At last, the old man returned with a boy who looked around seven in extravagant clothing. It was black and had golden lines depicting dragons embroidered on it.
It was a huge contrast to the rest of the candidates, who were either in rags or plain clothing. Even the old man's robe was plainer, with only a large yin-yang symbol as decoration.
The peasant girl immediately realised he must be some sort of noble. That or his parents wasted most of their income on clothes.
"Alright, all the candidates are here!" the old man announced.
He looked around and saw all of them sitting upside, their mouths tightly shut.
"What's with that look on your faces? Li Jie, were you messing with them?"
The young man in white robes harrumphed.
"They were being noisy. And disrespectful, accusing- no, suspecting you were an evil cultivator." he pointed to the peasant girl. "Especially her."
The old man coughed.
"Well... I admit I didn't bring her here in the most welcoming way. In any case, we shall commence with introductions and aptitude testing."
What type of sect even accepts disciples without testing their talent? How weird...
"So, does anyone want to start first? Raise your hand if you want to." said the old man.
Seeing that none of them were stepping up, the noble boy raised his hand with confidence.
"I am Wang Wei! The eighth son of-"
The old man stopped him.
"Names only, please."
The boy grumbled.
"Han Yingyi." the skinny boy said.
"Liu Qiang." continued the chubby boy.
"Xiuying." said the other girl.
One by one, all of them introduced themselves, but the peasant girl didn't pay much attention to the names of the children.
"And you?" the old man asked her.
She realised she was the last one.
"Mei Xiu."
"Good. Now for the aptitude test. Junior, mind doing the honours?"
Wordlessly, Li Jie put down his book and walked over to Wang Wei.
"I will be testing you now."
A pill and a glowing rock suddenly appeared in his right hand. Mei realised he was wearing a ring studded with green jade. That must be one of those storage rings she heard about! Without realising it, she started smiling.
Li Jie then forcefully shoved the pill into Wang Wei's mouth. The smugness from his face instantly turned to shock, then pain.
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"The pill will awaken your meridians."
Wang Wei looked horrified as grey mist flowed out of his pores.
"Good. Now try to absorb this." he crushed the rock.
Mei felt something had seeped into the air. Qi?
The boy was quite confused, but after a while, he managed to absorb a good portion of it.
The old man nodded.
"You have a good feel for qi. Most people aren't as fast with that."
Hearing that, Wang Wei regained his smug look.
"This is the final part of the test," said Li Jie as he passed a crystal clear orb to the boy. "Don't resist it."
Wang Wei looked a bit strained as he held it, but eventually, it became green, the character "四" appearing on it.
"Grade 4 talent!" the old man nodded again.
"Is that bad?" the boy looked worried.
"No, it's decent. The higher the grade, the better."
"Haha! I knew it!"
One by one, the candidates were tested.
Han Yingyi, Xiuying and two of the children got "三" as the orb shone blue, indicating grade 3 talent.
Two other children got "二", grade 2, the orb lighting up pale yellow. The last one got "一", grade 1, the orb lighting up white.
Liu Qiang a "四", making him bounce in excitement.
"Don't get too ahead of yourself!" Wang Wei said defensively. "You have a worse feel for qi than me, so I'm still better! And I'm younger!"
"What's your problem? I didn't even say I was better. You think you're so great just because your parents are rich?"
"Hmph! You're just a fatty!"
"Hey!"
"Now now, let's not fight." the old man clapped. "Mei Xiu, you are last."
Nervously, she took the pill.
A horrible nauseating feeling washed over her, making her want to vomit. Luckily, she didn't have anything for breakfast, so there was only dry heaving. She felt like gases were writhing all over in all her pores and about to burst out, making her incredibly itchy.
She collapsed to the ground.
"What happened?" the old man rushed over.
"Urgh," Mei said.
A massive burst of dark gas and liquid spewed out of her pores, almost like a smoke bomb.
"Gross!" Wang Wei yelped.
"Ahhh! It's in my mouth!" Liu Qiang cried out.
The children screamed.
She should have felt horrible after all that, especially since her clothes were drenched with black liquid, but instead, she felt amazing. Her whole body felt as light as a feather now.
The old man hurried waved his hands, condensing all the filth into a ball and putting it into a trash can he took out of his storage ring, then putting it back.
"Unbelievable! I've never seen so many impurities from a mortal!"
Mei felt anxious.
"Does that mean my talent isn't good?"
"No... Quite the reverse, in fact. Mei Xiu, do you do a lot of farming?"
"Uh, yes?"
"Junior, hand her the talent orb."
"We haven't done the absorption test-"
"Just do it!"
Filled with anticipation, Mei took the orb from him. She felt as if a strange force from the orb was trying to peer into her, but she tried not to resist it.
The orb shone purple brilliantly, displaying "六".
Li Jie looked mildly surprised..
"Grade 6 talent. Not bad."
Mei was filled with elation.
"That makes sense." the old man nodded. "I think I know why you have so many impurities."
Wang Wei however, was horrified.
"I thought you said grade 4 was good?" he looked on the verge of crying.
"It is, but can you all keep quiet? I need to explain something. " the old man shooed him aside. "There are quite a lot of spirit plants that rely on qi to grow and most of them expel a small amount of waste qi. Mei must have-"
"Eh? But I do a lot of farming too? Why didn't that happen to me?" Han Yingyi asked.
The old man furrowed his eyebrows. Didn't he just ask them to keep quiet?
"Normally, it isn't an issue," he continued. "But because she has good meridians, she absorbed a lot more waste energy than normal. In fact..."
He placed a hand on her shoulder and focused.
"...it seems she has already attained the first level of body cultivation!"
Mei had a moment of realisation. So that's why she was a lot stronger than normal! It was also why her parents made her do most of the farming.
The old man sighed.
"But it is truly unfortunate..."
"Huh? What's unfortunate?" she asked.
"You see, the waste energy has permanently damaged your meridians and stopped them from developing properly."
"EHHH?!"
"Most likely, you will only actually cultivate at the speed of a grade 2-3 talent. You will also need to spend a lot of time cleansing your meridians, or your cultivation might go berserk."
Wang Wei, who originally looked distraught now had a look of pity on his face. But he also looked relieved. Mei wanted to scream at him that she didn't need his pity but held back.
"Then... then... are there any pills that can restore them?" she asked, desperate.
"Well, I've heard there are some that can help in higher worlds, but they're very expensive. I could spend the entire sect fortune and I still won't have enough money for that, so don't get your hopes up."
Liu Qiang patted her on the shoulder sympathetically. She pushed his hand away.