As the young woman stepped out, her white hair—the unmistakable hallmark of top-tier strength—immediately made Su Yi ready to go all-in. Anyone who played gacha games knew that white-haired characters always possessed absurdly cracked mechanics!
White hair and blue eyes, a slender waist and supple bust, delicate features sculpted like ice and snow. Her frost-white hair accentuated her translucent porcelain skin, making more than a few male cultivators stare wide-eyed.
Yet, her plain teal-and-white dress appeared rather modest. Those azure eyes were as crystal-clear as a freezing pool, carrying a frigid aloofness that kept everyone at arm's length.
Coming to a stop before the stele, she showed none of the eagerness or anxiety of those before her. She merely cast a quiet glance at the profound runes carved into the stone, then slowly lifted a slender, fair hand and pressed it gently against the surface.
In an instant—
Hummm—!
The spirit-testing stele released a resonant hum unlike anything heard before! It wasn't a violent vibration, but a deep, majestic resonance that seemed to echo from primordial times!
Across the face of the stele, instead of erupting with a dazzling light of a single hue, five distinct colors blazed forth at once: gold, green, blue, red, and yellow!
All Five Elements present!
A collective sigh of lament immediately rippled through the crowd below.
“Sigh! What a pity! A Five Elements spirit root is the most impure, and cultivating with it is glacially slow...” “What a waste of such stunning looks. An empty shell of beauty, but her immortal path will be fraught with hardship...”
Yet before their sighs could fade, a sudden change occurred!
Rather than clashing muddily or dimming as ordinary Five Elements spirit roots did, the five-colored brilliance abruptly turned incomparably pure and radiant! They intertwined yet remained distinctly defined, forming a wondrous, endlessly regenerating cycle! The light grew brighter and brighter, surpassing everything that had come before and illuminating the entire Cloud Mist Immortal Terrace in vibrant kaleidoscopic splendor!
An indescribably boundless Dao charm emanated from the stele, causing the surrounding worldly spiritual energy to boil and dance with excitement!
“Th-This is...?!” The disciple recording the results gaped, nearly dropping the brush from his hand.
On the elevated platform, the sect elders who had been resting with closed eyes snapped their eyes open, brilliant light bursting from their gazes!
“A Five Elements Spirit Physique?!” an elder of the Return to Origin Sect blurted out, his voice trembling in disbelief.
The Five Elements mutually engendered and overcame one another. Multi-attribute spirit roots struggled on the path of cultivation precisely because maintaining balance among them was exceedingly difficult. But a Five Elements Spirit Physique was different—it possessed ultimate stability, forming a self-sustaining Five Elements cycle within the body.
“No! It is no simple spirit physique... This power of the Five Elements is utterly pure, perfectly balanced, and self-circulating... With such talent, every breath alone advances cultivation! This is the legendary Innate Five Elements Dao Physique!” An elder of Ancient Sword Mountain bristled with excitement, his beard and hair quivering.
“Seen once in ten thousand years! A true immortal seedling!” Even the female elder from Perching Phoenix Pavilion, who had remained aloof all this time, could not help stepping forward, an ardent gleam erupting in her eyes.
At this moment, not a single person could remain seated. A Five Elements Dao Physique possessed unparalleled malleability; for such a physique, there was no such thing as an incompatible cultivation technique.
The area below plunged into dead silence. Everyone was stunned by this earth-shattering phenomenon.
Jia High! Without question, this was an epoch-defining Jia High aptitude!
The disciples of the four great sects also had their expressions shift dramatically, their gazes filled with shock and envy as they stared at the young woman.
A flicker of battle intent flashed through Murong Yue's crimson pupils. Shang Shuqing snapped his folding fan completely shut, his gaze growing exceedingly solemn. Ming Xi gave a soft click of her tongue, boundless interest dancing in her golden eyes.
Gongsun Lin was so thrilled that her fingertips trembled slightly. She blurted out, “An innate Dao physique! Senior Brother, we—”
Her words cut off abruptly.
Because just as everyone was losing their minds, believing that a peerless genius was about to rise, the spirit-testing stele underwent another shift.
After reaching its pinnacle, that perfectly circulating, incomparably blazing five-colored brilliance suddenly began to fluctuate violently! It was as if an invisible, extremely murky power had been drawn from deep within the girl's body, forcibly intruding into that flawless cycle.
The five-colored brilliance instantly turned chaotic and dim, even tinged with an ominous, decaying gray! The originally boundless and vibrant Dao charm rapidly withered, turning sluggish and stagnant.
The light on the stele flickered erratically. In the end, intertwined faintly outside the five-colored radiance, was an extremely faint, hairline strand of grayish-black vapor that felt bone-chillingly cold, as if capable of swallowing all light.
The wisp was so faint it was barely visible, yet it sent a wave of icy revulsion through the heart of anyone who caught sight of it.
The boiling spiritual energy of heaven and earth settled in an instant, even turning somewhat sluggish.
The soaring atmosphere was as if drenched in a basin of ice water, chilling in an instant.
On the elevated platform, the excitement and fervor on the elders' faces froze instantly, replaced by suspicion, shock, and profound regret.
“What is... that?” “A hidden ailment? Or is it...” “Such a sinister, deathly aura... It’s actually corroding the core of her Dao physique?”
“What a pity! An absolute tragedy! Such a flawless innate Dao physique, cursed with such a monumental defect!” “The Great Dao has flaws... Does the Heavenly Dao abhor perfection...?” The elder of the Return to Origin Sect sighed, heartbroken.
The disciple in charge of recording looked at the stele—which had finally stabilized, still luminous yet visibly clouded by a haze, with that grayish-black strand drifting faintly between the five elements—and opened his mouth, at a complete loss as to how to grade her.
Her aptitude was unquestionably the highest-grade Jia High, but this bizarre defect...
The girl slowly drew her hand back. In the face of this shocking reversal, her expression remained unchanged. When that celestial brilliance had burst forth moments ago, she had shown no joy; now that fortune had plummeted, she showed no despair. Only those profound eyes seemed to sink a fraction deeper into silence, as though she had anticipated this all along.
She stood there quietly, enduring the baptism of gazes shifting from heaven to hell, solitary and aloof.
[Character: Tantai Yunzhi (Flawed Great Dao)]
[Realm: Qi Condensation Eighth Layer (Continuous Depletion)]
[Grade: S]
[Potential: SSR+]
[Identity: Second Young Mistress of the Tantai Family]
The entire venue was dead silent, the atmosphere awkward and congealed.
The vast majority of small and medium sects had already abandoned any notion of recruiting her. A genius carrying an unknown, calamitous physique was someone they dared not accept, nor could they afford to support.
The disciples of the four great sects also fell into contemplative silence, weighing their options. An Innate Five Elements Dao Physique held immense allure, but that eerie flaw was equally daunting. No one could tell whether nurturing her would yield an unrivaled expert or breed an uncontrollable disaster.
Murong Yue's brow knitted tightly. Ancient Sword Mountain cultivated a luminous sword heart, making them the most sensitive and averse to such murky auras.
Shang Shuqing's eyes flickered as he swiftly calculated the variables, only to shake his head faintly in the end, clearly unable to divine good or ill fortune.
Ming Xi watched with keen interest, yet the cultivation techniques of Perching Phoenix Pavilion were supremely Yang and pure, which also seemed to clash with that aura.
Gongsun Lin's eyes brimmed with pity. She turned toward Su Yi, only to find him stroking his chin, staring at the girl with glowing eyes as he silently mumbled something under his breath.
If anyone stood close enough, they would have heard his excited whisper: “Holy crap! A limited banner SSR+! Sure, she has a curse debuff... but what kind of person skips pulling on this?”
Amidst the silence and hesitation, Su Yi suddenly chuckled softly, breaking the quiet.
Ignoring Gongsun Lin tugging at his sleeve, as well as the astonished stares directed at him from all around, he strode straight forward and addressed the recording disciple and the entire crowd:
“What's there to hesitate about? Record it! Jia High talent, seen once in ten thousand years. As for that minor flaw...” He shrugged, wearing an utterly nonchalant expression. “Maybe the spirit-testing stele has fallen into disrepair and gathered some dust?”
He walked up to the girl named Yunzhi, offering a “gentle” smile that appeared immensely punchable in the eyes of Murong Yue and Gongsun Lin:
“Little girl, your talent isn't bad. Any interest in coming to our Divine Might Manor? Our manor offers great benefits and a wonderful atmosphere. Plus, your Senior Brother here is upright and kindhearted, and I specialize in helping people resolve all kinds of ‘minor troubles.’”
???
Tantai Yunzhi looked up in disbelief, the stagnant pool of her eyes rippling for the very first time.
Was there truly someone willing to doubt the Return to Origin Sect's spirit-testing stele just to believe in her?
She had originally planned to claim first place and utilize the champion's right of choosing any sect to force a selection, but now...
What was his reason for choosing her?
At this moment, every gaze—shocked, puzzled, looking at an idiot, or deeply contemplative—focused squarely upon Su Yi and the silent young maiden.
The waves of the Ascendance Gathering surged into yet another climax, spurred by this girl with a flawed Great Dao and Su Yi's entirely unforeseen recruitment.
Rate on N.U.
