...

"This spot is just right."

Lu Qing wasn't pretentious; he silently kept track of the time. A single day was still somewhat pressing for his current situation.

A spiritual field didn't necessarily have to be a perfect square; as long as Spiritual plants could be planted, the shape didn't matter.

Lu Qing kept firmly in mind that he was in the middle of an exam. Thus, taking advantage of the convenience of being by the pond where the soil was already extremely moist, the difficulty of tilling was reduced significantly, saving him a lot of effort.

He couldn't count on the Spiritual Qi in his current body at all.

Soon, in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Lu Qing successfully sowed the seeds.

Since there was a bucket here, it had its use. It wasn't that Lu Qing hadn't tried to cast the Minor Cloud Rain Technique, but unfortunately, the Spiritual Qi in his body was empty. Before that small patch of dark clouds could even form and drop rain, the Spiritual Qi in Lu Qing's body failed to hold out.

He simply gave up on the convenience of spells entirely and fetched water from the nearby pond. With a wooden bucket in hand and this body possessing a bit of cultivation, he was as fleet-footed as a bird even while carrying the bucket.

A mere few dozen steps naturally wouldn't leave him breathless.

"If only you were an aquatic species, I could just put you directly into the pond."

Lu Qing looked regretfully at the Tiger-Subduing Vine, which had not yet sprouted and grown.

The Spiritual Qi here was better than at the foot of the mountain, and the pond water also contained Spiritual Qi.

If he could put it in the pond, he wouldn't have to wait for it to sprout.

The pond water was dark and deep, its coldness seeping into his body.

Lu Qing cleared a stone, took a nearby plantain leaf, rolled it up slightly, and scooped water from the bucket to pour over the root system of the vine seed.

He was doing quite well compared to others.

Inside a space that couldn't be seen...

The expressions of the Spiritual Plant Institute Elders were quite a sight to behold.

They hadn't noticed before just how outrageous these disciples' ideas could be.

"Look at this, how many times have I said that Sea Rice isn't planted like that!"

"A mere Flaming Mountain, and they can't even stand this temperature?"

"Don't even mention it, there are actually disciples afraid of the cold. Does that mean if it snows, they can't plant Spiritual plants?!"

Even with Song Wen here, after seeing the operations of some disciples, some Elders couldn't hold back anymore, their anger rising as they spoke.

"Hahaha, the capabilities of this Void Realm are quite Excellent."

The interest in Song Wen's eyes did not diminish.

"Give this one a fail."

"This one is pretty good, flexible mind, very experimental. He can utilize the mutual suppression of the Five Elements to cyclically nurture seeds."

The Elders each had shimmering light in their hands. Although they were talking animatedly, when it came to this kind of live assessment, they were the ones who collectively set the standards.

In previous years, every three Elders were responsible for evaluating one category of the assessment.

Now it was different because the Dean had come, and Grand Elder Song had also come. Since no major events had occurred recently, the Institute had plenty of manpower. In a single preliminary assessment, there were over ten Elders present.

"Give him a 'Top-Tier Excellent' rating."

"What about this one? Although it was nurtured, I estimate the Spiritual plant's state won't be very good, but this line of thinking is quite imaginative."

"Hmm, our assessment this time will ultimately be settled based on the cultivation of the Spiritual plants."

"I beg to differ; I feel the evaluation cannot be so rigid," an Elder spoke up in opposition.

Other Elders also voiced their agreement.

For a moment, the scene became much more lively.

Zhou Yaoming naturally sat firmly in the position of authority; unless there was an unceasing dispute, only then would he be asked to make a judgment.

As for Song Wen, he came here to take a look at that disciple and also to observe whether this reformed assessment format was feasible and could be promoted.

"This one fails."

"Barely acceptable, give him a pass."

Among the many standout disciples, Lu Qing's performance was commendable. He had always been conventional.

However, what he didn't know was that the examiners were currently critiquing the many disciples from the outside world.

His mediocre performance didn't count as having a mind-blowing or stunningly brilliant planting strategy, but he wasn't so stubborn that he became useless at farming once he lost his Spiritual Qi cultivation.

Thus, in this assessment, although his performance wasn't the absolute best, he was still rated as 'Excellent.'

The reason didn't have much variation: because the Tiger-Subduing Vine he nurtured was of a good variety, blood-red like precious jade, and was a top-grade Spiritual plant.

Although he didn't show any uniquely characteristic new ideas during the planting process, following the established rules of Spiritual plant cultivation steadily couldn't be called a mistake either.

Only when Song Wen saw that evaluation did a strange expression flash briefly across his face.

"Teacher Song, is there something inappropriate?"

An Elder noticed and asked out of curiosity.

"It's nothing," Elder Song said.

He just suddenly thought that his Senior Brother was a master of both the Sword and Artifact Daos, and his disciples who specialized in the Sword Dao and Artifact Dao were a dime a dozen.

But this Lu Qing, who was taken into the Outer Sect, had nothing to do with these two things at all. He didn't know how Senior Brother Li's talk of 'karmic opportunity' should be interpreted.

After the assessment ended...

A trace of physical and mental fatigue appeared in Lu Qing.

For this assessment, the 'Interview Assessment Scripture' he had bought earlier couldn't be said to be entirely useless; it had some use, but not much. One could only say that the assessment format this time was vastly different.

Before, he had never heard of anything like this 'Void Realm.'

It used to be on-site assessments where the Elders would directly assign a plot of spiritual field to each disciple to cultivate Spiritual plants.

Or, if time was insufficient, they would perform Spiritual plant spells, or the Elders would ask a few questions for the disciples to answer, and so on.

Lu Qing was almost fully prepared for those, only to find that while the topics hadn't changed, the format of the answers had undergone a massive change.

"I should be able to pass."

Lu Qing thought about the Tiger-Subduing Vine he had cultivated at the end—crimson vines, solid roots, and lustrous leaves.

No matter how he looked at it, he shouldn't fail, right?

Lu Qing couldn't figure out the logic of this assessment; he had been conducting the assessment by himself the whole time and hadn't seen any so-called Assessment Elders.

But after leaving the examination hall and reappearing in the Cultivation City of the Spiritual Plant Institute, Lu Qing found that he wasn't the only one who was confused.

"It's so hard!" a disciple complained on the spot.

"Why was this assessment so strange? I won't even mention the writing part, but for the on-site assessment, I was really as tired as an ox!" a burly disciple said weakly.

There were also disciples gathered in small groups, whispering to each other, "Too tiring. Without Spiritual Qi in my body, I actually turned into a mortal at that time!"

Someone heard this and said in surprise, "A mortal? Surely not, brother? I was at least at the early stage of Opening Meridians. I had no Spiritual Qi, but at least my strength was much greater."

This opened the floodgates of conversation.

The chatter of many voices couldn't fully describe the current atmosphere of Cultivation City.

...