The Art of Chaotic Divinity-Chapter 1308: Old Dog Qing Xuan

"Uh..."

Ning Guichen froze, then looked in Master Qingxuan's direction. A dignified inner-sect elder had ordered him to make things difficult for a participant during a public assessment, and if word of this spread, where would the Dongling Immortal Pool hide its face?

But Master Qingxuan was a high elder, while he was only an inner-sect disciple. If he disobeyed, Master Qingxuan would target him afterward, and he would barely be able to take a single step inside Dongling Immortal Pool.

After all, he was just an ordinary inner-sect disciple, not a direct disciple with powerful backing like Lin Mu.

"Hey, Senior Brother Ning, why are you spacing out?"

Lin Mu saw Ning Guichen's expression sink, followed by stunned silence, so he waved his hand in front of him. Only then did Ning Guichen snap out of it. He nodded, forced an awkward smile, and said, "It's nothing. Let's continue the assessment."

He looked toward Ling Feng, and a faint trace of apology flashed in his eyes. He was silently saying that he was sorry but he could not disobey an elder's order. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Soon, the more than two hundred candidates who had earned the right to advance stood in neat rows. Those who failed either walked away in disappointment or moved aside to keep watching, yet without exception, none of their expressions looked pleasant.

They were geniuses with great reputations within their clans, sects, or even across the empire, yet they had failed to even step into Dongling Immortal Pool. This result was difficult for anyone to accept.

Meanwhile, the candidates who received qualification tokens took their seats in the viewing area prepared specifically for them. They no longer needed to compete with the remaining crowd.

"Ahem!"

Ning Guichen coughed twice, cleared his throat, and announced loudly, "The second round is called Iron and Gold Refining. I will give each of you a piece of refining material. Every piece is of identical grade. All you need to do is fully refine the material in front of you in the shortest possible time."

"Huh?"

Before he even finished speaking, someone complained, "Senior Brother Ning, my elemental force is wood. Isn't this round deliberately aimed at me?"

Ning Guichen shook his head and smiled. "No need to panic. This round is the Flowing Flame Hall's assessment. Aside from this, there are separate assessments for Profound Thunder Hall, Tempest Wind Hall, Earth Spirit Hall, and Void Heaven Hall. You may not perform well in our Flowing Flame Hall's test, but that only proves you are not suited for our hall. It has nothing to do with your results in the other halls."

"So that's how it is."

The cultivators with wood or water elemental force finally breathed a sigh of relief. This round clearly existed to pick out the most talented fire-attribute cultivators.

"That is all you need to know."

Ning Guichen gave a faint smile as he handed out the materials one by one. When he reached Ling Feng, he clenched his teeth and took out an extremely difficult Celestial Dao metal, placing it in Ling Feng's hand.

Even he needed six full hours of pure fire essence to refine this metal, and with Ling Feng's current cultivation, even refining it for three days and nights would not bring success.

Ling Feng took the Celestial Dao metal. The weight surprised him slightly, and he frowned when he noticed that the others were receiving different metals.

Ning Guichen glanced at him, shook his head, and revealed an apologetic look before moving on to the next candidate.

"That old filth wants to use this method to stop me from passing the assessment!"

A smile tugged at Ling Feng's lips. The idea might be clever, but in reality, Celestial Dao metal meant nothing to his fourth-phase Devouring Flame.

To be fair, Ning Guichen's conscience was not entirely gone, so Ling Feng did not blame him. The true culprit was that wretched Master Qingxuan.

Once all materials were distributed, Ning Guichen lit the incense burner before him and said, "You have the time it takes for one stick of incense. If you fail to finish in time, your Flowing Flame Hall score will be zero."

The crowd immediately activated their elemental force. Those with fire-type cultivation summoned their source true fire and began attempting to refine the metal in front of them.

The metal Ning Guichen gave most of them was Golden Crow Stone, a material famous for its resistance to heat and difficulty to refine.

The piece he gave Ling Feng, however, was the mother ore of Golden Crow Stone, far harder to refine than ordinary Golden Crow Stone. Even a high-tier fire-attribute Human Emperor could not refine it within a single stick of incense.

This meant Ling Feng's Flowing Flame Hall score would certainly be zero.

At least, that was what Ning Guichen thought.

Up on the platform, Master Qingxuan's lips curved. He knew Ling Feng's spiritual power was strong, so he assumed Ling Feng would score zero in the first round. He never imagined otherwise.

Yet while everyone else was still gritting their teeth, pushing their elemental force to refine their material, a purple-red flame flashed in Ling Feng's palm. He raised his voice and said, "Senior Brother Ning, I am finished!"

"What?"

Ning Guichen nearly jumped. Only ten breaths has passed, and Ling Feng has already refined the Celestial Dao metal?

Impossible!

Even with his own strength, refining the mother ore of Golden Crow Stone took more than six hours, and Ling Feng had done it in ten breaths.

"No way, that is too fast!"

"I barely started my source true fire!"

The surrounding candidates stared in disbelief. Many had not even begun, and Ling Feng was already done.

Worse still, none of them knew that Ling Feng's metal was the mother ore of Golden Crow Stone!

Master Qingxuan's eyelids twitched violently. He estimated how long it would take him to refine that ore, and his expression grew darker, because even he would need at least one stick of incense.

What in the world was this boy hiding?

Ning Guichen hurried to Ling Feng, fully aware of what he had given him. When he saw the metal in Ling Feng's hand, his expression changed instantly.

Not only had Ling Feng completely refined the mother ore of Golden Crow Stone, he even used the material to cast four characters.

Old Dog Qing Xuan!

Ning Guichen nearly fainted at the sight. He quickly covered the refined metal with his palm, his mouth twitching as he whispered, "Junior Brother Ling, this joke is dangerous!"

Ling Feng shrugged and allowed him to take the piece away. "Senior Brother Ning, may I ask what my score is for this round?"

Ning Guichen drew a deep breath, looked at Ling Feng, then at Master Qingxuan on the platform. He hesitated for a long moment and did not dare to speak.

A cold snort came from above. "This round is marked as excellent!"

With Master Qingxuan's eyesight, he naturally saw the four characters Ling Feng carved. Yet since he had played dirty first, he could not expose the matter without losing face. He had no choice but to swallow it and still award Ling Feng the highest score.

After all, if a candidate who refined his metal in ten breaths did not receive an excellent rating, the others would not even qualify as low grade.