The Star Sword Sect is a very big existence that had the rights to speak up even in the whole Eastern Province. It composed many talented martial cultivators from various places. Nobles, commoners, merchants… There would be a huge amount of people swarming through the city just to stay here.

The city is called Star Martial City which is naturally controlled by the sect. The city was populated for about a hundreds of thousand to tens of hundreds of thousands of people. Many merchandises and products were sold everyday. Countless martial cultivators were entering the city just to try their luck and roam about, hoping that they would have a fortuitous encounter.

At this time of the year, the Star Martial City is livelier than usual. The reason of this was naturally because of Star Sword Sect’s one-week recruitment examination that would only happen once in every year.

Yu Langjian leaded Xuan Hao and the rest to an inn in the remote location of Star Martial City as they rented several rooms. Following which, Yu Langjian gave the group a basic breathing technique in the martial world called “Breathing Force Technique”.

This “Breathing Force Technique” is not a very important breathing technique so he is allowed to give them this technique. It could enhance a mortal’s body conditions and even strengthen some muscles. After which, he said that there is still seven days before the examination, so they could use this breathing technique and maintain their peak while enhancing their condition. They could also roam the city if they want to.

After Xuan Hao received the “Breathing Force Technique”, he entered a room and immediately sat cross-legged before he took a deep breath. However, he is not in rush to use the breathing technique as he first digested the informations he gathered in these past five days. This caused his mind to gradually calm down then read the manual of “Breathing Force Technique”.

After that, he immediately closed his eyes and cultivated. He followed the procedures of the breathing manual. Unknowingly, Xuan Hao felt lightheaded as his body were full of energy and vigour.

This breathing cultivation lasted for about seven hours then he reached his limit. Following which, Xuan Hao slowly began to open his eyes before revealing an intense lively spirit within those pair of black eyes.

He stretched his limbs causing a cracking sounds of bones to echo out within the room. After that, he stood up and decided to stroll around the city, specially within the trading grounds.

Immediately, Xuan Hao left the inn and began to roam the city. He could see countless human heads along the way, swarms of people could be seen like ants.

Then, he went to the trading grounds not far from the inn. There were many stalls built beside the street. Noisy merchants were shouting their products. There were also various types of strange items and medicinal herbs being sold with a cost of at least one Spirit Stones causing him to be dizzy with such a price.

Xuan Hao naturally knew just how valuable a Spirit Stones is. This sort of stone was condensed within the area where the heaven and earth spiritual energy were dense and concentrated. As such, Spirit Stones were even more valuable than pure gold.

As he continued to walk around, he unknowingly reached a remote and desolate area where there were few people in this place. Xuan Hao saw a rundown shop within the slums as smell of sweet fragrance came from that place.

Xuan Hao took a glance towards that shop and saw many strange artifacts and elixirs inside. There were also shelves inside that had already accumulated a huge amount of dust. There are some scrolls placed on these shelves.

As Xuan Hao entered the shop, he was immediately welcomed by a sight of an old man sitting at the corner. His eyes were clothes as though he was sleeping. In addition, he is just too skinny and full of wrinkles just like an old corpse.

Xuan Hao stared at that old man as he felt a strange aura surrounding the latter. It seems that this old man is the owner of this rundown shop. Anyway, the sweet scent that he smelled earlier seems to have came from the deepest part of the shop.

Xuan Hao was confused why would there be such a shop in this remote corner of the city where only few people wander around. Nevertheless, he didn’t think about it anymore and left the shop after he observed the insides of this place.

After he wandered enough, Xuan Hao returned into the inn and continued his breathing cultivation. Following which, he felt a strange warm energy flowing on his limbs as those energies were being absorbed by his muscles.

As those energies were continuously tempering his muscles, Xuan Hao felt that he’s gradually becoming stronger as the time passes. Then, he rested for a bit and continued his cultivation.

Just like that, two days had passed in the blink of an eye.

Within a room where there is only a bed, a youngster sitting cross-legged on it suddenly opened his eyes. The muscles on his body bulged as Xuan Hao felt energetic after two days of cultivation.

Although it could be said that the “Breathing Force Technique” is just a common breathing technique and was totally useless for martial cultivators, for Xuan Hao, as a mortal, it had increased his strength greatly. Although it is not exaggerated like Wang Hu’s strength, he felt that its not far off.

Xuan Hao stretched his hands and yawned before he stood up and left the room. His vision immediately spotted Lin Xiang who is eating breakfast alone, with his countenance cold as ever.

He wondered if this Lin Xiang have friends since he was born, with his ice-cold personality. At this rate, if that personality of his continues, he didn’t know just what happen in the future.

Xuan Hao shook his head and brushed off all this thoughts. Regardless, he’s not related to him so he really did not care at all. What he was worried about is the examination in five days. He felt that becoming an official disciple is a very hard thing to do.

As Xuan Hao went outside, he suddenly heard a commotion nearby which greatly attracted his attention.

Immediately, he ran towards the commotion and saw a luxuriously large carriage with dozens of horses at the front. These horses had silver hair and donned in armor, like a war horses in the battlefield.

Seeing the carriage, murmurings and gossips spread throughout the crowd that even Xuan Hao could hear what they were saying.

“That carriage…could it be that he is the young master of Qin Clan, Qin Xuwen?”

“That’s right, I have heard that he had already advanced to Body Refinement Realm second boundary in such a young age. Basically, Qin Xuwen is a genius that could only be seen once in a century on Qin Clan.”

“Amazing, I didn’t expect that a monster still existed in this year of age.”

“…”

As the countless murmurings and rumors continued to spread, Xuan Hao finally knew who is that famous person within that carriage. It seems that he is a young master from a clan with an exceedingly high prestige.

Immediately, Xuan Hao’s expression turned serious. In these past two days of cultivating and wandering within the city, he now knew that concepts of cultivation. Basically, even the almighty martial cultivators had a difference between their powers.

The first realm of cultivation is called Body Refinement Realm. Just like the cultivation realm’s name, it is about refining a cultivator’s body. The Body Refinement Realm was divided into three stages which were called three boundaries. They are, tempered flesh boundary, bone essence boundary and transformed blood boundary.

Each and every of these stages has a big differences of power. After all, a martial cultivator who only tempered his body could not defeat an opponent who, not only tempered his body, but also enhanced his bones and cleansed the marrow.

As for the cultivation realm above the Body Refinement Realm, he didn’t know anything. He only knew that it is a realm that develops a form of energy called Qi.

As the Qin Clan carriage passed through the streets, the murmuring faded as the crowd gradually began to disperse.

Xuan Hao gazed at the disappearing figure of that Qin Clan carriage before he secretly sighed. He was sure that such a talented young master didn’t even need to undergo the examination test. Just attending it is already enough.

Immediately after, Xuan Hao left that place and returned to the inn before he began his cultivation again. As he continuously breathes according to the technique, he suddenly felt that there is some sort of invisible barrier that is blocking his way and it caused his progress of making his body strong to slow down. It seems that he had reached the bottleneck before he knew it.

“Looks like I wouldn’t be able to overcome the bottleneck for now and make a breakthrough,” Xuan Hao muttered in low voice as he shook his head repeatedly. Without external forces, he wouldn’t be able to crash the bottleneck and overcome it before becoming a genuine martial cultivator.

Unless he had a resources such as Spirit Stones, he couldn’t do anything for now as he could only helplessly wait for the day of examination. He knew that as long as he became a disciple of Star Sword Sect, he will be able to receive a certain amount of Spirit Stones every month according to his status and strength. As such, he could only grit his teeth, continue cultivating, and endure this boring process even if there is no progress.

In the blink of an eye, another five days had passed and the day of recruitment of Star Sword Sect finally started.

Many chosen youngsters were leaded by their respective envoys as they goes towards the area within the mountain where the examination would be held.

Xuan Hao finally left his room after having an intense and restless cultivation even though there is not much of an obvious progress.

He saw that Yu Langjian and the others were waiting for him outside the inn. As such, Xuan Hao went to the group.

Seeing that Xuan Hao finally appeared, Yu Langjian nodded his head before he followed the flow of crowd towards the direction of Star Sword Mountain.

Meanwhile, Xuan Hao took a deep breath as he stared at the seen. It seems that the long-awaited recruitment examination of Star Sword Sect finally started.