All eyes of the new protégés were on the grand elders that had just appeared in the great hall.
There were three celestials that had golden eyes so it was obvious that they were the three golden celestials of the Heavens Ridge Villa. The three of them were the main pillar of strength in the Heavens Ridge Villa and they were also the highest ranking celestials in the Heavens Ridge Villa.
The Heavens Ridge Villa was actually ruled by the six grand elders who formed the leadership council.
Although Great Saintess Yuhuan was the founder of the clan, she was rarely seen and had hardly intervened in the affairs of the Heavens Ridge Villa. No one really knows if she was even alive or not.
The protégés were secretly whispering to one another.
"Look, that beautiful maiden over there with the golden eyes must be the Celestial Shi Guanyin. She is the said to the most beautiful maiden in the Heavens Ridge Villa..."
"Her martial hall is the Red Heaven Sword Hall..."
Celestial Shi Guanyin was very beautiful and was graceful. Immediately many of the candidates were secretly savouring her wondrous beauty and secretly hoping to join her Red Heaven Sword Hall.
When Lu Qingyun took a look at her, he had a bitter smile. Although she was very beautiful but he was not drawn to her. It was because she was not the Qin Keqin that he had hoped to see…
An elder began to speak and Lu Qingyun had recognized that he was Elder Ouyang who he had first met when he took his aptitude test.
He said with his old voice, "It is time for the grand selection. We have over a hundred candidates this time round and the result is quite a surprise to us. However the criterion remains as strict as ever. Only one core protégé will be selected for each of the martial hall. Therefore only six protégés in total will be selected as core protégés."
Everyone was startled. There were almost two hundred of them but only six would be selected as core protégés?! Only one protégés for each martial hall?!
The standard was really too high!
"If we can't join one of the six martial halls then we will be consigned as an ordinary protégé…"
"This is really too difficult…"
"I wonder what the grand elders' standards are?"
Lu Qingyun was smiling weakly. He was not prepared to be selected anyway. Now that he had failed to find Qin Keqin, he had already lost his interest to join any of the six martial halls.
Elder Ouyang smiled when he saw the incessant muttering among the candidates. This was not new to him and this was an expected reaction.
He laughed in his old voice, "This year is a little special. The six martial halls will be selecting a core protégé this time instead of an inner protégé. Even if you fail to become a core protégés this time round, all of you will be given an opportunity to become an inner protégés or even a core protégé in the future..."
"... you have no idea how lucky you all are this year. Usually a core protégé is only selected after several rounds of martial tournaments but for this year, it will be an exception that is based on pure aptitude instead..."
Lu Qingyun was already thinking that things were not as simple as it looked and he doubted that the six martial halls were serious in picking a core protégé with aptitude without several rounds of testings.
There was only one conclusion and it was that a protégé here had a powerful background and that they were opening a back door for him or her to become a core protégé instead.
He began to wonder what the trial or testing would be.
Elder Ouyang was now declaring in his old voice, "Due to the large number of candidates, I want everyone to line up in six lines and choose the martial hall that you think you have the highest chance to succeed. Then according to the best of your abilities that are demonstrated, it shall be determined if you are selected by the grand elders or not."
Everyone was muttering as they looked at the six grand elders that were presented.
"We can select a martial hall of our choosing?"
"Just like this, we have a chance to be a core protégé?"
"This sounds simple..."
"What if we all choose only one martial hall instead?"
"Are you an idiot? If we all choose only one martial hall then there can be only 1 core protégé instead of 6..."
"So, which martial hall should we queue for?"
"Is there a catch or something?"
Elder Ouyang smiled to the candidates, "Let me introduce the grand elders to everyone first before you make your choice..."
With that he had began to introduce the grand elders and the martial halls to the candidates...
Out of the six grand elders, three of them were golden celestials while three were immortal celestials. A golden celestial was a 5th Realm Expert while an immortal celestial was a 4th Realm Expert. Therefore it was not wrong to say that it was a lot more prestigious to join a martial hall that had a golden celestial but it was also a lot more difficult. After all, the grand elders who were golden celestials may have a higher standard.
Cultivators from the 5th realm onward are all extreme cultivators and they don't have to eat or drink to sustain themselves; all they need is the spirit energies that are around them to sustain themselves.
Also, 5th realm cultivators have extremely long life span that is easily at least 5 times longer than a 4th realm cultivator and they are also twice as powerful.
A 4th realm cultivator can live for around 200 years while a 5th realm cultivator can easily live for 1000 to 2000 years.
Not only that, 5th realm golden celestials have also formed their golden skeleton by this realm. This make them extremely difficult to kill and they have more resistance against profound attacks too.
And they can regenerate even lost limbs and organs at the 5th realm cultivation.
These were the six martial halls of the Heavens Ridge Villa, the Red Heaven Sword Hall, the Blue Lake Sword Hall, the Green Fields Martial Hall, the Yellow Hills Martial Hall, the White Spirit Hall and the Crystal Cloud Spirit Hall.
These six martial halls were the two sword, two martial and two spirit martial halls of the Heavens Ridge Villa.
The Sword Halls focused on swordplay, the Martial Halls focused on body training while the Spirit Hall focused on the energy cultivation of the cultivator.
It was difficult to know which of the martial halls was the more superior of the six. However it was also not difficult to see that the martial halls with the golden celestials were the more prestigious.
Therefore the more ambitious of the candidates were already evaluating the options of joining either the Red Heaven Sword Hall, the Green Fields Martial Hall and the White Spirit Hall where the grand elders were golden celestials.
Grand Elder Celestial Shi Guanyin was the grand elder that was in charge of the Red Heaven Sword Hall.
Grand Elder Celestial Bai Laoxiong was in charge of the White Spirit Hall.
Grand Elder Celestial Kong Guxin was in charge of the Green Fields Martial Hall.
Grand Elder Yun Xing was in charge of the Yellow Hills Martial Hall.
Grand Elder Wang Ming was in charge of the Crystal Cloud Spirit Hall.
Grand Elder Mu Han was in charge of the Blue Lake Sword Hall.
Tang Bufan already had a lecherous look at the beautiful Celestial Shi Guanyin so naturally he had already joined the queue for the Red Heaven Sword Hall.
As for Lu Qingyun, he did not think that he was good with the sword or with any energies cultivation so he had joined the queue for the Yellow Hills Martial Hall.
Tang Bufan saw his choice and was amused. This fellow had chosen the Yellow Hills Martial Hall that was led by a 4th realm immortal celestial grand elder. He did not even dare to dream of picking the three more superior martial halls.
When everyone was in their respective queues, Elder Ouyang old voice was heard loudly once more. "Good! Let the selection begins!"