“So what da bo is saying is that if I suddenly join the Inner Court, it will raise suspicions?”

“Right!” Xu Haoran nodded his head: “If you suddenly enter the clan as a Qi Refining first level cultivator, it will definitely catch their attention. If ninth di wants to find more information about it, it won’t be very hard to do so.”

“Then, I’ll start in the inst.i.tute.” Xu Ziyan said after thinking for a bit.

“It won’t work either,” Xu Haoran bitterly smiled: “With your first level of the Qi Refining layer cultivation base, it will be even more eye-catching for you to enter the inst.i.tute.”

“I have a solution to this!”

Xu Ziyan stood behind a group of people on the pavilion. The people in the group were all disciples of the clan that were younger than 15 years old. The youngest was only three years old, while the oldest didn’t exceed 15 years of age. That is because of those who were older than 15 years, the ones that broke through to the Houtian fifth layer were in the Outer Court, while those who didn’t break through were chased out of the clan and sent to do things that the other members didn’t want to do.

Xu Ziyan is not yet 15 years old. There are still two months until she turns 15. She was forged a family steward’s distant niece’s ident.i.ty to use to enter the clan’s inst.i.tute. She made herself a Yinxi talisman to cover up her true cultivation base and make it seem as though the was at the Houtian fourth layer.

Xu Ziyan blankly followed the movements of all people in the group as they continued to do movements, punches, kicks…

When she just entered the inst.i.tute, Xu Ziyan though her knowledge of cultivation was lacking and so she had actually carefully listened the teacher’s lectures. However, after a couple of days, Xu Ziyan completely understood all the cultivation techniques under the Houtian fifth layer. Plus, she already had a set of skills in the “Dan Fu Zong”. Even though it was only a set of water skills, however it was extremely complete and had a lot of content.

These days, Xu Ziyan was completely immersed in the water skill set. The set was called “The Cry of the Water Dragons”. With the abundant information in the skill set, for someone like Xu Ziyan who never cultivated before, it wasn’t as simple as just advancing in cultivation, but rather it needed a stable foundation of knowledge. The information and knowledge learned in the inst.i.tute was obviously not enough for Xu Ziyan to learn from. Because of this, Xu Ziyan was even desired to enter the library and read all the skill books even more.

Xu Ziyan already used up the money Xu Haoran had given to spend to buy large quant.i.ties of medicinal gra.s.s. During the night, she would use her Fire Spirit talismans to create many Spirit Pills.

Everyday in the morning she would study and cultivate in the inst.i.tute. By the afternoon, she would stay in her room by herself and consume Spirit Pills to help cultivate “The Cry of the Water Dragons”. She would also try to pull time out of her tight schedule to make five paper talismans for the clan every single day. Xu Ziyan’s lifestyle had become very busy, but also very substantial.

Just yesterday night, Xu Ziyan finally broke through the first level of the Qi Refining layer into the second level of the Qi Refining layer. And so, while she was cultivating on the pavilion today, Xu Ziyan was immersed in the happiness of being able to breakthrough, but was still constantly thinking about “The Cry of the Water Dragons” in her consciousness.

After a call from the teacher, Xu Ziyan awoke from her cultivation state. The teacher gathered all the people into a formation. He majestically stood in front of the group. He is called Xu Zhiyong, and is a Houtian 12th layer cultivator. He was the teacher of Xu Ziyan’s cla.s.s in the inst.i.tute. He swept his eyes over all the people and then sonorously called: “There are 10 days until the test. Amongst all of you, there are 8 15 year old disciples. If after 10 days, you eight have still not broken through to the Houtian fifth layer, then you are the Xu clan’s disgrace! You will be chased out of the inst.i.tute to do low things.”

Xu Zhiyong looked over at the eight disciples which included Xu Ziyan. Xu Ziyan quickly glanced at the other seven  who were now 15 years old. There were 5 males and 2 females. Three of the males and one female let out prideful expressions on their faces. It was easy to tell that those four had already reached the Houtian fifth layer. The remaining 3 were all pale. At the same time, the seven also looked over at Xu Ziyan. The four that had broken through gave her an expression of disdain, while the three that hadn’t broken through showed expressions of sympathy of people in the same boat.

Xu Ziyan lightly smiled. It was because of her Yinxi talisman that would make it seem as though she had the cultivation base of the Houtian fourth layer, which caused others to look at her as though she was a failure. Even Xu Zhiyong had a look of disdain. Even though the inst.i.tute taught only in the morning, however, all the disciples would cultivate on the pavilion from the afternoon all the way to midnight. But, Xu Zhiyong had never seen Xu Ziyan do so.

Xu Ziyan already came to the inst.i.tute for about a month. When she had first came and Xu Zhiyong saw that she had a Houtian fourth level cultivation base, he was extremely happy as he thought there would be another in his cla.s.s that could break through the Houtian fifth layer. However, with Xu Ziyan’s behavior over the past few month, he was extremely disappointed. Despite his anger, he talked to Xu Ziyan two times, but every time he finished talking to her, Xu Ziyan still continued to do as she pleased. This let Xu Zhiyong go from disappointment to pure anger. Now, he only felt disdain towards her. In his mind, he had even given her the t.i.tle of ‘trash’.

Xu Ziyan instead did not have time to care about their feelings toward her. She still did what she wanted to do every single day. Until the ninth day, just a day before the test, Xu Ziyan changed her Yinxi talisman to another one that would make it seem as though she had a Houtian fifth layer cultivation base.

The tenth day, all the disciples in the inst.i.tute gathered in the pavilion. 300 disciples neatly stood in formation all with serious expressions. The testing started from the youngest ones, There were ten pillars on the pavilion. Each pillar had 12 scale marks. The disciple only needed to go to a pillar and then use the power of their cultivation base to punch it. Whichever scale mark lit up, the disciple would then have a cultivation of whichever mark.

Time slowly pa.s.sed by. By the time it was the afternoon, 200 of the disciples had already finished testing. Only 23 people broke through to the Houtian fifth layer. That wasn’t even 10% of all the people. Only roughly 30 people had not yet taken the test. These 30 were all the people that had reached 15 years of age.

Even if a person broke through to the Houtian fifth layer at fifteen years of age, they wouldn’t be very special later. The only talented ones would be the ones that were 10 years old or younger. Those would be the ones that the clan would want to groom for the future. This is also the reason why the test always starts from the youngest of the disciples. The fifteen year old disciples only had two roads to walk. Either they broke through to the Houtian fifth layer and entered the Outer Court, or, they were chased out of the inst.i.tute to do lowly things. But no matter which road they walked, today would be the last day that they were in the inst.i.tute. And so, this day was called: Leaving at 15 Years Day.

A youth solemnly stood in front of the pillar. His forehead showed a thin sheen of sweat. He powered his cultivation base and roared. He viciously punched the pillar. The pillar lit up at the fifth mark. The test proctor lightly called: “Xu Yi, Houtian fifth layer, pa.s.s. You may enter the Outer Court.

Xu Yi was so elated that his whole body began trembling. He walked towards the test proctor and deeply bowed. He respectfully said: “Thank you! Thank you!”

The test proctor’s expression showed a sliver of warmth : “ Return to the group!”

“Yes!”

Xu Yi bowed again and then left the pillar. He secretly clenched his fists and then stood behind the group of people that had reached the Houtian fifth layer. He stared towards to pillars.

In front of another pillar, a youth hit the pillar. The pillar lit up at the 4th mark. The youth’s face was pale white. His body shook and then he fainted. The test proctor wrinkled his brows in disgust and waved his hand. Very quickly, two disciples lifted up the youth and pulled him away roughly. From then on, that youth would only do lowly tasks. He would be in a position similar to a servant. He didn’t have any hope or dignity anymore.

Countless people fainted in front of the pillars as they continued testing. If a person still hadn’t broken through when they were fourteen, then they weren’t that talented. If they wanted to break through in a year’s time, it was easier said than done.

Very quickly, of the 30 or so people, the majority had been eliminated. When there were only three people left, it was Xu Ziyan’s turn. Xu Ziyan lowly walked towards one of the pillars. She was calculating how much power she would need to release that would make it seem as though she was at the fifth level of the Houtian realm. If she released too little power that it didn’t reach the Houtian fifth later, she wouldn’t be chased out which would be very unjust. However, it she put too much power that was too far above the Houtian fifth layer, it would raise the attention of many. Plus, she also needed to keep a low profile currently.

Xu Ziyan arrived in front of the pillar. As Xu Yi looked at Xu Ziyan, he disdainfully shook his head. His gaze then averted to the remaining two disciples whom still had yet to test.

Xu Ziyan breathed in and then controlled her strength and punched the pillar. The light reached the sixth mark. The test proctor looked at Xu Ziyan and then sonorously called: “Xu Ziyan, Houtian sixth layer, pa.s.s. You may enter the Outer Court.”

Xu Ziyan let out a breath and thought, ‘I still cannot control my strength well. I actually raised it a level higher than I intended.’

She slowly walked in front of the test proctor, bowed, and softly said: “Thank you!”

“En, go over there!” The test proctor’s expression became gentler by a lot.

Xu Ziyan turned around to go towards the group of people that had broken through. Xu Yi stared at Xu Ziyan with a shocked expression.

Glossary:

Di – younger brother

Da – means ‘big’, or in the context of being in front of ‘ge’ or ‘bo’, the eldest of the brothers, or the eldest of the bo’s. Notice that da can only be used in front of t.i.tles for and older person, for example ‘ge’, ‘jie’, and ‘bo’, but not ‘di’ or ‘mei’.

Bo – father’s elder brother

Characters:

Xu Ziyan – the female MC | Currently at the second level of the Qi Refining layer

Xu Haoran – the Xu clan Patriarch; Xu Ziyan’s eldest bo, or Xu Haoguang’s eldest brother | Currently at the 3rd level of the Foundation Establishment layer

Xu Zhiyong – the teacher of Xu Ziyan’s cla.s.s in the inst.i.tute | Currently at the 12th layer of the Houtian realm

Xu Yi – one of the 15 year old disciples that broke through to the 5th Houtian layer | Currently at the 5th layer of the Houtian realm.

Other Information: