Still Holding Position

You couldn't care less about the mocking voices around you.

A bunch of teenagers and twenty-somethings mocking a big shot who has lived for four lifetimes and is currently in the Martial King Realm?

Interesting.

If you hadn't heard that becoming a Holy Son meant the Holy Land would definitely assist you in breaking through to the Martial King Realm, you wouldn't have bothered participating in this so-called Holy Son Ceremony.

Joining the Holy Land through normal channels would have been the same.

Fortunately, the Xiaoyao Holy Land didn't say anything.

After all, they were the ones who stated that the only requirement for participation was being "under thirty years old." They never stipulated that those with average talent weren't allowed to join.

Subsequently, another group of geniuses made their appearance.

They were the internal candidates for the positions of Holy Son and Holy Maiden of the Xiaoyao Holy Land.

These people didn't need to participate in the preliminary selections. They were already candidates, so quite a few of them were over thirty years old.

You needed to first compete with the previous wave of people for a candidate spot, and ultimately compete against all the candidates for the position of Holy Son or Holy Maiden.

Among the internal Holy Maiden candidates of the Xiaoyao Holy Land, you saw a woman who looked like your second sister, Wu Yue.

Even among a group of youths in the prime of their lives, Wu Yue's temperament was extraordinarily ethereal, making it impossible to look away.

Listening to the discussions around you, you learned that she was also a strong contender for the next generation's Holy Maiden, and many people favored her chances.

Wu Yue took a few extra glances at you, probably feeling that you somewhat resembled the unromantic Yi Qianjun she had met in the Star Domain a few years ago.

"It seems there are no more outstanding talents participating. Then allow me to announce that this year's ceremony officially begins!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang..."

Around Yunshu Island, tens of thousands of massive fireworks shot into the sky, turning into a colorful display that announced the official start of the Xiaoyao Holy Land's once-in-sixty-years grand event.

The Holy Land first conducted a bone age test on the one hundred participants in the selection.

Naturally, the results showed that no one had lied; the reported ages all matched their true ages.

To become a candidate for Holy Son or Holy Maiden, one needed to pass three trials.

The first trial: Aptitude.

The Holy Land didn't care about how high or low your aptitude was, meaning they wouldn't test your bone structure, physique, or family background.

However, it was impossible for them to actually select a piece of trash who couldn't even reach the Soul Condensation Realm after a lifetime of effort.

The aptitude trial would last for three years.

The Holy Land would record everyone's initial cultivation realm, and then record their final realm after three years.

They would rank the participants based on their total cultivation improvement during this period, directly eliminating half of them!

It was worth noting that...

During these three years, all participants would cultivate on an island arranged by the Holy Land.

No one was allowed to use additional martial arts resources; they had to rely entirely on natural cultivation.

"This item is called a Record Stone. It will record everything that happens around you and is used to prevent cheating. Everyone must carry it with them, and the Holy Land will verify it after the competition."

You and all the other participants were sent to Striving Island and received a crystal-like stone.

Someone asked a question.

"This trial is unfair! Our cultivation realms vary from high to low. The highest has already reached the Spirit Sea Realm, while the lowest hasn't even started cultivating! If we're competing in natural cultivation, how can the improvement of a Spirit Sea Realm cultivator over three years compare to someone who hasn't even started?"

The person from the Holy Land smiled faintly and said.

"How can improving from the first stage to the ninth stage of Body Refining be equated with improving from the first layer to the ninth layer of Spirit Gathering? The Holy Land has a legacy of tens of thousands of years and already has a standard method for defining cultivation levels. You don't need to worry about whether it's fair or not; the Holy Land will not show favoritism to anyone. The entire island beneath your feet is actually a giant formation that will inspect everyone's cultivation realm every two hours. Now look at the Ranking Stone in the center of the island..."

In the center of Striving Island stood a thousand-meter-tall giant stone, radiating with thousands of auspicious colors and boundless brilliant light.

It displayed one hundred names.

They were precisely the one hundred people participating in the ceremony's selection.

"Currently, everyone's names are randomly arranged. As your cultivation improves, the rankings on this stone will update in real-time. The top fifty will enter the next trial. The duration is three years!"

There were some murmurs of discussion in the crowd.

"Natural cultivation for three years? What a waste! If we had family resources supporting us during these three years, we could improve so much more!"

"Only medicine junkies obsess over resources! True experts cultivate relying on their own talent!"

"That's right! Cultivation gained through natural practice is the most solid. What is piled up with resources is just a superficial illusion, unable to withstand a single blow!"

The geniuses had different opinions.

For them, whether they had resource support or not, the heights they could reach in this life wouldn't be low; it was merely a matter of time.

As for the realms above the Martial King, it was no longer a question of talent or resources, but involved abstract concepts like serendipity, destiny, and so on.

No matter how genius a person was, facing the Martial King Realm was like facing an insurmountable mountain.

There was no essential difference between a ten-thousand-meter mountain and a hundred-thousand-meter mountain.

The ninth year, twenty-eight years old.

The Holy Son Ceremony officially began.

Geniuses from all sides cultivated diligently on Striving Island.

The names on the Ranking Stone changed daily. Everyone chased after each other, no one willing to yield.

"Long Yang is in first place? Hmph! The Long family's reputation is unearned; my Ji family is the true number one clan since the Immemorial Era! Watch me surpass him!"

"I, Baili Su, am actually outside the top ten? How is that possible! Let me break through!!"

"All of you can eat my dust behind me, Long Yang, hahaha!"

Everyone was busy cultivating.

You were busy maintaining your rank.

They were accepting the top fifty, right?

Every day, you would take a glance at the rankings, and then use Playing the Pig to Eat the Tiger to slightly adjust your cultivation aura, keeping yourself safely between the fortieth and fiftieth place.

You were very familiar with this kind of maneuver.

Of course, you were also cultivating.

However, because of the Record Stone's existence, it was inconvenient for you to enter the Cauldron World, and the Xiaoyao Holy Land didn't provide resources like the Shen family did.

You were currently at the Seventh Stage of the Soul Condensation Realm. Relying on natural cultivation to improve was extremely slow.

Therefore, you were quite casual about it.

You cultivated when you felt like it, and when you got tired, you studied formations.

The research notes on the eighteen different disciplines from the Shen Family Ancestor were all memorized in your mind.

Photographic Memory allowed you to construct a mind palace, where all kinds of knowledge were preserved like books in a library.

You could flip open whichever book you wanted to read.

Your attainments in the Dao of Formations were advancing by leaps and bounds.

The tenth year, twenty-nine years old.

You continued to maintain your rank and study formations.

Among the participants in the selection, some saw that their rankings were always at the bottom and had already voluntarily withdrawn.

The fact that you, someone with High-grade bone structure, could always hang on to a qualifying spot actually caught the attention of some geniuses.

"That Chen Dong hasn't left yet?"

"How is the natural cultivation speed of this High-grade bone structure faster than mine, an Earth-grade bone structure? This isn't martial arts at all!"

"Does he have a physique similar to an Ascetic Spirit Body?"

["I don't think so. Didn't the Sacred Land test our physiques? Could it be that they missed it?"]