Chapter 4321 — Successfully Deceived

"Mm." Only then did Wang Xinyan secretly breathe a sigh of relief, silently counting herself lucky that her master had always doted on her and never doubted a thing—otherwise she would have given herself away just now.

Though her bond with Master East Sea Divine Nun was warm and close, Wang Xinyan would never deliberately hide things from her. But this was a public occasion, after all; if her relationship with Wei Zhao were exposed, it would do neither him nor her the slightest good. That much Wang Xinyan saw perfectly clearly.

Once she had gotten through it, Wang Xinyan quietly glanced back at Wei Zhao. Seeing him give her the slightest nod without batting an eye, she understood his meaning at once, and the corners of her mouth curved into a lovely arc as she smiled a knowing, kindred smile.

After signaling Wang Xinyan so discreetly, Wei Zhao did not look at her even once more. Like any ordinary candidate, he turned to testing his spirit-root attributes of his own accord.

Just as Ge Wei had said before, no matter who it was—whether or not they were finally selected—anyone who got entangled with a heavenly figure like the Three Fairies' Wang Xinyan, even if it were no more than a passing word or a casual exchange, would never be the object of others' envy and admiration.

On the contrary, in the eyes of those prodigies, such a person was one to be killed on sight, his fate far more miserable than death.

Thrusting aside the joy in his heart and all other stray thoughts, Wei Zhao, like everyone else, placed his palm on the stone tablet that tested spirit-root attributes and circulated his cultivation technique at full power.

This stone tablet for testing spirit-root attributes had been brought out from the Eastern Sea by Morning Star Academy for a specific purpose. Not only was it extremely professional, but its sensitivity was extraordinarily high; the formations set within it were complex and exquisite in the extreme. Anyone needed only to channel the tiniest thread of true qi into it, and it would instantly analyze the corresponding spirit-root attributes.

Even hidden spirit-root attributes and false spirit-root attributes—nearly impossible to detect by ordinary means—could not escape the formations' probing. However weak the attributes, it never missed a single trace.

Like all those candidates before him, the result had come up almost the instant their hands touched it. Yet when Wei Zhao's turn came, several breaths' worth of time passed and the tablet showed no reaction whatsoever—giving the impression that this fellow had no spirit-root attributes at all.

"Hey, I say, are you actually channeling true qi in there?" The academy staff member beside him was baffled at the sight. He was the one assigned to this job, and he had tested no fewer than several thousand people, if not ten thousand—yet he had never seen anything like Wei Zhao, with no reaction at all.

"I am. Senior, you should be able to feel the fluctuations of true qi from my body, shouldn't you…?" Wei Zhao said, wearing a helpless look.

"Uh… then why is it like this?" The academy staff member was speechless. He had indeed felt the true qi fluctuations from Wei Zhao's body, but the stone tablet simply refused to react at all. Could something be wrong with the detection formations inside? That seemed unlikely.

But to say the thing before him truly had no spirit-root attributes—that was even more impossible. The man was at least a skilled cultivator of the early Golden Core stage; without outstanding spirit-root attributes, he could never have cultivated at all, let alone become an early Golden Core expert.

The academy staff exchanged glances. Wei Zhao, for his part, wore a helpless expression on the surface, but in his heart he was utterly certain. The reason for all this was simply that his golden finger was at work.

Put plainly, this situation was Wei Zhao running a test—and the first thing he needed to confirm was whether his golden finger could fool this stone tablet with its complex and exquisite built-in formations.

Judging by how things stood now, the golden finger could indeed take effect. The next step, then, was to carefully control it, and release just one of the spirit-root attributes it had concealed.

This step was far harder than simply hiding everything, for a single slip might expose it all. That was why Wei Zhao needed to experiment, why he needed to warm up beforehand—only with certainty in his heart could he do it without a single flaw.

The academy staff around him knew nothing of these inner workings and were utterly at a loss. In the worst case, they were even prepared to bring out the backup spirit-root testing tool—though its accuracy was far inferior to the stone tablet's, and those tested afterward would very likely show deviations.

Yet just then, a smear of fiery red suddenly appeared on the stone tablet—the mark of the fire-element spirit-root attribute.

Success! Wei Zhao's heart instantly eased. The golden finger really did work; it could even fool a detection tablet this exquisitely crafted. Truly powerful beyond reason.

"Well, looks like it's nothing serious, then." The academy staff member breathed a sigh of relief. To their minds, this was simply because the tablet had tested too many people and was bound to have a small hiccup now and then—just a slower response. They never once imagined Wei Zhao was pulling a trick.

The detection formations within the stone tablet were nearly as complex as a teleportation formation. Even a formation grandmaster thoroughly versed in the art would need to study it for ages to see through its workings. To suggest that Wei Zhao—an early Golden Core candidate in the selection—could pull tricks right under their noses? No one would believe it if you beat them to death!

"Fire-element spirit-root attribute. Looks like that's the only one. Do you want to try again?" the academy staff member said after a pause. For anyone else, he would have declared them eliminated on the spot, but this time the testing tablet seemed to have had some problem, and he thought the result might be off—so he intended to give Wei Zhao one more chance to retest.

"Uh… never mind, then. It only showed one kind before, too. I'll just give up…" Wei Zhao shook his head and sighed, as if in disappointment.

"Fine. Since you've no problem with it yourself, that saves us all some time. You may go," the academy staff member said with a nod.

A single fire-element spirit-root attribute was the most common thing there was. Even if the testing tablet had been a little slow to respond, since it had produced a result, it was unlikely to be wrong—and besides, Wei Zhao's strength was only early Golden Core, barely scraping past the threshold. They could not be bothered to waste any more time on a candidate who so obviously had no future.

Wei Zhao nodded to the academy staff member, then, looking utterly despondent and forlorn, walked off the testing ground. To onlookers he was a pitiful wretch who had failed the selection—little did they know that in his heart he was secretly overjoyed. (To be continued) R655