After lunch, everyone sets off

"Number Eleven, Lu Fang, initial level: early seventh-stage 15%, final level: early seventh-stage 56%, comprehensive evaluation: Excellent!"

"Li Ran, initial early seventh-stage 27%, current mid seventh-stage 3%, comprehensive evaluation: Outstanding!"

As the tester loudly announced the results, a murmur of astonishment rippled through the crowd.

A faint smirk of satisfaction appeared on Li Ran's face. Although his cultivation progress this month had been severely hampered by that damn energy depletion, this result was more than enough to outshine the vast majority of his competitors.

The testing continued methodically.

One by one, the trainees stepped forward. The testing pillar lit up with varying heights and colors of light, accompanied by the tester’s alternating high and low announcements.

"...Liu Feiyu, initial early seventh-stage 31%, current mid seventh-stage 13%, comprehensive evaluation: Outstanding!"

The atmosphere grew increasingly heated—and tense.

"Number Twenty-Two, Yun Huang!"

The moment this name left the tester’s lips, the noisy training grounds fell into absolute silence, as if someone had pressed a mute button.

Every pair of eyes in the venue—whether belonging to the trainees or the instructors on the high platform—snapped toward that solitary, ice-cold figure.

Over the past month, the name "Yun Huang" had become an insurmountable mountain weighing on everyone’s minds.

Just how terrifying had this woman, who had arrogantly turned the entire cultivation zone into her personal "charging station," become?

Under the weight of countless complex gazes, Yun Huang stepped forward without a trace of emotion.

Her steps were light, her posture as straight and unyielding as a pine tree. Her breathtakingly beautiful face betrayed no hint of feeling.

She approached a testing pillar and slowly raised her hand.

It was a slender, jade-white hand, so delicate it seemed carved from fine mutton-fat jade.

She placed her palm gently against the dark metallic surface of the pillar.

A low hum resonated through the air.

The black pillar, like a slumbering beast abruptly awakened, erupted with a blinding golden light that surged upward from its base with unstoppable momentum!

The speed of the light was terrifying—unstoppable, overwhelming, annihilating every obstacle in its path!

The marker for "sixth-stage" flashed by in an instant!

The "early seventh-stage" line offered no resistance, shattered in the blink of an eye!

Without the slightest pause, the golden pillar of light continued its relentless ascent, effortlessly smashing through the "mid seventh-stage" threshold and climbing even higher before finally stabilizing just shy of the "late seventh-stage" mark!

The training grounds were deathly silent.

The tester’s mouth hung open, his recording board clattering to the ground unnoticed.

He stared, transfixed, at the blinding golden pillar, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard.

It took him several seconds to regain his composure. When he finally spoke, his voice was hoarse with shock, cracking under the strain.

"Yun Huang, initial early seventh-stage 12%, current late seventh-stage 6%, eva... evaluation: Legendary!!"

Legendary!

The highest theoretical rating, one that had only ever existed in speculation, had just materialized before everyone’s eyes!

The silence was suffocating.

Every person present seemed frozen in place, their minds blank.

Not mid seventh-stage—but late seventh-stage!

This was no joke!

Just a month ago, she had barely stepped into the early seventh-stage!

In this single month, she had crossed a chasm that would take others months—even years—to traverse!

This was no longer genius.

This was monstrous.

Divine!

The color drained from many faces in an instant.

Staring at that dazzling rating, they felt their worldviews, their pride, everything they held dear, crushed mercilessly into dust.

The gap could be this vast—this despair-inducing.

Yet Yun Huang, the center of attention, merely withdrew her hand calmly and stepped back without a word.

She paid no mind to the stunned, envious, or fearful gazes around her. To her, they meant nothing.

Instead, almost instinctively, her eyes drifted toward the very back of the crowd.

Past the sea of dumbstruck faces, she found Su Qi.

Su Qi was leaning lazily against Liu Yuan, his expression devoid of surprise. Instead, he wore a smug look that seemed to say, "See? I told you so."

Noticing Yun Huang’s gaze, he raised a thumb in her direction with exaggerated nonchalance—almost dismissively.

Yet this simple, careless gesture sent a ripple through Yun Huang’s usually unshakable heart.

Her perpetually frosty expression, like an eternal glacier, showed the faintest hint of softening—so subtle it was nearly imperceptible.

She lowered her head slightly, avoiding Su Qi’s gaze, but the corner of her lips betrayed her, curling upward in the tiniest, most fleeting of smiles.

Like an ephemeral bloom, it vanished as quickly as it appeared—but it had been real.

Perhaps this world wasn’t as hopeless as she’d thought.

...

"Next, Number Twenty-Three, Su Qi!"

The tester’s voice was noticeably more animated now, brimming with an excitement and anticipation he didn’t even realize he was projecting.

He had just picked up his recording board, his hands still trembling slightly.

After witnessing the birth of a "Legendary" rating, his curiosity about Su Qi—who had skipped training from day one yet caused such an uproar on the final day—was indescribable.

After all, the data showed that every member of Su Qi’s team had scored at least "Outstanding."

One person could be luck or coincidence.

But all of them? That had to be genuine ability.

The silence shattered instantly, replaced by a buzz of murmurs far more complex than before.

Every gaze shifted from Yun Huang to the slouching figure at the back of the line.

If Yun Huang inspired awe and reverence, the emotions directed at Su Qi were far more tangled.

Doubt, curiosity, and a sliver of something they were reluctant to admit—fear.

Because last night, every seventh-stage trainee present had felt, to some degree, that terrifying pressure that forced all the energy in the cultivation zone into submission—into absolute stillness.

It was an overwhelming, existential dominance that left no room for resistance, not even in thought.

But that pressure had come and gone like a dream, leaving many questioning whether it had been real at all.

Now, seeing Su Qi’s half-asleep demeanor, some were beginning to doubt their own senses.

"Bro, it’s your turn," Liu Yuan whispered.

"Mm." Su Qi yawned, releasing his sister’s hand before shuffling forward at a leisurely pace.

His steps were slow, almost dragging, like a college student yanked out of bed before he’d fully woken up.

Su Qi stopped in front of an unused testing pillar, eyeing it critically. He even knocked on it a couple of times, listening to the echo as if inspecting a melon at the market.

Up on the high platform, Lin Xiao’s eyelid twitched violently.

"What the hell is this guy doing now?" he muttered under his breath.

Beside him, Dr. Qin adjusted his glasses, leaning forward with an intensity that surpassed even a father watching his own child.

He had a premonition that what he was about to witness would be even more mind-blowing than Yun Huang's so-called "legend."

Under the gaze of nearly a hundred pairs of eyes, Su Qi finally extended his hand. Unlike others who focused their energy with solemn concentration, he simply placed his palm against the metal pillar—casually, almost carelessly.

Then...

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Nothing happened.

The dark metallic pillar remained unresponsive, cold and silent, as if asleep. The earth-shattering beam of light everyone expected never appeared—not even a faint glimmer.

The murmurs that had just been subdued by Yun Huang's earlier performance erupted again, louder than before.

"What's going on? Did it break?"

Lin Xiao was also stunned. He instinctively glanced at Dr. Qin, only to find the doctor's expression not disappointed but instead grave—even tinged with horror.

"No..." Dr. Qin muttered to himself. "The energy readings haven't changed. It's not that there's no energy—it's that the testing pillar can't analyze it! Its logic core is failing!"

As if to confirm his words—

A sudden anomaly erupted.

Bzzz—! Bzzz—! Bzzz—!

The metal pillars, which had previously stood independent and inert—including the one Yun Huang had just activated—now emitted violent, synchronized alarms.

The energy currents flowing along their surfaces flickered wildly, flashing like circuits on the verge of shorting out.

The pillar Su Qi had touched reacted most violently.

From deep within its dark surface, fine crimson cracks began to spread like spiderwebs, radiating blistering heat that distorted the surrounding air.

"What the hell?!" The officer overseeing the test paled, stepping forward instinctively.

Then—

BOOM!!!!

A deafening explosion tore through the air.

Right before everyone's eyes, the testing pillar—crafted from a special alloy capable of withstanding a full-force strike from an eighth-tier expert—shattered into pieces.

Shards of metal, wreathed in dark-red energy flames, shot outward like shrapnel from a grenade.

"GET DOWN!" Lin Xiao's roar echoed across the field.

Staff members immediately raised energy shields, enveloping the trainees in protective barriers.

Clang! Clang! Clang—!

The fragments hammered against the shields in a rapid-fire barrage, sending ripples of energy scattering like sparks.

Dust and smoke swirled.

When the chaos settled, the testing ground was in ruins.

Scorched craters littered the floor, steaming with residual heat, while molten metal fragments glowed ominously.

And at the epicenter of the explosion—Su Qi stood unharmed, not even a single thread of his clothing disturbed. He casually shook his hand, then turned to Lin Xiao with an innocent look.

"Uh... I don’t have to pay for this, right?"

The crowd gaped like fish out of water, their minds utterly short-circuited by the incomprehensible scene before them.

Destroying a testing pillar?

What kind of power was this?

Even Yun Huang, whose eyes were usually as cool and distant as the moon, now burned with unreadable shock.

She knew Su Qi was strong—but never had she imagined this level of strength.

This wasn’t just a matter of energy levels. It was something deeper—a fundamental, dimensional difference.

Like how an ant could never comprehend why a human could divert a river with ease.

On the platform, Lin Xiao’s lips trembled for a long moment before he finally deflated, waving a limp hand. His voice was hoarse.

"No. You don’t."

"Oh, thanks, Instructor." Su Qi accepted this verdict without a second thought, then strolled back to Liu Yuan’s side, even picking up a relatively intact fragment from the ground along the way.

He handed it to her. "This thing still glows. Take it back as a nightlight."

Liu Yuan nodded obediently and pocketed it.

Dr. Qin, meanwhile, stood frozen as if struck by lightning. After a long pause, he suddenly whirled around and seized Lin Xiao’s arm, his face flushed with manic excitement.

"I get it now! I finally get it!"

"His energy output reads as eighth-tier, but the potency is ninth-tier!"

"It exceeded the pillar’s tolerance threshold!"

"His energy classification operates on a completely different scale than ours!"

"It’s like trying to measure time with a ruler—absurd!"

"I—I quit!" Dr. Qin babbled hysterically. "Everything I’ve learned is garbage! I’m starting over! I’m going to beg him to teach me!"

Lin Xiao pried the man’s fingers off his arm, his expression numb. Right now, he just wanted this nightmare to end so he could find a quiet corner to process everything.

Alone.

...

The first assessment concluded in near-farcical chaos.

Su Qi’s feat of "blowing up the testing pillar" swept through the training camp like a Category 12 psychic storm.

The way people looked at him changed—from disdain and skepticism to sheer awe... and fear.

No one dared to gossip about him anymore. Even meeting his gaze required summoning every ounce of courage they had.

Yet Su Qi, the eye of the storm, remained utterly unfazed.

When Lin Xiao dismissed the group to prepare for the afternoon’s hunting trial, he was the first to leave, Liu Yuan in tow, muttering, "Wonder if the cafeteria has braised pork today."

Lin Xiao watched his retreating back and felt his stomach twist.

Then he turned to announce the next phase.

Unlike previous years, Lin Xiao had unilaterally designated the hunting grounds this time—a notoriously treacherous region of the Origin Realm known as the "Black Forest."

This place wasn’t just home to high-tier Origin Beasts. Worse, its warped magnetic fields and labyrinthine terrain were riddled with natural traps and hallucinogenic miasma. Even eighth-tier experts could lose their way—or worse, perish.

The collective gasp from the trainees was deafening.

This wasn’t a test anymore. It was a death sentence.

"The hunting trial lasts three days," Lin Xiao stated coldly at the forest’s entrance, his voice devoid of emotion. "Rules are simple: Hunt Origin Beasts. Form teams freely. Survival is your own responsibility."

He paused, then added, his gaze flickering toward the back of the crowd where Su Qi was yawning:

"Oh, and one more thing—the Black Forest’s core is off-limits. The creatures there are beyond your pay grade."

"Move out after lunch."