Claiming Rewards!

The yellow spirit ring rotated a few times at his feet before settling steadily around his body.

Tang San walked over quickly, looking him up and down.

"How is it? How do you feel?"

Huang Fei sensed the extra spirit ring within his body, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

A spirit ring. There really was one.

But this was not the one the system would ultimately provide him.

"Not bad." Huang Fei stood up and brushed the dirt off his pants. "It's similar to yours, a binding-type vine skill."

He did not activate the spirit skill to show Tang San.

No rush.

Once they returned, and once the real spirit ring was in place, it wouldn't be too late to show it off.

Yu Xiaogang stood to the side, watching the yellow spirit ring on Huang Fei, his lips curling in an involuntary sneer.

A 120-year Green Vine.

Compared to Tang San's 430-year Vine of Life, the difference was not just a little bit. With the age gap being more than threefold, the strength of the spirit skill would surely be vastly inferior.

This was the result of just brushing someone off.

In any case, Huang Fei was not his target; he could absorb whatever he wanted, it had nothing to do with him.

"Since both of you have obtained your first spirit rings, let's head back." Yu Xiaogang turned and walked toward the edge of the Soul Hunting Forest. "It's getting dark, don't dawdle on the road."

Tang San acknowledged him, pulling Huang Fei along behind him.

By the time they walked out of the Soul Hunting Forest, the sky had already darkened.

In the distance, Nuoding City lit up with flickering lamps, looking like a glowing ribbon stretched across the horizon.

Huang Fei walked at the very back, touching the Forty-Eight Moons Embracing the Stars that had merged into his body at his waist, then looked down at the yellow spirit ring at his feet.

A 120-year Green Vine spirit ring.

This was just for others to see.

His true first spirit ring was still waiting for him in the system's inventory.

When they returned to the academy, it was completely dark.

Dormitory Seven was lit by a few oil lamps, and the work-study students were sitting on their beds in twos and threes, chatting.

Seeing Tang San and Huang Fei push the door open, Wang Sheng was the first to jump up.

"Boss! Brother Fei! You're back! Did you get your first spirit rings?"

"We got them." Tang San nodded.

"What color? How many years?" Wang Sheng leaned in curiously.

"Yellow, 430 years." Tang San answered truthfully.

A chorus of gasps erupted in Dormitory Seven.

A 430-year first spirit ring was definitely top-tier among the work-study students.

Wang Sheng's own first spirit ring had only been a little over 200 years; he was dumbfounded upon hearing that number.

"What about Brother Fei?" Wang Sheng turned to look at Huang Fei.

"A 120-year Green Vine." Huang Fei yawned, his tone as casual as if he were talking about what he had for dinner.

Half the gasps in Dormitory Seven died out instantly.

120 years—compared to Tang San's 430 years, it really wasn't much to look at.

But no one said anything.

After all, given Huang Fei's usual lazy demeanor, managing to get a 120-year spirit ring was already considered decent.

Tang San looked at Huang Fei, wanting to say something but holding back.

He wanted to say, "Actually, you could have found a better one," but he felt that might make Huang Fei uncomfortable, so in the end, he said nothing.

Huang Fei turned a blind eye to his gaze.

He sat down on his bed, took off his shoes, and curled up under his blanket.

"I'm going to take a bath," he said.

Tang San was stunned: "Didn't you just sit down?"

"I meant in a while." Huang Fei closed his eyes, mumbled vaguely, and then went still.

Tang San watched him enter standby mode within three seconds, sighed, and stopped bothering him.

Huang Fei was not truly asleep.

He was waiting.

Waiting for the dead of night, waiting for everyone in Dormitory Seven to fall into a deep sleep, and waiting for the footsteps in the hallway outside to cease.

Then, he would go to the bathroom.

There, his true reward was waiting for him to claim it.

The night deepened.

The sound of snoring rose and fell throughout Dormitory Seven.

Wang Sheng snored like a bellows, one sound after another, with a remarkably strong sense of rhythm.

The two work-study students on the opposite bed were huddled together, legs tangled, neither of them waking up.

Xiao Wu was curled up on the innermost bed, her ponytail undone, hair spread across the pillow; her sleeping posture was surprisingly quiet.

Huang Fei opened his eyes.

He hadn't been woken up; he hadn't slept at all.

He had been waiting for this moment—when everyone was fast asleep, the footsteps in the corridor had completely vanished, and the entire Notting Academy had sunk into the deepest part of the night.

He gently lifted the quilt and stepped onto the floor with bare feet.

The wooden floor was ice-cold, making his toes curl in reaction.

He didn't put on his shoes, carrying them in his hand instead, and crept past the communal beds, timing every step to fall within the gaps between the snores.

Tang San was sleeping near the door, lying on his side with steady breathing.

Huang Fei paused as he passed him, looking down for a moment.

Moonlight leaked in through the cracks in the window, falling onto Tang San's face.

The seven-year-old boy looked much more childish in his sleep than he did during the day.

His brows were relaxed, and the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, as if he were dreaming of something pleasant.

Huang Fei withdrew his gaze, slid back the latch, and slipped out.

The corridor was empty.

Moonlight shone in from the windows on both sides, coating the floor in a layer of silvery-white frost.

Huang Fei walked barefoot down the hallway, the soles of his feet touching the cold stone, making a faint, light "tap-tap" sound like a cat prowling at night.

The public bathroom was on the ground floor of the teaching building; it was bustling during the day, but at night, it was one of the quietest places in the entire academy.

No student wanted to come here to bathe late at night, especially now that the weather was starting to turn cold.

The bathroom door was left ajar.

Huang Fei pushed the door open and latched it behind him.

He did not light a lamp.

Moonlight shone in from the high, small window, casting a patch of silvery-white light into the pool.

That was enough.

Huang Fei walked to the deepest part of the bathroom, sat down on a bench, and closed his eyes.

"Claim."

The system prompt rang in his mind, crisp and cold.

"Ding—Host detected to have completed the basic acquisition of the first spirit ring (Green Vine, 120 years). Do you wish to claim the system reward spirit ring now?"

"Claim."

"Reward being issued... Target Tang San receives spirit ring: Vine of Life, 430 years. Host receives reward spirit ring: Vine of Life, 860 years. Spirit ring level: Century (Yellow). Spirit skill: Life Entanglement (Enhanced Version). Do you wish to fuse now?"

"Fuse."

As soon as the words left his lips, Huang Fei felt that power within his body.

It was completely different from when he had absorbed the Green Vine spirit ring during the day.

That time, it felt like a drop of ink falling into a bowl of water; he could barely perceive any change.

But this time, it felt as if someone were pouring an entire river into his body.

Warm energy surged from his dantian, spreading along his meridians to his limbs and bones.

It wasn't a violent impact, but a dense, heavy power, like magma surging deep within the earth.

His meridians were stretched and filled, every inch of them letting out a comfortable groan.

This feeling was hard to describe.

If Tang San absorbing a 430-year spirit ring was like stuffing a brick into his body, then Huang Fei was currently pouring an entire wall into his.

Even though both were century-level spirit rings, the 860-year spirit ring contained more than twice the energy of the former, yet his body bore it without the slightest effort.