Guo Ran’s persistence

"Whoosh!"

As Guo Ran's voice faded, he appeared at the spot he had chosen, which was also a cave for the Outer Sect Disciple assessment.

Guo Ran stood before the cave, swiped his hand over his ring, and a set of shimmering armor appeared on his body. At the same time, a long saber—evidently part of the set—appeared in his hand.

Wearing this armor, it could be said that Guo Ran was armed to the teeth. Without any hesitation, he walked directly into the cave.

"This is cheating!"

Someone behind Lei Qianshang shouted, pointing an accusatory finger with an angry face.

"Idiot. The Elder clearly stated the rules long ago: as long as you kill the evil cultivator inside and bring back their head, it counts as passing."

"Are your ears stuffed with donkey hair? Or are your eyes blind? Did the Elder ever say you couldn't use armor or weapons?"

"If you're an idiot, don't use your own intelligence to measure others' actions. That's an insult to them, no different from spitting excrement," Long Chen retorted coldly and unceremoniously.

Long Chen's voice was loud, and everyone present heard it clearly. Tang Waner even cast an appreciative glance at Long Chen; his scolding was truly satisfying.

However, Long Chen's words caused everyone's hearts to tremble, and they simultaneously cast grateful looks at him.

Long Chen was reminding them to recognize the rules, so they wouldn't foolishly throw away their lives without even knowing how they died.

Elder Tu Fang sighed and looked at Long Chen with a complex expression. If only these people had half of Long Chen's wisdom, how good that would be.

At the same time, he also saw the flaw in the Branch Sect's development: it valued Aptitude too much and neglected perseverance.

The person in the Branch Sect who understood Long Chen best was Tu Fang. Originally, in a small place like the Phoenix Empire, even if a Spirit Stone mine appeared, such a trivial matter wouldn't have been his to handle.

However, it just so happened that several Elders were in seclusion, so he had to make the trip himself, and as a result, he encountered Long Chen.

At the time, his purpose was to deal with the Spirit Stone mine. Although that Spirit Stone mine was only a small one with not very high reserves, it happened to be on the edge of the Branch Sect's territory. Adhering to the philosophy that even a mosquito is meat, he went to get a share and accidentally heard about what happened in the Phoenix Empire.

Originally, he was indeed shocked that a youth could grow to such a level in less than a year. However, when he saw that Long Chen had no Spiritual Root, he couldn't help but sigh gloomily. Without a Spiritual Root, no matter how much of a Prodigy one was, their growth would be limited.

However, this time, under Ling Yunzi's reminder, he carefully studied Long Chen's past again and discovered that Long Chen had been lonely and bullied in his childhood, yet he had honed a tenacious will and wisdom far exceeding ordinary people.

Now, looking at the ten thousand Geniuses before him, compared to Long Chen, this group of people seemed ridiculously immature. This made Tu Fang sigh; perhaps the Branch Sect was lacking something in the cultivation of Disciples.

Long Chen was like tenacious wild grass; wild fires could not destroy it, and the spring breeze would bring it back to life. It was just unknown how far Long Chen could go relying on this tenacity.

Could he surpass these saplings that grew up in a greenhouse? Although the saplings were very fragile now, once transplanted into the soil of the Branch Sect, as long as they could survive, they would grow into big trees. But could wild grass do the same?

"Boom!"

Just as thoughts were racing through Elder Tu Fang's mind, a series of explosions occurred within the cave. They were non-stop, making everyone's hearts jump into their throats. No one knew if the figure that would fly out would be a bloody corpse.

Although Long Chen's expression was calm, his fists were clenched tightly. Even though he knew that worrying was meaningless, he couldn't help but worry.

After the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the explosions gradually subsided. A figure slowly walked out of the cave entrance. Indeed, he was covered in blood; his helmet was gone, and the long saber in his hand was reduced to only half.

The armor on his body was damaged in many places, and there were countless wounds all over his body. Fresh blood almost dyed his body red, showing that the battle just now must have been extremely tragic.

In Guo Ran's left hand, he held a head. It was the head of a middle-aged man with a ferocious expression; his face bore terrifying markings, fierce as a demon.

"Hehe, Boss, I succeeded!"

Guo Ran walked to the cave entrance, held the head high in his hand, and shouted excitedly.

A smile appeared on the corner of Long Chen's mouth, and he couldn't help but exhale in relief. He gave Guo Ran a thumbs up; this kid was a real man.

With his strength, challenging an Outer Sect Disciple, the success rate definitely wouldn't exceed fifty percent. Half life, half death—this required not just courage, but a firm Dao Heart.

"Whoosh."

Just as he finished speaking, Guo Ran collapsed from the cave entrance. Having fought with all his might, he had relied entirely on his tenacious will to hold on. Now that his spirit had relaxed, he fainted directly.

The entire crowd gasped. Even the lowest cave was over thirty zhang from the ground, and the ground was made of hard stone steps. He would have been killed by the fall.

Long Chen was just about to move when an Elder waved his large hand. Guo Ran's body became light, as if he had lost all weight, and floated toward Long Chen's side.

Long Chen hurriedly caught Guo Ran and thanked the Elder. The old man nodded faintly.

He checked Guo Ran's body and found that his armor had been sliced open by some kind of Sharp Weapon. The cut was smooth, clearly showing the weapon was extremely sharp.

He fed Guo Ran a Medicinal Pill for healing and crushed a piece of Bee King Crystal, mixing it into water for Guo Ran to drink.

Seeing the Bee King Crystal in Long Chen's hand, Qi Xin's face turned livid. That was originally his item, which had been forcibly taken away by Long Chen.

Under the double medicinal effects, Guo Ran slowly woke up and said excitedly to Long Chen: "Boss, I succeeded, I succeeded!"

Long Chen laughed: "I know you're excited, but since when do you have such heavy tastes? Holding onto a head and not letting go, are you planning to use it as a pillow?"

Guo Ran only then realized he was clutching the head tightly and said proudly: "Boss, you don't know, this thing was too fierce. One of his arms was all bone, with no hand, but that bone was incredibly sharp. Look at the cuts on my body; they were all slashed by his bones."

Speaking of this, Guo Ran couldn't help but have lingering fears. He recounted the battle process to everyone, leaving them shocked. Using one's own bones as a weapon was indeed unheard of.

"Kid, congratulations on your success. Take the head in your hand and go exchange it for an Outer Sect Disciple's Nameplate. From now on, you are an official Disciple of the Xuantian Branch Sect."

At this moment, a group of people walked out from the side and set up a table nearby. That was the place to exchange for Nameplates. An old man shouted to Guo Ran.

Guo Ran hurried over and handed the head to the old man. The old man took away the original Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, and Yellow Nameplate and the application form from Guo Ran, then handed him a palm-sized tablet.

That tablet was palm-sized, just like a command token, but it was bronze-colored. It felt heavy in the hand and was biting cold; this was a token forged from a rare metal.

On the front of the Nameplate, the four characters "Xuantian Branch Sect" were engraved in ancient script, while on the back, Guo Ran's name was engraved.

"Hehe, Boss, from now on I'm also a person of status. Even if I go back home, that can be considered returning home in glory." Guo Ran touched the Nameplate fondly, as if he were caressing the tender thighs of his dream lover. His expression was lewd, making people's hair stand on end.

"Alright, stop showing off. Go to the back and heal your wounds. Pay attention and don't lose the Nameplate, or you won't even have a place to cry," Long Chen said.

"Don't worry, even if I lose myself, it won't be lost."

Although he said that, he still ran to the back of the crowd to meditate and heal. After all, after a great battle, even with the assistance of Spirit Medicine, he still needed to recuperate to dissolve the medicinal power.

After Guo Ran was the first to receive a Nameplate, it made many people envious. At the same time, his success ignited their confidence.

Immediately, people began to initiate challenges, but they were all Outer Sect level challenges. Over a dozen people went in, and three died miserably.

Two others, because they saw the situation quickly, retreated from the cave entrance. People saw a disheveled figure rush out of the cave, howling as it charged to kill the challenger.

However, the moment those two figures rushed out of the cave entrance and were illuminated by the light on the stone pillar, they let out a scream. Their bodies smoked, and in the blink of an eye, they turned into two skeletons.

This eerie scene made everyone's hearts chill; this was truly terrifying. However, those two survivors were so scared that their legs went weak.

When they walked down, their application forms and Nameplates were all confiscated. Although they saved their lives, they had lost the qualification for the assessment.

However, apart from the three who died and two who failed, everyone else passed, which made many people see hope.

However, some people, seeing such a terrifying mortality rate, decided to give up and began to sell the complete sets of Nameplates they had collected.

The Branch Sect didn't care about such behavior at all; anyway, as long as you had a set of Nameplates, you could come for the assessment.

This tempted many people. Some used Medicinal Pills to buy them, some used weapons to trade, and others who knew people simply wrote IOUs to pay back later. There were various forms of transactions.

Now, the people on Lei Qianshang's side also began to take action. Tang Waner gently tugged on Long Chen's sleeve and said softly: "Are we starting too?"

At this critical juncture, Tang Waner was a bit nervous. This was a major matter involving life and death, and she was at a loss, wanting to ask for Long Chen's opinion first.

She didn't know why, but she felt that although Long Chen was glib, he was actually a very reliable person.

"The assessment is imperative. You just need to exert your charm now, boost everyone's morale, and raise their confidence," Long Chen said with a smile.

Tang Waner's pretty face flushed slightly, and she pinched her sleeve with her jade fingers, saying with some difficulty: "But I don't know what to do. Can you help me?"

"That wouldn't be good. After all, you're the one in charge, and everyone came here for you, the great beauty Tang. I'd be stealing your thunder," Long Chen shook his head.

"Bastard, this is an order. You must do it," Tang Waner said in a fit of shame and anger, simply pushing Long Chen out.

Long Chen chuckled. Isn't it just bluffing? Who has Long Chen ever been afraid of?