All the selected youths looked up at the purple orb rotating incessantly above them.
The first round of power assessment had them competing beneath a massive bluestone; for this second round assessing speed and movement technique, they would compete under the "Purple Lightning Pearl."
The quality of their results would hinge on how skillfully they could dodge the purple lightning beams!
"The Purple Lightning Pearl can emit light rays that instantly kill warriors of the Spirit Sea Realm!"
"Treat this assessment as a real battle. Being struck by these light rays means in an actual fight you'd be instantly killed by them. Only those who can dodge the rays prove they have a chance to survive under the 'Purple Lightning Pearl'!"
Ye Chen watched the incredible Treasure Instrument, the "Purple Lightning Pearl," in the sky above him, with a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes.
While others saw this merely as an assessment, he had entered the mindset of true combat, resolved to treat the assessment as an actual battle with the "Purple Lightning Pearl," to see if he could evade its instant kill.
"The rays from the Purple Lightning Pearl will only strike within this designated selection area where you stand!"
"You must dodge the rays within the assessment area and may not leave the boundaries; if you do, you'll be disqualified without a score!"
"Now, let's begin the second round of the real assessment!"
Accompanied by Fairy Jia Luo's clear voice, the Purple Lightning Pearl above the selection area suddenly radiated a faint halo, enveloping the entire area completely.
Immediately afterward, the fist-sized orb's interior blazed with endless purple lightning, and in an instant, the surface of the orb fired countless visible crimson beams, which, as soon as they appeared, sped toward the entire selection area.
Puh! Puh! Puh! Puh! Puh!
In an instant, many examinees faced the onslaught of these countless crimson beams.
The moment the Purple Lightning Pearl began to act, all the examinees went on high alert. As the crimson light descended, they mobilized their movement techniques, dodging the sky-full of beams coming at them.
The first volley of beams numbered in the hundreds. Even before they all landed, the surface of the orb fired hundreds more, which struck toward the ground again.
Wave after wave of crimson beams never ceased. In a mere moment, thousands of beams must have struck the selection area.
And these beams had no pattern to their strikes, seemingly firing from the Purple Lightning Pearl in all directions at once.
All the spectators outside the assessment area watched the selection zone light up spectacularly.
The myriad of crimson beams raining down, the silhouettes of figures nimbly dodging the beams, all filled the selection area with the intense atmosphere of a competitive assessment.
Many people looked up at the vast light screen in the sky; as people within the assessment area continued to get hit by crimson beams, the screen showed the names and the number of times they were struck.
Most attention was focused on the names of the top ten youths from the first round, like Ye Chen, Yu Luoxuan, and Mu Yunlei. Everyone wanted to see if they would get hit and how often they would be struck by the beams.
Everyone noticed that after dozens of waves of beams, very few among the top ten had been hit, and Ye Chen, Yu Luoxuan, and Mu Yunlei had not been hit by a single crimson beam thus far.
Within the assessment crowd, Ye Chen's figure flitted about like the wind amidst the endlessly striking crimson beams.
His Divine Sense had already enveloped the entire area, allowing him to instantly activate the "Wind Movement Skills" to evade any crimson beams targeting him.
Ye Chen realized that his Wind Movement Skills were already sufficient to counter these striking beams.
"The 'Purple Lightning Pearl' is a Treasure Instrument that can instantly kill even Spirit Sea Realm warriors; it's not possible that it emits light beams at such a slow speed. Could it be that there will be changes?"
Ye Chen, who was easily dodging the crimson beams, still had the capacity to look up at the Purple Lightning Pearl in the sky and noticed that it was beginning to change.
Initially, the Purple Lightning Pearl emitted crimson beams, but after hundreds of waves, the orb's surface startled as green beams swept across it.
Almost instantaneously, as these green beams emerged, they blasted down toward them.
The speed of these green beams was at least ten times faster than the crimson ones, and their angles were much more calculated, more intricate.
Some angles were struck by two or three consecutive beams, leaving the youths targeted by the green beams with little chance to evade.
"The green beams are faster than the crimson ones!"
"Clearly, these green beams are a more deadly form of instant-kill light than the crimson ones!"
"In actual combat, these beams would probably be used against even stronger opponents!"
At the moment the color of the striking beams shifted on the Purple Lightning Pearl, Ye Chen had already noticed something amiss with his Divine Sense. Instantly, his movement technique changed to the stronger "Thunder Movement Skills!"
The Thunder Movement Skills, a mid-grade technique of the mysterious class, made Ye Chen look like a lightning bolt zipping through the myriad green beams.
No matter how tricky the green beams, Ye Chen easily dodged them all!
With his potent Gang Yuan True Qi, his powerful Divine Sense, and his incredibly swift Thunder Movement Skills, Ye Chen could evade these more potent green beams. But for many other youths, dodging was not so easy.
As the beams shifted from crimson to green, many of the youths realized they couldn't dodge them.
Almost instantly, numerous youths were hit by seven or eight emerald green beams of light.
Outside the assessment area, on the enormous light screen suspended in the void, the number of times each youth was hit began to dramatically surge.
Some had been struck over a hundred times.
Clearly, their movement techniques were no longer sufficient to evade these beams of light, and they were falling behind in this speed evasion assessment.
"If this were a real battle, just the appearance of these 'emerald green beams of light' would have instantaneously killed these people!"
All the spectators outside the arena couldn't help but think this.
The Purple Lightning Pearl was an attacking Treasure Instrument, one that could truly kill in battle!
Fairy Jia Luo had merely neutralized its lethality, using it as an instrument for assessment, but if its killing power had not been removed, those struck by the light below would already be dead.
"The Purple Lightning Pearl is said to possess the 'Light of Death'!"
"Back then, Jia Luo, with this Pearl, even instantaneously slew a hundred great demons in the Myriad Demon Gorge!"
"The previous crimson beams were merely mid-tier Gang Yuan True Qi shooting beams, but now the emerald green beams have been elevated to the level of high-tier Gang Yuan True Qi shooting beams."
"If the color changes to 'deep blue,' reaching the level of mid-tier Spirit Sea Realm shooting beams, I'm afraid that none of the youths below would be able to evade!"
"Even more so, when the light transforms into the most powerful state of the Purple Lightning Pearl, reaching the level of high-tier Spirit Sea Realm shooting beams, turning into 'lightning's true color,' under the purple light's illumination, that would be the truly instantaneous killing light against all of the Spirit Sea Realm!"
At the high seat in the mountain gates' plaza, a Rotating Pill Realm expert who recognized the might of Fairy Jia Luo's "Purple Lightning Pearl" began to speak slowly.
From his words, it was clear that Jia Luo's Purple Lightning Pearl had four levels of the Light of Death.
Mid-tier Gang Yuan True Qi Light of Death, crimson light!
High-tier Gang Yuan True Qi Light of Death, emerald green light!
Mid-tier Spirit Sea Realm Light of Death, deep blue light!
And the most powerful, high-tier Spirit Sea Realm Light of Death, the lightning light!
Now, in the assessment area, when the Purple Lightning Pearl had just triggered the second level of emerald green light, very few of the assessing youths could evade it anymore.
It was only Ye Chen, Yu Luoxuan, and a sparse few others whose names had yet to be marked with any hits.
"The deep blue light is about to appear."
"Soon, I'm afraid even these few remaining individuals will not be able to dodge the beams!"
Just as a Rotating Pill Realm dignitary was slowly uttering these words from the high seat of the mountain gates' plaza, new deep blue lines of light suddenly appeared on the fist-sized Purple Lightning Pearl floating above the assessment area.
In an instant, endless deep blue light beams shot out explosively towards the area below.
With barely any time to react, many youths were directly struck by the deep blue light.
All the assessing youths discovered that this deep blue light was even faster and more difficult to evade.
"Nearly every name now has a hit count behind it!"
"Those who haven't been struck are dwindling, only six... no, five people left!"
In the blink of an eye as this person was speaking, the names on the screen without any hit counts dropped from five to just two.
Only Ye Chen and Yu Luoxuan remained untouched!
Even Mu Yunlei, who had been ranking third, now had his hit count rapidly climbing.
This signified that in this speed evasion assessment, only Ye Chen and Yu Luoxuan were still able to completely avoid the shooting beams!
"Yu Luoxuan, the girl universally acknowledged as the most likely to seize the first place before the True Disciple selection contest started! She truly remains as strong as ever!"
"Not only is she peerless in the strength assessment, she's just as formidable in this movement technique evaluation!"
Countless people began to praise her.
Then, all eyes turned toward the name at the top of the light screen—Ye Chen—and to the youth in the arena whose speedy movements were drifting so fast, his position was nearly imperceptible.
"Yu Luoxuan's strength has been recognized by everyone!"
"But this Ye Chen, after seizing the lead in the strength assessment, turns out to be just as powerful in movement techniques!"
"It seems that not only is his strength formidable, but his movement technique is also a strong suit!"
Everyone now focused on whether Ye Chen could once again defeat Yu Luoxuan in terms of movement technique, to capture first place in this second round of assessments.