The Crimson Tyrant's Forbidden Source

The outlier

Chapter 4: The Outlier

“Eva Vance!”

The proctor’s voice didn’t just echo; it cut through the residual tension left behind by Julian’s display like a physical blade. All across the grand hall, the senior students who had been frantically whispering about the Envoy of Sloth and Julian’s terrifying Spirit Dominion suddenly paused. More than sixty pairs of eyes, along with the heavy, unreadable gazes of the shadows in the upper pavilion, shifted downward to focus entirely on the final recruit left on the floor.

Eva didn’t let her expression slip. Outwardly, she was the picture of serene indifference,a stark contrast to the violent hammering of her heart against her ribs. She felt incredibly alone in that massive, cavernous hall, standing exposed beneath the crushing weight of their collective attention. Yet, whether those gazes were dripping with condescension or outright disdain, she calmly took them all in, her posture unyielding.

Glancing up toward the high pavilions where the senior students loomed, Eva realized she wasn't hallucinating. Her gaze locked directly with a distinct pair of crimson pupils. She had noticed them hiding in the upper shadows as early as when Bulin Vanguard stepped onto the pedestal, and they hadn't stopped tracking her since.

Stepping forward, Eva walked toward the rising stone pedestal. Every step felt heavier than the last, not because of the residual gravity of the previous trial, but because of the reality she carried inside. She wasn’t like Caelen, or Lyra, or even the monstrously talented Julian. She felt it; no, she knew it. She didn't truly belong to this world. From the very first person who had participated in the ritual today until now, an innate intuition told her that her ability operated on a completely different plane of logic.

As she drew closer to the pedestal, she caught a glimpse of Julian out of the corner of her eye. He had paused near the entrance of the right corridor, his violet eyes narrowed as he cast a calculating, backward glance at her. He was watching her like a hawk assessing its prey.

Eva reached the stone structure. The runic arrays etched into its surface hummed with a low, expectant frequency. The scarlet clad figure stood perfectly rigid beside it, the massive, gold rimmed scroll hovering silently overhead, waiting to record her destiny. At least, that was what she assumed because until this exact moment, that ancient parchment hadn't changed a bit or reacted to anyone else's presence beforehand.

Calm down, she told herself, taking a slow, measured breath. Just touch it and get through to the corridor.

Lifting her hand, she let her palm make direct contact with the cold, smooth surface of the stone.

For a heartbeat, nothing happened. The array remained stubbornly dim. But then, deep beneath the stone pedestal, something violently fractured.

The vibrant, humming lines of light etched into the floor didn’t shift to a new color or erupt into a predictable elemental display. Instead, the light simply vanished. The glowing runic arrays across the entire floor instantly went pitch black, losing every ounce of their radiant life.

For three suffocating seconds, the grand hall was plunged into a terrifying, absolute silence.

Eva kept her palm pressed against the dead stone, her face a mask of serene indifference though her mind was spinning. The proctor stepped back, his obscured face turning wildly from the pedestal to the floating scroll, completely unequipped for the system to simply die. Up in the high pavilions, several of the shadowed silhouettes moved rapidly in panic, but they stopped just as quickly as they had started, their movements locking rigid with sudden, intense curiosity.

Then, just as abruptly as it had failed, the system sparked back to life with a renewed, violent vigor. The scroll shuddered, and a single line of text etched itself onto the parchment.

The proctor cleared his throat, his voice carrying a mix of deep confusion and immediate dismissal.

“Tier three capacity. Absence of Original Qi. Inert Qi. B-tier attribute: Inertion.”

An immediate, baffled silence fell over the pavilions. A Tier 3 capacity was exceptionally high, putting her on par with the upper-ranked recruits. She wasn't quite at the elite tier, but she was dangerously close. Yet, it was paired with a complete absence of traditional Original Qi.

At that moment, everyone in the hall began to speculate. Their confusion wasn't because of her Tier 3 potential, which was shocking enough for a pariah, but because of the total vacancy of Original Qi within her. Could her energy have mutated into a variant? After all, while mutated attributes were exceptionally rare, they still appeared occasionally; like Nora’s flame. But even a mutated attribute was supposed to stem from Original Qi. It was entirely unheard of for someone’s foundational energy to mutate and become entirely inert.

Eva watched as the eyes of everyone in the room bored into her, their minds spinning with questions. She could practically see the schemes and agendas forming in their heads, though they quickly restrained themselves.

Withdrawing her hand, Eva walked toward the right corridor, navigating specifically toward Nora’s side as the overwhelming stares followed her from all directions. She understood the reality of her situation; they weren't staring because she was powerful. They were staring because she was rare enough to be considered a bizarre anomaly.

The moment she reached Nora, the other girl instantly tugged at her sleeve, her face flushing with obvious, genuine excitement for Eva. It was a reaction Eva found deeply weird, especially considering that Nora had just discovered her own zero-tier capacity meant she likely wouldn't awaken another attribute for the rest of her life.

Just as Eva reached out to offer a word of comfort, the familiar, booming voice of Dean Salvatore resonated across the hall.

The dean stood firmly at the railings of the pavilion, looking down at the thirty-three newcomers gathered below him. He let out a soft, controlled sigh, his mind still processing the unexpected surprise that Vance girl had just pulled from the pedestal.

Truthfully, he hadn’t wanted her here in the first place, all things considered, but certain people outside the academy walls were simply too persuasive to ignore. Salvatore was always a fan of eliminating problems directly from the source, but personal grievances aside, this batch of students was highly promising. A significant portion scored well above the average power index, which, at the very least, had to be considered a win for the academy.

Dean Salvatore cleared his throat and began to speak. Eva watched in silence as the dean launched into a lengthy, calculated speech that stretched on for about two minutes, before the giant scroll hovering in the air suddenly shifted. It expanded exponentially, growing so massive that it seemed to physically bridge the gap between the heavens and the earth.

Mutterings broke out among the senior students, their focus locking onto the parchment as if it were the only thing that mattered in the realm. Eva looked up, her eyes stinging slightly as massive, glowing characters began to materialize across the previously blank canvas.

The Almighty Rankings.

Small, razor-sharp text began to rapidly cascade down the scroll beneath the title. It took several minutes before the frantic motion of the ink finally died down. When it stopped, it was as if the entire hall had been placed on an absolute pause.

Then, a wave of collective, breathless gasps resounded through the air.

Out of the thirty-three raw newcomers, seven of them had somehow blasted their way directly into the top 100 rankings—an unprecedented feat in an academy filled with nearly a thousand elite Qi refiners.