The grand holographic screen above the judicial bench flickered with golden starlight.
Shen Qiaoqiao’s fingers tapped rhythmically across the obsidian control panel. Rows of glowing emerald names cascaded down the display like a waterfall of celestial jade.
“Filter complete, Chairman,” Shen Qiaoqiao announced, turning her screen toward Lin Mo. “The court’s census array scanned all one hundred million applicants across the ten-light-year queue. The results are startling.”
Lin Mo leaned against the high mahogany bench, holding a fresh mug of hot tea. “How many reached the eighty-point threshold?”
“Exactly ten thousand individuals, sir,” Shen Qiaoqiao said with a faint, sorrowful shake of her head. “Out of one hundred million cultivators, only ten thousand have a Goodness Score of eighty-eight or higher. And not a single one of them is an ancient sect master, a pavilion head, or a clan young master.”
“Where are they standing in the line?” Lin Mo asked.
Shen Qiaoqiao zoomed in on the stellar map.
A tiny cluster of faint green dots appeared at the extreme edge of the tenth light-year, far beyond the outer asteroid belt near the frozen perimeter of the Crab Nebula.
