Teacher, I'm Your Only...

Seeing that arguing was useless, Lin Feng steeled himself. He could only treat a dead horse as if it were alive and play the sympathy card.

"Teacher, I'm your only student! Even if I haven't accomplished anything these past years, I've still worked hard..."

Before he could finish, a flash of golden light appeared before his eyes, and a light sword slashed toward his head.

"No, Teacher, you're really going to chop me?!"

Lin Feng was scared out of his wits and frantically waved his hands.

"No, no, no! From now on, I'll listen to whatever you say. If you tell me to go east, I'll never go west."

The blade stopped steadily before his forehead. The sharp gust of wind swept past, severing several strands of hair that drifted softly to the floor.

A barely noticeable smile curled Qian Renxue's lips before she quickly suppressed it.

"Remember what you said today. From now on, you must obediently listen to me. And..."

Remembering what had just happened, her fair cheeks flushed slightly. With a turn of her wrist, she lightly tapped Lin Feng on the head with the sword.

"Forget everything you saw today."

In truth, Qian Renxue was not all that angry with Lin Feng. More than anything, she felt embarrassed at being discovered, along with a strange feeling even she could not explain.

"Rest assured, Teacher. I didn't see anything today."

Lin Feng let out a huge sigh of relief.

Still alive!

But Qian Renxue's anger seemed to have faded far too quickly—so quickly that it made his heart quiver. Unable to resist, he cautiously asked in a low voice.

"Teacher... is there nothing else?"

The outcome was too good, so good that he could hardly believe it.

It made no sense at all!

Why was this so different from what he had imagined? He had been prepared to spend a month unable to get out of bed. Could his cheap teacher be secretly holding back some ultimate move?

Qian Renxue seemed to see through all the twists and turns in his mind. She shot him an annoyed glance, then turned and walked toward the door with her sword in hand.

"You wish. Follow me."

Lin Feng let out a long breath and hurried after her.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

Getting beaten was good! At worst, it hurt. It was far better than getting chopped.

A year later,

Shrek,

Dean's office,

"What? You said you want to go to Heaven Dou City?"

Flender was handling this month's income when he suddenly heard Lin Feng's words. His pen paused, and he looked up with a face full of confusion.

"Xiao Linzi, you're doing perfectly well at Shrek. Why are you suddenly going to Heaven Dou City?"

As the imperial capital of the Heaven Dou Empire, Heaven Dou City was separated from Suotuo City by two or three kingdoms, a journey of thousands of miles.

Lin Feng leaned casually against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets, looking deeply sentimental.

"Dean, the world is so big. I want to go see it."

"I'd believe that nonsense from a ghost."

Flender rolled his eyes on the spot, crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair as he glared at him irritably.

"Stop feeding me this useless crap. I know you too well. You never move without profit. Hurry up and tell me the truth—what exactly are you going there for?"

Lin Feng stopped hiding it and scratched the back of his head.

"For over a year now, Teacher has traveled all that way to come find me every time. This time, I want to take the initiative and go to Heaven Dou City to find her."

"Dean, hurry up."

Flender thought of his disappointing disciple, that little bastard Ma Hongjun, who spent the entire year causing trouble and making him clean up his messes without ever offering a single word of concern.

His jealousy was about to explode. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He irritably waved Lin Feng away.

"Get out, get out, get out! Stop wandering around here and annoying me. Wait until I arrange the academy's work for the next few days."

Why was the gap between disciples so huge? Could it be because one of them had not been beaten enough?

"Thanks, Dean."

Lin Feng's eyes lit up, and he turned to run outside. But after taking only two steps, he poked his head back around the door. With a flick of his finger, a Gold Soul Coin traced an arc through the air and landed steadily on the desk.

"Try to be quick."

Flender picked up the Gold Soul Coin and weighed it in his hand. Looking toward Heaven Dou City outside the window, he suddenly chuckled.

"Heaven Dou City... it has been a long time since I went there too."

The next day,

Flender's eagle-feather wings spread fully open. With every beat of those broad wings, he covered several hundred meters, flying rapidly with Lin Feng toward Heaven Dou City.

Every half hour, Lin Feng flicked his fingers and precisely infused Blue Buff gold coins into Flender's body to sustain his Soul Power.

With nothing better to do, he glanced at the wilderness and forests speeding past below, then simply sank his consciousness directly into the Blessing Gold Pouch.

Looking at the glaring 300,000 gold coins in the shop balance, Lin Feng beamed with joy, feeling utterly satisfied.

This was the fortune he had saved up over an entire year. Even the total annual tax revenue of some small cities might not exceed the money he now held.

"Now I'm rich too."

He smacked his lips happily.

When traveling, it never hurt to have a little more confidence.

The first thing he looked at was the Shadow Overlord Buff at the very top, which he had coveted for nearly two years.

At the thought of the Shadow Dragon Soldiers, several times stronger than ordinary Dominator Vanguards after unlocking it, his heart burned with excitement.

Whether in size or durability, the gap between them was enormous. It could be called the difference between cannon fodder and generals.

If he could really form a dragon rider squad...

"Buying it!"

"Ding!"

A crisp notification sounded.

The shop balance instantly dropped from 300,000 to 200,000.

Lin Feng's heart twitched violently. Heartache and the joy of unlocking a new buff mixed together, leaving him with complicated feelings.

The next second,

Information about the Shadow Overlord flooded into his mind. His face instantly turned red, and he completely lost it, cursing at the top of his lungs.

"Fuck! You lousy constructed martial soul, you're scamming your own father out of his gold coins! Have some conscience! Did a dog eat your conscience?!"

Flender was so startled that he shuddered. His hand slipped, and he instinctively loosened his grip.

A sudden feeling of weightlessness hit him, and Lin Feng plummeted downward. Terrified out of his mind, he screamed until his voice cracked.

"Flender, you've finally revealed your true colors! I knew there was something off about you!"

"Sorry, my hand slipped."

Flender's old face reddened. He dove down, grabbed Lin Feng by the shoulder again, and hauled him back up, stubbornly retorting.

"And this isn't my fault. Who told you to suddenly howl like a ghost and scare the hell out of me?"

At the mention of it, Lin Feng's face turned green with anger as he gritted his teeth.

"Damn it! I've always been the one setting traps for others. I never thought this lousy martial soul would screw me over today. If you lost 100,000 Gold Soul Coins for no reason, wouldn't you be furious?"

The more he spoke, the angrier he became.

"I unlocked the upgraded version of that Overlord Buff, only to find out afterward that the ordinary Dominator Vanguard could no longer be used."

"I was planning to combine the regular one with the Shadow version and put together a majestic dragon rider squad. Instead, this lousy martial soul just swallowed it up. This is fucking ridiculous."

Seeing his face turn green with rage, Flender immediately doubled over laughing.

"Hahaha, 100,000 Gold Soul Coins just went down the drain! I bet you'll be so heartbroken tonight that you'll lie awake until dawn, hahaha!"

For some reason, watching Lin Feng lose money made him feel immensely refreshed. It felt so good...

Lin Feng had no mood to indulge his gloating. He rolled his eyes and gloomily sank his consciousness back into the Blessing Gold Pouch, looking toward the Shadow Tyrant Buff.

He glanced at the remaining 200,000 gold coins in the shop balance, calculated rapidly in his heart, then carefully reviewed the buff's attributes again.

"An attack bonus of 60% + (30% × level) against Soul Masters, directly doubled to 100% + (50% × level) against non-Soul Master units. The lightning chain damage is doubled as well, and most importantly, it grants a permanent 10% movement speed boost plus an additional 5% movement speed when out of combat."

"This is a genuine increase in combat power. It's only 100,000 gold coins. I'm not short on that little bit of money. Buying it."

"Ding!"

The crisp system notification sounded once again, and the shop balance instantly dropped from 200,000 to 100,000 gold coins.

Just as before, the original ordinary Tyrant Buff dimmed and disappeared, replaced by the brand-new Shadow Tyrant Buff surrounded by dark violet lightning.