Of course, most of them were crying.
He Kan had been standing under the sun for nearly two hours and had only seen one person smiling. Most people either looked hopeful at first but soon broke down in tears, or they were expressionless, as if they already knew the outcome. They would drag the person beside them away, making room for the next in line. Only a few showed any joy.
It seemed that having the talent of a sorcerer was truly rare.
He Kan made a mental note of this, and upon reflection, it made sense. If the talent for sorcery were common, humanity’s situation wouldn’t be so dire.
The line moved forward slowly.
When it was finally He Kan’s turn, he found himself standing in front of a small blue-clothed tent. Inside were two men dressed casually, and in the center sat a man in a long robe, looking like a scholar.
“Place your hand here,” the scholar said lazily. Perhaps it was because there were too many people, but he only glanced at He Kan briefly before lazily placing a pitch-black stone on the table, signaling for He Kan to put his hand on it.
“…”
He Kan frowned. The stone was as black as ink and radiated a chilling aura. It didn’t seem like a good thing.
“Hurry up, there are people waiting behind you,” the middle-aged scholar urged when he saw He Kan hesitating.
In the end, He Kan put his hand on the stone.
The moment he touched it, a bone-chilling cold shot through his palm, causing He Kan to shiver. The next second, the cold surged into his veins.
The black stone flickered slightly.
The middle-aged scholar, who had thought that this pale, frail-looking young man didn’t seem like someone with the talent for sorcery, had only been going through the motions. But when he saw the stone flicker, his eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“Well, you’re lucky. You actually have the talent,” the scholar said, raising his head to look at He Kan again. Seeing that his lips had turned even paler, likely due to the strange stone, the scholar nodded and said, “Alright, go sit over there and wait. Someone will come to test your abilities soon.”
As he spoke, the scholar pointed to a small house next to the entrance of the Jiantiansi. Inside, a few men and women were already waiting.
He Kan followed the direction the scholar pointed, confirmed it, then nodded politely and said, “Understood.” He walked empty-handed toward the small house.
Once inside, He Kan didn’t intend to greet anyone. He found a corner and sat down.
The people in the small house seemed somewhat curious about the newcomer, but in this world, where one could be eaten by monsters at any moment, interest didn’t lead to approach. Most of them took a glance and then looked away.
He Kan was not prepared to approach others. He just remembered the appearance of these people in his heart.
It was hard to say how much time passed.
By the time the sky outside the small house had begun to darken, the line outside had dwindled. After He Kan, a few more people had come in, bringing the total number to 17—ten men and seven women.
He Kan couldn’t help but look at the ratio with some surprise. After a moment of contemplation, he reminded himself that this was no longer the world of his previous life.
In his past life, within the tribe, female spiders were generally larger and stronger than males. If this were his previous life, the ratio would have been reversed.
“Knock knock!”
The door of the small house was lightly knocked on.
A sharp, efficient-looking woman in black armor stood at the entrance, her hand raised in midair. Clearly, she had just knocked on the door. All eyes in the house turned to her, and only then did she smile brightly and nod, “My surname is Li. You can call me Li Bing, or Li Sishi. I’m in charge of taking you to have your abilities tested.”
Li Bing glanced around at the number of people in the room, her tone tinged with surprise. “It’s rare for more than ten people to awaken their abilities. You’re lucky this time.”
Everyone in the small house nodded in agreement.
He Kan was among them.
His gaze lingered on Li Bing’s left hand, which hung by her side. It was no longer a human hand but resembled the claw of some unknown beast. The claw was long and sharp, and He Kan had no doubt about its lethality.
Was this what a “monster sorcerer” looked like?
He Kan silently compared it to what he remembered. Although it was his first time seeing one, he quickly averted his gaze to avoid arousing suspicion.
Li Sishi finished her remark and led the group into the Jiantiansi.
The large tung-oiled gates opened.
The group followed Li Sishi, turning left and right through the compound. Although there were no monsters around, the atmosphere inside Jiantiansi was cold and oppressive, making it difficult to breathe as they walked.
As He Kan moved along, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. It seemed like there was something beneath the Jiantiansi. Unable to resist, he glanced down but saw only smooth stone slabs, revealing nothing.
The voice of his instincts, which had been guiding him, was now silent.
At the front, Li Sishi appeared to be closely observing everyone’s actions. When she saw He Kan glance down as if searching for something, she raised an eyebrow and nodded slightly.
Li Sishi said nothing and continued leading the way.
He Kan kept following the black-armored woman, walking until they reached the end of a long road. There stood a grand hall, ancient in appearance, with tung-oiled doors. The palace was large enough to accommodate the entire group.
Li Sishi was the first to push open the door and motioned for everyone behind to enter.
He Kan followed the team in. As soon as he entered, he felt his whole body lighten. The pervasive pressure outside vanished, and his entire body felt more at ease.
Instinctively, He Kan raised his head and glanced around the grand hall. He Kan subconsciously looked up and looked around the whole hall. This was a very simple and plain hall. Aside from a few bronze artifacts in the corners, the only thing that had a sense of existence was a statue of a ghost in the center of the hall, which was similar to a Buddhist shrine.
The statue depicted a ghostly figure, human-like in its upper body, with an expression of deep fatigue and aged wrinkles like that of an eighty-year-old man with white hair. The lower body of the statue was very magical, and it was carved into a cloud-like shape.
The ghost figure had a compassionate expression, yet its inhuman nature was unmistakable.
Just one glance at it, and He Kan felt as though a pair of eyes were staring directly at him, filled with a ravenous greed—not for material things, but for him as a person.
What is that thing? He Kan couldn’t help but frown, his mind consumed by this single thought. Were they all being prepared as a blood sacrifice? However, he didn’t sense any killing intent from the black-armored woman, Li Sishi, and though the ghostly figure on the shrine seemed to watch him greedily, it made no further movements.
After thinking it over, He Kan decided to wait and see.
“Step forward and let Shou Lao have a look at your blood,” Li Sishi said to the girl at the front of the line.
The girl was dressed in a green robe, her delicate face pale—likely either from fear of the ghostly figure or from Shou Lao’s frightening appearance. With trembling hands, she held herself upright, forcing herself not to faint. She extended her arm and, gritting her teeth, slashed her wrist with a knife, allowing her blood to drip out.
“Jie jie—” The ghostly figure of Shou Lao, lured by the scent of blood, began to stir. Until then, Shou Lao was just pretending to be a statue, he was actually able to move.
With a leap, Shou Lao descended to the platform, raising his head to sniff the droplets of blood hanging in the air.
There was a piece of white paper on the platform.
Shou Lao licked the blood, and a battle flag symbol appeared on the white paper.
“Not bad, you have a talent for combat. In the future, you can develop as either a sorcerer or a monster sorcerer,” Li Sishi commented, glancing at the paper and nodding.
The girl in green immediately beamed with joy, clutching her wrist as she left the line to wait on the side.
Next in line was a chubby boy, slightly overweight, with a pale, baby-faced complexion. Judging by the quality of his clothing, he came from a well-off family. However, when he looked at the grinning face of Shou Lao, the boy trembled in fear. He shakily stepped forward, his hand trembling so much that it took two tries to cut his wrist.
Shou Lao sniffed the boy’s blood, clearly less pleased this time. He simply gave a quick sniff, without even licking the blood, and another battle flag symbol appeared on the paper, although much dimmer than the girl’s.
“Combat talent, but of a lower grade. You could develop as a laborer,” Li Sishi offered an evaluation this time, suggesting a less prestigious path.
Upon hearing this, He Kan realized that laborers likely had lower talent requirements than sorcerers and monster sorcerer. In his original village, the old sorcerer was the only one responsible for drawing talismans, while the two monster sorcerer—one the village chief and the other the captain of the village guard—held positions of authority. Most of the village guards were just laborers, with some not even reaching that level, relying solely on brute strength.
He Kan nodded in understanding.
The chubby boy’s face fell even more, his fear of Shou Lao’s terrifying appearance evident as he hurriedly stumbled over to stand beside the girl in green.
The line continued to move forward.
Several more people with combat talent appeared, as well as others with a talent for support roles, symbolized by a talisman that appeared on the paper. One of these was a middle-aged man, an ordinary-looking fellow with calloused hands from heavy labor. Shou Lao licked his blood eagerly without even sniffing it first, and the talisman symbol shone brightly on the paper.
“Support role, with good talent. You are suited to becoming a sorcerer. If you do well in the Ruzi Pavilion, you should soon be eligible for a Jiantiansi license,” Li Sishi smiled warmly for the first time since entering the hall, offering encouraging words to the man.
The middle-aged man, relieved, smiled back. Having the talent to become a sorcerer meant that, even if he couldn’t become a monster sorcerer, the talismans he drew would still earn enough to feed his family, far more than the meager wages he earned moving goods at the docks.
“Thank you, Li Sishi,” the man said gratefully.
Finally, it was He Kan’s turn.
Just as He Kan prepared to cut his wrist, Li Sishi suddenly asked him a question.
“When we were walking outside earlier, were you looking for something on the ground?” she asked unexpectedly.
