The test kept going without any hint of stopping.
Round after round...
Stream after stream of energy...
Just like before, the streams of energy kept making their appearances in a varied manner, catching the applicants by surprise time and time again.
Fire element, ice element, faint and untraceable, strong and powerful...
With these different types of energy coming at varied timings, it became as much a test of the applicants' mental strength as it was of their reaction ability.
And as time passed, it became clear who the ones in the race truly were.
Bo Fei and the other two applicants continued to falter, while Zhao Yunxiao and Ze Qifa continued to clear round after round.
That was not to say that the other three did not succeed at all, either.
They definitely had their successes, just that the frequency was few and far between.
In fact, even Zhao Yunxiao and Ze Qifa did not manage to maintain a perfect streak.
From time to time, there would be rounds where the time frame for reacting was simply too small.
Zhao Yunxiao had initially felt disheartened because of those failures, but he immediately felt better upon seeing that Ze Qifa had faltered just as he did.
Clap-!
"All right, that marks the end of the first part! You can take your hands off the jade figures now," the administrative deacon announced.
Huu-!
The applicants immediately let out a sigh of relief as their tense bodies finally relaxed.
Zhao Yunxiao was no exception, and neither was Ze Qifa.
They might have done relatively well as compared to the others, but that did not mean it was easy for them either!
"How is it? Do you need a break?" the administrative deacon asked.
"Would that be possible?" Bo Fei inquired in return.
The current Bo Fei was sweating bullets and his robes were soaked through, a testament to just how much of a toll the test had taken on him.
If he had to go ahead with the next part of the test now, it was extremely unlikely that he would be able to perform at top condition!
"All right," the administrative deacon surprisingly agreed. "You might think that the test is harsh. But those who have done this before should be well aware that, during the opening of the Four Symbols Mystic Realm, the situation could be just as chaotic as this. That is why we are making sure that you know what you are signing up for."
"We understand, senior," Zhao Yunxiao answered in agreement.
Indeed, the opening of the Four Symbols Mystic Realm was usually filled with lull periods, but the few peak periods were extremely busy.
To say that it was as chaotic as this was not an understatement.
"It's good that you understand," the administrative deacon nodded. "Okay, break is over. Follow me to the next part."
"Already?" Bo Fei could not believe his ears.
He did not even know when the break had started!
"I did allow you to rest while I talked, didn't I? How much more rest do you need?" the administrative deacon clicked his tongue in irritation. "Or are you intending to tell everyone to stop and let you rest during the opening of the Four Symbols Mystic Realm as well?"
"Of course not, senior..." Bo Fei answered with a helpless sigh.
What else could he say to that?
Then again, it was not like the administrative deacon had been waiting for his response, either.
Even before hearing his answer, the administrative deacon had already started walking to another part of the test area, so the applicants had no choice but to hurry after him.
Soon, they arrived before a huge wooden panel that had been laid down on the ground.
There were over ten thousand square tokens placed on top of the panel in a disorganised manner, as though they had been thoughtlessly poured onto the wooden panel from a bag and spread out by a child.
While many of these tokens remained stacked upon others as a pile of sorts, each of them had at least a small corner that was still visible from the outside.
"As the name suggests, an observer naturally needs to be observant. Therefore, you will now be tested on your observation skills," the administrative deacon explained. "Each of you will be assigned a thousand of these tokens, and will have to report on any changes that happen to any of these tokens. Simple enough?"
"Your explanation cannot be clearer, senior!" Bo Fei answered confidently.
If it was just about detecting changes that happened with these tokens, then it would not be too difficult with the use of spiritual sense.
More importantly, since they could simply observe from a distance, they would no longer have to worry about having to endure wave after wave of energy like they did during the reaction test!
"Good!" the administrative deacon nodded before assigning each applicant their respective tokens.
It was a mess.
Instead of assigning tokens in the same area to the same applicant, the tokens were assigned in a seemingly completely random manner.
This meant that each person would have to cover the entire tablet, carefully looking at each of their tokens that had been scattered across the board, all while ignoring the rest.
Still, this haphazard assignment of tokens did not throw off any of the applicants.
After all, a cultivator's spiritual sense was not to be underestimated.
Even though the tokens looked almost identical to one another, it would not cause any confusion for the cultivators, who could simply lock onto their assigned tokens in advance.
This much was definitely doable.
"Let's do a practice round again," the administrative deacon suggested.
With that, the thousands of tokens suddenly lit up in various different colours.
"Tokens A-1, B-16, and Z-22 turned orange. Tokens D-52, G-5, U-12 turned blue. Tokens..." Ze Qifa immediately started reporting like a puppet.
Following his lead, Zhao Yunxiao and the rest of the applicants started reporting the changes that had happened to their assigned tokens as well.
None of the five made any mistakes.
"Good, now we start the real thing," the administrative deacon nodded in satisfaction. "Again, the test only ends when I say so. Try not to stop until then."
Without waiting for the applicants' response, the administrative deacon gave the wooden tablet a light tap, and it immediately started vibrating.
"All tokens are vibrating..." Zhao Yunxiao reported.
At the same time, he could not help but have a bad premonition.
Just how would the real test differ from the practice round this time?
Zhao Yunxiao did not have to wonder for long.
Just as he was thinking that, every token on the tablet started to lift off from the surface of the wooden tablet.
Following which, they suddenly picked up speed and spun around like a vortex, creating a tornado of tokens that rose into the sky.
The tokens moved so quickly within the tornado that they appeared as a blur. At the same time, the individual tokens continued to change colours, turning the tornado into one that was shimmering with myriad colours.
It was a beautiful sight, but it also brought nothing but despair to the applicants.
Zhao Yunxiao: "..."
Bo Fei: "..."
Applicant A: "..."
Applicant B: "..."
Wasn't this cheating?
It was difficult enough just to spot any changes happening within this chaotic tornado. But on top of that, they even had to identify exactly which token each change was happening to?
Just how was that even possible?
But just as they were wondering that, Ze Qifa's words caused everyone to snap out of their daze.
"Token A-1 turned red..." Ze Qifa suddenly started reporting.
Unlike the previous time, Ze Qifa only reported on a single token this time, a testament to how even he was struggling to keep up.
However, this also made Zhao Yunxiao realise the trick to clearing this test.
Of course, it would be amazing if they could continue keeping track of all their assigned tokens despite the current situation.
But since that was impossible, they had to at least report on whatever they could instead of simply giving up altogether!
On top of their observation skills, this was also a test of their composure and ability to adapt.
As expected of a red mark, Ze Qifa had understood the idea behind the test far more quickly than he did!
With that in mind, Zhao Yunxiao focused hard on the tornado of tokens once more.
This time, he no longer tried to locate every last one of his assigned tokens.
He knew by now that it was an impossible feat, at least for the current him.
So instead of attempting the impossible, all Zhao Yunxiao wanted was to find just a single token that had been assigned to him.
If he only had to locate the tokens and report on them one by one, then this suddenly sounded like a much more plausible task.
In this tornado of almost identical looking tokens, that was not an easy matter even with the use of spiritual sense.
However, Zhao Yunxiao was someone who had always paid attention to every single detail of the opponent in times of combat, and this situation should not differ too much in terms of difficulty!
Not this...
Not this...
"Token Z-22 turned black," Ze Qifa's words startled everyone once more.
However, Zhao Yunxiao quickly shook these excess thoughts out of his head and focused once more on the task at hand.
Not this one...
This one...!
"Token L-33 turned green!" Zhao Yunxiao reported.
The other three applicants were shocked.
Ze Qifa's ability to report on the tokens despite the situation could be attributed to him being a complete monster.
But if Zhao Yunxiao could do it as well, then could it be that they were the problem instead?
With Zhao Yunxiao's commencement of his report, the other three applicants immediately collected themselves and started focusing once more.
They knew that they had already fallen behind during the reaction test, so they definitely had to try their best to catch back up!
Nevertheless, this was not a task that one could perform just because they wanted to.
Ze Qifa: "B-16 turned brown."
Zhao Yunxiao: "Q-2 turned violet."
Ze Qifa: "U-12 turned yellow."
Zhao Yunxiao: "N-19 turned silver."
"R-21 turned... black?" Bo Fei reported hesitantly. He might have said it, but he was still rather unsure if what he saw was truly the right token.
Zhao Yunxiao: "C-41 turned black."
Ze Qifa: "A-13 turned black."
...
Once again, it became a contest between Ze Qifa and Zhao Yunxiao, with the other three vying for a distant third place.
Zhao Yunxiao found that the longer this went, the better he got.
In a way, this observation test was gradually honing his spiritual sense, allowing him to practice locking onto difficult targets.
He was certain that, at this rate, he would definitely be able to identify every last one of his assigned tokens and report on the relevant changes!
And that was when the next change occurred.
Snap-!
The administrative deacon snapped his fingers. Following which, a series of cracking sounds came from the tornado of tokens, as though firecrackers were being set off within.
It was not obvious from the outside, but within the tornado of tokens, every individual token had just been split into three identical pieces!
Tch!
Zhao Yunxiao could not help but curse in his heart.
Now that the tokens had been split into three, the number of items they had to keep track of had essentially tripled!
As though the test had not been difficult enough, the administrative deacon just had to pull a stunt like this to increase the difficulty level even further!