The trials of the Immortal Sect stir the winds of fate, as hidden currents surge in the battle for enrollment.

As Shen Yi slipped the bronze token into his storage pouch, a faint warmth tingled at his fingertips.

In the southeast, Tianyong City emerged faintly in the dawn light. Seven beams of starlight pierced through the clouds, echoing the star map from the spiritual spring last night.

“So the system’s southeastern direction must be here,” he murmured, gliding over the valley on his newly refined Star Sword Qi, a fragrant sachet of seven-star grass hastily ripened overnight hanging at his waist.

The morning breeze carried the fresh scent of grass and trees. The spiritual energy of early Qi refining circulated through his meridians like a gentle stream. Compared to the pale azure energy before, the power of the starlight now created a subtle resonance with the morning mist in the mountains.

On a cliff platform at the western outskirts of Tianyong City stood a thirty-foot-tall bronze pillar inscribed with countless talismans.

As Shen Yi descended with a sword’s radiance, he saw three grey-robed cultivators being blasted back by the pillar’s force, tumbling helplessly down the stone steps.

“Body refining stage cultivators dare to register?” sneered an official in purple robes, waving his hand as the bronze pillar glowed red. “Next!”

Suddenly, a commotion arose in the crowd.

Shen Yi turned to see a young cultivator in an ink-black brocade robe drifting forward on a veil of dark mist, a black iron token engraved with a fierce beast’s head hanging at his waist.

As the man passed, the bronze token in Shen Yi’s storage pouch trembled violently, the starlight energy nearly spiraling out of control.

“Isn’t this Daoist Shen, who’s been skimming the spirit fields?” the figure named Mo Yu halted by the bronze pillar, his cold gaze flicking over the mud-stained hem of Shen Yi’s robe. “I heard you managed to grow a few mutated spirit herbs and now dare to challenge the sect’s trial opportunities?”

Not far away, Gao Yao stood beside a white jade railing, her plain white gauze dress fluttering in the morning breeze.

Her fingers, clutching the jade slip for registration, turned pale as Mo Yu deliberately unleashed his oppressive aura. Suddenly, the sword at her waist emitted a clear, piercing ring.

Shen Yi sensed two entirely different energies locking onto him.

He deliberately brushed some grass fragments off his sleeve and silently activated the Northern Dipper Qi Guidance technique. “If Daoist Mo covets my spirit fields, how about trading three jin of Moonlight Dew?”

“I hear your sect’s herb garden is plagued by pests recently?”

Suppressed laughter rippled through the onlookers.

Mo Yu’s face darkened abruptly, his late Foundation Establishment aura crashing down like a mountain.

Suddenly, the starlight energy in Shen Yi’s meridians spontaneously formed a sword array, shredding the encroaching black mist to pieces.

The bronze pillar detected the spiritual energy fluctuation and projected seven beams of starlight, separating the two.

“Early Qi refining stage?” The purple-robed official suddenly appeared between them, scrutinizing Shen Yi with suspicion. “Put your hand on it.”

The moment Shen Yi’s palm touched the bronze pillar, the entire monument emitted a clear, resonant dragon’s roar.

Seven star phantoms materialized from the pillar, resonating with the starlight energy coursing through his meridians.

Gao Yao involuntarily stepped forward, the tassels of her sword’s hilt curling around her fingertips.

“Star resonance!” erupted the crowd in astonishment.

Mo Yu abruptly unleashed three black talismans, his sinister laughter wrapped in poisonous mist. “How dare a mere rogue cultivationist—”

A sharp sword intent tore through the morning fog, making every sword at the scene tremble simultaneously.

Shen Yi sensed the bronze token in his storage pouch heating up, and a dark star on his star map suddenly lit up.

He was about to unleash his sword qi when he noticed Mo Yu’s talismans mysteriously suspended midair—not blocked, but the pressure of the entire space subtly shifting.

As Mo Yu’s talismans hung frozen in the void, Shen Yi suddenly caught a whiff of crisp plum fragrance.

Where the scent passed, the distorted spatial ripples smoothed like a mirror, and the suspended talismans crumbled to dust.

“The trial has not yet begun, yet you would break the rules?”

Ling Xian descended from the clouds, stepping onto a jade chessboard. Black and white chess pieces swirled between his flowing dark sleeves, forming the yin-yang fish pattern.

His late Foundation Establishment aura fell softly like nourishing rain, yet it crushed the beast-head token on Mo Yu’s waist, causing it to crack audibly.

Shen Yi keenly noticed the bronze token in his storage pouch greedily absorbing the star energy.

“I dare not,” Mo Yu bowed deeply, veins bulging on his neck, bloodlines spurting from his sleeves into the earth’s veins. “I only fear some wild cultivators are faking their strength.”

Ling Xian’s gaze swept over the seven-star grass pollen clinging to Shen Yi’s robe hem, then suddenly flicked his fingers.

The star phantoms on the bronze pillar flared brightly, coalescing into a Northern Dipper sword array above Shen Yi’s head.

The tassels on Gao Yao’s sword quivered without wind, carving three-inch cuts into the white jade railing.

“Early Qi refining stage and yet able to trigger the Tianxuan resonance,” Ling Xian applauded lightly, dropping a gilded token into Shen Yi’s embrace. “Come to the Star Pavilion in three days to collect your trial jade slip.”

Excited gasps rippled through the crowd.

Mo Yu’s eyes narrowed to pinpricks as he stared at the “First Grade” inscription on Shen Yi’s token—the gilded surface clearly reflected the blood poison in his sleeve beginning to dissolve.

As Shen Yi bowed in thanks, a sudden itch crept up his left wrist.

A grain of star sand emerged from the seven-star grass sachet, tracing a path along his meridians toward his Qi sea.

The Moon-Seeing Orchid he had planted last night had unexpectedly sprouted a second bud inside his storage pouch.

“We shall see,” whispered Mo Yu as he brushed past, his words like the flick of a venomous serpent’s tongue.

The hem of his brocade robe briefly flashed a blood-red array pattern identical to the dark red threads quietly spreading from the base of the bronze pillar.

Gao Yao turned to leave but caught sight of Shen Yi pinching a leaf of seven-star grass between his fingers.

As the morning light filtered through the leaf’s veins, golden patterns faintly aligned with the fragmentary melodies she had pondered last night in the Sword Pavilion.

Before she could examine further, the youth hummed a folk tune and slipped into a corner herbal shop.

At dusk, Shen Yi crouched atop the inn’s roof, coaxing the last Dragon’s Blood vine to ripen.

The bronze token in his arms suddenly burned hot, the star energy flowing along mossy patterns on the eaves, pointing toward a collapsed observatory on the outskirts of the city.

As he leapt down from the rooftop, thirty-seven grains of star sand in his pouch simultaneously lit up, casting a fragmented star trail upon the bluestone path.

In the distance, the midnight drum sounded. The stone beasts atop Tianyong City’s twelve archways lit their eyes in sequence.

Unnoticed by Shen Yi, the seven-star grass sachet left behind in the inn absorbed moonlight, droplets crystallizing in its flower core, within which faint labyrinthine patterns shimmered.