Gu Qing Shan opened his eyes.
He found himself standing in the middle of a ruin.
Everything around him were destroyed structures and buildings, from the foot of the mountain where he stood all the way to the top of the mountain.
A few palace structures that still haven’t collapsed were still glowing with a beautiful and gorgeous light, but not at all tacky, it was quite obvious that they were surrounded by a simple vacuuming formation.
A vacuuming formation could function as long as there was energy in the air to absorb, so they can last a very long time through the years.
Gu Qing Shan pulled back his gaze.
At some point, a young man was already standing in front of him, watching him.
“Excuse me—-” Gu Qing Shan clasped his fist.
“No need no ask, I’m the Spirit Tortoise, you don’t recognize me?” the young man said.
Gu Qing Shan glanced at the tortoise shell on his back and nodded: “Senior——”
The young man cut him off: “What ‘senior’, I’m only 150,000 years old. I’m still very young, you can call me Young Man Tortoise—– or Young Tortoise for short”
Gu Qing Shan: “…”
Young Tortoise threw something at him.
“You did quite well, even better than Shen Yang, so you passed the trial and obtained the disciple jade disk” Young Tortoise told him.
Gu Qing Shan looked at the jade disk in his hands.
The jade disk was giving off incredible spirit energy, manifesting as a faint white mist that drifted from his hand.
The disk itself was crafted in quite a peculiar shape, almost like a half-broken rune.
“Go, no need to look at it too closely. Because you’ve passed the trial to join the sect, you may now begin to cultivate as a disciple of Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace” Young Tortoise said.
“Cultivate?” Gu Qing Shan was surprised, “but I came here to look for the Heaven Sword”
“I know” Young Tortoise looked at him with eyes full of implications: “You are still too weak, as you currently are, you wouldn’t be able to obtain the Heaven Sword, so you must cultivate first”
“For cultivators who returned to the Heavenly Palace like yourself, this is actually a considerable once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as you will be able to practice the great scriptures of that era and quickly become stronger”
“Then what realm should I reach in order to search for the Heaven Sword?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
“Since that is a disciple jade disk, you would naturally need to become the most outstanding disciple during that era to be qualified to search for the Heaven Sword” Young Tortoise told him.
He reached his hand out and lightly tapped the jade disk.
An invisible wave spread from the disk all around.
Young Tortoise explained: “Keep in mind, although it is only a piece of the phantom image of the Age of Old, the Laws of the worlds are interlinked, the cultivation that you obtain inside can be brought back to this era”
“What should I do? Do I only need to cultivate myself?” Gu Qing Shan asked.
Young Tortoise shook his head and grinned: “First you have to get into the Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace”
“You mean I might not necessarily get to enter the Heavenly Palace?” Gu Qing Shan asked doubtfully.
Young Tortoise casually told him: “You will get a chance to find the Heaven Sword even if you enter other sects———– don’t worry, even if you don’t obtain the qualifications to search for the Heaven Sword, you would still obtain a lot from this experience”
As Gu Qing Shan was about to ask something else, a bright light came from the jade disk.
It brought Gu Qing Shan into the void of space and gradually faded away.
…
Spirit energy gently washed over the body like a refreshing breeze of wind.
The mountains were thick, layers stacked upon layers of greenery filled the scene, a small bridge stretched across the calm lake as a thin layer of mist drifted above it.
A ray of morning light shined from above.
Countless children wearing clean and neat clothes were lined up on the mountain path, waiting to be chosen by a sect.
Every child here would obtain the right to cultivate.
Even if someone was born without the necessary spirit roots to do so, Divinities would grant them miracle herbs to grow a spirit root in themselves that can harmonize and connect with the 5 Elements.
No life would be wasted.
The Divinities required a large number of people to fight their wars, and humans craved to become stronger.
This was the best era.
Gu Qing Shan opened his palm and looked down.
He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
The skin of his hands was soft and white as if they had never even touched cold water.
And in fact, he was currently in a child’s body, about 6-7 years old.
He was currently standing together with other children, waiting to be selected by a sect.
His cultivation returned to zero.
His current self could only faintly sense scattered strands of spirit energy in the air.
His Dantian was completely empty.
Fortunately, my Thaumaturgy and my swords are still here.
My memories as well as battle experience haven’t been taken away.
During this miraculous experience, it’s a good thing that my core still remains the same.
Gu Qing Shan silently stood with the other children, waiting for time to pass.
Not too long later.
Someone shouted: “Group 59, enter the Daoist Hall”
Gu Qing Shan followed the group of children neatly and orderly inside the Daoist Hall.
As soon as he came in, his eyes were opened wide.
The entire Daoist Hall was extremely spacious, easily enough for thousands of people to stand.
The yard at the center was left empty to let the children come up and test their aptitude.
The sects took up various spaces for themselves around the large venue.
Numerous 5-coloured clouds floated in the sky above, easily over a hundred of them at a glance.
The clouds were hovering in place without moving.
A cultivator smiled at the children and spoke in a gentle voice: “From left to right, step forward in order, one by one”
Everyone looked towards the first children on the left.
Having never been showered with so much attention before, the child gulped nervously, unable to step forward even after a while.
Finally, at the urging of the cultivators, he slowly came up and stood in the middle of the yard.
Very quickly, one of the 5-coloured clouds gave off a light that enveloped the child.
A few moments later.
A short staff descended from the sky, floating lightly next to the child.
The elders of the sect glanced at him with open eyes.
One of the elders smiled and gestured to the child: “Come, child, you have received the Spirit Summoning Wand of my sect, you will become a Spirit Master in the future”
The child took the short staff and joyfully ran towards the old man.
Following him, a second child stepped up.
When he stood in the yard, items descended from three clouds.
A cane, a short Blade and a fan.
Three elders looked at him tentatively.
The young boy was a bit surprised, not sure which one to choose.
The cultivator in charge of the ceremony suggested: “You are free to pick the one you like best”
The young boy grabbed the Blade and happily swung it around.
The cane and the fan flew back to the sky, into their original clouds.
An old man declared: “Come, you’ve received the ceremonial Blade of our sect, from now on, you will be our sect’s disciple”
The boy ran with the Blade towards that elder.
The ceremony continued.
The third child came up.
He was surrounded by 8 formation plates and only chose one of them after a long while of thought.
Another elder received him.
The fourth child was a young girl.
When she stepped into the center of the yard, a bright indigo glow came from her body.
Several dozen clouds gave off light at the same time, pointing at her.
Almost 60 treasure tools descended at once, silently floating in front of her.
The elders of the sect whispered in discussion.
They began to argue on who this girl should belong to.
The cultivator in charge was clearly experienced as he asked the girl: “You may now choose—— do you have a sect that you wish to join?”
The girl nodded: “Profound Water Gate”
Profound Water Gate was the sect with the strongest Water Elemental techniques, a highly renowned sect that once received the teachings of the Water God themselves.
The discussions quieted down.
A beauty in ancient palace garbs smiled and waved at the girl.
The young girl glanced at the cultivator in charge to ask for permission before joyfully running towards the woman.
The fifth child stepped forward.
11 clouds gave off light that shined on him, then several armoured gauntlets descended from the sky, hovering in front of him.
This showed that he was talented with martial arts.
The boy carefully chose a flaming light red gauntlet.
Right away, the rest of the gauntlets returned to their clouds.
A muscular man stepped out to bring the boy back to his sect.
And then it was Gu Qing Shan’s turn.
He silently stepped forward and stopped in the center of the yard.
A mystical presence manifested in between heaven and earth.
This invisible presence silently went between his eyebrows, searching for something.
As Gu Qing Shan felt this presence, he felt curious.
There was no such advanced method in the future to directly pinpoint what would suit someone best like this.
The Spirit Tortoise said that it didn’t matter what sect I joined, as I would have the chance to search for the Heaven Sword either way.
But from what I saw in the trial, the Heavenly Palace’s sect master was a powerful sword cultivator.
Enough that he won by half an exchange against a Divinity…
Gu Qing Shan looked up at the sky, seeing the countless hovering 5-coloured lights.
Come, give me a sword.
Gu Qing Shan silently stared at the clouds and thought that to himself.
One second later, several hundred clouds trembled at once.
A sword suddenly came down from the clouds, silently standing in front of Gu Qing Shan.
The sword was giving off a faint vibration.
This seemed to act as a signal.
Sword after sword shot down from the clouds, hovering in front of Gu Qing Shan.
A few moments later.
Something completely unbelievable happened.
An innumerable amount of swords lined up, surrounding Gu Qing Shan, forming several layered circles that encircled him inside.
There were almost a thousand swords there.
They were all vibrating faintly as if wishing for Gu Qing Shan to choose them.
The children still waiting were already completely flustered.
The elders of every sect stood up.
The cultivator in charge regained his calm and asked: “Child, which sect do you wish to join?”
Gu Qing Shan muttered: “Barren Cloud Heavenly Palace”
