“If, Divine Lord, the direct disciple you choose this time turns out to be an outer-realm demon, what then?”
The Divine Lord chuckled lightly. “Let things take their natural course.”
The souls of outer-realm demons were different—carrying the savage aura of the beyond, something that could not be completely washed away by a single reincarnation.
Just then, a messenger arrived to report that the preliminary screening had produced ten candidates who had passed.
With a wave of the Divine Lord’s hand,
a circular screen ten meters tall rose abruptly into the air. It was formed from spiritual mist, its edges churning and billowing faintly.
On the misty screen appeared the ten people waiting atop the Buddha Platform.
“Oh? Interesting.” The female immortal took one glance and immediately understood why the Divine Lord had not seemed particularly concerned about the demon reincarnation matter.
Because after their first reincarnation, the souls of those demons shimmered with glints of various colors around them—conspicuously bright amidst the sea of ordinary white light.
Among the ten candidates, seven were reincarnated outer-realm demons, two were locals, and one…
“What’s the story with that one called Chu Huaizhi? He doesn’t seem like a body-snatcher, and his soul isn’t nearly as glaring as those outer-realm demons.”
The Divine Lord’s hand rested on his knee, fingers fluttering nimbly as he performed a quick divination. A subtle, unreadable expression crossed his face. “Came in through the One-Line Sky.”
A simple disciple recruitment, and it had flushed out every manner of monster and spirit all at once.
He cast a casual glance at Lin Jingqiu. A fine seedling, truly—but alas, she was too attached to her sister. Clinging to a soulless shell like that, she wouldn’t find it easy to pass the trials.
A deep, resonant voice traveled through the misty screen to the Buddha Platform: “Enter the Buddha Pagoda. The second round of testing begins.”
No sooner had the words fallen than Chu Huaizhi shot into the pagoda first.
Lin Jingqiu followed at a leisurely pace—not the first, not the last.
Inside the pagoda, a golden statue of the Buddha stood tall.
Beneath the colossal, towering figure, an incense table and censer lay thick with dust.
Several broken incense sticks were buried deep in the heavy ash, long cold.
A round mirror sat atop the incense table, its surface gleaming with shifting light—it appeared to be made of bronze.
Seeing Lin Xiaomu staring at the mirror, Lin Jingqiu picked it up. The surface felt rough to the touch and looked somewhat cloudy.
She pressed the mirror into her sister’s hands for her to fiddle with, while she herself continued scanning the surroundings.
Around the Buddha statue stood six green lamps.
At this moment, a tiny flame flickered gently within each one.
Chu Huaizhi and the other candidates were nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly, the flame in the lamp on the far right shuddered—and went out.
Immediately after, the flames on the incense table began to tremble in unison.
The mirror in Lin Xiaomu’s hand flashed, reflecting a familiar figure.
“Chu Huaizhi?!” Lin Jingqiu flicked a small dagger from her sleeve and hurled it urgently toward him.
Chu Huaizhi emerged from the lamp’s wick, like a wisp of green smoke slowly rising from a flame. He should have appeared as carefree as a lone crane, but instead carried a hint of dishevelment.
And it was all because of that round mirror!
This body of his excelled in the art of concealment. Below the Immortal realm, no one could see through his hiding.
But Lin Xiaomu—that soulless, simple-minded girl—was running around shining that mirror everywhere.
As luck would have it, she managed to expose his form just like that.
Just as Lin Jingqiu’s dagger was about to strike Chu Huaizhi, it suddenly expanded in size.
Chu Huaizhi dodged swiftly—he evaded the blade itself, but not the sweeping arc of sword-light that followed, which struck him squarely on the back.
He plummeted like a kite with its string cut, slamming hard into the ground.
Clang!
Gritting his teeth against the searing pain, Chu Huaizhi vanished from sight once more.
Six green lamps, one already extinguished.
He still had five chances left. He decided to leave Lin Jingqiu alone for now and go after the other candidates first.
Others might not know, but he did—in every era, the destined ones never numbered more than five.
Lin Jingqiu, now on high alert after the ambush, braced herself. But Chu Huaizhi did not reappear. Her little sister was staring up at the ceiling with rapt, enchanted eyes.
Lin Jingqiu looked up as well.
There, hanging from the top of the pagoda, were over three thousand human heads, bathed in a soft, radiant golden Buddha light.
Alarmed, Lin Jingqiu moved to cover her sister’s eyes.
But to her surprise, the usually obedient Lin Xiaomu pushed her hand aside and pointed up at the ceiling: “Want! Want!”
Helpless, Lin Jingqiu wondered silently: how was she supposed to take away three thousand heads?
She studied them more closely—and realized they were not real heads at all, but an unfurled scroll!
“Oh?!”
Now she was intrigued. This scroll had some real skill to it—it had even fooled her eyes.
Since it was a fine treasure, and her little sister had taken a liking to it—mine!
With a single leap, Lin Jingqiu rode the wind upward, pushing her speed to the limit. Just as her fingers were about to brush the scroll, Chu Huaizhi slammed into her back like a shooting star.
Lin Jingqiu was thoroughly annoyed. What had gotten into Chu Huaizhi? Why was he constantly antagonizing her? She spun around, drew her great blade, and struck at him.
Chu Huaizhi had already eliminated five of the other candidates in the intervening time and was confident of being selected.
But Lin Jingqiu weighed heavily on his mind, so he had deliberately doubled back to kill her.
The blade-light was fierce, its terrifying force crashing against the Buddha statue, which responded with a series of cracking and splintering sounds.
Chu Huaizhi was momentarily blocked by that sweeping strike.
Meanwhile, Lin Jingqiu rose swiftly from between the Buddha’s crossed legs, like a wind spiraling upward—fast as lightning.
Fighting could wait. First, she would grab the scroll her sister wanted.
The instant her slender fingers touched the scroll, the three thousand heads converged rapidly, merged, rolled and curled, until they compressed into a palm-sized scroll that emitted a faint golden glow.
Chu Huaizhi’s thoughts stirred—he was about to act—when the heavy doors of the Buddha Pagoda were pushed open.
At the same time, the Divine Lord’s divine will swept through the entire pagoda: “The test is over. Return.”
White-robed immortals used chains to lead the remaining five through a dedicated teleportation array to the Divine Lord’s dais.
Lin Jingqiu and Chu Huaizhi, the whole way, watched each other warily, practically itching to kill the other.
The Divine Lord and the assembled great cultivators surveyed the five candidates: two locals, two outer-realm demons, and one from beyond the One-Line Sky.
A fairly balanced group.
Sensing something, the Divine Lord manifested five distinct strands of Daoistic rule: “Are you willing to become my direct disciples, to protect this realm and all its living beings?”
“I am willing!” Four of them answered without hesitation.
The Divine Lord turned to Lin Jingqiu, who had yet to speak. “And you?”
Lin Jingqiu set Lin Xiaomu aside, dropped to her knees with a heavy thud, and kowtowed three times.
“Your Divine Lordship, I wish to yield my chance of becoming your disciple to my little sister.”
Huh?
The great cultivators subtly turned their attention to Lin Jingqiu and Lin Xiaomu.
The female immortal asked curiously, “Do you know that your little sister is a soulless person—one who can never set foot on the path of cultivation?”
Lin Jingqiu remained prostrated, humble and respectful: “I know. But as long as there is even the slightest possibility, I want to find a way to heal my sister.”
The Divine Lord’s tone turned cold. “What do you take this discipleship for? This concerns the fate of an entire world—it is not something you can simply take or discard as you please!”
Chu Huaizhi’s eyes glinted, and he fanned the flames: “If all you wanted was to save your sister, why bother participating in the selection at all? You’ve wasted a spot that could have gone to someone else—how unfair is that to everyone?”
The Divine Lord cast a faint glance at Chu Huaizhi, then looked back at Lin Jingqiu. “I will give you one more chance. Think carefully before you answer.”
