This scene stunned not only Principal Xiao Jianguo, but everyone in the audience was also deeply shocked. The shadow… stood up?
Xu Anyan’s talent was too strange.
“This…” Xiao Jianguo was speechless. As the principal of Lan City No.1 High School for over twenty years, he had seen countless gifted cultivators with strange and peculiar abilities, but never one who could control shadows.
After observing the mysterious shadow for a while, he cautiously asked, “Can it attack?”
Xu Anyan nodded, then manipulated the shadow to demonstrate various combat moves—punching, stabbing, kicking…
Xiao Jianguo’s eyes widened as he felt the power and force in the shadow’s movements, filled with shock. “A tangible shadow?”
In contrast to his astonishment, Xu Anyan remained much calmer. Combat? That was only one of the most basic abilities of her Shadow Attendant. Its true strength went far beyond that.
Otherwise, in the vastness of the universe, where countless races and ancient forces roamed, monsters, Holy Sons, and goddesses with unimaginable talents appeared one after another—why was it her, someone from a remote planet, who stepped into the Imperial Realm, swept across star domains, and ruled her own territory?
Of course, there was no need to reveal all this to outsiders.
“Very good… very good, you may step down now. An SSS-level talent is enough to grant you the highest level of resource allocation!” Xiao Jianguo was thrilled.
If he remembered correctly, the strongest talent ever recorded in Lan City’s history was only S-level. Now that an SSS-level had appeared, it would definitely cause a sensation.
Xu Anyan lightly nodded. As she stepped down from the awakening platform, the eyes of the audience on her had completely changed.
If Xu Anyan used to be the campus belle and the dream girl of all the boys in school, then now, after awakening an SSS-level talent, she had become a goddess beyond reach—destined to live in a completely different world than them.
…
Time slowly passed. After Xu Anyan, the school replaced the awakening stone with a new one. The talents awakened afterward were very rare, and even when they did appear, they were only D-level or C-level at best.
Finally, it was Class 3’s turn—Su Yuan’s class. One by one, the students took the stage…
Suddenly, the awakening stone flared up with brilliant light. Although it was far dimmer than the light caused by Xu Anyan, it still reached A-level!
“Damn! It’s A-level!”
“Whoa!”
“Awesome!”
Amid the crowd’s excited reactions, Su Yuan raised his eyes and looked up. Good grief. He thought it might be someone else, but it turned out to be Zheng Yuan.
Zheng Yuan—Su Yuan’s good ‘son.’
At first, the two got to know each other because of Xu Anyan. Zheng Yuan had a crush on Xu Anyan for a long time. When he found out Su Yuan was staying at her house, he immediately acknowledged Su Yuan as his ‘godfather,’ just to get more information about her.
Unfortunately, Su Yuan and Xu Anyan weren’t even that close. What kind of intel could he offer?
After failing multiple times, Zheng Yuan finally realized he had no chance with her and gave up. But over time, he and Su Yuan had become good friends, and their bond grew strong.
Now standing on stage, Zheng Yuan was surrounded by blazing flames—clearly having awakened a fire-elemental talent. He looked extremely cool, drawing countless envious stares.
Principal Xiao Jianguo’s face lit up like a blooming chrysanthemum. An SSS-level and now an A-level talent? Lan City No.1 High School was having a bountiful year!
After completing the awakening, Zheng Yuan stepped down from the platform. Under everyone’s gaze, he returned to Su Yuan’s side. With a smug grin, he snapped his fingers, and a ball of fire appeared at his fingertips.
He gave Su Yuan a cocky look. “Brother Yuan? Cool or not?”
Su Yuan grinned. “Cool.”
Zheng Yuan flipped his hair with flair. “Too bad I’m not SSS-level. Otherwise, I’d be launching a new offensive on Goddess Xu.”
Su Yuan said, “Even if you were SSS-level, it wouldn’t work. That girl… probably no one on Earth could make her smile. She’s just cold by nature.”
Zheng Yuan nodded in total agreement.
Just then, an unpleasant voice interrupted them. “What a joke. It’s obvious she just doesn’t like you, so she puts on that cold face.”
Su Yuan raised an eyebrow. He didn’t even have to turn around to know who said that—Zhao Rizhu.
The son of the Discipline Director, Zhao Ridou. He looked like a skinny monkey, with a horse face full of pockmarks. Originally, his father got him into Class 1, but his grades were so terrible he got demoted back to Class 3, becoming a laughingstock.
“Hey horse-face pig, who gave you permission to speak?” Zheng Yuan shot back without hesitation. Now that he had awakened an A-level talent, he was considered a genius. He wasn’t afraid of Zhao Rizhu at all.
Zhao Rizhu’s expression changed instantly. His eyes burned with fury. The thing he hated most was his face being compared to a horse—especially since the ‘zhu’ in his name sounded like ‘pig.’ ‘Horse-face pig’ was the nickname he despised the most.
But then, his eyes gleamed slyly, and he let out a perverse chuckle. “Hehehe. You guys probably don’t know, but even the coldest women become hot and passionate in front of the man who truly controls them…”
“You’ll see. I’m going to awaken an SSS-level talent soon. I guarantee I’ll have her begging at my feet.”
Then, he suddenly looked at Su Yuan with a strange expression. “By the way, judging by how cold she is to you, could it be you secretly did something to her while staying at her house?”
“Like… maybe you stole her underwear to comfort your restless little soul?”
Zheng Yuan frowned in disgust. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Su Yuan raised his hand slightly, signaling Zheng Yuan to stop.
“Brother Yuan?” Zheng Yuan turned to him in confusion, only to see Su Yuan grinning.
“What’s the point of talking to someone like him?” Su Yuan said, “A rat in the gutter, filthy and disgusting—what he needs is to have his heart cleansed by holy light.”
“Holy… light?” Zheng Yuan was stunned.
Su Yuan didn’t explain. He simply raised his hand and landed a solid punch square on that revolting horse-face.
“Ahhh!” Zhao Rizhu let out a miserable scream. He hadn’t expected Su Yuan to hit him in front of everyone and was too slow to react. The sharp pain sent stars spinning in his eyes, and he cried out while clutching his nose, tears streaming down his face.
“You bastard!”
Su Yuan turned back, shook his fist toward Zheng Yuan, and said with a smile, “That’s the holy light.”
Zheng Yuan blinked, then gave a thumbs-up. “Awesome!”
The commotion quickly caught the attention of the teachers. Homeroom teacher Old Wu rushed over with a serious expression. “This is the awakening ceremony! What are you two doing?!”
Zhao Rizhu cried, sniffling with one hand covering his nose. “Su Yuan hit me!”
Zheng Yuan immediately explained the whole situation in detail. After hearing it all, Old Wu looked at Zhao Rizhu with unmistakable disgust in his eyes.
Everyone in the school knew Zhao Ridou, the Discipline Director, was arrogant and sycophantic, always clinging to those in power. Naturally, Old Wu, who was a righteous man, had no good impression of his son either.
Unfortunately, just as he was about to scold Zhao Rizhu, the staff at the awakening platform called out Zhao Rizhu’s name.
Clutching his nose and hissing from the pain, Zhao Rizhu shot a venomous glare at Su Yuan as he passed by. “You just wait!”
…
After Zhao Rizhu left, Zheng Yuan spat. “Scumbag. That kind of trash is pure filth.”
“Don’t take it to heart, Brother Yuan. Just treat him like a fart and move on.”
“I swear, if that bastard actually awakens a talent, then heaven’s truly gone blind…”