Hello, examinee.
Starlight Seventh High School Division, 9 a.m.
The chime marking the hour echoed through the corridors, followed by the gentle, punctual voice of the announcer:
[Today’s Civilization Data Update:]
[Currently contained anomalies: 147,892; Divine Faith Index: 86.7%; Technological Development Index: 92.3%; Civilization Security Index: 73.9%, a 0.02% increase from yesterday...]
[Reminder: The lunar eclipse is approaching, anomaly activity is expected to rise. All academies are advised to strengthen defenses.]
[Thank you to every pioneer fighting for the survival of human civilization.]
[May the gods show mercy; may humanity endure.]
Su Fu leaned against the wall outside the teachers’ office, listening to the entirely unfamiliar broadcast. She lowered her gaze, studying the fine pleats of her uniform skirt.
She was Su Fu—yet not—because she had crossed worlds.
Who would’ve thought that a decade after graduation, she’d be forced back into high school, and not only that, but as a failing student awaiting a lecture from her homeroom teacher?
Moreover, this was an interstellar era plagued by anomalous invasions.
She lifted her eyes to the window. The majestic academy buildings were shrouded within a semi-transparent protective barrier. Even though this was only the most remote Divine Academy on the edge of the galaxy, it was the final bastion of safety in this sector.
Beyond the shield, twisted shadows writhed like living things, and black mist ceaselessly probed the barrier’s weak points.
Those were the "anomalies," Su Fu sighed.
Anomalies were like a plague. Once they descended, they would silently warp the very rules of their surroundings, devouring and spreading as they went.
The only entities capable of resisting anomalies were the gods.
Humanity, through faith in the gods, could acquire the power to oppose these threats. Thus, Divine Academies rose as civilization’s last strongholds.
The anomalies that could be detected and contained were... turned into exam papers.
Each test paper was a real battlefield of anomalous invasion.
It was bad enough to transmigrate, but to land in such a perilous world? And according to her predecessor’s memories, the final exams were about to begin.
The exam papers were full of anomalies that could crunch her up like a snack!
If she wanted to survive, she needed divine power.
But there was a problem: her predecessor had never once managed to summon a god, let alone acquire a divine skill.
And by academy rules, if she failed this assessment again, there would be no makeup test—just immediate expulsion.
She’d be transferred directly into the “Fuel Project,” becoming one more energy source for the shield outside.
In other words, it was as if her grave was already waiting at the door.
What a disastrous start.
No wonder the homeroom teacher wanted to talk to her.
...
But Su Fu had no intention of dying.
A restart was a restart—no matter how disastrous her starting stats, it was still better than being dead.
Besides, despite the anomaly threat, this was also an age when gods walked the world again in splendor.
Deities manifested among mortals, bestowing supreme power upon believers and favoring humanity with immortal miracles.
And all those mythic figures she’d studied in her previous life—any one of them could truly appear before her!
She couldn’t help but feel a flicker of anticipation—
Could she summon the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, and wield the staff that stirred seas and mountains?
Or call upon Erlang, Lord of the Second Heaven, and beg for the all-seeing Heavenly Eye?
Perhaps she could even gain the company of the celestial hound, famed for tracking all things?
Not to mention Nuwa, Pangu, and other creator gods who shaped the world!
In an era of gods like this, what matter if the beginning was hard?
Moreover, there was a reason her predecessor had failed to summon a god.
The key to summoning lay in “calling their name, recognizing their title.”
In other words, one had to identify a god’s true form and then invoke their title to gain their power.
It should have been simple, but before the anomalies’ arrival, the gods slept, faith was lost, and mythic knowledge was fragmented.
It wasn’t until anomalies struck that the gods began to awaken. Humanity was forced to explore ruins and holy sites to rebuild their lost mythology.
After years of effort, most pantheons had been restored.
Pantheons like the Greek and Norse, with few gods, distinct imagery, and simple titles, were easy enough to recognize.
But the Chinese pantheon her predecessor believed in was another matter.
Chinese civilization was ancient and its mythos immeasurably complex.
She could rattle off systems like the Celestial Court, the Underworld, the Investiture of the Gods, and the Primal Chaos...
As for titles, they were even more complicated—a single god might have a dozen titles, some even tabooed.
With cultural disruption, most records had been lost, and the remnants conflicted, full of dubious truths.
Not to mention, there was the risk of backlash. If you called the wrong god, at best your summoning would fail, at worst you could die from the counterstrike.
Who would risk their life on a gamble, especially when other, more accessible pantheons existed?
Thus, this once-mighty pantheon, vast and formidable, became the weakest, its believers few and far between.
Her predecessor did once manage to summon Chinese gods during an exam—but five divine dragons appeared at once!
Though their auras were strong, their forms were indistinct. She had to identify which were the Azure Dragon, Yellow Dragon, Thunder Dragon, Yinglong, and Candle Dragon.
Su Fu: ...That was too much to ask of a child.
With the mythic records so incomplete, how could her predecessor possibly recognize them?
But...
Su Fu was different. After ten years of diligent study, she had researched nearly every Chinese mythological text in existence.
Now, all that knowledge was perfectly preserved in her mind.
Take the dragons, for instance—appearance alone wasn’t enough.
One had to know that Yinglong aided Yu the Great in taming the floods and valued merit above all;
Candle Dragon slept by day and traveled by night, straightforward and forthright;
Azure Dragon presided over spring, and detested betrayal...
She felt a twinge of regret. If only she’d been the one to sit that exam—identifying all five dragons would have earned her at least five divine skills!
Azure Dragon commanded the winds and rains of spring, perhaps granting the power to summon storms;
Yellow Dragon governed the central earth, perhaps bestowing mastery over soil;
Thunder Dragon held dominion over lightning, maybe teaching thunder techniques;
Yinglong conjured clouds and mist, a master of transformation;
And Candle Dragon was a conceptual deity, said to control time itself, even see through illusions.
If she could summon one, she might even gain a time-reversal skill.
What a pity!
Just then, the office door opened.
A gust of crisp, chilled air swept out, along with the voice of her homeroom teacher:
“Su Fu, come in.”
Her teacher was a middle-aged man named Lin Wenyu.
“Su Fu,” he sighed, his tone tinged with just the right amount of regret, “of all the paths, why choose the Chinese pantheon—the one with the lowest success rate?”
“And up till now, you haven’t even managed a basic summoning.”
He paused. “You’re my student; I can’t just ignore you.”
“So, switch your faith.”
“The Greek pantheon is in high demand right now, Athena’s pool has a 99.8% pass rate, and Norse Odin’s is even better—”
...
Lin Wenyu lectured on, but Su Fu’s mind wandered.
Why was he suddenly so concerned?
The final exam’s pass rate was only 70%; she wasn’t the only one at risk of failing.
Yet he’d singled her out and was urging her to switch pantheons?
And of all times, why mention this right before her final exam?
Something was off.
As for switching faiths...
She was most familiar with the Chinese pantheon anyway.
Even if she could switch, the resources of the major pantheons were long monopolized by the great families—their holy sites carved up with nothing left for outsiders.
As a commoner, her hopes of getting a piece were nothing but dreams.
The upward path was completely blocked.
But the Chinese pantheon...
Precisely because it had so few believers, its holy sites were still largely unexplored.
And most importantly, according to the current hierarchy of gods, the Chinese pantheon had creator deities!
Pangu splitting heaven and earth, Nuwa creating humanity, Fuxi establishing the eight trigrams...
It was only because of the passage of ages, cultural breaks, and the difficulty of recognition that no one knew them now.
Everyone chose the easier Greek and Norse pantheons.
But in terms of potential, the Chinese pantheon was the strongest.
After all, those were creator gods!
Lin Wenyu finally stopped, his mouth dry, and gazed at Su Fu. “What are you really thinking?”
Su Fu blinked, her expression sincere. “You’re right, teacher. I’ll try switching faiths for this exam.”
“Wonderful!” Lin Wenyu’s regret vanished, replaced by delight. “Then I’m relieved. You’ll definitely pass this time. Off you go.”
Su Fu left the office, doubts swirling.
So after all that, he just wanted her to switch pantheons?
But—Chinese pantheon?
Why?
As for switching, that was impossible. She’d only agreed to placate him.
As she walked out, a young man in a silver-white uniform brushed past her.
He was the heir of the Shen family, one of the three great houses.
Shen Yunling.
She glanced at him, but he didn’t spare her a look.
Understandable—a talentless underachiever like her wasn’t worth his attention.
He strode into the office, and the teacher’s voice behind her became unrecognizably deferential:
“Young Master Shen, you’re here!”
Su Fu paused. Such obsequiousness? Was her teacher backed by the Shen family?
It wasn’t surprising; in this world, families and corporations reigned, and behind every Divine Academy teacher lurked the shadow of one or another.
But she wasn’t worried about favoritism—the exams weren’t handled by teachers anyway.
They were overseen by one of the seven SSS-class divine artifacts, the Ministry of Education’s own Divine Computation AI.
In Su Fu’s view, it was less an artificial intelligence than a divine intelligence.
It fused the might of the greatest gods with supreme computational power—a truly omniscient and omnipotent super-AI.
Shortly after she left, Shen Yunling took a seat across from the teacher.
“Mr. Lin,” he said smoothly, “she... agreed to switch pantheons?”
...
Su Fu pushed open her classroom door, letting in a rush of cool air and corridor light.
She immediately sensed a subtle shift in the atmosphere.
Seats in the classroom were divided by invisible lines—up front were the heirs of the great families and the top students. Now, only two girls sat there.
One of them, hearing the door, glanced up coolly at Su Fu—it was Jiang Qingyu.
The most legendary “commoner prodigy” of the year.
From the very start, she’d crushed all the scions of the great houses with overwhelming strength.
Han Yuxuan also noticed Su Fu, her eyes sparkling with gossip, and asked excitedly, “Su Fu! What did the teacher say to you?”
“Nothing much,” Su Fu replied calmly. “Just suggested I switch pantheons.”
“Oh!” Han Yuxuan slapped her desk. “I’ve said all along you should switch! Of all things, why pick the Chinese pantheon—so obscure. You haven’t summoned a single god so far...”
She spoke without malice, but others were listening. Several exchanged knowing looks, and someone snickered.
Han Yuxuan realized her slip, quickly covering her mouth. “Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that...”
Su Fu paid it no mind, walking unruffled to the very back row—that was her place.
Han Yuxuan’s attention quickly shifted to new gossip.
She said loudly, “Shen Yunling just went to see the teacher—I bet he’s after that extra slot.”
“But,” she turned to Jiang Qingyu, her tone full of admiration, “Qingyu, you’re a shoo-in! No one’s ever come close to taking your top spot. You’ll definitely make it into the Provincial Academy!”
Provincial Academy?
Su Fu’s mind stirred.
The Divine Academies were the heart of this world’s institutions, structured as a pyramid by rank. With excellence, one could be promoted into higher academies, climbing from the outer stars to the core systems, and eventually become an S-rank citizen with access to the best divine cultivation resources.
Exams were the only path to change one’s fate—a universal law.
Her school, Starlight Seventh High, was just a regional academy, worlds apart from the provincial one in terms of resources and privilege.
Out of twelve regional high schools, no one didn’t aspire to the Provincial Academy.
Promotion depended on the provincial exam, but competition was fierce; each region offered only a few slots, most reserved for their own students.
Last year, Starlight received just two slots.
Which meant, only two students had the right to sit the provincial exam.
But Han Yuxuan spoke of...
“An extra slot?”
Suddenly, she recalled the teacher’s unusual attitude and persistent suggestions for her to switch pantheons...
What made her special?
“The Chinese pantheon.”
Could it be that the Provincial Academy was recruiting for a specific pantheon this year?
So, an extra slot.
And she—the only Chinese pantheon candidate here.
If she switched, that slot...
Would be reassigned?
There had been such precedents, but they always ended in failure. Yet in her predecessor’s memory, the Ministry of Education this year seemed particularly aggressive, eager for reform.
If that were true...
Su Fu nearly laughed out loud.
So Shen Yunling couldn’t outscore Jiang Qingyu, and now set his sights on her, the underachiever?
And her teacher, without her knowledge, had tried to “guide” her into switching pantheons—deciding her fate just to curry favor with Shen Yunling.
She could practically read his mind: giving her the slot would just be a waste.
Just then, the classroom door opened.
The teacher and Shen Yunling entered one after the other.
No preamble; he scanned the room, eyes pausing on Su Fu, and announced, “Now—”
“Final assessment, officially begins.”
As the words fell, Su Fu’s surroundings shattered like glass, dissolving into countless points of light.
Space itself cracked, peeled, and vanished, and her consciousness seemed wrenched from her body, plunging into endless void.
[Divine Computation Examination Space Constructing...]
[Construction complete]
[Space stability: 98%]
[Divine field intensity: Normal]
[Anomaly interference: None detected]
In the nothingness ahead, golden streams of data cascaded like waterfalls, converging into scenes of information.
Su Fu felt her awareness drawn slowly back, regaining clarity.
[Assessment system initialization complete]
A gentle, emotionless voice sounded in the void:
“Candidate, welcome to the 4050~4051 Academic Year Final Assessment Space of the Divine Academy.”
“Affiliated School: Grade C Outer Star Cluster – Polaris Sector – Lingxiao Province – Starlight Seventh High School Division”
[Candidate information confirmed]
[Name: Su Fu]
[Division: Kunlun Academy]
[Student ID: F01]
[Assessment subject: Grade D Comprehensive Practical Examination (First Year Final)]
[Assessment parameters generated]
[Difficulty rating: D]
[Survival expectation: 70%]
[Pass rate: 70%]
The data stream finally condensed into a single golden query:
“Please select your [Faith Pantheon] for this assessment—”