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Before arriving, Wang Liyao had already learned from the Immortal Scripture and Sacred Artifact Spirit about the Zhenze Sword Palace’s "Sword Path" and "Heavenly Sword Tower," as well as a rough overview of these trial grounds.

The former serves as a touchstone for the Sword Palace’s external recruitment of disciples, serving as the entrance threshold, thus its difficulty is relatively low.

After passing, one will obtain the status of a formal disciple and receive corresponding rewards.

This stage mainly tests the disciples’ comprehension and mastery of the Sword Dao, and is unrelated to the height of their cultivation.

In fact, young people with promising potential find it easier to pass compared to seemingly high-cultivation older individuals.

With Wang Liyao’s personality, she naturally wouldn’t mislead her disciples.

Under Wang Liyao’s unified command and organization, the first group of selected individuals had already stepped onto the first level of stairs.

This group’s composition is quite complex, including Void Realm Old Ancestors who are over three thousand years old with their potential at its end, strong Divine Power Territory cultivators with average potential in their prime, and some young disciples with promising potential.

Simultaneously, it also includes several young, exceptionally talented Divine Power Territory cultivators from the Wang family, as well as the currently Purple Abode Realm Dongfang Aoshi.

Each step on this Sword Path is large, with a total of a thousand steps. Each step’s difficulty increases slightly, and jumping from the ninety-ninth to the hundredth step will result in a qualitative change in difficulty.

The difficulty of the first ninety-nine steps is quite small, and everyone easily withstands the oppressive Sword Intent.

After reaching the hundredth step, the Sword Path challengers begin to experience stratification.

The first to bear the brunt are those Void Realm Old Ancestors whose potential has reached its end; they are very old with nearly no potential left.

The Sword Palace seems very unwelcoming to these types of individuals becoming disciples, employing malevolent Sword Intent to suppress them, as if bent on driving them off the Sword Path.

Several Void Realm elders barely make it to the hundred and ninety-ninth step, only to be blasted off the path by a fierce Sword Intent just after entering the two hundredth step.

Blasted out, they still look bewildered and at a loss!

"As expected." Wang Liyao seemed to have anticipated this, casually discussing with the Old Ancestor Longyan beside her, "Zhenze Sword Palace is somewhat similar to our Purple Abode Academic Palace, and this Sword Path mainly aims to select excellent talents for the Sword Dao. It automatically allocates different Sword Intent suppression based on challengers’ bone age; the older they are, the stronger the Sword Intent they face."

"Indeed." The Old Ancestor Longyan nodded slightly, "Thus, the higher the potential and the younger the cultivator, the easier they pass the Sword Path. However, I notice that on this Sword Path, one can only use their own Sword Intent to counteract the suppressive Sword Intent; no other means can be employed. If one’s Sword Dao talents are lacking, even if their bloodline talent is high, they might not pass smoothly."

Meanwhile, the Sword Palace Artifact Spirit also noted these Void Realm elders blasted off the Sword Path.

She somewhat disdainfully remarked, "Don’t harbor illusions of becoming Sword Palace disciples; hurry back to where you came from."

Despite this scorn, these three-thousand-year-old Void Realm Old Ancestors didn’t feel disheartened.

Their greatest advantage is their longevity and thick skin; seeing they can’t progress on the Sword Path, they simply start roaming around the Sword Palace’s perimeter, scavenging all sorts of useful materials left behind after the Void Beasts’ rampage.

Fallen feathers, residual bones and claws, they even carefully collect Void Beast feces.

Once transported back to the Divine Martial World, these are top-quality fertilizing materials that can fetch a good price.

Such conduct naturally made the Sword Palace Artifact Spirit feel more disdainful, affirming that the Sword Path’s snub of these old cultivators is justified.

Among Zhenze Sword Palace disciples, none weren’t outstanding sword immortals, none would stoop so low.

Above the two hundred steps of the Sword Path, challengers continued to advance further.

During this time, some were stuck at the two hundred step mark while others continued ascending easily, causing stratification to widen.

Especially several young individuals from the Wang family and Dongfang Aoshi, who almost effortlessly reached the three hundred step mark.

The young ones from the Wang family forged ahead together, joking around along the way, seemingly unfazed by the increasingly intense, overwhelming Sword Intent.

Their leader is a glamorous young woman named Wang Jinyu, the one hundred seventy-eighth ranked girl of the "Jin" generation of the Wang family’s fourteenth generation.

Her birth was marked by celestial phenomena, granting her fourfold bloodline during the Qi Refinement Realm, a standard Innate Spiritual Body.

This level of bloodline is second only to Wang Baosheng’s level of Innate Taoist Body.

When she was young, she once encountered the Old Ancestor Wang Shouzhe on her way back to the Wang family while visiting relatives at the Frost Moon Immortal Dynasty, and was granted numerous benefits. Also, she’s the new leading figure that the family spares no effort in nurturing.

Born in the best era, with aligned resources, her cultivation progressed rapidly within the Wang family. Reaching the Spirit Platform Realm and the Heavenly Human Realm was as easy as eating and drinking water.

By the age of forty-six, she had already become a Purple Abode Master.

Thanks to the Wang family’s devoted nurturing and support from parents and elders, her bloodline talent continued to rise. By the age of one hundred and fifteen, she had already broken through to the Divine Power Territory.

Although this speed is slightly slower than Wang Baosheng’s pace, it remains top-tier within the Wang family.

After reaching the Divine Power Territory, Wang Shouzhe further elevated her bloodline, achieving Class D Saintess level, and her cultivation accelerated into the fast lane! Racing forward, by the age of four hundred thirty-five, she had entered the Void Realm!