Chapter 59: Minor Exam
Days and months mattered not in the path to immortality. One day, Wei Yuan finally finished tempering his flesh and experienced a major leap in strength. It was just in time for the minor exam.
Originally, the minor exam applied to Wei Yuan’s term only and counted as a temporary exam. As it wasn’t very important, the rewards it gave out were pretty average as well, useful only to a handful of students such as Wei Yuan.
However, the Reform Party had been growing bolder and bolder as of late. Besides the centralized learning method, they were plotting to unify the recruitment of disciples as well. This involved revoking the authority of every Trueman belonging to a Hall to select their own disciples. Instead, the Palace of Absolute Beginning would be uniformly recruiting their disciples through the Immortal Sect Unified Examination before assigning them to each Hall. The Halls would only be able to pick their disciples from among those recruited by the Palace. Naturally, the True Lords would retain a limited number of discretionary slots, but they would be strictly limited.
The Traditional Party rejected the proposal fiercely as a matter of course, and conflicts between the two factions were only becoming more and more intense. With such matters going on behind the scene, the comparison between the first batch of centralized learning disciples and the Traditional Party disciples became extremely important. After all, the best way to determine which faction was superior was through the disciples they had spent three years nurturing.
Thus, the True Lords proposed to elevate the importance of this minor exam by a level and divide it into two parts. The first part was still a duel between the two factions, with the rankings determined through a tournament format. The second part involved combat against selected members of foreign races.
After three years of study, a small portion of disciples had successfully forged their Dao Foundations. Most of the rest had completed their body-tempering and were just waiting for the right timing and opportunity to forge their Dao Foundations as well. According to the Palace’s tradition, reaching the Dao Foundation stage signified the formal embarkation upon the path to immortality. It also meant that they would gain the right to wage battle against the foreign races.
The first day of the minor exam was the duel between the two factions. It was quite the interesting duel to say the least.
Xiao Yun’s immortal sword, The Sun, was the conclusion of the Great Sun Sword Holding Book. For centuries, countless people had practiced this cultivation method, but only one in a thousand disciples had successfully forged the Dao Foundation. Naturally, Xiao Yu crushed all of his opponents.
Bao Yun had finished tempering her spirit and was only one step away from the Dao Foundation stage. Although she wasn’t a Dao Foundation cultivator yet, her Dao techniques were exceptionally powerful, and she was armed to the teeth in powerful treasures. Every time she made a move, multiple gods and devils would appear above her head, all of them desperate to show their faces and lend her a helping hand. Naturally, she too crushed all of her opponents and beat up a good number of Traditional Party disciples who were in the Dao Foundation stage.