Teacher, I'm your only...

Seeing that excuses were useless, Lin Feng steeled his heart and decided to treat a dead horse as if it were still alive, bracing himself to play the emotional card.

"Teacher, I am your only student! Even if I haven't achieved any merit over these years, I've certainly put in the hard work..."

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

"No way, Teacher, you're actually going to hack me!"

Lin Feng was scared out of his wits, waving his hands frantically in a panic.

"Don't, don't, don't! From now on, I'll listen to whatever you say. If you tell me to go east, I will never go west."

The blade stopped steadily right in front of his forehead. A sharp gust of wind swept past, causing a few strands of his hair to snap and drift gently to the ground.

A faint, almost imperceptible smile tugged at the corner of Qian Renxue's mouth, but she quickly suppressed it.

"Remember what you said today. From this day forward, you must be obedient and listen to me. And also..."

Recalling what had just happened, her fair, delicate cheeks flushed slightly. She flicked her wrist and tapped Lin Feng's head with the sword, neither too hard nor too soft.

"Forget everything you saw today."

In truth, she wasn't actually that angry with Lin Feng; it was more the shame of being caught in the act, mixed with a strange feeling she couldn't quite put into words.

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

Lin Feng let out a massive sigh of relief.

He was still alive!

But Qian Renxue's anger seemed to have dissipated too quickly—so quickly that it made his skin crawl, and he couldn't help but tentatively ask in a low voice.

"Teacher... besides that, is there nothing else?"

The outcome was too good, so good that he couldn't bring himself to believe it.

It made absolutely no sense!

How could it be so different from what he had imagined? He had already prepared himself to be bedridden for a month. Was his cheap teacher secretly brewing some grand punishment?

Qian Renxue seemed to see right through the twists and turns in his mind. She shot him a look of annoyance, then turned and walked out the door with her sword in hand.

"You think too highly of yourself. Follow me."

Lin Feng exhaled a long breath and hurriedly followed.

"Coming, coming!"

Getting beaten was fine! Getting beaten only hurt; it was far better than being hacked.

One year later.

Shrek, Dean's office.

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

Flender was processing the month's accounts when he heard Lin Feng's words. His pen paused, and he looked up with a face full of confusion and disbelief.

"Little Lin, you've been doing just fine at Shrek. Why are you suddenly running off 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 a thousand miles.

Lin Feng leaned against the door frame, hands in his pockets, looking sentimental.

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

"I believe your nonsense."

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

"Spare me that useless talk. Do you think I don't know you? You never act without profit. Hurry up and confess—what exactly are you going there for?"

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

"For over a year, Teacher has traveled thousands of miles to find me every time. This time, I want to take the initiative to go to Heaven Dou City to find her."

"Dean, hurry up."

Flender thought of his own disappointing disciple, Ma Hongjun. That little brat did nothing but cause trouble and have him clean up the mess all year round, never once saying a word of concern.

His jealousy was about to explode. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and he waved his hand at Lin Feng in annoyance.

"Get out, get out, get out! Don't loiter here and annoy me. Wait until I finish arranging the academy's work for the next few days."

Why was the gap between disciples so vast? Could it be that he hadn't beaten him enough?

"Thanks, Dean."

Lin Feng's eyes lit up. He turned and ran out, but before he had gone two steps, he poked his head back from behind the door. With a light 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, weighed it in his hand, and looked out the window toward the direction of Heaven Dou City, suddenly letting out a soft chuckle.

"Heaven Dou City, huh... It's been a long time since I've been there, too."

The next day, Flender's eagle wings were fully unfurled; with every powerful flap, he covered hundreds of meters, carrying Lin Feng at high speed toward Heaven Dou City.

Every half hour, Lin Feng would flick his fingertip, precisely melting a Blue Buff gold coin into Flender's body to maintain his soul power reserves.

Feeling bored, he glanced at the wilderness and forests flashing by below and simply submerged his consciousness into the Blessing Gold Pouch.

Looking at the dazzling 300,000 Gold Soul Coins in his shop balance, Lin Feng beamed, feeling incredibly satisfied.

This was his entire savings accumulated over a full year; even the combined annual tax revenue of several small cities might not equal the wealth he currently held.

"Now, this brother is a wealthy man too."

He smacked his lips in delight.

When traveling far from home, one always needs a bit more security.

He immediately looked toward the top, at the Shadow Overlord buff he had been craving for nearly two years.

The moment he thought of the Shadow Dragon Soldiers, which were several times more formidable than the regular Dominator Vanguards, his heart burned with anticipation.

Between the two, there was a massive gap in both physical size and health—it was the difference between mere cannon fodder and a general.

If he could really field a squad of dragon riders...

"Buy it!"

"Ding!"

A crisp notification sound rang out.

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

Lin Feng's heart gave a sharp twitch; the heartache of losing money mixed with the joy of unlocking a new buff, leaving him with a complex cocktail of emotions.

The next second, Information regarding the Shadow Overlord flooded his mind. His face turned beet red, and he broke down on the spot, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Damn it! You trash Martial Soul, you're scamming your own father's gold coins! You need a conscience when doing business—did a dog eat your conscience?"

Flender was startled by the sudden outburst and his hand shook, causing him to instinctively lose his grip.

A sudden sensation of weightlessness struck as Lin Feng plummeted, terrified out of his wits, his voice cracking as he shrieked.

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

"Sorry, my hand slipped."

Flender's old face flushed red. He dove down, grabbed Lin Feng's shoulder to haul him back up, and retorted stubbornly.

"And don't blame me! Who told you to start screaming like a ghost for no reason? You scared the life out of me."

At the mention of this, Lin Feng's face turned green with rage. He gritted his teeth and said:

"Damn it! I'm always the one setting traps for others; I never expected to be backstabbed by this trash Martial Soul today. If you lost 100,000 Gold Soul Coins for no reason, would you be able to stay calm?"

He grew angrier as he spoke.

"I unlocked that upgraded version of the Overlord buff, only to find out after unlocking it that the regular Dominator Vanguards can't be used anymore!"

"I was planning to combine the regular ones with the shadow ones to form a majestic dragon cavalry, but this trash Martial Soul just swallowed them whole. This is absolute bullshit."

Watching him turn green with fury, Flender burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"Hahaha, 100,000 Gold Soul Coins just went down the drain. I reckon you'll be so heartbroken tonight that you won't be able to close your eyes until dawn, hahaha."

For some reason, seeing Lin Feng lose money made him feel a sense of relief; it was just too satisfying...

Lin Feng had no mood to deal with his schadenfreude. He rolled his eyes, gloomily submerged his consciousness back into the Blessing Gold Pouch, and looked at the Shadow Tyrant buff.

He glanced at the remaining 200,000 gold coins in his shop balance, calculated rapidly in his mind, and carefully reviewed the buff's attributes once more.

"A 60% + (30% × level) attack bonus against soul masters, and it doubles to 100% + (50% × level) against non-soul master units. The damage of the attached lightning chain is doubled, and it even comes with a permanent 10% movement speed boost and an additional 5% movement speed when out of combat."

"This is a tangible increase in combat power. It's only 100,000 gold coins; I'm not short on that kind of money. Buy it."

"Ding!"

The crisp system notification sounded again, and the shop balance instantly jumped from 200,000 to 100,000.

Just like before, the original regular Tyrant buff faded away and vanished, replaced by the brand-new Shadow Tyrant buff, which was wreathed in dark purple lightning.