Ye Lingxiao looked toward the person who had received his Red Packet Talisman without a scratch.

The newcomer was a man with a tall, slender build, who appeared surprisingly frail. Beyond his delicate frame, the man’s most striking feature was a pair of eyes as brilliant as stars, appearing to hold countless swirling points of light within them.

Watching the scene, Zhang Yu, who was standing nearby, was suddenly struck by a thought: “Is that… a Dharma Skeleton?”

He recalled first seeing a Dharma Skeleton on a Foundation Establishment realm expert like the director of Songyang City’s Xianyun Branch. At the time, Zhao Tianxing had told him that a Dharma Skeleton required at least 100 points of spiritual power to implant. Yet, among all the high school students he had previously encountered, Zhang Yu had never actually seen anyone with a Dharma Skeleton implanted.

Just then, Ye Lingxiao asked, “Yun Jing, why was my Red Packet Talisman ineffective against you?”

The individual before him, unusually frail and with Dharma Skeletons implanted in his eyes, was named Yun Jing. As the top second-year student of ‘Xianyun High School,’ the strongest high school in Xiandu City, and a prodigy living on Kunxu Layer 1.5, Yun Jing had long since defeated every opponent within Xianyun High School, and even the entire Xiandu City high school scene.

“The strongest high school student in Kunxu Layer One.” Was this his self-perception? No. This was the objective assessment of Yun Jing made by Ziyun Pharmaceutical’s Kunxu Layer One Headquarters after their tests.

Upon hearing Ye Lingxiao’s question, Yun Jing smiled faintly and replied, “Because I already have an Anti-Fraud Talisman on me. Your Red Packet Talisman, hitting me, is like a moth flying into a flame—utterly useless.” He spread his hands and laughed heartily, declaring, “This means I am now immune to such talismans!” In that moment, everyone felt as though with a grand wave of Yun Jing’s hand, long rivers of divine power swept forth, shielding him from all manner of harassment, traps, and scams.

Ye Lingxiao nodded slightly. “The Red Packet Talisman is still too limited. Only the Favorability Talisman is truly unstoppable.”

Yun Jing shook his head. “The Favorability Talisman is unstoppable for true deities, but it’s useless against humans.”

Ye Lingxiao shook his head but remained silent. However, he secretly thought to himself, “The Favorability Talisman can work on people; I once saw someone use it like that.” After witnessing that, Ye Lingxiao vaguely perceived that a great secret might be hidden within it. The secret filled him with intense curiosity and a touch of shock, further fueling his desire to study talismans. However, Ye Lingxiao had no intention of freely sharing such important and valuable information with Yun Jing and the others.

Currently, high school students from Xiandu City, such as Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing, were mostly gathered together, accounting for ninety percent of the total number present. Candidates from other cities, like Zhang Yu, Bai Zhenzhen, and Yu Xinghan, stood in scattered small groups in the distance, their numbers far fewer than the Xiandu natives.

Zhang Yu remarked with emotion, “The Xiandu folks just have it so good! Could it be that they’ve always dominated the Foundation Establishment exams in previous years?”

Yu Xinghan nodded slightly. “I heard that the best high schools here can invite directors from major companies to lecture, their Daoist arts teachers are true deities, and every student even gets a personal Yellow Turban Strongman for sparring…”

Zhang Yu listened in astonishment. The disparity in immortal cultivation educational resources was simply enormous. Bai Zhenzhen, standing nearby, also listened with deep envy. These Xiandu people were simply far more impressive than those from Songyang.

Just then, the massive metal gate before them vibrated with a loud rumble, and lines of text appeared on a nearby light screen. Zhang Yu looked over and saw that it displayed the rules for the upcoming test.

Simply put, the metal gate required meeting three crucial requirements simultaneously—physical strength, spiritual power, and martial arts—to be opened. Physically, one needed enough strength to push the metal gate. For martial arts and spiritual power, one had to strike different locations on the metal gate with nine distinct palm techniques, following a specific sequence, all within 3 seconds. Only then could the metal gate be pushed open, allowing entry to complete the Dao Heart Test. In other words, successfully pushing open the metal gate and passing the Dao Heart Test inside meant truly completing this registration and gaining eligibility for the Foundation Establishment Exam.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, “The specific details of these nine palm techniques and their striking sequence are like a password; only by getting them right can the door be opened. According to the text on the wall, this password changes after every successful opening…”

While Zhang Yu was still studying how the nine palm techniques were to be executed, he noticed the text on the wall shift, and the sequence and content of the nine palm techniques had all changed. Simultaneously, a time of 0.64 seconds appeared above the metal gate. With a loud creak and bang, the metal gate was forcefully pushed open by Yun Jing, revealing an abyss of darkness. Yun Jing stepped forward nonchalantly, and as the metal gate closed again, he vanished into the darkness in the blink of an eye.

Immediately after Yun Jing left, Ye Lingxiao’s figure flashed like lightning. Zhang Yu couldn’t even clearly make out all his movements as nine loud impacts, strung together, sounded like a single collision. 0.65 seconds was displayed above the metal gate. The next instant, Ye Lingxiao was already standing before the gate, easily pushing it open.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, “Less than a second, and they’ve already completed the nine palm strikes? And that might not even be their full strength.”

Watching Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao push open the metal gate one after another, Zhang Yu felt an unprecedented pressure. “These two should both be second-year high school students… about to enter their third year, right? They’ve cultivated for just one year more than me, yet they’re already so much stronger? Is this the strongest level of high school student on Kunxu Layer One?” Zhang Yu clearly realized one thing: at this very moment, he was far inferior to these two. And if he wanted to obtain the Foundation Establishment qualification certificate, he would need to catch up to their level in the future.

Bai Zhenzhen, standing beside him, also took a deep breath, feeling the spiritual root within her stirring restlessly. “‘They’re all so strong,’ Bai Zhenzhen thought to herself. ‘Can I really pass the Foundation Establishment certificate this year?'” Although she had always been cheering herself on and cultivating with all her might, now, truly being in Xiandu—whether it was the colossal floating city, the prices in the train station, or the performance of these Xiandu individuals right before her eyes—it all felt like one punch after another, slowly pressing down on Bai Zhenzhen’s straightened back, making her feel the growing gap between herself and the people here. So much so that a fleeting thought of escape couldn’t help but well up in Bai Zhenzhen’s mind: “It doesn’t matter if I lose this year; there’s still a chance next year, right?” But the next moment, she immediately suppressed this distracting thought, secretly vowing, “No matter what, I’ll give it my all.”

Yu Xinghan, standing nearby, also felt the pressure, but not as intensely as Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen. He thought to himself, “This time, I’ll just consider it an early experience of the Foundation Establishment exam’s atmosphere, and an opportunity to get some expenses reimbursed. My real chance is next year.”

In the time that followed, contestants went up one by one, successively pushing open the great door. Zhang Yu was not in a hurry; instead, he stayed put and observed the individuals who might become his opponents. “The vast majority should be second-year high school students. Except for the first two who finished in under a second, most of the others completed it within two seconds. As for those weaker than me… they must be first-year high school students, mostly pushing open the metal gate within two to four seconds.” Contestants who took more than three seconds to push open the door failed to meet the test requirements and were immediately sent away by large holes that suddenly appeared beneath their feet, clearly eliminated.

Seeing that no one was stepping up for the moment, Zhang Yu walked forward. While studying the nine palm techniques described on the adjacent wall, he struck the metal gate, palm after palm. Leveraging his exceptional control over spiritual power and his physical body, he moved like a whirlwind, circling in front of the metal gate. In 2.3 seconds, he delivered the nine distinct palm strikes to their respective positions on the metal gate. He then stood firmly before the metal gate and, with a forceful push of both hands, completely opened it, stepping into the darkness beyond.

From the darkness, he heard what sounded like the roars of countless beasts and monsters. The next moment, with a flash of firelight, hundreds of monsters surged forward. Zombies, fox spirits, ghosts… they all charged together, as if to tear Zhang Yu to shreds. However, when Zhang Yu mustered his courage and fought the monsters, he found them to be surprisingly weak. He quickly cut his way through them, pushed open the exit door at the end of the passage, and found himself back in a toilet stall at the train station.

“So the final Dao Heart test was about courage?” Zhang Yu opened his phone, logged into the registration website, and confirmed that he had successfully registered and passed the test. Only then did he heave a sigh of relief. With his head still a bit muddled, he felt as though he had overlooked something. But just as he was about to ponder it further, he had already forgotten what it was.

Zhang Yu shook his head. The moment he stepped out of the toilet stall, he was struck unconscious by a single palm.

Meanwhile.

Inside the office where Zhang Yu had just registered.

The middle-aged woman who had assisted Zhang Yu with his registration sat upright behind her desk. On four light screens beside her, the figures of four other individuals were displayed. The middle-aged woman was named Deng Bingding.

Although she was a Four Directions Roaming Deity, a sixth-tier deity, she was considered a significant figure compared to a ninth-tier Gongcao minor deity. Yet, Deng Bingding never felt any sense of pride about her status. Everyone believed being a deity was good and that divine authority was immense, but what did it truly matter once one became a deity?

Deng Bingding had been to the Heavenly Court. She knew how high the steps there were, how far she was from the great deities of various ministries, how insignificant her authority was in this Kunxu, and she also understood that in the eyes of the immortals, she was nothing more than a useful tool. For instance, at this very moment, due to a sudden order from her superiors, she had to slow down her ongoing work and divert a significant amount of energy and divine power to temporary overtime for the Foundation Establishment Exam, ensuring exam hall order and protecting student information from leaking.

She glanced at the four other figures on the light screens; these were the four minor deities assigned to assist her this time. Deng Bingding said, “This reform of the Foundation Establishment Exam is an oral decree from an immortal superior, approved by a Divine Lord. I’ll have to trouble you all to keep a close eye on things.”

“Not at all, not at all, we all obey your orders, Senior Deng…”

Following some pleasantries, Deng Bingding had already received Favorability Talismans from the four minor deities. Lower-tier deities sending Favorability Talismans to higher-tier deities to curry favor was originally the practice of individual deities, but it had now unknowingly become widespread throughout the entire Kunxu divine realm. Deng Bingding was quite disdainful of this, deeply detesting such formalities and red tape. She glanced at the amounts sent by the four minor deities and frowned, thinking to herself, “Everyone else sent over 10,000; what’s the meaning of you only sending me 5,000?” Deng Bingding immediately made a mental note of the minor deity who had sent the smallest amount on the Favorability Talisman.

“Huang Zichou.”

“‘A perfectly good Favorability Talisman, and you directly turned it into an Ill Will Talisman. What a ‘talent’! No wonder you’re still a ninth-tier deity.'” Deng Bingding sighed inwardly. This was precisely why she detested such formalities: superiors and subordinates hadn’t even begun to properly cooperate, yet feelings were already soured. How could they possibly serve the great deities well then? She still missed the old days when one could openly discuss financial transfers without anyone investigating.

She formed a Daoist hand seal, and as waves of divine power surged, screens of light appeared before her eyes, displaying the experiences of each student after stepping through the metal gate. Deng Bingding said faintly, “As the four of you know, with so many mouths to feed throughout the Eight Ministries, times have always been tough. Suddenly adding this registration test this year, on one hand, is to use the spiritual power, physical, and martial arts screenings to filter out some first-year high school students and save a bit of budget for the exam. On the other hand, which is the main focus from above, it’s to use the Dao Heart Test to retain truly capable individuals and weed out those who turn into ‘soft-legged shrimps’ as soon as they ascend…”