Xian Lin'er's Affection +100

"Little one, I know there must be something on you that the Evil Soul Master coveted. If you tell us what it is, Shrek Academy might be able to help you. If you'd rather not say, that's fine too. Just be careful from now on. The Evil Soul Master may already have his eyes on you." Xian Lin'er said solemnly.

She was telling the truth, though she did have a little personal interest in the matter.

Chu Feng looked very young, and his background seemed anything but ordinary. His aura was strong, too, and he had a secret that could drive an Evil Soul Master to risk his life to steal it. Shrek Academy badly needed a talent like him.

"All right, I'll tell you the truth. They were after my Soul Tool." Chu Feng thought for a moment, then decided to reveal part of the truth.

He knew exactly what Xian Lin'er was after: she wanted to draw him aboard Shrek's ship.

And he had his own plans. Xian Lin'er was powerful, and she was a Level 8 Soul Engineer. If he could bring her over to his side, it would be a huge help to his plans going forward.

"Oh?"

"You're a Soul Engineer too?"

Xian Lin'er was surprised.

She had assumed the Evil Soul Master had targeted Chu Feng because of his extraordinary background, but she hadn't expected it to be because he was a Soul Engineer...

But that didn't make sense, either. He was so young; at most, he could be a Level 1 Soul Engineer, maybe a Level 1.5 one. That hardly seemed enough to make a Soul Emperor-level Evil Soul Master risk exposing himself.

"May I take a look at a Soul Tool you made?" Xian Lin'er hesitated, then asked.

"I've sold most of them. This is all I have left~"

Chu Feng rummaged around in his Storage Soul Tool and pulled out a Level 4 Milk Bottle he used himself.

"This is a Milk Bottle!!!"

Xian Lin'er was dumbfounded. But the instant her hand touched the Milk Bottle, she was struck as if by lightning and froze in place.

"A... a Level 4 Milk Bottle!!"

"Don't tell me you made this yourself!!"

Xian Lin'er was breathing a little fast.

"Yeah~"

"It's just a Milk Bottle. It's not that hard to make. It even has my label on it~"

Chu Feng nodded.

"Your label?"

Xian Lin'er was stunned again. Wasn't this the sort of little gimmick that only Soul Engineers at Level 7 or above would bother with? It was mainly for theft prevention and showing off. What was there to protect on a Milk Bottle...

Xian Lin'er urged the Milk Bottle to absorb Soul Power, and sure enough, an image of a "Panda" appeared on it.

"Wait, this-this-this..."

The instant Xian Lin'er saw the image, a storm surged in her heart. She carefully sensed the Milk Bottle's Soul Power transmission and discovered that this Level 4 Milk Bottle had the same effect as the Level 2 Milk Bottles circulating on the market. In other words, it used the same Core Array.

The highest-grade Milk Bottle available on the market was only Level 2, yet Chu Feng had a Level 4 Milk Bottle—and it even bore the image of a Panda.

Even a fool could figure out what that meant.

Chu Feng...

Was the creator of this Core Array! He was a Level 4 Soul Engineer—or perhaps even more advanced!

Even Qian Duoduo couldn't hold a candle to a Level 4 Soul Engineer this young when he was young!

Forget Qian Duoduo. Even in the Sun Moon Empire, a Soul Engineer this young was as rare as a phoenix feather or a unicorn horn—perhaps even completely unheard of!

What kind of genius had she stumbled upon this time...

No wonder that Evil Soul Master had targeted Chu Feng.

If she were an Evil Soul Master, she would do whatever it took to get her hands on Chu Feng, too. If she couldn't have him, then she'd have to destroy him!

[You shocked Xian Lin'er. Reward: God-tier carving knife "Blade of Origin"; Xian Lin'er's affection +100]

Chu Feng stared at the reward, dumbfounded.

He could understand getting a carving knife as a reward, but what was with the affection?

There was something off about this system. Xian Lin'er was a married woman!!

A married woman... hehehe...

"Little one, where are you from? Would you be interested in joining our Evil—uh, no, our Shrek Academy Soul Engineering Department?" Xian Lin'er had lost all her earlier composure. She was so excited that she nearly stumbled over her words.

"Sorry, I'm not thinking of joining the Soul Engineering Department right now." Chu Feng shook his head gently. He hadn't said Shrek—he'd said the Soul Engineering Department, just in case his identity was exposed later and things got awkward.

"Are you really not going to give it some thought?"

"If you join the Soul Engineering Department at Shrek Academy, I can take you as my disciple and make you a core disciple right away. You'll receive the highest level of treatment!"

Xian Lin'er gritted her teeth, still unwilling to give up on such a super-genius.

"Sorry. I know you're the dean of Shrek Academy's Soul Engineering Department, but I really have no intention of joining it." Chu Feng refused again.

"All right..."

Xian Lin'er was at her wit's end. This was the best offer she could make. After all, Chu Feng didn't seem short on money, and his background was no ordinary one. Apart from the status of a core disciple in the Spirit Master Department, she couldn't think of anything else valuable to offer him.

But she still didn't want to give up, so she handed Chu Feng a green token. "This is my personal token. If you change your mind, you can come find me at Shrek Academy anytime. And if you need any Soul Tool-making equipment, you can come straight to our Soul Engineering Department. With my token, you can use all of its equipment."

Xian Lin'er's plan was that, if she couldn't win him over, she'd first improve his impression of her and lure him into Shrek. Once he saw how powerful Shrek was, maybe he'd change his mind.

"Great. Thank you, Dean Xian!"

Chu Feng took the token, secretly delighted.

Hadn't he been putting on this act for so long just to get this access?

Joining the Soul Engineering Department was out of the question, but making the outer casing for high-level Soul Tools was practically impossible by hand. He'd need to use some enormous, specialized machines.

It was like being able to carve a chip by hand instead of using a lithography machine, but if you wanted the chip to be usable, you still had to make its casing. Making a casing by hand was asking a bit much, so you needed specialized machines.

Buying those machines for himself would be extremely difficult and terrible value for money. So he could only go to Shrek and make use of theirs.

"Good. In that case, I'll be on my way. The Soul Engineering Department welcomes you whenever you decide to join us~"

Seeing Chu Feng accept the token, Xian Lin'er was secretly delighted as well. She thought there was still a chance she could lure him into the Soul Engineering Department—and maybe even convince him to become her disciple~

She gave him a few more reminders before finally leaving.

Chu Feng watched Xian Lin'er's curvaceous figure as she walked away, lost in thought...

"That figure is incredible. She's a little more seductive than Ma Xiaotao, and she has that unique, mature charm, too. That old coot Qian Duoduo can look but can't touch. No wonder he's such a top-tier ninja..."

Chu Feng admitted it: he was interested in Xian Lin'er.

Who could resist a stunning married woman?

But he wanted to build his own Soul Engineer faction. He didn't want to get too entangled with Shrek's trash Soul Engineering Department.

He and Xian Lin'er could have any other kind of relationship, but they absolutely couldn't be master and disciple or teacher and student. Otherwise, he'd not only become a "disobedient disciple who seduced his master," he'd also be tied to Shrek's ship.

The best solution was to lure Xian Lin'er into his own bed.

As for Shrek, whatever. It was doomed to fall sooner or later.