Chapter 4307 — The Mutant Spirit Root Attribute

To have come by such strength as she now possessed was already satisfaction enough; to advance further still and become a formidable Nascent Soul cultivator would far exceed anything she had ever expected—there was truly nothing to regret. When all was said and done, Huang Xiaotao had never harbored ambitions of that magnitude.

"What? Xiaotao, have you ever had your spirit root attribute properly tested? And it came out as a single-attribute spirit root?" Wei Zhao asked upon hearing this.

"No, not at all. I come from a cultivator tribe, and the conditions for cultivation there weren't good—no decent resources to speak of, either. At the start, someone just handed me a mental cultivation method and a martial technique manual, with no guidance whatsoever, and I simply began cultivating on my own. I never had my spirit root attribute tested. Later, when I joined the Threefold Pavilion, I just carried on with the advanced mental methods and never underwent any such testing either," Huang Xiaotao said, shaking her head.

"Uh, Xiaotao, you really did have luck on your side. Cultivating so haphazardly—if the mental method and martial technique had been mismatched, it would have been all too easy to suffer qi deviation and land yourself in serious trouble..." Wei Zhao said, breaking into a cold sweat.

Had Huang Xiaotao not told him, he would never have known the conditions in the cultivator tribes of Cloud Terrace Island—so it turned out they were that harsh. He had assumed that being situated on Cloud Terrace Island, they must surely be far better off than the mortal realm; even if they could not match the conditions of the Welcome New Pavilion, they should not be too far behind.

What he did not realize was that the cultivator tribes, though a part of Cloud Terrace Island, were its very lowest stratum. Their cultivation conditions were scarcely better than those of the mortal realm; the only difference was a thicker and more widespread cultivation atmosphere.

"Well, there was nothing to be done about it. My family was never a great clan or noble house, so we had no more to offer. And the mental methods given to us were generally rather mild and conventional. Even if something went wrong, the worst was usually damaged meridians that left you unable to cultivate—cases that cost lives were not all that common..." Huang Xiaotao explained weakly.

"All right. But even so, Xiaotao, why would you say you can at most cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage, when you don't even know whether you have a single-attribute spirit root?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled.

"Didn't you tell me that? You said before that I had a fire attribute, and that was why I could cultivate the Frenzied Fire Eight Trigrams Combined Strike Palm alongside you, isn't that right?" Huang Xiaotao countered.

"Uh..." Wei Zhao was rendered speechless. So that was the basis for her claim. He could only shake his head with a smile. "I only noticed that your true qi carried a fire attribute when I was channeling true qi into you. I never said it was the only one—there might be other attributes too, simply undiscovered for the time being."

"Oh, so that's how it is." Huang Xiaotao nodded, blushing slightly.

"Look, it says here in this booklet as well—even if one truly has only a single-attribute spirit root, there is no need to lose heart. Every cultivator's body may harbor hidden attributes and pseudo-attributes, which ordinary methods simply cannot detect. It is hard to discover them on your own as well; only extremely specialized testing methods can bring them to light. There may well be a pleasant surprise in store," Wei Zhao comforted her, reading dutifully from the text.

"Mm-hmm." Though Huang Xiaotao harbored few ambitions, hearing these words, a trace of longing nonetheless crept unbidden into her gaze.

"In fact, even if testing reveals no hidden or pseudo-attributes, there is no need to be too disheartened—there are still remedies. By consuming pills such as the Blazing Sun Flame Elixir, one can artificially generate acquired pseudo-attributes within the body. Though the practical effects of pseudo-attributes and hidden attributes cannot compare to innate, inborn true attributes, one can still cultivate the corresponding mental methods. With diligent practice, it is not impossible to eventually succeed in breaking through to the Profound Ascension stage," Wei Zhao said, looking at the booklet.

This passage, however, had been specially annotated in the margin, with a sentence added at the end in bold: although acquired pseudo-attributes can be cultivated, relying on them to pass the Morning Star Academy's selection assessment would be exceedingly difficult—after all, they were recruiting geniuses, not mediocrities.

Yet this was not an absolute rule either, for in theory, any Golden Core cultivator possessing two or more spirit root attributes could enter the final round of selection. Though they would already be starting a step behind the others, if they performed outstandingly in the final stage—the attack formation test—there was still the slightest chance of being chosen.

According to the booklet, if one could reach the final stage of the assessment, one must absolutely not hold anything back, and certainly not think of concealing one's strength—for that would be the most foolish course of action in all the world!

The final stage looked simple enough—one merely had to attack the assessment formation once—but it was precisely this seemingly trivial stage that was the most crucial of all. One must give it everything, without the slightest reservation.

For the first two stages were merely basic screening, and would not draw the attention of a single academy magnate on the platform. Only this third stage would be the sole opportunity for any candidate to be closely watched.

The assembled academy magnates on the high platform would judge each candidate's potential for nurturing by comparing their current cultivation level against the strongest technique they could unleash. The more outstanding the performance, the greater the potential it signified, and the more easily one would win the favor of the academy magnates.

And to hold back at such a moment would be tantamount to cutting oneself off from the Morning Star Academy. Better to go home early than waste the effort.

In principle, whether any candidate could enter the Morning Star Academy depended directly on their performance in the third stage. There was, however, one exception: such people did not need to take part in the third stage at all. They would be admitted directly by the academy and, upon entry, receive the treatment of genius disciples, with no additional trials required.

This exception was the mutant spirit root attribute!

The so-called mutant spirit root attribute referred to spirit root attributes outside the traditional five elements—only such attributes could catch the eye of the Morning Star Academy's magnates.

The trouble was, people possessing mutant spirit root attributes were rare to begin with—perhaps not even one in a million.

Once such a person was discovered, no matter which academy they went to, treatment as a genius disciple was a foregone conclusion—that was the bare minimum. They might even be taken directly under the wing of the academy's top magnates—such as the three Profound Ascension cultivators seated at the head of the platform at this very moment. Even that was not impossible. (To be continued) R655