Yet, life was full of surprises, and you never knew how things would turn out. Just as the twinkling light
of the dragon scale was about to die, the whole scale suddenly lit up again emitting brilliant green light.
Zen relaxed, for only five drops of iron essence were needed to activate a scale on the dragon.
As the scale lit up, Zen felt the amazing strength coursed through every part of his body. Zen clenched
his fists consciously and stifled a roar as he felt the welcome sensation of strength saturating him.
After a while, Zen quieted down. Lighting up two of the dragon's scales was good, but at this stage,
Zen needed to improve his strength quicker. If he could light a few more dragon scales, he would easily
beat Perrin!
Except, Zen had smelted all of his mysterious weapons, leaving him to wonder, where he could find
more.
While Zen had hundreds of cubic crystals, that would only get him one or two low-grade mysterious
weapons because the price for a mysterious weapon was so high. It was just a drop in the bucket of
what he needed.
Suddenly, Zen thought about the broken flying knife that was in the space ring.
Even though the flying knife was so shabby looking, it seemed to have great power, so the level must
be quite high.
Zen thought about it for a while, but in the end, he restrained his impulse to smelt the flying knife. If the
flying knife were really as extraordinary as he thought, it would be crazy to melt it carelessly.
First things first, Zen's priority should be gaining entry into the Cloud Sect.
Zen took a deep breath and closed his eyes to rest. The initial exam was the next morning, and though
the exam was to run simply, Nory had told Zen that it would be more difficult than they thought.
Early the next morning, Zen washed up and headed out to the Cloud Sect.
When Zen signed up yesterday, he didn't see many people, but today a great number of people were
crowded outside the door of the Cloud Sect.
Some of them were on horseback, and some had hiked while others were on flying chariots.
So many people were there, and they filled the open grounds outside the Cloud Sect.
Zen estimated that there were more than ten thousand people.
No wonder the Cloud Sect had to hold the initial monthly, the number of people taking part in the initial
exam every month was over ten thousand. That meant over a hundred thousand people applied during
the year. It was amazing! Even such a huge Cloud Sect would be overwhelmed in this situation.
Where there were so many people, there would be a lot of hustle and bustle!
Zen stood expressionlessly in the crowd, waiting quietly.
A moment later, a chariot flew overhead from the Cloud Sect carrying an old man with a white beard.
After the chariot stopped, the elder said steadily, "Applicants, please enter the door in an orderly
manner to participate in the initial exam. Don't make noise, or speak loudly! Anyone violating the rules
will be evicted and disqualified from taking the exam now, or ever in his lifetime."
Even though the elder did not yell, his voice rang in everyone's ears, and everyone present heard him
clearly.
The crowd quieted quickly as the white-bearded elder finished speaking. No one dared to talk or
whisper any longer. It was so eerily quiet that the sound of a needle dropping on the ground would
have been heard clearly.
Being disqualified for the exam wasn't a big deal, but being unable to sign up in the future to take the
exam at the Cloud Sect, would be devastating.
Since the Cloud Sect was a shrine as well as the largest sect for studying the art of cultivating in the
empire, everyone hoped to gain entrance. Although there were several smaller sects within the Burning
Sky Empire, neither the amount of lands nor the number of talented disciples could compare to the
Cloud Sect. If an applicant had no chance of joining the Cloud Sect, his prospects in the cultivation
world would become bleak unless he could join another big sect.
Everyone understood the gravity of the situation and remained silent.
More than ten thousand applicants trod through the doors of the Cloud Sect and walked along a path.
At the end of the path, they made a right into a vast square.
Floating in the air at the square were a couple of flying chariots with disciples who maintained order
during the initial exam.
As all the applicants filed into the square, the white-bearded elder appeared in the front and
announced, "I believe most of you are familiar with the rules of the initial exam, but I'll remind you
again. From the square, you are to run forward. It doesn't matter whether you are at the bone, organ, or
marrow refining level, you need just to keep running until the jade pendant on your chest changes
color. Once the color of the jade changes, you will pass the initial exam and be qualified to begin the
entrance exam."
The rules seemed simple enough with no restrictions on refining level or limit to speed. The only
requirement for passing the initial exam was to run until the jade pendant changed color. Zen kept the
rules in mind as he looked into the distance of the path beyond the square.
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