Time passed minute by minute, and after another 30 minutes the first test finally came to an end.

Other than Qing Yi, Xuan Hao did not mange to spot anyone else with 10 or more talent. On the other hand, there were a few others who had a talent value of 9. Xuan Hao thought to himself that maybe the talent value of 10 was a different dimension from the 9. Maybe an overall change in quality of the talent?

Xuan Hao honestly had no clue.

Originally, other than Qing Yi, Xuan Hao had wanted to take in a few other disciples as well. After all, being the only disciple of him would probably be quite boring and having a few junior or senior sisters and brothers would most likely make it more interesting.

However, after a period of observation, Xuan Hao had dispelled this thought. The people who had a decent talent value at nine were all arrogant and were somewhat displeasing.

Such people would just end up being a bad influence!

The first round of tests had ended.

Of the more than ten thousand people who showed up, only a little over seven hundred people ended up being disqualified. The remaining people were all qualified!

The most dazzling among them was none other than a young man called Wen Lu.

Bone age 16, Qi Condensation Eighth stage! Even some of the Inner Elders of the Flying Sword Sect started getting excited.

Although the second stage had not started yet, with Wen Lu’s talent, entering the Flying Sword Sect was not really troublesome.

Some of the inner elders would most likely take him in as a disciple, allowing him to become a personal disciple of an inner elder. It had to be remembered, even the weakest inner court elder of the Flying Sword Sect was an eight stage Core Formation expert. Not weak in any way!

Many envious gazes also focused on Wen Lu for this reason.

The little fellow Xuan Hao set his eyes on was no exception either.

“Ah… This is the difference between normal people and geniuses. All of us will have to fight for the one thousand spots. That Wen Lu fellow on the other hand, even if he doesn’t participate in the second test, he would still have a few elders willing to take him in as a personal disciple and enter the Flying Sword Sect!” A disciple of the Qing family couldn’t help but lament about the unfairness of the world.

The First Elder heard this and frowned, “Talent is something you are born with, things like that can’t be envied. One’s path of cultivation does not mean everything. I hope you can understand. I’m sure all of you heard the tale of how the Heavenly Sky Kingdom came to be. The founder of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom had a talent inferior to yours, but what was the result? He ended up becoming an expert at half-step King Realm!”

The First Elder’s words cause the originally dejected disciple of the Qing family to be motivated again. Even a few nearby youths heard the First Elders words and started to become more motivated for the second test.

That’s right!

It was said that the founder of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom was the bottom of the pile, but in the end, he became a half-step King Realm expert. It also had to be known that a half-step King Realm expert was widely different from a Nascent Soul Realm expert.

A single half-step King Realm expert was only a single step away from reaching the legendary king realm! Even a single attack of theirs could easily kill most ninth stage Nascent Soul Realm experts. It was even rumoured that a half-step King Realm expert could defend against a few attacks from a true King Realm expert!

A King Realm expert! Someone who could easily wipe out the Heavenly Sky Kingdom and its neighbouring kingdoms with ease.

From that one could see how strong the founder of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom was! From that, one could see that talent didn’t mean anything! Hard work would always pay off in the end!

If Xuan Hao heard what this first elder said, he would probably erupt out in laughter. No talent? Bottom of the pile? The founder of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom was none of that, he was even someone who awakened a divine physique! How could someone like that be called talentless?

Luckily for the now hopeful disciples of the Qing family and nearby youths, Xuan Hao was not listening to what the first elder was talking about.

After all, the first tests had just finished, and the second part of the examination was about to begin.

Under the leadership of the elders from the Flying Sword Sect, over ten thousand qualified people set off to the Demon Beast Forest, located close by the Flying Sword Sect.

When the people had left with the elders from the sect, Xuan Hao and the other could see the situation of all the participants in the Demon Beast Forest through a giant floating projection that had manifested in the centre of the examination ground.

The projection was manifested by the Sect Master Feng Chen and a formation set up beforehand.

Within the giant projection screen, there were more than ten thousand small screens. Each of the participants occupied a small screen. Through this projection, the higher-ups of the Flying Sword Sect could see the entire journey of the participants as they walked through the Demon Beast Forest.

Other than a few elders who remained at the Demon Beast Forest to ensure the participants safety, most of them had returned and were recording down what each of the participants did and graded them accordingly.

Xuan Hao’s gaze drifted between a few participants, but mostly focused on Qing Yi, as she was the only one he was concerned about.

Xuan Hao even spread his divine sense all the way to the Demon Beast Forest so he could observe her more easily and also make sure that no danger happened to her.

Xuan Hao hoped that nobody else would take any interest in Qing Yi, as she was the disciple that he had chosen to take in.

But such concerns were close to negligible as most of them ignored her. After all she just had normal talent and was only at the Qi Condensation stage four. Not anything special in the Flying Sword Sect.