"Begin!"

" *Inhale* " Lee who had been anxiously waiting took in a deep breath and then, immediately entered into a meditative state clearing his mind of every thought whatsoever.

Seeing that the ceremony had officially began, Lee's father couldn't help but clench his already sweaty hands under his sleeves, while a nervous glint flashed across his eyes.

**********

" Hu la! Hu la! "

Like the sound of rushing waters, dense energy began to pour out of the energy outlandish stones and was getting absorbed by the hungry bodies of the participants.

************

The process was extremely long and so it took several hours before they began to see results.

The first to succeed was a young man with pale yellow eyes added to his lean and lanky body made him look a bit mysterious. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the blurry image of a heavy sword totem which had appeared behind the callant, the temperature around the section which he sat cross legged on had rose by a significant rate, with fire which was as hot as molten lead, engulf the body of the sword like the sharp hairs on the body of a porcupine.

" I knew senior brother Bryan would succeed" excited voices suddenly broke out from the crowd.

" What do you expect, brother Byran is naturally talented!"

" I hope he gets selected"

The pale -yellow eyed man who was referred to as Byran suddenly pulled out a heavy sword from his huge sleeves and then placed it on his crossed knees and immediately began to form hand seals. The next moment the previously idle image of the sword totem behind him suddenly shot towards the heavy sword on Bryan's knees.

And then under the gaze of the whole crowd the totem began to coalesce with the heavy sword. Within few breaths the former ordinary sword on Bryan's knees had become somewhat a divine treasure. But that wasn't all, on the surface of the sword a dense fire energy began to flow gently like a stream. without warning the whole energy merged and dashed towards Bryan's forehead like a streak of light, and like an abyss it was immediately absorbed by his body.

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Few minutes later, a satisfied smile appeared on his face and he then opened his tightly shut eyes and rose up.

Success!

He had successfully formed a reservoir-like system in his body which would now act as his dantian and more importantly he had now become a first stage spiritual refinement cultivator!

*********

"Brother Grindsea does he meet your requirement" said Lee's father as he stared at the middle-aged cultivator with a slight smile on face.

" No!, You should know better!" chortled Grindsea.

"Was merely trying my luck!" with a bitter smile on his face he then directed his gaze towards Byran.

" Byran!, congratulations to you"

Bryan on hearing the clan head's voice immediately replied with a deep bow.

" And for this I bestow you with the rank of Captain, you shall be in charge of the West Lion group"

"Thank you Clan head this young one would surely perform well"

Bryan's face was filled with pride which he didn't try to conceal as he was been stared at by many envious eyes in the crowd. Bryan wasn't too ambitious, he knew his limit and so wasn't bothered about any selection, he knew he wasn't talented enough, even him successfully creating an intent came as a surprise to him.

************

In a dark seeming boundless space, a young lad could be seen levitating gently with no sign of live on his blank face.

The serenity of this area was so intense that one could almost go insane.

This continued for a long while with no slightest change in the environment. Until suddenly, the eyes of the lad suddenly opened and a bright light burst out of his eyes, the dark area seemed to have been affected as ripples began to undulate from it, and then without warning the dark space began to swirl, the temperature of the atmosphere began to drop rapidly before ice energy as thick as icebergs began to swim around the area and slowly the dark space slowly was changing from a devilish serene world to an ice world.

*********

The ceremony still in progress had become exhilarating, out of the hundreds of participants seventy had succeeded and two had being picked by Grindsea which to the entire Wateredge was rare but as for Clan head Skyfire ; Lee's father, none of this interested him, he stared at the serene face of Lee which had not fluctuated ever since the beginning of the ceremony.

The seventy which had passed were those they had expected to, they were the cream of the crop as for the others who were still struggling on the platform they were just average!

Why Lee still lingered for so long made him marred!

"It seems that Lee brat was just lucky to have cultivated our sword art so fast, now that my son had not only successfully created an intent, he has been selected by Master Grindsea, I want to see how he and his father can still keep that arrogant air " murmured a bald elder under his breath has he sent a mocking grin towards Lee who still sat on his section with the other three who had also not crested an intent.

" Elder Chu, haven't I always told you that that brat was been secretly aided by his father, now we can all see the truth" chuckled an elder with feiry- red hair and a strange white drawing on his forehead.

The bald elder turned his gaze towards the elder who just spoke and grinned like a Cheshire cat.

" Elder Son, Lee isn't talented, it is my son who is"

" Sure, elder chu, who can compare to young master Charles"

*********

The sun stared down at the ceremony and bathed everyone under it's glory, every single second was like a ticking bomb in Lee's father's heart, the mocking gazes that were sent towards him made his face twist especially from Elder chu, an ambitious elder who lusted after his post, now that his son had been picked by Grindsea he would have more reason to want to kick him away.

On Lee's section nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening, frigid energy was gently flowing into the bodies of Lee and the other three, before suddenly the energy which was flowing into the bodies of the other three began to drop, at first it was negligible but later it became meticulous even to the eyes of crowd.

Under the astonished gaze of the crowd the energy that was flowing into their bodies ceased and then it all diverted towards Lee, the energy which was meant for four people was getting greedily absorbed by Lee's body, the other three could not help but shake their heads, such poor luck they had!