Asura Emperor Venerable

Chapter 96: Chapter 96: Assessment

This day was an immensely shameful one for Nine Winds Stronghold.

Because when they went out to conduct “business”, they were actually taken hostage by others!

Even more embarrassing was that the brazen person not only took hostages into the stronghold but after defeating everyone, he didn’t take gold or jewels but instead occupied their canteen.

—What was this all about?

But they truly couldn’t beat him; that extremely handsome young man was like a god or demon, effortlessly taking down their leaders one by one.

Moreover, this man and his dog ate like they were starved ghosts, consuming more than ten people combined.

Thankfully, after filling themselves up, they left without initiating a massacre.

“Ah, that hits the spot.” Shi Hao patted his stomach; he had eaten many vegetables and finally rid himself of the greasiness from eating roasted meat all day.

The big yellow dog was also completely satisfied. Being a dog, it surprisingly focused on eating vegetables, and afterwards, it began to doubt its life. If it started to love vegetables and didn’t want to eat meat anymore, what would it do then?

They continued on their journey, traveling day and night, and after several days, they finally arrived at White Cloud Mountain.

The White Cloud Sect was, of course, within White Cloud Mountain.

However, White Cloud Mountain was vast, and most of its terrain was steep, making it hard for even wild animals to survive, so the White Cloud Sect was situated in a flat valley.

It was surrounded by mountains on three sides with only one path for entering and exiting.

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Outside the White Cloud Sect, there was a large town that existed because of the sect, serving as a provider for all the daily needs of everyone in the sect.

—Martial Artists need to eat too.

Shi Hao had already heard all this from Liu Yixiao.

The town’s economy was actually quite developed because though the White Cloud Sect appeared detached from the world, in reality, it was a power superior to nations, so they were really wealthy and influential.

The people here were not isolated from the world; every once in a while, armies from the three great nations would deliver large quantities of precious materials, supporting the White Cloud Sect with the power of three nations.

Therefore, despite being deep in the mountains and forests, the prosperity of this town was not inferior to the Imperial Capital.

Shi Hao saw that there was nothing lacking here: there were brothels, gambling halls, inns, restaurants, etc. Any form of entertainment you could think of was available.

After all, aside from having stronger abilities, the disciples of the White Cloud Sect also had all kinds of needs.

The sect would not host gambling halls or brothels internally, so they were placed outside, although there wasn’t much difference, but at least it was a concession on appearances.

Shi Hao checked into an inn. This place accepted silver notes from Hua Yuan Nation, Tong’an Country, and Changming Country, as all three nations were under the influence of the White Cloud Sect.

He was waiting.

According to Liu Yixiao, the Pill Yard of White Cloud Sect was about to open its assessment for recruiting apprentices in a month, and he planned to blend into the White Cloud Sect through this opportunity.

Who would have thought that this monstrous sixteen-year-old “Martial Venerable” was actually a genius in the Alchemy Dao as well?

Even if the White Cloud Sect searched all three great nations, they wouldn’t expect that he was actually hiding within the sect.

And Shi Hao believed that it wouldn’t be long before the miraculous Nine Revolutions Sky-Plundering Scripture would allow him to advance to Soul Nurturing and even break through to the Other Shore level.

At that time, what about the White Cloud Sect then?

In the inn, Shi Hao kept a low profile.

Why did the White Cloud Sect choose White Cloud Mountain as its site?

Shi Hao discovered that the natural energy here was extremely rich.

Actually, in the mountains and forests, the natural energy is richer than in the cities, a fact applicable everywhere, but here at White Cloud Mountain, the energy was even more concentrated.

While at Dayun Mountain, Shi Hao’s training improved his strength by two thousand jins per session, while here, it reached as much as three thousand jins.

If he found another suitable location to set up a Formation, how much could he improve efficiency?

And what about Spirit Stones?

Spirit Stones, this was Shi Hao’s second purpose in coming to the White Cloud Sect. He now certainly knew that the Chu Family’s Spirit Stones all came from the White Cloud Sect.

Thus, the White Cloud Sect must have mastered a Spirit Stone Vein, but regarding this information, Liu Yixiao was completely clueless.

After some time, people gradually began arriving here.

—The medical practitioners from the three great nations.

Some were informed and some were not; as long as they showed considerable talent or standard in medical skills, they were brought here to participate in the assessments. If they passed, they would join the Pill Yard.

Soon, a month had passed, and Shi Hao followed the crowd, arriving at the plaza in the center of the town.

Whenever the White Cloud Sect held any event, it took place here.

There were many people, all three great nations spared no effort in sending promising seeds, as long as these seeds could gain a foothold at the White Cloud Sect, the corresponding nation’s power would greatly increase.

First, they had to register their identities, but this was not strict at all because to the White Cloud Sect, your nationality or what you did before didn’t matter. Once you entered the White Cloud Sect, you were a disciple of the Sect, transcending national boundaries.

Shi Hao thought about it and registered himself as a person from Changming Country. As for his name, he kept it as Shi Hao.

This is called the darkness under the light.

After all, there must be many people named Shi Hao in the world.

After registering, everyone sat down on the ground. Once everyone had finished registering, the organizers began distributing materials.

On each piece of paper, all sorts of herbs were drawn, each detail sketched with utmost clarity, and names were annotated beside them.

There were a hundred types in total.

“You have an hour’s time to carefully memorize the details of these herbs, and then, we will bring out twenty types of herbal materials for you to write down the corresponding names,”

“Lastly, the scores will be determined by the number of correct answers and the time taken.”

“Okay, let’s start,”

A middle-aged man stood in front of the crowd, announcing the rules of this assessment while guards stood around the edges of the plaza, keeping the onlookers out and simultaneously acting to supervise against cheating.

Shi Hao casually flipped through and found that he recognized every single one of the herbs. However, three of the herbs’ names were different from what he remembered.

Well, Yuan Chengmie came from who knows where, so cultural differences were quite normal.

For him, identifying the herbs was, of course, a trivial matter. Yuan Chengmie’s memories had become his own, as if he had also immersed himself in this field for countless years.

The whole venue was silent, everyone was forcibly memorizing or deepening their memory.

For many people, they had never seen the herbs on the paper, so they could only force themselves to memorize within the limited time.

Soon, an hour was up.

All the materials in everyone’s hands were collected, and then small tables were arranged with twenty types of herbs placed on them, each herb labeled with a number below.

“Begin,” said the middle-aged man calmly.

Shi Hao just glanced once and began writing on his answer sheet.

Nine Fragrance Grass, Black Flower Fruit, Thousand-Year Bitterness… without pause, no need to think, just briskly writing down the names of the herbs.

Therefore, he quickly stood up and walked toward the middle-aged man.

Damn, he’s done already?

The slowest person had just written down the first herb’s name and couldn’t help but be shocked, their mouth agape.