After Lin An and the other aspiring cultivators left, the smile on the eldest senior brother’s face gradually faded, and he became expressionless.
“That cultivator’s strength is not simple. Even if I were to face him, my chances of losing the battle were very high. That is why I wanted you to apologize.” The eldest senior brother explained calmly.
“What?”
The nascent soul stage disciple and the other two female disciples who were in charge of maintaining the sea of fire formation immediately exclaimed in shock.
“Eldest senior brother, you are at the fifth level of the original infant stage. That cultivator is only at the peak of the golden core stage. How could you lose to him?” The nascent soul stage disciple asked in disbelief.
The eldest senior brother glanced at him indifferently and replied, “I’m afraid that he didn’t even use thirty percent of his strength during your sword fight. If he had used his full strength, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have been able to block it.”
The terrifying sword hadn’t even reach thirty percent of its power.
When he heard the statement, the Hundred Flowers Valley Sect disciple was astonished, and a cold sweat broke out on his back. The eldest senior brother’s confession had sent waves of lingering fear all over his body.
…
After a few moments, one of the Hundred Flowers Valley Sect disciples appeared and explained the contents of the second test to Lin An and the other cultivators.
“In the valley behind me, there’s a spiritual herb called the starlight grass. This grass only grows by absorbing the essence of the stars and the moon. It’s extremely rare in the world, and its uses are very limited since it can only be used in one prescription. However, the effects of that prescription are not simple.
Therefore, the second round of the trial is for all of you to form teams and enter the valley. Each team will be limited to six people. As long as one person from each team can find the starlight grass, all the other members will be considered to have passed the test.”
One of the cultivators behind Lin An shook his head and sighed, “This starlight grass is extremely difficult to find. Although it can grow anywhere, the grass doesn’t grow uniformly. It is said that within a thousand miles, only one starlight grass can survive.”
Lin An immediately laughed. The trial was practically tailor made for him. In terms of solving puzzles, there were very few cultivators who could compare to him.
He immediately stepped through the barrier and entered the valley.
To his surprise, there were many people in the valley. The entire mountain peak was populated with cultivators from the foundation establishment stage to the golden core stage. There were even a few nascent soul stage cultivators who were taking part in the trial.
Lin An was a little stunned. The Hundred Flowers Valley Sect was so popular.
Countless cultivators had signed up for the sect’s trial. In Lin An’s memory, every time the Jiuxiao Sect recruited new disciples, the total number of aspiring cultivators who signed up wouldn’t surpass one thousand.
Some of the Hundred Flowers Valley Sect disciples in the crowd were busy handing out team tokens to the cultivators who wanted to complete the trial.
Lin An took a glance and walked towards one of the Hundred Flowers Valley Sect disciples.
A long line had already formed in front of the disciple, and Lin An felt that it would take quite a while before it was his turn.
Fortunately, although there were many cultivators in the line, there were basically six people in a team, and they quickly left after receiving their tokens.
Suddenly, a few burly figures cut the line in front of Lin An.
The other party had the upper hand, and without waiting for Lin An to speak, he said, “Kid, if you know what’s good for you, then stay put. Otherwise, when we enter the mountain later, there will be a lot of suffering for you.”
Lin An glanced at them indifferently, and he was immediately amused. The six cultivators were all at the golden core stage.
Even with their lousy cultivation levels, they had still dared to jump the queue ahead of Lin An.
However, he didn’t flare up immediately. If he fought with the burly man before they entered the valley, they would both lose their qualifications to take part in the trial.
It was better to wait until they entered the valley and then have a taste of the “suffering” that the burly man had promised.
When Lin An reached the front of the queue, he saw that the person in charge of registering the aspirants was a young female disciple. She had a pretty face, but her brows were tightly furrowed, and she seemed to have a bad temper.
The adolescent female disciple raised her head and looked at Lin An indifferently as she coldly said, “Tell me the names of all the members of your team.”
“My name is Lin An. I’m the only one.”
The woman couldn’t help but be stunned when she heard this. “You’re the only one?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
As soon as she said this, the surrounding cultivators immediately burst into laughter.
“Haha! Is this kid stupid?”
“He’s really out of his mind. He actually wants to enter the valley alone.”
“Even if we enter the valley in groups of six, we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to find the starlight grass in six hours. Does he know that if he enters the valley alone, he’ll only have two hours?”
“Also, does he know about the dangers lurking around in the valley?”
“This kid’s cultivation level is quite high, but I didn’t expect him to be so stupid. Young Man, I advise you to quickly recruit a team.”
…
Lin An’s lips curled up as he scanned the cultivators around him and said, “I think I can find the magic herb in two hours.”
After he spoke, he flung his sleeves and grabbed a wooden tablet from the young female disciple’s table. He then took a step forward and headed towards the valley.
Because of Lin Ans’ words, the news about his decision instantly spread among the other cultivators.
“Hey, did you hear? There’s a young man who actually came to challenge the second stage alone!”
“Haha, I was there. I’ve been happy about this for a long time. How can he be so stupid?”
“That’s right. He will only have one-sixth of our time to clear the stage. That young man is really stupid.”
“Yo, look! Isn’t he the person in front of us?”
“Hey! Where are you going? Damn, it really is him!”
…
As Lin An walked towards the valley, a success rate system notification popped up on the virtual screen.
[If you continue to walk forward, the probability of obtaining the starlight grass will increase to 74%.]
A satisfied smile appeared on Lin An’s face. The foolish cultivators did not know that he had a secret cheat code. Even as they were laughing at him, Lin An knew that he would have the final bragging rights.
After walking into the valley, Lin An realized that a huge spell formation had covered the entire mountain.
He carefully followed the guidance of the success rate system, and he walked towards a sparsely populated area. Suddenly, he came upon two groups of cultivators who appeared to be having a heated argument.
A group of golden core stage cultivators had surrounded a group of foundation establishment cultivators, and one of the foundation establishment cultivators, who was a woman with an extraordinary temperament, said angrily, “Don’t go too far!”
“What do you mean by go too far? We clearly saw this starlight grass first, but you guys suddenly jumped out and beat us to it. You are really immoral. You guys better hurry up and hand it over.”
Lin An felt that the words of the golden core stage cultivators were very reasonable. Whoever had seen the starlight grass first had the right to claim it.
Thus, Lin An spoke up in a confident tone. “Hey! What are you guys doing? It’s fine to quarrel, but the problem is that you guys are arguing over my starlight grass!”
The cultivators present all turned around and looked at Lin An in shock.
However, under the guidance of the success rate system, Lin An reasoned that he had seen the starlight grass as soon as he had entered the valley.
Therefore, since the golden core stage cultivators had applied the principle that whoever had seen the starlight grass first had the right to claim it, Lin An felt that the starlight grass belonged to him!