"Five human scents." Fury-Eye breathed in the air the way a fisherman reads water. "One went this way."His Class was tracking. He could pull a scent out of a breeze, separate it from a thousand others, and follow it across ground. Vulture had left him a sample of Ethan's scent before he'd walked into that valley. It was unmistakable now—the one trail that plunged deep into the wilds.What he couldn't figure out was why.Ethan Su was an E-rank Farmer. The weakest rank there was. The kind of Class the bloodless bureaucrats handed out to kids who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. How did an E-rank Farmer walk into the deep wilds? Worse—the human family had lived out here for weeks. Twenty kilometers out of Jiangnan. That was wolf country, pack country, twenty-to-thirty level wolves. Even Fury-Eye, one of the Eight Vajras, would tread carefully. A newly Awakened kid didn't raise a family camp in that.Unless something was keeping the wolves off him.He followed the scent anywa

Ethan stayed in the valley until the twenty-ninth.He packed. Retracted every patch of land back into his storage space—the bigger space that had come with Level 5. Doudou couldn't be stored. It shrank itself into a small warm light and settled on his shoulder like a pendant. People kept electronic pets now. Nobody looked twice.He walked out of the wilds toward the city.The road held other travelers. Scavengers picking through the dead ground, bent over, their packs heavy. Family exploration teams moving in tight knots, the fighters up front, the support Classes in the middle. Two patrols from the Capital City Lord's mansion, their auras heavy and disciplined, nothing like the scout teams back in Jiangnan. Those men wore armor that didn't rattle and walked like they expected trouble and didn't care.They looked at him. He looked back. Nobody closed the distance.In the wilds, you didn't approach strangers. People died over scraps of supplies. Walking up uninvited was an invitation t

"There it is." Biao Huang stopped short of the steps. "The Awakened Hall. Anybody who Awakens comes through here to get a badge. The badge unlocks the perks—though let's be honest, a new kid doesn't have any perks worth unlocking yet."The Hall rose over the plaza like something alive: a broad, low, massive thing of dark stone and set-back windows, crouched and silent. The steps were a current—Awakened of every Class in every direction, half of them late for something, a few stopping to clap one another on the shoulder. A wall of noise rolled down at Ethan as he climbed.Biao Huang followed him in. His boys peeled off and stayed outside; none of them were keen to be this close to a building at this level on a regular Tuesday.Inside was worse. The first floor was one vast hall, and along its edges someone had carved out a market—stall after stall laid out on blankets and folding tables, heaped with scavenged junk and hand-made goods. A blacksmith's wares, hammered out of rebar and cor

"Shut. The hell. Up."Duan's voice cut through the laughter like a blade. "Since when does any of you get to weigh in? He's a Special Occupation student. Whether you like it or not. And I'll tell you one more time—don't underestimate a Class, you idiots."He didn't actually disagree, privately. Ethan's Class and his E-rank talent were a long shot. He'd be surprised if the boy survived the entrance exam. But that was Duan's problem to judge. Strangers snickering was something else."Come on, Duan," someone called. "A guy with that roll isn't passing.""Why waste your breath protecting him?""Got our letter, he's half ours already." Duan's face went flat. "You've talked enough."They shut up. Duan's Class was the sort you didn't provoke—word was, rubbing him the wrong way brought bad luck, and nobody wanted to test it. They went quiet, but their eyes stayed amused. Special Occupation was circling the drain, in their book, and this year's freshman tournament was already in the bag.Duan

Duan and the rest found him within minutes. They circled like he was a sideshow."You really are an E-rank Farmer." It wasn't a question this time. "No lies?"Ruirui walked a slow loop around him, head tilted. He looked like a normal kid. Ordinary height, ordinary clothes, ordinary face—handsome, sure, but nothing that screamed "one-stroke ape killer." She had watched the screen. She knew what she knew.Ethan caught her looking and put it together. They could watch the exam space. They'd seen everything.He didn't bother to hide it. "Any problem?""No problem." Duan's tone was carefully neutral. "You both passed. Two students this year—that's the whole freshman class. Come on. I'll walk you through enrollment. School rule says we re-test your Class and talent on the way in."The campus sprawled. Training rooms, proving grounds, and a handful of buildings with no visible purpose. Duan named them as they walked."Our school is thin on the ground on purpose. Every Class here is a one-in-