"Wei Ziping, you are too arrogant!"
The Examiner Elder heard Wei Ziping's words, and his face suddenly sank. He then said, "Since you don't believe me, let's prove it with facts!"
With that, he waved his hand, and immediately the Heaven and Earth Vital Energy gathered, forming an ice crystal-like mirror in front of him.
This technique is called the "Profound Light Mirror", which can display the recorded scenes of the caster.
In the speed test, there naturally wouldn't be any formations used to observe the dynamics, otherwise, if something happened, wouldn't they be unable to find the culprit?
Soon, under the spell of the Examiner Elder, the picture on the Profound Light Mirror shook from being blurry and began to clear, soon showing the image of Mu Jinyu.
Wei Ziping and Yun Ge could clearly see that Mu Jinyu was far ahead of them at that time, but suddenly, his speed slowed down, and a mysterious Dao Rhyme surrounded him.
Then, he was gradually surpassed by Yun Ge and Wei Ziping.
When Wei Ziping saw this scene, he looked at himself sneering as he passed by Mu Jinyu and knew that this was not a fabrication by the Examiner Elder but was indeed a real occurrence.
He calmed down and seriously considered that Mu Jinyu's state at that time was indeed a bit strange, not like he was slowing down because he couldn't keep up.
That means he really did realize something during the speed test...
"Hehe..."
Wei Ziping clenched his fists tightly, unable to accept that Mu Jinyu was such a monster!
Then, the scene in the Profound Light Mirror accelerated, showing that Wei Qingfeng and the others also overtook Mu Jinyu, but at that moment, Mu Jinyu seemed to have successfully realized something, and his speed suddenly increased.
In an instant, he surpassed the fifth, sixth, and seventh places on the List of Outstanding Talents, then overtook Wei Qingfeng, and rushed straight towards the nearing summit occupied by Wei Ziping and Yun Ge.
In the screen, it was clearly visible that Wei Ziping was incessantly chattering to Yun Ge, and then Mu Jinyu suddenly rushed forward.
The Examiner Elder gave a close-up shot of Mu Jinyu rushing forward, making it clear that his eyes were unfocused, and he wasn't completely free from the state of enlightenment.
Therefore, he wasn't deliberately targeting Yun Ge or intentionally aiming at Wei Ziping.
He was charging at both of them without discrimination.
Only, Yun Ge was on alert at all times, so when Mu Jinyu rushed over, he sensed something off and dodged in time.
But Wei Ziping, still chattering to Yun Ge, didn't notice the danger from behind, and thus was sent flying by Mu Jinyu.
The scene ended here, with the next part showing Mu Jinyu reaching the summit and waking up to converse with the Examiner Elder.
"Hoo!"
The Examiner Elder waved his hand, dissolving the Profound Light Mirror, and coldly looked at the extremely pale Wei Ziping, saying, "Do you still claim I'm deliberately covering for him? That he was intentionally targeting you?"
Wei Ziping's face turned ashen, his eyes red, and his fists clenched, but he was unable to retort. Finally, he let out a long breath and said, "Elder, I was wrong..."
The Examiner Elder said, "The person you should apologize to is not me, but Mu Jinyu!"
Wei Ziping heard the Examiner Elder's words, his face turned even uglier, and he glanced at Mu Jinyu, finding him standing aside with an always calm expression like water, causing Wei Ziping to snort coldly and remain silent.
His attitude indicated his refusal to apologize to Mu Jinyu.
"You?!"
Seeing his stance, the Examiner Elder became furious and was about to say something.
But Mu Jinyu waved his hand and said calmly, "It's okay. I was at fault in the first place; he doesn't need to apologize. However, he falsely accused me and you just now without understanding the truth, so I will not apologize for my unintentional actions either. Let's call it even!"
"Hmph!"
Wei Ziping snorted coldly, said nothing, but his expression eased considerably.
Apparently, he also felt that calling it even was acceptable for this matter to end.
Although, in his heart, he still felt that he had been greatly wronged by Mu Jinyu, otherwise, his final result wouldn't have been only reaching the summit after two joss sticks' time.
But at this moment, he didn't dare say more.
Mu Jinyu gave Wei Ziping a deep look, saying, "Of course, if you are not convinced, we can test our skills in the actual combat assessment!"
"Alright." Wei Ziping readily agreed.
He was eager to start the actual combat assessment immediately to beat Mu Jinyu!
Mu Jinyu said no more, and Yun Ge and the Examiner Elder saw them setting up a duel and did not say much, the scene fell silent for a while.
But soon, this silence was broken.
Because Wei Qingfeng also reached the summit.
At that time, Wei Ziping was sent flying to Wei Qingfeng's side by Mu Jinyu. If their strengths were evenly matched, they would have reached the summit one after the other.
But Wei Qingfeng was ultimately not as strong as Wei Ziping, so he lagged significantly behind.
He reached the summit only after a third of the third joss stick had burned.
With Wei Qingfeng reaching the summit, soon, the top ten of the List of Outstanding Talents also reached the summit one after another.
And then, just as the third joss stick was about to burn out, the top fifteen of the List of Outstanding Talents arrived.
Thus, in this speed test, only fifteen people barely passed.
The Examiner Elder shook his head slightly, feeling somewhat disappointed, but said nothing more and had people leave Zhongfeng and return to the midway of Tianlan Peak to rest.
During the rest period, many disciples learned that Mu Jinyu had reached the summit using only one joss stick's time and broke the record set by the Sect Leader, they were both amazed and respectful.
At this moment, Mu Jinyu's status in their hearts unknowingly surpassed that of Yun Ge!
In their view, although Mu Jinyu was not the first on the List of Outstanding Talents, once the Inner Gate assessment ended, he would definitely be the first on the List of Outstanding Talents.
The rest period quickly ended.
The Examiner Elder stood in front of the crowd and said, "The rest is over. Now we will begin testing your reaction abilities. Follow me."
With that, he took the lead, walking towards a stone wall in the Inner Sect Square.
Mu Jinyu followed the crowd, feeling a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen it before.
He then recalled that during the Outer Gate examination, the wooden dummies used to filter the following duel candidates were inside such a stone wall.
Sure enough, as the Examiner Elder reached the stone wall, some mechanism was activated, and the stone wall opened, revealing a passage within.
This passage was somewhat different from the Outer Gate examination's wooden dummy area; it had no branching paths, just a single corridor, inside which eighteen bronze men stood.
It seemed a bit simple.
But Mu Jinyu thought that since it was a test of reaction ability, it couldn't be that simple.
The Examiner Elder then said, "This assessment also has a limit. You must reach the end of the passage within three joss sticks' time, and the number of hits you receive must not exceed thirty."