Rise from a Low-class Family to Martial Artist

”Persist for two hundred breaths.”

The stern voice announced the duration Lin Chen had persisted, while also opening the next level: ”The third level, the Potential Test.”

As the voice fell, an ice-blue jade staircase slowly descended from the top of the tower, and the bottom step landed precisely in front of Lin Chen, with an ancient mirror floating at the end of the jade steps.

”Potential?”

Lin Chen squinted his eyes and did not rush to step up. The first level tested his combat capability, the second his divine soul, and now this level tests potential?

How does one assess potential, and what does it have to do with steps?

Does climbing more steps represent higher potential?

If that’s the case, then the steps must get progressively harder to climb, which essentially tests the disciple’s strength and divine soul.

Isn’t that redundant?

”The Martial Path of the Flame Dynasty compared to the Nine Kingdoms is like a vast difference; perhaps there’s something mystical here that a frog at the bottom of a well like me cannot comprehend. Maybe these steps have another way to test potential.”

Unable to figure it out, Lin Chen simply decided not to think further. After calming his mind, he stepped onto the first layer of the staircase.

...

Outside the tower.

”Elder Du?”

The steward guarding outside the tower saw Du Xiaofeng walking in and quickly greeted him respectfully.

”Hasn’t Lin Chen come out yet?”

Du Xiaofeng looked at the closed tower. The reason he came in was that since Lin Chen entered, more than two hundred breaths had passed.

According to his estimate, Lin Chen should have already come out.

”Junior Brother Lin is still inside the tower, presumably undergoing the potential test. Congratulations to Elder Du for accepting an excellent disciple.”

The steward congratulated Du Xiaofeng, not simply out of flattery for his elder status, but because he genuinely believed that Lin Chen’s prolonged stay inside indicated a longer stop at the potential test.

In the third round of the direct disciple assessment, the longer one stays, the higher the potential it signifies.

As for Lin Chen’s long duration in the second level, that was clearly not possible.

Any disciple not yet in the Innate realm rarely persisted beyond fifty breaths in the second level divine soul test, with most lasting around forty breaths.

With forty breaths in the second level, plus defeating the war puppet in the first level, calculated at the slowest pace as fifty breaths, Lin Chen should have stepped into the third level well before a hundred breaths.

Being able to persist in the third level for a hundred breaths means at least climbing thirty steps, which equates to thirty points.

The final potential level has a total of one hundred points, one point per step, with ninety-nine steps in total, and reaching the top grants ninety points.

However, like the second level divine soul test, achieving a full score is almost impossible; no disciple has ever achieved it since the assessments began.

The highest record is only eighty points.

Du Xiaofeng’s old eyes narrowed slightly. In his estimation, Lin Chen could score above thirty points in the first level, at least twenty points in the second level, and no problem with fifty points in the potential test, easily reaching a hundred points.

Now that more than two hundred breaths have passed, he was no longer concerned and awaited Lin Chen’s emergence.

...

Inside the tower.

Lin Chen had reached the fiftieth step but was still very perplexed.

Upon stepping onto these stairs, the expected trials did not materialize; he smoothly ascended to the fiftieth step. If not firmly within the tower, confirming this level tested potential, and with the ancient mirror monitoring him continuously, he would suspect an error caused the assessment to malfunction.

The jade step lens, shrouded in ancient Canglan energy, obscured Lin Chen’s view of the mirror’s surface, and he didn’t know it also reflected his figure. With each step he took, the mirror surface rippled like water.

Simultaneously, a line of text appeared on the mirror: ”Innately strong body, unprecedented talent; Life Chart profound, aligned with Martial Arts Extreme Realm.”

With each step Lin Chen took, this line would ripple on the mirror, emitting a glow.

Seventy steps, eighty steps, ninety steps...

Lin Chen progressed as if on flat ground, and at this point, he could see the ancient mirror at the end of the steps and the words inscribed on it.

”Innately strong body, unprecedented talent; Life Chart profound, aligned with Martial Arts Extreme Realm?”

Seeing this phrase on the ancient mirror, Lin Chen’s eyes gleamed with brilliance. He wasn’t a fool; he knew these words on the mirror must be an evaluation of him.

Have I earned such high praise?

”Strong body due to my cultivation of the Mountain Suppressing Chart and the Inextinguishable Divine Face Body.”

”Unprecedented talent, presumably refers to my martial path talent, bolstered by the Martial Arts Longevity, elevating my martial talent to a terrifying level.”

”Life Chart profound...”

Upon reading these words, Lin Chen’s mouth slightly parted and his eyes showed shock. His Life Chart was ”Natural Progress,” meaning cultivation without bottlenecks. The only reason he hadn’t advanced to the Innate realm was that he lacked one element of the Five Elements Energy; as soon as he absorbed the last element, he could instantly enter the Innate realm, with no chance of failure.

But it wasn’t the mirror’s evaluation of his Life Chart that shocked him; it was the possibility that the mirror could reveal his Life Chart?

The Life Chart on his panel was his greatest reliance and secret. If this mirror could reveal it, does it mean the Flame Dynasty has other means to know about his panel’s existence?

If so, then it means his greatest secret could potentially be exposed.

”Or perhaps this mirror merely sensed something unique in my Life Chart, and I am worrying unnecessarily.”

Lin Chen decided that once he settled in Canglan Sect, the first thing would be to gather information about Life Charts in the Flame Dynasty or inquire about it from his mentor once out.

For now, the pressing issue before him was whether to reach the top.

He didn’t know what awaited at the summit and feared drawing too much attention, risking exposing his secret.

Yet, after three breaths, Lin Chen laughed wryly to himself, realizing he was being too indecisive. Since the mirror had already displayed these words, if the sect had means to review it later, it would still be known.

Although his mentor only mentioned that achieving a hundred points passed the assessment, without specifying if higher scores came with rewards, Lin Chen knew that the higher the score, the more the sect would value him, granting better resources and treatment.

Being overly cautious, there is no benefit!

Ninety steps, ninety-one steps...

When Lin Chen stepped over the ninety-ninth step and stood at the top, the tower’s dome was almost within reach.

Boom!

The dome suddenly erupted with a ten-foot-wide ice-blue energy beam.

This beam, laden with countless flickering stars, pierced the sky, and its energy waves caused the surrounding Canglan clouds and mist around the Canglan Sect to churn dramatically. When the beam reached a height of a thousand feet, the surrounding mist gathered into the beam, forming a rainbow-like arc in the sky.

At this moment, all disciples not in seclusion within the Canglan Sect could look up and see these beams in the sky.

”A single color Canglan, does this mean a disciple achieved a full score in one of the assessments?”

In several residences within the Canglan Sect, several elders watched the rainbow-like beam with awe in their old eyes, and the next moment, their figures vanished from their spots.

Meanwhile, inside the Elder Hall, Qu Guanfu and several others naturally sensed the sect’s changes above them, exchanging glances and seeing shock and regret in each other’s eyes.

The one creating a full score record at this time could only be Lin Chen.

The shock was that Lin Chen was even stronger than they imagined, and the regret was that they hadn’t done as Elder Du did and shamelessly taken Lin Chen as a disciple.

In Canglan Sect, at least one direct disciple appears every few years, but achieving a full score, even if just in one aspect, hasn’t happened for decades.

Simultaneously, many youths looked up at the sky’s anomaly, eyes gleaming brightly. Which junior brother achieved a full score?

Inner sect disciple assessment?

Direct disciple assessment?

Likely the former, as those qualified to become direct disciples in the sect shouldn’t have the strength for a full score.