Yang Sixuan cupped his fists and said with a smile, "The Sect Leader sure has a good memory. The foolishness of my past is something I truly don’t wish to speak of again."
Chu Qiushan also smiled slightly. He only ever showed a smile occasionally when speaking with Yang Sixuan.
Yang Sixuan was someone Chu Qiushan had personally promoted and nurtured as a trusted confidant. If it weren’t for his lack of experience, the position of the next Sect Leader would surely be his.
How could it be left for Zhu He and Lv Zhongtang to fight over there?
Chu Qiushan said, "The divine soul of this young man is almost as good as yours was back in the Deep Valley. But when it comes to the strength of one’s state of mind, he is far inferior to you!"
Chu Qiushan naturally noticed, that Duan Rong’s last half-step only slightly rose before his divine soul reached its limit. At that moment, he must have experienced a profound fear of death.
Yet, in the end, he chose to retreat.
But when something similar happened to Yang Sixuan, Yang Sixuan fearlessly took that last half-step.
Although he ultimately did not successfully ascend the platform and fainted on the altar.
But his state of mind is like iron, which, in Chu Qiushan’s view, is perhaps even more important than one’s divine soul talent.
Chu Qiushan said, "This young man’s temperament is mediocre. I predict that thirty years from now, he will likely be indistinguishable from ordinary people."
Yang Sixuan said, "I think, on the path of cultivation, being too obsessed may instead lead one to be lost within it. A peaceful temperament can sometimes better reveal the delicate relationship between oneself and the world at play."
Chu Qiushan was slightly taken aback; Yang Sixuan had never uttered a false word before him. What he said at this moment must be born of serious contemplation.
This was one of the reasons why he liked Yang Sixuan so much.
Chu Qiushan pondered Yang Sixuan’s words, slightly moved. "Lost within it?"
He couldn’t help but question himself. "Have I been too obsessed all these years?"
Zhu He, after hearing Yang Sixuan’s words, stood beside Chu Qiushan and looked toward Yang Sixuan. He felt Yang Sixuan’s words resonated with him, but if he were to say them, he wouldn’t be able to articulate them as clearly as Yang Sixuan did.
"This Yang Sixuan is not simple!" Zhu He secretly mused to himself.
Zhu He quietly felt that although six years later, in the next sect leader election, Yang Sixuan’s qualifications were too shallow to compete, fifty years hence, it might be that the position of sect leader would surely be his.
Duan Rong’s eyes were filled with deep fear as Jiang Hanyan seemed to awaken from a dream on the altar.
After Duan Rong retreated by half a step, the fervor in her eyes gradually faded away, and her gaze towards Duan Rong returned to being cold.
Just as Jiang Hanyan was about to continue playing the qin, a long and resonant horn suddenly sounded within the Deep Valley.
This horn sound marked the end of the first trial.
At the instant the horn sounded, several teams, holding crossbows and moving as fast as ghosts, darted into the Deep Valley.
Judging by their attire and waist badges, they were people from the Judgement and Rectification Department.
At the entrance of the canyon where Duan Rong was, two teams stood guard, one at the red line and the other at the white line.
Yang Yi strode to a large slate, stood on top, and shouted, "Stand still! Nobody move! If anyone moves now, we from the Judgement and Rectification Department have the authority to execute you on the spot!"
The crossbow arrows in those crossbows actually posed limited harm to these Martial Artists, but the arrows were coated with a powder, marking whoever they hit.
Only someone like Yang Yi could come up with such a devious idea.
After Yang Yi finished shouting, he turned his head to glance at Duan Rong’s back on the altar and muttered, "This guy, is he really that formidable?"
Yang Yi could never have imagined that Duan Rong, who seemed so unassuming, almost stepped onto the altar, becoming the first in a hundred and eighty years.
Even though he was half a step short, he had already left countless people far behind.
With such talent, he should have no problem entering the Elder Hall in the future. Once in the Elder Hall, wouldn’t he be like his uncle Yang Sixuan, becoming part of the sect’s upper echelons?
Previously, during the case of Cha Shangxiangyu and Pan Yong, Duan Rong had been detained in the dungeon for over a month.
This guy wouldn’t hold a grudge against me, would he?
No, I must find an opportunity to cozy up to him properly.
At the moment when the concluding horn sounded
Near the four massive divine statues in the Deep Valley, the sixteen figures sitting on the heads, shoulders, feet, and ground of the statues suddenly opened their eyes and stopped chanting and sealing.
They picked up the incense burners emitting dense smoke in front of them, and with a gentle twist, an iron lid sealed the incense burner tightly within, leaving only wisps of fine smoke escaping the edges, dispersing with the wind.
As the smoke dissipated, the eyes of the four giant divine statues turned vacant, no longer emitting a faint bloody light.
Meanwhile, the registered disciples within the Deep Valley immediately felt their divine souls suddenly relax, as the soul pressure that had been weighing down on them vanished in an instant.
Xiao Yu exhaled a breath of turbid air; she was eager to run over and see Duan Rong, but at the red line three meters away, a team from the Judgement and Rectification Department stood with crossbows, glaring at them menacingly.
And not far behind them, at the white line, stood another team.
Just as the smoke dissipated, a black light suddenly flashed from the peak in the southeast direction, like a meteor it descended onto the altar in the center of the Deep Valley.
Lin Youjian, dressed in plain robes, her face stern, stood beside Jiang Hanyan, her gaze fixed on Duan Rong.
Duan Rong stood on the Tier Eight stone steps, and almost at the moment the divine soul pressure dissipated, the person before him suddenly arrived.
Duan Rong looked at Lin Youjian, knowing this person was a powerhouse of the Dark Grotto Heaven Realm and certainly one of the elders of the Elder Hall.