After Lan Zicheng crossed over to the world she discovered that the original Zi Cheng had an innate magical talent of around the fifth level. By using her natural ‘golden finger’[--] she transformed Zi Cheng’s body and raised her talent all the way up to the twelfth level.
Taking advantage that no one would notice her absence, Lan Zicheng snuck out to take the test. The original Zi Cheng had given up control of her body to Lan Zicheng on the condition that Lan Zicheng get revenge for her. To do this she had to get stronger, so getting into the academy was the first step to achieving her goal.
A blue haired girl named Ai Lin watched silently as the crowd surrounded Lan Zicheng. It was obvious they were trying to gain her favor by heaping praise and admiration on her.
Like Zi Cheng, Ai Lin was also from another world. However the two were different in that the current world was a world from a novel that Ai Lin had read. She was actually inside the novel about Zi Cheng.
Ai Lin had been a junior in college in her previous life. Back then her favorite pastime had been to read those novels about transmigrations and rebirth. That all stopped when she got into a traffic accident one day. She woke up to find that she had somehow crossed over into another world. Not only that she had crossed over as the female lead’s arch nemesis!
And wasn’t Zi Cheng the female protagonist of this world? Sure enough she had the beauty that befitted a female lead. Although Ai Lin herself wasn’t too bad either.
In the original story Ai Lin was the eldest daughter of an affluent family with a magical talent of the tenth level. The combination of her talent and family background gave her an inflated ego. In fact she was very optimistic about the entrance exams for Xingguang Holy Academy.
She just didn’t expect Zi Cheng to grab the limelight and steal her thunder. It was at this point that the two became deathly rivals.
Ai Lin created ridiculous rumors to smear Zi Cheng’s reputation and did all kinds of things to humiliate her. She always failed because the male lead in love with Zi Cheng always found a way to resolve the situation. Ultimately Ai Lin became so infuriated that she tried to kill Zi Cheng. Of course the plan didn’t succeed. The male lead arrived and saved her just in the nick of time.
Her cla.s.smates knew about her involvement in the scheme and ultimately chose to write a formal letter to the administrators of the academy about it. This led to the school princ.i.p.al personally issuing a request to have Ai Lin expelled from Xingguang Holy Academy.
After her expulsion her family stopped pampering her and ignored her entirely. The boys who adored Zi Cheng sought vengeance against Ai Lin and ruthlessly hara.s.sed her making her life miserable. With this kind of zeal one of them inevitably went too far resulting in Ai Lin’s death.
Ai Lin knew she had entered into the life of a tragic character the moment she entered the world. Not wanting the bad ending she immediately thought of ways to change her destiny. Although her ‘golden finger’ was nowhere near as formidable as the female protagonist’s it was still a strong one. It would be possible for her to avoid her fate and become cannon fodder if she was careful in her interactions with Zi Cheng.
Ai Lin knew it was not the right time to interact with Zi Cheng, so she spent her time observing instead. She was very interested in finding an opening or opportunity she could use to her advantage. She would follow Zi Cheng closely and watch her until the end of the first round of a.s.sessments being careful not to antagonize her. She believed there had to be a way to overcome the original text and defeat her cannon fodder role. She would plan her counterattack against Zi Cheng and fight her before her own destiny could be set in stone.
Meanwhile back at Tian Yue’s home, Feng Wu was oblivious to the fact that the Magic Division had only accepted two students thus far. Even if she did know she would probably not have cared. Instead right now she was busy playing with little bun and having a nice meal with everyone. To celebrate her pa.s.sing the first part of the a.s.sessments Tian Yue decided to have a barbeque.
Tian Yue said “You have to eat more Feng Wu. The second part is tomorrow so you have to properly refuel your body.”
Everyone was thinking the same thing so they all promptly agreed as well.
“Feng Wu you must rest up for the second part of the a.s.sessments!” Tian Ke who was sitting next to Feng Wu was so excited he couldn’t help wiggling around and clapping his hands. He secretly decided he would also test into Xingguang Holy Academy and be a student there too.
Everyone patted Feng Wu on her tiny head expressing their support of her. That evening she was rushed to bed. No one would let her stay up late. Tian Yue even wanted to take little bun and keep him with her.
“But you and Lan Wei have to wake up early in the morning for work. Little bun should stay with me instead.” This argument won out and Jier managed to keep little bun with him in his room.
Everyone was pitching in and trying their best to ensure Feng Wu would be well rested and clear headed for her test tomorrow. The scene really comforted her and gave a sense of warmth inside so she agreed and went to bed early despite not really needing the rest.
That night she dreamt of a long silvery trail. She wrinkled her brow because it felt like someone was summoning her from the other side of it. Although she didn’t know what was at the end of the trail her heart told her to follow it, so she put one foot in front of the other and walked down the trail.
She didn’t know how long she had walked but eventually a door appeared in front of her. She had a feeling the voice calling her was coming from behind that door. She slowly pushed the heavy door open without hesitation. An intense white light shot out and before she knew it Feng Wu was falling through the air, fortunately her body reacted faster than her mind and she instinctively corrected herself and found her balance. All around her she could hear the screams of other people as they fell.
Underneath her was a wide expansive ocean, a beach, and some woods. Feng Wu and a few others fell on the edge of the beach. Because she had kept her balance she was able to stop just short of impact allowing her to land safely and silently. Others fell all around her, their bodies thudding against the sand as they crashed into it. They fell in all kinds of directions, some even had their heads completely stuck in the sand. They were the luckier ones though. Most had fallen into the ocean. Those that could swim swam ash.o.r.e while those that couldn’t swim could only scream for help. Fortunately there were many friendly people about. Some helped pull those stuck in the sand out while others swam to rescue those floundering in the ocean. It took about half an hour to rescue everyone.
In all that time Feng Wu didn’t help anyone. Instead she stood off to the side by herself and observed the situation. It was strange. Why was everyone here all around the same age, the youngest of them was probably ten years old. She couldn’t help but think of the a.s.sessment from earlier that day.
“What’s going on?! Last I remember I was sleeping in my hotel room,” someone cried out.
“Yeah me too! I came to partic.i.p.ate in the entrance a.s.sessments for Xingguang Academy so I was staying at my uncle’s house. I went to sleep early. I don’t know how I ended up falling like that. It totally woke me up!” The boy who spoke patted his chest with a scared expression on his face.
“What’s going on? Does anyone know?” whispered a girl.
“Isn’t this part of the a.s.sessment?” another whispered.
Zi Cheng helped a girl sit up. When she had fallen in the water earlier the girl next to her couldn’t swim so she had saved her. With that done she looked around studying her surroundings.
Ai Lin was a distance away from Zi Cheng. She sat next to several girls who were completely soaked. Most people were in fact wearing drenched clothes because they were not lucky enough to fall on the sand.