Wan Yitong blinked a few times. “Eldest Martial Brother, why are you telling Youngest Martial Brother this? He’s the Lin family’s Young Master now. Naturally, he’ll have higher standards for the family’s disciples.”

　　Zhan Fengting thought about it and nodded, “That’s true. After all, the Lin family is also a first-class family now.”

　　Back to where Lin Xuanzhi was.

　　During sunset on the same day, the first disciple who passed the exam walked out of the training ground while holding a clearance card. On his waist hung an exquisite and novel storage bottle with the character “Jian” engraved on it. He clearly belonged to the Jian family.

　　“The Jian family of the reclusive families.” Wan Yitong swatched with rapt attention. “This is the first time that I’ve seen a reclusive family’s disciple take part in the sect entrance examination.”

　　Zhan Fengting also narrowed his eyes, “I looked at the register. The Jian family is not the only reclusive family that took part in the grand sect entrance exam. West Continent’s Liu family also came.”

　　“En, I also looked at the list.” Hai Kuanglang had his arms crossed as he curled his lips, “But whenever disciples of reclusive families go and take part in outside activities, there are only two reasons — if there isn’t some sort of competition between the reclusive families, then something important must have happened in the Five Continents. Can you guess which one it’ll be this time?”

　　Wan Yitong guessed, “It can’t be because they’re too bored, so they came out for some training to experience the world?”

　　“Impossible.” Bei Shitian, who was silent for the entire day, suddenly spoke up with a slightly hoarse voice, “All the reclusive families are nothing more than spies placed in the smaller realms by the Upper Realm. Even if they want to go out and train, they will definitely choose to do so in the Upper Realm. For them, there’s no need to train in the Five Continents.”

　　Wan Yitong rolled his eyes at Bei Shitian, “None of your business. What are you cutting into our conversation for?”

　　Bei Shitian pursed his lips and spoke expressionlessly, “I just wanted to remind you that if reclusive families are walking out in the open, then something must have happened in the Five Continents that forced them to come out of hiding. Don’t take it lightly.”

　　With his expression full of resistance, Wan Yitong scorned, “I don’t need you to remind me. Don’t stick your nose into other people’s business, and I’m wary of suspicious folks bearing gifts.”

　　“Ah Tong.” Zhan Fengting lightly called Wan Yitong’s name; Wan Yitong immediately shut his mouth.

　　Who let him remember the tragic past when he was punished with copying the peak rules?

　　Bei Shitian took a deep look at Wan Yitong, then glanced at Lin Xuanzhi. “How’s Lianlian?”

　　Lin Xuanzhi replied, “It’s not too bad, but Lianlian’s nature is too gentle for me and is not very suitable.”

　　Bei Shitian looked at him and his lips moved. “If you find Zhige again one day, will you continue to use Lianlian?”

　　Lin Xuanzhi nonchalantly answered, “Lianlian should naturally have its real master.”

　　Bei Shitian pursed his lips and fell silent, but what he wanted to say was self-evident.

　　He was a sentimental person, and Lianlian had accompanied him for many years. Naturally, he was reluctant to let Lianlian fall into the hands of others.

　　Lin Xuanzhi spoke nonchalantly, “Senior Martial Brother, if you want Lianlian, you may as well go and ask Master again. I think Master naturally had his own reasons for giving Lianlian to you back then.”

　　Bei Shitian was silent for a moment, then turned and left without saying much.

　　Wan Yitong knitted his eyebrows and looked at Bei Shitian’s disappearing figure, “This brat actually still has ideas about Lianlian. I’ll tell you this: Little Martial Brother, you must never be soft-hearted to him. He is a murderous madman who won’t blink an eye at killing someone. You should also understand after what happened last time. Such a noble and pure high-quality sword like Lianlian is wasted in his hands.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi placated, “Think on the bright side. Just talking about the last incident alone, although he killed people, he killed people who should’ve been killed. If you don’t kill them, they will always kill us.”

　　Wan Yitong glared at Lin Xuanzhi angrily, “You’re actually speaking up for him.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi nonchalantly responded, “I just think that Fifth Martial Brother doesn’t actually need to draw his sword and fight Fourth Martial Brother as soon as he sees him. In fact, you care about him more than anyone else. Why don’t you get along with him?”

　　Wan Yitong choked violently. His face was full of disbelief. He pointed to the tip of his nose, “I care about him? Is there something wrong with your eyes? You should wash them. I hate Bei Shitian, this kind of brat who kills people casually and is extremely stuffy all day long. Hmph, I’m too lazy to explain it to you.”

　　Wan Yitong was stabbed in a sore spot and gave Lin Xuanzhi a look filled with some displeasure. He also turned and walked down the platform.

　　Lin Xuanzhi asked, “Is he angry?”

　　Hai Kuanglang laughed, gloating over Wan Yitong’s misfortune, “Don’t mind him. You suddenly saw through all of this kid’s thoughts. Now he’s feeling shy as heck.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi, “….”

　　The word “shy”, are you sure it could be used to describe Wan Yitong?

　　Zhan Fengting stared at Hai Kuanglang speechlessly.

　　Hai Kuanglang blinked and looked particularly innocent. A pair of golden eyes seemed to be begging for benefits. He spoke to Zhan Fengting, “Shixiong, Shixiong, I didn’t bully Tiantian today, didn’t I behave very well?”

　　Zhan Fengting couldn’t help laughing, “You did well. Keep it up later.”

　　“Mere verbal rewards alone are not enough. Senior Martial Brother also has to give me some tangible rewards.”

　　“You brat…What do you want me to reward you?”

　　Hai Kuanglang proudly raised one eyebrow at Lin Xuanzhi and touched his chin, “As for the content of the reward, it needs to wait until we find a place without people; it’s not appropriate in public.”

　　Zhan Fengting, “….”

　　Lin Xuanzhi, “….”

　　What was this reward that couldn’t be given in public?

　　Always felt that Hai Kuanglang was thinking about something disastrous.

　　Just then, a burst of cheers broke out among the sect’s disciples. Lin Xuanzhi looked intently and saw that a second disciple had come out with a clearance card.

　　Lin Xuanzhi looked at the sapphire earring on one side of the white-clad teenager’s ear, “This is someone from the Liu family, a reclusive family.”

　　“Yes.” There was a flash of approval in Zhan Fengting’s eyes, followed by a flash of anxiety, “Because we knew in advance that there would be disciples from the reclusive families attending, we raised the difficulty of this testing field to a new level. According to the situation in previous years, at least seven days should pass before the first one passes. Unexpectedly, it was only three days before disciples from the reclusive family cleared it.”

　　The first one to come out was the Jian family. The second one to come out was the Liu family, also a reclusive family. They displayed their lone-wolf tendencies to the extreme; they fought alone from beginning to end, unlike the Lin family pupils, who formed teams to strengthen their combat strength.

　　However, even so, these two people’s strengths were still strong to a frightening degree.

　　At the very least, they could pass the examination without any injuries and with great speed.

　　“The young man’s name is Liu Zhaoyue.” Zhan Fengting supplied, “He has a single lightning spiritual root. He only made two moves during the exam and used Thunderbolt Arrays, but his moves were different every time. It seems that, without a doubt, he’s from the Liu family’s main branch.”

　　Reclusive families had lots of geniuses with a single spiritual root, and many of them possessed natural spirit roots, such as lightning, wind, and ice. The Liu family was famous for its lightning spiritual root disciples. The Liu family specialized in arrays and combined its lightning techniques with arrays, which made the resulting techniques self-contained. The attack power was truly frightening.

　　The Jian family, on the other hand, was recognized for its ice spiritual root cultivators.

　　“The young man who came out earlier was Jian Yunxi, but he was not of the ice spiritual root and actually possessed fire spiritual root. He’s probably the only one of his kind in the Jian family.” Zhan Fengting explained.

　　Lin Xuanzhi mused, “Which one does Eldest Martial Brother want?”

　　“Neither. Both of them are already overqualified; they’re not people that anybody in our Profound Sky Sect can teach.”

　　Hai Kuanglang cut in, “Senior Martial Brother, Master will not be happy if he hears you say that.”

　　Zhan Fengting smiled, “As for Master, he has already accepted Xuanzhi as his closed-door disciple, so he naturally won’t accept any more disciples. Those two youths are all from reclusive families. Judging by their temperaments, they both seem to be proud and arrogant. I’m afraid that they won’t be satisfied with joining our Sinking Sword Peak just to become a mere inner-door disciple.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi nodded, “That’s true, it’s just that I don’t know which peak they’ve taken a fancy to.”

　　“No matter which peak it is, I’m afraid they’ll still become a delicious piece of cake everyone wants to fight over.” Zhan Fengting chuckled.

　　Reclusive families wouldn’t come out easily, let alone the West Continent’s Liu family, who actually traveled tens of thousands of miles to arrive at the East Continent. This made Profound Sky Sect feel like they had a lot of face. These days, Profound Sky Sect’s Sect Master smiled from ear to ear every day. Obviously, the arrival of the reclusive families’ disciples made him feel the possibility of Profound Sky Sect reaching a higher level.

　　In any case, Profound Sky Sect would never neglect these two reclusive family disciples.

　　On the main stand, Profound Sky Sect’s Sect Master, with his hand on his beautiful beard, asked, “Liu Zhaoyue and Jian Yunxi, which of you guys are planning to accept them directly under your door?”

　　Broken Sword Peak’s Peak Master narrowed his eyes as his thoughts became slightly tempted. “These two are both exceptionally gifted people. I will be extremely happy if either one of them enters my door. If both of them are willing to come to Broken Sword Peak, that would naturally be better.”

　　Breaking Sword Peak’s Peak Master swept Broken Sword Peak’s Peak Master with a cold glance. “Your appetite is perhaps too large. I’m afraid that you can’t swallow it all.”

　　Broken Sword Peak’s Peak Master, Daoist Yi Dao, smiled without an ounce of sincerity. “I can certainly swallow it, but I can’t say the same about your Breaking Sword Peak. I heard that you’re planning to enter closed-door cultivation recently. Even if you accept them under your name, you likely still won’t have time to teach them personally. Don’t tell me that you plan on letting some of your disciples teach these reclusive family disciples in your place? I’m afraid that when the time comes, the master’s cultivation will be lower than that of his disciples. You would be a laughingstock if word got out.”

　　“You…” Breaking Sword Peak’s Peak Master, Daoist Qing Yun, had a dark expression. This Daoist Yi Dao just had to pick at people’s sore spots. His current cultivation had been stuck at Profound Realm’s Separated Spirit Stage for a long time.

　　The reason why he didn’t break through was because, firstly, when one reached the Profound Realm, every single small stage breakthrough in that realm would be extremely dangerous, and serious injuries would occur every time he rose a small stage.

　　When Daoist Qing Yun tried to break through the peak of the Separated Spirit Stage for the first time, his realm didn’t rise but actually fell instead. If it weren’t for the timely rescue of several elders stationed on the peak, he was afraid that he would have already been dead by now, rather than just falling to the introductory phase of Separated Spirit Stage.

　　Therefore, after all these years of accumulation, even though Daoist Qing Yun had returned to the peak of Separated Spirit Stage, he was still afraid to try again casually.

　　On the other hand, Daoist Qing Yun also had to consider the stability of the three peaks.

　　At present, Sinking Sword Peak’s Peak Master Esteemed Lan Yue told the public that his cultivation level was at Profound Realm’s Unified Spirit Stage, Introductory Phase. Broken Sword Peak’s Peak Master told the public that his cultivation was at Profound Realm’s Unified Spirit Stage, Minor Attainment Phase. The three peak masters’ cultivations currently differed by only a small phase, which was the most stable situation for Profound Sky Sect as a whole.

　　It would be fine if Daoist Qing Yun successfully broke through to the Unified Spirit Stage, but if he failed, the consequences would be unimaginable.

　　Due to various considerations, Daoist Qing Yun chose to suppress his cultivation and remained at the peak of Separated Spirit Stage for a long time, but the Dao of Heaven did not allow this.

　　A person’s body could only support a limited amount of spiritual Qi. If one accumulated Qi to a certain extent, it was necessary to disperse the Qi by expanding the intensity and strength of their skeletons, muscles, arteries, and veins, as well as the maximum capacity of their Dantian Qi Sea. Therefore, the road that cultivators pursued was ceaseless and never-ending.

　　Currently, Daoist Qing Yun had already reached the point where he had no choice but to advance.

　　He had already reached the limit of the amount of Qi his body could endure. If he still didn’t want to enter closed-door cultivation and breakthrough, then, long before he could die from his failure to break through, he probably would have already exploded and died from his body being unable to endure so much Qi.

　　But everyone knew that the higher level the breakthrough, the higher the failure rate, and if there was one failed breakthrough already, the possibility of the same happening for the second time was as high as nine out of ten.

　　This closed-door cultivation was almost doomed to fail.