Chapter 131: Qingyun Opens Its Gates, Examination Begins

The Black Emperor finished speaking.

Mu Shuixian and the others just happened to walk to the top.

"I am the Inner Sect Elder of the Qingyun Emperor Sect."

"You all who have come should know the rules of the first trial; I won't repeat them."

"The trial is simple; pass the Illusory Heavenly Ladder and you can become my Qingyun disciple."

"Now I announce that our Qingyun opens its doors to accept disciples; the test of the first trial, the Illusory Heavenly Ladder, begins now."

Mu Shuixian stood at the mountain peak, releasing his imperial aura, and the sound like heavenly might echoed across the Huangwu Continent!

She finished speaking and flicked her sleeve.

It reaches the clouds, and the nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-layer Illusory Heavenly Ladder gradually appears from top to bottom.

The scenery on the ladder constantly shifts; boundless Dao resonance and extremely rich spiritual energy surge forth, and walking within feels like strolling on an immortal ladder, dreamlike and illusory.

"Inner Sect Elder? Great Emperor!"

"Hiss!"

"What the hell! If the gatekeeper dog is a Great Emperor, that's fine, but even the Inner Sect Elders are Great Emperors!"

"Damn! Unbelievable, unbelievable!"

"The intel is wrong! His Qingyun has more than two Great Emperors!"

Everyone present from the major powers was shocked, and the cultivators controlling flying ships far away on the horizon almost lost control and fell.

After Mu Shuixian gave the order, the guards of the five sects under the Black Emperor's command burst forth with powerful aura and flew downward.

They orderly arranged all the examinees below into batches to undergo the trial.

The ladder is vast enough; one batch can accommodate tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands proceeding simultaneously.

After the first batch of testers stepped onto the ladder in order,

Instantly, the shouts from below echoed through the clouds.

"Demons! Why are they all demons!"

"The demon race has come, everyone run, everyone run!"

On the ladder, a man shouted as if gone mad.

After the man beside him who was also participating in the test walked out of the illusion, he glanced at him with disdain and continued stepping upward.

After being scared like this in the first illusion, what are you doing here embarrassing yourself? Forget the Emperor Sect; even a third-rate power wouldn't want you.

People kept being sent down from the ladder.

After coming down, they were drenched in sweat, gasping heavily; some had lifeless eyes and sat limp on the ground, obviously not yet recovered.

Afterward, they began to despair, only able to longingly gaze toward the mountain peak, above the clouds.

That was a dream they could see but never reach!

"Heavens! This young master didn't even step onto the second step—why! They all said I had the potential of a Great Emperor!"

"This Qingyun trial is way too hard!"

Those who failed the trial all left in despair.

The Emperor Sect is within reach, yet utterly unattainable.

At the mountain summit, Mu Shuixian shook his head.

This batch is really poor quality; most are just filling numbers, and they can't even step onto the second step.

"Water Immortal Empress, how has your recovery been lately?"

"It's been a hundred thousand years, but I still want to have a fierce battle with you."

"I don't know if your swordsmanship has improved."

The Black Emperor stepped forward and said.

Mu Shuixian turned upon hearing this and said: "Xiaohei, you're asking for a beating, aren't you?"

"Have you forgotten how I used to discipline you before?"

Upon hearing this, the Black Emperor shrank his dog-headed head back.

The Water Immortal Empress is slightly stronger than it by a bit, so in every sparring match it ends up getting beaten passively.

"Sigh, time flies; after a hundred thousand years, I don't even know what the Central Continent has become."

"How is the Mu family?"

"And that damned Wuchen Great Emperor!"

Whenever he talks with this good friend, Mu Shuixian always recalls past events.

"We might as well wait until we recover to the Supreme Realm before going back to take a look; we're just a shiver away."

"By then, the Black Emperor's prestige will once again shake the Central Region."

The examination below continues.

Batch after batch goes up, batch after batch is sent down.

"Damn! Everyone in Qingyun is a Great Emperor! I didn't mean to expose it—let me go, let me go!"

A man secretly discovered in the illusion that everyone in the Qingyun Emperor Sect is a Great Emperor, and without hesitation he leaked it; he was ruthlessly seized, and they asked him why he wasn't a Great Emperor, suspecting he was a spy from another sect.

"What! You all know about my stealing the neighbor's bellyband!"

In the illusion, a man with a flushed face lowered his head, enduring everyone's pointing and gossip.

From time to time, those confused by the illusion start raving nonsense and are eventually sent down.

"Qingcheng, it's our turn."

"Let's go."

Soon after, it finally turned to Gu Qingcheng and Xiao Xuan'er.

They followed the crowd to the heavenly ladder and stepped up.

The quality of the later batches was clearly far superior to that of the earlier batches.

Many extraordinary prodigies directly broke through the first illusion and continued flying upward.

The inner and outer sect prodigies who came from the sect also stood on the mountaintop, watching the illusionary heavenly ladder with interest.

They had once come this way as well.

Moreover, the elders told them that this time the second round of the test was no longer the Nine Cauldrons Talent Test, but rather those who passed the first round would challenge them.

What could they do? They could only give it their all.

"This batch is not bad; several have already reached over two hundred layers, and they haven't slowed down, so it looks like the first wave of qualifiers will emerge."

Mu Shuixian gazed at the illusionary heavenly ladder and analyzed.

I just don't know how strong they are, whether they can defeat her inner-sect disciples and directly enter the inner sect.

Currently, there are too few inner-sect disciples.

On the illusionary heavenly ladder, several figures flew upward; as long as their inner strength was great and their resolve firm, the illusion would have little effect on them.

Soon after.

Ten figures reached the summit, having passed the nine hundred and ninety-ninth layer of the heavenly ladder, becoming the first wave to reach the top.

"They made it up! They made it up!"

"Ten prodigies have made it up! Let's rush, everyone!"

The cultivators below who hadn't participated were as if pumped up.

Too many had failed, and anxiety spread through the crowd; those who hadn't participated thought the first round's test was of hellish difficulty.

Now that the ten prodigies had reached the summit, they were instantly inspired; it seemed someone could still pass, and those who failed were simply too reckless.

However, some true prodigies and cultivators with strong inner resolve below were unperturbed; those easily swayed by external emotions had poor mental states and dispositions.

Ten figures.

Six youths and four women, full of vigor, walked toward the elders.

Their hearts were filled with joy.

Becoming a disciple of the Imperial Sect was already a certainty; now it just depended on how the second round test would be.

Regardless, they would surely become disciples of the Azure Cloud Imperial Sect.

Upon seeing the few people approaching.

The Azure Cloud inner-sect disciple Ning Yan stared wide-eyed.

"Xuan'er!"