No hope for eternal life

The golden elixir condensed by the cultivators is divided into nine grades, from one to nine, according to their quality. Ordinary golden elixir can at most help the cultivators to form fifth or sixth grade golden elixir, while sixth and seventh grade golden elixir can help the cultivators to form sixth and seventh grade golden elixir 100%. Note, it is 100%!

By analogy, above the sixth and seventh turn golden elixirs there are the eighth and ninth turn golden elixirs, which can help the foundation-building cultivators to form eighth-grade and ninth-grade golden elixirs respectively. However, those top-notch eighth and ninth turn golden elixirs are even rarer, and only powerful forces like the royal family of the Shenfeng Kingdom can possess them.

The grade of the golden elixir means the foundation of the cultivator. Only if the foundation is strong enough can one go far enough on the road of cultivation in the future. The ninth-grade golden elixir is undoubtedly the best, and that is also Mu Changsheng's goal. This martial arts test is Mu Changsheng's best chance to obtain the ninth-grade golden elixir.

"The road ahead is long and arduous." Mu Changsheng sighed. It was difficult for him to even get into the top ten in the county exam. If he wanted to get the reward of Nine Revolutions Golden Pill, he had to at least get a certain ranking in the highest level palace exam.

However, Mu Changsheng is not without a chance. The county examination and the prefecture examination will last for one month respectively, which means that Mu Changsheng still has two months before the palace examination. These two months are enough for him to improve his strength to a higher level. What's more, Mu Changsheng now has a huge sum of more than 33,000 medium-grade spirit stones in his hands as support.

"My current cultivation level is very close to the late stage of foundation building. If I'm lucky, I can break through to the late stage of foundation building before the county exam finals. If I'm unlucky, I can still break through before the county exam. And with my nine transformations of physical body, I should be able to break through to the realm of perfect iron bone transformation before the county exam." Mu Changsheng kept calculating in his mind.

After entering the city, Mu Changsheng's first priority was naturally to sign up for the martial arts test.

As usual, Mu Changsheng and Mu Xun found a guide, and this person happened to be Mao Wu who led Mu Changsheng last time.

"Gentlemen, please follow me." Mao Wu said enthusiastically. He naturally recognized Mu Changsheng.

After a cup of tea, Mao Wu brought Mu Changsheng and the others to the registration site for the martial arts test and introduced them, "This is the registration site for the martial arts test. Next to it is the only legal martial arts arena in Qihua City. This is also where you will take the martial arts test in four days. You two gentlemen can go take a look after you have registered and get familiar with the venue in advance."

"Yeah." Mu Changsheng nodded slightly, agreeing with Mao Wu's suggestion, and joined the queue for registration.

Soon it was Mu Changsheng's turn. The cultivator in charge of the county examination registration sat on a chair and asked without raising his head: "Name, age, cultivation level and place of origin?"

"Mu Changsheng, eighteen years old, middle stage of Foundation Establishment, from Qingliu Town." Mu Changsheng told the truth. Although there is no limit to the number of people who can register for the martial arts test, there are age restrictions. Those in Foundation Establishment cannot be older than twenty-five years old, those in Golden Core cannot be older than one hundred years old, and those in Nascent Soul cannot be older than four hundred years old.

The reason for such a restriction is that those who have not broken through to the corresponding realm beyond the age limit will be deemed to lack talent and are not worth cultivating. For example, in the Foundation Establishment Realm, everyone has been practicing since childhood. If one has not broken through to the Foundation Establishment Realm at the age of 25, it means that the aptitude is too poor. The same is true for the Golden Core Realm and the Nascent Soul Realm. After all, the Shenfeng Kingdom holds martial arts tests to screen talents.

However, there are only Foundation Establishment and Golden Core level martial arts tests in the county and prefecture examinations. Only in the palace examinations are there Nascent Soul level martial arts tests. After all, Nascent Soul cultivators are very rare in the prefectures and counties, and there simply aren't enough young Nascent Soul cultivators to participate in both county and prefecture level martial arts tests.

After recording Mu Changsheng's information, the monk said, "The registration fee is ten low-grade spirit stones."

The ten low-grade spirit stones were more of a symbolic fee, and it was also to prevent some cultivators in the early stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm from filling up the numbers. In fact, there were very few cultivators in the middle stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm like Mu Changsheng who would come to sign up.

Mu Changsheng directly paid ten low-grade spirit stones and received a yellow token as his certificate for participating in the martial arts test.

After Mu Changsheng, it was Mu Xun’s turn. It was the same process and the registration was completed quickly.

Afterwards, Mu Changsheng, Mu Xun and Mao Wu went to the fighting arena nearby to familiarize themselves with the venue in advance.

The so-called fighting arena is actually a circular ring-shaped building sunken into the ground. The center of the bottom floor is the competition arena, and surrounding it are circles of spiral-shaped spectator seats.

Mu Changsheng and Mu Xun, who came here for the first time, were quickly shocked by the bustle here. Maybe because it was close to the martial arts test, there were so many people here that there were not enough chairs. Many people were standing and shouting wildly.

Mu Changsheng and Mu Xun struggled to squeeze into the crowd before they could see the scene in the field. It turned out that two Foundation Establishment cultivators were competing. Judging from their cultivation levels, both of them should be in the middle Foundation Establishment stage.

Just as Mu Changsheng and the other person were watching the fight, a staff member from the fighting arena passed by and asked loudly if anyone wanted to place a bet.

Mu Xun took the opportunity to stop the staff member. He didn't want to place a bet, but asked: "Can I participate in this fight?" Since two cultivators in the middle stage of foundation building were able to participate in the fight, he thought that as a cultivator in the late stage of foundation building, he should be able to participate as well. He wanted to use this opportunity to gain some experience in the competition.

"Yes." The staff responded loudly: "To participate in the martial arts competition, you need to pay a registration fee of 100 lower-grade spirit stones. If you lose, you need to pay the registration fee again if you want to participate again. If you win, the registration fee will be returned, and you can continue to fight. If you win two games in a row, you will be rewarded with 100 lower-grade spirit stones, if you win three games in a row, you will be rewarded with 200 lower-grade spirit stones, if you win four games in a row, you will be rewarded with 300 lower-grade spirit stones, and so on. After winning ten games in a row, you will be assigned an opponent with a realm one small realm higher than you. If you win twenty games in a row, the realm of your opponent will be raised to another small realm, and so on."

Mu Xun's eyes lit up when he heard this. He believed that since he had practiced the Three Yuan Sword Technique and the Stepping Air Body Technique, his strength should be good among his peers. As long as he won two games in a row, he would make a profit. This might be a way for him to earn spirit stones.

So Mu Xun immediately asked: "I want to participate in this fight, how do I sign up?"

"Go over there to sign up." The staff pointed to the bottom of the fighting arena.

"Do you want to go?" Mu Xun said to Mu Changsheng invitingly.

"Forget it. I still have to continue practicing these few days, and strive to break through to the late stage of foundation building as soon as possible." Mu Changsheng responded. Mu Xun's cultivation had already broken through to the late stage of foundation building, so he was naturally not in a hurry for cultivation. However, he was very anxious, and his physical body refining was also a trump card, which could not be easily exposed in this martial arts arena, because there must be many spectators here who have signed up for the martial arts test in four days.

"Okay then, see you in four days." Mu Xun said goodbye, and then he squeezed towards the bottom of the fighting arena.

Mu Changsheng stood there and watched the competition for a while, then, under the guidance of Mao Wu, he went to the inn where he stayed last time in Qihua City and began his retreat and cultivation.

Two flowers are in bloom, each showing its own beauty. Mu Xun squeezed for a long time and finally squeezed to the bottom level of the audience seats, which is where the registration for the martial arts arena is located.

Mu Xun immediately found the staff here and said impatiently: "I want to sign up for the fight."

The monk in charge was a cold-looking woman in a black dress. She said calmly, "Do you want to participate in the martial arts fight or the life-and-death fight? If you win a martial arts fight, you will be rewarded with 100 lower-grade spirit stones. If you win a life-and-death fight, you will be rewarded with 1,000 lower-grade spirit stones. For each additional win, the reward will be doubled. The registration fee for both is 100 lower-grade spirit stones. In addition, I'll tell you in advance that the life-and-death fight must be decided by life or death."