The True Primordial World Was Only Just Beginning to Reveal Itself
The silver-haired girl walked slowly onto the evaluation platform.
She wore a black academy uniform today, and her waist was slender, her ice-blue eyes as calm as water.
Facing the gazes directed at her from all around, she showed no trace of nervousness.
As she pressed down her palm, a silver moon slowly rose.
Beneath a dark blue sky, an ancient forest stretched on without end. Moonlight filtered through the branches and leaves, illuminating ancient trees that gleamed silver-white.
Dozens of elves already lived in the forest, some cultivating natural magic, others gathering spiritual plants beneath the moonlight.
But what truly silenced everyone was a towering tree at the heart of the forest.
Its crown rose into the clouds, ancient silver patterns covered its broad trunk, and countless roots stretched outward, linking the entire elven forest together.
A hazy silver moon hung among its branches.
Moonlight flowed along its branches and leaves, turning into pure life energy that slowly nourished the entire forest.
And where its thick roots met, crystalline cocoons of life slowly brightened and dimmed in time with the light that pulsed like the tree's heartbeat.
"That's..."
At the evaluation table, one of the instructors rose to his feet.
"The Life Mother Tree?"
Meng Yuanzhou looked closely, finally setting down the record book in his hand. His gaze grew serious.
"The Silver Moon Elves no longer rely solely on the creator's investment of origin energy to be born. This Life Mother Tree now bears that burden itself."
As his words fell, one of the cocoons of life gently cracked open. A young elf awakened within it and landed barefoot on a root.
The Life Mother Tree merely stirred its branches and leaves, and a strand of moonlight fell upon the newborn elf.
"It can nurture life and nourish the entire forest in return..."
The instructors all showed their appreciation.
This was no longer simply the creation of an elven race, but the building of a foundation of life to support the race's continued reproduction and evolution.
"Excellent!"
Meng Yuanzhou could not help but exclaim in admiration.
"This world's potential is even more impressive than its simulation results ten days ago!"
With that, he discussed it with the other instructors for a moment, then personally recorded the final evaluation.
[Class 1 · Lorina: Grade A.]
Enthusiastic applause immediately rang out through the hall.
Grade A!
The first Grade A evaluation of the day!
Shao Chengfeng and Luo Yanshan stopped arguing as well. Looking at the Life Mother Tree bathed in moonlight, they were visibly moved.
"Teacher Song, your student really is remarkable."
Song Zhiwei finally smiled.
What no one knew was that deep within the Life Mother Tree, there was another seed that had yet to truly sprout.
It was no ordinary elven spirit seed, but a World Tree Seed that Lorina was attempting to nurture using the Life Mother Tree as its foundation.
If the Life Mother Tree could continue to grow and eventually support a true World Tree,
her Silvermoon Elf World would have a chance to gradually evolve from an elven forest into a vast world with different domains of life, perhaps even connecting multiple planes.
But that was still a distant goal.
For now, she first had to bring the Life Mother Tree to full maturity before she could continue to the next stage of evolution.
Lorina withdrew her hand. Faced with the Grade A evaluation, she merely gave the instructors a slight nod, her expression as cool as ever.
As she stepped off the evaluation platform, she happened to pass Gu An.
"Congratulations, Grade A," Gu An said with a smile.
"Thank you."
The girl slowed her steps slightly and looked at him with her ice-blue eyes.
Gu An suddenly smiled again. "By the way, our bet from ten days ago still stands, right?"
Lorina looked at him quietly for a moment.
"Of course."
Her voice was as cool as ever, betraying little emotion.
"I hope you remember it too."
"Don't worry, I've always had a good memory."
Lorina did not argue further. She merely nodded slightly, withdrew her gaze, and returned straight to her seat.
Gu An watched her leave and could not help smiling.
It seemed this silver-haired school beauty really was quite confident in her world.
Lorina's Grade A evaluation finally let Class 1 hold its head high for once.
But students from Classes 2 and 3 were still eagerly comparing the classes' results.
"Grade A is impressive, but isn't Lorina the only one in Class 1 who got it?"
"Classes 2 and 3 both have three students with upper B grades. When it comes to the number of outstanding students, Class 1 is still a long way behind."
"What about Gu An? Wasn't he first in theory?"
"So what if he was first in theory? Don't forget, his world still hasn't even opened its heavens."
Such discussions gradually spread.
Song Zhiwei naturally heard them too, but she did not speak up to refute them.
She only looked toward the last student in her class who had yet to take the stage.
Gu An.
The boy who had once been her greatest pride, but now worried her most.
Just then, the name on the light screen changed again.
[Next: Class 1 · Gu An.]
Shao Chengfeng had still been discussing the merits of battle qi and soul rings with Luo Yanshan. At the name, he finally stopped talking.
"Teacher Song, your class's top theory student is about to take the stage?"
Luo Yanshan adjusted his glasses too.
"Speaking of which, I'm rather curious how far his chaos could have evolved in ten days."
Song Zhiwei did not respond.
As she watched Gu An walk slowly toward the evaluation platform, she felt somewhat nervous.
To defend this student, she had already made a declaration in front of the two homeroom teachers.
Yet even now, she still did not know what results Gu An could produce.
If that chaos really had shown no improvement, the hardest thing to bear would probably not be the loss to the class's results, but the possibility that this once-promising student had set back his own path of creation.
Gu An, however, looked as composed as ever.
He walked up to the platform and slowly pressed down his palm.
As the connection to his bound world was established, the once-bright projection screen gradually darkened.
There were no mountains or rivers, no stars.
A vast expanse of chaos slowly appeared before everyone's eyes.
The voices in the hall gradually quieted.
Many students looked at the gray, hazy scene, their expressions growing strange.
Ten days had passed.
Was Gu An's world really still a mass of chaos?
The smile on Shao Chengfeng's face faded somewhat.
Though he liked joking with Song Zhiwei, he did not want to see a student with such outstanding theory results truly set back his future as a creator.
Luo Yanshan, meanwhile, frowned and studied it closely for a moment.
"The chaos has yet to be opened, and the world's structure is incomplete..."
He shook his head lightly. "This won't be easy to evaluate."
At the evaluation table, Meng Yuanzhou also looked at the chaos and pulled out Gu An's creation record from ten days ago.
The state of the world noted in the record was almost indistinguishable from what lay before them.
The old man frowned slightly, but did not rush to judgment.
Song Zhiwei's grip on her record book tightened slightly.
Only Lorina did not hurry to look away.
She had seen this chaos ten days ago.
Back then, Gu An had set aside the low-martial-world plan he had long prepared, choosing to exhaust all his origin energy rather than abandon this path of creation.
And now, there was still no heaven or earth?
The girl gazed at the projection, a trace of puzzlement appearing in her ice-blue eyes.
She knew Gu An was no mediocrity when it came to creation theory, yet she still could not understand what made him so certain about this chaos.
Just then, Gu An suddenly raised his head on the platform.
He could naturally hear the discussion and see the concern in Song Zhiwei's eyes.
But since he had come today, he had no intention of letting the others see nothing but gray mist again.
Gu An smiled faintly.
"Teachers."
His voice carried throughout the hall from the evaluation platform.
"This chaos has indeed yet to open its heavens."
Hearing this, Shao Chengfeng was about to sigh, but then the young man calmly added another sentence.
"But who says that the heavens not yet being opened means the world hasn't evolved at all?"
As his words fell, Gu An's consciousness followed the connection to his bound world and reached into the depths of the chaos.
Ten days ago, all everyone had seen was deathly silence.
But over those ten days, the origin energy he had invested had long since borne fruit within the chaos.
Those changes simply had not appeared as heaven and earth, mountains and rivers.
Gu An did not hurry to explain. He merely shifted his view slowly deeper.
The aura of chaos that had blocked their view finally spread apart to either side.
The next moment.
An ancient river, its source and end both unknown, quietly appeared in the projection.
The river flowed without a sound. On its dark, deep surface, countless tiny lights and shadows could faintly be seen rising and falling, only to vanish in an instant into the vast mist.
At the evaluation table, Meng Yuanzhou had already been preparing to pick up his pen and write.
But the moment his gaze fell upon the river's surface, the tip of his pen suddenly stopped.
The old man said nothing.
He stared at the river, his brow gradually furrowing as he even leaned forward slightly, almost without realizing it.
An instructor beside him noticed something was amiss and was about to ask, but saw that Meng Yuanzhou had already put down his pen.
"Wait..."
The old man slowly rose to his feet.
"What's flowing in that river doesn't seem to be water."
At his words, the instructors all turned their gazes toward the river.
On the evaluation platform, Gu An merely looked into the depths of the chaos, the corners of his mouth rising slightly.
This is only the beginning.