Chapter 685
The young man was not that tall. He was only about 1.7 metres in height. He was thin, with recessed eye sockets and slightly blue eyebags. Even then, he still looked quite decent. However, it was obvious to everyone with discerning eyes that this man had been indulging too much in alcohol and sex. Prior to this, Zhou Weiqing did not notice his existence at all. It was actually surprising that someone like him would participate in the Mysterious Heavenly Selection.
“Is there anything that I don’t know? I will be able to qualify! You two are not locals, right? You must not know who I am!”
As he was saying that, he looked at Bing’er’s body lasciviously. His eyes were trained on her body, slowly scanning from top to bottom. He was completely unaware that he had crossed Zhou Weiqing’s bottom line.
Zhou Weiqing maintained his curious facade and continued asking, “I thought the objective of the selection is to select new talents for the Mysterious Heavenly Palace? Whether we’re selected or not depends on our strength and capability, right? What does it have to do with our identity?”
The young man snorted derisively. He did not deign to answer Zhou Weiqing. Instead, he leaned towards Bing’er with a smiley face. “Hey, pretty girl! Look at how beautiful you are. Why don’t you let me treat you to a meal after the selection? The top three participants have already been decided, so you have no chance. Don’t worry! You’re still young after all. As long as I help you ahead of time, you’ll probably stand a chance next year. My father is the mayor of this city. My name is Sang De. Let’s get to know each other more, shall we?” As he was speaking, he reached out to grab Bing’er’s little hand.
Well, he did manage to grab something. Unfortunately, it was not Bing’er’s hand. Instead, he was holding on to a huge and sturdy hand. When he looked up at the hand’s owner, he saw Zhou Weiqing’s face that had a cheerful smile plastered on it. Shaking his hand hard, Zhou Weiqing chuckled. “Ahhh, so you’re the mayor’s son! I’m sorry for being so disrespectful!”
“You asshole! Let go of my hand now!” Sang De tried to retract his hand from Zhou Weiqing’s grip, but his grip was too strong. It was almost like an iron tong. No matter how much Heavenly Energy he used, it was all in vain. In the end, he was still unable to break free from Zhou Weiqing’s grip. Not only that, Zhou Weiqing was gradually tightening his grip until a sharp intense pain gradually spread through his hand.
At this moment, a somewhat stern voice shouted, “What are you doing? It’s your turn to go up the stage!”
It seemed like during their brief exchange, a few teams had already completed their test. It was finally their turn to get tested.
Only then did Zhou Weiqing release Sang De’s hand. After all, he was on their turf. And more importantly, they still needed to pass the selection in order to enter the Mysterious Heavenly Palace. Zhou Weiqing had no choice other than to tolerate it. Of course, with his personality, he would never let Sang De off so easily.
Other than the three of them, two other people in front of him went up the stage together. Each of them stood in front of the circular pillar.
From the beginning, Master Er Chun stood at the same spot, expressionless and with his hands clasped behind him. He did not even bother to look at the participants in the eye. It was as if everything that happened in front of him had nothing to do with him at all.
The instance the officer yelled “Start!”, all five of them began to infuse their Heavenly Energy into the crystal balls.
Instead of hastily infusing his Heavenly Energy into the crystal ball, Zhou Weiqing turned his head to look at Sang De. To his surprise, his Heavenly Energy was actually decent. Even though his body showed signs of decline from his debauched lifestyle, he actually managed to display the strength of five Jewels. The white light rose up steadily.
Zhou Weiqing sneered inwardly. He probably did not cultivate the power himself. Although the white light rose up very quickly, it was very obvious that the light was murky and tainted. Not only that, the light was unstable as well. This was enough to prove that his Heavenly Energy had been enhanced by some sort of drugs or he had some special help from another expert. Although this enhancement method allowed him to increase his strength in a short amount of time, it would be detrimental to him in the long run. Putting other possibilities aside, he would probably never be able to cross the threshold of the Zun and Zong-tier in the future.
Zhou Weiqing turned his head again as he nodded slightly in Shangguan Bing’er’s direction. At the same time, he converted his Saint Energy into Heavenly Energy. He then proceeded to release it into the crystal ball. He released just the right amount so that his light would always be a fraction higher than Sang De’s light.
At this moment, a glimmer flashed across Bing’er’s eyes. The rich intense Heavenly Energy burst out from her body at once. Amidst all the gasps and yells from the audience, a white light shot out of the crystal ball in front of Bing’er as it skyrocketed up in a straight line towards the sky. In almost an instant, the light surpassed the other four participants’ light. When it was about five meters high, a cracking noise could be heard coming from the crystal ball in front of her. It seemed like crystal broke because it could not withstand her enormous Heavenly Energy.
Er Chun, who had remained detached the entire time, was shocked to his core. Looking at the broken crystal ball, he could not help but exclaimed loudly, “S-Seventh Jewel?”
At this moment, the haughtiness in his face had completely vanished. Instead, it was replaced by a look of astonishment.
This young girl looked like she was only in her twenties! How was it possible that her cultivation base was at the Seventh Jewel? T-This was impossible! Even the promising young experts that were carefully nurtured by the Mysterious Heavenly Palace could not possibly achieve this!
Little did he know that even among the younger generation in the Boundless Mainland, Bing’er’s cultivation base was famous for being above all others. Although the Mysterious Heavenly Palace was considered a saint land in the Mysterious Heavenly Mainland, it was still slightly lacking compared to the Boundless Mainland.
Bing’er smiled softly as she retracted her delicate little hand. She did not look exhausted at all. In fact, she looked like she had just completed a simple task.
Currently, the brilliance that radiated from her body had completely enveloped the rest of the participants. A cultivation base of seven Jewels might have been seen before in the Mysterious Heavenly Selection, but it was usually only happened during the final round of the selection. Not only that, such a feat was usually done by those that were entering their thirties. Not only was Bing’er gorgeous, she also looked like a weak young lady who could easily be knocked down. How could she not surprise them with cultivation base she had attained?
Taking a deep breath, Er Chun nodded his head towards Bing’er. “May I know what your name is?”
Smiling, she answered, “I’m Shangguan Bing’er.”
After listening to her name, Er Chun found that he had no recollection of this name. Apart from nodding his head, he did not say anything more. However, he was in currently in a very awkward position.
Just asSang De had alluded to earlier, the Mysterious Heavenly Selection was just a big show for the public. The three participants who would be entering the finals had long been decided in private. Of course, this was deeply related to the gifts sent by those people. Only those who sent the best gifts would be given the candidature to enter the finals. These people were not stupid. As long as they could enter the Mysterious Heavenly Palace, even if they were just a disciple in the outer palace, they no would longer need to worry about their food and clothing. Besides, with their power, was there a need to be afraid that their investment would not yield results?
Zhou Weiqing had his reason for letting Shangguan Bing’er demonstrate her true strength. After all, unlike him, she could not conceal her own cultivation base, and she would definitely raise suspicion from her tone if questioned. In that case, he might as well let her unleash her full power. With a talent like Bing’er, it would only increase their chances of getting into the inner palace of the Mysterious Heavenly Palace. Without a doubt, this would be very helpful to them in stealing the Spatial Teleportation Stone.
This was the first step in Zhou Weiqing’s plan. He would only act if he was sure the plan would succeed. The next step of the plan had already been arranged too.
Soon after, all participants had completed the first round of the Heavenly Energy test.
Er Chun swept the participants below the stage with a glance as he said indifferently, “Only the top ten participants of the Heavenly Energy test can enter the second round of selection. Announce their names.”
As soon as the statement left his mouth, the participants immediately burst into an uproar.
The fact was most of the participants had more or less the same cultivation base. Simply relying on Heavenly Energy for the selection was unfair. Besides, this was not the original rule set by the Mysterious Heavenly Selection.
“Master Er Chun! This is a little inappropriate. The Heavenly Energy is only a small part of a Heavenly Jewel Master’s strength. It doesn’t represent everything! Besides, according to the rules set by the Mysterious Heavenly Selection, this Heavenly Energy test was only a measurement tool for us to see whether the someone is eligible to participate in the selection or not. It’s not a real elimination match!”
Rolling his eyes, Er Chun replied, “Do I need you to educate me on how I should conduct myself? Every place has their own set of rules, okay? In Ubaatar, my rules are the rules of the Mysterious Heavenly Palace! Strike off his name right now!”
Although the atmosphere below was boiling, nobody dared to voice out their objections anymore.
“See! It’s useless! No matter how strong you are, it’s impossible for you to enter the finals!” Standing beside Zhou Weiqing, Sang De sneered in a somewhat eccentric manner. However, this time, he did not dare to leer at Bing’er anymore. The strength that she had demonstrated terrified him. Although his father was the mayor, they would never dare to offend a Heavenly Jewel Master who had entered the Zong-tier.
Chuckling, Zhou Weiqing nodded toward Sang De and said, “Let us wait and see.”
As they were announcing the ten shortlisted participants, Bing’er was naturally selected. As for Zhou Weiqing, since his Heavenly Energy cultivation base was much better than Sang De, not mentioning the fact that he was also one of the very best among the participants, he was obviously shortlisted as well. Apart from that, Sang De also successfully entered the top ten as he said he would.
After the ten of them went on the stage, they stood in a line in front of Er Chun. Needless to say, out of all the participants, Zhou Weiqing and Bing’er looked the youngest. On top of that, Zhou Weiqing actually looked much older than his actual age.
Er Chun announced in a deadpan manner, “If anyone thinks that the rules that I set are unfair, you can opt to pull out from the test now. You can’t even make it into the top ten! What right do you have to make your demands here? That’s right! The Heavenly Energy test is only a part of the Heavenly Jewel Master assessment, but it is also the foundation of a Heavenly Jewel Master. Without robust Heavenly Energy, what can you do even if you have a great Storing Skill technique? There’ll only be three people who enter the finals. It’s only natural that we’ll choose someone with the most Heavenly Energy and talent. Still, some of the things you said are right. For example, Heavenly Energy is not everything! Real combat skills are important as well! In order to save time during the selection, I’ll personally enter the stage to evaluate the ten people here!”