Martial Arts: I Have a Wilderness World

Chapter 564: Chapter 297: Testing the Clansmen’s Aptitude

Cheng Zongyang looked at the people below, then turned to his cousin, Zhou Zhenyuan, who was standing beside him.

"Cousin, go and get things ready."

Hearing this, Zhou Zhenyuan nodded slightly and personally moved the prepared table to the front.

On the wooden table was a stack of Spirit Testing Paper for assessing Spirit Bones and a Spirit Testing Stone. Beside them were a brush, ink, paper, and an inkstone for recording everyone’s aptitude.

Cheng Zongyang turned his attention to the people below and said:

"It’s been a long time since I’ve been back. You all have certainly changed a lot. You’ve all grown up."

He naturally noticed his younger brother and sister.

Especially the little one, Cheng Zongyun. She now stood in formation looking quite the part, her little face a picture of seriousness. Cheng Zongyang couldn’t help but find it amusing, but it also showed that she had endured some hardship.

He scanned the members of the Earth Branch Lineage one by one. They were mostly around ten years old. This was the best age for training, whether in terms of temperament, mindset, or aptitude.

"I’ve gathered you all today to test your aptitude so that I can arrange the direction of your future Cultivation." Cheng Zongyang spoke word by word, unhurried, at a pace they could all clearly understand.

"So, when your name is called, go over there for the test. After you’re finished, return to your original spot and stand properly. Is that clear?"

"Clear!" the crowd shouted in unison.

The resounding cry greatly satisfied Cheng Zongyang and the others. It showed that the training had been effective.

"Let’s begin," Cheng Zongyang said, looking at Zhou Zhenyuan.

The latter nodded, then opened the roster and called out the first name: "Cheng Zongliang."

"Here!" Cheng Zongliang shouted upon hearing his name, then stepped out of line and walked to the table.

Then, at Zhou Zhenyuan’s signal, he pricked his finger with a needle, let his blood soak into the Spirit Testing Paper, and then picked up the Spirit Testing Stone, gripping it tightly for a moment.

Zhou Zhenyuan had no intention of announcing the results. After seeing four colors appear on the Spirit Testing Paper and only a single golden light from the Spirit Testing Stone, he simply recorded it.

’Four Attributes for his Spirit Bone, plus a Single Spirit Root. If he were to start Cultivation Immortality now, his progress on that path would be incredibly fast,’ Cheng Zongyang mused.

He didn’t want to decide his younger brother’s future, so he would let him choose for himself later.

Whether he chose the path of the Martial Dao or direct Cultivation Immortality, the choice would be his own. That way, he wouldn’t resent him in the future.

Once the record was complete, he called out the second name: "Cheng Zongyun."

"Here," the little girl answered in a piping voice. She then properly walked up to the wooden table, which was about as tall as she was, and turned to glance at her big brother.

Cheng Zongyang, standing nearby, couldn’t help but smile. He then picked her up and stood her on a chair.

After the test, the Spirit Paper showed five colors, but the Spirit Testing Stone had no reaction. This meant she had No Spirit Root, but her aptitude for Martial Arts was maxed out.

Cheng Zongyang didn’t mind whether she had a Spirit Root or not. Compared to Spirit Roots, he was more inclined toward the path of the Martial Dao. This way, even without Spiritual Power, one would still possess extensive combat experience from their Martial Arts.

Next, it was his Second Uncle, Cheng Guangshan’s, turn to be tested.

As the tests proceeded one by one, Cheng Zongyang gradually discovered that their Spirit Bone Attributes were excellent. They all had either Four or Five Attributes, with the exception of the members who had just recently joined the Earth Branch Lineage.

For a moment, he couldn’t help but think of the Foundation Establishment Medicine Bath!

That was an excellent thing for improving aptitude. He hadn’t expected the medicine baths over the past year to be so effective. Not a single person had fewer than Four Attributes.

’It seems I’ve underestimated the value of the Foundation Establishment Medicine Bath formula. Even the Ring Spirit underestimated it,’ Cheng Zongyang murmured to himself. ’If I had obtained the Ring Spirit and the formula a few years earlier, my own Attributes would have been even higher.’

However, the crowd’s Spirit Root aptitude was not high. Cheng Zongyan had a "perfect score" with Five Spirit Bones and Five Spirit Roots. He didn’t even know how to describe it.

According to information from the Cultivation Immortality Realm, the probability of a person having a Spirit Root was quite high. The number of Spirit Roots a person could have ranged from many to few, all the way down to having no Spirit Root at all.

According to legends from the Ancient Era, Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was abundant back then, and the Five Spirit Roots were related to the human body itself. Humans naturally carried Yin Yang Qi, and their Five Elements were balanced, corresponding to the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys.

Therefore, having multiple Spirit Roots and multiple Spirit Bones was the norm, while having fewer was rarer.

Although times had changed, Spiritual Qi had become depleted, and human Physique had altered with each generation, the test results still showed that having multiple Spirit Roots was relatively common.

Cheng Zongyang even thought that in a few hundred or a thousand years, people with multiple Spirit Roots would become increasingly rare. Eventually, it would be just like in the novels he had read in his past life, where having No Spirit Root became the norm, and those with a Spirit Root were one in a thousand, or even one in ten thousand.

The evolution of the human physique would also change from generation to generation along with the environment; this was in line with genetic heredity. Therefore, the possibility he was imagining did exist.

Cheng Zongyang shook his head slightly, casting aside his chaotic thoughts. Next were the tests for the members of the Earth Branch Lineage.

The members of the Earth Branch Lineage in the first row were the first to undergo the medicine baths. As a result, their Spirit Bone aptitude was quite good; they basically all had Three Spirit Bones or more. However, when it came to Spirit Root aptitude, while most had it, a minority did not. Of those who did, the majority had three, four, or even Five Spirit Roots, while a smaller number had one or two.

This somewhat validated his recent suspicions.

But the final result was that even those among them with No Spirit Root still possessed a Spirit Bone, with the lowest being a single Spirit Bone. The person with a single Spirit Bone was a new recruit recently selected from the city by Cheng Zongwen. This aptitude could still be nurtured later on.

After about half an hour, once everything was recorded, Zhou Zhenyuan handed the register to Cheng Zongyang to inspect.

After looking through it item by item, Cheng Zongyang spoke. "The test just now was to assess your Spirit Root and Spirit Bone. The Spirit Root is for Cultivation Immortality, and the Spirit Bone is for practicing Martial Arts. The starting points for these two are different, but in the end, they are two paths to the same destination: stepping into the Extraordinary and becoming a Cultivator. That’s right—the very Immortals you’ve heard about in stories."