“These people all came hoping to cut in line,” Long Yiming explained. “They’re selfish people who only care about themselves.”

Jing Pei looked outside again.

There were old people, middle-aged people, even some carrying children. Most looked worn out and exhausted, dressed plainly, sitting beneath temporary tents in the blazing sun.

Some students from Twelve Zodiac Academy were distributing water and food to them.

“This kind of thing happens every year,” Long Yiming said with obvious disdain. “Twelve Zodiac Academy is a prestigious school, especially the Atavist Division. Countless people dream of getting their children in. Some ordinary humans think that just because their children have a tiny possibility of awakening in the future, they should receive special treatment.”

“Others simply think entering this school guarantees a bright future. Once they graduate, even if they can’t enter the Tribunal Division, they can still get into military or government departments for ordinary humans. So every year, there are always people making a scene outside the gates, trying to force the school into giving them admission slots.”

“But the school’s rules are strict. No matter how much noise they make, it’s useless.”

As he spoke, the car slowly approached the gates of Twelve Zodiac Academy.

The moment the people outside saw the Long family emblem on the car, commotion immediately broke out.

“It’s the Long family!”

“The dragon atavist!”

“Is the dragon atavist inside?!”

People surged toward the vehicle at once. Security personnel from the school quickly moved to block them, but the scene still became chaotic for a moment.

Long Yiming frowned slightly, clearly irritated.

He disliked these ordinary humans intensely.

Weak, greedy, noisy, always fantasizing about things beyond their station.

To him, they were troublesome creatures.

Yet just then, Jing Pei suddenly lowered the car window.

Warm sunlight spilled onto her face.

The crowd outside abruptly fell silent for a second upon seeing her clearly.

The girl seated inside the car was astonishingly beautiful.

Her skin was still slightly dark from long exposure to the sun, but it only gave her an exotic kind of charm. Her black hair fell softly over her shoulders, and her catlike eyes carried a lazy, calm smile.

For a brief instant, even the noisy crowd outside seemed stunned.

Long Ling, who had just handed out a bottle of water nearby, also froze the moment she saw Jing Pei.

The students around her immediately erupted into whispers.

“That’s Long Jin?”

“She actually looks… pretty good.”

“Pretty my ass. She’s still an illegitimate daughter.”

“But her aura’s kind of scary…”

Jing Pei ignored the discussions entirely.

Instead, she looked toward the people crowded outside and suddenly smiled gently.

“Since everyone’s already here,” she said softly, “why not try taking the entrance exam first?”

The crowd stared blankly.

Jing Pei rested one hand against her cheek lazily and continued, “Whether someone gets in should depend on whether they’re capable enough, shouldn’t it?”

Long Yiming’s expression changed slightly.

The surrounding students also looked stunned.

Twelve Zodiac Academy had indeed never publicly opened additional entrance examinations before.

The school only recruited through fixed channels every year.

But Jing Pei’s words instantly stirred hope in the hearts of the people outside the gates.

“If… if there’s an exam, my son definitely can do it!”

“My daughter’s grades are excellent too!”

“Miss Long is right!”

The atmosphere immediately became restless again.

Long Yiming looked at Jing Pei sharply. “Ah Jin, don’t speak carelessly.”

Jing Pei blinked innocently. “Was I speaking carelessly?”

Then she smiled.

“I was only making a suggestion.”

“But if the school refuses even to give ordinary humans a fair opportunity to compete…”

She paused slightly before finishing in a soft voice:

“…then doesn’t that make all your talk about fairness and order sound a little ridiculous?”

The expressions of many students from Twelve Zodiac Academy immediately changed.

Because they suddenly realized—

Those words weren’t directed at the ordinary humans outside the gates at all.

They were aimed directly at Twelve Zodiac Academy itself.

And perhaps…

At the entire atavist world.

Because multiple worlds had fused together—and because nearly every one of those worlds came from novels with crime and mystery elements, combined with the existence of atavists—this world had become extremely dangerous. You could be walking down the street perfectly normally one second, only to kick off your high heels and start running for your life the next.

When facing particularly troublesome criminals, people would instinctively begin relying on atavists. For example, canine atavists could use their powerful sense of smell to quickly locate victims or murderers. With atavists assisting, cases in the ordinary human world became much easier to solve.

But the problem was that there were plenty of atavist criminals too—and they were far more destructive, with much wider kill zones. Cases involving them could only be resolved quickly and safely by atavists themselves.

The number of atavists was tiny compared to ordinary humans. As a result, crimes involving atavists were always given priority. Only when there was spare manpower would atavists be assigned to assist ordinary police investigations, and by then the golden rescue window had often already passed.

But when your own family was in mortal danger, who could stay rational? People were consumed with panic, desperately hoping atavists would immediately step in and save their loved ones.

“Ten years ago, someone came to Twelve Zodiac Academy begging for help. School regulations forbid students from privately involving themselves in criminal investigations; they can only participate through school assignments. But at the time, a thirteen‑year‑old third‑year student was persuaded by a victim’s family member and secretly went off to track down the killer.”

Frowning deeply, Long Yiming recounted the incident that later became a cautionary tale used by every family and teacher to warn children:

“He really did find the criminal. But although he was an atavist with exceptional physical abilities, he still hadn’t mastered his atavist powers. In his panic, he kept making mistakes. In the end, the criminal knocked him down with a baseball bat. By the time the Tribunal Division found him, he had already been tortured to death, dismembered, and half his body had been cooked and eaten.”

“These selfish people—when their own child is in danger, all they can think about is tricking some foolish child from another family into risking their life for them.”

As someone from an atavist family, Long Yiming naturally sympathized with the atavist side. That righteous, kindhearted, soft‑hearted foolish child had been incredibly precious to his family, yet he died for nothing—and in such a horrifying way.

That case became one of the incidents that further deepened the conflict between atavists and ordinary humans.

As the car approached the school gates, it slowed down for safety reasons.

Jing Pei turned to look out the window.

Long Ling was crouched on the ground comforting a middle‑aged woman. The corners of Jing Pei’s lips curved slightly upward.

Long Ling was evil, but she was by no means stupid. In fact, she was farsighted. She had already foreseen that a massive conflict between ordinary humans and atavists was inevitable, and so she had begun laying the groundwork for herself long ago.

Without spending much effort—just a little money on bottled water and bread for the people rejected outside the school gates, along with a few comforting words—she didn’t need to solve any real problems at all, yet she could still gain an excellent reputation.

The nearly ten million followers she accumulated on social media in the future would all come from things like this.

And because of that, in the original story, after obtaining the dragon pearl, she not only gained support from the atavist side, but also amassed enormous support in the ordinary human world. Among women especially, she became utterly unrivaled, practically queen‑like.

And now, for the same reason, after the press conference earlier, public criticism had never truly landed on her. The same thing would happen at Twelve Zodiac Academy. Even if people initially felt awkward about her situation, they would very quickly begin finding excuses to defend her.

Because human nature was fundamentally hypocritical.

If a stranger did certain things, people would unite to attack them. But if someone they liked did the exact same thing, their attitude would often become completely different.

Suddenly, Jing Pei noticed someone, and her gaze paused.

It was a teenage boy sitting curled up in a corner, hugging his knees. His gray short‑sleeved shirt and black shorts were full of holes. His dirty bare feet had no shoes, and gauze covered his left eye. His gaze was empty and lifeless, making him look like a beggar.

Wasn’t this Long Ling’s most loyal supporter in the future?

The one everyone called Long Ling’s most faithful dog.

Mm. Though in the end, after draining every bit of value from him, Long Ling discarded him without the slightest hesitation.