Everything dissipated.
The vengeful spirits.
The yin energy.
The black mist.
All of it vanished without a trace.
Once Bai Jue completed the contract with the Ghost King bride and absorbed her into his underworld space, every abnormal phenomenon disappeared.
The classroom returned to normal.
Only after a long while did the homeroom teacher walk up to Bai Jue, barely able to contain his excitement.
"Student Bai Jue… what you awakened must be the Zhongyuan Festival, right?"
Although he already knew the answer, he still wanted to hear Bai Jue confirm it himself.
"Yes, teacher."
Bai Jue nodded.
"Hiss—"
The homeroom teacher sucked in a deep breath. Then his face broke into an excited, enthusiastic smile.
"Hahaha, excellent! Truly excellent! Zhongyuan Festival—this is one of the most powerful festival abilities ever discovered. In the future, you're guaranteed to become a formidable Festival Adept. We'll continue with the remaining awakenings, but once they're done, you and Ji Yingying should come with me to the principal's office."
"I understand, teacher."
Bai Jue nodded again.
Awakening was only the beginning.
To truly become powerful as a Festival Adept, one had to cultivate festival energy.
Without festival energy, it was impossible to properly activate festival abilities.
Festival Adepts like him—those who had just awakened—were generally referred to as Apprentice Festival Adepts. At the moment of awakening, festival energy would naturally be generated within the body, but only in small amounts.
At most, it was enough to activate one festival ability before being completely drained.
To grow stronger, cultivation was essential.
Normally, when a student awakened as a Festival Adept, the school would directly provide cultivation methods. That was also one of the reasons for going to the principal's office—along with discussing the待遇 and benefits granted to Festival Adepts.
Bai Jue returned to his seat.
The surrounding students' gazes converged on him, but he paid them no mind. Instead, he focused inward. With a thought, a panel appeared before his eyes.
[Name: Bai Jue]
[Realm: Apprentice Festival Adept]
[Festival: Zhongyuan]
[Weapon: Soul-Reaping Scythe]
[Zhongyuan Abilities: Underworld Court, ???, ???, ???]
This was his attribute panel, accessed through the system.
It was simple—yet revealing.
In this world, one's talent was judged primarily by what festival they awakened.
The stronger the festival, the more terrifying the individual's potential.
From the moment Bai Jue awakened Zhongyuan, he had already become an acknowledged monster genius in everyone's eyes.
It was no exaggeration to say that even if all his future festival awakenings turned out to be mediocre, the Zhongyuan Festival alone was enough to make him an invincible powerhouse among peers.
The reason was simple—
The Zhongyuan Festival's army-of-ghosts strategy was simply too terrifying.
That said, as an Apprentice Festival Adept, Bai Jue currently possessed only one Zhongyuan ability—
Underworld Court.
That dark space within his body was precisely the Underworld Court.
Formed entirely of yin energy, it was the perfect resting place for evil spirits.
Any malevolent entity that entered the Underworld Court willingly would become Bai Jue's soldier.
Of course, the Underworld Court's functions were not limited to housing ghosts.
It also possessed another crucial ability—Contracting.
A contracted evil spirit would be bound to the Underworld Court and become its gatekeeper. The higher the contracted spirit's realm, the greater the benefits it would provide to all ghosts housed within the Underworld Court.
This was why, in history, Zhongyuan Festival Adepts would almost always contract an evil spirit immediately after awakening.
However—
Someone who contracted a Ghost King the moment they awakened?
Bai Jue was the first.
"Zhongyuan has many abilities, but most of them are currently sealed," Bai Jue murmured to himself, recalling the materials he had read earlier. "This is a protective mechanism—once my realm rises, the other abilities will unlock one by one."
Even with just a single ability, he was already invincible among peers.
After all, even if his personal combat strength wasn't yet overwhelming, he could summon evil spirits.
Though his festival energy was limited, summoning a single Underworld Warden posed no problem.
And an Underworld Warden was First Rank—
More than enough to suppress any Apprentice Festival Adept.
…
" He Guoyuan, Awakening failed."
" Guo Jin, Awakening failed."
" Ding Gong, Awakening failed."
" Cheng Taihe, Awakening successful. Awakened festival: Grain Rain."
Grain Rain, like Winter Solstice, was a seasonal node.
However, it wasn't nearly as powerful.
Bai Jue had read about it before—its abilities involved water manipulation and healing.
But in terms of water control, it fell short of Mangzhong.
In terms of healing, it was inferior to Spring Equinox.
Overall, it was fairly average.
Even so, successfully awakening as a Festival Adept was already remarkable. Cheng Taihe's face was filled with excitement.
He was also the last student to awaken.
In the entire class, only three people succeeded.
Aside from Bai Jue and the other two, every remaining student wore expressions of unconcealed disappointment.
Neither Bai Jue nor the others paid much attention to it. Even the homeroom teacher remained calm.
The outcome had already been decided.
At that moment, the homeroom teacher spoke up.
"Bai Jue, Ji Yingying, and Cheng Taihe—you three come with me. I'll take you to the principal's office."
"Yes, teacher."
The three of them stood up at once and followed the teacher out of the classroom.
Under normal circumstances, they would soon be choosing suitable cultivation techniques.
However—
Just as they stepped outside—
A tall figure approached.
She was strikingly attractive, her figure alluring and her features refined. She walked straight up to the homeroom teacher, her expression calm as she took out a black booklet.
"Hello. My name is Sikong Xi. This is my identification."
The booklet was jet black.
The homeroom teacher clearly recognized what it represented. His expression changed immediately, then shifted to one of understanding.
"Miss Sikong, greetings. I believe I know why you're here."
As he spoke, he pointed toward Bai Jue.
"This is student Bai Jue. He has just awakened successfully—his festival is Zhongyuan."
"As expected."
Hearing this, a sharp glint flashed through Sikong Xi's eyes. A faint smile finally curved her lips.
"Student Bai Jue, nice to meet you. You may call me Captain Sikong."
"I came here specifically for you. Do you have time to come with me for a while?"
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