Chapter 228: Divine Spirit Root

In previous Foundation Establishment exams, there had never been an audience. In Zhang Yu's view, this was to protect student information and prevent candidates' situations from being known to outsiders.

"But what does this situation mean now?"

"Are they going to announce the exam results to the world?"

Zhang Yu frowned and looked around at the spectator stands, only to suddenly notice that the people in the stands were a bizarre mix—some were cartoon characters, some game characters, and some even looked like emojis, with only a minority appearing as real humans.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Are they watching remotely through the internet?"

Not long after Zhang Yu arrived at the exam venue, Ye Lingxiao also arrived. When he saw the audience in the stands, he too was momentarily stunned.

At the same time, the voice of the righteous god Huang Zichou directly reached the ears of Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao.

"No need to be nervous, you two. All these audience members come from various universities on the Second Layer of Kunxu, not from the First Layer."

"After watching your match, they will return to their respective schools and departments to report, so that when you apply to universities in the future, they can offer you better terms."

"This is an opportunity specially obtained for you by the Divine Department, allowing you to stand out in this final examination hall, so that when you ascend to the Second Layer in the future, you will have more development opportunities."

As for whether being watched like this would affect the candidates' performance, that was simply not a concern for gods like Huang Zichou.

What strong person has never been watched?

Not to mention being watched—participating in live broadcasts, filming commercials, giving speeches on stage, being cyberbullied... maintaining mental stability under countless gazes and scrutiny, facing all kinds of grand occasions, and calmly unleashing one's power—these are all qualities that a powerful immortal cultivator must possess.

If someone gets too nervous from being watched by the crowd and even underperforms, ultimately missing out on a Foundation Establishment qualification certificate, it can only mean that the candidate's aptitude and talent are still insufficient.

Upon hearing Huang Zichou's words, both Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao felt a surge of energy.

Zhang Yu felt he understood: this was like admissions officers from the upper level descending to pick outstanding talents, right?

"If I snatch the Foundation Establishment qualification certificate in this exam, will several top universities come fighting over me in the future? Offering me better conditions?"

Thinking this, Zhang Yu grew more and more excited. With the surging of blood and qi in his body and his rising body temperature, he became increasingly eager for the upcoming exam.

Huang Zichou looked at Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao, who had clearly become more energized, and thought to himself, "The benefits are indeed benefits for you."

"But it's also a convenient way to collect some ticket fees, open a betting pool, and recover some of our funds."

"Those two kids ate way too much in the last round, consuming a lot of the exam budget."

Then Huang Zichou continued speaking to the two, saying, "Besides this benefit, the winner of this exam will receive a 3 million interest-free loan, the ability to choose any one expert-level technique, and after entering university, the opportunity to designate one teacher."

"The loser also gets a 3 million interest-free loan, one expert-level technique, and bonus points for future Foundation Establishment exams."

After hearing this, Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Designate a teacher?"

Zhang Yu remembered Fuji telling him that after entering university, choosing the right teacher was extremely important.

On the Second Layer of Kunxu and above, for most people, the master-disciple relationship was more important than family background.

Zhang Yu glanced at Ye Lingxiao beside him and, seeing his slightly excited expression, knew that this must be a very good reward; otherwise, someone as wealthy as him wouldn't be so worked up.

Then Huang Zichou began to explain the rules of the final round of the Foundation Establishment exam.

"This final round of your Foundation Establishment exam is composed of three stages."

"The focus of the test is not only your current strength, but also your potential after establishing a foundation. It is meant to determine which of you two is more qualified to establish a foundation first..."

While Huang Zichou was explaining today's exam rules.

Two emoji characters in the audience were talking.

A smiling emoji said, "See that one? That's Ye Lingxiao. After you are sent down to the First Layer next month to oversee the work of the Oasis Group, this Ye Lingxiao will assist you within the Oasis Group."

Beside the smiling emoji was a crying-with-laughter emoji, who replied, "Oh? So that means it's this Ye Lingxiao who will take the Foundation Establishment qualification certificate today, right?"

The "smiling emoji" nodded and said, "The average IQ and learning ability of First Layer students are indeed a bit lacking, but it's not like there are no talents at all. This Ye Lingxiao is not bad."

"Moreover, the Ye family behind him has some minor influence on the First Layer. He's not from a poor background with no connections and understands the rules better."

"When he assists you on behalf of the Ye family, you must remember..."

The "smiling emoji" was interrupted mid-sentence by the "crying-with-laughter emoji": "Mom, I know. Don't worry, I'll treat the talented with respect, treat them well, and won't bully people by relying on my power."

Upon hearing this, the "smiling emoji" sighed and said, "I'm not afraid of you bullying them; I'm afraid of you being deceived by them."

"Son, you're just too soft-hearted, too easy to treat your subordinates well."

"You need to remember one thing: those people beneath you are just like the dogs you used to keep. If you treat them too well, feed them too much, they'll start to think they can stand shoulder to shoulder with you, start having ideas they shouldn't, even try to get up on the table and bite you back."

"You have to learn to keep them hungry, to feed them with your own hands, to knock them down a peg, to make them learn to fear you." "Remember, you're there to control them, not to make friends with them..."

Listening to the long-winded lecture from the "Smiley Face," the "Crying Laughing Face" was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, saying, "How did I end up being cheated like this?"

The "Smiley Face" said, "Last time you used the legal killing permit, you didn't kill a single person, and you even paid those bystanders so much money..."

The "Crying Laughing Face" said helplessly, "I never kill people."

"Look, after I got my killing permit, when did I ever kill anyone?"

"That time, I was temporarily short on sorcery materials and wanted to take a few limbs from passersby to cast a spell. To avoid any misunderstanding from the Righteous Gods, I used the killing permit. As for paying afterwards, that was just buying the local people's flesh and blood..."

The "Smiley Face" sighed, "You still paid too much. Just a few limbs, yet you paid the price for murder."

"If your father were here, he wouldn't have paid that kind of wasted money. You're still too soft-hearted... Son, you have a killing permit, you're not an illegal killer, you're a legal killer. When paying compensation, you can get a discount. Besides, the people you killed were all unregistered, so they're worth even less."

"If you keep squandering like this, not even knowing how to use discounts and special offers, no matter how much money our family has, it won't be enough for you to waste."

…

On the examination field, Huang Zichou had already finished explaining the content and rules of the first round.

!

In order to test the physical potential of the two candidates, they would be temporarily granted Divine Spirit Roots in this round.

The Divine Spirit Root surpassed the Human Spirit Root, Earth Spirit Root, and Heaven Spirit Root, recognized as a military-grade power that had only ever been used by the military and some special government departments.

Upon hearing that he could temporarily use a Divine Spirit Root in this exam, Zhang Yu's heart couldn't help but stir slightly.

"Indeed, the scale of this Foundation Establishment exam is very high."

"Being able to use a Divine Spirit Root on the exam field..."

As for the specific assessment content, it was to compare how much performance Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao could each draw from the Divine Spirit Root.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "According to the examiner, to break through to the Foundation Establishment realm, one needs to plant the Spirit Root into the dantian, transforming the Spirit Root into a new organ during the breakthrough, driving the ascension of both body and mind, and ultimately stepping into the Foundation Establishment realm..."

Zhang Yu had known for a long time that to break through to the Foundation Establishment realm, besides a level 10 Dao Heart and 60 mana, the most important thing was the Spirit Root.

And according to Huang Zichou's description, during the process of breaking through to Foundation Establishment and planting the Spirit Root, the stronger the physical body, and the fewer hidden injuries, damages, defects, impurities, toxins, etc., the better one could utilize the Spirit Root's performance, and the stronger one's power would be after breaking through to Foundation Establishment.

Huang Zichou thought to himself, "High school students in the Qi Refining stage often resort to any means to improve their cultivation, overeagerly using many methods that force their potential to boost their grades."

"In this process, it's easy to accumulate excessive hidden injuries and toxins in the body, diminishing potential and damaging the foundation."

"Often two people who seem equally physically strong will end up with vastly different achievements after Foundation Establishment because of this reason."

"This Divine Spirit Root round is to test precisely this aspect."

The reason for using a Divine Spirit Root was that in the view of the Righteous Gods, the upper limit of the Heaven Spirit Root was somewhat low, suggesting it might fail to measure the gap between the two candidates.

At the same time, two black long boxes were delivered in front of Zhang Yu and Ye Lingxiao.

Zhang Yu opened the box and saw a black combat suit appear before him.

Huang Zichou introduced, "This is the military's specialized external Spirit Root, the Divine Spirit Root combat suit. However, all extra functions have been removed, leaving only the most basic Divine Spirit Root."

"Once you put it on, the Divine Spirit Root will enter your body, continuously providing you with mana, physical strength..."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu changed into the black combat suit. The black top and pants enveloped his entire body.

The next moment, he felt as if the suit had come alive, with countless tendrils seemingly connecting to his skin, sticking tightly to it as if glued on.

Huang Zichou continued, "Use mana to channel through this Divine Spirit Root combat suit, and you can activate the Divine Spirit Root within."

As Zhang Yu poured his mana into the combat suit, the entire suit suddenly tightened, further conforming to his body.

At the same time, the spiritual energy in the air seemed to let out a booming roar, surging toward him like a tidal wave.

Endless spiritual energy poured into the combat suit and, in the next moment, transformed into streams of pure mana, merging with the mana Zhang Yu had channeled into the suit. Like an external mana circulation system, it began to continuously replenish Zhang Yu's mana.

Additionally, more and more spiritual energy was transformed into vital energy and simultaneously injected into Zhang Yu's body, replenishing his physical strength.

In just a single breath, Zhang Yu felt that both his mana and physical strength had recovered to their peak state.

And on the cuff of his combat suit, a number of 0.03% suddenly appeared.

This meant that at this moment he was only exerting 0.03% of the power of his Divine Spirit Root.