The sky was stained crimson by the sunset's afterglow. As the hour of You approached, more and more disciples gathered beneath the stone tablet.
Xiong Zhuangzhuang, Bei Xinghan, and others stood at the outermost edge of the crowd, maintaining a distance from the rest of the disciples.
It wasn't that they were being ostracized, but rather the disciples of Kunlun Academy formed a subtle aura when they stood together, an aura their low cultivation levels couldn't penetrate, leaving them on the outside.
Bei Xinghan expected to feel anger at this, but in reality, his heart remained calm.
His attention was entirely focused on the name that required him to look up to see.
Xu Yi, you always manage to surprise me.
"Look, Xue Qi is here!"
"If nothing unexpected happens, she'll be first this time."
"Make way, make way!"
"..."
A commotion erupted in the crowd ahead. Bei Xinghan followed the loudest voices and saw a woman in plain cloth, her hair tied with a cloth band, walking through the crowd towards the stone tablet.
Bei Xinghan's gaze flickered.
Was this Xue Qi, the first in the Sword Pavilion?
She looked completely different from what he had imagined.
He detected no sword intent from her; it was as if she were merely a mortal without spiritual power.
Was his cultivation too low, or had her comprehension of the sword path surpassed her peers to a degree he could only dream of reaching?
Perhaps Bei Xinghan's gaze was too intense. The Xue Qi ahead suddenly stopped, turned, and her gaze precisely landed on Bei Xinghan.
*Clang!*
The sound of a sword being drawn abruptly echoed in Bei Xinghan's ears.
He felt the surroundings fall silent, leaving only the rapid thumping of his heart.
Such, such strong sword intent.
A drop of cold sweat traced a path from Bei Xinghan's temple.
Only after Xue Qi turned away did Bei Xinghan regain his perception of the outside world.
"Xue Qi."
Bei Xinghan's face was slightly pale, yet his eyes blazed with astonishing brilliance.
Upon seeing Xue Qi, he had found his next direction.
"Has Xue Qi's cultivation improved again?"
"Absolutely. The way she looked back just now, I felt like I couldn't breathe."
"What sword technique does she cultivate? Why is it that whenever I try to remember her appearance, I fail?"
"When will you give up? Let alone you, even the teachers at Kunlun Academy can't remember her appearance."
The discussion of two disciples in front of Bei Xinghan, fragmented, reached his ears, causing him to frown.
They couldn't remember Xue Qi's appearance?
But he clearly remembered it.
Xue Qi wore no makeup and no ornaments. Her features were delicate, her eyes like autumn water, as cold as her sword intent.
Bei Xinghan harbored doubts but didn't ponder them deeply. After all, Xue Qi had no relation to him, so why should he investigate further? His attention was more focused on Xu Yi's final ranking.
With less than half an hour remaining until the hour of You, Xu Yi's name had stubbornly climbed two spots under everyone's gaze.
Xu Yi, fifteenth place, with four hundred and eighty-eight merit points.
"She's risen again!"
"Xu Yi's ranking has increased again!"
After saying this, their gazes instinctively shifted upwards.
On the ranking board, Yue Hantian and Xue Qi's scores were far ahead. There was a slight gap between third and eighth place, but the difference between ninth and fifteenth place was very small.
This meant that if Xu Yi managed to pass a few more levels of the Tongtian Pagoda in the final moments, she could become the first disciple in thousands of years to enter the rankings immediately upon entering the academy.
It shouldn't be possible.
This thought crossed the minds of many disciples.
If it truly wasn't as they expected, they would have gained a formidable opponent.
Their expressions turned extremely grave.
"Hahahaha."
Not far away.
Teacher Lian was laughing uncontrollably.
From the moment he first saw Xu Yi, he had recognized her uniqueness.
Indeed, Xu Yi had not disappointed him.
If he had known this earlier, he should have put aside his pride and taken her as his disciple the first time she came to the Pill Tower.
What a miscalculation.
...
Ascending Heaven Tower.
The hundred and twenty-first cloud ladder.
Xu Yi's face was flushed, her teeth gritted, blood seeping from her pores, her body trembling like a sieve.
She could still hear the sharp grinding sounds of her bones within her body.
She was close to her breaking point.
The hundred and twenty-first cloud ladder was almost at the limit of what her body could withstand.
Therefore, even though she had answered the questions, she hesitated to take another step upwards.
She endured the immense pressure from outside her body, calculating the time.
The deadline for the ranking was fast approaching, and she couldn't advance any further. Perhaps it was best to end here.
Although she thought this, her body remained immobile.
Xu Yi knew that deep down, she was unwilling.
Her performance should be good, and perhaps many people in the academy were watching her at this moment.
She thought, since she had already chosen a high-profile entrance, why not continue with it?
She looked up at the still boundless cloud ladder, marshaled all her strength, and shakily lifted her right foot.
With every inch she moved her leg upwards, Xu Yi could hear a chilling thudding sound from within her body.
Finally, her right foot landed on the hundred and twenty-second cloud ladder.
*Boom!*
A colossal roar echoed through her consciousness.
Blood and sweat mixed on Xu Yi's forehead, flowing down her cheeks. Her vision was blurred, seeing only red.
She felt as if her body were about to be crushed.
Just as Xu Yi's mind began to waver, believing she would collapse, faint golden points of light emerged from the depths of her bones.
These light spots quickly seeped into her flesh and blood, emitting a gentle and healing spiritual energy.
Her injuries rapidly healed, and the immense force that she could no longer resist seemed to become bearable.
Xu Yi soon noticed the changes in her body, her eyes filling with astonishment.
This scene felt somewhat familiar; she seemed to have seen a similar situation somewhere before.
Where could it have been?
Xu Yi's mind drifted as she tried to recall, and soon she found the corresponding scene in her memory.
Then, she was stunned.
This scene was exactly what she had witnessed when Liu Jinghong received the Buddhist Sect's baptism on the Heavenly Steps at the Myriad Buddha Sect!
She suddenly remembered that the Second Elder of the Myriad Buddha Sect had told her she had also received a baptismal blessing.
However, her body had shown no changes at the time, so she had dismissed it as a misunderstanding.
But now, it seemed the Second Elder of the Myriad Buddha Sect had been telling the truth; there was indeed the golden light power of the Myriad Buddha Sect within her.
It was just that, for some reason, this golden light had not been absorbed by her but had remained dormant within her body, only appearing now to repair her flesh when her physical body could no longer endure.
"Could it be that this golden light is also selective?"
Xu Yi couldn't help but muse.
Why could Liu Jinghong directly withstand the transformation of the golden light, while she had to suffer physical torment?
But she quickly dismissed these thoughts, her gaze fixed intently on the cloud ladder.
With the augmentation of this golden light power, she could at least advance another ten or so steps.
Without further hesitation, she resolutely took her second step.