Arrival in Mingdu, Encounter with Silver Moon Douluo Kong Deming!

"Oh, so it's Yu Dashi!"

Both Li Yusong and Zhao Wuji had heard Flender mention Yu Xiaogang.

According to the rumors they had heard from others, Yu Xiaogang was a scoundrel who knew nothing but how to swindle and sponge off people throughout the Soul Master World.

But Flender still cherished the brotherly bond between himself and Yu Xiaogang.

"If it's Yu Dashi, please hurry inside and see our dean. He's meeting with guests right now!"

Li Yusong led Yu Xiaogang into Shrek Academy and brought him to a thatched hut, then knocked on the door and called out.

"Dean, your old friend Grandmaster Yu has come to see you."

The door to the hut opened, and Flender came out buttoning his clothes. He smiled at Yu Xiaogang.

"Xiaogang, what brings you here?"

Yu Xiaogang replied, a little embarrassed.

"Well, I saw that your Shrek Academy is going to become a holy land for Soul Masters in the future, so I thought I'd come here and earn a living from you."

In truth, Yu Xiaogang had been sponging off Nuoding Academy for who knew how many years, eating the academy's food for free every day.

The whole academy had begun to gossip, with rumors that he and the dean of Nuoding Academy had some ambiguous relationship.

The problem was that the dean of Nuoding Academy, his old friend, was a man!

Yu Xiaogang felt that if he stayed at Nuoding Academy any longer, he might well tarnish his reputation as the foremost theoretical Grandmaster in the Soul Master World.

So, when he saw the scenes on the Sky Screen, he chose to head to Shrek Academy.

By becoming a teacher under Flender, he could at least earn a salary, and perhaps even take on a disciple to inherit his theoretical knowledge.

And when he arrived at Shrek Academy's gates and saw the gleaming Gold Soul Coins handed over by the new students and the parents registering them, he became even more determined to sponge off Flender.

Flender was exceedingly enthusiastic. He took Yu Xiaogang by the hand and pulled him toward the thatched hut.

"No problem. We're old friends, after all. If you want to stay at Shrek, of course that's fine."

"But I recently met a few friends who can paint. Why don't we all go inside and discuss art and life?"

Seeing the peculiar expression on Flender's face, Yu Xiaogang hesitated. He had no idea what medicine this Four-Eyed Cat Owl was selling in his gourd.

But a man under another's roof had no choice but to bow his head, so in the end he followed Flender into the thatched hut.

A quarter of an hour later, the two of them came out, buttoning their clothes.

Yu Xiaogang asked, somewhat puzzled,

"Old Cat Owl, why are your painter friends so strange? They actually wanted us to strip... before they painted?"

Flender smiled and waved a hand.

"They aren't painters. They're account managers from a money house in Suotuo City."

"Our Shrek Academy is going to become the number one academy on the continent and a holy land for Soul Masters, so this little village can no longer contain us."

"After all, the continent's number one Soul Master Academy can't be this run-down, don't you agree?"

"So I borrowed a hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins from a money house in Suotuo City to expand all of Shrek Academy!"

Hearing this, Yu Xiaogang suddenly had a bad feeling. He hurriedly spoke, his voice trembling.

"Then those paintings you had them make?"

Flender smiled.

"You see, there's nothing in Shrek Academy that I can put up as collateral. The only thing I can pledge is myself."

"So they proposed using the paintings as collateral for a loan from them!"

"Originally, I only wanted to do it myself, but you happened to show up."

"I thought, as the biological son of Thunder Douluo, the sect master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, you carry a lot more weight than a Soul Saint like me. So I brought you in and borrowed five hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins from them!"

Yu Xiaogang felt as though his whole sky had collapsed!

So Flender had dragged him into a naked loan???

His face twisted as he spoke in grief and indignation.

"What if you can't pay it back?"

Flender shrugged helplessly.

"The contract makes it perfectly clear. If we don't pay by the deadline, they'll post our portraits all over Douluo Continent."

"And when that happens, we'll both have to go work as male prostitutes at a pleasure house in Suotuo City..."

Hearing this, Yu Xiaogang could bear it no longer and roared,

"Flender, we're old friends who haven't seen each other in years, and I never thought you'd screw me over like this!"

"As the foremost theoretical Grandmaster in the Soul Master World, I originally wanted to lend a hand to your Shrek Academy, but instead you had them paint me like that, and even stacked us on top of each other..."

"Disgusting! It's utterly disgusting!"

Flender, however, chuckled and patted him on the shoulder.

"It's all right, Xiaogang."

"Look at how enrollment is going at Shrek Academy now. Five hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins is nothing!"

"Wouldn't it be enough to raise the registration fee and tuition, then take in a few more students?"

Hearing Flender's words, Yu Xiaogang remembered the queue at Shrek Academy's gates, a long dragon with neither head nor tail in sight.

And so he came to agree with Flender's idea.

"You do have a point. In that case, you're treating me tonight!"

"I want to eat Suotuo City's specialty, stir-fried Blue Silver Grass with Soft Bone Rabbit meat!"

"Hahaha, of course, no problem!"

Meanwhile, Lin Bai and his companions had already arrived in Mingdu.

The capital of the Sun Moon Empire was called Sun Moon City, also known as Mingdu.

As the political and economic center of the Sun Moon Empire, the city was so vast that its area exceeded the combined area of the capital cities of the three empires originally on Douluo Continent.

Jing Hongchen's Flying Soul Tool was extremely fast. It had flown from the Ming Dou Mountain Range to Mingdu in less than half a day.

Unlike the buildings on Douluo Continent, which were mostly made of wood, brick, and tile,

the vast, seemingly endless collection of buildings in Mingdu consisted mostly of structures over five stories tall, and they even saw towering buildings more than ten stories high.

It did indeed overlap somewhat with the modern scenes in Lin Bai's memories.

"Well? Isn't it a breathtaking sight?"

Jing Hongchen asked Lin Bai with a smile.

"Although Mingdu doesn't appear to have any defenses, even if Shrek Academy's Sea God Pavilion put forth all its strength, it could forget about shaking Mingdu in the slightest!"

"During the great war back then, Shrek Academy once tried to infiltrate Mingdu with a decapitation strike, but Mingdu's Soul Tool defenses drove them back."

"And now our Soul Tools are even stronger than before. They can withstand even a Limit Douluo expert!"

Jing Hongchen set Meng Hongchen, Qian Renxue, and Huo Yutong down at Mingdu's gates.

"Meng, take the two of them around for a look first. I'm taking Lin Bai to Illustrious Virtue Hall."

Illustrious Virtue Hall was located at the center of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy. Jing Hongchen brought Lin Bai into his hall master's office, then went back out.

A moment later, the office door was pushed open, but it was a tall, elderly man who walked in.

His short, gray-white hair stood on end, and he was actually dressed in a bright yellow robe.

One had to know that only the imperial family of the Sun Moon Empire could wear such clothing!

Without a doubt, this had to be the imperial family's revered elder, the most accomplished Soul Engineer of the age, Silver Moon Douluo Kong Deming!

"Greetings, Elder Kong."

Lin Bai rose from the sofa and bowed.

Kong Deming studied the delicate-looking youth before him, then smiled.

"Little Hongchen said you wanted to see me and show me a very interesting little gadget?"

"In that case, go ahead and show me!"

When Lin Bai heard Kong Deming's words, he didn't rush to take anything out. Instead, he first asked a question.

"Elder Kong, do you know about zero and one?"