Chapter 40

When people said that Lin Tiancheng was one of the strongest people in the Earth Rank, they were not talking about how talented he was.

In reality, this was already Lin Tiancheng’s fourth time participating in the advancement test.

Those in the same batch as him, even some students who were in the recent batch, many of them had already advanced to the Heaven Rank. He was the strongest among the remaining few who had yet to advance.

This was Lin Tiancheng’s greatest shame. Hence, it was a taboo for others to mention this in front of him. Low ranking students would take special care to avoid it.

Whether it was a coincidence or not, Ye Yuan’s words struck Ling Tiancheng’s soft spot.

Lin Tiancheng’s face visibly changed color. Glaring fiercely at Ye Yuan, he said, “You have guts! To actually talk like this to your senior apprentice brother! I think you are courting death!”

As he said this, Lin Tiancheng gathered his essence energy and smacked a palm towards Ye Yuan.

Smash!

Ye Yuan stood there without moving, but Lin Tiancheng flew backward instead.

Rolling on the ground, Lin Tiancheng barely managed to stabilize his body, looking extremely ragged.

“Which bastard ambushed me?!” Lin Tiancheng bellowed angrily.

The moment he said this, Lin Tiancheng saw that the surrounding people looked at him with odd expressions and was not sure what it meant.

“Lin Tiancheng, you got the nerve to actually attack right in front of me?!” Huyan Yong’s icy voice sounded out, making Lin Tiancheng shudder involuntarily.

Facing Huyan Yong, how would Lin Tiancheng have the courage to resist?

He broke into a cold sweat. To actually scold Teacher Huyan a bastard, isn’t that courting death? Huyan Yong was the person hosting the test. If he was to secretly play some tricks, wouldn’t he have to return in defeat?

If Huyan Yong bore a grudge, then he can forget about advancing ranks for life.

“S-sorry Teacher Huyan. I-I didn’t know it was you,” Lin Tiancheng hurriedly apologized.

Huyan Yong was expressionless as he said, “The Illusionary Spirit Tower is the place for advancement tests. You actually dared to take action without my permission? If you affect the other students’ test, can you handle the responsibility?”

“Teacher Huyan, I . . . He. . . ridiculed me with words on purpose to agitate me into making a move!” Lin Tiancheng did not dare to offend Huyan Yong, so he naturally pushed the blame to Ye Yuan.

“Senior Apprentice Brother Lin, you can’t slander good people. I was clearly wishing you success in your test, but I don’t know how I provoked you to actually attack me. Could it be that Senior Apprentice Brother Lin came here to participate in the Illusionary Spirit Tower’s test, but don’t want to advance?” Ye Yuan gave a perplexed face.

Just now, Ye Yuan indeed told Lin Tiancheng to take care not to stumble and fail. It was impossible to find a problem with those words. Except, looking at that exaggerated expression, nobody would believe that he was wishing Lin Tiancheng well.

The pitiful Lin Tiancheng still did not know that Ye Yuan came today to join the test today because Huyan Yong personally invited him.

Without mentioning the fact that the matter was stirred up by Lin Tiancheng, even if he was in the right, it was impossible for Huyan Yong to stand on his side.

“I already saw what happened just now. From the start until the end, it was you who was doing all the mocking. Do you think that I, this examiner, am so easy to be deceived?” Huyan Yong’s voice became increasingly colder.

“N-n-no, I . . .”

“Stay here and don’t move! Considering that it was your first infraction, I will overlook it. But, if you violate the rules again, I will revoke your assessment rights!”

Lin Tiancheng did not dare to talk back anymore and quietly went to wait by the side.

After waiting for a while, students came one by one. After around 50 people were gathered, Huyan Yong once again appeared in front of everyone.

“Now that everyone is present, in a while, I will open up the restrictions. The Illusionary Spirit Tower will automatically send you to the test site corresponding to your cultivation! Many of you had undergone the advancement test before, but it’s the first time for a few of you, so I will briefly go through.”

Huyan Yong briefly summarized the important points about the Illusionary Spirit Tower.

Actually, he was explaining especially for Ye Yuan and Lu-er. In this batch, apart from Ye Yuan and Lu-er, everybody else had participated in the advancement test before.

Forgetting about Lu-er, Ye Yuan by right should have gone through the entrance test in the Illusionary Spirit Tower before. But his predecessor was just too weak, and it was impossible for him to have passed the test in the Illusionary Spirit Tower. Thus, Ye Hang pulled a lot of strings back then before managing to shove Ye Yuan in here. Therefore, he had never even gone to the Illusionary Spirit Tower before.

Feeling the layers of restrictions on the Illusionary Spirit Tower, Ye Yuan praised and commented, “So it’s a 32 restrictions Spirit Artifact. Tranquil Cloud Sect does indeed have some means.”

A 32 restrictions Spirit Artifact naturally was not much in Ye Yuan’s eyes. However, even though this Spirit Artifact’s rank was not high, it had some unique features, making it suitable to being used for the students’ advancement testing.

This Illusionary Spirit Tower seemed to have been specially developed by the Tranquil Cloud Sect for assessing student into ranks. There are a total of five regions, namely, Entry Advancement, Yellow Rank Advancement, Black Rank Advancement, Earth Rank Advancement, and Heaven Rank Advancement.

The first four regions corresponded to the four student rankings in the Dan Wu Academy. Passing the Entry Advancement allows one to advance to the Yellow Rank. Passing the Yellow Rank Advancement allowed one to advance to the Black Rank, and so on. ¹

Lastly, the Heaven Rank Advancement was what the Tranquil Cloud Sect used to determine if Heaven rank students were qualified to enter the sect. It was a test for becoming outer-sect disciples.

Clearly, the difficulty of the five tests increased progressively. By the time it was the Black Rank Advancement test, the difficulty was already rather over the top.

In reality, Lin Tiancheng’s talent was not bad. It was just that the Earth Rank Advancement test was truly too outrageous. That was why he failed repeatedly. There were many students like him among the Earth Rank students.

As for the Heaven Rank Advancement test . . .

“I really hope that one of you will be qualified to participate in that test during your student life here in the Dan Wu Academy,” Huyan Yong told the students.

Huyan Yong’s words did not stir too much of a reaction from everyone. Clearly, they all knew just how terrifying the test was.

What Huyan Yong said was ‘qualified,’ and not to ‘pass.’ That is to say that none of the people here would even get the chance to attempt the test before they graduate from the Dan Wu Academy at twenty.

One could only imagine the difficulty of that test!

Most of the students here today were participating in the Black Rank Advancement test, aka, the test for a Black Rank to advance to the Earth Rank. A minority was participating in the Yellow Rank Advancement test and the Earth Rank Advancement test. Lu-er was the only person participating in the Entry Advancement test.

“The first time you enter the Illusionary Spirit Tower, you can take part in multiple rank advancement tests; all the way until you get killed, or voluntarily withdraw. After passing a test, you will automatically be sent to the next test. There, you can make a decision if you want to undergo the next test or not. At that point, the Illusionary Spirit Tower will record the rank advancement test you are killed at. The next time you enter the Illusionary Spirit Tower, you will start anew from that rank. Alright, now enter the Illusionary Spirit Tower!” Clearly, Huyan Yong’s last few sentences were meant for Ye Yuan.

Huyan Yong then walked in front of the Illusionary Spirit Tower’s gate and gestured his hand up in a half arc in front of him. Faint black essence energy was shot into the Illusionary Spirit Tower.

Following that, the Illusionary Spirit Tower’s gate slowly opened.

The students participating in the test entered in an orderly manner. The moment they entered the gate, they vanished. It was clear that they were sent away by the Illusionary Spirit Tower.

When it was Lin Tiancheng’s turn to go in, he shot a fierce glare at Ye Yuan. “If you can’t advance to the Earth Rank, you will forever be trash! You are considered lucky today with Teacher Huyan helping you. In the future, don’t let me see you in the academy; otherwise, you are dead!”

After threating Ye Yuan, Lin Tiancheng stepped forward and vanished instantly.

Ye Yuan gave a laugh and did not take Lin Tiancheng’s warning to heart. He turned to Lu-er and said, “Lu-er, let’s go in too.”