"Now that we know this cultivation prodigy’s identity, what should we do, Sect Master?" One of the sect elders suddenly asked him.
"What do you think, Elder Xuan?" Long Yijun turned to look at him for advice. "Since he’s technically yours, what do you want to do with him?"
Elder Xuan shrugged and said, "How am I supposed to know? I don’t even know his intentions for coming here! We can decide where to go once I have a little conversation with this young man."
And then he continued, "In the meantime, you should prepare to open the Dragon Temple, Sect Leader. I have a good feeling this young lad will obtain the last special jade slip from the final test and collect all of them, becoming the first one to do so in 10,000 years."
"The Dragon Temple, huh? It’s been such a long time since someone qualified to enter that place." Long Yijun smiled, and he continued, "Even if this young man doesn’t manage to obtain the last special jade slip, I’ll still let him enter the Dragon Temple, as that is most likely what our Founder would want to happen if he were still here today."
After a moment of silence, Long Yijun suddenly said, "Although this might be near impossible and a very difficult task to achieve, I want everything that is related to the young man named Yuan to be hidden from the public. I don’t want the other sects to know about his existence for now, but when they do, it’ll be a pleasant surprise for them."
"A pleasant surprise...? Are you thinking about letting him participate in the Mystic Realm next month?" Elder Xuan looked at Long Yijun with a surprised look on his face. "He’ll only be a disciple for a month at that time whilst the other disciples participating will all be Core Disciples. I cannot imagine the Core Disciples being very happy about a nobody who just joined the sect recently taking up one of their spots so suddenly when they are working themselves to the bone to obtain a spot, and there are very few spots available, which makes this situation even more sensitive."
"So what if the Core Disciples will be unhappy? If they are unhappy, they can go ahead and try to achieve 100 steps in the Pond of Evaluation! Even if they complain, the cultivation world favors those with talent, so they have no right to complain unless they are more talented than him!" Long Yijun spoke in a stern voice.
The sect elders in the room exchanged looks with each other. While they do not reject having someone as talented as Yuan take up a slot for the Mystic Realm, they don’t know whether they should or should not let their disciples know about this, as their disciples were also Core Disciples trying to obtain a slot for the Mystic Realm.
Long Yijun noticed the perplexed expressions on the sect elders’ faces, and he spoke, "Even if they are your disciples, it’s best to leave them in the dark for now, as it might affect their cultivation negatively. The Dragon Essence Sect was only given 3 slots for the Mystic Realm, and with Yuan taking one of these slots, only two other Core Disciples will participate in the Mystic Realm. Though, you can tell them that we have already given one of the slots to a disciple— just not his identity."
"Yes, Sect Master." The sect elders acknowledged his orders.
"Now, let’s see how this cultivation genius will do in the final test. Will he continue to surprise us, or will he do the opposite?"
Long Yijun and the other sect elders proceeded to spectate Yuan with the treasure.
Meanwhile, Yuan had just walked through the gate and entered the area for the final test; it was a large but empty room with a tall stone tablet located a few meters away in the center of the room.
The stone tablet resembled the stone tablets he saw in the Flying Sword Sect that were used to rank the disciples, but there were no names on this one— only complex symbols that somewhat looked like words.
"Congratulations on passing the previous three exams and reaching the final exam." A young woman with a very pretty face that had been waiting in the room said to Yuan after noticing his presence.
"This is the final test? Where are the other participants?" Yuan asked when he couldn’t see anybody else there.
"The final exam is a bit special and requires absolute peace and concentration, so everybody will have their own room for the rest of the test," said the young woman.
"My name’s Xue Jiye, and I will be overseeing this test."
"Before we begin, allow me to explain to you how this exam works and what you need to do in order to pass it."
Xue Jiye then pointed towards the tall stone tablet and said, "That stone tablet contains many cultivation techniques from our Dragon Essence Temple, and your goal is to study it and try to comprehend whatever technique it shows you. As for the technique it will be showing you, it will change depending on your test results from the previous exams. Therefore, the better your results from the previous exams, the more powerful and unique the cultivation technique the stone tablet will show you."
"As for the condition to pass this exam, you’ll need to understand at least 10% of the cultivation technique. Do you have any questions?" Xue Jiye ended her sentence with a question.
"I need to comprehend 10% in order to pass, huh? What about the special jade slip? How much of the cultivation technique do I have to comprehend in order to obtain the special jade slip?" Yuan asked.
"The special jade slip...?" Xue Jiye raised her eyebrows. This is her first time being asked about the special jade slip since she first started overseeing the participants, and it has been two years since then.