Chapter 261 - 222: Divine Manifestation

Chapter 261: Chapter 222: Divine Manifestation

All newly recruited disciples had to undergo a re-evaluation on the main peak to prevent any fraudulent claims.

It was also a step to confirm their identities.

After all, it wouldn’t do if you were a spy from another sect.

For many disciples, this was their only chance in a lifetime to visit the main peak. Only core and elite disciples were qualified to stay.

The massive True Treasure Mirror released a divine light, illuminating the past and present lives of the many disciples before it, capable of tracing back information over a thousand years.

Zhang Ji silently entered the [Prajna Stance] and quickly observed the principles behind the treasure mirror before him.

Before long, he had already deciphered it.

It was just as he had guessed: a Myth-grade item with the ability to conduct super S-rank deep information observation.

But it wasn’t exactly top-tier. For him, it was still easy enough to fool.

With a mere thought, Zhang Ji’s Wisdom Buddha Kingdom began operating at full power. An imperceptible energy fluctuation appeared in his palms as the information particles on the surface of his body were disturbed, reshaped, and then covered with a layer of camouflage.

To a casual observer who didn’t look too closely, all they would see was the information from his camouflage layer: a young man from overseas who, after successfully completing his training, had crossed the vast ocean and endured many hardships to reach this region, finally passing the test to enter the Qingcang Sect.

Soon, it was Zhang Ji’s turn.

The elder operating the True Treasure Mirror aimed it at Zhang Ji. In an instant, the information from Zhang Ji’s superficial camouflage was read.

"Next!"

Having successfully passed the test, Zhang Ji nodded to himself inwardly.

’If I couldn’t get through like this, infiltrating the sect would have been much more difficult,’ he thought.

One by one, the disciples were inspected. Once everyone was cleared, the arrangements began.

Among the disciples who had come with Gao Lin, only Zhang Ji was kept. The rest were all assigned to the various secondary peaks, or even the outlying peaks, to become low-level grunts.

As for Zhang Ji, he was assigned to a place called Pure Heart Hall to attend training courses.

He received several sets of clothes, a treasure mirror, and a mustard seed pouch for storage.

The clothes were no ordinary items. These sets were already of "Excellent" grade. Barring intense combat, they could be worn for a thousand years without damage. They were also warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and came with a self-cleaning function.

The treasure mirror served as personal identification. If lost, a replacement would cost contribution points.

The mustard seed pouch wasn’t very large, with only about five cubic meters of space inside.

Of course, for new disciples who had just joined the sect, this was more than enough to store their meager belongings.

A senior brother from Pure Heart Hall named Xu Kai led Zhang Ji to the disciples’ living quarters.

It was a residence-like building, fully furnished with all necessary living amenities.

"From now on, this will be your living area," Xu Kai said to Zhang Ji. "If you think it’s acceptable, you can take the key. If you’d prefer a different style, I can show you some others."

"There’s no need. I came here to cultivate. This is already very good," Zhang Ji said politely.

"Alright, that works too."

The key was handed to Zhang Ji. Xu Kai then said, "Remember to come to Pure Heart Hall every day at dawn for your lectures. There’s a coursework assessment once a month. If you fail three times, you’ll be demoted to a core disciple. If you continue to slack off, you’ll keep dropping in rank. Achieving the status of an elite disciple doesn’t mean you’ve made it to the top in one step. The road ahead is still long."

After offering some routine encouragement, Xu Kai turned and left.

Zhang Ji closed the door and stepped inside. Only now, alone at last, did he allow himself to relax a little.

His purpose for coming here was to enter a Secret Realm within the Qingcang Sect.

That Secret Realm was called the [Nine Wondrous Celestial Extremity Realm].

It was a Secret Realm left behind by a former Qingcang Sect cultivator, Celestial Monarch Qin of the Void Realm. Before he achieved Broken Void, he transformed this Secret Realm into a training ground to help later generations grow.

Within it were nine skills left by Celestial Monarch Qin. Eight of them were "Legendary" grade, while the final one was a "Myth" grade skill—the very foundation of Celestial Monarch Qin’s path to enlightenment. That was what Zhang Ji wanted.

The [Nine Wondrous Celestial Extremity Realm] opened roughly once a month, allowing disciples to enter and explore freely.

However, there were conditions for entry.

First, one had to be a cultivator at the Molting Realm.

In this world, that was equivalent to a novice realm, the level of a D-rank professional fighter. Exceeding that energy level was not permitted.

This wasn’t a problem for Zhang Ji. He could just toss all his combat crystals into [Limit] and he’d pass.

From its inception, this [Limit] cheat was designed not only to speed up skill training but also to disguise one’s realm, enter various Secret Realms with realm requirements, and feign weakness to crush stronger opponents.

The second condition was that one had to be in the top three thousand of the Qingcang Sect’s [New Talent Rankings] to go.

To put it bluntly, this ranking was based on the new disciples’ coursework assessment results.

Every month, all the new disciples were tested and ranked. The top one thousand received various rewards, including contribution point scholarships, and were also granted access to numerous Secret Realms for training. The [Nine Wondrous Celestial Extremity Realm] was just one of the available options, which showed how deep the Qingcang Sect’s foundations were.

This forced Zhang Ji to first secure an internal identity.

As for the assessments and all that, to Zhang Ji, it was truly child’s play.

He even had to control himself to avoid appearing too outrageously talented, lest he attract unwanted attention.

.....

The next day, Zhang Ji changed into his sect uniform and, at dawn, stepped into the classroom in Pure Heart Hall designated for new disciples like him.

The place resembled a lecture hall with tiered seating.

When Zhang Ji entered, many disciples were already seated inside.

He found an empty seat and sat down. Before long, a lecturer entered.

After exchanging courtesies, the lecture began.

Since they were newly recruited disciples, the topic wasn’t too profound. Everyone was given two books containing basic cultivation methods: the *Qingcang Body Refining Skill* and the *Mountain Shattering Fist*.

In a major sect like this, the Extraordinary System of this world was already quite well-developed.

The Molting Realm was the first step: refining skin, flesh, tendons, and bones, followed by cleansing the marrow and finally replacing the blood to complete the initial accumulation.

The Divine Acupoint Realm was the second step. Here, one’s three hun and seven po souls would condense into ten divine acupoints. Upon completion, one’s Divine Soul power would increase dramatically, allowing them to extend their Divine Sense and even let their Divine Soul leave the body.

The Merging Realm was the third step. In this realm, the Divine Soul merged with the physical body, becoming one. Strength would increase tenfold, a process similar to Spiritualization.

Following that were the Mountain-Splitting Realm and the Earth Cover Realm, two realms for accumulating energy and further strengthening the physical body. The names of these realms corresponded to the abilities they granted.

Mountain-Splitting meant one could truly split mountains apart, and Earth Cover meant one could overturn the very ground.

Further on was the Profound Heart Realm, a realm that firmly corresponded to the super S-rank.

This realm focused mainly on strengthening perception, allowing one’s heart to be like a clear mirror reflecting the profound mysteries of the world. One could comprehend heaven and earth, draw upon the vast power of the world with every move, and unleash their own power to its absolute limit.

Finally, there was the Void Realm.

Returning to the void, also known as Broken Void.

In the philosophy of this world’s cultivators, living beings originated from the Endless Void. Therefore, reaching the pinnacle realm meant achieving Broken Void and returning once more to the void.

This realm was roughly equivalent to SSS-rank, corresponding to the Immortals of the Celestial Essence Realm and the True Gods of the Lan’er World.

The *Qingcang Body Refining Skill* was the Qingcang Sect’s cultivation method for the Molting Realm, a highly refined technique perfected through countless trials.

Zhang Ji took it, read it for a moment, and completely mastered it. He even made a few minor modifications to better suit himself.

Skin, flesh, tendons, bone, and marrow.

Five stages, from the outside in. It involved circulating Qi and Blood, extracting essence, qi, and spirit for tempering, and was somewhat similar to the combat style of the Primordial Qi Sect.

Zhang Ji observed the practice speed of the other students. He felt that even the fastest among them would need more than half a month just to get started.

This speed wasn’t actually slow, but Zhang Ji certainly couldn’t wait that long.

’I need to put on a display...’

Zhang Ji closed his eyes slightly and began to circulate the Qi and Blood in his body.

At first, there was no sound, but gradually, someone heard the sound of a flowing stream. It soon became a torrent, then swelled into a tidal wave.

"RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE~!"

"What’s that noise? Where is it coming from?" someone asked.

"It’s over there!!"

And then they saw Zhang Ji.

His skin was glowing red as his Qi and Blood circulated wildly, startling the lecturer who was guiding students in the back row.

However, the lecturer raised a hand slightly, signaling for everyone to remain quiet.

Xiao Mingyu was also an elite disciple.

Lecturing here was just a way for him to earn some extra money, a kind of work-study program.

He had seen many geniuses, many of whom were more talented than himself, but this one today was someone he felt he would never forget for the rest of his life.

In a quarter of an hour, he mastered the Skin Refining stage of the *Qingcang Body Refining Skill*. He continued to progress, and two quarters of an hour later, he perfected Skin Refining and began Refined Flesh. Time passed. He perfected Refined Flesh and, without pause, began Refining Tendons... Three shichen later, the Qi and Blood in his body was surging. He had successfully completed Bone Marrow Refining and, in one final step, finished the blood replacement, completing the entire cultivation of the Molting Realm.

An ordinary elite disciple was considered a genius among geniuses if they completed the Molting Realm’s cultivation in a year; most took around three years.

Zhang Ji did it in a day... no, to be precise, three shichen!

When Zhang Ji opened his eyes, the entire classroom was packed with people. Crowds from other classrooms had even gathered at the door. A large, empty space had formed around him, where several people in high-grade robes and other attire stood. These were the professors and lecturers of Pure Heart Hall, and there was even a Vice Hall Master among them.

Seeing this, Vice Hall Master Feng Chen gave a meaningful look. A professor beside him immediately berated the crowd of disciples, "What are you all gathered here for? Don’t you have coursework to do? Anyone who stays will have ten coursework points deducted."

Hearing this, the disciples who had been watching the spectacle quickly dispersed, leaving only the Vice Hall Master, a few professors, and the lecturers nearby.

The Vice Hall Master looked at Zhang Ji and said with a wide smile, "Child, your name is Li Long, isn’t it? I am Feng Chen, the Vice Hall Master of Pure Heart Hall. You must be a little tired after cultivating for so long. Refining Qi and Blood takes a heavy toll on the body. I’ve had someone prepare some medicinal cuisine. Why don’t you join me?"

Of course, Zhang Ji didn’t feel drained at all. He had been holding back with this level of consumption. If he had gone all out, given his current state, he would have alarmed far more than just this small group of people.

However, he was still going to eat the medicinal cuisine. This was his objective all along.

He needed to put on a bit of a show and attract some attention to gain importance and resources.

’If possible,’ he thought, ’after visiting the [Nine Wondrous Celestial Extremity Realm] without exposing myself, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to visit a few more Secret Realms.’

"Then this student would be honored to accept," Zhang Ji said, giving a polite salute.