Xuantian Immortal Cultivation Record

The Nascent Soul Stone Man waved his hand, and one of the stone men stepped forward to carry Zhang Yuanjing. Three stone men lined up to separate Wen Songnan and the others, and then resumed their original formation, heading towards the passage on the side of the hall. Soon, they returned to the huge cave they had been in before.

The Nascent Soul Stone Man led them to a patch of earth in the center of the cave. Without any apparent action, a faint light radiated from the soil below, forming the patterns of a teleportation array beneath them. Then, with a soft "pop," they disappeared.

A moment later, beneath the mountain wall filled with the stone men's cave dwellings, in the center of the wide stone platform, the group reappeared.

While the cultivators were still adjusting, the stone men strode off in one direction. Before long, they arrived at a picturesque valley, where a nine-story stone tower stood. This was where Wen Songnan and the others had first entered the Mustard Seed Space.

Although the Wen family was descended from the Earth Sect lineage, the records in their family about the Mustard Seed Space were very rough and brief. Even the specific location had only been confirmed by later generations through constant exploration. As for the internal structure and the treasures it contained, they knew nothing. This was why they had immediately tried to break the restrictions when they saw the nine-story stone tower. Wen Songnan now realized that the stone tower was clearly not a place to store cultivation methods and treasures, but was related to trials.

The Nascent Soul Stone Man led them to the first floor of the stone tower, reached out, and pushed on the huge stone door, which was over three zhang high. The stone door immediately emitted a "rumbling" sound, slowly opening to reveal the dim space inside.

The first floor of the stone tower was very large, a square structure, about ten zhang in circumference. The walls on all sides, except for the side with the entrance, were covered with jade stone slabs, engraved with words and patterns, like cultivation methods.

At this moment, one of the stone men walked to the base of the wall on the left and flipped a switch. The room was immediately brightly lit, with dozens of night-luminescent pearls lighting up the ceiling. Then, the stone door made a "rumbling" sound again, closing tightly.

The Nascent Soul Stone Man pointed to the first bluestone slab on the right and said stiffly, "Trial of talent, begin!"

Wen Songnan quickly walked over, followed closely by Wen Zaidao, who had recovered. Wen Jinghe followed behind with some trepidation, worried that the stone men would stop him.

However, the stone men did not move, apparently acknowledging his participation in the trial of talent.

Zhang Yuanjing saw that the stone men were all at the entrance and did not move inside with Wen Songnan and the others. He was worried that if he lost their protection, they would kill him, so he hesitated and did not move his feet.

The stone men did not interfere with his actions, allowing him to stay where he was.

Wen Songnan looked at the first stone slab, which read: "Trial of Talent: Examines disciples' understanding of the Heavy Earth Skill. Each level has different difficulty questions. Successful answers will earn corresponding points. Each disciple can choose one question to answer on each level. Successful answers will allow advancement to the next level. Trial time: one day. At the end of the time, the level will be determined based on the number of points scored. The levels, from lowest to highest, are Inferior, Ordinary, Excellent, Remarkable, and Peerless."

Finally, there was a sentence written in large red characters: "Warning: Fighting is prohibited here. Violators will be obliterated!"

Wen Songnan looked around. There were a total of seventeen bluestone slabs on the wall. Besides the first one, which stated the rules, the remaining sixteen should be the exam questions.

At this time, Zhang Yuanjing, who was standing at the entrance, also understood the contents of the first stone slab from a distance. Seeing that fighting was forbidden here, he felt a little relieved. However, since it was about solving problems, it could be done at the entrance as well. So, he stayed behind the stone men and looked at the sixteen bluestone slabs with the exam questions.

The first stone slab's question was about using earth spiritual power to cast a simple spell, with a very low score of only one point. The second stone slab was about controlling a flying sword, worth three points. The third was about cultivating a body protection technique, worth five points. All the way to the tenth slab, the questions listed were extremely easy, but the points awarded were very few, with the tenth slab being worth only thirty points.

From the eleventh slab onwards, the questions became more difficult, at least for Zhang Yuanjing. The eleventh question was about casting an earth shield technique, that is, condensing earth spiritual power into a shield that could withstand a blow from a cultivator of the same level. This was similar to a minor spell that could be cast during the Core Formation stage, which was vastly different from simple spells like fire control. The next five questions were earth wall technique, earth stone technique, flying sand technique, earth prison technique, and earth escape technique. The earth escape technique was worth the most points, sixty.

Seeing this question, Zhang Yuanjing was suddenly overjoyed. Then he thought that his earth escape technique was originally learned from the Heavy Earth Sect's Heavy Earth Qi Circulation Art, and those people would naturally know it as well.

Sure enough, Wen Songnan and Wen Zaidao did not hesitate and cast the earth escape technique. After they drilled out of the ground, their figures disappeared directly, presumably being teleported to the second floor by some force. On the other hand, Wen Jinghe was staring at the fifteenth stone slab, pondering something intently.

Zhang Yuanjing did not know that the Heavy Earth Skill inherited by the Wen family, although it contained minor spells such as earth wall, earth stone, flying sand, and earth prison, their power was very small due to the lack of a certain treasure. Therefore, fewer and fewer people cultivated them, and over time, they were lost. Only the earth escape technique, without the aid of that treasure, could still be cast easily and was preserved along with the Heavy Earth Skill. Therefore, Wen Jinghe, thinking that his skill trial had not passed and there was no hope of winning, decided to learn a new minor spell so that he would not have come in vain.

Zhang Yuanjing looked at the four minor spells of earth wall, earth stone, flying sand, and earth prison, and felt a little itchy, but knowing that he could not be willful at this time, he honestly cast the earth escape technique, and like Wen Songnan and Wen Zaidao, ascended to the second floor.

The second floor was slightly smaller, about nine zhang in circumference. The ceiling was also inlaid with dozens of night-luminescent pearls, illuminating the stone room so that even the smallest dust particles could be seen.

There were slightly fewer stone slabs here, a total of twelve. The questions were all related to cultivating spiritual herbs.

At this time, he noticed that under each stone slab, there was a large porcelain pot, planted with spiritual plants of various shapes, including flowers, grasses, and trees, adding a bit of fragrance to the air.

The scores for each question here were not very different, and were comprehensively evaluated based on the level and age of the spiritual herbs cultivated. The test was about the effect of different disciples using the same level of skill to cultivate spiritual plants of the same grade, and points could only be obtained if the effect exceeded the fixed age of the skill. For example, the Heavy Earth Qi Circulation Art cultivated spiritual plants of spiritual grade one to five, and this skill had nine levels. The first level could accelerate the growth of spiritual plants by four years within one year, the second level by eight years, the third level by sixteen years, and so on, up to one thousand and twenty-four years at the ninth level. If a disciple used the first level of skill to accelerate the growth of a spiritual grade one spiritual plant by more than four years, they could get points. The more they exceeded, the more points they would get.

The difference in difficulty between the questions on the second floor lay in obtaining more points by cultivating high-quality spiritual plants to achieve better effects.

The Heavy Earth Skill was called Heavy Earth Qi Circulation Art below the Foundation Establishment stage, and could cultivate spiritual plants of spiritual grade one to five. From the Core Formation stage to the Nascent Soul stage, it was called Heavy Earth Skill, and could cultivate spiritual plants of profound grade one to seven. Therefore, cultivating spiritual plants of spiritual grade five with the Heavy Earth Qi Circulation Art and cultivating spiritual plants of profound grade seven with the Heavy Earth Skill were more difficult questions.

Zhang Yuanjing was not sure if his Heavy Earth Creation Skill could cultivate profound grade spiritual plants, but here, he could try it out. In any case, if there was no effect, or the effect was very poor, he would not get any points, so it would not be considered a successful solution. The trial of talent did not determine the result based on the success or failure of one question, but based on time, with the one who scored the most points within one day winning.

Wen Songnan and Wen Zaidao did not pay attention to Zhang Yuanjing's ascent to the second floor. The power here was strange, and even Wen Songnan could not figure it out, so how dare he violate the prohibition and kill people.

Zhang Yuanjing walked to the sixth stone slab. This question was to cultivate a profound grade one spiritual plant called Fragrant Spring Grass, and the point range for exceeding one hundred and twenty years of growth with the first level of Heavy Earth Skill was twenty to fifty.

The highest score was for the question on the twelfth stone slab, which required cultivating a profound grade seven spiritual plant called Snow Elephant Fruit with the seventh level of Heavy Earth Skill, with an effect exceeding one thousand four hundred years, and the point range was forty to seventy.

Zhang Yuanjing sat down cross-legged, holding the Fragrant Spring Grass, first absorbed a wisp of wood power, and then began to run the Heavy Earth Creation Skill, circulating one cycle, and then sent a wisp of heavy earth power into the spiritual grass. Gaining this wisp of heavy earth power, the Fragrant Spring Grass trembled violently, and a bright color flashed on its fine leaves. If spiritual grass had emotions, then this would be joy.

Zhang Yuanjing closed his eyes slightly and did not notice this change. He was about to continue running his skill when suddenly a force lifted him up and instantly took him to the third floor of the stone tower.

"Success!" Zhang Yuanjing was overjoyed, which meant that his Heavy Earth Creation Skill could indeed cultivate profound grade spiritual plants. However, he did not know how many points he had scored on the second floor.

The third floor was even smaller, about eight zhang in circumference.

There were ten stone slabs hanging here, but the question was to activate the stone men. Under each stone slab, there was a stone man about six feet tall, about the same height as an adult.

The stone men were divided into ten levels. Whether they could be activated depended only on the quality of the earth spiritual power, regardless of the level of cultivation. The higher the quality of the earth spiritual power, the stronger the stone man that could be activated.

At this time, the three Wen family members were still on the lower two floors, so there was no need to worry about them.

Therefore, Zhang Yuanjing first chose the strongest stone man, activating it would earn seventy points. However, his heavy earth power sank into the sea without any reaction.

He switched to the ninth stone man, but still to no avail.

After trying them one by one, he finally activated the fifth stone man, scoring forty-five points.

On the fourth floor, there were only eight stone slabs, containing eight sets of incantations, namely Driving Stone, Rolling Sand, Dividing Earth, Swallowing Objects, Solidifying Form, Splitting Ground, Moving Mountains, and Supporting the Sky. These were the basic incantations for cultivating earth-based spells and supernatural powers. For example, Driving Stone was the foundation of all flying stone attack techniques, Rolling Sand was the foundation of all raging sand sweeping techniques, and Dividing Earth was the foundation of all earth escape and drilling techniques.

The eight sets of incantations had no distinction in terms of difficulty or level, and all scored seventy points.

Zhang Yuanjing was mesmerized and drooling as he looked at them. In his cultivation of the Heavy Earth Skill, besides earth escape, he could only use spiritual power to drive spiritual weapons. He had no systematic incantation inheritance and could not exert the strengths of earth-based skills at all. If he could learn these eight sets of incantations, his strength would increase at least several times.

However, with his aptitude, he would not be able to comprehend any of these incantations within a day, except for Dividing Earth.

At this time, the most important thing was to obtain the Heavy Earth Sect's inheritance. With the inheritance, these incantations could naturally be obtained. Therefore, he decisively chose the Dividing Earth incantation, which served as the foundation for earth escape techniques.

The Dividing Earth incantation consisted of seven hundred and eighty characters, explaining how to transform earth spiritual power into a "qi membrane" for body protection, concealment, earth division, and earth escape in the earth. Cultivators could move freely in the earth by relying on this layer of "qi membrane."

The earth escape technique that Zhang Yuanjing learned from the Heavy Earth Qi Circulation Art only had the technique but not the Dao, knowing what it was but not why, so its application was basically not as smooth as water, often feeling very difficult and consuming a lot of energy.

However, with practical experience, re-comprehending the principles had a very good foundation. Therefore, although his comprehension was not good, his comprehension of this incantation was still progressing smoothly.

While he was in meditation, Wen Songnan and Wen Zaidao also arrived on the fourth floor.

"The Eight Earth Incantations!"

"That's right, it's the Eight Incantations!"

The two could not help but exclaim, and then showed great joy.

"It doesn't seem to be the complete version." After a few breaths, Wen Songnan said with some disappointment.

"This is a trial ground, it's probably only half of it. Only by obtaining the disciple status can we learn the complete version." Wen Zaidao said with a firm light in his eyes, looking forward to it.

"Yes, that should be the case. However, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so we must prepare for both possibilities. Let's first comprehend the Dividing Earth technique, and when Jinghe comes up, let him fully comprehend these eight incantations. Comprehend as much as he can within a day!" Wen Songnan looked at the words on the wall with a very eager gaze, somewhat mesmerized.

"Yes, that's right, the Real Person is very considerate." Wen Zaidao quickly nodded in agreement.

Cultivation techniques are useless if you memorize them by rote. You must have some comprehension before you can record them in your sea of consciousness and never forget them. Of course, there are also some special inheritance methods that can directly灌灌灌 the techniques into the cultivator's brain.

Unknowingly, seven hours had passed, and Zhang Yuanjing finally woke up from his meditation.

He turned his head to look at both sides, and saw that the youngest cultivator of the Heavy Earth Sect was sitting cross-legged under the stone slab with the Splitting Ground Incantation, comprehending it with all his attention, while the other two must have gone to higher floors.

He quickly applied his understanding of the Dividing Earth Incantation to the operation of the heavy earth power, and formed a qi membrane outside his body. Then, that strange power descended and took him to the fifth floor.

The fifth floor was empty. Zhang Yuanjing's heart tightened, knowing that those two were probably much stronger than him in comprehension, and he didn't know which floor they were on.

There were six stone slabs on the fifth floor, all talking about the Dao of formations. He looked at all six questions one by one, and his heart suddenly turned cold. The simplest one was as difficult for him as a chasm that was difficult to cross.

Earth-based skills are good at manipulating the power of earth, so they have unique advantages in both arranging and breaking formations. Similarly, many formations are designed with corresponding characteristics to target earth-based skills, making it impossible to break through from underground.

The first question was about the fact that the underground defense of general field formations does not exceed twenty zhang, so you can use earth escape techniques to dive more than twenty zhang and then escape from the ground or enter the formation.

When he was in the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, his earth escape technique could only dive about fourteen zhang. Although he had advanced to the late stage of Foundation Establishment, the depth was only increased to seventeen or eighteen zhang at most.

Just as he was feeling depressed, he suddenly remembered that he had just comprehended the Dividing Earth Incantation, and perhaps relying on this incantation, he could dive to a deeper layer of soil.

Just as he was about to cast the earth escape technique, he suddenly thought of a problem: this is the fifth floor of the stone tower, how can I drill into the soil? The requirements of this question seem to be wrong?

Then he thought, since the question is set up like this, the mysterious power of the stone tower must have a way to test the depth of the dive.

He shook his head, banishing all distracting thoughts from his mind. Reciting the Earth Partitioning Incantation, he formed a Qi membrane around his body and plunged into the ground.

To his surprise, instead of stone slabs, there was bottomless soil beneath.

He descended continuously, and after exceeding seventeen yards, a tremendous force squeezed in from all directions, threatening to burst his Qi membrane. He quickly strengthened the membrane according to the Earth Partitioning Incantation's method, finally withstanding the pressure and descending to a depth of twenty yards.

At this moment, the mysterious force descended again. He felt a sense of release all over his body, then vanished from the earth and appeared in a stone chamber four yards in circumference.

He had reached the sixth level. There were only four stone slabs here, and the two disciples from the Thick Earth Sect were among them.

Wen Songnan was absorbed in deciphering a problem on one of the stone slabs, his brow furrowed and shaking his head occasionally.

Wen Zaidao was meditating to the side. When Zhang Yuanjing appeared, he immediately opened his eyes, staring at him coldly, his killing intent intense.

Zhang Yuanjing was startled by his gaze, taking two steps back and almost bumping into the stone slab behind him.

"Heh heh!" Wen Zaidao sneered, stood up, and walked towards him.

"Do you dare to attack?" Zhang Yuanjing suddenly recalled the red-letter warning on the first stone slab of the first level, his heart settling, and he rebuked him angrily.

"Humph!" Wen Zaidao walked up to him, circling him, his eyes filled with provocation.

Zhang Yuanjing immediately understood that he was trying to distract him. So he ignored him and quickly scanned the problems on the four stone slabs. After reading them, he was overjoyed because he had already solved one of them.

These four problems all required solving the coordination problem of the five spiritual roots in the cultivation of the Thick Earth Skill. For example, with earth, wood, and fire spiritual roots, how to cultivate the Thick Earth Skill due to the problem of wood overcoming earth. Another example was Zhang Yuanjing's own situation with earth, water, and fire spiritual roots, how to solve the problem of earth overcoming water and water and fire counteracting each other. This problem was the most difficult of the four, with a score of eighty.

Zhang Yuanjing bypassed Wen Zaidao's obstruction, walked directly to the fourth stone slab, took out the Kushen herb, and circulated his Thick Earth Transformation Skill once. Immediately, he was taken by the mysterious force to the seventh level of the stone tower.

The seventh level only had three stone slabs. The words on them were obscure and difficult to understand, seemingly an extremely ancient writing system. Zhang Yuanjing looked at them repeatedly, unable to understand a single problem, let alone solve it.

"Time's up!" A cold voice sounded, it was the stone man with the strength of a Nascent Soul.

The four of them had returned to the stone chamber on the first level.

The Nascent Soul stone man first pointed to Zhang Yuanjing, "Talent assessment: Excellent."

Then he pointed to Wen Songnan and said, "Talent assessment: Average."

Then it was Wen Zaidao, "Talent assessment: Average."

Finally, he pointed to Wen Jinghe, "Talent assessment: Inferior."