20 20—Behind the Veil, the Queen of the East

It took several seconds for everyone to process the sentence.

Dean Zhang had long served as the chief examiner for the Lingxiao Province Divine Academy qualifiers, yet he almost never spoke in the group chat. He had never offered a word of praise, even for the many "excellent" candidates of previous years.

And yet, now... he had actually taken the initiative to praise a student from the Seventh High School? A candidate from the subordinate Twelfth District?

The inspectors in the group, like Zhou Nanyuan, immediately began whispering in private chats. The gap between students of the Lingxiao Province Divine Academy and those from the Twelfth District was simply too vast. To put it simply, even the most mediocre student from Lingxiao Province could act with impunity in the Twelfth District. Conversely, those who fought their way up from the Twelfth District were almost always at the bottom of the hierarchy once they reached the provincial academy.

The so-called open admission quotas were merely an opportunity granted by the Lingxiao Province Divine Academy to the Twelfth District for the sake of educational equity. It was like comparing a standard high school with a two-percent college entrance rate to a "super-school" with a ninety-percent rate; they were not even competing on the same level. Their pursuits were fundamentally different.

This was not out of prejudice or disdain for the Twelfth District, but a reflection of the inherent imbalance in educational resources. Behind every candidate in a provincial academy lay immense investment in resources and effort.

As for effort? Who was to say the students of Lingxiao Province didn't work hard? They were not only hardworking but also had clear direction and knew exactly how to apply themselves.

As for resources? It was a total, multi-dimensional suppression. Whether it was divine power training, skill application, or tactical awareness, these students were raised with expert guidance and abundant school resources from a young age.

As for talent? One cannot make bricks without straw; without resources, even the highest talent is wasted. Furthermore, this was the Divine Era, where success depended on establishing connections with deities—knowledge, divine power, skills, and tactics were all indispensable. As grade levels increased, this gap widened exponentially.

Yet now, Dean Zhang had actually praised a candidate from the Twelfth District.

"Innovative..."

This was likely the highest recognition he could give a commoner candidate. In the eyes of someone at Dean Zhang’s level, even the proud sons and daughters of major noble families, carefully nurtured as they were, mostly followed the beaten path of their predecessors.

But Su Fu? She had actually compelled Dean Zhang to use the word "innovative."

This piqued everyone's curiosity. What exactly was special about this candidate? Consequently, the inspectors from the Twelfth District’s Department of Education began splitting their screens to observe Su Fu’s combat footage. Their actions were not hidden, and naturally, they drew the attention of others.

...

Lin Ze, the principal of Seventh High, received an urgent report from his secretary. He was stunned for a moment before saying in disbelief, "What did you say? Dean Zhang is paying attention to a student from our school?"

After learning the sequence of events, Lin Ze’s expression became strange. "You mean to say, Dean Zhang praised Su Fu? And she defeated... Chen Tian?"

Lin Ze had a vague impression of these top-tier students. Chen Tian specialized in the Garuda divine bird; at their level, he was virtually invincible in the air.

But now, he had lost to... Su Fu?

And who was Su Fu, anyway? He searched his memory but found nothing. He could only turn to the student records in the Shenyan database. The only truly valuable data was from the final exam of the first year.

In the footage, golden light shone brightly, Buddhist radiance illuminated the world, and demons were reduced to ash.

"This is just too..." He almost said "arrogant," but the word changed on his lips to: "Clever."

If she had kept a low profile and followed the standard path, what would the outcome have been against the likes of Jiang Qingyu and Shen Yunling? The answer was obvious. The first-place spot would certainly not have been hers.

Would she even be here in the current qualifiers? By acting this way, she was demonstrating her value to the Shenyan AI and everyone else. She understood her path forward perfectly.

The only candidate of the Huaxia Pantheon.
A deity whose appearance meant total suppression.
A record-breaking first-place finisher.

Only in this way could she defy fate. Lin Ze silently raised his assessment of Su Fu by a notch. Beyond being clever, she was also lucky. As principal, he knew far more than the others. Based on his understanding of the Shenyan AI, Su Fu’s actions had likely triggered special weighting within its evaluation system.

There was no helping it; to the Shenyan AI, the Huaxia Pantheon was simply too mysterious. There were too few divine descendants to establish a complete evaluation model. Among the eight great pantheons today, only the Huaxia Pantheon remained unrated. Therefore, it could be called the weakest or the strongest, and no one would know for sure.

He suddenly recalled a comment made years ago about the Huaxia Pantheon: "The Huaxia Pantheon is like a mysterious, elegant young lady hiding behind the scenes. She does not appear, yet she vaguely envelops the entire world."

Unfortunately, she was just too rare. Perhaps this was why the Reformist faction had granted the Huaxia Pantheon extra quotas. If that were the case... Lin Ze’s mind raced. Su Fu was well worth watching.

...

In the proctoring room, a system notification suddenly flashed across the screen:

[Principal Lin Ze of Xinghui Seventh High has entered the proctoring room.]

The moment Wang Mingde saw it, he spat out his water. "Pri... Principal?!"

Jiang Yuqing was also stunned. "No way? Why did the principal come too!"

Had Su Fu’s reputation already reached the principal? They had hoped to handle this discreetly, letting Su Fu develop quietly until the provincial exams. But now, even the principal had shown up in person—there was no chance of keeping a low profile anymore!

"Principal, aren't you being a bit too impatient..." Wang Mingde sighed, holding his forehead. "You could have at least used a burner account; appearing with your main account like this is just letting everyone see!"

But he never expected that this was just the beginning—

[Chen Family Chairman, Chen Yunfeng has entered the observation room.]
[Jiang Group CEO, Jiang Chengxuan has entered the observation room.]
[Shen Consortium Chairman, Shen Moshans has entered the observation room.]

"Chen, Jiang, Shen... my god..." Jiang Yuqing couldn't take it all in. Why were all these big shots here? Chen Yunfeng was Chen Tian’s father, and Jiang Chengxuan and Shen Moshans were the heads of their respective families. They were usually nowhere to be seen, yet now they were all popping up?

"This lineup..." Wang Mingde swallowed hard. "The last time I saw this was at the provincial exam finals."

And yet, this was just a small preliminary exam! But upon reflection, it made sense. Chen Tian and Jiang Yu were both carefully nurtured seedlings of their respective families, yet both had been eliminated. Could these old foxes resist coming to see what had happened?

Just then, another string of system notifications flashed by:

[Ocean Investment Director, Li Zhengyuan has entered the observation room.]
[Xinghai Capital CEO, Zheng Tianxing has entered the observation room.]
[...]

"Good grief, now the big conglomerates are here too!" Wang Mingde felt numb. Looking at the current lineup—the Principal of the Divine Academy, the three major noble families, various conglomerates... everyone was here!

When had the Seventh High exam site ever been this lively? Seventh High was officially famous now!