1 Admission

A bald head glistening with sweat slowly appeared in the eyes of this year's examiners at the top of the Holy Staircase of the Buddhist Temple. These examiners' faces were filled with a gentle warmth towards this youth who now took the final step and completed the first requirement to join the "9 valleys, 10 peaks" Holy Buddhist temple. The youth smiled back and approached the examiners without hurry or hesitation. The staircase he had just walked up wasn't an ordinary staircase, and thus Shangsheng Gaofeng – the bald sweating boy – had gained a great harvest from this journey to the peak of the mountain. Gaofeng had gained a feeling of enlightenment, and his heart had transcended the heart-realm of still-as-water and stepped into the truly tranquil level of one-with-nature. This was truly astounding for a boy who hadn't even started truly cultivating yet, and thus when the examiners sensed this change their smiles widened.

The boy finally arrived in front of the examiners, and they promptly asked him "Name and age?". The youth answered without his voice wavering "Shangsheng Gaofeng, 12 years of age." The examiners were astounded again, this time with his age in relation to his heart-realm. This kind of combination would let him cultivate with a heaven-defying speed and leave even geniuses seen only once every millennia firmly in the dust. Starting to cultivate at the age of 12 would be considered late in the general view of the cultivation world, as the only true requirement for someone to start cultivating was to understand a cultivation technique. This criteria was usually possible from the age of around four years old, but at that point the cultivation of the child would often be filled with flaws due to their lack of reflection and true self-consciousness, so the normal age to start cultivating was around 8 years old.

The Buddhist path was quite different, however, as they valued setting the firmest foundation possible and cultivating the heart-realm before starting qi-cultivation, as a way to both become enlightened to the True Path and to be able to cultivate faster with greater strength at any given level. A higher heart-realm gave multiple advantages, which were most prominent in the fact that it would not only clear the mind, but actually improve it on a fundamental level, eventually turning the mind so powerful that one could even use purely mental attacks on those lacking in the cultivation of their heart-realm. Each level of heart-realm could be considered on the level of a full cultivation realm, meaning that this youth had already transcended mortality in the sense of his mind being at the same level as the Divine core realm. The following levels are the levels of heart-realm and corresponding cultivation levels: Normal - Mortal; Calm - Body-strengthening realm; Peaceful - Qi-gathering realm; Still as water – qi-refining realm; One with nature – Divine core realm; Boundless – Dao searching realm; Sage – Heaven-ascension realm.

The head examiner, an older monk with a white garb, prompted Gaofeng to come closer and then presented a string of 108 prayer beads with intricate inscriptions on each of the beads. Gaofeng accepted the prayer bead and closed his eyes. He had done a lot of research about the process of admittance to the 9 valleys, 10 peaks Holy Buddhist temple and thus knew that the examiners were testing his talent for cultivation and his compatibility with Buddhism and Buddhist techniques. The moment his eyes closed, and he tried sensing the profound nature of these unique prayer beads, a gong sounded, then another, and another, until a total of 19 strikes had been struck. The faces of the examiners turned increasingly grave for each strike, and when the final strike had been struck the head-examiner exclaimed with joy "Our temple has found a new candidate for the seat of the Holy Monk, truly a joyous occasion!". The other examiners expressed their agreement and nodded. They were very well pleased with this result. The amount of strikes to the gong represented the talent of the youth, with each strike signifying a higher level of talent and the maximum amount of strikes was the exact result of this new prodigy of their temple, 19. If a youth achieved one strike, they would join the first valley, two strikes and they would join the second, 10 strikes and they would join the first peak, and 19 strikes and they would join the tenth peak. They had finally got a new seed for the lonely tenth peak, as there were currently only two people qualified to study and cultivate on this peak. These two were the current Head-disciple of their temple, Xian Wen, and the temple master the Holy Abbot Shen Hai. Only these two people among all of the monks in their entire temple, which was almost a total of a hundred thousand, had the opportunity to study at the tenth peak, making the addition of Shangsheng Gaofeng increase the population of this lonely peak by an additional 50%.

The test of Gaofeng was not completely over, however, as only purely his cultivation talent had been tested. Gaofeng continued sensing the intricacies of the prayer beads and his understanding increased rapidly. From first understanding 1% to then understand 10% when the last strike of the gong could be heard. Now his understanding was nearing 30% already. Gaofeng felt that if he could completely understand the intricacies and intent hidden within this seemingly simple item, he would be able to improve himself further, and thus he would not let go of this opportunity. Ever since he was born, he had always been interested in reading, whether it was history, scripture, fictional stories, guides on spirit-herbs, manuals for beast-taming, cultivation techniques or anything else, but in essence what he sought was knowledge and self-improvement, in addition to the pleasure he found in learning and reading beautifully articulated sentences and arguments. This was no different as he sought to completely unravel the mystery of these prayer beads, an item which could determine his innate talent and affinity with Buddha.

Gaofeng's family was the wealthy merchant family Shangsheng, one of the truly influential families in the Long Empire, and thus he had never lacked interesting and high-quality reading material. His family's library was nothing to scoff at with their history which stretched back further than even the current empire, an empire which had lasted 10 millennia. Thus, their private library could be considered to be even superior to the royal and national library. The only reason the empire wasn't called Shangsheng and instead Long, was because the Shangsheng family simply didn't care about the empire at all. They had branches all over continent, throughout many empires and countries, and thus their actual power was far beyond that of a single empire. Having true political power could actually be detrimental to the Shangsheng family exactly because of their enormous strength and wealth, as if they overthrew an empire, every empire with a Shangsheng family branch would become worried that their desire for power was even larger, to the extent of wanting to conquer the entire continent. Thus, the Shangsheng family had to tread cautiously as to not incite the entire continent and all the empires to band together to deal with them. For this reason, the Shangsheng family stayed out of politics and instead focused on amassing wealth with trade and a myriad of different businesses.

Since Gaofeng had been brought up as the heir-apparent to the main branch of the Shangsheng family in the Long Empire, he was naturally incredibly well read, in addition to having access to the highest quality of cultivation techniques. But, even with having read a myriad of cultivation techniques, he had still never even attempted to cultivate. One might question why this was, but he had his own reasons for this and thus refused to begin cultivating until he achieved his goal of joining the 9 valleys, 10 peaks Holy Temple. Not only this, but achieving a higher heart-realm before cultivating would help him cultivate without flaws and establish a truly impeccable and perfect foundation, making his potential all the greater. The reason most people wouldn't attempt to cultivate their heart-realm to the degree of Gaofeng before starting to cultivate was that it was simply too hard. 99.9% of mortals would never be able to improve their heart-realm to even the first level of "Calm", not to mention the forth level "One with nature". And even if they were able to achieve "One with nature", how could they do so before they were on the brink of death with all their cultivation potential already ruined? The answer was that they couldn't.

When Gaofeng came to understand approximately 50% of the intricacies of the prayer-beads, a massive apparition appeared as if conjured from Gaofeng's body. The apparition was that of a golden Yin-Yang symbol, slowly rotating. The symbol released an aura which made even the powerful examiners shake with equal parts reverence and fear. The head-examiner stammered "That is..th..th..that is… an innate Holy Yin-Yang physique! Amitabha, Buddha has blessed us with the highest of graces for us to accept such a talented monk!" A murmur could be heard when each examiner exclaimed with surprise in their voices and started discussing the meaning of the head-examiner's words in hushed voices. The other examiners didn't even understand what a "Yin-Yang physique" was, not to mention this "Holy Yin-Yang physique". Every examiner had some knowledge regarding innate physiques, otherwise how would they be qualified to examine the talent and potential of new disciples? But even these knowledgeable monks didn't know of the Yin-Yang physique because of its absolute rarity.

The only reason the head-examiner even knew about this physique, and the vastly greater "Holy" Yin-Yang physique, was due to a lucky opportunity which he had received in his youth, the opportunity which catapulted him to his current cultivation of Heaven-ascension, the sixth major cultivation realm. This lucky opportunity had included an ancient scroll which pertained to this exact physique. It explained that the physique not only gifted the person with said physique with an immensely powerful body and the ability to naturally cultivate both Yin and Yang without the two conflicting or being in disharmony, but also that the meridians of a person with such a physique were special. Instead of thin meridians stretching throughout the entire body, causing the energy of the person utilizing it to be nimble but more diffuse and less powerful due to the inability to concentrate too much qi in one place, this physique actually had tyrannically large and thick meridians. This was especially the case with the meridians stretching through their arms and legs, giving anyone with the yin-yang physique immense potential for striking with enormous power in a single blow. Even this ancient document, however, hadn't mentioned nearly anything about the "Holy Yin-Yang physique" as the writer of the document had never personally seen anyone with such a physique. The only thing that was noted was that this kind of physique would seem similar to the Yin-Yang physique with some differences, and that since the physique was considered a "Holy" physique, it could actually evolve and change. This was truly shocking information to the Head-examiner when he first read it, as he had always understood the absolute truth of innate physiques being unable to be changed or improved. The text, however, explained that a miniscule amount of physiques were so-called "Holy" physiques, and this simply meant that they had unlimited potential to improve. Since the Yin-Yang symbol behind Gaofeng was golden in color rather than the traditional black and white, the Head-examiner instantly realized that this suited the criteria of the "Holy Yin-Yang physique" of legends. This kind of physique was naturally in harmony with Buddha, and thus the complete result of the test had been set.

The Head-examiner couldn't help but laugh with joy when he considered the future prosperity of their temple with such an outstanding disciple. Even this loud laugh didn't make Gaofeng open his eyes, however, as he was in deep meditation upon the true meaning of the prayer beads. After being acknowledged by the beads through the manifestation of the golden Yin-Yang symbol, Gaofeng's understanding of the prayer beads rapidly increased to 65%, then 80% and soon even to 99%. Gaofeng wrinkled his brow subconsciously in his state of deep thought as he felt that the last percentage was harder than the previous 99% combined. The examiners in front of Gaofeng were looking at each other in confusion, however, as they didn't know why the youth would continue having his eyes closed even at this point. Normally everyone being examined with the prayer beads would open their eyes the moment the beads either showed a sign of acceptance or rejection, but surprisingly this youth didn't have any reaction at all. It was simply like even he himself didn't feel the manifestation of the golden Yin-Yang symbol, though it manifested directly from his own body.

And in truth, Gaofeng had not felt a thing. His mind was too occupied with the prayer bead to even feel such a powerful aura emanating from himself. Gaofeng's eyebrows relaxed after approximately five minutes of complete silence. These old monks would naturally not disturb Gaofeng in this state, their patience was far from little and thus they quietly waited for Gaofeng to open his eyes. When Gaofeng finally slowly opened his eyes, these examiners took a deep breath, with some nearly choking, having to beat their chest repeatedly with their fist to not pass out. The reason for this reaction was that Gaofeng's eyes seemed to carry the weight of an entire world. His heart-realm had experienced being solidified and improved once again. This time his heart-realm had not entirely broken through to the fifth level of heart-realm, Boundless, but it was on the verge of such a breakthrough, seeming like a quasi-boundless heart-realm.

Unbeknownst to these elders, however, Gaofeng had actually gained something else as well. But this gain was not something these elders would be able to see no matter how hard they tried. Gaofeng had achieved the true approval of the prayer beads, and this approval created a small bond between himself and the prayer beads. This bond could be considered as the initial refinement of divine weapons and treasures, making Gaofeng akin to a partial owner of the prayer beads, and through his connection with the prayer beads he received a kind of mental nudge and connection to a specific place in the temple grounds, with the intention being for Gaofeng to go there to receive a special kind of good fortune. Although he couldn't know for sure, Gaofeng only had one place in mind. Due to his excessive amount of reading, Gaofeng had gained some knowledge of a special golden tablet in the 9 valleys, 10 peaks Holy Temple, and he suspected that this mental connection was leading him to said golden tablet. Gaofeng smiled at the thought, because the reason he desired to join the temple was truly just for this golden tablet.

The prayer beads, despite their acknowledgement of Gaofeng, couldn't be brought with him, as this was a prized possession of the temple and thus they would never let him keep it no matter his talent. He could only wait until he had come into his power to claim the beads. Because of this he didn't hesitate when he handed the head-examiner back the prayer beads despite their allure. The head-examiner quickly received the beads and put a hand on Gaofeng's head, muttering a blessing before he released his hand. After this short ordeal, the head-examiner asked Gaofeng in a grave manner "Are you willing to give up on mortal pleasures and dedicate your life to the True Path of Buddha? Are you willing to join our 9 valleys, 10 peaks temple as a monk of the 10th peak and cultivate hard to achieve the divine Dao?" Gaofeng nodded unhesitatingly and declared, "I am willing." With this answer, the head-examiner continued, with his voice ringing out in every direction "I hereby proclaim you a monk of the 9 valleys, 10 peaks temple. May the light of Buddha guide your path."