The test stopped, and the pillar reset.
As for Chu Feng, he received nothing — no proof of having passed the test.
But Chu Feng didn't think too much of it. He figured that since the Seven Realms Sacred Palace had allowed them to take the test, there had to be a way to confirm they passed.
Chu Feng walked out through the barrier gate at the other end of the hall.
Rather than returning outside the testing grand array, he found himself in a massive valley.
Around the valley's rocky walls were over a thousand barrier gates. Before each gate stood an elder waiting — a formation in one hand and a token in the other.
The token bore three marks, representing talent, formation laying, and formation breaking.
At that moment, people were emerging from the barrier gates one after another, and the elders were handing tokens to those who came out.
However, most people received tokens with no change — only a small minority received tokens that were glowing.
When Chu Feng walked out, the elder was already waiting at the gate, and the token he handed to Chu Feng had its first mark lit up.
The answer was clear — only those who received a token with a glowing mark had passed the test.
"Congratulations, young friend."
"Please enter the teleportation array on the left." As the elder handed the token to Chu Feng, he pointed toward the center of the valley.
There were two teleportation arrays. Those who passed went left; those who didn't went right.
This test required passing all three sub-tests to advance to the combat assessment.
Missing even one meant immediate elimination.
Chu Feng took the token and stepped into the teleportation array.
The next moment, he was back outside the testing grand array.
In the blink of an eye, far fewer people remained outside the grand array.
In truth, the first round of testing was already over for most. The reason there were so many fewer people was that the majority had been eliminated.
However, most of those who had passed chose to rest briefly and adjust rather than proceed immediately to the next test.
Chu Feng, though, went straight through the second gate — formation laying.
This hall was nearly identical to the first.
At its center was also a pillar, and at its top was also a name — the record holder for the test.
Seven Realms Sacred Palace, Jie Ranqing.
The pinnacle of formation-laying talent still belonged to Chu Feng's mother.
Chu Feng began laying the formation, and it was completed swiftly.
The moment the formation was finished, eight dragon shadows spiraled out from within the pillar — that was Chu Feng's result.
He was only one dragon shadow short of his mother's record, but it wasn't that Chu Feng couldn't trigger more — he had deliberately controlled both the time and the intensity of his formation.
These eight dragon shadows weren't his true ability — just the score he wanted.
What Chu Feng didn't know was that every move he made was being watched by the Palace Master of the Seven Realms Sacred Palace and that mysterious elder.
"Something's not right."
The elder spoke again, his tone now grave, completely devoid of the mockery and disdain he'd shown earlier.
"You sense it too, sir?" the Palace Master asked.
"Tianran, you've noticed it as well, haven't you?" the elder asked.
"I can't be certain, but... it does seem deliberate," the Palace Master said.
"Let's keep watching," the elder said.
Chu Feng exited through the hall's barrier gate and, just like before, entered a valley.
This time, the elder didn't issue another token but instead activated the formation to light up the second mark on Chu Feng's existing token.
"Young friend, this way to the left."
This elder's attitude was even better than the previous one — not only was he smiling, there was even a hint of eagerness about him.
Chu Feng continued on to the final test — formation breaking.
Once again, the hall was nearly identical to the previous ones — a formation-wrought hall with a pillar at its center, and at the top of that pillar was again engraved the name of Chu Feng's mother.
The only difference was that this hall contained a formation.