Chapter 287: A Thousand Attentions Concentrated on One
Jiang Chen breathed out lightly as he spoke ruefully, “The Myriad Treasures Pavilion? If I hadn’t seen countless numbers of treasures in my past life, I might have actually stopped to take a look. The level of the illusions in the Myriad Treasures Pavilion is much more advanced than those before. If any ordinary practitioner actually makes it to the pavilion, I’m afraid many will stop there.”
Jiang Chen had seen everything beneath the heavens, so he had a certain degree of immunity towards the temptations of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion.
Not to mention that his powerful mental strength kept reminding him that this pavilion was illusory. It was fake, and not real.
In the end, the most realistic illusion would still remain a mere mirage.
Items such as methods and martial arts techniques provided the least temptation for Jiang Chen. He doubted that even those from stronger factions within the Myriad Domain would attract his attentions, much less the ones in the possession of the sixteen kingdoms.
As for divine weapons and those rare and exotic spirit creatures, since he knew it was all fake, he had a natural immunity to them and didn’t even pay them a glance.
He saw and thought no evil, so he didn’t take the bait no matter how tempting it was.
Therefore, Jiang Chen had spent almost no effort in passing through the pavilion.
He also gave no thought the possible reactions in the outside world at the moment, and never would’ve guessed that his strong momentum in passing through the pavilion had given rise to spirit discussions regarding this genius. An uproar and fervent atmosphere had been incited.
When he left the pavilion, Jiang Chen rubbed his eyes after taking a few steps, he seemed to think that his eyes were playing tricks on him.
The person in front of him was the organizer for the trial of heart, and the man was equally nonplussed to see Jiang Chen.
“Why are you already here? Give me whatever you selected from Myriad Treasures Pavilion.”
“What I selected?” Jiang Chen started. “That pavilion is merely an illusion, what could I have picked?”
The organizer arched his brow, “Things are both real and illusory on the path of rebirth, who told you the pavilion was fake? How will you pass the test when you didn’t select an item?”
“Real and illusory?”
“Cut the blather. Either you select a treasure and hand it over to me so you can pass, or I’ll disqualify you right now.” The organizer’s tone was remote.
Jiang Chen was thrown into a bit of disarray, but he organized his thoughts and a hint of a smile appeared on his lips.
He suddenly stepped forward and sent a punch crashing down, “Fakery and tricks, all are illusory. Begone!”
The organizer was pulverized into a cloud of mist with that punch and dissipated where he stood.
In the next moment, the scene shifted to one of lush trees providing shade. Jiang Chen had returned to where he’d started out from.
A voice sounded at this moment, “Congratulations for passing the path of rebirth!”
Jiang Chen was given no time to resist before a surge of strength took him out of the path.
His figure appeared at the testing center for the trial of the heart in the next moment.
When he appeared, pairs of eyes that numbered in the hundreds all shot straight at him. Their gazes seemed to bear the intent of burning through the mask and uniform to see who Jiang Chen really was.
“Participant, congratulations, you’re the first to pass! You need not speak, just hand over your participant token and we will record your results so as to form your final grade.”
Not speaking was obviously to avoid someone recognizing him based on his voice.
After all, everyone present was an expert, particularly the four forefathers. They might be able to discern the person behind the voice if he spoke up.
Jiang Chen gained his bearings before confirming that he had indeed made it out of the path of rebirth and returned to the outside world.
The four forefathers had long since agreed that they should not personally appear after the testing results were out. It would be considered intervention if they did.
However, all of the forefathers were itching to break their own rules at the moment, wishing to speak a few words with this heaven defying genius.
He’d spent less than a day to walk the path of rebirth. This performance was truly the epitome of heaven defying.
The forefathers had no doubts whatsoever that even amongst their premier geniuses, there would likely be less than three who could make it through the path of rebirth within three days.
Maybe not even a single one of them would be able to!
According to the rules, those to complete the first trial could enter the designated rest area and wait for the end of the ten days. He would then be led to the next trial with the other participants.
Jiang Chen was led to the rest area and sat down cross legged, he then started to meditate.
After this mental trial on the path of rebirth, Jiang Chen’s mental strength seemed to have risen, while Boulder’s Heart seemed to be showing subtle signs of a breakthrough.
Naturally, Jiang Chen hoped to make use of this opportunity to once again raise the level of his Boulder’s Heart.
It was an art that bore greater difficulty in training than the God’s Eye or Ear of the Zephyr.
It was rare that there was a chance to train the strength of one’s heart. Jiang Chen had truly gained a lot this time.
To pass through the path of rebirth in one day, this was truly an astonishing performance.
When he walked into the rest area, many senior executives of the sects all stretched their heads in his direction and peered at him, casting looks of surprise and shock at him with blatant curiosity.
If it hadn’t been for the strict rules, they definitely would’ve run up to Jiang Chen and torn off his mask, so as to see just who this person was.
The forefathers were also feeling a great agitation of emotions right now. They really, really wanted the ten days to hurry up and pass by so that the next trial could begin.
The next trial tested talent.
If this person continued his heaven defying performance in the next trial, then it would prove that this person was an unparalleled genius of an age, and someone worth recruiting and training at any cost.
The path of rebirth was difficult alright.
Although there was one perverse genius, no one else emerged from the path of rebirth in the next three days.
There were a few that had higher strength of heart who walked out on the fifth day.
The numbers grew noticeably higher on the seventh and eighth day, increasing to a deluge on the ninth and tenth days.
The ten days passed by quickly.
There were only seventy thousand left of those who had truly passed through the path of rebirth.
Those who hadn’t made it out or were disqualified halfway were directly kicked out of the legacy realm. They didn’t even have the right to linger around.
After all, a shocking amount of spirit power was necessary to maintain the legacy realm.
The fewer the number of people, the lesser the drain on resources.
Those who had been disqualified all naturally became trash in the eyes of the sects. They wouldn’t continue to waste resources on trash.
These were the rules of martial dao survival — immediate discardment of those of no value.
Apart from Jiang Chen, the group of participants who had made it out within five days also received additional attention, naturally.
Because of the appearance of Jiang Chen, all the organizers in charge of the trials were incredibly enthused.
They patently wanted to see just how this genius of the heart would perform in the future trials.
Would he continue his heaven defying performance?
Or would he sink down to the masses and reveal mediocre potential?
All of the organizers were expectant in that second, full of anticipation towards this divine level dark horse that had emerged from the mundane practitioners.
Jiang Chen stood amongst the seventy thousand, listening carefully to the rules of the second trial.
“The second trial isn’t to test how high your level of training is, but how great your talents can be. Of course, we are also testing other talents apart from martial dao. We greatly welcome you to test all your talents. After all, we are looking for talents in all areas in this selection, and not just limiting ourselves to martial dao.”
“Alright, I now announce that the second trial has begun.” The trial had officially begun with this announcement.
The tests of the second trial weren’t actually that complicated.
To put it plainly, it was a test of spirit roots.
What was a spirit root? Long Juxue’s innate azure phoenix constitution was an example of one.
The spirit root is a measure of how much potential there is in your body, what level, and approximately how far you could walk along this path.
Potential was equally vital on the path of martial dao.
If it’d been the former Jiang Chen attending this trial, he would be kicked out immediately.
However, after two years of reforging and a slew of corrections, and add on to that the absorption of the Flaming Heart of Ice, Jiang Chen’s potential had been thoroughly transformed through this series of heaven defying changes.
His potential and spirit ocean were both superb and extraordinary now.
The most important thing was that he had absorbed the Flaming Heart of Ice, which was the essence of the Lotus of Fire and Ice.
One had to keep in mind that the Lotus was a plant spirit that ranked in the top ten beneath the heavens. Thus, its immense potential was plain to see.
The second trial was once again divided into a hundred testing sites. Jiang Chen was again placed in the second area. There were only a few hundred participants left in each area now.
What he didn’t know, however, was that his participant token was now the subject of much scrutiny after the first trial.
Although he could occasionally feel all sorts of strange, covert looks at him, but with his personality, he wouldn’t become timid or shy because of surreptitious attention from the outside world.
Inversely, it actually make him more forthright.
Since he was participating in the selection, then he would stun all those present with one amazing feat!
Since he didn’t feel any malice from those subtle glances, he paid them no heed.
“Tsk tsk, did you see that? That perverse genius is in our area. It’s going to be his turn soon.”
“Sigh, I’m sure that the forefathers already have their sights set on him. If he’s extraordinary in the trial of potential as well, then this kid will have vaulted to new heights and soared to the skies in one leap!”
“What need is there to be extraordinary? His future would be limitless as long as his potential is not bad. If his potential is extraordinary, then he’ll be number one of the first selection without a doubt, and an unprecedented genius who absolutely has the right to vie for one of the final sixteen slots!”
“The final sixteen? That won’t be easy. Countless numbers of sect geniuses will be competing for a place on that list. As an ordinary practitioner, even if he possesses astounding potential, his foundations are shallow and he hasn’t had enough time to build them up. It will still be difficult for him to surpass the sects’ geniuses.”
These comments were all captured by Jiang Chen’s Ear of the Zephyr.
He reacted rather nonchalantly at this time as it just so happened to be his turn.