The streets were filled with people. Parents and their children, all walking in the direction of the test site with expectant, nervous and excited looks on their faces. While this is something that happens once a year, because people from many smaller towns all congregate in the same place, there's always  a lot of people present every time the sects have the annual tests.

On the way to the testing site, Lin Feng and the rest of the Lin clan walked with calm, steady strides fitting of their high position in the small Yulan City.

While the Lin clan never had one of it's scions accepted into the sects, they still possess quite a bit of financial power, as a merchant clan. Enough power to be ranked amongst the top clans in the city.

Walking beside his father, Lin Feng observed the movement of people on the streets with a gleam on interest in his eyes. He was clearly impressed by the sheer amount of people who both wanted to participate and observe the testing process.

"Feng'er, this year it seems like there's more people coming to the test. The reason for that must be the rumour that one of the 4 Great Sects has sent one of their examiners to evaluate the candidates of Yulan City. As the city closest to Skyfall mountain range, it's has always been neglected by the big sects and thought of as nothing more than a backwater place" With a serious tone, Lin Suo explained to his son who had a look of curiosity on his face.

"What!? One of the 4 Great sects has sent an emissary to this small Yulan City? Father, why didn't you tell me this before!?" Lin Feng was shocked! After all, this is would be the first time one of the 4 Great sects has sent someone to Yulan City.

For the first time, Lin Feng was feeling nervous. Before, he was certain that with his comprehensive abilities he should've been able to join a mid-level sect. However, now knowing that one of the giants of the Azure Mystic Continent had sent a representative, he was almost vibrating with nervous energy and excitement.

"Calm down, Feng'er. This is only a rumour, we can only be certain about what sects have sent representatives after the testing process initiates. What use would it have for me to tell you about this? It would only have made you anxious and that could affect your performance." Lin Suo was quite clear about his son's abilities. As long as he had good results on his elemental affinity test, there should be no problem for him to join a mid-level sect.

The testing process for the sects in the Azure Mystic Continent was divided into two stages. The first stage tested a person's comprehensive abilities by testing the strength of their soul. The soul is what allows cultivators to unveil the mysteries of the world and it's laws, the stronger the soul the greater will an individual's capacity to comprehend the profound mysteries and laws of nature, something necessary to advance in cultivation and achieve mastery of daoist magics.

The second stage, tested an individual's elemental affinity. A person's elemental affinity is what determines what cultivation techniques and they can cultivate in, and the level of the affinity will determine the speed at which a person will be able to advance in their cultivation. The higher the affinity, the greater the ability to sense the elemental energy of the world and the quicker you will be able to absorve and process that energy.

These two aspects define a person's latent talent, and their future prospects. Low elemental affinity means your training would too slow, while low soul strength would mean that your ability to comprehend the mysteries and laws of nature, and the intricacies of techniques, would be severely stunted.

As Lin Feng was walking, he heard someone calling his name. As he turned, he grinned brightly.

Walking in their direction as a sturdy youth, with childish features but a strong, tall, muscular body that moved like a small mountain. This was Zhang Yixing, the only friend Lin Feng had in Yulan City.

"Boss Feng! It's finally the time for the sect tests! We have to join the same sect. You can't leave me behind! I swore that i would follow you forever, and i meant it!" Waving those hands that looked as if they could crush rocks, Zhang Yixing was running in their direction as if the hounds of hell were at his heels.

"Haha! Yixing, with that burly body of yours, you're much more suited for one of the demonic way sects. They focus on body enhancing instead of daoist magics and energy emission, after all." Lin Feng cared a lot of this friend of his, because he and his mother had been exiled to that small courtyard manor in the outskirts of town, he never had a chance to make friend while he grew up. Zhang Yixing was the only friend he had, and they treated each other as brothers.

Despite his appearance, Zhang Yixing seemed to have a rather high comprehensive ability. While not as freakish as Lin Feng's, he still had been able to understand the techniques Lin Feng shared with him with extreme ease.

"Boss, don't tease me. You think i chose to have a body like this? It's all that damn old man's fault, making me help him at the forge every day!" With an aggrieved face, Zhang Yixing said to Lin Feng.

Zhang Yixing's father was know as the best blacksmith in Yulan City. All of the major clans and the more successful mercenaries in the city would go to him for their weapons and armour.

"Don't complain, Yixing. I told you that having a strong body will give you an edge in the earlier cultivation stages, since your body will be able to withstand a greater amount of strain while absorbing the natural elemental energies. You should be thanking your father, instead of cursing at him" With a chuckle, Lin Feng pretended to admonish his friend.

"Me? Thank that old geezer? Ha! as if! Every day he would torture me, making me carry those heavy pieces of ore and essence metal, you don't know how many times i thought i was going to die!" With a baffled look on his face, Zhang Yixing exclaimed while shaking his fist in mock anger.

"Ok, enough out of you two. Honestly, you are behaving like common hoodlums. Zhang Yixing, where's your father? Why isn't he with you?" Lin Suo admonished the two friends, a small smile on his face. It made him happy that his son had found such a stalwart friend.

"That old man is coming by shortly. He got a rather large order this week and has just finished it. After arranging the delivery, he'll meet me at the test site" With a careless air about him, Zhang Yixing spoke.

"Yixing, have you heard the rumour that one of the 4 Great Sects has sent a emissary this year?" Lin Feng was clearly excited about the possibility of seeing an envoy from one of the 4 Great Sects.

"What?! Are you shitting me Boss? How could one an envoy from those huge places be sent here to this godforsaken place?" Zhang Yixing said incredulously.

"Well, as of now it's simply a rumour. However, how great would it be if it was true?" After saying this, Lin Feng had a wistful look on his face.

"Well, even if it was true i doubt anyone from this place would be chosen. Well, maybe you could Boss." Zhang Yixing was clearly not very interested in the subject. Is this a joke? How could he dream about entering one of the 4 Great sects? He knows his place.

As they approached the testing site, more and more people were crowding the streets. Arriving at their destination, they saw an enormous stadium built with magnificent architecture and an imposing aura. Inside the stadium was an enormous stage, on which city officials were standing. Behind the stage were the private booths, where the sect envoys would observe the proceedings.

A line had already formed, but thankfully it wasn't too long yet. They had arrived at a good time. The tests where actually fairly short, a group of 10 children would go up each time and be tested simultaneously for their soul force and elemental affinity.

At that time in the stage, 10 children were being tested. First came the soul force test. By placing their hands on a stone stele, a special type of energy would enter their bodies and measure the power of their soul force. This process, while not painful, could be quite uncomfortable.

The average strength of a human soul was around 20. The minimum amount of strength necessary to become a cultivator was usually agreed to be 100. Of course, with a soul force of 100, you would most likely only be able to join a small, low-level sect. Unless you had astonishing elemental affinity, that is.

At that moment, Lin Feng was paying attention to a boy around his age, who was dressed in fine silk robes and had a haughty expression on his face. As he touched the stone stele, his face became a little pale and a series of numbers and letters appeared on the stele.

"Spiritual force of 104. Above average." The examiner intoned in a bored voice.

"Proceed to the elemental affinity test." The examiner didn't even look at the child, who by now had a rather ugly look on his face.

The elemental affinity test was similar to the soul force test. However, instead of numbers appearing on the stele, it would change colour in accord to the elemental affinity. Red for fire, green for wind, yellow for earth, blue for water, white for light and black for darkness. After changing colour, words would appear that would specify the degree of affinity of to candidate.

As the boy touched the stele, it changed colour to a deep black colour while letters appeared on it's surface.

Affinity: Darkness

Level: High

The examiner finally looked at the child with mild interest in his eyes. While his soul force was barely passable, he had one of the two rarest elemental affinities, darkness. Light and darkness elemental affinities where the rarest, and anyone would such affinities would have an easier time cultivating in the lower levels, since darkness and light energy exists everywhere in high concentrations.

Darkness and light elements are the only ones not governed by elementals, the creations of the 4 divine beasts. Darkness and light are fundamental elements of the primordial chaos. They existed before the universe was created by Shenzu and Manah and are as old they are.

With an affinity for darkness, while that child would not be accepted into a high-level sect, thanks to his low soul force, he could still easily get into a mid-level sect. Darkness and light elemental cultivators are considered good seedlings that can, with the right resources, be easily cultivated into a mid level powerhouse. Reaching the peak of the Yuan Seed realm would not be too difficult, although with his low soul force it's unlikely he would ever break through to the Dao of the Element realm.

After getting down from the stage, the child went to where his clan was with a huge smile on his face. His father was showing a proud and arrogant look, as looked at the other families around him.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

...

After two hours, it was finally time for Lin Feng, Zhang Yixing and Lin Xue to go up to the stage.

With a nervous smile, Lin Feng looked at his father.

"Father, this son will go now. I promise to not let you down." With slight shaky hands, Lin Feng walked up the steps and into the stage.

The first person to be tested was Zhang Yixing, and with a nervous look he walked in the direction of the stone steles.

"Place your hand on the stele. Remember, do not remove your hand before the results are shown, otherwise you will be sent to the back of the line" Once again, without even looking up from the documents on his hands, the examiner intoned.

With a slightly nervous look, Zhang Yixing places his hand on the stone stele. After feeling the energy, other than a slight shudder no other reaction was seeing from him.

Shortly after, words started appearing on the stele, garnering the attention of the examiner. After seeing the results, his eyebrows almost disappeared into his hairline. With a appreciative glance at Zhang Yixing, he spoke the results.

"Spiritual force of 696. Excellent" The examiner said, a bit of praise in his eyes.

Immediately after his results, there was a great silence on the stadium. After a few seconds, chaos broke out as everyone was shocked by the results of Zhang Yixing.

"Quiet! Anyone who continues to make a ruckus will be expelled from the testing site!" The examiner shouted, with a stern voice.

"Little friend, proceed to the elemental affinity test." The examiner was clearly a bit more friendly than he was before.

With a baffled look on his face, Zhang Yixing walked to the second stele and placed his hands on it. Immediately, the stele started changing colour and in a few seconds is was a bright, earthly yellow colour.

Elemental Affinity: Earth

Level: Excellent

Once more, the entire stadium was in a uproar. An elemental affinity with level of excellent was rarely seen even in those major clans of the continent. In combination with his Excellent soul force, it would almost guarantee, at the absolute minimum, he would reach the peak of the Dao of Element level, most likely even the Elemental Ascencion level! This was the same level as the patriarchs from the weaker mid-level sects! If he got accepted into a high-level sect, his future prospects would be limitless.

At once, several envoys from sects approached Zhang Yixing's father, making several offers to them, trying to draw him into their fold. Suddenly, an aged voice sounded amidst the chaos. Curiously, even amongst the cacophony of sounds, his voice was clearly heard.

"This little friend, i wonder if you'd be willing to join my Dragon God Palace? I guarantee that my offer will not lose out to any of the other sects." An old man, with a long white beard and kind eyes was walking in the direction of Zhang Yixing and the others.

When people heard the words "Dragon God Palace", a deafening silence fell in the entire testing sound. You'd be able to hear a pin drop, no one dared to make a single sound. The reason for that was, the Dragon God Palace was one of the 4 Great Sects.

All the envoys from the sects palled and immediately cleared the way for that old man. Who thanked them with a kind, wise smile on his face.

When Lin Feng heard that old man, he almost passed out. An envoy of the 4 Great Sects actually came! The Dragon God Palace had a history of more than a hundred thousand years! It was one of the 4 Great Sects, one of the holy lands for every single cultivator on the Azure Mystic continent.

"Willing! Of course he's willing! Yixing, say thanks to this Lord. Look, he's offering you a position in the Dragon God Palace! THE Dragon God Palace! Why aren't you thanking him yet, you fool!?" Zhang Yixing's father, Zhang Fei was a huge man, with the back of a tiger and the waist of a bear. However, now he looked like a kid who just got the best birthday present in his life, his face was flushed and his eyes had a dazed look of joy that was impossible to hide.

Zhang Yixing, who until that point was gaping like a fish, was startled awake by his father's shouts. With a dazed look on his face, he deeply bowed to the old man and thanked him.

"Yixing thanks this Lord! This lord has giving me a great gift, thanking this Lord a thousand times would not be enough!" While deeply bowing, Zhang Yixing shout these words.

"Hahaha! There's not need for that, arise little friend. And stop with the Lord this and Lord that, just call me Elder Su. From now on you're a disciple of my sect after all, hahaha!" The old man, Elder Su, was clearly in a great mood. After all, who would've thought that in the backwater place he would've found such a good seedling.

"Alright, i think the tests should continue, don't think?" While looking at the examiner, Elder Su made a gesture with his hand to continue the proceedings.

"O-Of course sir! Next in line, please come up to the stage!" With a nervous voice, the examiner quickly called the next person in line for the test.

The next in line was Lin Xue. Her results, while not as astonishing as Zhang Yixing, where still quite impressive. With a soul force of 278 and a high elemental affinity for water, she got accepted into the Frost Serpent Sect, one of the most powerful and influential mid-level sects in the continent.

"Look, Feng'er. Xue'er got accepted into one of the top mid-level sects in the continent! As her big brother, you can't show a poor result, can you?" Lin Suo was positively vibrating with pride and joy. Finally! Finally his clan would have a sect disciple amongst it's scions. From this moment on, no one would dare to mess with their clan in this region. They could be said to have become overlords.

...

After a few more tests, it was finally Lin Fengs turn. Now that he knew one of the 4 Great Sects had come, he was even more nervous than ever before. He had to have good results, another chance like this was likely to never happen again.

"Place your hand in the stone stele. You remember the rules, correct?" The examiner asked, with slightly expectant eyes. This boy was the brother of the girl who got accepted into one of the mid-level sects. His results shouldn't be too shabby.

With a small nod, Lin Feng placed his hand on the stone stele. Once the foreign energy entered his body, he felt as if a million ants were crawling on his body, an extremely unsettling feeling. After around ten seconds, a droning sound started echoing across the the testing site. The sound got louder and louder, to the point where people had to cover their ears, with bewildered looks.

After a few seconds, energy waves started emanating from the stone stele, causing the winds in the area to howl like hungry ghosts. The envoy from the Dragon God Palace, suddenly stood up with a disbelieving look in his eyes, while everyone finally noticed that the source of the strange phenomena was Lin Feng. Suddenly, words started appearing on the stone stele so fast it was difficult to read them, and just as suddenly, a loud crack was heard and the stone stele was almost spli clean in two. Lin Feng was thrown clear across the stage, and after spitting up a mouthful of blood, he paled and fell to the ground, unable to stand up.

Everyone in the stadium was shocked, and with hurried steps, Lin Suo rushed into the stage to help Lin Feng.

"Feng'er, are you alright!? What in the name of Shenzu happened?" With wild look in his eyes, Lin Suo kept checking Lin Feng's body.

"Father i'm fine. I don't know what happened. After the strange energy entered my body, my mind went blank and the next thing i knew, i had been thrown across the stage." Lin Feng was also extremely confused, wondering what could possibly have happened.

"Excuse-me, my i look at your sons injuries? I may be able to detect if anything is amiss" Suddenly, a aged voice sound from behind the father and son. It was the envoy from the Dragon God Palace, Elder Su.

"Of course, my lord! Feng'er, let Lord Su look at your body." Lin Suo was extremely grateful that someone with the status of Elder Su, would offer to check his son.

After touching Lin Feng's wrist and closing his eyes, Elder Su frowned and opening his eyes, stated that Lin Feng seemed to not have suffered any lasting damage. Lin Suo was so relieved, his legs almost gave out. This was his only son, after all.

"Lord Su, do you know what happened?" Now that he was assured Lin Feng was in no danger, he became even more curious about what happened.

"I am not sure. However, i believe if we look at the stone stele, we might have an idea. Before the explosion of energy, words had appeared in the steles surface after all." With a curious look, Elder Su started walking towards the stone stele. Once he reached it and looked, his entire body seemed to freeze. Not even a single muscle was moving, as if he had become a statue, frozen in time.

"I-Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!" Elder Su was muttering under his breath. Curious, the examiner approached and had a different but just as strange reaction as Elder Su. He jumped almost three meter in the air, and turning to look at Lin Feng, he seemed to be looking at a monster.

"S-Soul force incalculable! Level, Transcendent! T-this is unheard of! What  a monstrous child! Monstrous!" The examiner was screeching like a crazy person. No one present, other than the sect envoys understood what he was saying. How can someone's soul force be impossible to calculate?

However, the sect envoys knew very well what this meant. The stone steles used to test for new disciples were not very high-grade ones. However, they could still test a person's soul force up to a degree of 2 thousand! But this is not all, what truly scared them witless was the level assessment of Lin Feng's soul force, transcendent. This level was something only spoken of in legends, as far as the records stated, for a person to be graded as transcendent in the soul force test, they needed to have a soul force of over ten thousand! This is a monstrous amount that not even Elemental Immortals possessed.

While you can't increase your elemental affinity, as you cultivate, your soul force will continuously increase. However, for someone to already start with a soul level above that of the average Elemental Immortal, was something that scared all this envoys down to their very core. What kind of monster is this?