Chapter 356: Zhang Yue’s Origin

The test continued, and one participant after another stepped onto the platform.

Among the thousands of cultivators who had come to participate, there were certainly a number of promising individuals. Some possessed solid foundations, while others demonstrated combat abilities that exceeded those of their peers.

However, most of them failed to achieve particularly impressive results.

Their scores generally fell within the range of twenty-five to seventy-five points. Only a handful managed to score above that range, and very few approached one hundred points.

After all, a score of one hundred meant that a cultivator’s power output had surpassed their cultivation by an entire major realm.

Such individuals were already considered exceptional talents.

Yet even among the countless cultivators who had gathered in Thousand Treasure City, such geniuses were few and far between.

The testing ground continued to buzz with conversation as the participants took their turns. Some left with satisfied expressions, while others walked away looking dejected after discovering that their actual abilities were not as impressive as they had imagined.

Then, finally, it was Yun Feng’s turn.

"Next! Yun Feng!"

Hearing his name, Yun Feng stepped forward with Xiao Mei watching from below the stage, her hands clasped together like she was praying to the higher power to help her husband.

He approached the strength measurement stone, took a deep breath, and began circulating his spiritual energy.

Unlike many of the other participants, Yun Feng did not appear particularly nervous. He had confidence in his own abilities, and he had no intention of holding back during the test.

He clenched his fist, gathered all of his strength, and punched the stone.

BOOM!

The entire platform trembled as a powerful shockwave spread through the surrounding air.

The inscriptions covering the measurement stone lit up brilliantly, and the results appeared before the eyes of everyone present.

"Cultivation: Core Formation Realm, Late Stage."

"Power Output: Half-Step Soul Transformation Realm."

For a moment, the testing ground fell silent.

Even the cultivators who had been chatting among themselves turned their attention toward the platform.

The referee stared at the results, checked them once more, and finally announced Yun Feng’s score.

"One hundred and twenty-five points!"

A wave of astonishment swept through the crowd.

"One hundred and twenty-five?!"

"How is that possible? He’s only at the Late Stage of the Core Formation Realm!"

"His power output has actually skipped a realm and reached the Half-Step Soul Transformation Realm?!"

The crowd erupted into discussion.

Meanwhile, those watching the test through the broadcast provided by the three clans of Li, Gu, And Jin were equally astonished. Their mouths hung open as they struggled to believe what they had just witnessed.

Unlike the earlier participants, whose power output had barely matched or slightly exceeded their cultivation, Yun Feng had demonstrated strength far beyond his current realm.

His cultivation was at the Late Stage of the Core Formation Realm, but the power of his punch had reached the Half-Step Soul Transformation Realm.

That was an improvement of an entire major realm and one additional stage!

A score of one hundred would have already been impressive. A score of one hundred and twenty-five was something else entirely.

Yun Feng had not merely surpassed Zhang Yue, who held the highest score of one hundred. He had established an entirely new benchmark for genius!

But as for Yun Feng himself, this result was actually somewhat disappointing.

He had trained hard and even swallowed his pride by calling Ximen Hao his big brother, all to obtain a new combat technique through that arrangement. Yet the result of his efforts had not even brought him halfway to matching his Brother Wei’s power.

He remembered that Brother Wei was a complete anomaly. That guy’s power output was equivalent to three major realms above his own cultivation!

But then again, his good brother Wei had to be a young master of the Underworld Palace for a reason. Normal people like him wouldn’t be able to reach that level.

With 125 points bagged to his name, Yun Feng walked back to the rest area. A servant then led him and Xiao Mei onto a small flying ark and escorted them to a courtyard in the city’s guest sector.

The two enjoyed the food and excellent service that Thousand Treasure Pavilion had prepared for them. Since Yun Feng was Wei Chen’s friend, Mo Xingyao naturally treated him better than the other participants.

Of course, this drew envious glances from the other cultivators. However, none of them dared to cause a scene. They could only whisper malicious gossip behind closed doors, grumbling about the special treatment the couple had received.

Some even went so far as to whisper that Yun Feng’s overwhelming score had been obtained through connections rather than a fair trial.

But these were nothing more than nonsensical excuses from people whose pride had been wounded and whose frustration had gotten the better of them. Deep down, they all knew the truth. The testing grounds had been assigned at random, and Yun Feng had queued up just like everyone else, going through exactly the same process as the other participants.

It was impossible for Wei Chen to have helped him manipulate the results. The registration process and testing ground assignments had been handled separately, and the numbers were assigned sequentially according to the order of registration. There was simply no opportunity for anyone to arrange special treatment behind the scenes.

Thus, this bout of envy and jealousy remained confined to private conversations rather than becoming a public issue. After all, everyone knew better than to incur the wrath of the Underworld Palace over some baseless accusations born of wounded pride and jealousy.

— Participant Rest Sector —

Inside a small courtyard, Zhang Yue, the second participant to score 100 points, admired her new surroundings. After taking a moment to appreciate the place, she shut the door tightly and inspected her own binding.

Standing in front of the mirror, Zhang Yue couldn’t help letting out a heavy sigh, her heart filled with both relief and frustration.

She was relieved that no one had discovered she was a woman. Or at least, no one had called her out on it yet.

But she was also frustrated by just how oblivious the people in this world could be.

Yes... the people in this world.

After all, Zhang Yue was a transmigrator.

In her previous life, she had been a modern-day office worker in the United States. She had been sent to this world after her office building was destroyed by a giant snake. And why had she still been inside the building when that happened?

Because her bastard of a boss had ordered her to stay behind and back up the customer data before evacuating.

She had done as instructed. Then came a blinding flash of white light, followed by a sudden loss of consciousness.

When she regained consciousness, she found herself in this strange world.

The first thing she noticed was that her head hurt like hell. Then, a flood of memories that didn’t belong to her overwhelmed her mind.

The original owner of this body was Zhang Yueli, the eldest daughter of a wealthy merchant clan in Vermilion Bird Province.

And the cause of the original owner’s death?

Poisoned wine. A typical way for someone from a wealthy family to die.

The wine had been a gift from her stepmother, a woman the original owner had loved dearly. Unfortunately, her father had loved this stepmother so much that he had neglected his own daughter.

After being poisoned, the original owner’s body had been thrown into a mass grave outside the city.

Fortunately, the original owner’s memories, including her language skills, had merged with Zhang Yue’s own. Otherwise, she would have been in serious trouble.

As it turned out, she had discovered a basic cultivation manual in that very mass grave.

And what did any sensible person do after finding a cultivation manual in a world where cultivators existed?

They cultivated, of course!

She sat on her ass and cultivated as hard as she could, determined to reach the highest cultivation realm possible as quickly as possible.

She faked her death, disguised her true gender, and did everything she could to stay alive.

However, what truly surprised her wasn’t the fact that this world was filled with cultivators, as though someone had copied and pasted it straight out of a Chinese xianxia novel.

No, what really surprised her was something else entirely.

This world had things that looked suspiciously like smartphones. And there was a streamer whose mannerisms and speaking style were so familiar to her that she couldn’t help thinking of a certain obnoxious streamer she had hated back in her previous life.

That bastard had been a nuisance who loved pranking people.

Yet in this world, instead of pranking people, the guy actually educated them!

And as a result, the people in this world had started becoming more... civilized.

Most of the time, they tried to settle their conflicts through dialogue before resorting to violence. This was a tremendous relief to Zhang Yue. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about walking down the street only to get slapped to death by some brainless young master simply because she had accidentally offended him.