Oscar immediately frantically urged his martial soul to make sausages, steaming sausages forming one after another in his palms.
Before long, they were piled all over the ground. A rough count put them at over a hundred. By the end, even the Blue Buff's recovery speed could not keep up with how quickly his Soul Power was being depleted.
Watching this, the smile on Lin Feng's face faded slightly as he realized a crucial problem.
Although the Blue Buff restored Soul Power quickly, it was not without flaws.
Oscar was only a newly awakened soul master with Innate Full Soul Power, and his Soul Power reserves were shallow to begin with. If it were a Title Douluo continuously unleashing Ten Thousand Year Soul Skills or even Hundred Thousand Year Soul Skills, the three percent recovery per second would ultimately be unable to sustain it.
Flender stood frozen in place, staring fixedly at the lingering azure glow around Lin Feng, with only one thought left in his mind.
This soul skill was outrageously overpowered. The second soul skill that required gold coins to unlock could not possibly be bad!
By that reasoning, two thousand coins were not a loss at all. It was an absolute steal.
Gritting his teeth, he painfully pulled thirty Gold Soul Coins from his Soul Tool. Even the hand holding them out to Lin Feng trembled faintly.
"Take them. First, see what the conversion rate is."
"Thank you, Dean."
Lin Feng accepted the Gold Soul Coins with both hands. His fingertips touched the cold coins, yet warmth filled his heart.
Flender looked stingy, but he was always willing to spend when it truly mattered. Lin Feng would remember this kindness.
Lowering his gaze to the Gold Bag martial soul floating in his palm, he narrowed his eyes slightly and silently murmured,
"From now on, you will be called the Blessing Gold Pouch."
With a thought,
the drawstring opening of the Blessing Gold Pouch slowly widened. A golden vortex spun within it, carrying a faint pull that instantly swallowed all thirty Gold Soul Coins without making a sound.
Flender's heart trembled as he watched. Those were thirty Gold Soul Coins, gone just like that!
He simply turned around and faced away from them. Out of sight, out of mind, though his heart was bleeding.
Lin Feng immediately focused his consciousness inward and examined the changes within the Blessing Gold Pouch.
Within his sea of consciousness, only three exclusive coins with intricate patterns and a faint golden sheen lay quietly there. Everything else was empty.
His pupils contracted, disbelief written all over his face.
"O... one to ten!"
Then, looking at the Red Buff marked with two thousand Mall Gold Coins, would unlocking it not require a full twenty thousand Gold Soul Coins?!
The enormous number made his scalp tingle. Twenty thousand Gold Soul Coins—Flender probably could not earn that much even if he sold himself.
"Sorry, Red Buff. I'm poor. I don't deserve you."
Lin Feng wailed inwardly,
"As expected of that damned Tencent. How could it ever suddenly grow a conscience? It was an eternal money-grubbing monster; it had planned this from the start."
Flender waited with his back turned for quite a while. When he heard no word from Lin Feng, a bad feeling rose in his heart.
He slowly turned around, his voice trembling.
"How... how much? Two times? Or four?"
"Two times? Or four?"
Seeing that Lin Feng still said nothing, Flender's heart sank to the bottom. He let out a heavy breath, a trace of despair in his voice.
"D-don't tell me it's ten times?"
Lin Feng raised his eyes to meet Flender's hopeful gaze. He could only nod sheepishly and force himself to speak.
"Congratulations, Dean. You guessed right. It's ten times."
"My heavens!"
Oscar's mouth fell open in shock. His little hand instinctively stretched out as he counted on his fingers, stammering,
"D-doesn't that mean twenty thousand Gold Soul Coins? Big Brother, your martial soul can really eat! It's even more vicious than a Gold-Swallowing Beast!"
Flender's vision went black. His body swayed, and he had to brace himself against a nearby tree trunk to steady himself.
Gritting his teeth, disbelief filled his eyes.
"Lin Feng, tell me honestly. Did you deliberately inflate the conversion rate so you could pocket a kickback?"
Twenty thousand Gold Soul Coins!
Even as a level seventy-three Soul Saint, there was no way he could produce that amount in a short time!
Over the past decade or so, nearly all his savings had gone toward training students. The academy's daily operations were already stretched thin.
Now that he had taken in Lin Feng and Oscar, two support-type martial souls, merely providing them with basic cultivation resources was difficult enough, let alone the astronomical sum of twenty thousand Gold Soul Coins.
"Dean, you've already done far too much for me. I've remembered this kindness in my heart and never forgotten it."
Lin Feng gently shook his head, gratitude in his voice.
"You don't need to worry about this second soul skill. The Blue Sentinel Power alone is enough for me at this stage. As for unlocking the other soul skill, I'll find a way once I've grown stronger."
Hearing this, Flender's eyes filled with relief. The pain and anxiety on his face vanished, replaced by seriousness.
He stepped forward and heavily patted Lin Feng's shoulder with his large hand.
"Lin Feng, you're smart and steady. You understand far more than others your age."
"But your martial soul was born tied to money. Your first soul ring already requires such an enormous sum; there will only be more in the future."
"I don't expect you to be some good person. In the soul master world, the strong prey on the weak. Being a good person is too difficult, and it won't let you live long..."
"I only hope that you won't let money blind you in the end, lose your true heart, and walk down a crooked, evil path."
Afraid that Lin Feng would get stuck in his own head, Flender softened his tone and patted the hollow of his shoulder encouragingly.
"The road ahead may look narrow, but it will widen as you keep moving forward."
"When you truly stand at the pinnacle of the soul master world, what are a few tens of thousands of gold coins? By then, millions or tens of millions will be yours for the taking."
"Ahem, just don't forget me when that time comes."
"Dean, I'll remember your words."
Lin Feng nodded solemnly.
Only today had he seen another side of Flender. He was usually stingy and loved money, but he was genuinely good to his own people.
Oscar, standing nearby, listened obediently as well, his little head bobbing along. He did not dare interrupt.
With a thought from Lin Feng, an azure halo wrapped itself around Flender.
He wanted to test whether the Blue Buff's effect would weaken when used on a soul master several major realms above him.
The result greatly exceeded his expectations. The Blue Sentinel Power's effect did not diminish in the slightest. It still restored three percent of Soul Power every second.
Furthermore, the Soul Power cost of releasing the soul skill did not increase simply because the target was a Soul Saint. Lin Feng found that utterly absurd.
"But buffs in games ignore a hero's level too. Thinking about it that way, it actually seems normal. This part is pretty generous. I've decided to take back my two-star bad review and give Old Ma a five-star review instead, so it can be flooded with praise..."
Feeling the unceasing, seemingly inexhaustible Soul Power within him, Flender's eyes were filled with shock.
Soul Power was the lifeblood of a soul master. He understood all too clearly what this meant.
He no longer dwelled on the matter of gold coins. Directly urging his Soul Power, he lifted Lin Feng and Oscar into the air and flew horizontally toward Shrek.
As they sped through the wind, his expression darkened again, and he gave a stern warning.
"Lin Feng, unless it is absolutely necessary, in a life-or-death situation, you must never use this soul skill on someone more than three major realms above you."
"You're smart enough to understand just how heaven-defying this soul skill is. Once it is exposed, what it attracts will not be simple recruitment, but endless trouble—and perhaps even a fatal disaster."
"Dean, I understand."
Lin Feng nodded into the wind.
How could he not understand? This was the helplessness of Support System soul masters. They were inherently lacking in offensive means, and once they possessed a heaven-defying support ability, they became targets coveted by every faction.
But he was different from ordinary support-type soul masters.
Within the Blessing Gold Pouch lay the complete equipment system of Honor of Kings—physical attack, magic power, defense, everything. He had all the confidence he needed for the road ahead.
Before you continue