152: Chapter 152 The Key to the Earth is Hidden Under the School
Dongjiang City Fourth High School.
Awakening Plaza has been completely sealed off by the military.
Outside the school gates, rows of black armored vehicles were parked in a long line like a dragon.
Three layers of cordons had been set up.
In the center of the playground, the blue magic circle that once awakened the third-year students had stopped operating.
But the ground was still burning hot.
As if something buried underneath had just woken up.
Xiao Zhenjiang stood at the edge of the plaza.
Behind him were Zhang Changlin, Li Yan, and dozens of high-ranking Huaxia professionals.
No one spoke.
Everyone was waiting for one person.
A few minutes later.
Space rippled slightly.
Jiang Feng appeared in the center of the plaza with Zero Seven.
He was wearing a gray T-shirt.
On his feet was that same pair of plastic flip-flops.
His hands were in his pockets.
He didn't look like he was here to investigate a High-dimensional taboo; he looked more like he had just returned from buying soy sauce downstairs.
Li Yan glanced at his flip-flops, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
"You just... came like this?"
Jiang Feng glanced at him.
"Otherwise?"
Li Yan choked back his words for a long time.
"Fine."
"Grounded enough."
Xiao Zhenjiang stepped forward, his voice steady.
"Jiang Feng, the school has been cleared."
"The three basement levels have also been completely sealed."
At this point, he paused.
"However, there's a situation."
Jiang Feng looked at him.
Xiao Zhenjiang raised his hand and pointed at the Awakening magic circle.
"This magic circle lit up on its own just now."
"We didn't activate it."
Zhang Changlin took over, his expression grim.
"When it lit up, it re-retrieved all the Awakening records from three years ago."
"Including yours."
Jiang Feng's expression didn't change.
"Mine?"
Li Yan said in a deep voice, "The surface record is still a B-rank talent, Diligence Makes Up for Lack of Talent."
"But the underlying records have been erased by someone."
Upon hearing this, Zero Seven's face changed instantly.
"If the underlying records can be erased, it means this thing was never an ordinary Awakening circle from the start."
She crouched down and touched the ground with her fingertips.
The next second.
She abruptly pulled her hand back.
As if she had been burned by something.
"This is a screening ritual."
Xiao Zhenjiang frowned.
"Screening for what?"
Zero Seven looked at Jiang Feng.
"Screening out ordinary people."
"Leaving behind variables."
At the edge of the plaza.
A figure stood outside the cordon.
Shen Qingni.
She was still wrapped in military medical bandages, and her face was somewhat pale.
According to regulations, she shouldn't have come.
But as soon as she heard something had happened at Fourth High School, she came anyway.
This was the place where she had awakened her S-rank talent.
It was also the place where she first looked down upon Jiang Feng.
Now, she stood outside the cordon.
Without even the qualification to approach the core area.
An officer stopped her.
"Student Shen, it's dangerous inside."
Shen Qingni whispered, "I just want to take a look."
The officer did not let her through.
She didn't make a scene either.
She just stood there, looking at Jiang Feng in the center of the plaza.
Back then, she was the focus of everyone's attention here.
Jiang Feng was that B-rank mage everyone gossiped about.
Everyone thought she would soar to the clouds.
While Jiang Feng was only fit to crawl slowly on the ground.
But now.
Xiao Zhenjiang was personally waiting for him.
Li Yan made way for him.
The entire high-level leadership of Huaxia had sealed off the school because of a single word from him.
The contrast was too harsh.
So harsh that Shen Qingni couldn't even feel jealousy.
Jiang Feng seemed to sense her gaze and looked up.
Shen Qingni's body stiffened.
She thought Jiang Feng would say something.
Sarcasm?
A cold sneer?
Or perhaps a sentence like, "You looked down on me back then."
None of it.
Jiang Feng simply looked away and asked Xiao Zhenjiang:
"Can we dig?"
Xiao Zhenjiang was startled.
Then he nodded.
"We can."
Li Yan immediately waved his hand.
"Engineering team, break ground!"
Several Earth-element professionals stepped forward simultaneously.
Rumble.
The ground split open from the center of Awakening Plaza.
The blue magic circle was peeled away bit by bit.
The school had always thought it was just runes carved on the surface.
But after digging ten meters underground, everyone realized something was wrong.
There was another layer below.
Twenty meters underground.
Still more.
Fifty meters underground.
It was still there.
Zhang Changlin's expression became increasingly grim.
"This magic circle wasn't built inside the school."
Xiao Zhenjiang added.
"The school was built on top of the magic circle."
Zero Seven nodded.
"Exactly."
"Your so-called Awakening Plaza is just an opening of this ritual exposed on the surface."
Li Yan couldn't help but curse.
"Who did this?"
No one answered.
Because the answer might be even more troublesome than Wuliang Heaven.
Jiang Feng walked to the edge of the cracked pit.
Deep at the bottom of the pit, a circle of dark blue patterns was slowly lighting up.
The patterns were very old.
They didn't look like modern runes.
Nor did they resemble the Demon Realm System.
They were of the same origin as the patterns on the blue star earth key.
As soon as Jiang Feng approached, the first Earth Key fragment in his pocket began to heat up.
A System prompt popped up.
[Detected the second blue star earth key fragment.]
[Coordinates confirmed.]
[Warning: Old Awakening records exist in this area.]
[Warning: The host's Awakening result from that year was rewritten by an external force.]
Jiang Feng narrowed his eyes.
"Rewritten?"
As soon as he said this, Xiao Zhenjiang and Li Yan both looked at him.
Li Yan immediately exploded.
"You weren't B-rank back then?"
Jiang Feng's tone was calm.
"It was displayed as such."
Li Yan understood.
His expression suddenly stiffened.
"Someone gave you a fake stamp?"
Zero Seven looked at the patterns at the bottom of the pit, her voice tight.
"It's not just a fake stamp."
"This circle is categorizing everyone into layers."
"S-rank, A-rank, B-rank... these are just labels for show."
"The real records are hidden underground."
Xiao Zhenjiang's face darkened.
"In other words, all the Awakened on Blue Star over the years have been screened by this thing?"
Zero Seven nodded.
"Most likely."
The plaza fell silent instantly.
This wasn't just Jiang Feng's business.
This was the root of the entire Blue Star professional System.
If the Awakening magic circle itself had problems, then everyone's fate over the years might have been manipulated by some hand from the very beginning.
Jiang Feng didn't speak.
He stepped into the pit.
Zero Seven hurried to follow.
Xiao Zhenjiang wanted to arrange protection.
Li Yan reached out to stop him and shook his head.
"Don't make a mess."
"Him going down now isn't an exploration."
"It's an inspection."
Xiao Zhenjiang was silent for a moment, then nodded.
Deep in the pit.
Jiang Feng landed on the bottom layer.
There was a circular stone platform here.
In the center of the platform, half a broken stone fragment was inserted.
The second blue star earth key.
But a faint blue light was wrapped around the stone fragment.
Inside the blue light, a line of text appeared.
[ID: Jiang Feng.]
[Awakening Date: Three years ago.]
[Surface Talent: B-rank Diligence Makes Up for Lack of Talent.]
[True Fluctuation: Unrecordable.]
[Processing Result: Suppress display, deploy to Demon Realm, observe growth.]
After reading it, Zero Seven's breath hitched.
"Unrecordable..."
Her voice was dry.
"This isn't a lack of talent."
"It's that the magic circle didn't dare to record it."
Jiang Feng looked at those lines of text and suddenly gave a slight smile.
It was very faint.
"So I'm not a piece of trash?"
Zero Seven said cautiously, "From the records, you had already exceeded the recording limit of this circle back then."
Jiang Feng nodded.
"Then it's quite sensible."
Zero Seven: "?"
Jiang Feng: "It knew to keep a low profile for me."
Zero Seven didn't know how to respond for a moment.
A normal person would be at least somewhat angry upon learning their potential had been suppressed.
But he...
...was actually praising it.
This mindset was indeed unsuitable for a pawn.
Too difficult to control.
The blue light on the stone platform continued to expand.
Another record emerged.