Chapter 33: Song Yurong Begins Her Disciple Recruitment Trial
Song Yurong, hearing that she would be taking the assessment right now, felt a sudden surge of panic. However, this anxious feeling quickly subsided as she calmed her nerves and rapidly regained her confidence.
Looking directly at him, she replied, "I am ready, so let's begin."
Jiang Yun, having heard her confirmation, wasted no time and immediately started the assessment. Just like the previous recruitment trial he had conducted at the Invincible Cloud Sect, Jiang Yun placed Song Yurong into a illusion designed specifically to test her character and core nature.
Song Yurong’s vision blurred and she began to lose consciousness, her mind slipping away as she entered the illusory world to face her trial.
Jiang Yun then waited quietly to the side, watching intently to see how Song Yurong would perform in the illusion that would ultimately decide her fate in the world of cultivation.
The test was rather simple, which made Jiang Yun believe Song Yurong should pass easily. Considering the resilience and determination she had shown so far, he assumed she would breeze through the trial and wake up within minutes.
To his surprise, however, the assessment dragged on for several hours. Her eyes remained tightly shut, her brow occasionally furrowing as she lingered deep inside the dreamscape.
This particular trial forced a person to face the inner demons lurking in their heart to see how they would resolve them. If someone's guilty conscience was light, they would quickly correct their regrets in the dream, find peace, and wake up.
However, if they had done too much wrong in their life, or simply possessed a stubborn character that refused to change, they would be utterly drowned in their own guilt. They would snap out of the illusion pale, shaking, and with a visibly distressed expression.
So much time had passed, yet Song Yurong was still trapped in her illusion. This meant she had neither passed nor failed yet.
Jiang Yun realized this could only mean one of two things: she either had too many regrets weighing on her mind, or the specific guilt she carried was incredibly deep and difficult to resolve. Either way, he was growing a bit impatient—as this level of assessment shouldn’t have taken so long—but he kept his composure and continued to wait.
After several more hours, just when Jiang Yun began to wonder if she might actually fail and succumb to her inner demons, Song Yurong's eyes suddenly fluttered open.
Instead of looking exhausted, she looked remarkably refreshed. It was as though a heavy, invisible burden had finally been lifted from her shoulders. Her expression was serene and clear—undeniably the look of someone who had triumphed, a stark contrast to the twisted look of someone who had failed.
Seeing that she had passed, Jiang Yun didn't need to ask if she succeeded. Instead, he calmly inquired, "What did you think of the trial?"
Song Yurong’s eyes brightened, and she replied in a much lighter, happier tone, "I saw some things from my past that I desperately wanted to experience again and change. The illusion sent me back to the moment in time I wanted to return to most, allowing me to alter my choices for the better."
She smiled faintly and continued, "Even though I know now that it was just a dream, it was still incredibly refreshing to experience it firsthand. Thank you for letting me go through it. It has lifted a massive weight from my mind."
The contours of her face were much softer and gentler than before. A spark of genuine excitement lit up her eyes as she fully realized she had passed the trial and was now officially permitted to become a cultivator.
Jiang Yun nodded slowly. "Since you are my disciple now, I will eventually impart my Law of Time to you. Though, we cannot do that just yet; you haven’t even taken your first step onto the path of cultivation, so you wouldn't be able to use it. First, I must teach you how to sense and absorb Qi, making you a true Qi Refiner."
Taken out from his ring Jiang Yun pulled out a fragrant pill he had refined in his free time, a pill specifically designed to help mortals begin cultivating and handed it to her. He then carefully explained the techniques required to feel spiritual energy, guiding her on how to use the pill once she swallowed it.
Song Yurong listened intently, trying to understand what she could. Once she understood the process, she sat cross-legged and prepared to make her first attempt. She swallowed the pill, closed her eyes, and tried to sense the sudden burst of energy the pill was supposed to release within her body.
However, as the minutes ticked by, nothing happened. It was as if the pill had sunk into a vast, bottomless abyss inside her, dissolving into nothingness without providing a single thread of Qi for her to grasp.
Confused and slightly panicked by the silence within her body, Song Yurong looked up at Jiang Yun. "I don’t feel anything at all. Did I do something wrong?"
Frowning, Jiang Yun stepped forward, equally confused by the lack of reaction. He reached out and gently gripped her wrist, sending his own divine sense into her body to investigate. Song Yurong felt a slight, tingling warmth spread through her arm, but the sensation was negligible.
After a brief moment of inspection, Jiang Yun let go of her wrist, a look of understanding dawning on his face.
Song Yurong actually possessed a rare and highly special constitution—one that would make her exceptionally talented once she actually started. The catch, however, was that this specific constitution required an immense, almost absurd amount of resources just to begin cultivating. Until the resource threshold was satisfied, she wouldn’t be able to take a single step forward.
Fortunately for her, if there was one thing Jiang Yun possessed in abundance, it was an astronomical mountain of resources. His storage ring was overflowing with spiritual herbs.
In the past, when he didn't know how to refine pills, using these raw, potent herbs would have been incredibly wasteful to consume directly or outright fatal for a mortal's fragile body. But now that he had mastered alchemy, he could easily dilute their overwhelming power, blend them together, or strengthen them as needed. With the sheer volume of ingredients at his disposal, he had enough resources to nurture a mere mortal all the way to the Mahayana realm several times over.
Jiang Yun reached into his storage and withdrew several more pills. These were among the weaker batches he had refined, chosen specifically because Song Yurong was still a mortal.
However, even though these pills were on the weaker side for him, they were more than potent enough to provide the raw energy she needed to jumpstart her cultivation. In fact, these were the exact pills typically used by Nascent Soul experts to progress their training, making them unusable for a normal human though Song Yurong isn’t normal.
The unique constitution Song Yurong possessed was incredibly resilient, ensuring she wouldn't burst and die even if she absorbed a terrifying amount of energy.
Granted, as a mortal, she still couldn't handle the sheer potency of anything above the Nascent Soul level just yet. But in the future, if she wished, this constitution would even allow her to absorb pure immortal energy in the immortal world before she even became an immortal herself. This rare trait allowed its owner to absorb insane amounts of energy and break through cultivation realms at a high speed.
Because this constitution was so adept at storing energy, it required a massive threshold of power just to fill her internal reservoir to the brim.
Only when the reservoir was completely full would the energy finally spill out into the rest of her body and allow her to cultivate. Until that maximum limit was reached, any energy she consumed would simply keep stockpiling in her body, leaving her unable to make any progress.
As Jiang Yun handed her the pills, he explained her unique situation and what she needed to do to start cultivating.
Song Yurong was completely stunned to learn that she actually possessed such a profound talent for cultivation, especially since she came from a completely ordinary mortal background.
After learning about her hidden potential and seeing how easily Jiang Yun could solve her problem, she wasted no more time. She directly swallowed the first pill.
Whenever one pill lost its medicinal effect, she immediately swallowed another. Song Yurong repeated this process back-to-back, patiently waiting until she finally started feeling a reaction from deep within her body.
Suddenly, Song Yurong felt a tiny explosion echo within her chest.
A massive torrent of stored energy was unleashed all at once, allowing her to finally sense the spiritual Qi. She quickly guided this energy throughout her entire body, absorbing the energy as her own and finally began her journey as a cultivator.
Soon, Song Yurong felt the barriers within her body give way, marking her very first breakthrough. She had officially stepped onto the path of cultivation, reaching the first level of Qi Refining. Opening her eyes, she was completely amazed by the newfound strength coursing through her veins.
Seeing that Song Yurong had finally succeeded and become a true cultivator, Jiang Yun decided it was time to put his plans into motion. He didn't want to personally kill a bunch of mortals, as they were simply beneath his notice and not worth his attention.
He then told her, "Now that you are a cultivator, it is your turn to wipe out that rich Han Family that caused you trouble."