They arrived at the recruitment venue the next day. Senior thunder eagle landed at the shore where a group responsible for managing the distribution of different arriving parties waited. They were guided to a certain spot where they could set up camp and wait until the recruitment started. They were also provided with a map that marked two places at the venue. The first was a trade market where people could trade and exchange with different groups to acquire essentials for the trial, while the other was a square with a board, on which the recruitment test and its rules were posted.
The group headed first to the information board to learn about the recruitment. When they arrived they saw a massive group of young saint realm cultivators accompanied by their seniors. Their arrival didn't attract the other groups' attention so they could reach the information board with ease.
The recruitment was split into three different tests. The first was a cultivation and bone age test to test the participants' qualifications. The second was a survival and hunting test on the neighboring island, which consisted of a tropical forest filled with spirit beasts varying from low to peak rank saint beasts. The participants had to survive for three months on that island while gathering the corpses of the saint beasts. The top thousand participants would qualify to take part in the selection test of the nine powers in which most cultivators would be taken as disciples of a power.
A cultivator earned one point for a low-rank saint beast corpse, five points for a mid-rank saint beast corpse, 25 points for a high-rank saint beast corpse, and 100 points for a peak rank saint beast corpse. The participants were allowed to team up, rob, and kill the other participants but were not allowed to leave the island, or they would be disqualified.
Tamed spirit beasts were also not allowed to be brought onto the island together with king tier artifacts besides the storage type.
The trio was quite happy with the rules of the recruitment test as they were confident in their survival and hunting skills while also being confident in their ability to defeat or kill the other participants. Jiang Mang would be the most comfortable as he is in his strongest element inside forests due to his identity as a hidden weapon master, but also due to his growth intent which will be strengthened when used with vine storm in an environment filled with flora and fauna.
Feng Xue was the most inexperienced team member, but she would learn fast under Jiang Mang's guidance and her destructive ability inside the forest could be called the highest of their team when faced against foes who can withstand Jiang Mang's illusions and charm technique.
Their group then headed towards the trade market to buy sufficient supplies of medicinal herbs, which Feng Xue could transform into qi replenishing and healing pills. This reduced the cost of pills quite a lot.
The money that the love birds had accumulated with their performances was more than 200 000 spirit coins of which 50 000 was used to buy a bigger storage artifact to collect the corpses and many herbs for Feng Xue to make pills. The group then returned to the camp to prepare for the recruitment test.
The group of the sea serpent group arrived the next day. Hua Ye had marked Chu Lingxin when she had used that qi-breaking pill to breakthrough. This allowed him to locate her when in a five-kilometer radius of him. He had planned to conquer Chu Lingxin during the test while capturing Jiang Mang to turn him into his follower by imprinting the boy with a slave seal after capturing him. If Jiang Mang was nearby, he would sense Hua Ye's desire for possessing him through his heart intent.
Hua Ye had reached the late saint stage while he has comprehended three intents with two being at the small accomplishment and one at great accomplishment. This was the cultivation realm of the genius ranked 96th on the genius rankings. It could only be imagined which level the top ranker Huang Mo had reached.
The week quickly passed, and the first test would begin in an hour. Jiang Mang, Chu Lingxin, and Feng Xue were ready and departed to the test site. They arrived half an hour later to see a sea of young talents numbering more than 10000 people. There were one hundred test sites for the qualification test.
The first test started half an hour later. When it was the trio's turn all of them qualified, but the testers were extra kind towards Jiang Mang and Feng Xue after they had seen their age coupled with their cultivation base, which had shown the duo's potential.
The first test was finished in only two hours and there had only been 20 people who dared to pretend to be below the age of 21. The second test would start after splitting the participants into ten groups who would be separately brought to the island in ten batches.
The trio was in the first group to be transferred, and they arrived at the island two hours before they were dropped from the air. Jiang Mang was able to keep both the girls grouped up with him by using two life qi ropes, which had become vines under the growth intent.
They safely landed in the jungle. The trio stayed vigilant while scouting their surroundings. Jiang Mang played a tune on his leaf to view his surrounding in a one hundred meter radius. He discovered no beasts in his surroundings, which he mentioned to the two girls.
Their first goal was to find a safe place to take shelter before hunting beasts and cultivators as they would be here on the island for three months. They found many herbs while wandering the jungle, which they collected so that Feng Xue could concoct pills and medicine from them, or they could be used by Jiang Mang to create poison. After wandering for two hours, they found a lake with an open cave situated next to it. They decided to make this their base of operations due to having a water source while also having a place that attracts attention to other teams or individuals, which would make finding cultivators to rob easier.