If he wanted to break through to the Foundation Establishment realm, he had to have a mental cultivation method.
A mental cultivation method was a cultivation art specifically for raising ones realm.
Compared with offensive arts such as sword techniques and fist techniques, mental cultivation methods were more fundamental and far more precious.
Every faction regarded mental cultivation methods as treasures and would never allow outsiders to lay a finger on them.
The Testing Tower was the only place where ordinary people could obtain a mental cultivation method as a reward. It was just that getting one was far, far too difficult.
Jiang Fan was not confident he could receive a reward either. After all, he had no idea what grade a transparent spiritual root was.
Everyone entered the Testing Tower.
There were many individual secret chambers inside the tower. The Tower Master arranged for Jiang Fan and Lu Zheng, both from the Xu family, to enter adjacent chambers.
Lu Zheng radiated confidence from head to toe. He turned his head to glance at Jiang Fan and said with a half-smile, Dont get scared by my true spiritual root grade later!
He was confident that this test would reveal a third-grade upper-level spiritual root.
In that case, his status in the Xu family would rise another notch.
When the time came, it would be even easier to snatch Xu Youran away.
Jiang Fan shrugged and wrote a note: Well see.
He had a spiritual root now too.
Though it was transparent.
At the Tower Masters command, everyone entered the testing rooms at the same time.
This was already Jiang Fans fourth time here.
After closing the stone door, he could not help looking nervously toward the center of the secret chamber, where a crystal ruler hovered in the air.
Nine colors of markings were imprinted on it, representing grades one through nine.
When one placed a palm on it, the martial artists spiritual root would trigger the corresponding color on the crystal ruler, displaying the spiritual roots grade.
Its tests were extremely precise and had never been wrong.
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Fan came before the crystal ruler and placed his palm on it.
Buzz!
The crystal ruler immediately trembled lightly.
A ripple slowly rose from the bottom, climbed to the red marking, then continued without the slightest pause to the orange marking.
Jiang Fans suspended heart eased slightly.
He had always been somewhat worried that a transparent spiritual root might be some kind of useless spiritual root with no grade.
Soon, the ripple rushed to the yellow marking, then struck the green marking with fierce momentum.
Jiang Fans heart began to beat faster.
Green represented a fourth-grade spiritual root, already surpassing Lu Zhengs grade. In Lone Boat City, it would count as a rare and excellent spiritual root.
But the ripple clearly showed no intention of stopping.
Cyan.
Blue!
Jiang Fan clenched his fists, his heart trembling violently.
A sixth-grade spiritual roothe had reached Xu Yinings spiritual root grade!
Yet the ripple still did not stop!
Purple, seventh grade!
Black, eighth grade!
Jiang Fans heart leaped into his throat, and his mouth went dry.
Eighth grade!
He had actually reached eighth grade, breaking Lone Boat Citys highest record!
Buzz
The ripple still had tremendous strength left and rose in one breath to the highest marking: white!
Ninth grade! It was ninth grade!
Jiang Fans pupils contracted sharply, and irrepressible wild joy filled his eyes.
He had obtained an unprecedented ninth-grade spiritual root!
This was a legendary level!
However.
That ripple still did not stop, and once again shot upward.
The end of the crystal ruler was a large blank area, with no markings at all.
Yet the ripple continued to rise. Finally, with a whoosh, it burst out of the ruler and flew out of the secret chamber.
This left Jiang Fan utterly baffled.
What spiritual root did he actually count as having?
He had been tested, and yet it seemed as though he had not been tested at all...
Almost at the instant the ripple rushed out of the crystal ruler.
Next door, Lu Zheng was staring at the crystal ruler as the ripple inside rose more and more slowly, like a snail crawling up a wall.
When it finally froze with difficulty at the boundary between third-grade middle-level and upper-level, his expression turned extremely ugly.
Rise! Hurry up and rise! Damn it! Lu Zheng hammered the crystal ruler hard and roared in anger.
He had thought reaching third-grade upper-level was practically guaranteed, only for the result to fall short by a hairs breadth.
This tiny difference meant he had no chance at the Xu familys resources, and no chance at the Xu Sword Technique Wang Yingfeng had promised!
Just then.
The ripple that had rushed out of Jiang Fans crystal ruler swept past his secret chamber.
Its powerful impact drew along the ripple in Lu Zhengs crystal ruler, causing the completely stagnant ripple to start climbing upward again.
It broke through the green, cyan, blue, purple, and black markings in succession.
In the end, it slowly climbed and settled at the white marking.
The white marking began to shine, and the light grew increasingly intense.
The Tower Master was lying on a bamboo rattan chair, holding a brush in one hand and lazily carrying a register in the other.
At that moment, the stone door of Secret Chamber Three lit up first, releasing a dim red glow.
He found number three in the register and said indifferently, Secret Chamber Three, daughter of the Zhu family, Zhu Tingting, first-grade lower-level spiritual root.
Immediately afterward, the other secret chambers lit up one after another.
Secret Chamber Seven, young master of the Liu Family Trading Company, Yu Wangdong, first-grade upper-level spiritual root.
Secret Chamber One, young fort master of Cheng Family Fort, Zheng Xiangqiu, first-grade lower-level. ...
After recording the results of several chambers in succession, the Tower Master kept shaking his head. Sigh! Lone Boat City is really getting worse every year!
If a sixth-grade spiritual root like Xu Yining hadnt appeared recently, Lone Boat Citys Testing Tower would have been abolished.
All of a sudden, from Lu Zhengs secret chamber, a beam of white light shot out through the crack in the door.
The Tower Master rubbed his eyes, looking confused. White? On the crystal ruler, the white marking represents...
Clang!
He abruptly stood up, and the aura leaking from him blasted the rattan chair several zhang away.
His old face was filled with incomparable shock. Looking at the increasingly dazzling white light in Lu Zhengs chamber, he uttered four words in horror!
Ninth grade... has appeared!!!