Chapter 11: Step Forward, Invoke the Spirit!
The sun had slowly climbed to its zenith, warming the stone plaza to a comfortable heat.
Chen Jinbao was heavyset and terribly sensitive to the heat. Even though the temperature was still bearable, sweat had never stopped beading on his round face.
He wiped his face and neck with a handkerchief over and over again, until the cloth was completely soaked through.
"Did we really climb up that fast? Has it not even been four hours yet?"
Bai Chen glanced up at the sun and replied, "Should be close."
Suddenly, another toll of the bell rang out.
Dong——
This bell was entirely different from the one they had heard back in Shunhe Quarter.
From that distance, the sound had been deep and resonant, drifting far and wide.
But now the bell rang from just behind the Spirit Invocation Hall, close enough to feel.
At such proximity, the sound was dense and weighty, as though it carried the force of ten thousand tons.
As the toll faded, it left ears ringing and sent the blood and qi in one's chest surging.
The boys and girls on the plaza who had been whispering among themselves fell instantly silent, their eyes wide with awe as they turned toward the Spirit Invocation Hall.
Then they were drawn by movement at the entrance to the mountain stairway and turned to look behind them.
At the stairway entrance, several sect disciples raised their hands simultaneously. A faint cyan spiritual light flashed, and the winding stone steps were enveloped in a transparent curtain of light.
A few short gasps rang out, and then the entire stairway fell completely still.
It was clear that anyone who had not yet reached the plaza had been "expelled" from the stairway.
Chen Jinbao patted his chest and let out a sigh of relief.
"Good thing we made it up here in time. If we'd been sent back for not making it, my dad would've tanned my hide when I got home."
Bai Chen smiled and was about to respond when several figures emerged from the Spirit Invocation Hall, and he closed his mouth again.
Two figures — one man and one woman — led the way, with ten Hexu Sect disciples following behind. The group walked slowly out from the great hall.
The two in front were not wearing the gradient cyan-green wide-sleeved robes of the Hexu Sect, but both bore the Elder medallions of the sect.
The male Elder on the left wore a plain cloud-patterned Daoist robe, with delicate gold-element patterns embroidered along the cuffs and hem.
His hair and beard were entirely white, yet neatly combed, with strands of silver hanging down over his chest. His face carried a warm, gentle smile.
The female Elder on the right wore an ice-blue robe with subtle dark patterns embroidered along the hem. Her posture was straight and sharp, like a blade drawn from its sheath.
Her dark hair was pinned up with only a single white jade hairpin, and her unpowdered face bore no expression.
Her gaze swept across the plaza with a keen, cutting edge that made it hard to meet her eyes directly.
The two stood side by side at the top of the white jade steps before the hall entrance.
The male Elder smiled warmly and spoke first.
"Young ones, I am Mo Henian, Peak Master of Xuanding Peak of the Hexu Sect, and I oversee the sect's path of Artifact Forging."
He gestured to the female Elder beside him and said with a smile:
"This is the Peak Master of Lingxiao Sword Peak, Elder Wen Ruoheng — the foremost Sword Cultivator of our sect. Today's Disciple Recruitment Ceremony and Spirit Root testing will be presided over by myself and Elder Wen."
The tens of thousands gathered on the plaza, as if they had rehearsed it beforehand, clasped their hands in greeting the moment Mo Henian finished speaking.
"Greetings to both Elders."
Bai Chen bowed along with the crowd.
When he looked up again, he saw Mo Henian stroking his beard with a smile, while Wen Ruoheng remained expressionless, coldly surveying the crowd on the plaza.
Once everyone had settled back into position, Mo Henian raised his hand and swept it toward the center of the plaza.
Ten streaks of light shot out from within the Spirit Invocation Hall, landing precisely in front of each of the ten queues, transforming into ten palm-sized jade tablets that hovered in the air before the first person in each line.
Bai Chen tilted his head and peered through the gaps in the crowd toward the jade tablet at the front.
Unfortunately, the distance was a bit too great. All he could make out was that the tablet was white and emitting a faint white glow — nothing more.
"Everyone, please step forward in your queues in turn. Place your palm upon the Spirit Invocation Mirror, close your eyes, and calm your mind. The quality of your Spiritual Root will reveal itself."
"Let the testing begin."
As Mo Henian finished speaking, the ten disciples who had followed him and Wen Ruoheng each took their positions at the front of a queue and called out in clear voices:
"Step forward, invoke the spirit!"
Every boy and girl on the plaza instinctively clenched their fists, their faces full of tension and anticipation.
Bai Chen's gaze settled on the young man at the very front of the queue.
The youth wore a coarse short jacket washed so many times it had turned pale. His hands were clenched tight with nerves.
After the Hexu Sect disciple called for them to step forward and invoke the spirit, he drew a long, deep breath and stepped forward.
He raised his palm and pressed it against the Spirit Invocation Mirror before him.
Every eye on the plaza was fixed on that jade tablet.
One second, two seconds, three seconds…
The Spirit Invocation Mirror remained terrifyingly still, without the slightest ripple.
"No Spiritual Root. Next."
The Hexu Sect disciple standing beside the Spirit Invocation Mirror spoke in a flat tone, waving his hand to signal the youth to step back and the next person to come forward.
The expectation on the youth's face froze instantly, and his shoulders slumped.
He stared blankly at his own palm and didn't move.
The Hexu Sect disciple guarding the Spirit Invocation Mirror furrowed his brow slightly, his voice dropping a notch.
"Those with no Spiritual Root are to descend the mountain immediately. Do not linger here and delay others' testing."
Those words struck like a thunderclap, jolting the youth back to his senses.
He stumbled back two steps in a daze, nearly bumping into the person behind him, then lowered his head and squeezed through the crowd, making his way dejectedly toward the mountain stairway.
And this was far from an isolated case.
The same scene played out at all nine other Spirit Invocation Mirrors — ten people tested, and not a single one possessed a Spiritual Root.
A low murmur rippled through the crowd, then quickly fell silent again.
The excitement in the eyes of the boys and girls in the queues was gradually replaced by dread, their nerves wound tight.
Chen Jinbao was wiping his sweat even faster now, clearly just as anxious.
Bai Chen, on the other hand, remained perfectly composed.
During his month in Shunhe Quarter, he had examined no fewer than three to five hundred people.
Among those hundreds, barely anyone had a Talent Trait even passable enough to be considered Green quality, and from start to finish he had only encountered one person with a three-element Spiritual Root.
The fact that he had managed to come across someone like Chen Jinbao with a dual Spiritual Root and Feng Ling'er with a single Spiritual Root was nothing short of extraordinary luck.
With only ten people tested so far and none of them having a Spiritual Root, it was perfectly normal.
One only had to look at the expressions of the two Elders in front of the Spirit Invocation Hall and the disciples conducting the tests — they were clearly long accustomed to this.
"No Spiritual Root. Next."
"No Spiritual Root. Step back."
"No Spiritual Root…"
The testing moved quickly.
The ten queues flowed like ten rushing streams, the boys and girls stepping forward one after another, each treading in the footsteps of the one before.
Raise the hand, press the palm, withdraw — in the blink of an eye, it was settled.
But occasionally, the Spirit Invocation Mirror would suddenly flicker with a faint glow.
Sometimes cyan, yellow, and red intertwined; other times red, blue, and brown mingled together — the light was faint, yet unmistakably visible.
"Three-element Spiritual Root! Move to the east side hall and wait in line!"
"Four-element Spiritual Root. East side hall, wait in line."
"Three-element Spiritual Root…"
Bai Chen stood in the queue, silently keeping count in his mind.
More than two or three thousand people ahead of him had already completed their testing, yet in the end, only around twenty had managed to make the Spirit Invocation Mirror light up.