NOVEL NEXT Ch. 3
Chapter 3: The Spirit-Testing Stone Broke
Li Tianchen stared at Li Tianwei, who stood upon the stage basking in everyone’s flattery, his eyes glinting with venom.
Although the remnant soul inside the ring had already confirmed the truth for him, he didn’t lose his mind and shout, “This Spirit-Testing Stone has a problem.”
Seeing Li Tianchen’s calm reaction, the remnant soul inside the ring grew increasingly satisfied.
“I thought you’d jump up in anger and go question them.”
“I’m not a fool,” Li Tianchen replied after taking a deep breath. “A powerless man like me questioning an Immortal Master’s Spirit-Testing Stone? There’s only one ending to that—being killed as a warning to others. I don’t have that kind of qualification right now.”
“Hahaha! As expected of the one I’ve chosen!”
“You don’t need to worry about the Spirit-Testing Stone. Once he enters the Sacred Land of Lingxu, there will be Nascent Soul elders receiving him. With just a sweep of their spiritual sense, they’ll see through your dear brother’s true nature. He’ll get what he deserves then.”
The remnant soul laughed heartily, ever more certain that his choice had been correct.
Compared to Li Tianwei, who was arrogant and conceited, Li Tianchen’s ability to endure and his self-awareness made him far more suited to survive and grow within the cultivation world.
A False Spiritual Root being tested as a Heavenly Spiritual Root—such an absurd event was unheard of even to this old soul who had lived thousands of years.
Now that he had witnessed it with his own eyes, it was at least a tale worth retelling. When he recovered, he would certainly go and mock those old fellows of the Sacred Land of Lingxu for their carelessness.
【Li Tianwei, that Spirit-Testing Stone must have malfunctioned. You also sensed it—the spiritual energy of heaven and earth just now was five-colored but extremely thin. That’s the hallmark of a False Spiritual Root.】
Li Tianwei stood upon the stage, ignoring the noisy chatter of the System in his mind.
“You garbage system, how could you possibly understand me?”
“Five-colored spiritual energy swirling around me—that signifies my Five-Colored Heavenly Root, complete in every aspect. How could the Spirit-Testing Stone’s result be false?”
“You just repackaged what I originally had as if it were some kind of contract reward. What kind of shameless system does that?”
“Even though you’re trash, you’re still my system. I’m not a petty person. Just watch how I take you to soar.”
With a proud flick of his sleeve, Li Tianwei raised his chin arrogantly.
Hearing his words, the System nearly crashed.
It could sense that this mistaken result from the Spirit-Testing Stone had only made Li Tianwei’s delusion stronger—his illness had worsened.
【Just wait. Once you reach the Sacred Land of Lingxu, I’d like to see how you’ll pass the test of the Nascent Soul elders.】
The System was falling apart—it hadn’t expected the host it had carefully chosen to be this delusional.
【Top student? Top my circuits. How can someone like this score full marks in every subject? Other people’s children…】
Even now, the System still hadn’t realized just how abnormal Li Tianwei truly was.
Li Tianwei simply muted the System’s voice, leaving it to rage helplessly within his consciousness.
As for things like “perfect scores” and “top student,” those were perfectly normal in Li Tianwei’s eyes.
In his view, being the protagonist of the world was proven by his innate, superhuman learning ability.
In subjects like mathematics and physics, he could see the answer at a glance.
As for the process?
That was the teacher’s job.
He only needed to provide the answer.
How they proved it was their problem—his task was just to write it down.
Wasn’t this the ultimate proof?
He produced the answers; the teachers and the world verified through process that his answers were correct.
So really, all those perfect scores were simply because he proved the result first, and others derived the cause from it.
“I understood gravity when I was three. Unlike Newton, who needed an apple to hit him on the head. Unfortunately, he was born before me and stole my glory.”
Li Tianwei sighed once again.
The System, hearing that, could only emit garbled noises.
【％#％?￥…】
The static-filled voice had already devolved into pure gibberish.
Meanwhile, the testing on stage continued. Because Li Tianwei had been tested as a Heavenly Spiritual Root, Liu Lingming and Su Qingnuan—whose faces had been gloomy moments ago—now wore radiant smiles.
After all, discovering someone with a Heavenly Spiritual Root would surely earn generous rewards from the Sacred Land. Moreover, to have conducted the test of such a prodigy would be a lifelong honor.
They could boast, “That Heavenly Root senior from the Sacred Land of Lingxu? I was the one who tested him.”
No wonder Liu Lingming and Su Qingnuan were grinning from ear to ear now, all traces of their earlier frustration gone.
Following Li Tianwei’s test, perhaps due to lingering influence, two triple-root cultivators and one dual-root cultivator were detected consecutively.
Though their grades were only mid-level, they were still worthy of acceptance.
But the testing wasn’t over yet.
When Li Tianchen stepped onto the stage and placed his hand on the Spirit-Testing Stone, two beams of light shot up into the sky—one red and one green—dazzlingly bright.
However, with Li Tianwei’s previous display still vivid in their minds, Liu Lingming was less astonished, though he still announced loudly:
“Top-grade Fire-Wood Dual Spiritual Roots—Li Tianchen!”
Such a spectacle naturally stirred exclamations from the crowd below, though it couldn’t compare to Li Tianwei’s earlier display.
Still, people in the audience recognized Li Tianchen.
“He’s Li Tianwei’s younger brother! Didn’t expect him to have spiritual roots too—and top-grade ones at that. Sounds amazing!”
“Not as grand as Li Tianwei’s though.”
“As expected of brothers—two spiritual root prodigies in one family! Looks like the Li Clan is going to prosper.”
…
Hearing the chatter below, Li Tianchen’s face grew darker, and he glanced toward Li Tianwei.
The latter still held his head high, hands clasped behind his back.
Seeing that smug posture, Li Tianchen clenched his fists.
“These mortals have such narrow vision—they have no idea what top-grade Fire-Wood Dual Spiritual Roots truly mean.”
The remnant soul in the ring snorted softly, adding mockingly, “Of course, it still can’t compare to a ‘misread’ Heavenly Root.”
Li Tianchen’s expression eased slightly at that remark.
“My dear brother,” he murmured coldly, “when you meet the elders in the sect, I hope you can still act this high and mighty.”
Li Tianwei, as if sensing his gaze, finally looked over.
“I didn’t expect my appearance to also awaken such heavenly talent in my brother. As expected, my Heavenly Spiritual Root is too domineering.”
Even the System almost vomited from hearing that.
If Li Tianchen ever learned what Li Tianwei was thinking, who knew how he would react?
Liu Lingming glanced at the long line still waiting for testing, then turned and waved his sleeve.
A black ruler flew out from it, shooting straight into the clouds.
Once released, the ruler rapidly expanded until it reached dozens of meters in length.
Carved with intricate dragons and phoenixes, it even had several platforms for people to rest upon.
“Immortal magic!”
“The might of an Immortal Master…”
The crowd in the plaza was awestruck by the ruler’s power.
“Senior Li, please ascend first and rest. Once I finish the testing, I will return to the Sacred Land of Lingxu posthaste.”
Liu Lingming bowed respectfully toward Li Tianwei.
Li Tianwei nodded lightly, face calm and unshaken by Liu Lingming’s display.
In his eyes, cultivation with his Heavenly Root talent was nothing special—this kind of spell? He could learn it casually later.
After Li Tianwei ascended the black ruler, Liu Lingming turned to the others, finally looking at Li Tianchen.
Top-grade Fire-Wood Dual Spiritual Roots—also the makings of an immortal! He bowed respectfully.
“Senior Chen, please come as well.”
Li Tianchen didn’t waste words.
In truth, he was even looking forward to it—once they entered the Sacred Land of Lingxu and Li Tianwei was exposed, how would that man react?