Chapter 14: A Test of Nature and Will
Eight hundred prospective disciples were milling about the public square outside the Hall of Immortal Recruitment. Surrounding them were a group of formal disciples and prospectives that had preemptively been recruited, all of whom were present to observe the second round of selection.
The remaining eight hundred recruits had middling talent, and further discrimination would be required to identify the best among them.
Xiao Nanfeng was among their midst.
He rubbed at the ring on his finger. It was a keepsake that his father had given him before he turned six. His father had himself been a disciple at the Taiqing Immortal Sect, and he had once mentioned that he had a senior brother with whom he had been bosom friends.
With this ring, he would be able to prove his identity to a possible mentor who was the equivalent of his uncle. With this ring, he too could join the Taiqing Immortal Sect through his connections.
As he rubbed his ring, Xiao Nanfeng fell deep in thought. It's been a decade since my father went missing, and a decade since I was first imprisoned. This supposed friend of my father's never came searching for me—so can I really trust him?
Doubt flashed through Xiao Nanfeng's eyes.
Carefully, Xiao Nanfeng kept the ring once more. Until it was absolutely necessary, he didn't intend to make use of this keepsake.
He had some confidence that he would be able to pass through the second round of selection. After all, he had already begun spiritual cultivation and had some measure of spiritual power. This round of selection was eminently suited for him.
Just as Xiao Nanfeng was deep in his thoughts, a voice shouted from the Hall of Immortal Recruitment, "Everyone, listen up! The second round of selection will determine whether you end up a formal disciple, a nominal disciple, or disqualified entirely.
"Your performance will be evaluated on a single criterion only: you must stand still where you are without moving a single step. The longer you last, the better your performance. Are you all ready?"
"Yes!" Eight hundred prospective disciples rubbed their palms in anticipation.
A blind gray-robed elder walked out of the Hall of Immortal Recruitment—Elder Ku, who had played a requiem for the dead disciples just a day ago.
"Elder Ku, please!" the disciple in charge of this selection round bowed to him.
Before Elder Ku was a seat facing a table on which an incense burner had been placed. From his back, Elder Ku retrieved a guqin, which he placed on the tabletop. A disciple beside him lit a stick of incense in the burner.
The prospective disciples looked toward Elder Ku, curious about the nature of their examination, as did Xiao Nanfeng.
Xiao Nanfeng didn't realize that two pairs of eyes were glaring daggers at him.
One pair naturally belonged to Zhao Yuanjiao, glaring at Xiao Nanfeng as he sought to confirm the strength of a demonic spy.
The other pair belonged to Ye Dafu. He and his clique were waiting impatiently for Xiao Nanfeng to make a gaffe.
Elder Ku suddenly began to play.
The sounds of the guqin caused everyone's head to buzz.
Everyone's gazes were drawn toward the stick of incense burning before Elder Ku. The incense released a cloud of smoke, which grew larger and larger until it was the size of a tsunami, bearing down on the public square. With a sudden whoosh, the smoke covered up the air and the sun, as though swallowing the crowd up within moments.
No one could see each other; everyone in the plaza seemed to have vanished. To his surprise, Xiao Nanfeng found that everything around him had turned into smoke, leaving him entirely alone.
"What's going on?!" many disciples couldn't help shouting.
Even so, they were unable to hear each other. The only thing that seemed to enter the unusual space which they had entered were the notes of Elder Ku's guqin.
Xiao Nanfeng instantly understood that the test had begun. He calmed down and looked all around him.
Suddenly, the mist seemed to turn faint. The prospective disciples looked at the scenery around them—the ground underfoot seemed to have suddenly turned translucent.
No, no—they were standing high in the air, thousands of feet aboveground! Were they standing atop the clouds? They looked down, through the cloud cover, to the Taiqing Island far below, so small it might as well have been a speck of dust.
"What, what am I doing up here? Is this magic? Immortal magic, transporting me to incredible heights?" someone cried out.
The next moment, the fluffy clouds gave way. Everyone began to fall.
"Help!"
"I'm falling! Save me, save me, please!"
"I don't want to die!"
Countless disciples began to shout and scream.
Even Xiao Nanfeng was so scared that sweat drenched his back. If he were to fall from such heights, he would surely die!
Outside the plaza, someone suddenly slapped Ye Dafu and the other disciples' backs. They startled, then blinked as they returned to reality, as though waking from a dream.
"Stop shouting and making a fool of yourselves!" Ye Dafu's third uncle glared at him and his clique.
Ye Dafu glanced all around him blankly. He wasn't high in the air at all! There was no smoke or mist around him; his surroundings were exactly the same as before. The blind Elder Ku was still playing the guqin.
"Third Uncle, what, what just happened?!" Ye Dafu cried out.
"It was merely an illusion. Humans are naturally inclined to fear falling from great heights, and fear is debilitating. It's a matter of who can see through the trial first," Ye Dafu's third uncle explained.
Of the eight hundred prospective disciples, many yelled from fright. Rapidly, however, they discovered the truth and calmed down. Only about a hundred or so, trapped in the illusion, fell to the ground in panic.
Disciples from the Taiqing sect stepped into the public square and removed the paralyzed recruits from the testing grounds.
"Third Uncle, they..." Ye Dafu exclaimed.
"They've been eliminated. Those who fail the first trial won't even be considered as nominal disciples. Their nature and will are ill-suited to cultivation, and they'll be dismissed." Ye Dafu's third uncle shook his head.
"I... If you hadn't woken me up, Third Uncle, I would have discovered that I was in an illusion, I'm sure," Ye Dafu emphasized.
Ye Dafu's third uncle looked at his nephew, but held his tongue to avoid giving him a heavy blow.
Ye Dafu and his clique turned to their favorite target, Xiao Nanfeng, only to see that he was standing still, at ease, his face impassive.
"That poor bastard passed the first trial?" Ye Dafu exclaimed.
"It has to be luck," his lackeys murmured, almost as if to assure themselves of that reality.
Xiao Nanfeng did have a momentary bout of panic when he first thought he was falling from a great height, but he recovered quickly. After all, he had been on his fair share of roller coasters and drop towers in the past, and he quickly realized that this was simply part of the trial.
Just then, he found that he had returned to the public square, but his surroundings were still covered by mist.
Is the test still ongoing? Xiao Nanfeng wondered to himself. Suddenly, from amidst the white fog, two figures appeared.
"Nanfeng! Nanfeng, my son! You've finally shown up after all this time!"
"You brat, why did you delay this long? Your mother and I have been waiting for you for a decade!"
Two unbelievably familiar voices rang out from the fog, causing Xiao Nanfeng to shake. These voices—they had been dogging his dreams for years and years!
A man and woman walked out of the white fog. The man was handsome, brave and valiant; the woman gentle and beautiful.
The moment Xiao Nanfeng saw the two figures, he was filled with longing.
"Father? Mother?" Xiao Nanfeng's body shook. Do you know how much I've missed you in the last ten years?
Ten years worth of grievances, all at once—Xiao Nanfeng almost succumbed to the urge of running straight toward them.
"Nanfeng, I've missed you so! Quick, come to me."
His parents' voices beckoned him over, suffusing Xiao Nanfeng's body with warmth. Just as he was about to rush forward, however, he stopped short and looked at his father in disbelief. On his father's wrist was... a gold watch?
A gold watch?
When he was little, he had dreamt that, considering how handsome his father was, if he were to put on a black cloak, a golden wristwatch, and a pair of sunglasses, he would surely fit the look of an arrogant CEO to a T—but that was just his imagination! There was no such thing as a golden wristwatch in this world, so how could his father be wearing one?
"Is this all my imagination? It's all fake? These are the demons I harbor in my heart...?" Xiao Nanfeng awoke from the illusion instantly.
"Come over here, Nanfeng!" his mother shouted.
"You brat, get over here!" his father urged.
Xiao Nanfeng shook his head. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down, then smiled sadly at his parents. "Father, Mother, if only you were real..."
Xiao Nanfeng shut his eyes, blinking back tears, even as he calmed down. When he opened them again, his parents had dissipated into mist.
"How amazing Elder Ku is, to be able to force me to face my greatest desires—and how lucky I was." Xiao Nanfeng grew serious once again. He began to anticipate more and more what it would be like to have Elder Ku as his master.
At the same time, beyond the testing grounds, Ye Dafu and his clique saw a strange sight.
Of the prospective disciples in the public square, some were laughing madly, others crying in sorrow. Two hundred or so disciples rushed forward—before being escorted off the grounds by Taiqing disciples.
"Another two hundred, eliminated? Just what have they seen?" Ye Dafu cried out.
"This is the second trial, that of the heart. Mental and emotional traumas will be brought back to life. Without sufficient intelligence and a resolute will, it'll be difficult to pass this test," Ye Dafu's third uncle explained.
"Demons of the heart? Mental and emotional trauma? How can that poor bastard still be standing right there as though nothing has happened, then?!" Ye Dafu's lackeys shouted.
Ye Dafu glanced over at the testing grounds. Indeed, Xiao Nanfeng stood immobile, wholly unmoved.
"He must be too young to have any mental traumas! Lucky brat," Ye Dafu called out disdainfully.
"Those disciples who have passed the first two trials will at least be recruited as nominal disciples. The longer they persist, the more likely they'll be to become formal ones."
"In that case, everyone still present has already become a disciple of the Taiqing sect?" Ye Dafu stared at Xiao Nanfeng grudgingly.
"Quite so. However, the third test won't be straightforward," Ye Dafu's third uncle continued.
"What does the third test entail?" Ye Dafu asked.
"It's something that you might encounter further down the path of cultivation. The mere thought of it alone..." Ye Dafu's third uncle shuddered.
Within the illusion, Xiao Nanfeng looked at the white fog all around himself, waiting patiently for the next surprises to show themselves. Suddenly, tinkling female laughter made itself heard from a distance.
"Ah, come on! Come play with me!"
A woman of peerless beauty emerged from the fog, a paragon of beauty composed of the ideal characteristics of all women. Wrapped in a thin, translucent shawl, she enticed and teased Xiao Nanfeng from a distance.
All remaining trial-takers saw a vision of peerless beauty, exquisitely tailored to their sensibilities.
Voluptuous women roamed around the trial-takers, teasing and nudging them.
"Oh? Don't you love me anymore? Won't you help support me? I've twisted my ankle—ah, it hurts!" The beauty pouted, barely hiding a grimace of pain, causing hearts to flutter.
However, Xiao Nanfeng remained immobile. Was this third trial one of beauty and charm? It was easier than the last two by far.
Xiao Nanfeng was more or less immune to the beauty's charms—after having been imprisoned for ten years, his will was as a honed blade, and he had had significant experience in his past life on the Internet resisting the charms of such scantily clad women. How could he be swayed by them now?
"You wound me! You're far too cruel!" the beauty cried out, her back to Xiao Nanfeng, weeping piteously.
Xiao Nanfeng continued to look at the beauty calmly—until she suddenly turned around.
Her peerless beauty suddenly transformed into a decomposing mask of flesh and blood, and her eyes into bloody pits. Sawtooth-like incisors emerged from her mouth. She opened her jaws wide and pounced toward Xiao Nanfeng.
The sudden transformation of a peerless beauty into a frightening monster shook countless disciples.
One recruit after another stumbled back in shock, striking the ground hard as they retreated.
This scene was more vivid than the worst nightmare that the disciples had ever encountered. The Taiqing disciples escorted all of them out.
Fewer than two hundred disciples remained in the public square.
"What did they see that was so frightening?" Ye Dafu cried out.
"What's going on? Why is that lad still so composed? He can't have fallen asleep, right?" one lackey murmured, staring at Xiao Nanfeng in disbelief.
Even if they hadn't moved, many of the remaining disciples were so frightened by the beauty's sudden transformation that their faces had turned pale and sweat was beading on their foreheads.
However, Xiao Nanfeng remained wholly unperturbed. He had seen more than his fair share of horror films back on Earth, the worst of which was even more frightening than this illusion. The transformation from a beauty to a monster was among the most generic of tropes.
He knew that this was an illusion; he could hardly be scared by such a low-level trick. The only thing that could be said about this illusion was that it was occurring in 3D.
Many of the trial-takers were so frightened that they seemed about to suffocate from shock. The monster's bloody mouth was just inches from their face—who wouldn't be scared by such a sight?!
Xiao Nanfeng wasn't. Indeed, he had been a connoisseur of horror films in his past life.
"Is this it?" Xiao Nanfeng glanced at the monster in front of him with some pity.
The third trial had been easier than the other two by far.
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