In the Dragontooth Grand Continent, everyone is a cultivator to some degree.
Roughly 10% of the people will have the potential to breakthrough from the Foundation Stage to the Energy Nascent Stage to be the exceptional cultivators.
Most would need to be groomed or proven themselves to be capable to some degree before given a chance to attempt for a breakthrough to the Energy Nascent Stage.
And this chance was given if one could be an inner court protégé of the Profound Cloud Sect.
Today was Ye Fan's chance of being an inner court protégé again, under a different celestial sect name.
As Ye Fan entered the testing grounds of the Profound Cloud Sect, he saw that there were hundreds of young people in the queue and they were all from the nearby mountain villages under the domain of the Profound Cloud Sect.
He began to sigh heavily to himself when he had remembered that 3 years ago, he was also like one of the young people in the queue.
Usually there was only a limit intake for the inner court protégés with some of the potential candidates being assigned to be an outer court protégé.
However, the disparity of treatment between an outer court and an inner court protégé was like the heavens and the earth.
Ye Fan knows because he had been an outer court protégé for the past 3 years and there was no chance for him to be promoted to an inner court protégé since he was a former protégé of the Thousands Sword Divine Sect.
Moreover, he was also not favored by the outer court elders and he was not even given a qualifying invitation to try his luck to become an inner protégé of the Profound Cloud Sect.
As he began to queue along the line, he was easily recognized by some of the outer court protégés of the Profound Cloud Sect that were checking the invitations of the hopeful candidates.
"What the heck?!"
"Isn't that Ye Fan?"
"He dares to join the queue?"
"Even I don't have an invitation card, he would have one?"
A big sized outer court protégé by the name of Lin Bei had immediately gone up to Ye Fan together with 2 other outer court proteges, "Hey isn't this Ye Fan? Why are you queuing here? Don't you know that you need an invitation to enter the testing grounds?"
Ye Fan had naturally recognized Lin Bei; this Lin Bei was the number 1 bully in the outer courts and he had oppressed numerous outer court protégés. He was also the son of a former outer court elder from the Thousands Sword Divine Sect that had defected to the Profound Cloud Sect.
One may think that he may be kind to the former protégés of the Thousands Sword Divine Sect but this was completely wrong!
Lin Bei especially liked to bully the former protégés of the Thousands Sword Divine Sect in order to curry favor with his new masters.
It was even said that there were even quite a few of the female protégés that had fallen victim to his oily hands.
Ye Fan answered coolly to him, "I do have an invitation card."
Lin Bei laughed aloud, invoking plenty of stares from the nearby candidates. "You have an invitation card? How come I do not know about this?"
Naturally he knows about it because his father was one of the elders that had signed for the invitations of the outer court protégés. And he knows which one of the protégés had an invitation because Ye Fan did not pay a heavy bribe to his father the Elder Lin Mo.
Lin Bei turned to his 2 sidekicks to laugh even more louder, "Did you hear that? He says that he has an invitation card. Do you believe him?"
Then he turned to Ye Fan to say, "You know the punishment rules for lying, do you? If you have an invitation card, why don't you show it to us then?"
Ye Fan sighed softly before he took out the invitation card that was given to him by Xuan Xueqi.
His invitation card was different from the ones that were issued by the outer court elders as it was issued by Xuan Xueqi herself.
Lin Bei was stammering as he inspected the white invitation card, "This… this is issued by Fairy Xuan Xueqi…"
Fairy Xueqi was not only a core protégé of the Profound Cloud Sect but she was also a core elder of the Profound Cloud Sect and also one of the 3 leaders in this place.
Although this place was now called the Profound Cloud Sect but it was only one of the 13 branches of the main Profound Cloud Sect.
It was said that Fairy Xuan Xueqi would also be one of the judges in today's martial meet.
Ye Fan said, "Well, am I qualified to enter now?"
Lin Bei was speechless for some time before he finally returned the invitation card back to Ye Fan, "You can enter now…"
Then he quickly said after Ye Fan who promptly continued inside after taking back his invitation card, "May Brother Ye Fan put in a good word in front of Fairy Xueqi for me…"
But Ye Fan had completely ignored him as he walked into the testing grounds with the other candidates.
Today was an important day for him just like 3 years ago and his mind was only on the martial tests later and not on Lin Bei's words.
And he did not want to waste this precious chance that was suddenly dropped by his enemy the Witch Xuan Xueqi who had ruined his cultivation chance 3 years ago…
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Author Note:
1. The heroines in the story aren't vases. I do understand that some people wants to read about a smart MC that knows everyone, can't be outwitted by anyone and have supernatural foresight, then this story prolly isn't for you.