After Madam Cho gave him a small mountain of food to store in his high-grade spatial ring, which she told him would keep the food fresh for far longer than the bag of holding, Jin Huang left for his dorm room.
Looking at all the energy-infused food in the ring's storage space, Jin Huang licked his lips and practically skipped home. Outside his dorm, multicolored light cascaded from all directions.
Students were going about their days, some loudly discussing various things. Others were chatting about the pizza contest before they noticed Jin Huang and called out to him, congratulating him and asking him what his secret was.
A solemn breeze seemed to even be carrying with it the faint aroma of leftover pizza.
As Jin Huang came within range of his door, the sky seemed to crack open as even more light shone down onto the dormitory area. A golden decree tablet descended from above like an execution notice, slamming into the cobblestones so hard that nearby plants reconsidered photosynthesis. Lightning outlined bold characters:
"First-Year Dean: Ms. Yao."
Students in the area gasped at the loud noise, looking over and seeing the large tablet standing between Jin Huang and his room..
"Did his pizza-eating anger the heavens somehow?"
"No, that's just administrative policy."
"Aw, shit. That's way worse."
A swirl of wind gathered directly above the tablet, and reality itself cleared its throat.
Then she arrived.
The First-Year Dean descended slowly from the air, standing atop a floating, spiraling stack of disciplinary notices like they were sacred lotus petals. Her robes were majestic, embroidered with academic seals and faint coffee stains. Her eyes glowed with academic pressure, but her expression was calm. As for her aura, it screamed:
"I have signed enough paperwork to end worlds."
Students fell silent, becoming somewhat reverent as if they were witnessing both an executioner and a benevolent aunt.
Someone whispered, trembling, "That's Ms. Yao, the Untamed Registrar… the woman who once expelled the son of a thunder beast because of tardiness... then she beat up his dad."
"She beat up a thunder beast?"
"Yeah. Apparently he tried to get her to take back the expulsion through some violent means and, uh... she didn't like that."
"She can just do that?"
"Are you gonna tell her she can't?"
Jin Huang overheard their chatter as he watched the woman slowly descend, landing near the golden tablet with her name and title on it. She, in turn, looked at him.
His hair was messy, his expression one of mild confusion and annoyance. His stomach growled like an approaching army as he tried to forget the food in his spatial ring.
Blinking at the Dean, he tried his best to smile. "Hello. Are you perhaps lost? Shen Wuyou lives in another building."
The crowd collectively inhaled. She was obviously there for him- any idiot could see that. So... was he purposely trying to piss her off?
The balls on this kid!
The Dean raised a finger. Space-time paused for emphasis before a majestic scroll unfurled from thin air, just beneath her fingertip.
"Jin Huang."
The world vibrated with the sound of her voice.
"You have missed this week's Alchemy, Array Formation, Weapons and Martial Arts classes. By doing this, you have- intentionally or otherwise- violated subsection three of attendance statute twelve, paragraph…"
She paused, coughed, then cleared her throat as her eyes narrowed. "Four days? Have you been slacking off?"
A thunderclap went off purely for punctuation, startling the nearby onlookers.
Jin Huang thought carefully, then nodded. "Yeah, truthfully I was in my room sleeping all that time. I guess you can say that I actually was slacking off."
Several students collapsed from secondhand stress.
Was Jin Huang more than just a glutton? Was he also a true badass?
The Dean took measured steps forward until she stood right in front of him. Papers floated orbitally around her like planets of bureaucracy. Then…
Her expression softened.
"Why?" She asked, her tone shifting. She was not scolding him, not furious with him, but genuinely curious, like a scholar encountering an exotic species of disaster.
Jin Huang scratched his cheek. "I ate something I... shouldn't have. It must have taken more of a toll than I thought."
Silence.
A leaf fell from a gold-leafed, shining tree.
The Dean stared at him for a long moment… then slowly pinched the bridge of her nose as if suppressing laughter, tears, or lightning bolts.
"So," she said gently, "you had a tummy ache?"
The watching students leaned in.
Jin Huang nodded helpfully. "Yeah. Pretty bad diarrhea too.
The Dean sighed and the clouds sighed with her. Then she began laughing. Not loudly, but deeply, like she had been waiting years for something this ridiculous. Her aura softened; her towering stack of disciplinary notices gently rotated and turned into lotus petals of golden light before reforming into a singular glowing token.
She flicked it toward him, and it landed in his palm right next to the glowing image of the flame.
Her eyes widened just a bit.
"You have been warned" she said. "I will pardon this offense as it is your first, and because you have a reasonable excuse. Present this token to your teachers upon your return to classes on Monday."
He stared at it, wondering what it tasted like. "What's it do?"
"It lets your teachers know that we have spoken and that you have been excused." she replied. "And gives me a direct line to check up on you at any time."
The surrounding students froze.
Being marked by a Dean was a nightmare they hoped to never experience.
With a wry smirk, she leaned forward slightly, her eyes gleaming with the look of someone who knew more than they were letting on. "I have a feeling you're gonna cause me endless paperwork."
Then she turned, robes swirling like storm clouds, and ascended into the sky once more. The decree tablet shattered into motes of light that scurried off behind her.
Students erupted.
"He survived!"
"He's on her watchlist now!"
"She laughed. Did you see that? THE DEAN LAUGHED."
"What kind of protagonist physics have I just witnessed!?"
The students were, once again, in an uproar because of Jin Huang. He had just shocked them with his stomach, and now he was standing, unharmed, after acting smart with the First-Year Dean.
Jin Huang simply looked down at the glowing token in his hand.
His stomach rumbled again, and he stowed it while heading into his room, his mind now focused on deciding which of the meals he would dig into first.
...
"What are you saying, Cho Yanshi? That kid has a body so strange that even you couldn't uncover its secrets?" Nagira said as he swallowed a slice of pizza without chewing.
The two were sitting in Madam Cho's office, on opposite sides of her desk.
Madam Cho- Cho Yanshi- threw back a glass of strong alcohol as she groaned. "That's right. Not only that, but he got a divine plant from the Lunar Goddess in the Fallen Heaven realm and ate it whole."
Nagira paused with his mouth open, the pizza slice drooping as cheese hung from it. "He- How did he- Where- What- HUH!?"
Cho Yanshi was about to fill her glass again, but she sucked her teeth and brought the bottle of alcohol to her lips, taking in a large mouthful.
"How did he even get the doors to open? I thought Uncle Long sealed both layers of the sacred realm right before Orientation."
Cho Yanshi's cheeks flushed as she burped, "He did. I have no idea how that kid was able to get into the second layer of the Fallen Heaven realm. Oh. Apparently, Hei Shisan was there too."
"Shisan!?" Nagira almost choked on his pizza. "Even so, that brat shouldn't have even known the sacred realm was sealed, far less how to get it open. Just who is this 'Jin Huang' kid. Are we sure he's just a country bumpkin?"
"I asked Neya Sinclaire a short while ago- she was his guide. She said that he mentioned a scroll bringing him here. That must be what the Stamp of Approval was affixed to, which would at least explain how it brought him here." Cho Yanshi said as she swirled the bottle around, staring into it.
"But it doesn't explain why it brought him here. Do you have any idea who uses a stamp like that?"
Cho Yanshi frowned, finishing the bottle and slamming it down on the table.
"I've seen a few Stamps of Approval here and there. I've even seen a number of interesting constitutions. However, I've never seen a stamp of such a high grade that it could last for so long on its own, without being constantly supplied with vital energy. That goes far beyond celestial-grade stamps' capabilities."
"A glowing flame... A scroll that transported him here with a bolt of lightning... A body that allows him to break down incredible amounts of vital energy with just his stomach... The most perfect Mortal Foundation I've ever seen..."
Nagira sighed, "And his ability to undo the seal of a Heavenly Immortal. I thought only you could do that."
The two silently contemplated, one scarfing down pizza slices while the other opened up a new bottle of strong drink.