Four Symbols Academy

Si Weijian nodded. "Were there any warning signs when the [Whale of Wailing] appeared?"

"There was this sudden sadness. By the time I heard the wailing, it was already there." Ye Buyu raised her eyes and gave Si Weijian a quick glance.

After turning it over in her mind, she decided to tell them some of what she had seen.

She asked tentatively, "Wasn't it the remains of a world that had already died? Floating ruins, to be precise?"

The moment she finished speaking, two pairs of eyes lit up and fixed directly on her.

She shrank back. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No. Go on. What else did you see?"

Si Weijian's eyes flickered. Like Sherlock Holmes finally catching a clue, he refused to let it go.

Ye Buyu recalled the scene. Her mind filled with weeping, and tears spilled from her eyes before she could stop them.

The young woman holding the notebook quickly pulled out a tissue and handed it to Ye Buyu.

"This should be an aftereffect of facing the [Whale of Wailing] directly. Take your time."

Ye Buyu wiped her tears and recalled what she had seen.

"I also saw a thriving world destroyed in an instant. So many people were struggling and wailing. That was all. There wasn't anything else."

Si Weijian nodded thoughtfully and asked a few more questions. It was a full hour before he finally brought the subject to a close.

Seeing Ye Buyu's confusion, Si Weijian reassured her:

"Don't be afraid. The [Whale of Wailing] has been driven out of the River of Forgetfulness, and the sun is working again. Your examinations also showed that there's nothing seriously wrong with your body.

"But your situation is a little unusual. As someone who faced the [Whale of Wailing] directly, you aren't exactly safe.

"From what we understand, you're a child who survived the Great Cataclysm, and you have no guardian. For your own safety, we recommend that you accept the Social Security Bureau's arrangements. Or would you rather...

"Go back to your school and insist on living an ordinary person's life?"

"No, no, no. I'll go with you."

Ye Buyu shook her head like a rattle drum. Only an idiot would choose to go back.

Knowing she was in danger and still refusing to seek protection from the heavy hitters-how was that any different from sticking her neck out for the blade?

She was a coward, and she treasured her life!

Besides, for an ordinary person, getting involved with the Social Security Bureau was nothing short of a chance to change their fate.

As the saying went, survive a great disaster and good fortune would follow. Maybe she could even land an easy, stable job.

Heh, that didn't sound half bad.

A smile as warm as a spring breeze appeared on Si Weijian's face. "Rest easy. Little Li will take you to the place we've arranged shortly. I hope we're both still alive the next time we meet."

Ye Buyu nodded in thanks. "Mm. Stay safe out there."

That was how things were in the Present World. Staying alive and staying safe had become the most commonplace blessings people offered one another.

It was much like the people of Great Xia habitually asking, "Have you eaten?" Both expressed people's simplest, most unadorned wishes.

Li closed her notebook and patted Ye Buyu on the shoulder. "Do your best."

Ye Buyu was utterly baffled. She was supposed to be under their protection. Do her best at what?

Seeing Ye Buyu's confusion, Li explained:

"The place Commissioner Si mentioned is Great Xia's top official institution, Four Symbols Academy. You'll be going there as a special-admission student. You're about to finish your final year of high school anyway, so you'll bypass the Gaokao and enter Four Symbols Academy directly."

Ye Buyu's eyes widened. "What?"

Wait, special admission?

It wasn't that Ye Buyu was making a fuss over nothing. As Great Xia's foremost institution, Four Symbols Academy was the ultimate goal of every school's top Awakened-class students, without exception.

Having once been the only institution of higher learning for the Awakened, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a sacred ground.

Special-admission students were rarer still. Being suddenly told that she was one was even more outrageous than winning five million in the lottery.

At least there was a chance of winning the lottery, something she could dream about. Special-admission students were practically one of a kind.

She could actually get into Four Symbols Academy?

Ye Buyu was both thrilled and anxious. She was thrilled to enter the sacred ground countless elites dreamed of, but worried that a weakling like her would be looked down on.

In just one minute, countless scenarios flashed through Ye Buyu's mind. Her whole body prickled as though ants were crawling over her.

She looked to Li for help. "Can I really do this?"

Li: ...

"You're this scared, so how did you dare look at a [Calamity] before?" Li asked the question that cut to the heart of the matter.

Ye Buyu scratched her head sheepishly. "Being scared doesn't mean I don't have courage."

Li: ???

A brave coward?

After leaving the hospital room, Si Weijian got into his car, tapped the communications device on his wrist, and dialed a number.

"Hello, Lan Huaiyu. I've sent you someone who needs close observation. Make sure you receive her. What kind of close observation?

"Well... she's a talent who can see past a Calamity's outward appearance and glimpse a little of what's inside. Make sure she receives special protection and training. She's the first person to witness the [Whale of Wailing] at close range. She might bring us some unexpected surprises."

After hanging up, Si Weijian lightly tapped the steering wheel, considering the investigation.

There had to be some unknown quality about Ye Buyu. The drastic change in her appearance must also have been caused by some other interfering factor.

All the examination results showed that her newly acquired body was normal, which meant the issue lay with her soul. What remained uncertain was whether that change had been caused by the River of Forgetfulness or the [Whale of Wailing].

"Ugh, what a headache. I'll leave this one to Four Symbols Academy to observe," Si Weijian murmured. He lowered the sun visor and drove away.

The Social Security Bureau's questioning had come to an end.

After her discharge, Ye Buyu remained dazed all the way through Li stuffing her onto a special train and taking an express route to the area where Four Symbols Academy stood.

Confusion bred more confusion, and the questions just kept piling up.

She turned to glance at the Space Elevator towering into the clouds, its end nowhere in sight.

Powered by three hundred thousand ion thrusters, hundreds of elevator cabins rose and descended through the air. The gentle sunlight coated the entire behemoth in flowing silver radiance.

Cables woven from carbon nanotubes mixed with Calamity materials curved in distinctive arcs. Like strings gently plucked by the hand of God, they vibrated under the storms of the troposphere at frequencies too low for human ears to hear.

Hundreds of years ago, humanity had gazed up at the stars and imagined the awe of venturing into space. Now most people could venture into space, only to discover that beyond their world lay nothing but unknown, dangerous regions.

Wrapped in chaos, the world faced only ever-worsening erosion.

The stars had long since gone dark. Now the night held only the lone moon and the lights of hope.

"Humanity lost the sun, but fortunately, we preserved the moon."

An elderly woman passing nearby unconsciously raised her head. Her slightly clouded eyes turned toward the clouds, as though she could see somewhere far away through their rolling layers.

She said gently, "Young lady, don't overthink it. Judging by the apocalypse progress bar, the world might not end even in another five hundred or a thousand years. Just go about your life."

Ye Buyu parted her lips, then answered with a wry smile. There was nothing wrong with saying that, but without all those predecessors pressing forward one after another, where would today's peace have come from?

Once you had the ability, you had to take a few steps forward.

She lingered no longer and headed straight for Four Symbols Academy.

The imposing, classically styled gates came into view. Before them stood a monument, five hundred years having etched distinctive patterns into its specially made metal.

Engraved upon the monument was the founding purpose of Four Symbols Academy:

Burn the Night, Wield the Light. Reforge the Dawn.

Tall plane trees stood on either side of the entrance. Their leaves shone faintly gold in the sunlight, trembling in the breeze and casting dancing shadows, swaying amid the colors of spring.

People hurried to and fro, some flying overhead and others running along the ground. Flying swords shared the air with technological drones, while fleet-footed runners raced hovercars. What a hodgepodge.

It was about as bewildering as strawberries stewed with tofu. Beyond "hard to describe," she had no other thoughts.

With the scene so chaotic, even Ye Buyu's striking white hair and red eyes seemed ordinary.

Ye Buyu withdrew her gaze and remarked with heartfelt admiration, "Just what you'd expect from Four Symbols Academy's elites. They really don't do things the normal way."

She stood on tiptoe and looked around until she finally spotted the security office. She knocked on the window and waited with a polite smile for the person inside to open it.

She had already imagined a friendly security guard smiling as they gave her directions. Instead, she froze when she saw a young woman with dark circles under her eyes who looked as though she might drop dead at any second.

Even Four Symbols Academy's security guards were this unusual?

The half-dead upperclasswoman rubbed her bird's-nest hair and glanced at Ye Buyu with a yawn. She looked like a junior student.

"What do you want? Don't you know disturbing your senior's sleep is a capital offense?"