After checking the class assignments, Lin Yun went to the cafeteria with Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong for a meal. Afterward, they went their separate ways.
Lin Yun had thirty-five Gold Soul Coins and a little over thirty Copper Soul Coins on him. They were the awakening fees his original body had saved up over five years.
The city where Lin Yun lived lay on the edge of the Dou Ling Empire, where awakenings were relatively cheap. Even so, the lowest price was thirty-six Gold Soul Coins.
It wasn't that every Soul Master was a bad person. Rather, the Dou Ling Empire had once been the heartland of the Heaven Dou Royal Family, and its aristocratic airs ran deep.
Afraid that another "Spirit Hall" might appear, offering awakenings at rock-bottom prices—or even for free—the Dou Ling Empire had set the recommended price for Martial Soul Awakening at the amount a local resident could save in seven years.
One Gold Soul Coin was enough to support an ordinary family of three for two or three months. Lin Yun's little city relied mainly on seafood, so things were a bit better there. With some advance planning, most people could save enough by the time they were six or seven.
Lin Yun's original body, who had put it off until he was eleven, really was a rare case of bad luck. He'd already saved enough, but his grandfather was a gambler. He'd gone all in, piled up debts, and then hanged himself from a branch in the southeast.
The dead man's debts didn't die with him. Lin Yun could only use his awakening money to get the knife-wielding Soul Master in front of him off his back.
Then a storm hit and swept away his family's fishing boat, so they had to buy another one.
Fortunately, even Heaven left a way out. On his last fishing trip, Lin Yun's original body's father caught a huge clam with a luminous pearl inside.
That was how they managed to save up thirty-six Gold Soul Coins over five years. Then Evil Soul Masters came along and slaughtered the village.
Fortunately, Lin Yun's original body had kept the money in his pocket, so no one had taken it.
Thirty-five Gold Soul Coins would have been enough if all he needed was food. But if he included other cultivation resources... he might as well not take it out and embarrass himself.
Lin Yun rolled the thirty-five Gold Soul Coins up and down across his fingers. As for the thirty-odd Copper Soul Coins left over, he decided he'd find somewhere outside the academy that evening to treat himself to a better meal.
After enjoying his last good meal before the semester began, Lin Yun knew what awaited him the next day. He stretched his legs and ran through tomorrow's situation in his head.
Shrek Academy had finished admissions by then. Lin Yun took a closer look and found that the academy before him wasn't quite what he'd imagined based on his past-life analysis.
He wasn't a noble himself, but when his original body's father sold the luminous pearl, he'd seen some of the small and mid-tier nobles in this world.
Now Lin Yun noticed that quite a few of the new students weren't even as well dressed as the wealthy man who'd bought the pearl.
Some weren't even as well dressed as he was. Lin Yun looked more like a noble than they did.
After getting one of the admissions teachers drunk with a little liquor, Lin Yun more or less understood what was going on.
It was true that students needed a letter of recommendation from a city lord, but in practice, nine out of ten nobles still involved in court politics wouldn't let their children join Shrek. Most members of the royal family couldn't get into Shrek at the moment.
It was a way of currying favor with their superiors. As a result, Shrek was now divided into three groups. One consisted of commoners like Huo Yuhao, Jiang Nannan, and Lin Yun, who made up about a third of the students.
Another consisted of top-ranking noble scions like the two young masters from the White Tiger Duke Mansion, whose status was so great they could ignore the royal family's opinions.
The last group included politically uninvolved clan powers like Wang Dong, Bei Bei, and Xu Sanshi.
At the same time, because the powers here were so complex and divided, the academy was much fairer than Lin Yun had imagined in his previous life. There were only two things that counted: personal strength and money.
Money didn't always work, either. If you ran into someone who didn't care about your money and just wanted to beat you up, you might not even get the chance to spend it.
As for their outside connections, Shrek kept most of them out in the name of preserving its dignity.
Take Xu Sanshi and Bei Bei, for example. Outside the academy, one was a disciple of a major sect and the other was the great-grandson of the current Sea God Pavilion Master. Even when trouble arose, they still had to roll up their sleeves and handle it themselves.
Lin Yun became a little more interested in Shrek Academy. If things were as he'd heard, the days ahead might go more smoothly than he'd expected.
Lin Yun borrowed a book on Soul Beast knowledge from the Outer Court library and headed back to the dormitory.
The next morning, when Lin Yun opened his eyes, it was already broad daylight.
He glanced at the time out of habit and instantly woke up.
Damn it, he'd slept in.
As he pulled on his clothes, Lin Yun leaped out through the window. A pair of massive bone wings unfurled behind him, and in the blink of an eye, he was flying to the teaching building.
He hurried up the stairs and saw a slightly stooped woman walking slowly ahead of him.
Shrek Academy's classrooms didn't have back doors yet, so Lin Yun was truly caught between a rock and a hard place. He had no other choice. He abruptly sped up, passed the old woman, and went on ahead.
He quickly took a window seat in the back row, then immediately suppressed the fluctuations in his Soul Power and acted as if nothing had happened.
Zhou Yi entered the classroom a minute after Lin Yun. As soon as she walked in, she looked toward him.
"The last one in. Stand up."
Lin Yun thought, GG. Then he put his hands on the desk and stood up, resigned to his fate.
Zhou Yi gave Lin Yun an interested once-over. The corner of her mouth curled into a smile that made one's heart tremble.
"You've got quite a personality. You dare to be late on the very first day? That's a rare feat in Shrek Academy's history."
Lin Yun's eyes shifted slightly as his mind raced. The moment Zhou Yi finished speaking, he smiled and said,
"Isn't this a way of showing you respect? The bell is dead, but you're alive. Our class doesn't take the bell as its benchmark—we take you as our benchmark. Class starts when you arrive."
Zhou Yi looked even more intrigued. She picked up a piece of chalk and snapped it in two, then asked,
"What's your name?"
"Lin Yun. I'm not from some family clan. Evil Soul Masters slaughtered my family, and Dean Yan took pity on me and brought me in."
Zhou Yi nodded, then said,
"It's the first day of class, so I won't make things difficult for you. Catch this piece of chalk, and we'll call it even."
As she spoke, six Soul Rings appeared around Zhou Yi in an instant. She infused the chalk with ten percent of her Soul Power and hurled it straight at Lin Yun.
By the standards for Soul Tools in the first series, that piece of chalk could have passed for a Soul Tool. Lin Yun cursed inwardly, but his hands moved without the slightest hesitation.
A gray-white bone claw appeared in Lin Yun's hand. Relying on the Skeletal Bone Dragon's toughness, he smacked the chalk clean out the window.
Once he'd done that, Lin Yun immediately smiled and said,
"Thank you, teacher. I promise there won't be a next time."
Zhou Yi looked at the group who'd been intimidated by the Soul Emperor, her expression stern once more.
"Good. Everyone, sit down. Now, we'll begin the prelude to our first lesson."
Lin Yun sighed. Here it comes, he thought. The classic talk about having guts is on its way...
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