The selection's venue was a flat wasteland just outside the Tao tribal clan's city.
The flat wasteland covered a large area and its surface was littered with black ironstones as if they were specially paved tiles.
More than a thousand participants, who split up into their own tribal clans, lined up neatly on the wasteland.
In the middle were the young elites of the Tao tribal clan. They numbered about six hundred people and had more participants than all the small tribes combined! Not only were they large in numbers, the quality of their cultivation was excellent. Even those who were pulled in to fill the numbers were stronger than the Lian Clan's warrior preparation camp members.
Yi Yun noticed that right in front of those people stood the Tao tribal clan's third young master, Tao Yunxiao.
As for the first and second young master, they did not make an appearance. According to the rules of the kingdom's selection, the first assessment was a preliminary round. It would eliminate those who lacked strength. As for those who had already reached the Purple Blood realm, there was no need for them to participate in the preliminaries as they could just participate in the final selection rounds.
In fact, by reaching the Purple Blood realm, it was a guaranteed spot in the Jin Long Wei. The final selection round was just going through the motions. A Purple Blood warrior before the age of twenty-eight would have already proven their talent even if they were in the early stages of the purple blood realm; hence, they were well-qualified to be a member of the Jin Long Wei.
In the entire Tao tribal clan, besides the first and second young master, there were seven other Purple Blood warriors who were below the age of twenty-eight. Hence, nine spots in the kingdom's selection had already been reserved for these nine people.
Over a thousand people had to vie for the last eleven spots!
A group of cavalry horses galloped forward, and leading them was the Jin Long Wei's Thousand Households, Zhang Tan.
He was also the examining officer of the selection in the Tao tribal clan.
Zhang Tan gently reeled in the reins and dismounted the horse, "Now, I'll announce the rules of the first preliminary round!"
Zhang Tan was direct with his no-nonsense attitude. He did not even introduce himself before jumping straight to the point, "The selection's first round is to test your Spirit!"
"Spirit?"
The participants were stunned. They were guessing that the preliminary would be a test of strength or something similar as it was the simplest and easiest. But to test Spirit? What is Spirit? How does one test it?
"Spirit is your morale, and it’s also your resoluteness! A person with great Spirit would be able to deal with matters decisively. They would be daring, and never retreat in the face of adversity. They would charge forward with determination regardless of any temptations!"
"On the path of learning martial arts, there are several obstacles! There are many mysterious areas that are life threatening; and without Spirit and resoluteness, you would not dare enter those areas."
"When facing a strong desolate beast in battle, Spirit is required to protect the human cities. It is insufficient to only have power. When facing a primordial desolate beast in battle, if you were to be timid, you would not be able to display a half of your true strength, how would you be able to fight?"
"One step on the path to breaking through the realms is to defeat the demons within one’s self. You need to have the momentum and the will to break through everything. On the path to becoming a peerless expert, you will face endless temptations. Many forces will try to draw you to their side by granting you riches, treasure, and beauty, hoping to corrupt you, and then eventually, they will exploit you! If you were to indulge in these temptations, without being resolute, that would be the end of your martial path!"
"So the future of a warrior is not talent, but Spirit!"
Upon hearing Zhang Tan's monolog, Yi Yun understood it deeply; having great Spirit is a quality that every accomplished person should have!
The heroes of ancient China were all focused on one goal and they forged forward through tribulations. Adversity and temptations had all failed to hinder them!
This Spirit was known in ancient China as "aura"!
The people who could read a person's aura would see an accomplished person have a purple halo above their head. A person with this halo would be known to have the aura of Heaven's Child. In novels, it is known as having the aura of a conqueror.
In summary, to have the aura of Heaven's Child meant that they had the power to accomplish great deeds!
Zhang Tan carried on, "To determine your Spirit, it will be a holistic test. A simple test will not be able to accurately assess you. Now, all of you will circle around me. The closest person has to be at least fifty steps away from me!"
With that, the crowd began to move. A crowd of a thousand people without any unified direction—not to mention the vagueness of Zhang Tan's orders—made the scene chaotic.
Seeing this situation, several people, including Tao Yunxiao and Lian Chengyu, began to display their leadership qualities.
"The people of the Tao tribal clan, hear my command. We shall hold hands and form a circle around Thousand Households Zhang, and then spread out.
As the Tao tribal clan had the most number of people. By holding hands and forming a circle, they could avoid the confusion.
Several other tribes began to follow suit.
"Yi Yun, what are you idling there for? Go across, can't you see that there are few people there?" Lian Chengyu shouted at Yi Yun. He felt that maintaining order in the chaos was also a way to showcase his Spirit. If he did it well, he would gain the attention of the upper echelon of the Jin Long Wei.
This was an opportunity for him.
Yi Yun was, after all, a member of the Lian tribal clan. If Yi Yun did not obey his orders and ran amok, it would make him lose face and make him appear incompetent.
Yi Yun looked coldly at Lian Chengyu and said, "Just take care of your lackeys."
Yi Yun's words made Lian Chengyu turn cold, "I'll see how long you can stay arrogant. You may have talent in martial arts, but in this test of Spirit, how could a follower like you, who is poor and always hungry, have any?"
Spirit was the ability to achieve great things, only a person with leadership qualities could possess it. As for the Lian tribal clan, who was the leader? It was clear!
"Let us try it and we'll find out who has more Spirit" shrugged Yi Yun. "Also, Young Master Lian, how's your injury? It won't affect the test of Spirit later, will it?"
Yi Yun was great at targeting people's weak spots and ridiculing them about those weak spots.
Lian Chengyu's failure to break through to the Purple Blood realm and his anger at this failure that caused him to cough up blood was his most depressing and disgraceful memory.
Lian Chengyu's face fell when Yi Yun mentioned it.
"Little bastard, I'll see how long you can be this arrogant! You will eventually fall into my hands and then I'll let you know what it means to lead a living death!"
After saying it in a hushed tone, Lian Chengyu turned and walked away.
Yi Yun chuckled and was not bothered by Lian Chengyu. He moved with the crowd and he would occasionally glance at Zhang Tan. He saw Zhang Tan retrieving a black box, which exceeded three meters in length, from his interspatial ring.
This black box was made entirely of black iron and its surface was covered in ancient, mysterious looking inscriptions.
When all the people had finally formed a circle around Zhang Tan, he coldly said to the crowd, "the preliminaries are about to begin. I will give you all a word of advice. Do not push it, if you think you are lacking in Spirit, stand further away to prevent injury."
No one moved after listening to Zhang Tan's words. In fact, a few people, including Tao Yunxiao and Lian Chengyu, moved forward a few steps, to demonstrate their Spirit.
Zhang Tan smiled and opened up the box. From the box, he took out a three-foot-long black object. It was a curvy spiked spine. The spiked spine was helical and looked like a scimitar.
Yi Yun could tell that the black object was the horn of a huge beast.
After Zhang Tan took out the horn, it began floating slowly upwards, defying gravity.
This was the object to test one's Spirit?
Everyone was confused and was unsure how the assessment would proceed. Weirdly, they felt a sense of unease while in front of the horn.
This feeling of unease sank into their hearts…
"I will say it once more. Those people who lack confidence, stand back or this test might kill your confidence. It might even prevent you from practicing martial arts ever again," said Zhang Tan solemnly.
A few of the Jin Long Wei members by his side retreated and left Zhang Tan alone. With a few light taps, blinking runes appeared around the horn!
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