The approaching figure was a middle-aged man, however, his body was not of flesh and blood, but an obsidian colored metal.
“That…!”
Su Mo was taken by surprise as it was his first time seeing a person built from metal. “How is it alive?”
“Su Mo, that’s a puppet. As long as it doesn’t run out of energy, it’ll live forever.” Wu Sheng saw that Su Mo was shocked, so he explained, “Puppets of low level aren’t intelligent, but supreme puppets are as smart as a normal human.”
“Oh? Puppets?” Su Mo was both amazed and uncertain.
While they chatted away, the middle-aged puppet had already arrived above the square and was floating in the air.
Despite everyone being restricted to the ground, the puppet was completely unaffected.
The middle-aged man stood in the air, surveyed the crowd with his greyish white metal eyes, and said, “Not bad. This batch is much stronger than the previous one. I hope that some of you can join my Firmament Palace. Even if you can’t become an official disciple, becoming an unofficial disciple is pretty good too.”
His voice was so coarse that it numbed everyone’s eardrum. It was like two pieces of metal were grinding against each other.
“Unofficial Disciple?”
Everyone looked at each other in disbelief. Each and every single one of them was a top-notch genius below the age of 25 in the East Continent and was renowned in their respective domain.
Geniuses like them were under the utmost care and support whether in their families, or their sects.
However, despite this, their chances of even becoming an unofficial disciple of the Firmament Palace were miniscule.
Having said that, the crowd was aware that even becoming an unofficial disciple of the Firmament Place was better than becoming a pro-disciple of the top experts in East Continent.
Firmament Palace contained vast amounts of powerful ancient martial arts and Legacy, along with its infinite wealth. As long as one could become a disciple, they would obtain unimaginable benefits.
“Congratulations on clearing the first trial of perseverance, but that was just the beginning. If you wish to obtain the Legacy, or even become a disciple of my Firmament Palace, you will have to continue working hard.” The middle-aged puppet pointed at the stone pillar and continued, “That pillar can test your talents, including your martial soul, body constitutions, bloodline, willpower, and everything else. There are a total of nine grades, and you’re only qualified to continue with the other trials if you can reach the fourth grade. Anyone that reaches the sixth grade will become an unofficial disciple, and those who hit the seventh grade will become an official disciple of my Firmament Palace directly.”
“It’s really choosing its descendants!”
Having heard the puppet, revelation dawned upon Su Mo. The Firmament Palace had continuously resurfaced throughout all these years in order to look for descendants. However, Su Mo was puzzled that Firmament Palace had seemingly failed to find a suitable descendant despite having existed since the ancient times.
If that was the case, how high would its standards for choosing a descendant be?
One could become an official disciple if their talent reached the seventh grade, but Su Mo was still unsure of the amount of talent required to hit the mark.
“These nine Property-testing Steles each represent one of the nine properties. Your property talent is similarly divided into nine grades, and the qualifying criteria to continue the trials or become a disciple, is the same as that of the stone pillar.” The puppet explained the test clearly.
It seemed like the Firmament Palace valued body properties as much as talents and allowed those without enough talent to qualify so long as their body properties were satisfactory.
After finishing his explanation, the puppet continued to float in the air and waited for the test to start.
Many geniuses were not in a rush to do the test. They had all come here three years ago, so they knew what they would roughly rank as.
Meanwhile, some of the geniuses who were here for the first time, were eagerly looking forward to the test.
“I’ll go first!” A loud yell was heard as a figure bolted forward.
It was a young man in green who was about 20 years old with his cultivation at Lv 6 True Spirit Realm.
The nine Property-testing Steles stood uniformly in a row while the Test Pillar for Talent stood before them. Hence, the young man in green proceeded to the pillar first to test his talents.
Seemingly unnerved, he took a deep breath before slowly placing his palm on the Test Pillar.
Everyone else was interested to see his results since it would give away the difficulty of the test.
As his palm rested on the stone pillar, a milk white light suddenly burst out of the pillar and formed two glaring halos.
“Second grade talent, you’re disqualified!” The puppet shook his head and announced.
“Only second grade?” Everyone was astonished as this young man could not possibly have a poor talent since he had reached Lv 6 True Spirit Realm despite his young age. However, his result as showed by the stone pillar was horrendous.
Even Su Mo was taken aback. If that young man’s talent was only of the second grade, how demonic would a seventh grade talent be?
This Test Pillar was similar to that of the Top-100-talent Competition, but its grading standard was obviously much higher.
“Second grade?” The young man in green was also shocked and left in a daze.
He had originally expected his talent to be easily above the fourth grade, but the result clearly said otherwise. The grading standard of this Test Pillar was too horrifying! The young man felt discouraged and unmotivated.
“Continue testing your properties.” The middle-aged puppet said.
The young man then proceeded before the nine steles and started his test.
The steles respectively represented Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Thunder, Light, and Darkness. As he tested his body properties, the first five steles lit up, while the last four displayed no reaction.
Of the first five steles, only the Earth stele lit up with three halos, while others had two halos. This meant that the young man’s strongest property, which was Earth, was only at the third grade.
“Your property talent is too low!” The cold voice of the puppet was heard before he waved his arm to send the young man out of the Firmament Palace. The young man soon disappeared as he was transported out.
Everyone was dead silent. Once you failed the test, you would be instantly eliminated!
“I’ll try it too!” Another genius stepped forward.
“Third grade talent, unqualified! Second grade property talent, unqualified!” The puppet’s cold voice was heard again.
“My turn!”
“Second grade talent, unqualified! Second grade property talent, unqualified!”
“Second grade talent, unqualified! Fourth grade property talent, qualified!”
“…unqualified!”
After the young man in green tested his talents, the other geniuses took the test one after another. However, most of them had both their talent and property talent beneath the fourth grade and this resulted in their elimination.
Every genius that took the test eagerly ended up disappointed.
As long as one could reach the fourth grade for any one of the 10 talents, they would be qualified. Despite this, only 10% of the people made it through the test.
“Su Mo, I’ll try it first!” Wu Sheng strode forward to begin his test.
As his palm rested on the pillar, three milk white halos lit up. This indicated a third grade talent.
“Third grade talent, unqualified!” As the puppet spoke, Wu Sheng furrowed his brows.
He then tested his property talent. When his palm was on the Gold property Stele, four halos suddenly burst out, indicating a fourth grade talent for the Gold property!
Wu Sheng was delighted because that meant that he was qualified!
He then continued the test for the remaining eight properties, but apart from a single halo on both the Water and Wood Steles, the other steles did not react.
“Fourth grade Earth property, qualified!” the puppet nodded and said.
Wu Sheng was overjoyed at the results.
People continuously went up to test their talents, but most were eliminated.
At this moment, Wenren Tianyi went forward to take the test.
Since it was his first time at the Firmament Palace, everyone was curious at the grade of his talents.
As Wenren Tianyi put his hand on the Testing Pillar, five halos suddenly burst out.
“Fifth grade talent, qualified!” The puppet announced.
The crowd was stunned by his talent. It had amazingly reached the fifth grade, which was the highest so far.