Baili Xuanqing darted over. The disciple within the formation was barely clinging to life, while the dummy stood there in sheer arrogance, pinning the real person beneath its foot.
The dummy could have easily ended the disciple with a single stroke of its sword.
But it didn’t. Instead, it kept running its mouth, hurling insults at the helpless cultivator.
Baili Xuanqing: “…”
If he had arrived even a little later, this dummy probably would have kept talking for another whole hour.
Was this what they meant by “death by talking too much”?
“Patriarch Baili, what are you hesitating for? Hurry up and save him!” urged the family head. This was their clan’s only legitimate direct descendant, after all.
Baili Xuanqing took out an array disk and slowly adjusted the pointer on it. In an instant, the dummy vanished without a trace.
The disciple, still sprawled on the ground, looked utterly dumbfounded. He had… passed the level?
But before he could piece together what had just happened, a door materialized before his eyes.
He scrambled to his feet and stepped through into the second level.
Baili Xuanqing spoke calmly, “He won’t be in danger anymore. From now on, whether he wins or loses, he’ll proceed directly to the next level.”
After dealing with the first disciple, Baili Xuanqing found that more and more of them were getting into trouble.
The Seven-Question Formation wasn’t designed to be lethal—as long as the disciples trapped inside still had the will to live, death wouldn’t come easily.
Of course, if someone saw danger and didn’t even have the spirit to fight back, then they were just wasting their time in the cultivation world anyway.
Feng Qingran watched Baili Xuanqing’s every move with keen interest.
So even an already-activated formation could be modified on the fly like that. She’d learned something new today.
After observing Dugu Jianyi’s run through the formation, Feng Qingran went to check on Qin Hanyan and Baili Wenyue.
To her surprise, Baili Wenyue was actually the fastest among the three.
Both Qin Hanyan and Dugu Jianyi were still stuck on the second level, while Baili Wenyue had already reached the third.
Feng Qingran noticed that her Second Senior Brother and Third Senior Sister were both treating the figure before them as an overwhelmingly powerful enemy.
This enemy was so strong that no matter how hard they tried, victory seemed impossible.
Yet even if it meant death, they refused to let this enemy go.
Feng Qingran didn’t know what Dugu Jianyi and Qin Hanyan had been through in the past.
But from chatting with the other disciples of Lingyun Sect, she gathered that both of them carried deep, blood-soaked grudges.
Her almond-shaped eyes narrowed slightly. The surname Dugu—she’d never heard of it.
But the surname Qin? She’d heard plenty of stories about that one.
A thousand years ago, the famed Lady Miaoyin was driven to her death by the Qin family.
And there was once a Qin family that stood on equal footing with the Baili clan—except that particular Qin family had vanished several millennia ago.
Her Third Senior Sister’s Qin family probably wasn’t either of those.
Feng Qingran shook her head and decided not to dwell on it. Whatever had happened to Qin Hanyan, she was still her Third Senior Sister. And she wasn’t about to let the tragedies of her past life repeat themselves.
She had a feeling that many answers would surface once they reached Fire Spirit Prefecture.
The Qinghe Tower had already been permitted to expand into Fire Spirit Prefecture.
Her shopkeeper, Zhang San, had sent her multiple updates about the Spirit Combat Tournament.
And there were plenty of people offering him hefty sums to poach him away. If it weren’t for the spirit stones she paid him, Zhang San might very well have betrayed Qinghe Tower by now.
But Feng Qingran knew Zhang San well. His loyalty wasn’t just about the spirit stones—it was also about the bond of fealty.
The very first time she met Zhang San in the black market, she already had a clear read on his character.
Someone like Zhang San was easy to control—just throw enough money at him.
But at the same time, he was also hard to control, because he could easily be bought off by someone else’s money.
That was why she had used certain measures—saving his father’s life, and having Zhang San sign a loyalty contract with her.
Hearts are hidden behind flesh; only through a loyalty contract could she truly trust Zhang San with her peace of mind.
Over the years, with Zhang San’s help, Qinghe Tower had flourished, and she’d rewarded him more and more generously.
Just then, a voice filled with gratitude rang out beside her ear.
“Miss Feng, thank you for your help with the Heavenly Ladder.”
Feng Qingran turned her head. A young man in a gray robe had appeared beside her without her even noticing.
Her beautiful eyes swept over him, but she couldn’t recall ever helping this gray-robed man.
“It’s natural that Miss Feng doesn’t remember me,” the gray-robed man said. “But I still had to thank you in person. If it weren’t for your reminder, I would have been eliminated back at the Heavenly Ladder.” He gave her a sincere bow of gratitude, his eyes radiating genuine appreciation.
Feng Qingran nodded slightly. Someone who could have a moment of profound realization from just a single sentence of hers—such a person was destined to be far from ordinary in the future.
——-
Twenty-one days later.
The second round of assessment came to an end.
Only eighty-five people remained.
Many of the powers present suggested keeping ten more participants.
Baili Xuanqing refused flatly. “Everyone, don’t forget—what exactly is this selection for?”
Every trial in this selection tournament had been specifically designed with the upcoming Spirit Combat Tournament in mind.
The matches in that tournament were far more grueling than the Seven-Question Formation.
The representatives Qingyun Prefecture sent absolutely could not be too weak—otherwise, it would hurt the prefecture’s standing among the Nine Provinces.
“But if we don’t have enough people, what if something unexpected happens during the tournament?” asked an elder well past his fifties. “What if we end up short on numbers?”
“We only need fifty contestants. Right now, we’ve already picked forty extra. And besides, we’ll still be selecting three alchemists, three talisman masters, and so on. The total number will be more than enough,” Baili Xuanqing explained.
In the past, he wouldn’t have bothered explaining himself to these people.
Xiao Qingfeng chimed in with a reminder, “Everyone, don’t forget—in previous years, no matter how many juniors went to the Spirit Combat Tournament, many of them never came back, whether they actually competed or not…”
It wasn’t that they didn’t want to select more candidates. They just couldn’t bear to witness those scenes all over again.
Before heading off to the tournament, they’d send off a grand procession of several hundred outstanding disciples.
When they returned… only a handful remained.
A heavy silence fell over the assembly. No one spoke another word.
