Do you wish to take me as your master? (Please like, recommend, and follow!)

The door closed automatically behind him with a soft click. At the same time, a message surged directly into Jiang Feng’s mind.

In this area, there are a total of one hundred and eight stone beads. Find these beads.

Each bead is worth two points; the more you find, the higher your score.

The total examination time is two quarters of an hour—thirty minutes. If you find all the beads within the time limit, your score is multiplied by ten percent. For every five minutes saved, another ten percent is added.

So, it’s a treasure hunt?

Chong Fan had told him before that the Earth Test was a written exam, testing one’s knowledge of all things in the world. But now, it seemed this method was entirely different from what Chong Fan had described.

Was this a regional difference, or simply a change in level?

Jiang Feng shook his head, quickly processed the information, and focused on his surroundings.

The light here was extremely dim, so dark one could barely see the way. It was by no means a good place for a treasure hunt. The air was damp, and faintly, there was the sound of dripping water, echoing hollowly in the open space.

Jiang Feng felt his chest. Having spent so much time alone in the valley, he was long used to carrying some survival tools with him. But now, his chest was empty, nothing at all—not even a tool for illumination.

Would he have to grope about in the dark?

No, impossible.

This wasn’t an ordinary game of hide-and-seek, but the Earth Test of the county examination!

What did the Earth Test measure? The abilities of a martial cultivator!

How could such a test be a mere children's game?

He calmed himself and looked back. On the door, several rows of glowing images and characters were shifting and changing continuously.

The light from these images didn’t affect the surroundings, but was just enough for Jiang Feng to see clearly.

At the top was an hourglass, its sand trickling down, growing less and less.

Below were two rows of characters—exactly the scores of the twenty exam candidates in this group!

Jiang Feng’s name still registered zero, while the others had already made progress. Especially Teng Zhi, right beside him, who had already scored ten points in such a short time!

Jiang Feng smiled faintly, without a trace of panic. He turned to face the darkness, closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again.

Before him, the world had taken on a new aspect.

Within a two-meter radius, everything was shrouded in a faint golden glow. The light was very weak, flickering in and out of sight, but most certainly present.

Amidst this thin glow, some spots shone particularly bright. Here and there, they glimmered, embedded in various places, linked together like stars scattered across the night sky.

...

...

“This boy isn’t doing well…” murmured Qu Chun, unable to restrain himself, as Jiang Feng’s score remained unchanged for two minutes after the start of the fourth Earth Test round.

Fang Liuxian also watched the boy with interest and commented casually, “Everyone needs time to adjust when entering a new environment…”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Jiang Feng’s score began to soar!

Two points, four, six, eight…

Almost every second, he was scoring two more points, in a wild and unstoppable surge!

He had already scored seventy points in the Sky Test; in no time at all, he gained another hundred here, rocketing back into the top ten.

Fang Liuxian and Qu Chun exchanged glances. Qu Chun stammered, “His—his question, what was it? How could he be so fast?!”

Fang Liuxian hesitated, then declared, “Let me see!” He produced a compass-like disk, about the size of a bowl, with a pointer on its face.

He flicked the pointer and called out, “Jiang Feng!”

The pointer began to spin rapidly, faster and faster, until it was almost a streak of golden light.

The golden light gathered above the disk, coalescing into a small scene, no bigger than a palm. Though made entirely of light, every detail was clear—people and objects alike.

Fang Liuxian exclaimed in realization, “So it’s the Shedding Trial.”

He explained to Qu Chun, “This round is set in a limestone cave, formed entirely of dripstone, with a hundred and eight beads embedded inside and outside the stone walls. There's no light, no fire; the candidate must retrieve as many beads as possible within two quarters of an hour—the more and the faster, the better.”

Qu Chun knew the trials somewhat, but not as thoroughly as Fang Liuxian. He asked, “I recall—each bead is worth two points?”

Both looked up. Jiang Feng’s score for this round had already reached one hundred and thirty-two—he’d collected sixty-six beads!

Qu Chun blurted in astonishment, “How can he be so quick?”

Fang Liuxian replied, “Each bead emits a faint Ming Force fluctuation. Scoring the basic points depends on sensing the Ming Force. This child is extremely sensitive to it…”

He hadn’t finished speaking.

Jiang Feng’s speed wasn’t due to sensitivity alone.

An ordinary candidate would use Ming Force to probe the rock, discover a bead through close contact, then retrieve it. The cave was about ten meters square—a considerable space. Searching it all in time was a real challenge.

But Jiang Feng went bead after bead, hardly pausing, indicating he could search a much wider area at once!

Fang Liuxian’s expression turned grave. “His speed is slowing.”

For the first sixty-six beads, Jiang Feng took roughly one per second—over a hundred points in just over a minute. As predicted, his speed then slowed, but still held steady at one bead every half minute.

Fang Liuxian’s surprise deepened. He put away the disk, considered for a moment, and said to Qu Chun, “Stay here and watch.”

With that, he strode to the door Jiang Feng had entered, pressed his palm flat against the panel, and a wave of golden light spread from his hand.

The others had no idea what he was doing. Fang Liuxian stared intently at the door, his face tense and excited.

His gaze pierced the door, revealing the scene inside.

Among the one hundred and eight stone beads, the difficulty varied. Sixty-six were easy to take—as long as you sensed them, you could reach out and grab them.

Jiang Feng’s rapid gain of one hundred and thirty-two points in just over a minute showed he’d found and taken all the easiest points right away.

The remaining forty-two beads were much harder. They tested not only sensitivity to Ming Force, but also control.

Fang Liuxian watched Jiang Feng closely.

He was bent over, crouched by a stone wall. At his feet lay a waist-high pile of stones, cleverly arranged to hide a bead right in the center, visible only from a specific angle—and even then, hard to retrieve.

Any disturbance would topple the pile, burying the bead. The only way was to remove the stones from above, wasting precious time.

Jiang Feng pondered for a moment, checked the angle, then produced another bead and flicked it gently like a marble.

The bead rolled in, struck its companion at just the right spot, and both bounced out at different angles from the rubble, landing in Jiang Feng’s hands.

He caught them steadily, didn’t pause, and moved on to the next. Clearly, he was confident—everything was under his control.

Fang Liuxian was both startled and delighted.

He could see at once that the bead Jiang Feng had just flicked in carried a spinning Ming Force. The strength and rotation were perfectly judged—any more, and he’d have missed, failed to dislodge the second bead, or collapsed the stone pile.

Such control—at this age, at this level!

On the county ranking, Jiang Feng’s score kept climbing.

His efficiency increased again—now he was taking a bead every ten seconds.

Forty-two beads, forty-two different techniques, executed with breathtaking skill.

Fang Liuxian grew more and more excited, nearly leaping for joy several times.

Not only control, but imagination as well—truly remarkable!

Who would have thought, to encounter such a prodigy here!

From entering to exiting, it took twelve minutes. All one hundred and eight beads were in hand.

Jiang Feng glanced down to confirm, then turned and pushed open the door.

As he stepped out, he nearly collided with the old man standing at the entrance. Fang Liuxian’s face bloomed into a broad, chrysanthemum-like smile, his voice booming with delight, “Good child, good child, will you take me as your master?!”

What?!

The entire examination hall fell instantly silent.

An examiner—openly attempting to take a candidate as a disciple during the county examination?

No one present had ever heard of such a thing.

Qu Chun was shocked and hurried forward, “Master Fang, this is the exam room!”

Fang Liuxian finally recovered from his excitement, patted Jiang Feng’s shoulder affectionately, and laughed, “All right, all right, we’ll talk later, we’ll talk later!”

But his reluctance was obvious to all—“talk later” clearly meant “I’ll make sure you say yes, one way or another.”

Qu Chun quickly pulled Fang Liuxian aside and whispered, “Master Fang, this is improper!”

Fang Liuxian waved him off. “What do you know? For people like us, taking on a disciple isn’t easy!”

Qu Chun smiled wryly, “At least think of the boy. He’s still in the middle of the exam…”

Fang Liuxian looked up. “With his score, what is there to worry about?”

Qu Chun glanced at the county ranking and drew a sharp breath.

Jiang Feng had found all one hundred and eight beads in twelve minutes, completing the Earth Test. That meant he’d scored three hundred and two points in this round alone. Added to his seventy points from the Sky Test, his total was three hundred and seventy-two—towering over the rest and more than a hundred points ahead of second place.

Qu Chun said, “There are still more candidates yet to finish…”

Even as he spoke, he realized it was needless worry. With such a margin, unless Jiang Feng lost every round in the Human Test, he could not be pushed out of the top ten. And really, with results like these, how could he possibly perform poorly in the Human Test?

He couldn’t help but glance at Jiang Feng a few more times. This young man, despite his achievements and being courted publicly by a scholar-official, remained as calm as ever, watching the county ranking with concern for his companions and rivals.

To be fair, Teng Zhi’s abilities were indeed strong; his score was also climbing rapidly—fifty, one hundred, one hundred and fifty, two hundred…

The half-hour quickly elapsed, and Teng Zhi’s final score was two hundred and four, the best among the other twenty candidates—except for Jiang Feng.

As the last grain of sand fell in the hourglass, the doors opened, and Teng Zhi strode out with head held high. One glance at the ranking, and his face changed dramatically!