"My sister?" Ke Rui smiled brightly at Hong Xinyuan's question, clearly delighted. "She probably won't be able to get in today. She'll have to wait until tomorrow."
"Can't get in?" Hong Xinyuan was even more confused by what Ke Rui meant. "How could she not get in? She has Second-level authorization—who would dare stop her?"
In the entire Upper Zone, anyone with official status could generally come and go freely. While certain circumstances might prevent entry or result in a brief ejection, anyone holding Second-level authorization or above didn't even have the Foundation Level managers daring to block them.
"No! It's not that—no one's stopping her." Ke Rui shook her head, grinning. "It's just because the Mental Pathway was activated today."
"The Mental Pathway?" Hong Xinyuan's expression cleared for a moment, then he caught himself, sensing something was off. He looked toward Shi Feng. "Then how did you get in?"
"He must have passed through the Mental Pathway—that's how he got in, right?" The beautiful woman seated beside Hong Xinyuan glanced at Shi Feng and spoke in a leisurely tone.
"Passed through the Mental Pathway? That's impossible!" Hong Xinyuan stared at Shi Feng, his eyes full of disbelief.
No matter how you looked at it, Shi Feng appeared to be in his early twenties—definitely under twenty-five. To pass through the Mental Pathway, one's mental level had to reach at least Special-class, the same level as Hong Xinyuan himself.
And Yuantian City's Upper Zone had never produced such a mental prodigy.
"That's right, Uncle Hong. Shi Feng really did pass through the Mental Pathway. You should have seen it—the people in the hall were completely dumbfounded." Ke Rui nodded, her expression brimming with excitement.
As Ke Rui finished speaking, the beautiful woman who had been sitting moments ago stood up and walked straight over to Shi Feng.
"Hello. I'm Xia Qingying, Superintendent of the Foundation Level." The beautiful woman introduced herself to Shi Feng. "I had no idea that the person Old Hong mentioned would turn out to be you—the one who passed through the Mental Pathway today and reached Special-class mental level."
Her sudden move caught Hong Xinyuan completely off guard.
Who was Xia Qingying?
She was the Superintendent of the entire Foundation Level in Yuantian City's Upper Zone. Despite being only twenty-six years old, her status and position were staggeringly imposing—her authority within the Foundation Level ranked among the top three figures.
For Xia Qingying to personally introduce herself to Shi Feng was ten times more shocking than even his passage through the Mental Pathway.
After a moment of surprise, Hong Xinyuan quickly stepped forward as well.
"Shi Feng, Superintendent Xia is an extremely busy person. Normally, even the managers of the Foundation Level find it incredibly difficult to get a meeting with her. Today, she's carved out time specifically to register your identity authorization in person." Hong Xinyuan nodded, directly explaining the situation to Shi Feng.
Someone of Xia Qingying's stature was not someone just anyone could meet.
Now that she was making overtures of goodwill, Shi Feng naturally needed to seize the opportunity—it would save him a great deal of trouble when living in the Upper Zone.
"Hello, Superintendent Xia." Shi Feng nodded. "Thank you for your trouble today."
He understood Hong Xinyuan's proactive explanation and intentions, and felt genuinely grateful.
"It's no trouble at all. This is something that should be handled by me as Superintendent. It's just that I'm usually too busy, and so few people come to register that I only process them in batches every few months." Xia Qingying smiled, her gaze carefully studying Shi Feng. "But your arrival is truly remarkable. Not only did you pass through the Mental Pathway before the age of twenty-five, but you also did it in just thirteen minutes. In all my time in the Upper Zone, I've never seen mental talent like this."
"What! Thirteen minutes?" Hong Xinyuan was stunned.
He had only assumed that Shi Feng had passed through the Mental Pathway—he hadn't expected the time to be so short.
After all, even other Special-class members who walked the Mental Pathway spent an average of around forty minutes, which was ten minutes longer than the average for those under twenty.
But Shi Feng had taken only thirteen minutes. It was almost as if Xia Qingying were joking…
"That's right. This Shi Feng recently broke the record for the fastest time through the Mental Pathway among those under twenty-five in our Yuantian City Upper Zone." Xia Qingying nodded, then looked at Shi Feng with an amused smile. "For talent like yours, if I didn't hurry over to officially register your identity, those old fogeys upstairs would probably chew me out."
Hong Xinyuan's expression shifted to sudden realization.
Such terrifying mental power—Shi Feng's mental level was probably not far off from that of a Mental Grandmaster.
A Mental Grandmaster!
There wasn't a single one in the entire Foundation Level of Yuantian City's Upper Zone. Only a handful existed in the Middle Zone, and every single one of them held a status and position that could make even the Great Boulder Consortium tremble.
Even though Shi Feng wasn't a Mental Grandmaster yet, any Upper Zone would fight tooth and nail to recruit a genius of his caliber.
"Superintendent Xia flatters me. I was merely lucky. I'm sure before long, plenty of people in the Upper Zone will surpass me."
Despite Xia Qingying's evident attention, Shi Feng actually felt quite sheepish inside.
After all, he had passed through the Mental Pathway by taking shortcuts. In terms of actual mental level, he was probably only at the High-class standard—still a good ways off from true Special-class.