Haitian City, Upper District.
A luxury hover car slowly descended and landed before the grand gates of the Upper District. A man and a woman stepped out, drawing the attention of the hundreds of young men and women waiting for testing.
The pair who emerged were none other than Shi Feng and Mu Xin. Yet every last one of those youngsters had their eyes fixed on Mu Xin, their gazes brimming with surprise and confusion.
"Why would the Bouldering Group's heir suddenly come to Haitian City's Upper District?"
"Could she be trying to transfer over to our Upper District?"
"No way—I heard that Miss Mu Xin recently had a mental breakthrough and already secured first-level clearance in Yuantian City's Upper District. With the Bouldering Group's full backing and the Foundation Layer's manager supporting her, she might even enter Yuantian City's Middle District someday. Why would she come here?"
At Mu Xin's sudden appearance, the young men and women buzzed with speculation, unable to fathom why such a prominent figure would show up in their district.
As for the crowd gossiping about her, Mu Xin was utterly indifferent—as if they didn't exist at all.
"There are way too many people here for the testing. It's more than ten times what Yuantian City's Upper District gets…" Shi Feng surveyed the youngsters, mildly surprised.
The last time he'd attended a testing at Yuantian City's Upper District, only a few dozen people had shown up. It was hard to believe two Upper Districts could differ so drastically.
"Haitian City's Upper District does have more people than Yuantian City's—it was also established earlier." Mu Xin shook her head, her gaze sweeping over the hundreds of young people waiting quietly in the distance. "But these aren't talents cultivated internally by the Green God Corporation. They were born here in Haitian City's Upper District. This happens to be the annual assessment period, which is why so many have turned out."
"Based on the results, some conglomerates even use the rankings to determine future heirs and daily resource allocations. For these youngsters, this is probably the most fiercely competitive stretch of the year."
A hint of helplessness crept into Mu Xin's eyes.
It was precisely this kind of relentless competition that had driven a wedge between her and Ke Rui since childhood—forced to compete in everything, a life far more brutal than anything in the outside world.
"So that's why. No wonder every single one of these kids has such astonishing physical capability." Shi Feng looked over the assembled youth and let out a quiet sigh.
Children of the Upper District truly were something else—utterly incomparable to young people from the outside world. Any one of them could probably crush any expert below a martial arts grandmaster.
With such physical foundations from childhood, their future potential far exceeded that of kids who trained in the outer world. Enter the Divine Realm with advantages like those, and advancing to a tier-four Class would be child's play—they could even aim for tier-five.
Only now did Shi Feng begin to truly understand why, in his previous life, the great superpowers had boasted so many tier-four and tier-five powerhouses. Just this crop of Upper District youth alone—there was no telling how many tier-four experts they could produce.
"Let's head inside," Mu Xin said, checking the time. "If the Mental Path opens the way it did last time, finding the girl you mentioned will be difficult. Our current identities are registered to Yuantian City's Upper District, not Haitian City's."
Shi Feng nodded and followed Mu Xin through the gates.
Though Upper District status was universally recognized across all districts—granting free entry and exit—each Upper District operated as an independent entity, locked in constant competition with the others. Even the tasks issued by one district often involved contests and rivalries with the rest, which meant residents of each district tended to view outsiders with a degree of hostility.
Under normal circumstances, a person from one Upper District wouldn't venture into another. If things went south, a confrontation wouldn't be unusual at all.
As for Mu Xin and Shi Feng walking straight in, the hundreds of youngsters could only watch with envy.
After the age of twenty, only those who had truly earned Upper District status could still enter freely—unlike them, still scrambling and fighting for a chance at that very status.
"Who is that guy? He actually gets to walk in alongside the Bouldering Group's heir, with Mu Xin herself guiding him?"
"He's probably the son of some big shot from the Middle District. Otherwise, how could someone of Mu Xin's caliber do something like that?"
"Damn… I'm so jealous. If only I were the son or nephew of some mental master—I wouldn't need to grind away here just to get Upper District status. I could straight up live in a Middle District villa and train!"