flashing with surprise.

Suddenly, as if unable to bear the burden, after emitting the brilliant light that stretched ten thousand zhang, the spirit testing stone “sizzled” as it floated in mid-air, then the sphere suddenly shattered, its fragments falling to the ground.

The Golden Core stage disciple responsible for testing spirit roots opened and closed their mouth, unable to speak at this moment.

They turned their head to look at the ten great elders at the front, pointing at the fragments on the ground, and asked for help: “I request the elders’ guidance. The spirit testing stone couldn’t bear the burden and has shattered. How should we evaluate this woman’s aptitude now? This person should at least be superior grade… superior grade single… no, mutated single spirit root.”

In the history of the spirit realm, no one had ever caused a spirit orb to self-destruct when using it to test spirit roots.

The ten Nascent Soul stage elders looked at each other, for quite a while.

The elder from the Tianhua Sect collected themselves and announced the result of their discussion: “Temporarily record it as superior grade mutated ice spirit root aptitude in the register.”

Though they said superior grade mutated spirit root, the elders who had witnessed the entire scene all knew in their hearts. This woman’s world-shaking spirit root testing display was likely even more powerful than a superior grade spirit root.

But now that the spirit testing stone had shattered, it was impossible to judge the extent of the concentration of spiritual power within her body.

With such heaven-defying aptitude, if nothing unexpected happened, she was almost certainly the world-saving girl that Elder Yun had spoken of.