After being reborn, the villain comes with a spoiler tag.

Huo Yu watched with indifferent eyes as Long Yucheng plummeted like a bird with broken wings. In his divine sense, he could even "see" the prism above Long Yucheng's head drawing a dazzling light trail in mid-air.

Long Yucheng's life was naturally not in danger. Several inner disciples who had taken on the guarding mission from the Mission Hall were around him, and their duty was to ensure that the test takers were safe and sound during the assessment.

Just as Long Yucheng "accidentally" slipped and fell, the nearest inner disciple rode his flying sword and sped over.

However, the ending that Huo Yu had predicted did not happen. Long Yucheng only fell for about ten feet before being tightly grabbed by a mortal woman who was also participating in the entrance examination.

The two slid several more feet under the enormous impact before barely managing to regain their balance.

Upon seeing this, the inner disciple who was about to offer assistance returned to his post.

Huo Yu felt a little regretful. If Long Yucheng had been saved by an inner disciple, he would have been judged to have failed the assessment. However, being saved by a mortal woman who was also an examinee would not affect his assessment results.

Huo Yu didn't know if this was also part of the Heavenly Dao's arrangement, but he had no intention of continuing to intervene.

Long Yucheng was an important pawn in his hands. That attack just now was merely him venting his anger towards the Heavenly Dao on Long Yucheng, who was favored by the Heavenly Dao.

In addition, another subtle change also alerted him.

The mortal woman who caught Long Yucheng had a prism on her head that was originally dull and lifeless, but now it was emitting a faint white light.

Compared to the dazzling golden light above Long Yucheng's head, this faint light was like a firefly compared to the bright moon, insignificant, but Huo Yu still keenly noticed this change.

In an instant, countless speculations flashed through Huo Yu's mind. He stared intently at the two people, remaining motionless.

With the woman's help, Long Yucheng found a foothold on the mountainside and began to climb upwards with great effort. During this process, the prismatic light above the woman's head intensified slightly, almost imperceptibly.

However, the words next to the prism on the woman's face changed from "Passerby A, no hope of ascension" to "Passerby A, slim hope".

Huo Yu's mind raced, and he suddenly realized what was going on.

He gazed intently at the golden prism above Long Yucheng's head, then turned and transformed into a streak of light, flying back to his cave.

After reorganizing his thoughts, Huo Yu made a more detailed summary of his conjectures about prismatic crystals.

The prismatic crystal represents the degree to which the Way of Heaven recognizes an individual; Huo Yu will tentatively call it the "Way of Heaven Value".

As for the function of the Heavenly Dao Value, in short, the lower the Heavenly Dao Value is during the ascension and tribulation, the greater the power required to open the Heavenly Dao Gate; when the Heavenly Dao Value is low enough, the Heavenly Dao Gate will be completely closed to it, and the Prism's comment will become "No hope of ascension".

The level of Heavenly Dao Value is reflected through color and brightness of light. Based on known samples, Huo Yu speculated that the highest value is like that of Long Yucheng, who seems to have a fragment of the Heavenly Dao Gate above his head; while the lowest value is his own jet-black prism.

The rest, from lowest to highest, are white, silver, and gold.

Once the Heavenly Dao Value reaches a certain level, the evaluation will change accordingly. The next level above "No Hope of Ascension" is "Scarce Hope".

As for the remaining comments, they seem more like an evaluation of the prism owner, such as his own "abandoned child of Heaven", Hua Yanyue's "arduous path" and Bai Xue's "Heaven's mercy", and the obvious "passerby", "cannon fodder" and "minion" above the heads of countless people.

All cultivators possess Heavenly Dao Value, while mortals without spiritual roots do not.

Among mortals with spiritual roots, most do not possess Heavenly Dao Value, while a few possess White Heavenly Dao Value, the reason for which remains unknown to this day.

Finally, and most importantly: the Heavenly Dao Value is not static!

Although Huo Yu did not yet understand the specific method of changing the Heavenly Dao Value, he was certain that one of them was creating a causal relationship with Long Yucheng.

Based on what he had just seen and heard, Huo Yu guessed that directly or indirectly helping Long Yucheng embark on the path of cultivation was one of the ways to obtain Heavenly Dao Points.

As for the reverse operation, namely preventing Long Yucheng from embarking on the path of cultivation, whether it would lower the Heavenly Dao value, Huo Yu had no way of verifying it: the prism above his head was so black that it seemed to be able to devour the surrounding light, and he couldn't tell at all whether the obstruction just now had lowered the Heavenly Dao value even further.

Why Long Yucheng? Huo Yu had no idea. But in the cultivation world, the concept of destiny had been circulating for a long time.

Since there is a Child of Destiny, then adding another Favored Child of Heaven doesn't seem so unacceptable. Perhaps the two are inherently one. Just like the elusive concept of destiny, the essence of Heaven's Way remains a mystery.

However, unlike fortune, the Heavenly Dao is a tangible reality. All the tribulations experienced by cultivators originate from the Heavenly Dao; and the ultimate goal of every cultivator, the first step to ascending to the Immortal Realm, is to open the gate of the Heavenly Dao.

One theory is that the Way of Heaven was formed from the soul of Pangu.

Cultivating immortality is essentially about competing with the heavens for opportunities, which is why the heavens bestow tribulations upon every cultivator.

However, Heaven has a benevolent nature and cannot bear to directly kill living beings. Therefore, the tribulation lightning does not kill the person undergoing the tribulation from the beginning, but rather increases in intensity as the person's cultivation level improves. It is more like a trial for the cultivator, testing whether they have made up their minds to defy Heaven.

Only those with a firm Dao heart can successfully overcome the tribulation and take another step closer to achieving enlightenment; those with a weak Dao heart will be reduced to ashes under the lightning tribulation, returning the opportunity to heaven.

But Huo Yu knew that Heaven had no benevolence towards life.

From the moment each person embarks on the path of cultivation, the Heavenly Dao has already determined their fate. So-called successful tribulation is merely because their time of demise has not yet arrived.

When Huo Yu first embarked on the path of cultivation, it was solely for survival.

Later, he gained extraordinary abilities, and survival was no longer an issue; he longed to ascend to immortality.

Having experienced life and death and witnessed himself in countless worlds, Huo Yu wanted to know even more: What exactly is the Heavenly Dao? And what exactly is the world he inhabits?

And the answers to all these questions seem to be found only after ascending to immortality and leaving this world.

"You have all passed the second round of testing. From now on, you will be outer disciples of my Qiongshan Sect."

The inner disciple in charge of proctoring the exam said in an icy tone:

"About the outer disciples, Steward Sun will explain to you tomorrow. Now, let's go to your residences."

Upon hearing the commotion, an outer disciple dressed in yellow came over and led a group of people, whose clothes were tattered, whose hands and feet were covered in wounds, and whose expressions were both tired and excited, to the outer disciples' residence.

Long Yucheng was among them.

At this moment, he was physically exhausted and could barely stand, but his spirits were exceptionally high.

In his mind, the first main quest issued by the system had been completed.

As the mission updated, an androgynous voice echoed in his mind:

[Congratulations on successfully activating the Heavenly Dao System. This is the Heavenly Dao Assistant account.]