Leng Ningshuang's anger was checked by this sudden turn of events, but her brows remained tightly furrowed. Clearly, she wasn't convinced.
Free to come and go? It sounded nice, but once you entered the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, would you really be free?
Ning Fengzhi didn't give her time to think. He continued laying out his terms, his tone as calm as if he were reading from a shopping list:
"In exchange, and as a show of sincerity from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect: first, from today until Miss Shui Bing'er turns eighteen, our sect will cover all the resources she needs for cultivation.
"Our experts will handle the acquisition of Soul Rings, ensuring she gets the best. She may choose from any top-tier ice-attribute meditation techniques or combat skills our sect possesses or can obtain. In addition, we will prepare at least one top-tier ice-attribute Soul Bone for her, with a minimum age of fifty thousand years."
A Soul Bone! And a top-tier one, at least fifty thousand years old!
Leng Ningshuang's breath caught. She knew better than anyone how precious Soul Bones were.
Since Skywater Academy's founding, it had amassed only a handful of Soul Bones, and none came close in quality or age. These terms were enough to drive any Soul Master mad!
"Second," Ning Fengzhi said, raising one finger,
"for the next ten years, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect will cover all of Skywater Academy's regular teaching and cultivation expenses, including but not limited to student stipends, instructor salaries, facility maintenance, and material purchases. If the academy plans to expand or build facilities such as a Mimicry Cultivation Environment, our sect can cover seventy percent of the costs."
Leng Ningshuang's eyes widened. What did this mean? It meant that, as dean, she wouldn't have to worry about the academy's funding for the next ten years!
It meant the academy could recruit more outstanding instructors, provide better conditions for its students, and even expand! This was a fortune so vast it could transform all of Skywater Academy from top to bottom!
"Third," Ning Fengzhi said, seemingly oblivious to the dramatic change in Leng Ningshuang's expression. He raised a third finger, his tone still calm,
"I've heard that Miss Bing'er has a younger sister named Shui Yue'er, also gifted and enrolled at your academy? My sect will provide her with three times the resources allotted to your academy's highest-ranked core disciples, until she graduates or turns twenty."
Three times the resources of a core disciple! That was practically an all-out investment! Shui Yue'er might be slightly less gifted than her older sister, but with such resources behind her, she would surely achieve great things!
After speaking, Ning Fengzhi clasped his hands behind his back. He looked at Leng Ningshuang, who was now completely stunned, her lips parted as if she wanted to say something but couldn't make a sound. Smiling faintly, he added his final words—the most crucial ones:
"In short, if Miss Bing'er joins the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, she will receive the finest training on the continent, your academy will gain the resources to take flight, and her younger sister will have a bright future as well. And all it will take is for her to fulfill a marriage contract once she comes of age. Dean Leng, is this... coercion, or an opportunity that you, I, and Miss Bing'er herself could not refuse?"
An opportunity that could not be refused!
Leng Ningshuang's mind went blank. Anger? It had long since been blasted away by the terms crashing down one after another.
All she could think of were those staggering numbers and resources: a fifty-thousand-year Soul Bone, a decade of expenses for the academy covered, three times the resources for a core disciple... These were astronomical sums she could never have raised, no matter how much blood, sweat, and tears she poured into it or how far she traveled to seek funding!
With these resources, Skywater Academy would no longer be the weakest of the Four Elemental Academies. It might even rise to greater heights!
And Bing'er would have a future far broader than even the one her own dean had once dreamed of!
Refuse? What reason did she have to refuse? For that nebulous ideal of "free love"? But Ning Fengzhi had said Bing'er would remain free until she was eighteen.
How many women dreamed of becoming the wife of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's young master, only to never attain that position? Even if the boy in question was only six, he was still part of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect!
The richest sect on the continent! And from Ning Fengzhi's words, his son's talent was "decent"?
If Ning Fengzhi had gone to such lengths as to personally bring two Titled Douluo to "propose," then that talent surely wasn't merely "decent"!
Reason told her this was a transaction: a vast fortune capable of changing many people's fates, bought with Bing'er's future marriage.
Emotionally, she felt a twinge of shame at how tempted she was. But as dean, she had to consider the entire academy, as well as the students and instructors who trusted her.
Ning Fengzhi watched Leng Ningshuang's expression shift wildly. Knowing she was wavering, he gently added one final push:
"Dean Leng, you needn't answer right away, nor feel pressured. This concerns Miss Bing'er's entire life, so why don't you... ask her what she thinks first? What if Miss Bing'er... agrees?"
Leng Ningshuang fell silent at last.
Deep within the academy, in the Mimicry Cultivation Environment, beneath an icy waterfall.
Shui Bing'er sat cross-legged atop a massive boulder of ice. Her water-blue hair was tied into a neat braid that fell behind her, and her ice-blue eyes were closed. A fierce chill swirled around her, while the faint silhouette of an Ice Phoenix flickered behind her, radiating an aura of nobility and coldness.
Though she was only eleven, she already possessed a composure and coolness far beyond her years.
"Bing'er."
Leng Ningshuang's voice rang out from nearby, carrying a trace of weariness—and... guilt?
Shui Bing'er slowly ended her cultivation. The chill receded, and the Ice Phoenix's phantom faded away. She opened her eyes and saw the complex expression on her master's face. Her heart sank slightly.
"Master, did you need me? You don't look well. Has the academy run into another difficulty?" Her voice was cool, but filled with concern.
Leng Ningshuang walked up to her and opened her mouth. She tried several times to speak, then finally let out a long sigh.
She told her everything, exactly as it had happened: the arrival of Ning Fengzhi and the other two, along with their "proposal" and its suffocating terms. She left nothing out and embellished nothing.
As Leng Ningshuang recounted everything, a tempest finally rose in Shui Bing'er's ice-blue eyes, usually as calm as a frozen lake.
First came shock, as if she'd heard the most ridiculous joke in the world. Then came anger. Her fair cheeks flushed with embarrassment and fury, and the chill around her spilled out of control, freezing the ice beneath her feet in an even thicker layer. At last, all her emotions slowly settled, leaving behind a deathly silence that chilled the heart.
"Child bride... Heh." Shui Bing'er repeated the words softly. Her voice gave no hint of joy or anger, only an icy coldness.
"You want me, Shui Bing'er, to become the child bride of a six-year-old boy I've never even met? Master, do you think that's possible?"
She was proud and high-spirited. Because of her Ice Phoenix Martial Soul, she was naturally aloof, indifferent to the idea of romance between men and women, and even faintly opposed to it.
Her goals in life were to reach the pinnacle of Soul Master cultivation, lead Skywater Academy to glory, and protect her younger sister Yue'er so she could grow up safe and happy.
Marriage? A partner? Neither had ever been part of her plans, let alone something as absurd as becoming a "child bride," with all its stench of transaction and humiliation!
Leng Ningshuang looked at the anger and defiance hidden in her disciple's eyes, and her heart felt as if it were being cut by a knife.
How could she not understand Bing'er's pride? This was her most cherished and beloved disciple, someone she treated as her own. But...
She looked at the guilt and helplessness in her master's eyes, so utterly undisguised, along with a trace of... hope that even her master herself hadn't noticed. Shui Bing'er suddenly understood.
From the moment her master had come to ask her opinion, she had already lost the freedom to choose.
Skywater Academy had taken her and Yue'er in when they had nowhere else to go. Her master had shown her immense kindness, and the academy had given her a place to live and a chance to grow.
Her younger sister Yue'er was her only family, everything she wanted to protect.
Could she refuse? Could she trade the entire academy's future, her sister's prospects, and her master's hopes for that pitiful scrap of dignity and pride?
Before you continue