A Criminal Prodigy Back Then!

Several days later.

At the border between the Two Great Empires, west of the Star Dou Forest.

After days of travel, a vast, heavily guarded city finally came into view for Nan Feng and Bibi Dong.

From afar, the towering walls, patrol knights everywhere, and the magnificent palace at the heart of the city—the symbol of supreme authority—made Spirit City look more like an impregnable military fortress.

"We're finally back..."

Bibi Dong looked at the familiar city, her expression complicated.

She turned to Nan Feng beside her, whom she was holding by the hand and who looked no more than five or six years old, and could not help asking, "Have you been here before?"

"No." Nan Feng shook his head decisively.

Bibi Dong was somewhat puzzled. "Then... how did you cultivate before? Who was your teacher?"

Even with extraordinary talent, someone who had cultivated to the level of a level ninety-nine Ultimate Douluo could not possibly have gone entirely without the guidance of a renowned teacher, could he?

"Teacher?"

Nan Feng lifted his little face and thought back seriously. "I didn't have one."

"No teacher?" Bibi Dong froze. "Then who taught you how to cultivate? Don't tell me you figured it all out from scratch?"

There was someone who taught him how to cultivate." Nan Feng grinned, revealing two rows of little white teeth. "But that person could hardly be considered my teacher."

Bibi Dong was even more confused. "What do you mean?"

Nan Feng followed her along on his short little legs as he spoke.

"My Martial Soul didn't awaken naturally when I turned six. It awakened early on its own when I was five, because I suffered an enormous shock."

"The little village where I lived was attacked by bandits. Everyone in the village died. I nearly died too."

At that, Bibi Dong's expression abruptly tightened, and her grip on Nan Feng's little hand unconsciously grew firmer.

"But fortunately, my Martial Soul awakened at the brink of death."

Nan Feng shrugged. "After that, I killed all those bandits."

"The bandit leader was a Soul Elder in his seventies or eighties. I took him by surprise in the chaos, cut off his limbs, then used the Death Spider Emperor's deadly poison to slowly corrode his body, making him suffer for seven days and seven nights before he finally died."

"And during those seven days, in order to stay alive and suffer less, he told me every last bit of basic knowledge he had about Soul Master cultivation."

Nan Feng looked up and smiled at Bibi Dong. "That was the beginning of my path as a Soul Master."

Bibi Dong's expression was incredibly complicated. She opened her mouth, but did not know what she could say to comfort him.

She had thought her own experiences were miserable enough, yet this ancestor's beginning had been even bloodier and more despairing than hers.

Although she had lost both parents at a young age, she had at least grown up somewhere safe like Spirit City. Later, thanks to her powerful Innate Full Soul Power talent, she had naturally entered Spirit Academy and received abundant resources.

As for hardship in daily life, she truly had not experienced much of it.

However, Nan Feng clearly did not notice Bibi Dong's melancholy.

His tone shifted, suddenly turning excited as he eagerly began sharing his downright fantastical "road to success."

"And it was all thanks to that old bastard! I found a huge sum of starting capital on him—one thousand two hundred and thirty-five Gold Soul Coins!"

Little Nan Feng's eyes shone. "Even now, I still haven't forgotten that fortune that fell from the sky!"

Seeing his money-grubbing appearance, all the sympathy Bibi Dong had just managed to build up instantly vanished, and her expression became incredibly strange.

"You nearly died... Your whole village was massacred, and the first thing you did after awakening was count money?!"

"Of course! What was I supposed to eat without money? How was I supposed to cultivate without money?"

Nan Feng rolled his eyes at her and continued, "The Martial Soul I mainly cultivated first was the Soul-Devouring Spider Emperor. But you know how wicked and insidious that Martial Soul is. If it was exposed, I might have been treated as a Fallen Soul Master and executed on the spot."

"So I kept my identity hidden and never even entered Spirit Hall. Once I endured long enough to break through to Soul Elder, I went straight into Sunset Forest and began a secluded life of keeping my head down."

Bibi Dong still felt something was off and could not help pressing further. "Even so... the knowledge that old bandit told you must have been extremely superficial. When you later cultivated to level ninety-nine, don't tell me you figured it all out by blindly fumbling around on your own?"

"I'm not some idiot who shuts himself away and invents things from scratch."

Nan Feng retorted without the slightest courtesy. "Actually, after getting that starting capital, I went to the area around Heaven Dou City. I forgot everything that old bastard taught me almost immediately."

"After all, he had spent his entire life muddling along and was already seventy or eighty, yet he was only a mere Soul Elder. What prospects could he possibly have had? What the hell did he know about cultivation?"

"Then where did your cultivation methods come from?" Bibi Dong asked curiously.

"Heaven Dou Royal Academy, of course!"

Bibi Dong looked utterly bewildered. "Heaven Dou Royal Academy? Were you a student there?"

"No."

Nan Feng shook his head, a "benevolent" smile curling across his lips.

"Heaven Dou Royal Academy was built against a mountain, and it was right beneath the imperial city. With Soul Sage- and Spirit Douluo-level education committee members stationed there, they had grown too comfortable. It seemed they had never imagined anyone would dare cause trouble at the academy gates."

"So, I found the right opportunity and kidnapped one of their students."

Bibi Dong was completely stunned. "...Kid-kidnapped?!"

"Yeah! I was practically a criminal genius back then!"

Nan Feng slapped his thigh, excitedly recalling his glorious days.

"I didn't understand advanced cultivation theory, but the veteran teachers at Heaven Dou Royal Academy did! And I wasn't some noble, nor did I want to expose my Twin Spider Emperor Martial Soul."

"Teachers were too dangerous, but those pampered noble students who had been spoiled since childhood weren't!"

"Not long after I arrived in Heaven Dou City, I kidnapped a fat kid who had wandered off alone behind the academy. I forced a mouthful of muddy water mixed with poisonous herbs down his throat and told him it was incurable poison! Without my exclusive antidote, he would bleed from all seven orifices and die within three days! If he dared tell anyone, I'd drag him down with me!"

"If he wanted the antidote, he could trade high-level cultivation materials from Heaven Dou Royal Academy for it!"

Nan Feng clicked his tongue twice, apparently quite satisfied with that fat kid's cooperation.

"That fat kid was terrified of death! He never doubted me at all. That very night, he used his noble status and the storage Soul Tool he had, which had a full two cubic meters of space, to steal a huge pile of precious materials from Heaven Dou Royal Academy's Library!"

"When we made the exchange, he did not even dare ask for that storage ring back. He gave me the books and the ring together!"

As he spoke, Nan Feng smugly pulled a small ring set with a ruby from his clothes and waved it in front of her.

"See? This one. Just like that, I not only got my starting capital, but also obtained an entire systematic treasury of foundational knowledge."

"After that, whenever I ran into a cultivation bottleneck or problem I couldn't overcome, I'd wait around behind the mountain, kidnap Heaven Dou Royal Academy students, and threaten them into asking their teachers for answers. They weren't allowed to reveal that I was the one asking, or I'd poison them to death!"

The more Nan Feng spoke, the more animated he became, completely immersed in memories of his lost youth.

Meanwhile, Bibi Dong, who was holding his hand, had been left utterly dumbfounded.

She stared strangely, even somewhat horrified, at the smug "ancestor" beside her.

What the hell kind of demonic beginning was this?!

Awakening on the brink of death, then relying entirely on extortion, robbery, and kidnapping hostages to grow afterward?!

You were basically the reincarnation of a pure demon, weren't you?!