The news received from Shi Xue was unexpectedly true. This greatly excited Murong Ziqian.
"I must go to the scene to cheer for Zhang Hao. Even if I can't speak to Zhang Hao, just seeing him will satisfy Zi Qian," Murong Ziqian murmured.
At this moment, Zhang Hao naturally didn't know about the crisis Murong Ziqian was facing. He was currently cultivating within the "Nine Heavens Palace".
This "Nine Heavens Palace" was the top-tier Saint Artifact Zhang Hao obtained after killing Xiao Fan. This was not an offensive or defensive Saint Artifact, but merely an auxiliary one. However, its functions were still powerful.
The Nine Heavens Palace formed its own Small World, with each room inside blocked by a barrier. With his current cultivation, Zhang Hao could only enter the first room. In this room, the flow of time could be altered, and this first room had a time flow ten times faster.
In other words, one day outside was actually ten days inside the Nine Heavens Palace. However, to activate this function, Zhang Hao also had to expend spirit stones. Fortunately, after destroying the Nangong Family, Zhang Hao also incidentally acquired some spirit stones. Otherwise, he wouldn't have enough to open the Nine Heavens Palace for these seven days.
During these seventy days, Zhang Hao did nothing else but Cultivate the Dark God Eyes. In the Demon God Continent, the Dark Ancestor could rule the Dark Continent with the Dark Demon Eyes, proving that the Dark God Eyes definitely had their extraordinary aspects. Zhang Hao naturally needed to properly research the wonders of these Dark God Eyes.
However, the foundation of the Dark God Eyes was spiritual power. The strength of spiritual power was the source of the Dark God Eyes' evolution.
It was just that Zhang Hao did not have a Cultivation Technique for spiritual power. In fact, it was not certain that the entire Northern Region had a Cultivation Technique for spiritual power. In the Emperor Domain, such techniques were extremely rare. After all, Martial Warrior's exploration of spiritual power lagged far behind other martial paths, so they naturally treasured what little they had.
Fortunately, Zhang Hao exchanged for a "Profound Heart Technique" worth 100,000 points in the System Store. This Profound Heart Technique was also a Cultivation Technique from another continent that primarily cultivated the spiritual system. Although there were some valuable secrets for spiritual cultivation for 10,000 points, based on the principle of getting what you pay for, Zhang Hao naturally chose the more expensive Profound Heart Technique. After all, this was a Cultivation Technique for the spiritual aspect; otherwise, if spiritual power wasn't cultivated and instead resulted in mental illness, that wouldn't be good.
The Profound Heart Technique was divided into ten layers, each corresponding to a Martial Warrior level. Upon completing the cultivation of each layer, a spiritual bead the size of a mung bean would condense in the glabella.
This Profound Heart Technique, like the God-Demon Overlord Body Art, could not be leveled up by killing monsters. Therefore, Zhang Hao could only Cultivate honestly.
Seven days passed quickly. Of course, seventy days had passed inside the Nine Heavens Palace. In these seventy days, Zhang Hao finally cultivated the Profound Heart Technique to the second layer. Two beads condensed in his glabella.
At this moment, Zhang Hao's spiritual power cultivation was equivalent to the Martial Master level. With spiritual power at the Martial Master realm, casting Dark Eye Techniques was no longer as awkward as before. Previously, without cultivating spiritual power, casting the Dark God Eyes' "Nightmare" once would make his head feel stuffy, but now, he could cast it three times consecutively without any reservations, and the effect and power were greater.
Moreover, the Awakening level of the Dark God Eyes had reached 15%. As long as it awakened another 5%, other abilities might appear.
Zhang Hao came out from the Nine Heavens Palace, walked out of the room, and found Song Sitian pacing anxiously. Upon seeing Zhang Hao, she hurriedly said with joy, "Young Master, you've finally returned."
Song Sitian, however, looked at the room behind Zhang Hao with some confusion, her expression strange as she asked him, "Young Master, when did you return? Sitian didn't see you come back."
Zhang Hao naturally wouldn't tell Song Sitian that he had been in the Nine Heavens Palace during this time. He just looked at Song Sitian and asked, "Sitian, why are you so anxious?"
Song Sitian hurriedly said to Zhang Hao, "Young Master, did you forget that today is the day for you to participate in the Sect Assessment? Liu Jie First Brother has been waiting for you!"
"Ah, I almost forgot." Zhang Hao clapped his hands, looking enlightened.
Zhang Hao immediately followed Song Sitian out. Liu Jie was waiting there. Upon seeing Zhang Hao, Liu Jie immediately came forward and looked at Zhang Hao reproachfully, saying, "Zhang Hao, where have you been these past few days? I've been here several times!"
Zhang Hao said somewhat awkwardly, "I was just cultivating."
"Alright, let's go quickly! We're just waiting for you!" Liu Jie hurriedly said to Zhang Hao.
Zhang Hao and Liu Jie knew time was tight, so they stopped talking nonsense and immediately rushed towards the location of the flying boat.
This time, the one leading the team was Lan Haiping.
Lan Haiping glanced indifferently at Zhang Hao and Liu Jie and said, "Hurry and board the ship!"
Zhang Hao boarded the flying boat and found that there were about a hundred assessors sitting on it. He didn't recognize most of them. However, given his current popularity in the College, there were still many Tianwu Academy students who greeted him.
Zhang Hao nodded in response to each of them.
However, what caught Zhang Hao's attention were three individuals, two males and one female.
Among them was a Black-Clad Youth, around twenty years old. He held a black longsword in his hand, and his entire body exuded a heavy Killing Intent. His gaze was sharp like a knife. He looked like someone who shouldn't be approached.
The other was a girl in a green dress, around eighteen or nineteen years old. However, the aura on her was also very cold, clearly indicating she had cultivated some special technique.
The third was a White-robed Youth, also around twenty years old. He was just resting with his eyes closed and didn't pay attention to others. However, Zhang Hao could feel a trace of danger emanating from him.
Liu Jie seemed to see that Zhang Hao was very interested in these three and smiled, "These three are all former students of our College. Their strength was among the best in the Inner Courtyard back then. This time, the Ten Great Sects assessment has relaxed the age limit to twenty-two. After hearing the news, some former students returned to compete for this spot."
Zhang Hao suddenly understood. No wonder the aura of these three was so strong; they were former students. That explained it.
"Liu Ge, you'll definitely stand out in this assessment," Zhang Hao said to Liu Jie with a smile.
Liu Jie gave Zhang Hao a wry smile and said, "Zhang Hao, don't tease me. This time, I'm just going to broaden my horizons. Passing the Sect assessment is something I wouldn't dare to think about."
Zhang Hao glanced at Liu Jie, shook his head, and smiled, "Liu Ge, how can you think like that? I see your cultivation has grown very quickly lately!"
Liu Jie said with a slightly satisfied smile, "It's alright. Knowing that I was going to participate in the Sect assessment recently, I went into seclusion. Although I don't have too many ambitions, since I've decided to go, I need to give it my all, right? It's a shame I didn't even get to see the good show of you teaching those scoundrels from Tianba Academy a lesson."
Zhang Hao nodded slightly and noticed that Liu Jie's cultivation had indeed grown very quickly; he was now at the Peak of the Martial King Middle Stage. It seemed everyone was working hard for this Sect assessment!