Suddenly, Ouyang Jing, Vice Dean of Glorious Ring Academy, looked at Mo Xingyun from Tianqiong Path and said, “I heard you admitted that Chinese pantheon freshman from Kunlun last, going to jointly train her?”
His tone carried a hint of mockery, “You Tianqiong Path really keep accepting all kinds of candidates. That’s a losing deal. Even if you manage to train her, her reputation will still belong to Kunlun. What does that have to do with you? Why not just allocate more resources to your own students?”
Mo Xingyun responded calmly, “Everyone knows Kunlun’s situation—it’s difficult to conduct normal teaching activities there. But this freshman managed to pass from the Fourth Ring all the way up, becoming the Third Ring top scorer. She has no lack of effort or talent. Such a talent deserves our full support.”
Ouyang Jing narrowed his eyes, “Oh? So you’ve discovered some unique advantage in her?”
Mo Xingyun smiled knowingly, clearly seeing through his probe.
She smiled lightly and spoke frankly: “The admissions list is finalized. It can’t be changed.”
“Su Fu is already a student of our school.”
Ouyang Jing’s expression froze.
The other vice deans exchanged meaningful glances.
They all knew Su Fu—after all, she was the Third Ring’s top scorer.
But although top scorer, compared to other Second Ring prodigies, she was average at best.
Not to mention, her Divine Manifestation was far weaker.
Xu Qingfeng, Vice Dean of Eternal Gate, chuckled lightly: “Dean Ouyang, what’s going on? Didn’t you already recruit several outstanding heirs of the Seven Great Families this year? Why are you still so obsessed with Su Fu? That’s unlike you.”
Ouyang Jing’s expression turned subtle, partly because Xiao Lingxi praised her endlessly—unlimited potential, boundless future, and so on.
He thought, no matter how good a Third Ring candidate was, how far could they really go?
But recalling Xiao Lingxi’s expression, it seemed as if he had lost a very precious talent.
Now that these vice deans spoke sensibly, apart from Su Fu, Glorious Ring had indeed had a bountiful recruitment this year in the Second Ring.
He smiled proudly: “There really were many family prodigies choosing Glorious Ring this year. Among the new students, three were direct heirs of top families, and four were high-potential talents identified by the Shen Yan system—solid picks.”
“So Su Fu is just B+ rank, not comparable. Her only advantage is intelligence, but which genius isn’t smart? In terms of potential, family prodigies have verified potential and mature cultivation paths. Su Fu’s Chinese Divine Pantheon, however, has never produced a precedent—at best, she might reach…”
“No, she can’t even match Tai Xuanzi’s level.”
Tai Xuanzi’s success was a product of perfect timing, environment, and personal harmony—unrepeatable.
Thinking this, Ouyang Jing relaxed considerably.
No need to worry over a Third Ring candidate.
He looked at Mo Xingyun and joked, “Now that both the Second and Third Ring top scorers are at your school, who knows who will be the true top scorer in the end?”
This comment made others laugh.
“Obviously,” Xu Qingfeng said enviously, “it has to be Achilles!”
Achilles, Greek Pantheon, Second Ring top scorer, gifted beyond compare, hailed as the most likely S-level Divine Derivation Core wielder this generation.
He chose Tianqiong Path Academy, causing countless schools to sigh in regret.
“No choice, he’s aiming for the three Great Creator schools,” sighed Lin Muyu, Vice Dean of Star Source.
After expressing regret, the conversation quickly returned to admissions data entry.
Fang Yu from Primordial Scar said, “Once the Ministry finishes the data entry and the enrollment is official, the Destiny Ranking can be updated.”
The Destiny Ranking was a leaderboard rated by the Shen Yan system, assessing students’ connection with gods and measuring future potential.
After all, in the Age of Gods, only those favored by deities could go far.
Compared to divine favor, intelligence, character, ability, talent, and physical quality ranked second.
To gods, as long as they liked you, even a pig could ascend and become a top powerhouse.
Xu Qingfeng replied, “True, but these factors are uncontrollable. You can see the difference with the college entrance exam rankings. Those depend on the dungeon environment and luck, which can cause fluctuating results, deviating from normal levels.”
“But the Destiny Ranking is different. Its evaluation criteria are stable—it’s about the level of divine favor. Undoubtedly, the higher the rank, the greater the future potential, without exception. Divine favor is what every cultivator dreams of. Regardless of talent or resources, without godly grace, one rarely achieves greatness. In previous rankings, those who placed top all achieved astonishing feats in the end.”
“Exactly,” Fang Yu nodded, “Our Star Source dean ranked third back then and is now an S-level destiny bearer.”
Lin Muyu became interested, “By the way, who was first that year…”
Before she could finish, the door suddenly opened, and a middle-aged man entered.
Everyone immediately stood respectfully and said, “Minister Xu Chen.”
Xu Chen nodded kindly, signaling everyone to sit, “No need for formalities. The student registrations have been successfully transferred. Congratulations on welcoming another group of outstanding students.”
After exchanging pleasantries, they exchanged looks and finally revealed their true purpose for this visit.
“Minister Xu, about this Shen Yan update…”
***
Meanwhile, at Kunlun Academy.
With one hour left on the Shen Yan countdown, Su Fu received a Shen Yan notification: the admission notice had arrived.
Su Fu raised an eyebrow and opened it:
[“Admission Notice from Tianqiong Path University”]
[Dear Student Su Fu, Congratulations on your official admission to Tianqiong Path Academy! As an outstanding representative of the Chinese Divine Pantheon candidates, your excellent performance has left a deep impression on us. ]
[Start date: Star Calendar 4051, March 1st]
[Reporting location: Tianqiong Path Academy main building, freshman reception]
[As a new student, you will enjoy the following benefits:
1. Dungeon access permissions…
2. Exclusive mentor…
3. ……….]
[Please complete the following preparations before enrollment: Pre-enrollment Assessment (Click link to begin)]
[We eagerly await your arrival!]
[Tianqiong Path University Admissions Office]
[Star Calendar 4051, February 25th]
“Not bad, not bad.” Su Fu was very satisfied.
The promises Luo Qiu had painted for her were now in black and white.
Besides the admission notice, Shen Yan also reminded her that the admission lists on university websites were out.
“Let’s see who else got in.”
The list started with Second Ring students, and Su Fu immediately spotted Achilles’s name, followed by top talents from major pantheons:
[“Achilles – Greek Pantheon”]
[“Bodhi Yue – Indian Pantheon”]
[“Freya – Norse Pantheon”]
[“ttt……”]
“Wow, that’s all the Seven Great Families gathered!” Su Fu couldn’t help but sigh.
Each name represented a powerful divine pantheon backed by huge family resources.
These people would compete for the chance to attend the Central Stellar Ring Creator Academies.
“Looks like university life won’t be peaceful.”
Su Fu didn’t have to guess—these pantheon elites all wanted to become S-level Divine Derivation Core wielders.
Plus, each pantheon surely had its own backstage schemes.
Tianqiong Path had abundant resources, but the competition was fierce.
Besides the illustrious family heirs, the list included many “rising stars” from commoner backgrounds.
[“Thera, Kaste, Formo, Burns…”]
Su Fu had seen videos of several of them in the college entrance exam news—extremely unusual abilities, either geniuses creating their own Divine Skills or with mutated talents…
“Hiss… feels even harder to deal with, huh?”
Just then, Shen Yan suddenly issued a notification:
[“Connecting to Shen Yan…”]
[“Connection Successful”]
[“Connecting to Destiny Module…”]
[“Group Chat ‘Second Stellar Ring – Tianqiong Path’ is online”]
[“Congratulations on joining the group chat”]
Next came a personal information display:
[“Name: Su Fu”]
[“Academy: Kunlun Academy / Tianqiong Path Academy (Joint Training)”]
[“New permission unlocked: Destiny Ranking”]
[“Destiny information is being recorded…”]
‘Ranking?’ Su Fu remembered Lin Mo had said all destiny bearers in university would compete regardless of pantheon.
[“Note: This list uses destiny value evaluation standards, comprehensively considering indicators such as divine resonance, divine favor, fate alignment, etc. Detailed explanation follows…”]
Su Fu roughly understood.
That is to say, just having high resonance with a deity isn’t enough.
If a god is naturally “benevolent,” all their devotees on that fate path start with a high initial resonance.
For example, followers of the Goddess of Love Aphrodite almost always have high starting resonance.
But that doesn’t truly reflect the destiny bearer’s development potential.
The system also combines the god’s characteristics and fate conditions to comprehensively assess a person’s destiny value.
The various indicators seemed complex, but the core was simple: how much blessing is the deity willing to bestow on you?
At that moment, the ranking refreshed—
[“Tianqiong Path Academy – 4051 Academic Year New Student Destiny Ranking”]
[1. Achilles – Greek Pantheon – Destiny Value: 97.8]
[2. Bodhi – Indian Pantheon – Destiny Value: 95.2]
[3. Freya – Norse Pantheon – Destiny Value: 93.7]
[4. Merlin – Greek Pantheon – Destiny Value: 92.5]
[8. Su Fu – Chinese Pantheon – Destiny Value: 86.9]
[45. Burns – Norse Pantheon – Destiny Value: 65.2]
A total of 45 new students ranked.
Su Fu was shocked to see herself at eighth place.
The first place was indeed Achilles.
She had seen Zeus personally descend to bestow blessings during a live broadcast, so she knew this person was immensely favored by the gods.
Especially since Zeus said, “My bloodline,” making Su Fu suspect that Achilles’s family might truly share blood ties with that god.
She muttered, “As for why the deity himself hasn’t appeared but there might still be a blood relation… well, if it’s Zeus, anything is possible. After all, Zeus is famous among pantheons for ‘widely sowing his seed.’”
If there really was a blood connection, Achilles’s destiny value would naturally be extremely high.
As for those ahead of her, it was easy to understand—they had been connected with their gods since awakening, petitioning for divine skills, powers, or artifacts.
And they must have gone through far more dungeons than her, communicating with their gods countless times.
Cough… she had only met Nuwa once in a dungeon.
She had met the Great Sage the most—in Ling Mountain, Heavenly Prison, and Peach of Immortality dungeons—but that was only three times combined.
Under such circumstances, ranking eighth was already the Chinese gods’ boundless favor.
Making the top ten was far beyond her expectations.
So how to improve the destiny value?
Su Fu had a rough idea.
It was like a favorability system: the more dungeons cleared and the more frequent the interactions with gods, the deeper the bonds.
The gods would grant more abilities now and in the future, and Shen Yan would rate your destiny value higher.
Thus, a virtuous cycle would form, and the destiny value would continuously climb.
“All in all, I still have to grind dungeons!”
She decided to spam dungeons hard before school started, determined not to disgrace the Chinese Divine Pantheon.
Meanwhile, others in the group chat were shocked by the ranking.
“A Fourth Ring candidate, B+ rank, no Divine Manifestation, and she actually joined the destiny bearers’ group?”
“Shen Yan must have a bug! No wonder they need to update the version! Let’s see how high she ranks after the update.”
“She hacked the system, right? Can’t wait to see what she can really do at school.”
“What? Chinese Pantheon? Ranked eighth? This pantheon actually has destiny bearers?”
“Geez — that person is so sneaky, probably boosted her ranking while we were all taking the college exams!”
At that moment, the Shen Yan upgrade countdown finally ended.
[“Version update imminent”]
[“Estimated completion time: 3 days”]
[“Note: To avoid affecting user experience, other functions remain usable during the update, but dungeon functions are temporarily closed”]
[“Gear of Destiny version ends here”]
[“Looking forward to seeing you again”]
[“Countdown: 71:59:58…”]
In the center of the interface, a huge golden gear slowly rotated.
With each rotation, a wisp of golden light scattered, dissolving into countless stars fading into the void.
Destiny completed.