By comparison, the Fourth Star Ring where she had been felt like a frontier town on the edge of the universe or a secluded backwater.
Now, she felt as if she had returned to the heart of human civilization.
At that moment, a broadcast sounded:
“Approaching First Arm Aerospace Port. All passengers please prepare for interstellar travel authorization verification.”
Su Fu snapped back to reality.
Passing between star systems wasn’t simply about having a ticket; each star ring had strict access controls, especially toward the core star rings, where audits were even more rigorous.
The long-range vessel slowly approached the massive aerospace port floating in space.
Soon, a silver-white patrol ship swiftly drew alongside and began escorting them.
Su Fu curiously glanced again; in the next second, several scanning beams were projected into the cabin.
[Dear passengers, identity verification in progress……..]
Su Fu was startled, momentarily thinking she had done something wrong.
[Biological information detected…….. Matching successful]
[Permission verification underway……]
[High School Exam Candidate Su Fu, identity confirmed]
Then a pale blue holographic screen visible only to her unfolded before her eyes:
[Welcome, Student Su Fu]
[Third Star Ring · First Arm Access Permission: Confirmed]
[Interstellar Exam Qualification: Verified]
[Congratulations on your promotion to the Third Star Ring. May the stars guide your path.]
Su Fu was stunned—promotion to the Third Ring?
Since when?
But she quickly realized that even if she failed the Third Star Ring Exam, she simply couldn’t enter a Second Ring university.
At least she could still enter a Third Ring university as a baseline.
So she would be living in the Third Ring from now on.
After the permission verification ended, the long-range vessel was finally allowed into the aerospace port.
Not long after, a gentle female voice sounded inside the cabin:
“Dear passengers, the Tian Qiong Technology Shipping Group’s Galaxy ship has safely arrived.”
“Thank you for choosing Tian Qiong Technology’s interstellar shipping service.”
“Please follow the guiding light trails to the exit, and we wish you a pleasant stay.”
Along with the warm reminder, a huge holographic emblem appeared inside the ship—a silver eagle spreading its wings.
Su Fu recognized it immediately as the symbol of Tian Qiong Technology, one of the five major conglomerates.
She couldn’t help but drift in thought for a moment: ‘eagle… so their nickname must be Eagle Faction?’
So far, the factions she’d encountered included the Turtle Faction of Wanxiang Pavilion, the Cat Faction of Eternal Cardinal, and now the Eagle Faction.
‘Tsk tsk, an animal kingdom indeed.’ Su Fu sighed and followed the crowd toward the exit.
Suddenly, her Star Evolution AI vibrated with a new message:
“Hello Student Su Fu, I’m Lin Mo from Perseus High School sent to pick you up. I’m waiting at Exit A12.”
Su Fu quickly replied, “On my way.”
The bustling crowd was filled with travelers of all different skin tones and appearances.
She hurried through, searching for Exit A12, and finally saw a girl wearing the Perseus High School uniform.
“Lin Mo?” she tentatively asked.
“Ah, you must be Student Su Fu!” Lin Mo’s eyes lit up.
“Did you have a smooth journey?”
“Smooth, smooth. Thank you for coming.”
Half an hour later, Su Fu followed Lin Mo to Perseus High School.
The grand academy complex covered a vast area, looking like a sprawling metropolis from afar.
“Sorry, from here on we have to walk.” Lin Mo apologized, “The school has strict traffic control; no flying vehicles are allowed except in designated areas.”
Su Fu nodded in understanding and even thought the rule was reasonable.
She kept pace with Lin Mo, observing tall silver-leafed phoenix trees gently swaying in the breeze along the roadside.
Actually, Perseus’ scenery was quite beautiful.
But in the next moment, a roar of engines suddenly came from overhead.
“Whoosh!”
Su Fu instinctively looked up and saw a sleek silver aircraft roaring across the campus sky, arrogant and unruly.
Its silver light flashed by, stirring air currents and shaking the phoenix trees violently.
Su Fu: “???”
Wait, weren’t flying vehicles banned?
Lin Mo laughed awkwardly, surprised at the quick contradiction, “Ah… that should be a candidate from the Second Star Ring.”
“Ahem, you know… those aristocratic families tend to be a bit more flexible with rules.”
Su Fu: ‘Flexible? You mean the privileged heirs don’t have to obey?’
No sooner had Lin Mo said this than two more aircraft zoomed overhead with “whoosh whoosh” sounds.
One was fiery red, like a flowing flame; the other was jet black with a cold sheen.
“This density… is a bit much, right?” Su Fu squinted, sensing something was off—three flying vehicles overhead in such a short time?
Wait, how many Second Star Ring candidates had actually arrived?
Seeing Su Fu blatantly staring at the aircraft, Lin Mo nervously leaned in and whispered, “Student Su Fu, those are all major forces from the Second Star Ring. I suggest… you keep your distance.”
“Especially, do not attract their attention—don’t listen, don’t look, got it?”
She paused, seeming to carefully choose her words.
“Not only because they themselves are powerful, but more importantly… each of them has a protector.”
“Protector?” Su Fu raised an eyebrow—another term she hadn’t heard before.
“What’s that?”
Lin Mo was about to explain when another roar sounded.
This time it wasn’t one or two aircraft but an entire squadron rushing past.
The lead ship was silver-blue, with a full moon emblem etched on its hull.
“The Moon Wheel Family… they’ve come too…………” Lin Mo muttered in shock.
Su Fu knew nothing about these aristocratic families, but judging by the scale, Moon Wheel seemed extremely powerful.
Lin Mo snapped out of it with a sigh, her mood clearly souring.
She lowered her voice to explain to Su Fu, “The Order of the Divine Protectors are essentially the ‘bodyguards’ specially trained by the noble families to protect their own heirs. But the difference is, their abilities are incredibly powerful—they are the elite among the family elites. Think about it: these heirs, cultivated with all the resources of the great families, if anything were to happen to them outside, the loss would be enormous.”
Su Fu understood—no matter the era, an heir’s growth was always the family’s top priority, and the Divine Protectors existed for precisely that reason.
In a world where combat strength reigns supreme, the Divine Protectors are the strongest warriors.
But this was the first time she had seen heirs from noble families actually accompanied by Divine Protectors.
In a way, having a Divine Protector meant carrying an unparalleled sword far beyond one’s own strength; as long as they wished, they could slay any offender on the spot.
Under such circumstances, anyone who dared to provoke them would truly risk death.
“But don’t worry too much,” Lin Mo comforted her, “as long as you don’t provoke them, they generally won’t target ordinary students.
“After all, their real rivals are other heirs of the same caliber; they simply don’t care about us.”
At this, she sighed softly, “At the end of the day, we’re just not on the same path.
“They’ve had everything arranged since childhood: top-tier mentors, the best cultivation resources, even the college entrance exam… sigh, their path has long been paved.”
She sounded a bit wistful as she continued, “The schools we fight tooth and nail to get into are just standard fare in their lives. If it weren’t for this college entrance exam reform shaking up the original balance, we wouldn’t even have a chance to see people like them in person.”
Su Fu pondered silently—could meeting them really be a good thing?
All these noble heirs came for the Second Star Ring university quotas within the Third Star Ring.
The Third Star Ring exam was already a brutal bottleneck with countless competitors; now these noble heirs were joining the fray…
Great, the difficulty just skyrocketed.
“Let’s just compete, then.”
Su Fu smiled wryly, “It’s kind of interesting, actually.”
Looking at the flying vehicles in the distance, she chuckled, “The Ministry of Education’s reform was originally aimed at the noble families. But with the families’ move like this, the pressure just shifted onto us commoners. So this is the so-called ‘opportunity’ brought by the college entrance exam reform?”
“Giving us a chance to compete with opponents who were never on the same level before? It seems the outcome is just more suffering for the commoners.”
Su Fu watched those flying vehicles head straight toward the academy’s core area and suddenly asked, “Lin Mo, how powerful do you think these people really are? Using the most abundant resources from the Second Star Ring, what level have they reached?”
“That I do know a bit about,” Lin Mo’s expression grew complicated.
“The batch of Second Star Ring candidates admitted to Perseus High School all have their Divine Skill levels maxed out at B+.”
“All B+?”
“Yeah.” Lin Mo sighed, “We probably can’t even imagine how vast their resource pile is. Don’t even get me started on their professions, okay?”
“They all chose the most money-burning combat classes long ago. A single set of equipment can cost millions of star coins, and one cultivation resource session equals a year’s income for ordinary people. How are we supposed to compete?”
“And the commoners?”
“They mostly pick support classes. Since the core combat roles are taken by them, we can only choose support roles to complement them. After all, we’re burning money but can’t compete, so we switch tracks to avoid head-on clashes.”
She said, “Over time… it’s become an unspoken rule.”
Su Fu roughly understood—noble heirs monopolize the core professions, commoners are forced into support roles; without combat strength, there’s no voice, and over time this further entrenches the class barriers.
These noble families really have defenses everywhere, planning every step.
A sudden thought flashed in Su Fu’s mind:
“These people must be incredibly, incredibly rich, right?”
That question caught Lin Mo off guard.
“Uh, well… They’re definitely very wealthy. Just the cultivation resources they consume in daily training alone would be enough for ordinary people to live off for ten lifetimes.”
“Good.”
Lin Mo blinked, confused, “Good… what?”
The two chatted as they walked along the tree-lined path, soon arriving at Perseus High School’s announcement area.
[Breaking News]
Su Fu saw a huge holographic projection unfold in midair, immediately drawn to the headline in the center: [Major News from the Seven Divine Pantheons]
[Greek Pantheon · Athena’s Divine Summoner Descends: Newly Appointed Destined One: Andrei Kaster, only 16 years old, breaks youngest Destined One record]
[Greek Pantheon · Apollo’s Divine Manifestation Appears, Grants the ‘Solar Divine Bow’ Divine Artifact to his most beloved Divine Summoner, Eileen Clark]
[Indian Pantheon · Shiva’s Divine Manifestation Descends on Mumbai Battlefield, Personally Suppresses S-class Anomaly—Asura King, New Destined One: Mohan Singh]
[Paradise Pantheon · Michael Issues New Prophecy…]
One headline after another appeared, each accompanied by corresponding scenes.
Su Fu had never seen such news about the gods’ movements before.
Was this… gossip?
Ahem, she was practically frozen in place.
At this moment, many students passing by stopped to watch, gasping in surprise.
“No wonder the Greek Pantheon keeps producing Destined Ones; when will it be my turn?”
“Look! Eileen actually got Apollo’s Divine Artifact? I’m so jealous!”
“But didn’t her ranking just drop to third recently? I wonder what happened.”
“Come on, even if it dropped, she’s definitely a prodigy. And now with Apollo’s renewed blessing, she’ll probably climb back up soon.”
“That’s true…”
Su Fu discreetly absorbed a lot of information.