Like a beacon of light in the darkness, disciples from all over flooded towards the arch and the town behind it. John and the rest followed suit as well, and the four quickly approached the arch, which seemed to be brimming with power.
The arch was forty feet tall and forty feet wide, and spanned the length of the town entrance. Dozens of disciples flooded through the arch every minute, each pausing for a short while for some reason before continuing onwards.
“Let’s go,” John said as he stepped below the arch, as did the rest of the group.
Immediately, an incredibly strong and profound, yet surprisingly gentle energy invaded their bodies. It was clearly stemming from the arch above.
John allowed the energy to invade his body, as he was powerless to resist it. It was similar to the energy that had scanned him when he and the rest had entered the realm, only it scanned even more of his body.
The energy invaded his muscles, bones, meridians, soul and even his dantian. Such an invasion was normally something that a cultivator would struggle with all their might against, but this energy was clearly not dangerous.
After a brief ten seconds, the energy faded away, and allowed John and the others to move forward past the arch. They moved to the side of the road, out of the way of the other disciples entering through the arch, who were all experiencing the same thing..
“What just happened?” Adam asked curiously as the group huddled together.
“I’m not sure,” John replied.
“Ah, the mark,” Chase suddenly exclaimed as he felt a sensation below his collarbone. He pulled down the neck of his robe, and quickly inspected the mark on his upper chest.
The number, which had been zero when they all entered, had now changed. Its new value was eleven. Adam and Iris quickly inspected their mark as well, revealing their scores for the others.
“I got ten,” Adam exclaimed.
“Fifteen for me!” Iris said, a look of satisfaction on her face as she had scored higher than Adam.
“This stupid test must be broken if you scored higher than me,” Adam grumbled in protest.
“Or…I’m just more talented than you all,” Iris replied with a tinge of satisfied amusement.
“We have no idea what that arch just tested,” Adam exclaimed. “For all we know, it could be testing how much of a pain in the ass everyone is, which would perfectly explain your score.”
“You…are such an asshole,” Iris harrumphed with displeasure. A look of satisfaction appeared on Adam’s face, and he was about to say something else when Chase cut him off.
“We have no idea what that arch tested, but it was most likely something to do with combat talent. It scanned our bodies, our meridians, and even our dantians. These aspects mostly affect cultivation proficiency and combat prowess, while it ignores things like alchemy and formations knowledge, and specialized talents,” Chase said to the group as his gaze shifted to John. “If my guess is right, then John should have a score even higher than us and Iris.”
Adam and Iris stopped their petty squabble as they too glanced over to John. In the heat of the moment, they had completely forgotten about hearing what his score was. John’s gaze shifted to his chest as he lowered the neck of his robe for all to see his score.
Their eyes widened for a moment, before they each laughed lightly in knowing expectation.
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