104: Chapter 104: Arriving at the Highest Divine Academy, Divine Blood Directly Binds to the Star Key

The automatic door of the rest cabin closed silently behind him.

Lin Yuan looked up; three men and two women were sitting on the circular sofa.

At this moment, the atmosphere inside the cabin carried a slightly bizarre sense of fragmentation.

One of them, a girl with a high ponytail wearing a bright yellow tracksuit, was gesticulating wildly as she talked animatedly to another two men and one woman.

She spoke extremely fast, her hands gesturing in midair as if she had an endless supply of topics to talk about.

Meanwhile, the two men and one woman who were her captive audience were in a state of surprising uniformity.

Their faces were completely written with a look of utter despair.

The short-haired young man on the left had his arms crossed and his eyes closed, his brow knitted tightly.

The burly man on the right, built like an iron tower, was vigorously rubbing his temples as if enduring some sort of mental attack.

The girl in the middle seemed much calmer. She wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses, with her long hair casually tied up behind her head.

With her head lowered, her fingers tapped rapidly on the virtual light screen of her terminal.

But upon closer inspection, one would notice that the frequency of her tapping was becoming increasingly erratic; she was clearly forcing herself to endure it.

Lin Yuan took in the entire scene and quickly made a judgment.

Chu Yunxuan wasn't here, Su Yueying wasn't here, and even Bai Ye was absent.

Not a single one of the top ten scorers from the Tianhai City Great Exam was on this spaceship.

Looking at the attire of the few people before him, the answer was obvious.

This ship was entirely filled with commoner Prodigies from other districts.

The Federation's college entrance exam special recruitment had clearly separated the children of wealthy clans and financial conglomerates from the commoners.

Or perhaps those clan children didn't need to travel to the academy through this channel at all.

They had their own private starships and guaranteed admission spots.

Lin Yuan understood, yet his face showed little emotion.

He walked toward an empty spot on the sofa, nodded slightly to the others as a greeting, and then prepared to sit down and close his eyes to rest.

However, the moment he sat down...

The eyes of the girl in the bright yellow tracksuit with the high ponytail lit up, like a radar locking onto a new target.

She instantly abandoned her three companions, who had almost been driven insane by her constant chattering, and scurried over to the single sofa next to Lin Yuan.

"Wow! You must be Lin Yuan, right? The number one commoner from Tianhai City!"

The girl leaned in very close, her eyes sparkling.

She exuded an enthusiasm comparable to a stellar explosion, her words firing off like a machine gun.

"My name is Xia Luoluo! I'm from the Beiqiong District! Oh my god, I watched your Great Exam highlights on the regional network. Those giant monsters of yours are so cool!"

"Oh, by the way, I have an S+ grade talent, and I awakened the [Magnetic Storm Nebula] Divine Domain. I got lucky and barely scraped into the top ten special recruitment spots in our district."

"But I'm far behind you! Your Divine Domain is widely recognized as a Wasteland, so how did you rub those conglomerate Prodigies into the dirt?"

"Everyone outside says your talent mutated. What did it actually mutate into?"

"Is it the dark-attribute type that can devour everything? Or the ultimate physical enhancement type?"

Xia Luoluo didn't even stop to catch her breath, laying bare her entire background in just a few sentences.

She then stared straight at Lin Yuan with her large eyes, which were filled with curiosity.

Lin Yuan's lips twitched.

He finally understood why those three had looked like they wanted nothing more than to plug their ears earlier.

This girl was practically a little sun, so enthusiastic that it was overwhelming.

In a world of gods where everyone had eight hundred ulterior motives and would stab you in the back for a few faith points...

...to be able to develop such an artless personality where she laid her cards on the table for everyone she met was truly a vivid demonstration of the diversity of the human species.

"The elders in your family must be quite formidable," Lin Yuan said suddenly, looking at her.

Xia Luoluo was taken aback, then nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes! My grandfather is a retired veteran of the Beiqiong Defense Line, and my dad is the commander of the City Defense Army. How did you know?"

Lin Yuan thought to himself, As expected.

Only someone who was too well-protected and had never experienced the harsh beatings of the bottom tier could develop such an defenseless personality.

Seeing that Lin Yuan did not directly answer the question about his Divine Domain's mutation...

...Xia Luoluo didn't mind either. She seemed to simply enjoy the process of "talking."

"Let me tell you, this Starry Sky University special recruitment..."

She began to gush again about the gossip she had gathered.

From which district had produced a once-in-a-century Prodigy, to which dish in the Starry Sky University cafeteria was the tastiest, the sheer range of her topics was astonishing.

Lin Yuan couldn't outright ignore her, so he could only respond half-heartedly.

"Mhm."

"Oh."

"I see."

Even if Lin Yuan only replied with a single word, Xia Luoluo could easily spin ten sentences out of it.

During this time, Lin Yuan also noticed that the gazes of the other three fell upon him, intentionally or otherwise.

The breathing of the short-haired young man on the left, who was closing his eyes and crossing his arms, was extremely long and steady.

Lin Yuan could sense that although the other party had his eyes closed, sharp fluctuations of Law constantly lingered around his body.

The burly man on the right exhaled a long breath of turbid air after Xia Luoluo left.

As his thick chest rose and fell, a low, rumbling vibration akin to thunder was faintly emitted.

Beneath his skin, dark golden patterns flickered in and out of view.

As for the girl in the middle wearing black-rimmed glasses, her fingers tapped rapidly on her terminal, a faint light reflecting off her lenses.

She appeared to be processing data, but Lin Yuan detected a thread of Mental Energy trying to approach within a one-meter radius of him.

However, the moment it touched the surface of Lin Yuan's body, it snapped back as if receiving an electric shock.

The glasses-wearing girl's fingers paused on the terminal. She looked up, giving Lin Yuan a deep look, a hint of wariness flashing in her eyes.

"None of them are simple," Lin Yuan evaluated in his heart.

Not one of the Prodigies handpicked by the school from the various districts was a pushover.

Over the next few hours...

...a strange balance was maintained within the rest cabin.

Xia Luoluo single-handedly carried the audio output of the entire room, while Lin Yuan played the role of an emotionless hype-man.

The other three secretly evaluated Lin Yuan, the famously known "number one of Tianhai Province."

Time slipped away amidst Xia Luoluo's non-stop chatter.

Until a synthesized mechanical voice echoed inside the cabin.

"About to exit the transition channel and arrive at the destination. All students, please prepare to disembark."

Xia Luoluo finally shut her mouth, excitedly pressing herself against the panoramic viewport to look outside.

Lin Yuan also turned his head to look.

Outside the viewport, the bizarre, colorful light of the transition suddenly dissipated.

In its place was a deep, heart-stoppingly vast cosmic starry sky.

In the deepest depths of this starry sky, there were no so-called dream planets, nor were there any life oases surrounded by atmospheres.

What entered their vision were nine grayish-black dead stars.

These nine dead stars were forcibly anchored together by indescribably thick dark-gold chains, forming an array that spanned across the Star Domain.

Countless metal buildings stood densely on the surface of the dead stars, resembling a forest of steel.

On the outermost perimeter of the nine dead stars, hundreds of Star Gates emitting various glows of deep blue, crimson, and dark purple crisscrossed.

From time to time, blood-soaked starships rushed out of the Star Gates, and figures exuding terrifying Divine Might crossed the Void Realm, plunging headfirst into the unknown abyss behind the Star Gates.

This was the highest academy of gods in the entire Federation.

Its full name was the [Federation Higher Academy of Starry Sky Exploration].

The outside world reverently referred to it as Starry Sky University.

There were no singing birds or fragrant flowers, nor was there any academic atmosphere.

There was only the overwhelming sensation of iron-blooded conflict, slaughter, and desolation.

It was like a war machine that never stopped operating, forever pinned to the boundary line between human territory and foreign planes.

The burly man gasped.

The short-haired young man also stood up, his gaze locked onto those Star Gates as a fanatical Battle Intent ignited in his eyes.

Lin Yuan looked at the dead stars bound by chains and felt the residual violent Laws in the surrounding cosmic space, a grayish-black glint flashing through his eyes.

"Big enough, chaotic enough. It's a good place," Lin Yuan murmured softly in his heart.

*Chhh—*

The door of the rest cabin was pushed open.

Director Su Changfeng walked in, holding five diamond-shaped black crystals in his hand.

Without wasting any words, he flicked his wrist, and the five crystals floated before the five of them.

"This is a star key."

Director Su Changfeng pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, his voice sounding somewhat cold within the cabin.

"It is not only the access card to your dorm, but also your credit terminal and identity card."

"Drip your blood to bind it. It will guide you to your respective quarters."

Xia Luoluo raised her hand, preparing to ask a question.

Director Su Changfeng interrupted her directly: "Starry Sky University has no opening ceremony, no freshman speeches, and certainly no counselors to help you get familiar with the campus."

"The only thing you need to do is survive, and then plunder resources, plunder Laws, and plunder the worlds behind the Star Gates."

Having said that, Director Su Changfeng turned and left, being extremely concise and decisive.

"Dismissed."

As those final words fell, the spaceship's cabin doors slowly opened, and the interstellar gravitational field outside took control of everyone's bodies.

Lin Yuan grabbed the black crystal in front of him.

With a slight breath of his divine fire, a drop of dark golden blood seeped into the crystal.

*Buzz.*

The star key lit up with a faint glow, projecting a red guiding route in Lin Yuan's mind.

He didn't linger, walking out of the cabin along the guiding route.

"Hey, hey, hey! Everyone, let's exchange contact info!"

Behind him, Xia Luoluo still maintained her terrifying enthusiasm.

Standing at the cabin door, she waved her arms vigorously, her smile so bright it seemed capable of dispersing the coldness of the surrounding starry sky.

"I live in the Third Dead Star District! Come visit me when you're free! Call me if you're in a fight, I'll help you control the field!"

Her exaggerated movements and voice could be felt as a blinding light even from far away.

The short-haired young man acted as if he hadn't heard. His body flickered, turning into a gust of breeze that instantly vanished at the end of the corridor.

The burly man twitched his lips and also turned to walk down another corridor.

As for the glasses-wearing girl, she adjusted her frames and walked away quickly, her back looking as if she were fleeing some sort of plague.

Clearly, these few people had been tortured on the spaceship to the point that they didn't want to have any further interaction with this "little sun" at all.

After walking a few steps, Lin Yuan stopped and looked back at Xia Luoluo, who was still waving.

He raised his right hand and waved casually a couple of times as a response.

Afterward, Lin Yuan turned and stepped into the steel corridor, his figure quickly blending into the shadows.

Holding the star key in his hand, Lin Yuan looked at the red route extending in his vision.

"They won't even bother with a single polite word, throwing people directly into this Gu-breeding ground."