Chapter Three: The Beginning of the School Year

ps: The new book needs your care. If you have recommendations, please give me one; if not, at least add it to your collection!
……………………………………………………………Main Text………………………………………………………
“Xiao He, are you sure it’s all right to just wander around like this?” Feng Xue asked, walking barefoot along the beach, enjoying the faintly salty sea breeze. He turned to the young girl behind him, who was dressed in a classic black-and-white maid uniform.

“Because you were admitted through special recruitment, Master, you started school half a month earlier than normal. The other students are still on vacation,” the girl replied respectfully. This girl, named Xiao He, had been assigned to Feng Xue by the academy to take care of all his needs at the Central Transcender Academy.

Don’t underestimate these maids—they are all top graduates of the Central Maid Academy.

In this world, every child undergoes an aptitude assessment at the age of two to determine their Concept (since Origin is much harder to detect and doesn’t affect combat, it’s not included in the evaluation). If the Concept isn’t suited for a combat profession (not that it’s impossible; for instance, if someone’s Concept is “teacup,” they could still train it to the level of Fa Hai’s golden alms bowl, but their potential for divinity would be much lower than someone with a weapon Concept—such a person would be better off becoming a tea master), they are sent to specialized skill schools.

However, the Central Maid Academy is different from other vocational schools. It only admits girls whose Concepts are service-oriented (these are mostly abstract Concepts that allow the user to provide the ultimate comfort to those they serve, or greatly enhance their ability to absorb knowledge related to service, such as massage or cooking).

The so-called Central Maid Academy is an affiliate of the Central Transcender Academy, dedicated to training personal maids for transcenders (here referring to the academy’s prodigies, not ordinary transmigrators). Graduates not only receive professional maid training but also study noble etiquette, culinary arts, dance, and even combat. Maids who graduate from here are masters of all refined arts and practical skills. Their only shortcoming is a lack of potential to advance to the mythic rank (not absolutely impossible, just highly unlikely, since Concept directly influences Domain—someone with the Concept “onahole,” for example, would activate a health spa Domain, and evolving such a Domain to the mythic level is virtually impossible). Even mythic-level powerhouses take pride in owning such a personal maid, yet these maids are reserved solely for students of the Central Transcender Academy—the seeds most likely to touch the ultimate rules.

But even this privilege is not easily attained. At present, Feng Xue does not yet qualify. Xiao He, the “maid” at his side, is so only in name; for her, this period is merely an internship. To truly become her master (in any sense), one must at least reach the Epic rank and possess a personal Domain.

“So, what should I do for the next half month?” Feng Xue sat on the sand, watching the artificial sun sink slowly into the sea, its blood-red light dyeing half the sky, and asked.

“I recommend that you test your Origin, Master,” Xiao He replied without hesitation. “The attributes of your Origin greatly affect your abilities. You’re still at the Mundane rank, so you can avoid the hassle of retraining.”

Feng Xue immediately nodded in agreement. “Retraining” refers to the process of using special potions to cleanse one’s soul. (For example, if someone devoured a Horcrux in the Harry Potter world, Voldemort could potentially corrupt or even possess the transmigrator through the soul fragment. In such cases, one might be forced to cleanse their soul, but the price is reverting to a Mundane state and being unable to practice previous techniques.) In game terms, it means dropping back to level zero and being forced to change classes, but unlike deleting your character and starting over, you retain your previous experiences, abilities, and equipment.

Generally, no one would reset their soul just because of their Origin, but at the Central Transcender Academy, any flaw, however minor, must be eliminated.

(Of course, it’s rare for someone to enter Central Transcender Academy without even knowing their own Origin, as Feng Xue does.)

From the very beginning, one should integrate their Concept and soul in the way most compatible with their Origin; only then can a transmigrator maximize their chance of becoming divine.

Detecting one’s Origin is simple—just step into a magic circle. But the cost is enough to consume a large family’s entire annual income. Even top families reserve it for their direct descendants. Only the resource-rich Central Transcender Academy offers this as a free benefit.

“Feng Xue, right?” A young man in a white lab coat (never judge age by appearance) handed Feng Xue a piece of white paper. “Your Origin is ‘Lie.’ Here are the details—destroy this after reading.”

With that, he ignored Feng Xue.

Feng Xue looked at the brief lines on the paper:

Origin: Lie. Lies arise from the need to survive; in deceiving your enemies, you also deceive yourself.
Trait: Immunity to detection and prophecy abilities up to three ranks higher than your own (Mundane rank is immune to all below Hero; Uncommon is immune to all below Epic), enhances illusion and mental abilities.

Feng Xue frowned. This Origin was far from the “exploration” or “knowledge-seeking” he had anticipated. Instead of anti-illusion, it was focused on illusions. But Origins are nearly unchangeable (only an EX-rank Concept Armament might alter it, such as the Coyote’s sword, which was influenced by Avalon). No matter what, he had to accept it. Still, was his curiosity really rooted in self-deception?

He struck a match and burned the paper. Somewhat excited, he wanted to test his Origin’s potential, but after a moment’s thought, he gave up on developing supernatural abilities for now. The academy’s special admission benefits allowed him to select only one boon—he didn’t yet have a soul technique, so it would be unwise to waste this opportunity just to try out his Origin.

Now, a word about the Central Transcender Academy’s benefits.

As the most prestigious academy for the Eastern human race, it boasts the largest repository of soul techniques and all sorts of enhancement systems, even offering various rare organ transplants (Sharingan, magic circuits, gourmet cells, and so on)—of course, all for a price.

As a special recruit, Feng Xue could select one benefit for free.

However, since the school year hadn’t started yet, the library was still closed…

…

Half a month flew by. Feng Xue was anything but idle during this time—he experienced the legendary, most professional foundational training: from basic combat to reflex drills, Concept application to precision body conditioning. He enjoyed the thrill of rapid improvement, rising from mid-level Mundane to high-level Mundane in just two weeks (comparable to a real-world top special forces operative and a martial arts grandmaster). For context, it had taken him sixteen years just to go from low to mid-level before.

But according to Xiao He, this speed was at its end. All he’d done was fully tap into his existing potential through systematic training. True improvement from now on would require painstaking effort.

With training complete, the Central Transcender Academy’s opening day arrived.

The academy uses a tiered system: Uncommon, Extraordinary, Heroic, Epic, and Legendary grades, with a Saint-level postgraduate equivalent. Even at the Demigod level, one can pursue a doctorate by registering as a teaching assistant. In short, unless you reach Saint rank, you’re not considered a graduate.

As the highest school for transmigrators, theory alone is not enough. Each quarter (three months), the academy offers a free world traversal opportunity. The time dilation is astonishing—86,400:1, meaning one second in the real world equals a whole day in a sub-plane. You could spend two hundred years there, and not even a day would pass here. Participation is optional, however, as the academy does not provide life insurance for such expeditions: dying costs at least ten years of your lifespan, and if you’re soul-killed, you die for real. Thus, some students forgo the opportunity.

But the academy does not tolerate idleness—each year, all students must undergo a mandatory strength assessment, which involves a sub-plane mission appropriate to their rank. These worlds are carefully chosen, typically involving some kind of tournament (like the Sky Arena in Hunter x Hunter, the World Martial Arts Tournament in Dragon Ball, the Dark Tournament in Yu Yu Hakusho). Success means you stay, regardless of rank advancement; failure means transfer to a branch campus, or worse, death (since world traversal consumes lifespan and, if you never complete a mission, you could easily die of old age in a mission world).

After all, nearly a thousand new students enroll each year, but the advancement of transmigrators is slow. Without this elimination mechanism, the academy’s prodigies would grow soft and useless in just a few years.

Not all new students start at the Uncommon grade; in fact, most enter directly at Extraordinary, and a few even at Fantasia. With only a handful of new Uncommon students, Feng Xue—himself merely at high-level Mundane—felt utterly outclassed.

He had no one to blame but himself for not having chosen a soul technique yet.

…

Feng Xue’s Uncommon Grade Class One had just twenty students: one returning student, two special admits, and seventeen freshmen. Incidentally, there was only one Uncommon class.

“You should know this already: you are the lowest of the low in this academy—the weakest of the weak!” The middle-aged teacher, wearing highly reflective glasses, rapped the podium with his lesson plan, scowling. “If you don’t reach Uncommon within a year, get out and go to a branch! Xia Mi! What are you laughing at? You’ve been at Mundane for eight years! If you don’t advance this year, you’re out!”

At the teacher’s words, the lone returning student stopped smiling and wore a wry expression. “Old Wang, you know my soul technique is the Dormant Dragon Art—the slower the start, the faster the later progress. This is my final year; there’s no way I won’t advance!”

Feng Xue suddenly remembered this youth’s story: Xia Mi, a human prodigy, admitted to the Central Transcender Academy eight years ago at age nine for his paper, “The Grand Unification of Cultivation and Concept.” But after that, there was no news—Feng Xue had thought the genius perished in some sub-plane, but it turned out he’d simply been held back for eight years!

Instantly, Feng Xue looked at him with newfound respect, only to find that most students were giving Xia Mi the same look.

The Dormant Dragon Art sounded impressive, but it was a widely known mediocre technique, even to someone as inexperienced as Feng Xue. It involved sealing one’s Concept within the soul, forming an “egg” that would gestate for one to nine years, eventually hatching into a dragon aspect aligned with the user’s Origin and Concept (the type of dragon depending on those factors). It sounded grand, but had two major flaws:

First, uncertainty: The cultivation period was unpredictable, though the longer it took, the stronger the soul would become. Crucially, you couldn’t know in advance how long your own incubation would last. If you hatched in just a year, the effect might be weaker than ordinary techniques.

Second, wasted time: During cultivation, the Concept was sealed within the soul, meaning you couldn’t use your Concept and, therefore, couldn’t strengthen your body. In other words, your physical strength would lag far behind your peers.

Yet Xia Mi had chosen this technique, which was almost unthinkable. Even more incredible was that he’d survived the annual Uncommon-level sub-plane missions all these years with no abilities at all!