Speaking of teachers, President Song, President Liang, Master Ji, and others were all Shi Yu's masters. However, these masters mostly gave her guidance in the four auxiliary arts of artifact refining, alchemy, array formations, and talismans. When it came to cultivation itself, she had always blindly felt her own way forward.
Possessing such a wondrous cultivation technique as the 《Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Record》, along with the Fate-Tapping Bell that generated light-dot spaces to optimize and practice techniques, her journey had been fairly smooth despite the lack of formal instruction in cultivation.
However, these matters involved her greatest reliance and could not be disclosed to outsiders.
Seeing her remain silent, Instructor Jiang raised an eyebrow as a wave of cold aura swept out. “Or was it... that you were lax and negligent yourself, treating your Foundation Establishment like a mere formality?”
Seeing Instructor Jiang in such a furious, utterly disappointed state, Shi Yu gave a bitter smile, unsure how to explain.
The surrounding people were as quiet as cicadas in winter, their gazes involuntarily drifting toward her with lowered eyes. Today's events were bound to spread throughout Shiyan City. Having witnessed it firsthand on the spot, this would be their gossip topic for the next few days.
“Hmm?” Seeing Shi Yu not answering, Jiang Tingchuan narrowed his eyes slightly. The pressure emanating from him became even more terrifying, making her feel as though a heavy mountain had settled on her back, nearly choking the breath from her lungs.
Under Instructor Jiang's gaze, she pondered for a few breaths before speaking truthfully, “Reporting to Instructor Jiang, I gave my absolute all during Foundation Establishment and did not harbour even half a thought of negligence.”
The young woman raised her eyes. Her gaze was as clear as a pool of water where fish swam freely in midair without support. Beneath his crushing pressure, her spine remained as straight and unbending as a green pine. This surprised Jiang Tingchuan somewhat.
“Not half a thought of negligence?” At that thought, he raised an eyebrow, and the pressure around him—which had been kept strictly in check—intensified by a few degrees.
Instantly, several nearby cultivators let out muffled groans as their knees buckled. Thud after thud sounded as they dropped to their knees or collapsed flat on their faces, looking thoroughly disheveled.
Yet Shi Yu, right at the center of the pressure, withstood the brunt of it. Though her frame trembled slightly and fine beads of sweat trickled down her forehead and nose, she remained standing firmly in place, her waist unbowed.
Jiang Tingchuan's eyes flickered. He faintly sensed a non-negligible force concealed within this young woman. Although it is only a Mortal Dao Foundation Establishment, her cultivation foundation is quite solid, and the spiritual energy throughout her body is notably thick. It seems this girl... might not be lying.
After scrutinizing her for a moment longer and seeing that the surrounding cultivators could no longer bear the pressure—some even fainting or vomiting uncontrollably—Jiang Tingchuan paused before finally withdrawing his spiritual aura.
The pressure on the surrounding cultivators suddenly vanished. Breathing sighs of relief, they helped one another up, but seeing Shi Yu still standing as steady as a rock, embarrassment washed over their faces. When they had learned that Shi Yu was merely the lowest tier of Mortal Dao Foundation Establishment, they had found it hard not to look down on or mock her. Yet now, their own performance fell far short of hers, filling them with burning shame.
“Enough.”
“What is done is done; overthinking it serves no purpose. If you practice diligently in the future, you may still strive for the Grand Dao.” Having retracted his aura, Jiang Tingchuan returned to his former calm and unruffled demeanor.
His words carried a hint of subtle comfort, surprising a few academy students nearby who were familiar with his usual style.
Shi Yu bowed respectfully. “Thank you for your guidance, Instructor.”
Faint hushed discussions from the crowd in the distance reached her ears.
“What a pity. If her Foundation Establishment quality were even slightly better, say Tier-4 or Tier-5 Mortal Dao, her speed in reaching Foundation Establishment at age twenty would have at least earned her a spot in the Mystic Class. But as fate would have it, she achieved the absolute lowest tier of Mortal Dao. Her future is effectively sealed; I fear she can only end up in the Yellow Class.”
“She was originally a peerless prodigy. From the looks of it, something must have gone wrong during her cultivation to lead to this outcome. Alas, such is fate and fortune—truly regrettable.”
“Heaven, Earth, Mystic, Yellow—between each rank, the resources available are worlds apart. What a bright future she could have had...”
Listening to these remarks, Shi Yu lowered her eyelids. Being looked down on by others did not bother her; in fact, she found a bit of amusement in it. After all, the tallest tree caught the wind, and standing out too much was rarely a good thing. She did not fear open attacks or hidden arrows, but they were troubles nonetheless, and too many distractions would inevitably impede her cultivation.
However... if she truly ended up in the Yellow Class solely because of her Dao Platform, it would be far too frustrating. The class designation itself did not matter, but what did matter was the vast disparity in cultivation resources behind the Heaven, Earth, Mystic, and Yellow classes. She had traveled across rivers and mountains all the way from Changyuan Prefecture to maximize her cultivation progress here. How could she allow herself to fall behind in resources right at the start?
As she was thinking, Jiang Tingchuan exchanged a few quiet words with several of his colleagues and subordinates. Moments later, they settled on provisional scores for the Foundation Establishment cultivators, distributing jade tokens recorded with their respective scores.
These initial scores were determined based on cultivation base, bone age, and family background. Due to the vast number of applicants, more detailed evaluations like soul strength and spiritual meridian quality were never included in this stage. Cultivators had to take their jade tokens and decide for themselves whether to participate in those additional assessments, which would add to or subtract from their scores accordingly.
In reality, this initial score was usually quite close to the final score. Although cultivation level was closely tied to personal effort and resources, it also reflected spiritual meridian quality and soul strength to a large extent. Taking subsequent tests carried a risk of having points deducted instead.
Thus, many cultivators who received a decent initial score chose not to bother with further testing, relying on that score to enter their desired class. It was mostly those with lower scores who felt unwilling to accept their fate and chose to try their luck in other subjects to see if they could scrape together a few extra points...
Shi Yu took her score token and glanced at the number on it: Sixty-one.
“...”
Instructor Jiang had shown a degree of leniency, allowing a cultivator like her—whose "path was blocked" and who "lacked family backing"—to barely cross the passing mark of sixty to enter the Yellow Class.
She could not help muttering under her breath, “If Qingzhou and the others arrive in Shiyan City and learn that I only made it into the Yellow Class...”
That would be far too embarrassing.
—Fortunately, there were still subsequent evaluations where she could earn bonus points.
Nurtured over time by the Life Spring water, her spiritual meridian had been tested earlier and reached Medium-grade Eight-fractions, which was quite good. She figured that should add a point or two.
Furthermore, because her divine sense had been repeatedly depleted, honed, and refined through the four auxiliary arts—artifact refining, alchemy, array formations, and talismans—her soul strength far surpassed that of cultivators at her tier, which should also earn her some extra points.
If that still wasn't enough...
Recalling what President Song and the others had mentioned before, Shi Yu thought to herself, Besides assessing cultivation-related evaluations to evaluate talent and calculate scores, Shiyan Academy also offers the four auxiliary arts of artifact refining, alchemy, array formations, and talismans as additional bonus items...
She just didn't know what the maximum limit was for these bonus items, or whether they could raise her score enough to reach the threshold for the Heaven Class or Earth Class.
These subsequent and additional evaluations would have to wait until after the preliminary assessment concluded entirely. Since she had already secured her ticket in, waiting a few more days didn't matter.
Rate on N.U.
