“Pseudo spirit root, fail!”
“Ordinary spirit root, fail”
“Superior-class spirit root, pass.”
…
Everyone continued proceeding to the stone gate where more than half of them were rejected.
Only those with a superior-class and above spirit root could get to pass the Spirit Testing Stage.
In the blink of an eye, there were only a couple dozens of people left with the haughty man, the white bloused woman, the little fatty and Su Zimo.
There had yet to be a single Heaven spirit root amongst the tested yet.
There were tens of Earth spirit roots and the rest were all superior-class.
The two children could not hide their looks of disappointment as they placed their remaining hope in the last dozens of people.
Right then, the little fatty walked through the stone gate all smiles.
The moment he reached the stone gate, a roaring sound rang out, scaring everyone.
Bang! Boom! Boom!
The water barrier turned yellow right away before materializing slowly into a sturdy mud wall.
Earth element, Heaven spirit root!
Out of the 500 over applicants, there was finally a Heaven spirit root!
The two children nodded to the little fatty with a kind smile, their eyes sparkling.
As he crossed the stone gate with ease, he came to the two children with smiles and pulled their hands together like long lost friends. Casually, he started engaging the both of them in conversation.
Both of them were a little stunned and they nearly spilled everything about themselves within a few mere sentences.
At that sight, Su Zimo smirked internally – that little fatty looked to be amiable and cute from the outside, but her was sharper than any of them.
Before long, the skinny child was the first one to recover as he coughed gently and swung the little fatty’s chubby hand away and said in a deep voice, “Fellow Daoist, please respect yourself and wait at the side instead of distracting us.”
“Yes, yes. Self respect. I understand that I’ve got a huge self to respect,” The little fatty giggled without looking awkward at all.
The skinny child rolled his eyes and got rid of the little fatty before yelling toward the stone gate, “Next!”
Someone tried and failed once more.
The number of people remaining was diminishing.
Finally, the haughty man opened his eyes as he turned to look at the white bloused woman not too far away. Giving a slight grin, he headed for the stone gate.
His actions attracted everyone’s attention.
It was as though he was a born ruler where every single move he made would attract the gazes of the masses.
The little fatty stopped smiling and looked at the stone gate.
Frowning slightly, the white bloused woman raised her head and her eyes followed the haughty man coldly too.
The haughty man stopped himself before the stone gate where the water barrier showed no indication of color.
“Hehe.”
After a temporary silence, giggles spread from the crowd.
“What’s he putting a show on for when he doesn’t even have a spirit root?”
“I know, right? And here I was thinking that he was someone incredible.”
“Wait, something’s not right. How did he become a Qi Refinement Warrior without a spirit root…”
The moment that sentence was spoken, everyone fell silent.
It was as though an invisible hand had gripped the covered the mouths of the mocking crowd as they watched with agape eyes.
The two children had a stern expression as well.
The little fatty was in deep thoughts. As though he had realized something, his chubby body shivered slightly as he could not contain his shock.
Oo! Oo!
Right then, a bizarre howling sound came out of the stone gate as the water barrier shimmered, looking like a breeze had just passed through it.
“Wind element, variant spirit root!”
The two children yelped.
When he heard that, Su Zimo’s heart skipped a beat too.
Of the five types of spirit roots, the Heaven spirit root was the best and rarest. However, there was a single spirit root that was even rarer than that – the variant spirit root, containing elements such as wind, thunder, ice, light and darkness et cetera.
One could say that a Heaven spirit root could only be found in one out of 10,000 men. Yet, a variant spirit root was tenfold rarer than that.
Naturally, a variant spirit root only had a single element as well and was a type of Heaven spirit root. However, that did not mean that it was stronger than the usual five elements; it was just extremely rare.
The haughty man smiled and crossed the stone gate with ease.
Excitedly, the skinny child whispered, “Junior brother, stand guard over here. I’ll go inform the peak master and be right back.”
“Yes, yes. Hurry on, senior brother,” The fat child replied hastily.
Right then, the white bloused woman outside the stone gate moved as well.
“Hold on, senior brother. We can wait till this one’s done too,” The fat Dao child called back the skinny one.
Nodding his head, the skinny child watched the white bloused woman keenly, seemingly even more nervous than her.
When she arrived before the stone gate, there was no color on the water barrier still.
This time round, no one dared to mock anymore.
“Could it be another variant spirit root?” The eyes of both children widened in disbelief.
Everyone else watched the stone gate with bated breath.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Suddenly, a layer of frost covered the water barrier before freezing it into ice!
“Ice element, variant spirit root!”
Everyone gasped.
“It’s been tens of years since a variant spirit root has appeared at Ethereal Peak! But now, there’s two in one go? No, I’ve got to hurry and report it to the peak master!”
The skinny child drew out a flying sword and sped towards the back of the peak, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Everyone else watched the haughty man and the white bloused woman with looks of admiration and respect.
The little fatty smiled his way to the white bloused woman before pandering to her, “Miss, you’re so beautiful. I’ve never seen a woman as beautiful as you in my life. You’re even prettier than our village beauty, Sister Caifeng!”
It was as though thunder had struck everyone present as they rolled their eyes.
That little fatty really did dare to say anything with drivel such as his village beauty, Sister Caifeng and whatnot.
He wasn’t wrong in his words – the white bloused woman was indeed extremely beautiful. However, most people would not dare to spout such truths, let alone in front of her.
Yet, the strange thing was that everything seemed natural and sincere when they came out of the little fatty’s mouth without a single bit of awkwardness.
If any other women heard such an open and brazen compliment, they would definitely feel shy. However, the girl was unmoved as she glared at the little fatty coldly without saying anything.
The little fatty wasn’t dissuaded as he slipped away to the haughty man’s side before commenting in awe, “Sir, you have such a good figure. I’m really envious!”
“Get away!”
The haughty man’s lips pursed slightly as he spat out those two words.
“Ah, alright!”
The little fatty nodded his head keenly as he disregarded cleanliness and rolled away on the floor immediately!
Because his figure resembled a ball to begin with, his rolling motion indeed made him look less than human.
The white bloused woman’s lips twitched as her frostiness diminished slightly, watching with a trace of bemusement.
Spying her expression with his sharp eyes, the little fatty stumbled over to the white bloused woman’s side with an intoxicated expression. His eyes seemed as though they were sparkling as he praised, “Wow, you really look so beautiful smiling!”
Instantly, the friendliness in the girl’s eyes disappeared. However, she stretched out her delicate hand and patted on the little fatty’s head, neither harshly nor gently.
Smiling with squinted eyes, the little fatty looked to be enjoying it.
“How could there be someone this shameless?!” Those were the words that passed through everyone’s minds.
When the fat child looked at the remaining tens of people and saw nothing special about them, he waved his hand patiently and demanded, “Continue with the test. Hurry up.”
Su Zimo tidied his clothes before heading up.