Chapter 33: The First Step
Several White Sheep Cave students ran towards the canyon as fast as they could.
Looking at the several students running happily, Nangong Caiyang grew increasingly annoyed.
She finally couldn't help but walk over to the side of the calm-faced Ding Ning, and with a tiger-like face, she said in a deep voice, "Do you know what the White Sheep Cave's initiation test is or not?"
Ding Ning shook his head and said softly, "I don't know."
Nangong Cai Beans was instantly speechless, and his hands and feet went a little cold with anger.
"I know you're angry right now, helping me out with all that, only to have it all ruined by a few words from me, but don't worry, I should be able to pass." However, Ding Ning gave a slight smile and said to her softly.
"I really don't understand how you think, this kind of test has nothing to do with confidence, and you should also understand that more is better than less." Nangong Cai Beans took a deep breath, trying her best to control her emotions and said.
"I just want to do more than less..." said Ding Ning softly as he glanced at Su Qin, who was standing beside the stone monument, "A thing that either allows me to enter or doesn't allow me to enter, but allows one to enlist people's hearts."
Nangong Caiyang was suddenly slightly stunned.
Following Ding Ning's gaze, she saw the different looks of Su Qin and Zhang Yi.
One was absolutely cold and impartial.
And the other was deeply worried.
Almost all of the White Sheep Cave's students who had gathered on the mountain path, even the way they stood, were clearly biased towards Su Qin's side.
"So even with you standing up for me, it will still be troublesome for me to enter the mountain gate." Ding Ning turned his head to look at her and smiled as he whispered, "But I don't think that in the future, Su Qin will be able to stand higher than Zhang Yi, because he was wrong from the start. Those who are truly in a position of power always side with those who are in a higher position of power, and even if, as in the case of Li Lingjun, he has already operated that kind of reputation and enlisted enough people's hearts, to return to his country, the decision will still be in the hands of the several truly powerful people of the Da Chu Dynasty."
Nangong Cai Beans furrowed her brows as she couldn't help but turn her head to look at Ding Ning, "I admit that all of these words of yours sound reasonable, and I also admit that your vision does see clearly and long term, however, the entrance test of all sects is to first test whether or not the person has the potential to become a cultivator. As for insight and vision, those are potentials that will only be valued after being able to pass the test and be initiated."
"Thank you for your concern, but the more you care about me now, I'm afraid I'll have more trouble after initiation." Ding Ning sincerely said softly, "Although the White Sheep Cave has been returned to the Green Vine Sword Academy, I think that the disciples here are still practicing here most of the time, and the closer they feel that I am to you guys, the more they will probably hate me."
Nangong Caiyang's brows frowned a little tighter again, she could hear Ding Ning's gratitude and understood that what he said was indeed the truth, but Ding Ning was still talking about what would happen after the initiation, could it be that he was really so sure that he could pass the initiation test that was simply impossible to take by chance?
Right at this moment, more hurried footsteps sounded in the mist behind the White Sheep Cave's mountain gate.
The two students running at the front were each carefully holding two pine patterned square wooden boxes, while behind them, they were followed by at least forty to fifty students from White Sheep Cave.
These students have heard before that today there is an ordinary city boy exempted from the examination to enter the matter, the heart also has some dissatisfaction, just because the temperament is not as radical as Shen Bai and others, so just waiting for the result in the valley, and did not come to block the road as aggressively as Shen Bai and others, however, now I heard that the strife on the mountain road has alarmed the eldest senior brother and the second senior brother, and this exempted from the examination to enter the city boy actually and However, now that they had heard that the dispute on the mountain road had already alerted the Senior Brother and Second Brother, and that this young man who was exempt from the examination had actually taken the initiative to enter the mountain, these students could not help but come out to see what happened.
As a matter of fact, for these students who have already entered, the annual entrance examination is a lively drama that must be watched.
Must see not because there may be beautiful little sister, also not to see the first time the door has not appeared what amazing talent, more is actually their own sense of superiority is greatly satisfied.
Thinking of his own that day under great psychological pressure difficult to pass the test scene, but also looked at the large number of people during the big test failed to picture, the heart of the kind of pleasure indeed can not be described in words.
Only at this moment, looking at Ding Ning standing outside the mountain gate, all of these White Sheep Cave students felt a great difference at a glance.
Ding Ning was very calm, the kind of absolute calm, not the kind of calm that was feigned, and in his eyes, not a trace of nervousness could be seen.
Looking at this calmness of his, more biting meanings surged out of Su Qin's sharp eyes.
"Don't think that the introductory test is a child's game of playing house."
Waving his hand for the senior brother holding the two wooden boxes to stop at his side, he looked deeply at Ding Ning and said in a slow voice, "Every year, more than a thousand children of the various clans from Changling and the great cities around the world rush here to participate in the initiation test, and all of these people are considered to be excellent everywhere, or else they wouldn't have purposely rushed here to be humiliated. However within all of these people, there are only a few dozen that pass the test. So I hope you can be more serious and careful."
Nangong Cai Beans took a deep breath, and his face became a little ugly again.
Su Qin's words sounded like a reminder, yet in this situation they were almost threatening, easily causing the test participants to become nervous.
According to her usual personality, she definitely couldn't help but say a few words at this point, yet thinking of what Ding Ning had just said, she held back stiffly.
The worry on Zhang Yi's face was also even more intense, he couldn't even help but turn around and look towards those halls in the White Sheep Cave behind him, thinking that the trouble was getting bigger and bigger, at a time like this, why didn't any of the masters come out to put a stop to it?
However, at this time, Ding Ning was looking at Su Qin with a slight smile, "Can we start?"
Su Qin's face did not change much, yet his dislike for Ding Ning in his heart grew stronger and stronger.
His eyebrows were slightly raised, and he said nonchalantly, "Since you're so eager, then let's start right away."
With two soft creaks, the wooden box that was already some years old opened up.
The main show had already begun, and everyone was a little nervous.
Inside one of the wooden boxes was a flat square stone disk.
Square stone disk, is a circle of labyrinthine spiral grooves, these spiral grooves, there are at least hundreds of gray tiny stone beads, just because of the slightest vibration, these exceptionally smooth tiny gray stone beads, in the stone disk rolling like water, forming a number of endless gray streams.
Another wooden box, but a piece of flesh-colored jade, carved into a small terracotta warrior, the terracotta warrior's hand holding a sword, flat and straight to the side, although the terracotta warrior's face are not carved out, however, this kind of upright swinging the sword posture, is exceptionally the charm of the Great Qin Dynasty swordsmiths, straight and sharp, and a forward-looking.
"This is the flowing stone disk, because the texture of the stone disk in a circle is somewhat like the wheel of the year, and the flow of the stone beads is like flowing water, so it is also called the wheel of the year water disk, because the material of the stone disk and the stone beads is somewhat special, so a slight vibration can make these stone beads flow unceasingly in it, yet the speed of the flow is not constant."
When these two wooden boxes were opened, and in the past when presiding over some of the entry tests, Su Qin first reached out and pointed at that stone disk, and said slowly in a cold and clear manner, "The first pass to become a cultivator is to meditate and enter into meditation, first you can meditate and have no distractions in your mind, only then will you be able to enter into meditation and internal observation, and only then will you be able to feel the five qi in your own body. This stone disk, the first test is meditation. Of all these stone beads, there are five that are smaller than the rest, yet this smallness...is only a very small difference, so only those who meditate can pick them out. This test, according to our White Sheep Cave's rules, pick out the five beads as you please, as long as three of them are indeed picked out correctly, you will be considered qualified."
Hearing Su Qin's slow narration, many of the students in the field couldn't help but recall the time when they faced this stone disk, and their breathing couldn't help but be a bit rapid.
The difference between those five stone beads and the rest of the stone beads was indeed extremely small, even if they were placed on a flat white paper at the same time they might not be able to distinguish them very quickly, and in this kind of fluid situation, if they were allowed to do it again, they might not be 100% sure that they could definitely pass.
In the past, they have seen the big test, a large half of the test takers is directly in front of this side of the stone disk was eliminated.
......
The wooden box was unfolded, and it was a natural stand.
This stone disk was placed on the stand and placed in front of Ding Ning.
Ding Ning ignored the strange gazes of everyone around him as he gazed at this stone disk with some hesitation in his eyes.
He was in fact already a cultivator of the second realm, and being of the second realm yet able to kill a cultivator like Song Shenshu, he was no ordinary cultivator. So naturally, what he was hesitating about at the moment was not the flowing stone beads themselves, but rather the way and the outcome of passing the White Sheep Cave's initiation test.
Because today was the first step for him to officially appear in the sights of many people in Changling.
This first step would determine his posture in the future, and what kind of approach he would take to cultivate in the White Sheep Cave in the future.
He had been keeping a low profile in the streets of Changling for many years.
His true cultivation now was still very low, and Changsun Shaxue even expressed strong dissatisfaction over this matter, because in his and Changsun Shaxue's plan, he was going to come to this point originally much later.
It was just that the flowers on his side of the wall were blooming more and more, and there were many others like Song Shenshu who were enjoying themselves very much and living comfortably, yet there were some who were living in an inhuman and unearthly way, and some who were soaking in murky sewage on a daily basis.
"I have to be more careful...careful not to let anyone find out about the Nine Death Silkworms...find out about Changsun Shaxue...careful not to die..."
He took a deep breath and repeated such words in his mind once again before all hesitation in his eyes disappeared.
Amidst a chorus of unbelievable intakes of breath and exclamations of shock, he reached out his hand.
At this point, from the time the stone disk was brought to him and placed firmly in front of him to the time he stretched out his hand, it was not more than dozens of breaths.
His hand intercepted the tiny gray stream of water and took five gray rounded stone beads from it.
(There is a dinner party in the evening, so this chapter will be rushed to be more now la ....)
