"Of course not. Didn't I eat it just now?" Chen Tianyi said.
"Well, okay. I'll give it a try." Hearing Chen Tianyi's words, Hu Ke'er hesitated and nodded. Then she stuffed the small piece of spiritual stone into her mouth.
As soon as the spiritual stone touched her taste buds, it gave off a faint salty taste, followed by a thick and nauseating fishy smell. A feeling of nausea immediately rushed up from her esophagus.
"Ugh—" Hu Ke'er couldn't hold it back any longer and spat out the spiritual stone in her mouth all at once.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
"Miss Hu, are you okay?" Chen Tianyi asked with concern when he saw Hu Ke'er's situation.
"This is so fishy! How did you manage to eat it?" Hu Ke'er complained.
"It's not that bad. You'll get used to it. Why don't you try again?"
"Try again? No way! I'm not eating this spiritual stone. I won't eat it no matter what!" Hu Ke'er waved her hands and refused.
Originally, she had a great resistance to eating spiritual stones. With this experience, she really didn't want to eat them anymore.
"What should we do then, Miss? Are you going to give up?" Chen Tianyi frowned slightly when he saw Hu Ke'er refuse to eat the spiritual stone.
"Is there no other way to join Mount Longhu except eating spiritual stones?" Hu Ke'er counter - questioned.
"Of course not. It's just that eating spiritual stones will make it easier to activate spiritual roots. As long as your spiritual roots meet the standard, you can become an outer - sect disciple of Mount Longhu." Chen Tianyi explained softly.
"Well, so that means we can test spiritual roots without eating spiritual stones?"
"Yes."
"Then let's go~" Hu Ke'er said as she stretched and jumped off the bed.
"Go? Where are we going?" Chen Tianyi asked in confusion when he heard Hu Ke'er's words.
"Of course, to test spiritual roots~" Hu Ke'er said as if it were the most natural thing.
"Hey, are you really not going to consider eating a spiritual stone?" Chen Tianyi asked again.
"Come on. I really won't eat it. That thing tastes so disgusting!" With that, Hu Ke'er pulled Chen Tianyi towards the door of the room.
"Hey hey hey, slow down. You don't know the way. Let me lead you there!" After saying that, Chen Tianyi led Hu Ke'er towards another peak of Mount Longhu.
"The place for testing spiritual roots is Feihu Peak. It's very close to Huya Peak where we're staying now. We can just walk there directly through this mountain path..."
As he led the way in front, Chen Tianyi patiently explained the terrain of Mount Longhu to Hu Ke'er. Before long, Hu Ke'er followed Chen Tianyi to Feihu Peak.
"Feihu Hall?" When Chen Tianyi led Hu Ke'er to the huge courtyard on Feihu Peak, Hu Ke'er looked up at the huge plaque and said softly.
"Yes. This is where the test is held. I'll go in with you."
"Okay." Hu Ke'er nodded and quickly followed Chen Tianyi into Feihu Hall.
"Well, it looks quite big here."
"Of course. This place is not only responsible for the low - level spiritual root test, but also the promotion tests for outer - sect and inner - sect disciples. Only by passing the tests can they be promoted continuously." Chen Tianyi said softly.
"This is the room for testing spiritual roots." With that, Chen Tianyi led Hu Ke'er to the side room on the left. He gently pushed open the door, and Hu Ke'er saw that there was only a very simple table in the room. There was a huge transparent sphere on the table, and an old man behind the table was dozing off with his eyes half - closed, fanning himself.
"Uncle, could you please test this young lady's spiritual roots?"
"Tap, tap." The old man with half - closed eyes didn't say a word and still seemed to be dozing off, but his hand holding the fan tapped on the table twice.
"Uncle, this is the wine you asked me to buy for you before." Chen Tianyi said as he placed the gourd on his waist on the table.
"Well, you rascal. You only come to me when you need something. I'm glad you still remember the wine I like." Hearing there was wine, the old man suddenly opened his eyes and scolded with a smile.
"Hehe, Uncle. You've been so good to me since I was a kid. How could I forget the wine you like?" Chen Tianyi scratched his head and grinned.
"But I'm troubling you again this time. I'd like you to do a spiritual root test for this young lady."
"Spiritual root test. It's a small thing." The old man said softly. Then he turned his head to look at Hu Ke'er, squinted his eyes, sized her up, and frowned.
"Kid, where did this young lady come from..."
"I met this young lady when I was catching a snake demon. She wanted to come up the mountain to have a look, so I brought her here."
"I see." Hearing Chen Tianyi's words, the old man nodded.
"Miss, you just need to put your hand on this spiritual pearl. Then don't think about anything and just empty your mind."
"Okay." Hearing the old man's words, Hu Ke'er put her hand on the spiritual pearl and quietly closed her eyes.
Not long after closing her eyes, Hu Ke'er felt the spiritual pearl start to heat up slowly. Then the warm feeling drilled into her palm.
"Hiss—"
"It's okay. Endure it. Don't let go." Chen Tianyi's voice came to Hu Ke'er's ears.
"Okay." Hu Ke'er responded softly. Not long after, the burning feeling slowly dissipated in her body.
"Okay, you can open your eyes now." Just when Hu Ke'er felt nothing, the old man slowly spoke.
"Phew~" Hu Ke'er opened her eyes and looked at the palm that had just held the spiritual pearl. She found there was nothing unusual.
It was quite amazing that such a hot thing didn't burn her.
"Well, how about it? Is my spiritual root very powerful?" Seeing that there was nothing wrong with her hand, Hu Ke'er asked Chen Tianyi eagerly.
"This..." Chen Tianyi looked embarrassed when he heard Hu Ke'er's words.
"It's okay. Just tell me directly." Hu Ke'er saw Chen Tianyi's embarrassed look and guessed that her spiritual root might not be very good. She said softly.
"It's a little bit poor."
"How poor is 'a little bit poor'? Can I join your Mount Longhu or not?" Hu Ke'er asked straightforwardly.
"Well..."
"Come on. Don't be so hesitant. Just say it directly! Can I join Mount Longhu or not?" Hearing Chen Tianyi's words, Hu Ke'er frowned tightly.
"..."
"What's there to be hesitant about? If you don't say it, I'll say it for you, rascal." Seeing that Chen Tianyi didn't say anything, the old man simply said,
"Miss, you don't have any spiritual roots at all, so you can't join our Mount Longhu. Tianyi, you can take this young lady down the mountain!"