Supervisor Li left the room, leaving only Tianlei and Xue Ren behind. She sighed, clearly bored.
"Come. Time for a tour… or whatever."
Golden Earth Academy did not look like a place built for mercy.
The first thing Feng Tianlei saw as he stepped through the threshold was the vastness.
The platform beneath his feet extended outward in sweeping arcs of dark stone and luminous metal, stretching so far that the opposite edges vanished into haze.
Thousands of people moved below.
Students. Instructors. Attendants. And figures Tianlei could not even classify flowed endlessly through the academy's massive structure.
He stood frozen at the edge of it all.
"This is only the outer ring," Xue Ren said beside him. "If this overwhelms you, you probably won't survive the inner districts."
He didn't answer. His senses were already overloaded.
The academy felt alive—
but not in the warm way forests or cities felt alive.
It was a predatory kind of life.
Only now did he fully grasp what she had meant when she said this place did not allow anyone to remain unnoticed.
Xue Ren walked ahead without waiting. After a brief hesitation, Tianlei stepped forward and matched her pace.
They descended through a projection corridor. The world folded, light compressing around them then expanded again as they were deposited into a massive circular hall supported by towering pillars of translucent crystal.
At the center of the chamber floated a rotating construct—a complex lattice of interlocking rings.
Hundreds of new students were already assembled within the circle.
Their clothing varied wildly: traditional robes, combat armor, modern fitted uniforms similar to Tianlei's own. The only common thread among them was tension.
This was assessment anxiety.
"Outer Evaluation Hall," Xue Ren said. "Here, you choose your course. Golden Earth Academy has three halls—the Hall of Warriors, the Hall of Mages, and the Hall of Beasts."
They moved to the perimeter, joining the last arrivals. Instructor Li stood near the core of the floating construct. Several other instructors stood beside him.
One stepped forward.
A woman with silver-streaked hair tied in a precise knot raised her hand. The construct reacted instantly. Its revolving rings flared with controlled golden light that expanded across the hall.
Silence fell.
"Welcome, candidates," she said calmly. "You will now be evaluated. Each of you will be offered a specific armor set that resonates with the course you wish to take. There are three courses under three branches—the Warrior Hall, the Mage Hall, and the Beast Hall."
Her gaze swept across the crowd.
The construct fractured.
Hundreds of smaller ring-plates disassembled from the core and descended in controlled arcs, stopping one by one before each candidate. Tianlei's ring hovered at eye level.
Xue Ren stepped away. "Once this begins, even I'm not allowed to interfere."
The ring activated.
A crushing wave of invisible pressure slammed through Tianlei's body.
Something passed through him on every level—muscle, nerves, bones, organs, even the deeper structure of his being—peeling back layers mortal senses were never meant to perceive.
Data rippled across the ring.
Name: Feng Tianlei
Gene Origin: Unregistered
Physical Gene Index: 8.2 (Above Human Standard)
Neural Processing Index: 7.9 (High Compatibility)
Cellular Regeneration Index: Dormant
Energy Affinity: Undefined
Primary Gene Core: Unmanifested
The ring paused.
Then a warning symbol pulsed.
Gene Variance: Extreme
Anomaly Classification: Active
The final word burned brighter than the rest.
Anomaly.
Across the hall, murmurs spread as other candidates completed their scans.
Some rings glowed green.
Others yellow.
Many flared red—then shattered.
Those candidates collapsed instantly as their gene feedback was forcefully terminated. Instructors moved in without urgency or shame, escorting the rejected out as if removing failed data samples rather than people.
The academy did not debate rejection.
Tianlei's ring did not shatter.
Instead, it descended into a deeper layer of analysis.
Gene Rank Projection: Calculating…
Awakening Probability: 38%
Gene Rank Compatibility: Unknown
Potential Deviation: Catastrophic
His knees buckled as internal turbulence surged through him. Something inside his blood responded violently, as if an entity buried within him had sensed external recognition for the first time.
A tremor rippled through the entire hall.
Several instructors turned sharply.
Instructor Li's eyes narrowed.
The silver-haired woman lifted her hand. "Suppress the anomaly feedback."
The words struck a forgotten chord in his mind. The shattered memory of Silver Ridge Academy slammed into his thoughts in fragmented pieces.
The sigil's light compressed inward, forcibly stabilizing the violent reading. The crushing pressure retreated just enough for Tianlei to inhale again. His chest burned as sweat broke across his skin.
The results finalized.
Gene Rank: Pending
Status: Conditional Anomaly Admission
Only a handful of sigils remained active in the hall.
Five.
Tianlei was one of them.
Before thought could settle, the second phase began.
The floor beneath them dissolved into descending beams of light that swallowed the five remaining candidates and plunged them downward through layered spatial arrays.
When the world reassembled, Tianlei stood inside a darker chamber—part stone, part forest.
Only five remained.
Above them, the silver-haired instructor appeared again in projection form, towering over them.
"You who stand here possess aberrant gene signatures," she said. "From this moment onward, you are no longer classified as standard humans."
Her gaze sharpened.
"You are now upgraded to Soldier Class."
With a wave of her hand, a data sphere bloomed behind her.
GENE RANK SYSTEM
Type 0: Baseline Human
...
"You do not currently possess ranks," she continued. "You possess deviation."
The next display activated.
ANOMALY CLASSIFICATIONS
Type I: Unstable Mutation – Self-destructive evolution
Type II: Dual-Core Genes – Conflicting gene authorities
Type III: Void-Trait – Energy devours energy
Type IV: Sovereign Seed – Future ruler-class gene
Type V: Unknown-Origin Gene – Non-terrestrial lineage
Her eyes lifted.
"Those who resist the attack from the enhanced gene-mutated White Panther will pass the test. For safety reasons, you will be issued temporary armor sets."
The platform beneath their feet reacted.
Five incomplete armor constructs rose from the stone and locked onto their respective candidates. When Tianlei's suppression frame sealed around his body, his muscles screamed under invisible resistance.
"Adaptive suppression frames," the instructor said. "They restrict output based on genetic imbalance. They do not protect you."
Something else emerged.
Crystallized muscle fused with shadow-metal, reshaping into a massive tortoise-shell-like structure as space distorted.
A column of light slammed into the ground.
The enhanced Gene-Grade White Panther appeared.
It was nearly twice the size of a normal panther.
It did not hesitate.
It lunged forward and tore the closest candidate into nothing.
Eyes widened across the platform.
This was no simulation.
The body vanished.
The beast reappeared in a spatial distortion and speared another candidate into a tree. The armor activated instantly, but bone-shattering force still echoed through the impact.
A scream broke from one of the female candidates as the branch tore through fractured armor.
No weapons had been provided.
Tianlei tapped the side of his armor instinctively.
Nothing appeared.
A rough-faced male candidate clenched his fists and snorted.
The panther lunged at him.
Its claws struck his armor and the armor vibrated, releasing a violent electric wave that sent both the candidate and the beast stumbling backward.
"Candidate Eleven qualifies."
The man vanished instantly.
Realization struck Tianlei.
The armors were different.
"Armors are distributed based on gene type," Feng Tianlei thought but somehow it was like the woman could read his mind .
"Smart. I didn't expect any of you to realize so quickly . These suppression frames attached to your armors are based on the types of genes you have ,"the silver-haired woman said with a thin smile.
So all they had to do…
…was survive a single strike.
The creature turned toward Tianlei.
It appeared before him.
The strike descended.
The suppression frame shrieked as redirected force dragged both of them across the platform, stone cracking beneath their sliding bodies.
For the first time—
The White Panther recoiled.
The countdown ended and the beast dissolved into data particles.
The armor sets unlocked , returning to stone leaving only two candidates standing still .
The other reappeared instantly in the original hall, the emblem of Golden Earth Academy traced across his palm like a living tattoo.
Tianlei vanished next.
Back in the Evaluation Hall.
Xue Ren shot him a thumbs-up, smirking while, the silver-haired instructor regarded him in silence.
Behind her, a final classification line appeared on the supervisor's personal tablet.
Anomaly Type Assigned:
Type III – Void-Trait (Energy Devours Energy)
Gene Rank Potential: Monster Grade (Locked)
The female supervisor's breath caught as her eyes lowered to the data displayed on her tablet .
…Amazing .....
Someone unlocking a monster grade Gene was rare but not so extraordinary ,there were many types of monster grade genes ,most if which were low class but still considered superior to other grades .
Tianlei never saw the data but could feel the impact of the attack still pulsing on the sides of his chest . The power of that black tortoise armor was indeed extraordinary and out of reach to someone as poor as him .