Beware of Academic Thieves! Please Keep Reading! Please Vote!

Inside the Suotuo City Spirit Hall Branch, the cleaned-up and fairly handsome Chen Lin led Chen Hong to the door of the Bishop of Suotuo City's office under a guard's guidance.

"Your Excellency Bishop! Chen Lin and his son from the Chen Family Ironworks say they have an important matter to report to you!"

"Oh?" In the plain reception room, the white-haired Bishop Suotuo paused slightly, seemingly trying to recall who Chen Lin and his son were. Then, as if remembering something, he called out, "Come in!"

Creak!

As the door opened, Chen Lin and his son saw Bishop Suotuo seated behind his desk, bent over a pile of documents. They immediately stepped forward to greet him.

"Greetings, Bishop Suotuo!"

"Hello, Grandpa Bishop!"

"Hehe, what brings you father and son to see this old man?" Bishop Suotuo raised his head from the desk, then chuckled at the clever little Chen Hong beside Chen Lin. "You haven't caused trouble for your father lately, have you?"

Chen Hong immediately retorted, "How could I? Grandpa Bishop, I'm always very well-behaved at home!"

"Yes, yes, very well-behaved! Sigh, I wonder who it was that got caught by the City Lord's Mansion at the gambling house last time, and they only released him after Spirit Hall showed up."

Bishop Suotuo said cheerfully. He remembered Chen Hong, the clever youngster in his jurisdiction. On one hand, that impression came from the boy's Special Martial Soul; on the other, Chen Hong had been bright since childhood.

Previously, he had invited Chen Hong to the Spirit Hall Branch to help organize documents and work as a clerk. Though Chen Hong was young, he was sharp as a tack, and he possessed the soul skill Sage Time, which Bishop Suotuo found quite interesting. All this had left a deep impression of Chen Hong on him.

Chen Lin was also quite a decent man. Though he was only a level 37 Battle Soul Elder, his equipment-forging skills were exceptional. Many of the standardized equipment used by the Suotuo City Spirit Hall Branch had been forged by Chen Lin. His forging methods were relatively complex and followed a strict set of standards, yet he was willing to teach those methods to other blacksmiths. In Bishop Suotuo's eyes, that made him a Spirit Master of noble character, worthy of goodwill.

"Ah!!! Grandpa Bishop, are you seriously still hung up on that gambling house? I was originally going to tell you about a Soul Guidance Mithril Ore Vein, but now you've offended me!"

Unlike the reserved Chen Lin, Chen Hong was much more casual. After all, how could Bishop Suotuo possibly hold a child's behavior against him? Besides, the squeaky wheel got the grease. Chen Hong would not pass up the chance to further deepen his connection with Bishop Suotuo.

"A Soul Guidance Mithril Ore Vein?" Bishop Suotuo froze, then asked in surprise, "Is that true?"

"You offended me, so I'm not telling you!" Chen Hong was still stubbornly holding onto it. Chen Lin could not stand it any longer and slapped Chen Hong aside before respectfully saying to Bishop Suotuo, "In reply to Your Excellency Bishop, we have indeed discovered a place where an ore vein may exist. We were worried news might leak, so we did not dig any deeper, but we estimate that there is at least a small ore vein there."

"Once the ore is smelted, it becomes silver in color and rather soft in texture. It is called mithril, and because it has excellent soul-conducting properties, it is known as Soul Guidance Mithril."

"Moreover, we have already successfully refined a sample, proving that our claim is true."

As he spoke, Chen Lin took a small piece of silver metal from his pocket and respectfully handed it to Bishop Suotuo.

Bishop Suotuo accepted the Soul Guidance Mithril with surprise in his eyes. The moment he held it, he quickly discovered the metal's extraordinary properties—his Soul Power truly could flow through it!

"Th-This is Soul Guidance Device Material!" Bishop Suotuo lightly probed it with his Mental Power and could not contain his excitement. "It's real! Exceptional Soul Guidance Device Material!"

"Hmph! I discovered it!" Chen Hong snorted and raised his head at a forty-five-degree angle toward the sky.

Chen Lin: "..."

Chuckling, Bishop Suotuo rose and walked over to Chen Hong. He smiled and rubbed the boy's head, saying gently, "All right, all right! I won't bring up your embarrassing past next time! At such a young age, why learn to be so obsessed with saving face? It's not a good habit."

Bishop Suotuo knew that the main reason Chen Hong did not live with Chen Lin in Suotuo City was that, after the City Lord's Mansion guards had publicly detained him for causing trouble at their gambling house and damaged his pride, the Chen Hong rescued by Spirit Hall had stubbornly carried his little bundle and returned to his hometown, White Cloud Village, without looking back.

"All right, tell Grandpa how you found it. Has the news leaked?"

To Chen Lin's dumbfounded astonishment, Bishop Suotuo crouched down and softly questioned Chen Hong before him.

Could being young really let someone get away with anything? That was a bishop whose status was even higher than the City Lord's! Chen Lin sincerely wanted to know what was inside Chen Hong's head. How had that boy so easily and unknowingly brought the Chen family closer to Bishop Suotuo?

"The news hasn't leaked. At first, a village uncle gave me a stone. After I instinctively smelted it, I accidentally obtained Soul Guidance Mithril. Luckily, I'm a Spirit Master and have some advantage in Mental Power, or I really wouldn't have discovered the properties of this Soul Guidance Mithril."

"But before the City Lord's Mansion can react, we still need to report this to the Spirit Hall Higher-ups and have them send people to stuff the entire ore vein into Spirit Hall's pocket."

Chen Hong explained the entire process of discovering the Soul Guidance Mithril to Bishop Suotuo in full detail. As for the Soul Engine, he said nothing about it. That was another Trump Card he held in his hand.

Moreover, the current Soul Engine was far too crude, and its results still fell short of what Chen Hong expected. It would be easy for blacksmiths from other factions to imitate it, which was something Chen Hong did not want to see for now. He needed to keep upgrading the Soul Engine until it formed a certain Technological Barrier before he would willingly share its design principles.

As an utterly ordinary and unremarkable researcher, Chen Hong did not have that kind of closed-minded mentality. He simply wanted to preserve a good reputation. After all, this world had no Patent Law, and Chen Hong was currently weak, helpless, and pitiful. If someone really used their "Sharingan" to copy his Soul Engine, then even if Chen Hong's version worked better, should they declare that they were the inventors of the Soul Engine—

Chen Hong could only get furious, and then... stay furious.

Unless the Spirit Hall Higher-ups were willing to support him, Chen Hong would not casually publicize his research results.

Especially since... there seemed to be a notorious Academic Thief in this world!

And that person had extensive connections within Spirit Hall!

Chen Hong had no choice but to stay on guard!

The little Soul Engine itself was not important. What mattered was that Chen Hong would find it utterly disgusting!

It was like painstakingly writing an exam paper, only for someone to organize it a little and casually change the name on it. Wouldn't that make you furious?