Ye Chen opened the door to find a uniformed delivery man holding a substantial cardboard box and looking mildly impatient.
"Delivery for Wang, Room 307?"
Before Ye Chen could respond, the bathroom door burst open.
Fatty Wang emerged in a cloud of steam, hastily tightening the towel around his waist with one hand and reaching for the package with the other.
His sheepish grin was already in place, as if he'd been expecting exactly this moment.
"That's me! Perfect timing!" He signed for the delivery and tucked the box under his arm.
Ye Chen raised an eyebrow. The box was considerably large.
"Snacks," Fatty Wang explained preemptively, not quite meeting his eyes. "Just some personal snacks I ordered. For between meals. Not a big deal. Nothing to comment on."
Li Qiang stared at the box. "That's enough snacks for a small village."
"I have a fast metabolism," Fatty Wang said with complete seriousness.
Ye Chen shook his head slowly, a smile breaking through despite himself. He clapped Fatty Wang on the shoulder and headed to the bathroom to freshen up.
After washing up and changing into clean clothes, the three of them headed out together to the cafeteria.
The campus was fully alive now, with students streaming along pathways between buildings, and the air buzzing with the energy of the first official day of classes.
The morning light fell across the beautifully maintained grounds, and despite everything—Wu Tao's scheming, Zhao Long's threats, and the situation he'd transmigrated into—Ye Chen felt something surprisingly close to contentment.
Breakfast was quite filling. Ye Chen kept one eye on the cafeteria entrance throughout the meal, half expecting Zhao Long to appear with reinforcements. But the third year student never materialized. The meal passed without incident.
Was Zhao Long simply regrouping after yesterday's humiliation? Or had Lin Yue already begun making good on her end of their arrangement?
Ye Chen had no way of knowing, and honestly, either possibility suited him fine.
After returning their trays, the three roommates followed the stream of freshmen towards the academic buildings.
Their first class today was a general foundation course. One of those mandatory lectures that all first year students attended regardless of their chosen specialization.
Combat students sat alongside alchemists, and formation masters mingled with talisman masters.
It was one of the few times batches of the freshman cohort occupied the same space.
The classroom was enormous, built in a tiered lecture hall format with rows of seats ascending steeply from a central teaching platform.
Morning light streamed through tall windows along one side, illuminating the space warmly.
Students were filing in steadily, filling seats and greeting acquaintances with the particular mixture of excitement and nerves that defined first days everywhere.
Ye Chen, Fatty Wang, and Li Qiang made their way through the middle entrance and selected seats roughly in the center of the hall.
Seats high enough for a clear view of the teaching platform, and central enough to avoid being conspicuously in front or suspiciously in the back.
Ye Chen settled into his seat, looking around at the faces filling the hall around him.
Fatty Wang bounced in his seat with barely contained enthusiasm, practically vibrating with excitement.
"Can you believe it? First day of actual classes! The beginning of our cultivation journey! Brothers, we are going to become legends from this very classroom!"
Li Qiang smiled patiently. "Try to survive the first week before planning your legend."
"Pessimist," Fatty Wang declared cheerfully, already unwrapping something from his pocket.
Before Ye Chen could respond, a noticeable ripple of commotion spread from the classroom's main entrance.
The steady murmur of student conversation transformed into something louder and more animated.
Female voices rose in obvious excitement, and even some of the male students straightened in their seats, craning their necks to see.
A young man stepped through the doorway.
He was of average height, shorter than Ye Chen by a head, with striking red hair pulled back into a ponytail.
His eyes, from what Ye Chen could make out across the distance, appeared to match his hair in color, an unusual and vivid red that seemed to almost glow.
His hands were tucked casually into his pockets, and he moved through the growing commotion around him with the relaxed confidence of someone completely accustomed to being the center of attention.
He was not performing for the crowd, but simply existing within it, unbothered.
The ladies in the surrounding seats were practically beside themselves.
"Xiao Wuji actually came to general class!"
"He's even more handsome in person!"
"Do you think he'd notice me if I—"
"He's looking this way, he's looking this way!"
Even Li Qiang, who was typically calm and unimpressed, let out a quiet, involuntary "Wow" under his breath.
Ye Chen watched the red haired young man settle into a front row seat. "What's going on? Who is that?"
Li Qiang turned to him with undisguised surprise. "You don't know who that is?"
"I'm not from around here," Ye Chen said simply.
Li Qiang shook his head in mild disbelief before leaning closer. "That's Xiao Wuji. From the Xiao family, one of the most powerful clans in this city. He awakened his physique at ten years old."
"What physique?" Ye Chen asked.
"Third Grade Ninefold Tyrant Body." Li Qiang's voice carried genuine respect. "His cultivation has been advancing at an extraordinary pace ever since."
"Rumor has it he's already at the peak of Foundation Establishment, which would make him the strongest freshman by a massive margin. But the rumor has been disproved. He's Foundation Establishment, but not at the peak."
He paused meaningfully. "But that's not even the main reason people know him."
Fatty Wang leaned across Ye Chen conspiratorially, apparently unable to resist joining the explanation. "He's on the Prodigy List, brother."
"Prodigy List?" Ye Chen raised an eyebrow.
Fatty Wang's eyes lit up at the opportunity to explain. "The Prodigy List is exactly what it sounds like. A ranked list of the most talented and remarkable young cultivators across the entire central plains."
"It's a list of the rising stars, hidden geniuses, and the next generation of powerhouses. Getting onto that list means you've done something genuinely extraordinary that caught the attention of those who monitor such things."
"Xiao Wuji beat the Demon Domination Pagoda at sixteen," Li Qiang added. "That's what earned him his spot. The pagoda has crushed cultivators twice his age."
"Though the list isn't exactly comprehensive," Fatty Wang noted thoughtfully, picking at a snack. "Some powerful cultivators deliberately stay off it by keeping a low profile. Being noticed isn't always an advantage."
Ye Chen absorbed this quietly. Then his thoughts landed on Lin Yue, and his curiosity nudged at him.
"Is senior Lin Yue on the Prodigy List?"
"Of course," Li Qiang answered without hesitation. "Last I checked, she ranked fifty-ninth. One of the academy's most celebrated rising stars."
Ye Chen nodded slowly. Fifty-ninth on a list spanning the entire central plains. That was genuinely impressive.
He turned his gaze back towards the front of the classroom where Xiao Wuji sat surrounded by admirers, seemingly unbothered by all of it.
There was something about the young man that Ye Chen found himself studying carefully. Not with envy, but with the instinctive assessment of someone cataloguing future variables.
Then, as though feeling the observing eyes on him, Xiao Wuji's eyes suddenly swept slowly across the tiered seating, before landing directly on Ye Chen.