Leave Him Behind

The light on the Immortal Spirit Stele still did not stop.

After the eighth mark lit up, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth across the entire square began to converge toward the stele, forming a visible vortex of spiritual energy.

"Eight-grade immortal root!"

The disciple in charge of registration couldn’t help but shout.

In the past ten thousand years, the Taiyi Immortal Sect had only accepted three disciples with eight-grade immortal roots, and each of them was now a true disciple of the sect.

The smile on the white-robed youth’s face had completely vanished.

He stared at the Immortal Spirit Stele, disbelief in his eyes, yet he still gritted his teeth and said, "So what if it’s an eight-grade immortal root?"

"He just said he was a Golden Immortal. Good talent doesn’t prove his realm."

As his words fell.

The ninth mark suddenly lit up.

Boom!

A golden light shot out from the top of the Immortal Spirit Stele, directly piercing through the clouds above Green Mountain Town, dyeing the sky for ten thousand miles in gold.

Nine-grade immortal root.

The entire square fell silent in an instant.

Even the Celestial Immortal elder in charge of overseeing the trial couldn’t help but step forward, his eyes locked on Ye Chuan’s direction.

Nine-grade immortal root was the highest level the Immortal Spirit Stele could detect.

This meant that as long as Ye Chuan did not fall during his path of growth, he would at least step into the realm of a Primal Celestial Immortal in the future, and might even have the possibility of reaching an Immortal Sovereign.

"To think it’s a nine-grade immortal root..."

The green-robed elder muttered to himself.

He had originally thought that Hu Li was the greatest surprise of this recruitment, but he never expected that the true genius was still yet to come.

Lan Xiaoke was completely unsurprised.

She hugged Hu Li’s fox tail, standing to the side, watching the others suddenly become stunned, and couldn’t help but mutter softly.

"Only nine layers."

"If they’re this amazed now, what would happen if they saw Ye Chuan’s real talent? They’d probably all faint in fear, right?"

Hu Li let out a light laugh.

"It shouldn’t be over yet."

As if in response to her words.

A dull sound echoed from within the Immortal Spirit Stele again. Above the stele, which originally only had nine marks, a new golden line slowly emerged.

The tenth mark.

The joy on the green-robed elder’s face instantly froze.

"The tenth?"

"This Immortal Spirit Stele clearly only has nine marks. Where did the tenth come from?"

Before anyone could react, the eleventh golden mark followed closely, gradually taking shape on the stele’s surface.

Then came the twelfth.

The thirteenth.

Every time a new mark appeared, the light released by the Immortal Spirit Stele grew several times stronger, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth began to tremble violently.

The celestial boats in the sky stopped moving.

Flying swords around Green Mountain Town unsheathed themselves, hovering in midair without anyone controlling them, their blades all pointing toward where Ye Chuan stood.

On both sides of the streets, spirit beasts that had been sleeping opened their eyes, then uncontrollably lowered their heads.

One golden lotus after another bloomed in the void.

Clear celestial music came from the far distance, as if countless immortals were chanting simultaneously above the clouds, the sound covering the entire Green Mountain Town.

"Heavenly phenomena."

An elder looked up at the sky, his voice beginning to tremble slightly.

It was not uncommon for an ordinary immortal body to awaken and trigger some heavenly phenomena.

But the scene before them was no longer limited to Green Mountain Town. Even as far as their divine sense could perceive, golden lotuses and immortal light continued to appear.

The phenomena were spreading across the entire Eastern Wasteland.

The fifteenth mark lit up.

The sixteenth mark followed shortly after.

The Immortal Spirit Stele began to tremble violently, fine cracks appearing on its surface, as if it could no longer contain Ye Chuan’s talent.

Yet some power from heaven and earth forcibly held the stele together, preventing it from shattering immediately.

It was as if even the Dao itself wanted to see.

Just how far this person’s talent could ultimately go.

The blood had already drained from the white-robed youth’s face, bit by bit.

He stood among the crowd, recalling the words he had spoken earlier, and cold sweat began to pour from his forehead.

Nine-grade immortal root was already enough to become a sect holy child.

But the talent Ye Chuan was showing now had clearly far surpassed anything nine-grade immortal root could describe.

Could such a person really be an ordinary mortal?

If Ye Chuan had not lied, and he truly had reached the Golden Immortal realm, then those words Lan Xiaoke had said earlier...

The white-robed youth dared not think further.

The light on the Immortal Spirit Stele continued to climb upward.

The seventeenth.

The eighteenth.

When the nineteenth mark lit up, the originally clear sky suddenly turned deep blue, and countless stars appeared in broad daylight.

Hundreds of millions of starlights fell simultaneously, all converging onto Ye Chuan, making his figure blur slightly.

Golden lotuses covered the entire square.

A staircase formed by immortal light extended upward behind Ye Chuan, vanishing into an endless sky.

Cultivators of lower cultivation levels in Green Mountain Town found their bodies involuntarily dropping to their knees.

They felt no oppressive pressure.

But the moment they saw the immortal staircase behind Ye Chuan, a primal instinct of reverence and awe arose from the depths of their souls.

Even the white-robed youth could not hold out for long.

His knees slammed hard onto the bluestone ground, and he didn’t even know why he had suddenly knelt.

"How could this be..."

He gritted his teeth and tried to stand, but all the spiritual energy within his body had lost control, unable to support himself.

Ye Chuan didn’t even look at him.

From start to finish, the white-robed youth had never been worthy of Ye Chuan’s personal attention.

Too weak.

Lan Xiaoke saw the man kneeling on the ground and curiously tugged at Ye Chuan’s sleeve.

"You haven’t even made a move yet. How did he kneel on his own?"

Ye Chuan glanced over.

"Maybe he realized he was wrong and decided to apologize in advance."

When the white-robed youth heard this, his face alternated between pale and red, but he dared not utter a single word in rebuttal. Yet even so—

The cultivators who had mocked Ye Chuan earlier stiffened as their bodies, their divine souls affected by Ye Chuan’s aura, had their foundations directly destroyed, making them ordinary mortals instead.

Ye Chuan was still too kind. He didn’t want to see them suffer on the path of cultivation, so he simply confiscated their cultivation.

Let them live peaceful, ordinary lives for the rest of their days.

"What’s going on?!"

"My... my power!!"

The light of the Immortal Spirit Stele finally stopped climbing.

All the newly appeared golden marks shattered simultaneously, turning into countless specks of light. Above the stele, they reformed into lines of text.

[Spiritual Root: Beyond the limits of immortal assessment.]

[Comprehension: All methods can be understood in a single thought.]

[Dao Affinity: Incapable of calculation.]

[Future Achievement: Unable to deduce.]

[Overall Talent: Unique across the ages, unmatched in the world.]

The moment those last eight characters appeared, the Immortal Spirit Stele could no longer bear the strain and exploded into countless golden fragments that filled the sky.

The fragments did not fall.

They slowly gathered in the air, ultimately forming a golden ranking list that stretched across tens of thousands of miles.

At the top of the list, there was only one name.

Ye Chuan.

The names of countless geniuses below it were all overshadowed, their fonts even becoming blurry and indistinct.

The entire Green Mountain Town was dead silent.

The disciple in charge of registration lowered his head, looking at the words "Mortal Body" he had just written in the registry, and the brush in his hand began to tremble slightly.

Mortal Body?

If this were an ordinary body, then these so-called geniuses wouldn't even count as roadside stones.

The elder in the green robe took a deep breath and immediately retrieved a communication jade talisman, transmitting every detail of what had just occurred back to the Taiyi Immortal Sect.

But before he could even speak, the jade talisman at his waist lit up first.

An aged yet urgent voice emerged from it.

"What happened at the trial grounds?"

"The sect's Genius Ranking shattered on its own just now, then reformed, and at the very top—there's a new name: Ye Chuan."

The elder in green glanced ahead.

"Sect Leader, Ye Chuan is right here."

On the other side of the jade talisman, there was a moment of silence.

The next second, the voice rose sharply.

"Keep him there!"

"No matter what conditions he proposes, agree to them all. I'll bring the peak masters to Green Mountain Town immediately."

The communication cut off.