Even within the Shushan Sect, not many people practiced Spirit Severing Blade, so the manual had limited experience to draw from.
As his training progressed, Li Hanfeng discovered that with this technique, the more spiritual power he channeled, the less stable it became.
Now that he'd become proficient with the technique, he could release Spirit Severing Blade using five percent of his spiritual power.
With increased spiritual power, the destructive force naturally grew stronger.
His Spirit Severing Blade could now easily slice a boulder over two meters tall clean in half.
Hearing the words "not bad," Fang Yu said suspiciously: "Why do I feel like I don't believe you?"
Not long ago during the cultivation test, Li Hanfeng had also said "not bad," but the actual result was fourth layer Qi Refining - higher than many with extreme-grade spiritual roots.
Hearing this, Li Hanfeng said: "Haha, maybe the power is indeed a tiny bit stronger than your Fireball technique..."
"I knew it." Fang Yu had an 'I thought so' expression, then didn't ask more questions, just continued: "Your cultivation is high and your techniques are strong. I hope we can be on the same team during the assessment."
"The assessment tasks use team mode? How do you know that?" Li Hanfeng asked curiously, since the teaching elder hadn't mentioned this.
"The previous Shushan Sect assessments were all like this. This time probably won't be much different." As a member of an immortal clan, Fang Yu knew a lot of inside information.
The formal disciple assessment format wasn't exactly a secret.
"Too bad the assessment content is different every time, otherwise we wouldn't need to worry about the assessment. Let me tell you, this assessment isn't as simple as you'd think. There have been cases where even extreme-grade spiritual root disciples failed to pass."
Li Hanfeng was also startled. Even extreme-grade spiritual roots might not pass the assessment? Tension unconsciously rose in his heart, but with too little information available, he could only say helplessly: "We can only take it one step at a time."
"Yeah, one step at a time. It should probably be fine."
Before long, the sermon ended and everyone hurried away. With the teaching elder having resolved their doubts, they naturally wanted to go back and test things out.
After everyone had left, Jiang Tongheng took out his identity token and input information.
[Li Hanfeng, Fang Yu, Zhou Qing... excellent comprehension, fast technique progress...]
After sending the information, he smiled.
This batch of probationary disciples seemed even more excellent than expected. As long as they could be guided properly, they would become the backbone of the Shushan Sect for the next thousand years.
After Li Hanfeng and Fang Yu left, Fang Yu had planned to eat together.
But Li Hanfeng was intercepted halfway by Wang Mingyue - this was a fixed monthly routine.
Fang Yu could only watch the two leave, "indignantly" grabbing some random food before going back to work hard on his cultivation.
Of course, Wang Mingyue also knew cultivation was important, so she didn't delay Li Hanfeng too long. After about half an hour, they separated and each went back to cultivate.
Time flew by, and only a few days remained until the probationary disciples' assessment to become formal disciples.
Li Hanfeng exhaled a breath of stale air and came back to his senses.
During this period, he continued his previous approach, going to the Mission Hall daily to ask senior brothers about tasks and obtain Qi Refining Pills.
If the sect's Qi Refining Pills distributed every ten days were upper-grade, then the pills he got from his golden finger were at least extreme-grade.
Both their quality and effects were significantly better than the sect's pills.
So even as his cultivation improved and his absorption speed increased, they could still support his training.
Of course, originally he could save some pills after a month, but now he could completely digest two Qi Refining Pills daily.
With greater resource consumption came naturally greater gains.
The higher one's cultivation, the slower the training speed.
He hadn't been able to advance four layers in one month like before, but these past two months had allowed him to break through to the sixth layer of Qi Refining yesterday. Today he'd completely stabilized his cultivation and adapted to the changed spiritual qi in his body.
Feeling the abundant spiritual qi within him, a smile appeared on Li Hanfeng's face.
"My spiritual power reserves have increased by at least three times compared to when I first broke through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining, and both techniques have reached the proficiency level."
While advancing his cultivation, he hadn't forgotten to practice techniques.
Now both Spirit Severing Blade and Mysterious Shield had reached proficiency.
Spirit Severing Blade could instantly release three spiritual qi blades that could easily cut through ten-foot-tall boulders; while Mysterious Shield could easily construct a spiritual qi barrier protecting his entire body and maintain it for over three minutes.
With abundant spiritual qi storage plus proficient-level techniques, he now felt very confident.
"Tomorrow is the last sermon during the probationary disciple period, and also when the assessment tasks will be announced. My combat power should be pretty decent among all probationary disciples..."
He didn't like showing off, but he wouldn't sell himself short either.
A few days ago, Fang Yu had revealed his own cultivation and technique progress.
Fourth layer Qi Refining plus skilled-level technique progress.
And Fang Yu was quite proud of practicing his technique to the skilled level, saying even extreme-grade spiritual root disciples were only about this good.
Using Fang Yu as comparison, he roughly knew his own position.
Except for those mysterious heaven-grade spiritual root disciples, both his cultivation and techniques belonged to the first tier.
"If this still isn't enough to pass... no, I must pass!"
He definitely didn't want to become a servant disciple!
Then he settled his mind and continued cultivating.
Even these few days needed to be utilized. Being able to gain even a bit of cultivation was good - when facing enemies, perhaps this tiny difference in spiritual qi could determine victory or defeat.
...
The next day, Li Hanfeng came to listen to the teaching elder's sermon as usual.
Ever since the first time he'd talked about the Shushan Sect's "Way," the next two sermons had the same format, and this final sermon was the same.
With mostly similar content, the hundred-plus disciples were already tired of hearing it. Plus with the assessment approaching soon, almost everyone's minds were elsewhere.
Jiang Tongheng didn't mind, unhurriedly finishing what he needed to say, then said: "I think you all really want to know about the assessment content?"
Everyone including Li Hanfeng immediately became alert.
This was today's main point.
Seeing this, Jiang Tongheng smiled and continued: "Since that's the case, I'll talk about the assessment content. Actually, the assessment is quite simple. This batch of 3,600 probationary disciples will execute sect-assigned tasks in teams of ten. The sect will score each person based on their performance during tasks, and this score will be the basis for whether you can become formal disciples."
"If you have any questions, you can ask now, whether about cultivation or about the assessment."
"Elder, what kind of tasks?" someone asked.
Jiang Tongheng answered: "Any kind of task is possible. Right now, even I don't know what they'll be."
"Elder, is there a quota limit for formal disciples?"
Jiang Tongheng continued: "If you all perform well, everyone can become formal disciples!"
Then many disciples began asking questions, and Jiang Tongheng answered them all.
Half an incense stick's time passed before the voices gradually died down.
Jiang Tongheng looked at everyone and said: "If there are no more questions, everyone, let's end here today. I don't know if we'll have a chance to meet again in the future, but I hope you remember: When righteousness endures, our Way flourishes!"