Across the sunlit white-jade stage of the Central Solar Colosseum, twelve-year-old Gu Nian stopped ten paces in front of Student Council President Xiao Yanwang, Vice-President Chu Ba, and Long Xuan.
In the sky above the stadium, the five-hundred-foot Cosmic Demon-Detection Scoreboard—which Headmaster Hong had built to frame Gu Nian as a berserk monster before two trillion witnesses—shone like a sheet of pure gold:
[CHALLENGER #5: GU NIAN (AGE 8 — ELDEST BIOLOGICAL SON OF GU CHANGSHENG)]
[INNATE PHYSIQUE: REDEEMED CHAOS-STAR GUARDIAN BONE (99.9% BENEVOLENT MATURITY)]
[CURRENT HAPPINESS INDEX: 100.0% | CURRENT SOUL-DARKENING METER: 0.000000%!!]
Looking at the twelve-year-old boy standing calmly before him in a neat school tunic with fuzzy [Warm-Heart Bunny Ear-Muffs] resting around his collar, Student Council President Xiao Yanwang gripped the hilt of his heavy black-iron greatsword with both hands.
Even though all nine of their Grade-8 Peak Golden Halos had just been bleached into cheap plastic hula-hoops by eleven-year-old Jiang Tuntun. Xiao Yanwang was still a proud, battle-hardened Rank 8 Early (Star Realm) martial prodigy!
And beside him, Chu Ba and Long Xuan gritted their teeth, pulling every remaining drop of true Star-Realm Qi from their dantians to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their President!
