Chapter 174

Chapter 174: Presumptuous, Too Presumptuous
The Cultivation World Grand Tournament was held once every hundred years. Participants had to have a bone age under one hundred fifty, and each person could only enter once in their entire life.

To prevent cheating, everyone had to test their bone age before they signed up.

Everyone thought Yu Zhao did not know this rule and had lied on purpose, so their eyes were full of mockery.

The Wen Ding Pavilion disciple in charge of registration, Li Fei, frowned hard. His tone was impatient as he said: “Put your hand on the Bone Age Testing Disk.”

Yu Zhao did as she was told.

Her palm pressed onto the Bone Age Testing Disk, and a stream of heat passed through it.

Then the disk lit up. Two golden ancient characters were projected onto the desk.

Li Fei shot to his feet.

“Nineteen! You are really nineteen years old!”

A gasp swept through the area.

The surrounding cultivators were all shocked. Their jaws almost hit the ground.

“Nineteen! A nineteen year old in the Golden Core stage! What kind of monster came crawling out this time!”

“Open your eyes and look carefully! She is not just in the Golden Core stage, her cultivation level is late Golden Core stage!”

“What! Late Golden Core stage! Damn Heaven, I will not treat you as my dear grandpa anymore. You never treated me like your dear grandson!”

“…”

The shock Yu Zhao brought far surpassed Si Tu Xuan. The cultivators nearby were laughing and crying at the same time, their mental state very unstable.

The people of the Si Tu Clan were also stunned.

Their young heir had only broken through to the Golden Core stage when he was almost thirty, yet the clan had praised him as the heir most likely to reach Nascent Soul and Divine Transformation.

But that female cultivator named Yu Zhao was not even twenty and was already at late Golden Core stage, only one step away from Nascent Soul. With such terrifying talent, it would be hard to find a second person like her in the whole cultivation world.

With her here, the young heir’s hope of taking first place almost vanished in an instant.

The Si Tu Clan’s guard carefully looked at Si Tu Xuan. He saw Si Tu Xuan’s face turn red then pale, not knowing what he was thinking.

After seeing Yu Zhao’s age, Li Fei stood there like a stone idol, not moving at all.

Yu Zhao lightly tapped the tabletop with her knuckles.

Li Fei finally came back to himself. The look in his eyes when he gazed at Yu Zhao no longer held the earlier contempt.

He touched the armrest, sat down again, and solemnly wrote “nineteen” after Yu Zhao’s name. Then he pointed at the bronze bell behind him: “Senior Sister Yu, as long as you ring that bell, your registration will be complete.”

Yu Zhao nodded and walked toward the bell.

The bronze bell was almost a zhang tall. Its surface was plain and simple, giving off a solemn and steady feeling.

Yu Zhao had already thought about how to ring the bell. Once she stood still, she did not hesitate. She gathered both her spirit power and her soul force into her palm at the same time.

Her eyes flashed. Her palm shot out and slapped the bell faster than lightning.

Clang!

The bell rang out like a crashing thunderclap.

Cultivators whose cultivation level was a bit lower felt their ears buzzing. The scene in front of them turned hazy and blurry.

Si Tu Xuan suddenly sat up straight.

Yu Zhao’s bell strike was louder than his.

He had lost.

Before he could even taste the feeling of defeat, the simple bronze bell rang out again.

“Two bell rings?”

Si Tu Xuan was so shocked that he stood up at once.

He had clearly seen Yu Zhao hit the bell only once. Why were there two bell chimes?

The first bell sound had not yet faded when the second overlapped it. Many people were already feeling sick. They forgot about the line and all backed away in a rush.

Li Fei’s face turned white, and his pupils shook hard.

As a disciple of Wen Ding Pavilion, of course he knew the secret of this bronze bell.

The elders had clearly said that only Nascent Soul cultivators could, with a single strike, make the bell produce multiple overlapping chimes. Yu Zhao was only at late Golden Core stage. How had she done it?

Clang!

While the cultivators were still drowning in shock from the two bell sounds, a third chime rang out.

Their expressions slowly went numb.

Yu Zhao’s ability had clearly gone beyond what they could understand. They could not even feel envy or jealousy anymore. The gap was simply too big.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

At that moment, several streaks of light cut across the sky.

A few figures with deep and powerful auras appeared around Yu Zhao, all of their eyes shining.

“A nineteen year old in late Golden Core stage, not bad, not bad. Are you interested in becoming my disciple? I am Elder Ji Dao of Wen Ding Pavilion.”

“Eh, isn’t this my long-lost good disciple? I finally found you. Come with me. As your master, I will make up for all the years you have suffered drifting around.”

“Bah, you shameless old things. This little girl has such fine bones and such a unique air. It is clear she is fated with me. If any of you dare to fight me for her, I will tear down your cave dwelling.”

“…”

Li Fei watched the usually dignified elders argue like children, saying all kinds of wild, ridiculous things. He felt so embarrassed his toes curled in his shoes.

Yu Zhao also did not know whether to laugh or cry.

She said politely: “Seniors, this junior already has a master. I will have to let you down.”

Elder Ji Dao looked at her in disapproval: “Your little sect can never compare to our Wen Ding Pavilion. You should still come to Wen Ding Pavilion. Do not waste your talent.”

“That is right, that is right. You only need to nod and agree. We will definitely compensate your original sect.”

“If you really cannot bear to part with them, you can move your whole sect into Wen Ding Pavilion. That way you can cultivate with peace of mind.”

The conditions proposed by the Wen Ding Pavilion elders grew richer and richer.

The watching cultivators did not know if Yu Zhao herself was tempted, but their own hearts were pounding wildly.

[What do you call this? One person ascends, and even the chickens and dogs enter Heaven with them.]

Not only could she gain excellent resources, but her original sect would also get countless benefits.

Why had such a good thing not fallen on their heads?

Seeing that Yu Zhao did not respond, they all wished they could nod and agree in her place.

Si Tu Xuan clenched his teeth. The sense of superiority in his bones was ground into dust.

In the past, he had thought he was a one-in-ten-thousand cultivation prodigy. He had even looked down on disciples from the top-tier sects.

He had come to the Cultivation World Grand Tournament full of confidence and had boasted in front of his clansmen that he would take first place. Yet before the contest even started, he had already lost completely.

There was always someone better, and there was always a higher sky.

Today he finally understood what that saying meant.

Yu Zhao said: “Seniors, I accept your kindness, but my sect truly cannot join. Please go back. This junior thanks you here.”

She wanted to leave the enthusiastic elders some face, so she refused as gently as she could.

The elders did not understand Yu Zhao’s good intentions at all. Instead, they felt she was too stubborn.

If Yu Zhao’s sect ranked high in the cultivation world, they would never have let her come take part in the Individual Competition. So they all decided it had to be some nameless small sect.

A sect like that could not help Yu Zhao. It would only hold her back. They truly could not bear to see such talent wasted, so they kept trying to persuade her again and again.

Even the other people around started to feel that Yu Zhao did not know what was good for her.

Yu Zhao had no choice and finally spoke the truth: “This junior is from Five Elements Dao Sect.”

The crowd fell completely silent.

For a long moment, no one spoke.

Then Elder Ji Dao let out a few dry laughs: “Ha, haha, hahaha. So you are a junior of Five Elements Dao Sect. No wonder your talent is so outstanding.”

“We were presumptuous, too presumptuous.”

Now it was not only Li Fei and the other Wen Ding Pavilion disciples who felt awkward. The faces of the Wen Ding Pavilion elders were burning red.

What had they said just now?

They had wanted Five Elements Dao Sect to merge into Wen Ding Pavilion?

How shameful.