"Was it you that spoke just now?"
"Salute to the elder, it was me indeed." he saluted with respect to elder Wen.
Observing the person he had in front, the elder was surprised since Ling Xu looked completely different from just a few weeks ago.
If someone in the Blood Qi Realm looked at him, he wouldn't find anything strange unless they had a lot of contact with him just like He Xiaosheng and Xiao Lao, the two closest people to him currently.
"Why does he give such an intimidating aura, even for someone like me who is in the Foundation Building Realm?" he thought, getting the sensation of danger from Ling Xu's body which had been refined to a terrifying degree for someone who was in the Blood Qi Realm.
"Uh?" feeling Ling Xu's aura, he was surprised to see that there was nothing to feel since not a single strand of energy was leaking out of his body.
As he couldn't feel any energy from outside, the outer elder moved his hand and a very soft and thin strand of energy moved towards him.
Ling Xu looked at elder Wen who was carefully examining him when he saw him do a slight movement of the hand and in just a single breath he moved it back as if nothing had happened.
He thought it wasn't anything strange but on the other side the elder was deeply shocked.
"What was that?!" he yelled in his mind after realizing that Ling Xu's level of blood qi was equal to that of someone who had already entered the Qi Refining Realm.
And this didn't refer to his energy reserves but to its purity, which was something very difficult to increase.
"No wonder that he didn't touch a sword in his life! With this level of blood qi, he should be able to kill anyone that hasn't entered Qi Refining on the spot." he thought, understanding that this disciple's talent was way above anyone that he had met in the sect.
"I can't let this seedling fall into the path of the mediocre, or else I would never be able to forgive myself." he thought.
"Is there something wrong?" feeling that something was strange seeing the elder stay quiet in place while looking at him, Ling Xu asked.
"Uh?" his mind turned back to reality as he responded, "You are indeed in the ninth stage of Blood Qi. Let's go to the combat square to see how far you have learned the Three Purities Sword technique."
…
Already in the combat square, every new unofficial disciple that was training under elder Wen was whispering about Ling Xu's rapid increase in cultivation.
"How did he manage to advance so fast in just a month?"
"I don't know, but one thing is certain, his talent is the best between the new badge of unofficial disciples."
"You don't know anything, if you came to the training grounds you would know that ever since we entered the sect, he has come to practice in his sword technique every morning."
"But what I'm saying is if he has trained in his sword for such a long time, when did he have the time to cultivate and advance to the ninth stage of Blood Qi."
"That's…"
Looking at him on another side, Xiao Lao had an expectant face, ready to see Ling Xu display how far he had comprehended the sword technique already.
After observing him for a complete month, he had realized that his senior brother was actually a genius.
And as if to make it worse, not only was his talent great but also the amount of effort he put each day to progress further in the sword.
…
In the combat square.
"Are you ready?" elder Wen asked, giving the opportunity for him to start with the first strike.
Nodding once, Ling Xu wasn't showing any sign that he was about to use the Three Purities Sword technique as he was standing casually.
"It seems I need to teach him a proper lesson." the elder thought with discomfort, feeling uncomfortable at the disciple's calm behavior.
"Let's see how far my strength has increased after undergoing the third blood exchange and transforming my blood qi."
Suddenly, he disappeared from the disciples' perspective as he run at the elder without hiding anything.
Although he didn't know that his blood qi had already been figured out by him, Ling Xu decided not to hide anything as he already suspected that someone of his level would be able to guess his level of strength from just a single look.
Elder Wen saw him as he was about to arrive and then moved his arm, making one of the wooden swords that were in the border of the combat square instantly fly to his hand.
Not reacting at the scene he just saw, he thrusted to the elder's stomach intending to make a significant blow.
But the elder barely moved his arm and his wooden sword perfectly blocked Ling Xu's, making it bounce to the side from the slight force he received from the elder.
"That was a perfect use of the basic move in the Three Purities Sword, but he is still far from enough to what it should be expected from someone with his talent."
As if answering to his thoughts, Ling Xu didn't take a break and after feeling the bounce from the sword he changed to the next attack.
An horizontal slash returned back before it was completely blocked once again.
"He has actually reached the small success level already, maybe he has been training in the technique after entering the sect."
Another move followed and then the next and another one.
"What is this?!" elder Wen had a shocked face, seeing the new disciple perform the Three Purities Sword technique all the way up to the proficient level.
"Are you telling me that he has learned all of this in just a month? He couldn't have started training before since when I first saw him he was barely able to perform the entry level and his precision was incredibly so bad that I didn't even want to correct him."
But he didn't even need to wait before his expression showed a terrified look, observing that everyone of Ling Xu's sword moves smoothly connected to the next, while showing a beautiful technique that was hard to imagine in an unofficial disciple.
"Let's stop here." after another dozen exchanges, the elder said as he couldn't watch anymore the face of the person he had in front.
"You have passed the test, congratulations. Now you should be able to go to the outer sect and register as an official disciple."
"Thank you for your guidance, senior."
"You don't need to thank me, this is the result of your own hard work. Take this and go as soon as you can to register." he opened his hand and an item similar to the identity token flew towards Ling Xu.
Catching the item that had the word pass on it, he bowed down and saluted before walking out of the training grounds.
Seeing his marching back, the elder felt his mind as if it was in complete turmoil.
"How is it possible for him to have reached the great success level of mastery in just a month of training?" he doubted his life decisions as he couldn't believe how far could talent take someone compared to those who had an average talent like his.
Elder Wen had always had a regular talent, which could be shown as it took him almost half his life before he managed to reach the Foundation Building Realm and turn back his appearance to that of someone who was in his middle age.
But now, after all the effort he put into advancing through each cultivation stage, someone who had less than a month of practice in the sword showed an improvement speed that defied all logic.
"And not only that, with his current strength he should be able to defeat even someone who has entered the Qi Refining Realm."
Although Ling Xu didn't see the elder sweat even a little, while blocking everyone of his attacks, he left his mind in turmoil as he left an impression in him that couldn't be erased with anything.
And this was considering that he had decided to hide the last level of mastery in the Three Purities Sword, being worried that it would make him get a lot of attention from the sect.
Although he showed his mastery level being in great success, he thought that it was somewhat believable since there were already one or two disciples who had reached the proficient level.
Being one of them his junior brother Lao.
"Now that I have passed the test, it's time to move on and register as an official disciple and enter the outer sect." he thought while heading to its entrance through the path that lead up the mountain.
…
After walking for a complete hour through the mountain, Ling Xu' had finally arrived to the entrance.
"Greetings, senior brothers!" he bowed down to the two guards that blocked the entrance of the outer sect.
"What reason do you have to come all the way here, menial workers don't have many reasons to come up the mountain." one of the guards asked, seeing the brown robe with the cloud pattern on the collar.
"Reporting to senior brother, this junior has managed to pass the elder's test and is now able to register as an outer disciple." Ling Xu showed no reaction to the guard's tone which was full of disdain as he answered respectfully.
"You said that one of the elders has preceded your challenge and you still managed to pass the test?" the other one got curious hearing about it, knowing that it only happens once in a while for an elder to go down the mountain and help with the training of the new unofficial disciples that entered the sect.
Every time that these elders go down, the disciples in the residence the elder was assigned to will have a hard time compared to those who only need to take the test from an outer disciple.
"It was because of luck that I passed the test."
"That still is very impressive, you don't know this but the tests that are taken by the elders from the outer sect are always harder than the rest." he said, knowing that it couldn't just be luck the reason why Ling Xu had passed the test.
"Senior brother, should we allow him to pass?" the guard that talked down to him suddenly changed his tone as he directed his voice towards his partner.
"Let him enter, after all he is soon to become a fellow brother so we shouldn't make things difficult for him."
"Thank you senior brother!"
…
After entering the outer sect, Ling Xu followed the same path he took when he first arrived in the sect and arrived in less than a stick of incense time.
Entering the Affairs Hall, he went to the first worker he saw that wasn't attending anyone and saluted.
"Greetings senior, I am here to officially register as a disciple."
"I need your identity token and the proof that you have passed the test to become an outer disciple." the worker said while looking down.
Receiving Ling Xu's identity token, he read its name as he felt that it was quite familiar.
"Have I met someone with that name before?" looking up, he managed to recognize the face that came with the name as the worker was none other than the person who first registered him as a new disciple of the sect.
"So it's actually the senior, how have you been?" Ling Xu greeted Zhou Xueqin, remembering that he had previously guided him to chose the best daily task available for unofficial disciples.
"Thinking back, although I didn't get much from it since I gave all of my points to brother Xiao. I also benefited since I could bring back the beasts' meat to taste something with real flavor and not those energy grains."
When he saw who the person was, Zhou Xueqin was in shock.
"Did you already manage to enter the ninth stage of Blood Qi?" he asked, doubting that this new unofficial disciple who was in the seventh stage of Blood Qi could advance two stages in just one month.
After all, he had previously guessed that it would take him half a year to enter the ninth stage and qualify to enter to the outer sect.