The morning Celestial City received them for the second ti was nothing like the first.
The first ti, Lin Yi and Wang Hao had arrived as examination candidates, part of a convoy of buses carrying students from eight frontier cities, surrounded by the particular anxiety of people who didn’t yet know how things would go. The city had been impressive then. Wide and tall and overwhelming in the way that large things are when you’re encountering them for the first ti.
This ti was different. They arrived as accepted students. That distinction, Lin Yi had decided sowhere on the journey, was not a small one. The city looked the sa. The buildings were the sa height. The streets were the sa width. But the relationship to it had changed. Jianghe was behind them now. This was not a visit. This was the beginning of sothing that would last years.
Wang Hao had not stopped talking since the transportation hub.
"Okay so I did research," he said, moving through the arrival terminal beside Lin Yi with his bag over one shoulder and the energy of soone who had been storing things to say for weeks and was now releasing them in sequence. "Heavenly Phoenix Academy has eight first-year students per class, sixteen students in total across two classes. Level A and Level B. A is the higher intake score bracket." He paused aningfully. "We’re both in A."
"I know," Lin Yi said. "They sent the placent letter."
"I know you know, I’m establishing context." Wang Hao adjusted his bag. "Sixteen students in Level 1. Eight per class. Both of us in the sa class, 1st Level A." He shook his head slowly. "Eight students. Eight students who all placed in the top tier of the regional examination from across eight cities." He looked at Lin Yi. "Do you understand what that room is going to look like?"
"Yes."
"It’s going to be absolutely terrifying is what it’s going to look like."
"For so of them," Lin Yi said.
Wang Hao pointed at him. "See, that. That right there is the energy I need to borrow for the next three years. Just radiate that in my direction occasionally."
....
Heavenly Phoenix Hunter Academy occupied the northeastern quarter of Celestial City’s academic district. The campus was not the largest in the city, but it was built with the particular confidence of an institution that didn’t need to impress anyone with scale. The main gate was stone and steel, the academy crest mounted above it, and passing through it produced the imdiate awareness that everything inside had been designed to produce functional hunters rather than comfortable students.
The orientation hall held all first-year students from both Level A and Level B, approximately sixteen people, and it was imdiately apparent that everyone in the room had spent so portion of the past month arriving at the sa conclusion Wang Hao had articulated in the terminal. This was going to be a specific kind of experience.
The orientation was conducted by a woman who introduced herself as Vice Principal Shen and who had the bearing of soone who had been through enough genuinely dangerous situations to find a room of talented teenagers mildly amusing rather than impressive. She covered everything in sequence, unhurriedly and without softening anything.
Grading at Heavenly Phoenix operated on a dual system. Academic assessnt covered combat theory, monster classification, dungeon chanics, formation strategy, and dinsional rift analysis, delivered through weekly seminars and monthly written evaluations. Practical assessnt covered live combat performance, wilderness expedition results, dungeon clearance data, and skills developnt tracked through the academy’s internal asurent system. Both components were mandatory. Performing well in one while neglecting the other produced a combined score that satisfied no one. The academy’s position was that a hunter who could only fight was dangerous to themselves and their team, and a hunter who could only study was useless to everyone.
Accommodation was single-occupancy rooms in the residential block, assigned by class. First Level A occupied the eastern wing of the residential building, first floor. Each room ca with a training interface terminal, a personal skill assessnt pod that tracked combat data during practice sessions, and access to the indoor wilderness simulation chambers in the basent of the main building.
Rules covered three categories. Safety rules were absolute and non-negotiable, violations of which resulted in imdiate academic review. Conduct rules governed interaction between students and faculty and were enforced with graduated consequences. Competition rules governed the internal ranking system, which updated monthly based on combined academic and practical scores and determined priority access to the academy’s advanced training resources, dungeon circuit slots, and ntorship assignnts.
"The ranking system," Vice Principal Shen said, looking across the room with the expression of soone delivering information they had delivered many tis and still ant completely, "exists because resources at this institution are finite and competition for them is real. The world you are training for operates the sa way. We do not apologize for this." She paused. "We also do not tolerate interference with another student’s ranking through ans other than your own performance. If you are caught undermining a classmate’s assessnt results, your enrollnt is terminated. No process. No appeal."
The room was very attentive.
After orientation, class placents were confird and the 1st Level A students were directed to their seminar room for an initial faculty introduction.
Eight students. Lin Yi counted them as they settled.
He recognized Wang Hao imdiately on his left, who was doing a very poor job of pretending he wasn’t scanning every face in the room with intense curiosity. He recognized a tall girl from Blackstone City whose examination score he recalled placing her fifth overall, a quiet young man who moved with the controlled precision of soone trained in formal combat disciplines from childhood, a student from Azure Lake City who had the particular energy of soone who had been told they were exceptional so many tis that they had started to believe it was unique to them.
And then, across the room, in the seat farthest from the door, Lin Yi saw a face that produced a very specific kind of recognition.
The golden aura was not visible right now. There was nothing to activate it against. But the posture was familiar. The bow case across the back was unmistakable. The eyes, when they moved across the room and landed on Lin Yi, carried the particular quality of soone who had spent weeks writing down everything they knew about a na and had now encountered the na in person.
Han Yue.
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