Beep~
"An Xuan, wake up!"
"Uhh... shut the fuck up... please."
An Xuan groaned, not even bothering to look at the voice that had interrupted his peace.
"...This brat!"
Thwack!
"...What the hell was that for?" An Xuan didn't even flinch from the smack to the head.
Instead, he slowly blinked and finally dragged his gaze up.
Standing in front of him was Miss Lin, his class's professor.
Tall, with flowing brown hair that hung past her shoulders and big, dark brown eyes that could freeze anyone in their tracks.
And, yeah, she had a... generous figure.
The kind of figure that definitely didn't go unnoticed.
She was dressed in her usual professor's attire: a smart blouse, a skirt, and glasses perched perfectly on her nose, which she adjusted with a little impatient push.
"What is it, Miss Lin?" he mumbled sleepily.
"Pay attention to class!" She replied to him angrily, glaring at him intensely.
"Why though? I always ace the exams, and I already know the material." An Xuan said, barely lifting his head to glance at the board, then back at Miss Lin with a smirk.
Hearing his words, Miss Lin angrily retorted, crossing her arms:
"Is that so? Then how about you explain this problem?" She gestured to the complex mess of equations on the board.
An Xuan didn't even blink.
His tired eyes scanned the numbers and symbols for a moment, and then he spoke as if it was the easiest thing in the world.
"That's the integral of the second-order differential equation with a non-homogeneous term. It simplifies to... this."
Without any hesitation, he walked up and directly wrote the answer on the board.
As soon as Miss Lin saw the answer, her eyes widened as she noticed that the answer was correct.
"You really are insufferable," she muttered, staring at An Xuan with a look of pure frustration as she let out a long, exasperated sigh.
"Go back to your seat."
An Xuan didn't even bat an eye.
He simply nodded, making his way back to his seat.
The eyes of the other students were on him, but he couldn't care less. This was just another normal day for him—one where he either slept or did the bare minimum to get by.
"Psst... An Xuan!"
As he settled into his seat, a familiar voice called out to him.
He glanced to his side.
It was Little Xue, one of the few people who actually seemed to care about him.
"You really shouldn't sleep in class. The last time, you got called to the Principal's Office!" she whispered to him, clearly worried about him.
An Xuan smirked and leaned back in his chair, flashing her a lazy smile.
"Ah... Little Xue."
"Don't worry about it," he said casually, dismissing her worries with a shrug.
"If they try to expel me, it's their loss, not mine. The principal's always wanted one of his students to make it into the top ten national rankings. Lucky for him, I can do that."
He paused, tapping his fingers on the desk as he leaned in closer to her.
"So yeah, they'd be pretty stupid to expel me, even if I pull some dumb stunts."
Hearing his words, Little Xue furrowed her eyebrows.
"Sometimes, I really don't get you," she said with a sigh. "You've been given these amazing gifts, and instead of using them, you just want to sleep all day."
An Xuan gave her a playful, sharp grin.
"It takes a lot of effort to be awake."
He stretched, pretending to yawn, and slumped his head back onto the desk.
"Well, I'm going back to sleep then... night... ahah..." He barely finished his words before his body fully relaxed into the familiar, comfortable position of slouching on his desk.
Little Xue shook her head with a small, resigned smile, but her attention quickly shifted back to the board where Miss Lin was now explaining the problem An Xuan had solved so effortlessly earlier.
But just as she glanced away, something caught the corner of her eye.
A bright, glowing pentagram had appeared on the floor, its edges starting to glow and grow, expanding until it filled the whole classroom.
"Teacher, what is that on the ground?" one of the students asked, and Miss Lin looked at it, just as surprised as them.
Miss Lin's eyes widened in shock as she turned to look at it.
"I... don't know?!"
The pentagram's symbols grew more defined, glowing brighter with each passing second until they covered the entire classroom in a blinding light.
And then, just as suddenly as it had appeared...
It vanished.
When the light faded, the classroom was empty.
The desks, the chairs, the students, and even Miss Lin were gone.
It was strange, a situation where even science couldn't explain it.
*******
"An Xuan, wake up!"
'Ugh... am I getting a Déjà vu?'
An Xuan groggily blinked his eyes open, the bright light stinging his vision as he rubbed them with one hand. His surroundings were unfamiliar, and he quickly shot up from the ground.
"Wait... where's my comfy desk?" He looked around in confusion, still half-asleep.
The space around him felt strange, and his eyes tried to focus, but the scene didn't make any sense.
"Where are we?" he mumbled, his head still spinning.
"I don't know..." Little Xue's voice came from his right, sounding just as lost.
An Xuan turned to look at her, and she had that thoughtful expression on her face—the one she always had when she was trying to figure something out.
"Ah! It's called... Isekai!!" She finally snapped her fingers as if she'd just solved a puzzle.
"I think we got isekai'ed or something like that," she added, still trying to wrap her head around it.
An Xuan blinked a few more times.
This was definitely not his classroom anymore.
They were standing on a massive pentagram podium, the same one Little Xue had seen briefly in the classroom just before everything went blank.
Around them were a bunch of strangers, all wearing identical white and blue robes with a chinese dragon imprinted on the fabric.
"May I get your attention, please?!"
A loud voice cut through the murmur of the crowd.
An older man, with a long white beard and calm eyes, stepped forward from the group of blue-robed people.
"Everyone, please remain calm. We mean no harm. I am Yu Long, the Sect Leader of the Azure Dragon Sect, and I am what people call a Beast Cultivator."
The crowd seemed to relax slightly at his words, though there was still an air of confusion hanging over them.
Some students whispered to one another, still unsure of what was happening.
Yu Long cleared his throat and continued:
"I suspect most of you have heard of 'cultivators'—but it's not exactly like the stories you read. We don't cultivate ourselves the way you might think. Instead, we bond with beasts and cultivate them, strengthening the beasts through this connection. In simpler terms, we share our cultivation with them."
He then paused, taking a look at the student's expression. All of them continued confused, but he continued nonetheless.
"Now, there are a few cultivators who end up with beasts stronger than them. But that's not by chance—it's because someone helped them get there. Each beast has its own personality, and most of them won't form a bond with someone weaker than themselves."
He locked eyes with the students.
"Only those with enough talent can get a higher-level beast to form a contract with them."
Yu Long's eyes scanned the crowd, noticing the confusion in the student's eyes.
"And as for why you're here… you can't go back, at least not for now. The array that brought you here is an ancient one, only usable once every few thousand years."
"Any questions?" he turned to the students.
No one of the students dared to go forward.
Yu Long was about to continue when suddenly, a hand shot up in the air.
"I have one."
Stretching his arms above his head, An Xuan directly asked the Sect Leader:
"What exactly is the reason you brought us here? I mean, there has to be one, right? You wouldn't just throw us into some crazy situation without a good reason, right?"
"Ohho! That's a good question indeed!" Yu Long stroked his beard as he looked at An Xuan with bright eyes.
In his eyes, An Xuan seemed like a good seedling, and if had a good enough talent, he might as well take him as his disciple.
"The reason we brought you here is because of a prophecy that we received from our Divine Lord. In a few years, the Demon Emperor will appear once again and spread destruction throughout the whole world."
"And you, earthlings, are the only ones that can stop him! Because of that, if you have a good enough talent, we'll support you in any way for you to get strong and then later, kill the Demon Emperor!"
"As for your talent... we'll be measuring it using this monument right here!"
He pointed to a large, imposing stone structure that had appeared out of nowhere, standing tall in front of the students.
"The talents are divided into categories: Worthless, Common, Human, Earthly, Heavenly, Immortal, and finally, Divine."
The students exchanged worried looks at the mention of "Worthless" and "Common," but Yu Long ignored their nervous whispers and focused on An Xuan.
An Xuan yawned, clearly bored by the whole thing.
Yu Long's eyes widened a little in surprise, but he carried on with his instructions.
"Now, please form a line, and before you touch the monument, state your name so we can register you."
With that, the students formed a line, and Miss Lin joined them since she was also brought here.
An Xuan was the last person in the line, just behind Little Xue.
And so, the talent evaluation started.
The first student, a boy with short black hair, stepped up.
He cleared his throat, spoke his name, and then placed his hand on the monument.
Instantly, a brilliant light burst from the stone, and glowing text appeared in the air.
[Tang Xiao, Earthly-level talent!]
The moment those words flashed, the elders and Yu Long all leaned forward, their eyes gleaming. It was clear that "Earthly-level talent" was no small thing.
'It seems that even an Earthly-level talent is pretty good.' An Xuan commented inwardly, yawning once again.
Truth be told, An Xuan didn't expect much for himself.
His mind was already a genius in its own right, so surely his cultivation talent couldn't be that impressive, could it?
He couldn't have it all.
After all, there were limits to everything.
But just as he was about to zone out again...
Puff...!
Shine!
Suddenly, a brilliant golden beam shot up into the sky. An Xuan's eyes snapped open, drawn to the source of the light.
It was Miss Lin, his professor.
"Oh... Goddess! Thank you for bestowing such talent upon us!" Yu Long suddenly dropped to his knees, his voice almost a prayer.
His eyes were turned skyward as if receiving some divine blessing.
An Xuan blinked at his actions
'Did we change genre...?' he pondered.
But then, he remembered the term 'Divine Lord', and directly accessed those terms to the 'Goddess' mentioned by Yu Long.
[Lin Min, Divine-level talent!]
The highest-level talent.
The elders were instantly eyeing Miss Lin as if she were some sort of eye candy, and she appeared quite uncomfortable with their gaze.
Aside from her, there wasn't much high-level talent present except two or three heavenly talents, but none of the others were below human grade.
Until...
It was Little Xue's turn.
Shine!
The moment her hand touched the monument, another golden beam erupted into the sky, and everyone turned to watch.
[Lu Mingxue, Divine-level physique!]
It wasn't just "talent"—this time it was her physique that had been revealed to be of divine quality.
The elders' eyes went wide, and even Yu Long dropped to his knees, bowing his head reverently.
"Goodness gracious! Oh, Goddess! Thank you! This is the kind of disciple who will stand against the Demon Emperor! Our sect is truly blessed!"
'So dramatic...' An Xuan sighed.
Finally, it was his turn.
He took a slow step forward, trying to hide the boredom creeping over him.
"An Xuan," he muttered, stating his name plainly before placing his hand on the monument.
Yu Long's eyes gleamed with a hint of hope as if praying for at least an Earthly-grade result. In his mind, he was probably chanting over and over, 'Please, at least Earthly-grade talent...'
The moment An Xuan touched the monument, there was no flash of golden light, no brilliant display.
Instead, a faint white glow flickered briefly before it dimmed completely.
[An Xuan, Worthless-level talent.]
"Ah..."
There was an audible gasp from the crowd. Yu Long's smile faltered and immediately dropped into disappointment.
The other elders exchanged glances, clearly shocked. Even the students who had been hopeful for An Xuan now looked at him with confusion.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
After all, An Xuan was a genius—wasn't he?
But despite the disappointment around him, An Xuan just stood there, a small, and barely noticeable smirk curling up on his lips.
What they didn't see was the faint glow of light in front of him. A faint blue panel appeared, glowing softly as it hovered in the air.
[Monster Girl Evolution System]
It seemed like he wasn't as worthless as they thought.