Nearby the gates of Floating Cloud Sect, a single file line stretched for 1.5 kilometers. Standing in that line towards the front was Silver. Luckily, during his stroll, he overheard some gossip about the sect he wanted to join announced their recruitment today.

Floating Cloud Sect recruits every 2 years, yet somehow out of sheer luck, he came to the sect on the right day.

'Luckily, I overheard the people from the nearby food stand talking, if not, I would of made a fool of myself,' Silver thought as he lightly sighed.

"Next," the entry examiner piped up breaking Silver's concentration.

"Please go ahead and touch this cultivation identifier totem, if you pass, you can proceed to the next exam. Remember, you must have reached the 2nd level of the internal realm to pass."

Silver nodded as he guided his qi into the totem, raising it to appear exactly at the 2nd level of the internal realm. After fusing with the last strand of Kong Xing's soul, his cultivation made a breakthrough into Earth Origin but it was best to hide one's cultivation.

It could be considered a trump card during crucial moments.

"Passed. Please follow this path until you see a pagoda, your next 3 exam will be continued there," the entry examiner yawned out pointing towards a cement walkway.

"Next!"

Silver began strolling leisurely onto the path, as if it was his own backyard, towards the towering pagoda. Upon reaching the pagoda, a staircase with 500 steps appeared before him. Unfazed, he continued to walk up the steps and spotted an old man waiting by the entrance.

Silver stopped before the old man and gave a respectful bow.

"The exams will be taken in this first level of this pagoda, please find yourself a seat, await for further instructions," the old man expressed coldly as he glared at Silver.

"Please note, as this is the first and last warning; any funny business, cheating, or attitude we deem unworthy from any of the exams will get you banned for 4 years. Understood?"

"Understood," Silver nodded with a light smile. In the world of cultivation, sects were quite hard to get into and many of them will have wild requirements. He had seen many strict rules before but this could be on the top 3 from his past experiences.

"I also have a question I wish to ask, sir?"

"They call me, Old Yam. I will only answer one question of yours," Old Yam replied feeling a bit amused. Not many had dare to ask questions nor have the gal to speak to him due to his cold and uptight personality.

'This lad, I should really commend his courage. Might as well answer one question.'

"Has there been anyone well versed in all 6 factions? Not like a jack-of-all-trades sort." Silver asked curiously.

He guessed there were probably one at some point but the times had change. Not many could study under more than one supplement skill.

"One of our 7 founders, thousands of years ago, actually had tremendous knowledge of the 5 skills. His knowledge on each individual field taught here, surpassed the other 5 founders except the Divination founder. With his own power, he imparted his knowledge to the other 5 who already spent a lifetime in their set skill in creating the 5 known factions here. He is what most disciple set as their role model if not the other 6 founders.

The second founder was a well-versed and the famous, Diviner Egg Foo Yung. Sadly, only a set few that can be counted on one hand over the millenia had been able to completely comprehend and utilize his divination skill," Old Yam proudly announced. Just speaking of the history ignited the passion in his old bones, eyes full of glittering pride.

"Since my mood has been improved speaking to you, here's my personal token!"

"Thank you, Old Yam," replied Silver feeling completely dumbfounded by this old man's action.

He really did admire Old Yam. Something that can ignite the fire from within just from speaking about their own sect is something that worth respecting. Silver felt his choice was not wasted.

"Now carry on before I change my mind," Old Yam concluded waving his left hand to shoo Silver away watching Silver walk away still holding his calm expression.

Old Yam felt bemused. It's been a long time since he felt content after assessing the young man's potential. His keen intuition, never wrong, told him Silver was a truly outstanding individual.

Silver shook his head as entered the pagoda, through the hall and found himself in a huge room filled with rows of desks. He looked around for an empty seat, finding one near the back corner and sat there waiting quietly.

After 3 hours of waiting, Old Yam walked in between the rows of desks and stood at the front of the exam room. Couples minutes after, a few more examiners appeared and stood beside Old Yam before the class.

Everyone stayed quiet, checking out the examiners and vice-versa.

"Welcome everyone! I am Elder Yam and I will be overseeing this year's examination for the Floating Cloud Sect," announce Old Yam, briefly scanning the group with a cold expression.

"We will remove anybody who intend to cheat, create a disturbance and they will be banned for four years from taking the exams again. We accept those who are truly essential to our sect, filled with potential and knowledgeable within their fields.

If you cannot pass, remember to train harder in your field of interest as the next one will come up again in two years. Don't expect to have the same tests again, we ensure every year, none of the tests are the same.

If you think you can cheat, think again. This whole exam room can record and detect any type of fluctuations within, instantly informing us in mere seconds. If you're caught, you'll be banned from entering our, Floating Cloud Sect forever. The exams starts now!"

Looking down, skimming through the booklet on the desk, Silver saw a few familiar terms that he could correlate to.

Picking up his brush and dipping it into the ink, he began jotting down all his knowledge within the answer booklet with ease.

The exam brought all kinds of questions, concerns, and theories that could happen at any given moment. Most of it were to give insights and solve known problems using a particular setting from a failed experiments that befuddled many masters throughout the years.

Some could mislead by using simple, vague and multiple meaning words, while others were complex and difficult to answer without given enough time.

After the time frame of 6 hours, everyone had finish, besides Silver who finished an hour before. He intentionally wrote the answers slowly so he wouldn't garner any unwanted attention.

Waiting for the test results, many individuals had varying expressions and most of them were a look of defeat, some even silently cried. The test itself wasn't hard but on how well you can solve any problem that may occur during experimentation, crafting or training and a combination of your overall knowledge of their preferred subject.

Everyone sat nervously, besides Silver, for another hour awaiting the for the final results. Finally an examiner appeared and announced those who passed the written test. Out of the 900 examinees that entered, only 396 were left in the examination room.

With just the first exam, nearly two-thirds of the participant were disqualified. This truly lived to the strict requirements of the Floating Cloud Sect.

Old Yam came out from a door nearby and stood up at the podium. He congratulated those that passed the written exam. Afterwards he asked everyone to follow them to the next level of the pagoda in hopes that we would pass the next tests coming up.

Upon reaching the second level, all the examiners stood behind a protective shield while we stood outside of it. Unsure what was going on, everyone began to whisper amongst themselves.

"The next test will put you through an illusion, so please be seated in a comfortable and upright position. We'll commence the test now!" an examiner boomed while another examiner walked behind him and activated an array inscribed fixed onto a small pedestal.

Usually Silver wouldn't allow himself to fall to such a low tier array but he was curious as to what illusions he would see.

He sat in a lotus position and allowed the illusive energy course through his meridians. As he slowly lost his conscious, a life of happiness he thought he could never come back to resurfaced.

"I hope you pass the final test, lad,"Old Yam muttered looking at Silver behind the protective screen.