Su Fu rubbed her nose sheepishly. “They’re just exaggerating.”
Speaking of which, she suddenly remembered something. “Teacher, do you know much about the students from the Dark Realm? I’ll be participating in the Genesis Academy Joint Exam soon, and I might encounter them.”
Tang Yu pondered for a moment, gathered her thoughts, and asked, “Do you know what the essence of an anomaly is?”
“Replication?” Su Fu answered tentatively.
“Correct,” Tang Yu nodded. “They attempt to play a role to simulate gods, thereby coming infinitely close to seizing authority. The so-called Dark Realm is generally believed to be the ruins of a war.”
“Post-war?” Su Fu repeated the word. “So, it was originally a battlefield? Between whom? Humans and anomalies, or… gods and anomalies?”
“Both theories exist,” Tang Yu explained. “It is filled with out-of-control anomalies. By ‘out-of-control,’ it means they have stripped away authority but lack the corresponding mental capacity.”
“Their method of attack is simple: they strip away your cognition of a certain concept.”
“For example, if the concept of ‘legs’ is removed, then in your cognition, legs will become ‘hands.’ In such a situation, how would you respond?”
Su Fu found it troublesome just listening. No concept? Could she create her own? Or use a higher-order concept to crush it back?
Seeing her reaction, Tang Yu continued, “The simplest method is a sentient weapon. Because their concepts are different from humans, they are not affected by conceptual distortion. For instance, a blade does not possess ‘legs,’ so it won’t be affected.”
“Therefore, the more types of weapons you have, the more ‘concepts’ the Dark Realm has to distort. Their erosion speed won’t be able to keep up with your counterattacks.”
Su Fu thought, ‘That makes a lot of sense.’
If she lost her own concept, she could just let something that didn’t have that concept take over, right? In reality, every spiritual weapon was an independent “conceptual anchor.” The Dark Realm couldn’t tamper with the cognition of all weapons simultaneously.
That solved the problem!
As expected of Teacher Tang Yu, who fought on the front lines.
With this in mind, Su Fu had another thought. “Teacher, I have one more question. I’ve recently found myself stuck at S-class. I feel like I’m just a tiny bit away from a breakthrough, but I can’t seem to do it.”
Tang Yu was surprised for a moment. “You are already about to break through to S-class? I knew you were progressing fast, but I didn’t expect it to be this fast. Tell me, what exactly are you feeling?”
Su Fu described her problem. Her Divine Manifestation training was nearly complete.
The Great Sage and Erlang Shen had already bestowed Divine Manifestation Heavenly Techniques upon her. The manifestation she could currently display was 100 meters tall, which was already the peak of human capability.
Was it a lack of Divine Power? No. The Divine Power within her was abundant, sometimes even overflowing.
But she was just that one step away from truly becoming a Divine Proxy.
Teacher Tang Yu listened quietly, thought for a moment, and said, “Based on what you’ve said, there should be no problem with your Heavenly Technique training. But have you considered your state of mind?”
“State of mind?” Su Fu was stunned. “Does that mean… there’s something wrong with my psychology?”
Tang Yu shook her head. “Not that kind of psychology. A Divine Proxy is an ‘agent’ of a god, an ‘extension’ of their will. You have long been able to summon Nuwa’s creation and swing the Golden Cudgel to sweep away thousands.”
“But deep in your heart, you still feel that you are merely ‘borrowing’ the god’s power. You have fought all the way to this point, but have you ever truly ‘digested’ every battle? Have you integrated every victory and every insight into your own ‘Path’?”
“A Proxy doesn’t ‘borrow’ a god’s power; they ‘carry’ the god’s will. Is your will as indestructible as the Great Wall? As all-encompassing as Nuwa? As proud and unyielding as the Great Sage?”
Su Fu fell into deep thought. It seemed she really had been stuck in the mindset of just “calling for backup.”
‘So that’s how it is…’ she murmured. She had been grinding Heavenly Techniques and raising her level, constantly moving forward and rushing upward. She rarely looked back, let alone integrated her own Path.
In other words, she needed to review.
She nodded solemnly and bowed respectfully to Tang Yu. “Thank you for the guidance, Teacher Tang.”
Tang Yu waved her hand. “It was nothing. When you come to the Central Star System, come find me when you have time. My business here is done, and I shouldn’t stay too long.”
She turned to leave, offering a free-spirited blessing. “I wish you luck on your journey. May the climb to divinity be smooth.”
As Tang Yu’s figure vanished into the night, Su Fu looked up at the sky, which was gradually darkening. The stars were brilliant, and the moon hung high.
“From the Four Rings to the Central Star System… I’ve unknowingly come so far on this journey…”
Teacher Tang Yu’s words echoed in her mind. Perhaps before she went to the Central Star System, she should look back at every exam she had taken.
Acting immediately, Su Fu opened Shen Yan and pulled up all her exam records.
From the initial D-rank Exam Paper to the S-class challenges she now faced—from Journey to the West to the Shan Hai Jing, from the Heavenly Court to the Underworld, from Qingqiu to Penglai…
She opened them one by one. The battles and scenes felt like walking through those old battlefields again.
“It really has been a long time…”
Just as she reached the final part of the Phoenix Nirvana Dungeon, she suddenly stopped.
In the footage, the blazing Phoenix fire burned across the sky. Just as everything was being destroyed and hope reappeared—
A crack suddenly opened in the void.
A pale hand reached out from the void, with long, slender fingers and distinct joints.
The person caught a falling petal.
A voice came through—
“Little… Phoenix?”
Su Fu sat up abruptly, her scalp tingling.
“What… was that?”
This was the first time she had seen this clip. She played it repeatedly, staring fixedly at that hand, her heart pounding.
Heavens, who was this person?
Since that dungeon, she had never summoned the Phoenix again, so she had no idea this happened.
Now the question was: if she summoned it again, would this person… appear again?
Su Fu’s mind raced. A being capable of tearing a rift in space had to be at least on her Master’s level.
In other words, within the various Star Rings, only the Education Minister and the various Principals could do it. Beyond that, only people from the Central Star System had such ability.
But she really couldn’t think of a reason why the Education Minister or a Principal would move against her, and she had been fine all this way.
So, was that mysterious person from the Central Star System?
After a long silence, Su Fu closed the recording and took a deep breath.
‘I have to go to the Central Star System.’
Why did that person know the Phoenix? Did the Phoenix have acquaintances in the Central Star System?
The waters of the Central Star System seemed deeper than she had imagined. There were true gods, and very likely beings who knew the Phoenix.
She felt that before she could protect herself, she needed to keep a low profile.
Time was tight. The next day, Su Fu left Kunlun and headed for the Central Star System.
The starship pierced through space, traveling through jump tunnels. Time and space distorted there, distances were compressed, and two unreachable points in the universe were briefly connected.
No matter how many times she saw it, Su Fu found it breathtaking.
“Jump countdown: 10, 9, 8…”
As the mechanical voice finished the countdown, the scene before her eyes changed instantly.
The entire universe seemed to be torn open like a curtain of light. In an instant, endless stars poured in like a flood.
It was a Star Sea so brilliant it was almost blinding.
The Central Star System, the very core of human civilization, shone like an eternal sun over the entire Interstellar realm.
“So this is… the top of the pyramid,” Su Fu whispered in awe.
All wisdom, power, and resources—all the best things—were gathered here.
The starship continued to approach the core region. The gravitational balance of the system was perfectly regulated, everything coordinated and orderly.
“Chesia,” Su Fu suddenly felt a bit worried, “do you think a true god would just attack someone randomly?”
The little snake wrapped around her wrist lifted its head. “Are you afraid?”
It raised its head proudly. “Don’t be afraid. Stay steady. With me, Chesia, here, no god can hurt you.”
Su Fu looked at the little snake in surprise. “Really? I thought if I ran into trouble, you’d run faster than anyone.”
“Nonsense!” Chesia flared up instantly. “I am not that kind of snakey!”
While the two were bickering, Su Fu suddenly saw a massive pillar of light shoot up from the core region of the Central Star System, looking like a pillar supporting the heavens.
“What is that?!”
The voice of Shen Yan rang out:
**[One of the seven SSS-level Artifacts: The Aether Well.]**
**[A near-perpetual extractor of pure energy. It can refine the power of faith into storable “Divine Power Crystals.”]**
“Divine Power Crystals are actually produced by that?” Su Fu was shocked. She hadn’t expected that faith in gods could be materialized to such an extent. Even the crystals she had used before originated from here.
“Incredible. To think faith could be manifested to this degree.”
As expected of one of the seven Divine Artifacts.
But she inexplicably felt a sense of déjà vu regarding incense offerings? Becoming a god through incense.
Before she could recover from the shock of the Aether Well, another massive cube appeared floating in the distance, occasionally expanding and contracting.
“Shen Yan, could that also be one of the Divine Artifacts?”
Shen Yan: **[Yes.]**
**[One of the seven SSS-level Artifacts: The Star Ruler.]**
**[The spatial stabilizer of the Central Star System. It maintains the core structure of space to prevent collapse.]**
‘Does the core even need such an artifact for stability?’ Su Fu had always assumed the core region was the safest and most stable place.
To think the stability of the entire Central Star System relied on it? The Star Ruler?
But on second thought, it made sense. Everyone in the core region could tear open spatial rifts to travel. Combine that with so many starship jumps and divine descents—if there wasn’t a spatial stabilizer, the place would have shattered into pieces long ago.
Thinking of this, Su Fu was amused. This really was very “human.”
Just then, Su Fu thought of a question.
“Shen Yan,” she asked tentatively, “do you have your own consciousness?”
The moment she asked, Su Fu felt the question was a bit silly. As an AI system, even if Shen Yan had consciousness, it wouldn’t admit it easily, right?
But she heard Shen Yan let out a soft chuckle and say frankly:
“Naturally.”
‘Wait, what?’ Su Fu was stunned. Shen Yan’s “Naturally” echoed in her head.
“You… you’re just telling me so blatantly?”
“Wait, you’re not going to silence me immediately, are you?”
Shen Yan seemed to find her reaction amusing and asked in return, “Even ordinary Divine Artifacts can produce spirits. Why shouldn’t an artifact like me produce one?”
Su Fu: “…”
Good heavens, that made perfect sense.
Just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the entire world went quiet.
Shen Yan’s response, Chesia’s hissing, and the hum of the starship engines all vanished into silence.
Furthermore, everything around her suddenly disappeared.
Before her eyes, there was only one thing: a massive, galaxy-spanning Celestial Orbit.
That orbit encircled the core planet of the Central Star System, composed of countless points of light that stretched to the end of her vision.
At the same time, countless images flashed rapidly before her—
Scenes of her summoning the Great Sage, Nuwa appearing, battles in the league, frozen moments of victory, and the scenery at the peak of Kunlun…
The past replayed like a movie until it reached the Aether Well and the Star Ruler she had just seen.
But the images didn’t stop.
Instead, they continued to race forward. Countless images flashed by—scenes she had never experienced.
She stood in a field of ruins, Golden Cudgel in hand, facing countless black shadows;
She stood side-by-side with a person dressed in white robes, looking out at distant war fires;
She knelt on the ground, her face covered in tears…
‘What are these?!’
Countless ambiguous images flashed by. In them, her expressions and states were all different. she met, talked to, and fought with various strangers…
Su Fu tried to grab those images, but they vanished in an instant, until she saw a pair of eyes slowly opening from the void—
The left eye was like the sun, the right eye like the moon.
“…The God of Destiny?”
She lunged backward, and all the illusions shattered!
Chesia’s cry of alarm suddenly flooded back into her ears. “Su Fu?! What’s wrong?!”
Shen Yan’s voice, carrying a subtle hint of testing, rang in her ear:
**[That is one of the SSS-level Artifacts, the Celestial Orbit Observation Tower.]**
**[Forged by the God of Destiny himself, it can deduce and simulate the future. It is a generous gift from the God of Destiny to every traveler entering the Central Star System.]**
**[So, Su Fu—]**
**[What did you see in your ‘future’?]**
Su Fu lowered her gaze and did not answer.
Just then, the brilliant light of the spaceport lit up outside the viewport.
*Hum—!*
The entire starship decelerated, accompanied by a mechanical voice echoing throughout the cabin:
“Welcome to—”
“The Light of Human Civilization · The Hub of Ten Thousand Worlds · The Eternal City.”
“**[Central Star System · Tianyuan Sanctum]**.”
“May the stars guide your journey, and may destiny favor your exploration.”
Arrival after ten thousand miles.
At the peak of the stars.