30: Chapter 30 The Rise of a Dark Horse

The light in the sky suddenly went out for an instant.

The next breath, eight surveillance mirrors lit up to the extreme simultaneously.

The cold main voice of the Unified Exam pressed down over the entire Collapsed Star Mining Field, sweeping first across the collapse pit, then over the broken altar, then over the thunder-wing god statue half-buried in the ground, and finally settled on Lu Jin.

"The final decisive battle has ended."

"Calculating points."

"Verifying records of unauthorized intervention."

"Recalling live broadcast battle zone."

As the words fell, the viewing light screens at Shenmen Plaza exploded first.

"It's over?"

"Look at the leaderboard quickly!"

"The first place must still be Ji Mingxiao, right..."

Before the words were even finished, a golden overall leaderboard unfurled simultaneously over the entire city.

Names floated up one by one.

[Seventh, Shen He, 218]

[Sixth, Yue Zhenshan, 224]

[Fifth, Lin Ce, 239]

[Fourth, Lu Jingyao, 261]

When the three characters Lu Jingyao stopped in mid-air, no one in the entire Lu family viewing gallery was speaking anymore.

Further up, the golden light jumped again.

[Third, Ning Heng, 288]

[Second, Ji Mingxiao, 341]

The silence on the high platform only lasted for half a breath.

The top row suddenly lit up.

The golden frame thickened, as if a heavy hammer had smashed down through the sky.

[First, Lu Jin, 367]

Shenmen Plaza was deathly silent for three full breaths.

After three breaths, the roar of voices tore the roof off.

"First place?!"

"Lu Jin is first?!"

"That nest of rats actually surpassed Ji Mingxiao?"

"Is this f***ing still that laughingstock from the waste domain?"

On the stands of Qinglan No. 3 Middle School, the group of freshmen who had laughed the loudest earlier turned deathly pale.

Some had their mouths agape, unable to close them for a long time; others suddenly lowered their heads to check the betting odds, their fingertips trembling; still others looked at the figure standing by the collapse pit in the light screen, his school uniform covered in grey blood, their throats dry, unable to say a complete sentence.

In the Merchant Alliance viewing gallery one level higher, Young Master Su Jiuheng gently pressed the black chip in his hand back onto the table and smiled.

"The betting pool has collapsed."

The old man beside him was sweating on his forehead.

"Young Master Su, you've bitten off more than you can chew this time."

Su Jiuheng looked at Lu Jin on the light screen, the smile in his eyes fading slightly.

"I bet on the beginning."

By the collapse pit, Lu Jin did not look at the sky.

He looked at the ground first.

Grey Pupil had already dispersed with the Red-Eyed Rat pack.

The Trailer Team surrounded the broken altar, dragging the silver-white frames, wind pillar remnants, thunder feathers, wind hooks, and chains that could still be used one by one to the central warehouse; the Fire-Guard Line stood guard around the semi-cracked altar basin, having unloaded all the fire bladders from their backs and replaced them with black stone boxes, neatly stacking the silver armor fragments peeled from the god statue inside; the Digging Squad expanded the pit all the way down along the spot where the thunder-wing god statue had fallen, specifically opening a new ramp for subsequent hauling.

Battle damage reports also came in quickly.

Grey Pupil walked to Lu Jin's side, dragging half a black stone slab, a hint of red still lingering in its grey eyes.

"One hundred thirty-seven dead."

"Eighty-three seriously injured."

"Four trailers destroyed, two can be repaired."

"Eight and a half boxes of fire oil remaining."

"The altar basin is cracked, but the well is still stable."

It paused, lowering its voice.

"The Red-Eyed Rats have not retreated."

Lu Jin turned his head to look.

The red in the eyes of those surviving rats was still burning.

However, the chaotic, biting agitation was gone, replaced by something tighter and heavier.

They no longer scattered to snatch food, nor did they circle around corpses, but only watched the gestures of Grey Pupil and Lu Jin.

The faith line was thicker than before.

It was as if someone had mixed iron into the rope.

Lu Jin withdrew his gaze.

"Those alive, enter the fire room first."

"Separate the seriously injured into two batches, prioritize the Cart-pulling Rats and the Fire-Guard Line."

"Seal the god statue fragments, wind pillar remnants, and altar core in separate warehouses."

"The White-Bellied Mother Rat is to be heated; the cubs are not to leave the nest tonight."

Grey Pupil nodded and turned to leave.

It had only taken two steps when the main voice from the sky fell again.

This time, it was colder.

"Verification of unauthorized intervention complete."

"Detected unauthorized high-pollution fire seed card intervention in the battle zone."

"Intervention path, outer waste crack of the collapse field."

"Relevant records will be filed with the Federal Divine Temple and the Unified Exam Inspection Division."

A grey-black penalty sub-screen immediately opened below the golden leaderboard.

Lu Jingyao's name was framed separately for the first time.

The clamor that had just erupted on Shenmen Plaza instantly changed in tone.

"Is it Lu Jingyao?"

"I knew that red fire was wrong!"

"Is he crazy? Daring to stretch his dirty hands into the Unified Exam broadcast?"

At the front of the Lu family viewing gallery, a middle-aged man stood up abruptly, his expression unsightly to the extreme.

But the main voice gave no one a chance to interject.

"Evidence of violation established."

"Points of the involved team frozen for review."

"Involved personnel will be handed over to the Divine Temple Inspection for follow-up."

There was no immediate conviction.

But it was enough to make one's scalp numb.

On the light screen, Lu Jingyao stood in silence, his expression chilling bit by bit.

But no matter how the fire in his eyes raged, that line of grey-black text overhead pressed down on him firmly, giving him no chance to turn the tables.

On the teacher's platform of Qinglan No. 3 Middle School, the cultivation department director's previous reserve had vanished; he stood up and hurried toward the main settlement platform.

People from the resource department, the exam invigilation office, and the school administration followed in a swarm, their steps faster than the last.

What they saw was a gold mine that had just exploded out of the ground, visible to the entire city.

Over the collapse field, eight recovery light beams descended one by one.

The other candidates were teleported out first.

Ji Mingxiao stood by the broken platform, waiting for the injured main griffon to be enveloped by the light beam before looking up at Lu Jin.

The wind had not completely dissipated.

His shoulders were covered in grey, yet he did not wipe the bloodstain at the corner of his lip; he looked even colder than when he first appeared, and more like a blade.

"When did you figure out that left pillar?"

Lu Jin tucked the core fragment into his bosom.

"The second time you saved the low-ring."

Ji Mingxiao nodded, not asking more.

"That dirty hand business doesn't count in our match."

"Whether it counts or not, you lost."

Lu Jin's voice was very flat.

Ji Mingxiao looked at him, the coldness in his eyes fading slightly.

"Right."

"I lost."

He raised his hand, extinguished the last glimmer of light on the wind-thunder positioning disk, and before stepping into the light beam, left only one sentence.

"See you at the Divine Academy."

White light swirled, and both the person and the griffon disappeared.

Lu Jin stood in place, not moving.

Grey Pupil stood behind him with a team of Transport Rats, the Red-Eyed Rats gazing at the sky in unison.

That silence made even the last few inspectors who stepped onto the collapse field pause.

The black-robed middle-aged man in the lead stopped ten steps away, the grey-gold emblem on his chest cold in the light.

"Lu Jin."

Lu Jin looked at him.

"The Unified Exam Division will give you an explanation for the unauthorized intervention in the battle zone."

"I will also be filing your sacrificial path and that batch of high-pollution residues."

"From today on, the Divine Temple will keep an eye on that fire of yours."

These words were not light, nor were they heavy.

It was more like quietly tying a string to him.

Lu Jin's expression did not change.

"Just filing?"

The black-robed middle-aged man looked at the semi-cracked altar basin, then at Grey Pupil and the silent group of Red-Eyed Rats, his gaze deep.

"Only filing today."

After saying this, he stepped aside to clear the way.

The main settlement platform had already risen.

The Mayor of Qinglan City, the Unified Exam chief examiner, representatives of the Academy Alliance, Divine Temple inspectors, and the Merchant Alliance viewing party—five parties' projections sat down simultaneously.

On the golden settlement monument in the very center, the two characters Lu Jin hung high at the top of the list, shining so brightly that the entire venue seemed to shrink in comparison.

As soon as Lu Jin stepped onto the settlement platform, applause erupted.

It spread in waves from the Merchant Alliance gallery, the Military Court gallery, the instructor gallery, and the student gallery, rippling out across the entire city.

The principal of Qinglan No. 3 Middle School personally stood at the edge of the steps, the smile on his face deeper than at any opening ceremony.

"Lu Jin, the school will readjust your entire cultivation sequence for you."

"Resource quotas, divine domain repair packages, instructor groups—"

"That's not what I want."

Lu Jin cut him off with a single sentence.

The smile on the principal's face stiffened for half a breath.

Countless people below the stage heard it.

Lu Jin raised his eyes, looking at the golden settlement monument still hanging above, his voice not loud, but landing extremely steadily.

"I want the access rights to my father's sealed battle-death record."

The examiners on the stage looked up simultaneously.

On the Lu family viewing gallery side, several gazes changed instantly.

The principal's Adam's apple rolled, and most of his smile vanished.

"This... is not decided by the school."

"Then I will submit my Unified Exam rewards and exchange for the application according to the rules."

Lu Jin replied quickly.

Not wasting a single word.

On the examiner's platform, a middle-aged man in a black Military Court uniform suddenly smiled.

"Quite a temper."

His shoulder insignia was pressed with three dark gold lines, his brow bone was hard, and his sitting posture was rigid.

Someone beside him whispered a reminder of "Instructor Han," and only then did he shift his gaze away from the light screen.

"Unified Exam first place applying for the review of old battlefield files is procedurally sound."

"If you submit it, I will push it through for you."

Lu Jin looked at him.

He didn't thank him, just nodded.

That Instructor Han was instead even more satisfied, tapping his knuckles gently on the table.

"Come to the Expansion Military Court sometime to try it out."

"With your path, the academy might not be willing to let you enter a real battlefield."

As soon as he said this, several gazes on the instructor's platform immediately brightened.

Three remote projection invitations popped up almost simultaneously.

Dongling Divine Academy, pre-admission interview.

Zhuixing Divine Academy, special recruitment observation.

Tianqiong Upper Academy, waitlist invitation.

The entire city was in an uproar again.

And this was just what was placed on the table.

In a VIP box on a higher level, a young man dressed in gold and white slowly wrote the two characters "Lu Jin" into a jade-colored roster, with a very faint Sun Gold pattern printed on the side.

He finished writing before speaking indifferently.

"Make a note for the Pei family."

"This sacrificial path will be valuable in the future."

Below the settlement platform, the Lu family finally couldn't sit still.

An old man with white hair spoke in a deep voice through the projection: "Lu Jin, the family will re-evaluate your resource ranking. Your father's old line can also be discussed."

Many gazes fell over instantly.

But Lu Jin didn't even turn his head.

"Wanting to talk now is too late."

The white-haired old man's eyes darkened.

"You are a Lu after all."

Only then did Lu Jin look at him.

"I belong to myself first."

When these words fell, the crowd below fell silent for an instant, followed by an even greater wave of noise.

Those who had previously treated him as a laughingstock now felt their faces burning just by looking at him.

On the betting side, some were beating their chests, some were staring blankly at the wrong chips in their hands, and others had already begun frantically scrolling through the light screen replays, wanting to edit the scene of "the rat tide dragging the god statue into the pit" into tonight's hottest clip in the entire city.

Lu Jin didn't stay on the platform long.

He took the Unified Exam settlement order, the first-tier resource seal, and the temporary access permit, tucked the invitations from the Divine Academies into his bosom, and turned to leave.

Grey Pupil followed behind with the Transport Team, a dozen repaired bone-wheeled carts lined up, carrying altar fragments, wind pillar remnants, god statue shards, and a whole cart of Unified Exam resource packages.

When passing the Qinglan No. 3 Middle School student stands, no one dared to stop him.

Even those who wanted to speak to him subconsciously gave way by half a step.

When the sky turned completely dark, the door of the old house was pushed open.

The old lamp on the table was still there.

The memorial tablet in front of the offering table was also still there.

Lu Jin placed the settlement order, the access permit, and the Divine Academy invitations on the table one by one, and finally placed the fragment spat out from the altar core in the very center.

The black fragment was slightly warm against his chest.

He raised his hand and brought up the sealed battle-death record from the Military Court's old files.

The moment the two encrypted fire codes combined, the old lamp in the room flickered gently.

The missing tail code was filled in.

A complete coordinate silently floated on the tabletop, like a line buried for many years, finally revealing its head.

At this moment, a very faint notification sound suddenly came from outside the window.

That notification sound came from a private channel.

Lu Jin's eyes turned cold, his hand already pressing on the bone clacker.

Above the tabletop, a palm-sized grey-white light screen lit up by itself.

No sender.

No path number.

Only a layer of old-fashioned Military Court encryption shell, with three strange fire-sealing patterns layered on the outside.

Grey Pupil walked out silently from the shadows and stood by the door.

Lu Jin raised his hand and tapped it open.

The light screen trembled.

The footage was very old, with many snow spots, like a residual segment stolen from a rift layer in a very distant plane.

The background was a black battlefield that was collapsing; there was fire in the distance, and in the foreground, there was a furnace-shaped outline mostly covered by ash.

The camera shook twice.

A figure, familiar to the point that Lu Jin's knuckles tightened, finally turned half a face toward the camera.

It was his father.

The footage was severely damaged, and the subsequent content was swallowed by fire noise, leaving only one complete sentence when the person looked up at the camera.

"Don't let anyone see the full appearance of that furnace."