Up in the sky, the floating clouds were contracting abruptly. The lightning struck endlessly.

　　A slightly chubby young man formed formula with his hand, and the lightning followed the direction his hand was pointing at. They charged at a stern-looking sword cultivator.

　　Shoujing applauded, “Junior Apprentice-Brother Jia, you have successfully cultivated the Thunder Method in such a short period of time. Shenxiao True Technique is scary indeed.”

　　Choushi twitched his eyelids. He noticed that Jia Yili was not doing this effortlessly. Jia Yili’s forehead was covered with beads of sweat. The Thunder Method required the user to use his own Qi to generate thunder. It could be considered as the most basic form of interactions between Gods and humans.

　　Of course, Jia Yili was only able to use the Thunder Method due to the impressive Shenxiao True Technique. Despite that, he seemed to have attained the basics of interactions between Gods and Humans, but it was not so.

　　Even then, the power of the Thunder Method definitely triumphed over the likes of Palm Thunder Techniques.

　　After all, human strength was limited, but the strength of nature was limitless.

　　Apparently, at the height of its cultivation, the Thunder Method would allow its user to break apart the sky and the ground.

　　However, even for an immortal Zhenren who was skilled at the Thunder Method, it was an impressive feat to casually turn a mountain into a pile of ashes.

　　Countless blue lightning struck, and the disciples who came after could not enter into the cloud platform. At the same time, it kept Zhao Siming occupied.

　　Choushi knew that despite the seemingly reactive position that Zhao Siming was in, he was more than capable to handle it.

　　His spiritual sense was unbelievably sharp, and he could always dodge before the snake-like blue lightning managed to make contact with him.

　　He was closing up to Jia Yili who was performing the Thunder Method.

　　None of the elders intervened. Choushi noticed that Jia Yili was pale as a sheet of paper and wondered if he should intervene and stopped the both of them. Though, if he were to do that, he would be drawing attention to himself.

　　Before he made a decision, the thunders got softer.

　　Choushi was stunted. He was not the only one, the rest of the disciples was shocked too.

　　Looking far ahead, the water-blue lightning were gathering in the air and took the shape of a lotus flower. They carried a little girl on top of them.

　　Each step she took, the lightning would gather underneath her feet.

　　Each step was accompanied by a lotus flower, as though a Celestial had come to this world.

　　The little girl looked young. Her waist-length hair swayed in the wind, her dress was clean and neat. She had a beautiful and flawless face.

　　The cold and detached vibes that she was giving off made her even more attractive.

　　She did not have to perform any techniques to take control of the thunder, turning them into lotus flowers under her feet.

　　Zhao Siming’s sword vibrated, and he had to exert force upon it to keep it under control.

　　The little girl stared at them, as though she was saying that they had disturbed her.

　　Casually, she had arrived at the cloud platform. The disciples who were on the cloud platform made space for her instinctively.

　　She smiled beautifully like a flower, and someone was holding her pretty hand.

　　They directed their gaze towards the person – it was the Headmaster.

　　They speculated that the little girl was the child brought back by the Headmaster. What an incredibly gifted child; they heard the rumors, but now that they had seen it for themselves, she was even more powerful than the rumor suggested.

　　Zhao Siming and Jia Yili descended onto the cloud platform and knelt before Shen Lian.

　　Both of them had engaged in private battle and got caught red-handed by the headmaster. It was only natural for them to be nervous.

　　“Why are you kneeling down?” Shen Lian queried calmly.

　　Jia Yili replied, “I have made a lapse in my judgment and had a conflict with Junior Apprentice-Brother Zhao. I would accept any punishment you deem fit.”

　　“Seeing how you can use the Thunder Method, you probably have reached the sixth level of the Nine Levels of Shen Xiao True Technique. The three Zhenrens, Chonghe, Lingsu, and Zhichang would probably be glad knowing that there is a remarkable successor like you to Shenxiao True Technique,” Shen Lian spoke to Jia Yili.

　　Chonghe was the founder of Shenxiao True Technique; Lingsu was the talented one who perfected Shenxiao True Technique and subdivided it into nine level; Zhichang was the only one from Qing Xuan who managed to cultivate Shenxiao True Technique to the ninth level in the past thousand years. He dealt severe injuries to an immortal Zhenren with the Thunder Method and took the world by storm.

　　Though, in spite of his talents, he was unable to progress further and attain immortality. In the end, he died with regrets.

　　Also, Zhichang was Daoist Yu’s founding master.

　　Jia Yili replied, “I am nothing as compared to the three founding master, and I am unworthy of your compliment.”

　　“There is no need to be humble, I trust my judgment. However, the power of the Thunder Method was above that of normal techniques. Hence, you need to strive to have a calm temperament in order to avoid activating the Thunder Method at your whims. This would end up hurting both yourself and others. In the past, you have been lazy, and your state of cultivation is mediocre. However, you managed to not compete with others and focused on yourself. After three years of traveling, you have improved significantly. Though, that made you proud and easily triggered. Ask yourself, is this not the case?” Shen Lian spoke slowly.

　　Jia Yili came to a sudden realization and apologized, “I recognize my mistake now.”

　　Shen Lian replied, “Since you have recognized your mistake, after the Dao assessment, head over to face the wall and think about your wrongdoings for five years. During these five years, you are not allowed to interact with anyone, and you shall not perform the Thunder Method. In the event that you broke the rules, you are to leave the mountain immediately.”

　　Jia Yili was not in the position to say anything. He had no choice but to nod in agreement.

　　At the same time, Shen Lian looked at Zhao Siming, who stood tall and spoke, “I am not in the wrong. Twice, he was the one who struck first and I was merely acting in self-defense.”

　　His gaze was bright and he stared directly at Shen Lian.

　　“After the Dao assessment, you shall head over to the River of Spirits and obtain three pieces of Yin Jade every day. For each piece that you failed to obtain, you are to repay by obtaining twice that amount the next day. Come see me when you finally realized your mistake.” After saying this, Shen Lian left with Young Ruoxi.

　　Most were sympathetic to Zhao Siming’s current predicament. River of Spirits was no place for a human. Only a monster like a headmaster could withstand the pain of being in the River of Spirits and rose above it.

　　All of the disciples had been to the River of Spirits. The moment they went in, they could feel pain shooting up to their spirit, and they could not shut off the pain. The pain of being in the River of Spirits was worse than being cut by thousands of blades.

　　At some distance away, Ge Yuan and Hong Qianya were observing everything. Hong Qianya laughed and spoke, “Because of what the headmaster did today, twenty years from now, there will be two more talented individuals at Qing Xuan.”

　　Ge Yuan replied, “The Headmaster has always been kind, which led to these younglings being laidback. It was only in recent years that they have started to be more proper.”

　　Hong Qianya said, “Regardless, we would probably live to see the day where Qing Xuan become as prosperous as it once was two hundred years ago.”

　　Ge Yuan remained silent. Back then, Qing Xuan did not have prodigies like Shen Lian and Chen Jianmei, but there were plenty of remarkable individuals in the sect. Almost all one hundred and eight techniques were being cultivated by the disciples, and there were more than twenty disciples who attained at least eight transformations of Huandan. Biyun and Yanxu were the stars of the sect, and they were known as Double Walls.

　　Back then, Yanxu alone had cultivated thirteen Dao techniques, including six types of Tiangang Techniques and seven types of Disha Techniques. He was capable of many Dao techniques, and yet there was no conflict. His achievement was definitely unprecedented. During the Bier Discourse of Dao, Yanxu was the champion and had made Qing Xuan proud.

　　All of the disciples looked up to Yanxu. He was knowledgeable, and they were keen to exchange cultivation insights with him. The insights benefitted them immensely, and even Ge Yuan and Hong Qianya were amongst those who were benefited from it.

　　Though, this was exactly why Yanxu managed to go through all of the techniques at Taiwei Pavilion and was familiar with the cultivation secrets of the different branches. He even got the chance to perform his demon arts on the disciples, turning a good half of the talented disciples in the sect into his clones.

　　Despite Zhang Ruoxu’s effort to turn the tide around, but Qing Xuan still ended up in a state of deficit. Even Zhang Ruoxu himself who was so close to attaining immortality got stuck at the final stage and was unable to progress further till the day he died.

　　Both of them thought about the same thing. They hoped that this round of Dao assessment would unveil the true gems in the sect, marching in the flourishing age of the new generation of Qing Xuan.