When I Lay Flat, the Female Lead Panicked - Chapter 24
Chapter 24: Spiritual Root Test
Luo Xiaoxiao did not bicker with Si Luoyu for long.
The spirit boat carrying the new disciples soon came to a stop at the Spirit-Testing Platform on the highest point of the Ethereal Peak.
The male cultivator leading the team appeared in front of the new disciples again. Like a tour guide, he led the group to the Spirit-Testing Platform.
He spoke calmly, explaining, “As we all know, cultivation is the process for us cultivators to seek the immortal path and sense the spiritual energy of the world.
To do this, one must have a spiritual root. Those without a spiritual root cannot sense the spiritual energy of the world and thus cannot cultivate.
The Spirit-Testing Stone on the Ethereal Peak can test what kind of spiritual root you have.
As for spiritual roots, they can be divided into five-element spiritual roots and mutated spiritual roots. The common spiritual roots are the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. So, metal spiritual root, wood spiritual root, water spiritual root, fire spiritual root, and earth spiritual root.
Mutated spiritual roots are rare existences that are more powerful than any of the five-element spiritual roots. They are divided into ice, lightning, and wind: ice spiritual root, lightning spiritual root, and wind spiritual root.
In cultivation, those with a single spiritual root can cultivate faster and are more likely to break through bottlenecks. Conversely, the difficulty increases with each additional spiritual root.
Spiritual roots are divided into good and bad. The best is a single spiritual root, also known as a heavenly spiritual root. In cliché terms, they are the darlings of the heavens.
Next is a dual spiritual root, also known as a true spiritual root. These are often a combination of two of the five elements and are also high-aptitude spiritual roots.
Then there’s the human spiritual root with three attributes. Without a good opportunity, those with this type of spiritual root will basically be stuck at the peak of the Golden Core stage.
As for the remaining miscellaneous spiritual roots with four or five attributes, this type of spiritual root often exists in smaller sects. Their cultivation aptitude is very poor, and there is basically no hope for cultivation. It’s like a miracle from their ancestors just to enter the Qi Condensation stage, and very few sects will take in those with this type of spiritual root.
During the spiritual root test, your test results will be recorded by me and will be simultaneously presented to the Sect Master and the elders of each peak.
Those with outstanding talent can even be promoted directly to inner disciples, bypassing the outer disciple status, without having to participate in the subsequent selection and trial.
Now, you will come up and test one by one in the order you reached the top of the Tianyan Sect.”
“The first one to reach the top, come up and place your hand on the jade in the center of the Spirit-Testing Stone.”
“Mhm.”
Hearing that she was the first to be called, Si Luoyu’s eyes specifically glanced at Luo Xiaoxiao beside her before she left.
A confident smile reappeared on her face. Before she left, she didn’t forget to leave a provocative remark.
“Hmph, Niewodie, open your eyes and see how I crush you!”
“Mhm… wow~ so great, wow~ the texture is soft, it melts in your mouth, five stars, a great review…”
Luo Xiaoxiao was thinking about other things and didn’t pay attention to the intense, burning fire in Si Luoyu’s eyes.
Luo Xiaoxiao gave a perfunctory “mhm” twice, obviously giving a nonsensical response.
“You!”
Si Luoyu was defeated again. Seeing that Luo Xiaoxiao wasn’t taking her seriously and was giving her a sarcastic and perfunctory response, something she had never experienced before.
Her cheeks puffed up in anger. Si Luoyu lightly glared at Luo Xiaoxiao. This sense of defeat did not make her give up her desire to compete. On the contrary, it made her more determined.
“Hmph! Just you wait!”
She strode up the stone steps and stopped in front of the huge Spirit-Testing Stone on the high platform.
As the leading male cultivator said, Si Luoyu gently placed her hand on the jade in the center of the Spirit-Testing Stone.
Soon, a light red aura slowly spread from Si Luoyu’s body and rose.
The milky white jade embedded in the center of the Spirit-Testing Stone quickly transformed from its pure white color into a fiery red, and the color became deeper and deeper!
“Single-attribute fire heavenly spiritual root! Top-grade talent!”
The leading disciple was surprised and delighted. He had not expected the first person to come up to be a genius who could be directly recognized as an inner disciple.
After all, in the fiercely competitive Tianyan Sect, although there were thousands of official disciples, only a handful could be called inner disciples.
The number of inner disciples was very small, which meant the qualifications were difficult. To become an inner disciple, one must either have extraordinary strength or extraordinary talent.
Most of the current inner disciples worked hard and competed as outer disciples to earn their way into the inner sect.
However, a heavenly spiritual root candidate with powerful talent like the one in front of him was guaranteed to be an inner disciple!
The leading male cultivator’s eyes changed when he looked at Si Luoyu.
Becoming an inner disciple not only meant that one would have more cultivation resources but also that one would be closer to the elders. The most powerful existences, like core disciples, who could directly inherit an elder’s legacy, were selected from among the inner disciples.
The status of a core disciple was second only to the Sect Master and the elders in the Tianyan Sect, an existence admired and longed for by everyone!
As if they had sensed the excitement in the male cultivator’s voice, the people present also looked at Si Luoyu with envy and praised her.
“Oh my gosh, it’s actually a single-attribute fire spiritual root! Who is she? She’s so amazing!”
“I heard that with this kind of talent, you don’t even have to start as an outer disciple. You can become an inner disciple directly. That’s too amazing!”
“I’m so envious. I wish I had a single spiritual root…”
At the same time, the elders, who were watching the live broadcast of the spiritual root test on the Ethereal Peak through the Spirit-Fog Stone, all nodded in satisfaction.
Wen He: “With such talent, this child is truly excellent.”
Mu Ze: “Mhm, if this child is nurtured and cultivates well, she will definitely be extraordinary in time.”
Fu Yun: “Brother Mu, you seem to think highly of this child. Could it be that you’re thinking of taking her as a core disciple?”
Mu Ze: “Ahem, there are some heavenly spiritual root candidates in the inner sect, but it’s not enough to immediately take her in as a core disciple. This matter cannot be rushed and needs consideration. However, if Brother Fu likes her, you can take her in directly.”
Fu Yun: “I… ahem, hehe, the time is not right, so we can’t force it. I’ll take another look. Brother Xiong, what do you think? I saw that you were watching the most intently just now. Do you have any thoughts on taking this child into your peak?”
Xiong Li: “Me? Hmph, it’s too early. The matter of a core disciple is still up for discussion. Why don’t you go ask others if they have any thoughts? Like Elder Wen He…”
They passed the buck back and forth.
The elders seemed to be praising Si Luoyu to the heavens and attracting the attention of others, but in reality, they all had their own agendas. They all wanted to use Si Luoyu to attract the attention of others.
This way, no one would fight with them for Luo Xiaoxiao.
Luo Xiaoxiao’s watery eyes suddenly lit up when she saw Si Luoyu’s confident expression after the test. She was strutting proudly like a rooster that had just won a fight, soaking in the envious gazes of others.
The memory she had been trying to recall for a long time finally had a clue.
Oh, it must be her!
When they first met, Luo Xiaoxiao had already guessed that this young miss, with her exaggerated actions, must have some background.
However, the young miss seemed to have intentionally hidden her identity, and Luo Xiaoxiao didn’t know who she was, so she didn’t want to make wild guesses.
But today, when Si Luoyu’s outstanding talent was revealed, everything became clear.
Luo Xiaoxiao quickly matched this arrogant young miss’s identity with a character from The Prideful World—the little princess of the Xuanyuan Kingdom, Si Luoyu.
She recalled the information about Wen Nanshu’s top fan, Si Luoyu, from The Prideful World.
Si Luoyu had a fire spiritual root, top-grade talent, and a thin Xuanming Fire Phoenix bloodline. Her character was that of a spoiled and arrogant princess with a bad temper. But after she joined the Tianyan Sect, under the influence of the female lead Wen Nanshu’s righteous aura, she slowly changed for the better…
In the unfinished parts of The Prideful World, it was even speculated that in the later war against the demons, this young miss would very likely return to the Xuanming Kingdom and work with Wen Nanshu to gather the forces of the human world’s nations and the cultivation world to…
Emm… All in all, Si Luoyu’s character wasn’t inherently bad. She was just a little princess who was spoiled rotten and a bit thoughtless.
But Luo Xiaoxiao could understand Si Luoyu’s bad temper.
After all, she had good talent, was a real princess, had money, leisure, and people who doted on her, and she wasn’t ugly.
Tsk tsk, with all these things combined, if it weren’t for the fact that she had to maintain her pitiful little white flower image in front of the female lead, she would probably be more arrogant than Si Luoyu right now…
A complete second-generation rich kid who would do whatever she wanted if she had money and be a dog if she didn’t, and talk back to anyone she wanted.
Thinking this, she looked at the Spirit-Testing Stone on the high platform, which had slowly shed its red light and returned to its pure white color.
Luo Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but think in a trance, “Wen Nanshu must have also tested her spiritual root and talent here.”
When she thought of the cool scene described in the original novel, where Wen Nanshu’s single-attribute mutated ice spiritual root was tested, which casually summoned a Nine Heavens Mysterious Lightning and had the true body of the Frost Sky Azure Dragon appear with the help of its powerful divine beast bloodline.
Luo Xiaoxiao was a little curious about what her test result would be.
After all, even though she didn’t have a divine beast bloodline, she at least had an ancient demonic beast bloodline…
But, testing for a spiritual root?
Come to think of it, their demon race had never cared about the concept of a spiritual root.
After all, as demons evolved from chaotic beings, their cultivation was innate, a power that they naturally possessed. It could be improved later with proper cultivation.
That’s why many fallen rogue cultivators wanted to cultivate the demonic path. The reason was simple: their progress was very fast. They could just lie down and their cultivation would improve. The older they got, the more popular they became.
However, the price of their cultivation improving was that their humanity would be slowly extinguished until they completely lost their human nature and were domesticated into a “demon” without any human feelings.
This was also the reason why most people in the cultivation world and the human world were so against the demon world.
They feared the terrible consequences while also desiring the powerful force.
As for her, a half-human, half-demon… Emm, leaving her bloodline aside for now.
She should have a spiritual root, right?
Don’t tell me that when I go up there, not only will I not be able to test anything, but my identity will be exposed on the spot and I’ll be eliminated…
It was a delayed realization that she wasn’t sure if she had a spiritual root.
After all, the original host died early. Besides knowing her identity as the young demon master and some simple settings, Luo Xiaoxiao knew very little about her.
When she thought of this, her back stiffened, and her expression showed a hint of nervousness.
Just as Luo Xiaoxiao was frowning and thinking about how to handle the situation if she really couldn’t test for a spiritual root, Si Luoyu, who was the center of attention, was enjoying the envious, admiring, or longing gazes of the people around her after her spiritual root test.
Her confidence swelled, and she wasn’t as angry about the feeling of being ignored by Luo Xiaoxiao anymore.
And as if she had noticed Luo Xiaoxiao’s “nervousness,” she thought it was because her talent was so high that it had shocked Luo Xiaoxiao and made her afraid.
Si Luoyu raised her head, smiled arrogantly, and looked disdainful.
“Niewodie, admit it. I’m the strongest! Hmph, so what if you can attract Big Sister Wen’s attention for a while with your looks? Her eyes will only be on me from now on.”
“…” Luo Xiaoxiao didn’t know whether she had just been praised or what.
She looked at Si Luoyu’s smug and idiotic look and thought to herself.
Tsk, I guess Si Luoyu’s setting as Wen Nanshu’s top fan is true? A proper female lead enthusiast.
Although, to some extent, Luo Xiaoxiao knew she wasn’t any better. She was also a big fan of Wen Nanshu.
After Si Luoyu finished her test, the other people came up one by one.
But unfortunately, besides Si Luoyu, no other single-spiritual-root genius appeared. The test results of the later people were mostly dual spiritual roots and triple spiritual roots.
Soon, everyone in front had finished their talent test, and only one person was left.
Everyone’s eyes shifted to Luo Xiaoxiao. Their gazes were either indifferent, eager to watch the show, or full of unspoken disdain.
At the same time, in the deliberation hall, the sounds of Fu Yun, Mu Ze, and Xiong Li, who were still passionately recommending others to take disciples, had disappeared.
Their eyes all tacitly looked at the screen, at the pretty girl who was walking toward the Spirit-Testing Stone step by step.
The three of them looked a little anxious and nervous. Because they were also very curious about what Luo Xiaoxiao’s true talent would be, as she was a genius in their own fields.