Gu Yue Cursed Lin Yan Out After He Threw Her into the Small World: "Yan, You Actually Imprisoned Your Mom!"

Spirit Pagoda lobby.

Lin Yan stood on the steps outside the entrance, pulled Gu Yue out of his arms, and casually tossed her into the small world.

A flash of silvery-white light passed by.

The chubby silver dragon vanished into thin air, as cleanly and neatly as if she had been flushed down a toilet.

"You—!"

Gu Yue's mental power instantly exploded.

Inside the small world, she lashed her tail furiously in rage.

"Yan! You've changed! You actually imprisoned your mom? I don't remember raising you like this!"

She lay pressed against the edge of the world's membrane, her two front claws gripping the transparent barrier tightly, her purple pupils filled with grief and indignation.

She had finally gotten a chance to go out and had been looking forward to wandering around and seeing what cities looked like in this era.

Yet this bastard had locked her up without a word.

This was simply bullying a dragon beyond all reason!

Lin Yan expressionlessly severed most of their mental connection.

Standing outside the Spirit Pagoda, he took a deep breath and patted down his faded school uniform.

It was still stained with mud from digging up mushrooms yesterday.

No matter how he brushed at it, it would not come off. Scraping at it with his fingernails only smeared the mud stains more evenly.

He sighed and gave up.

Two days ago, he really had considered letting the foolish dragon go.

Perhaps it had been guilt.

Perhaps it had been the bit of conscience that life had not yet completely ground away.

He had actually considered—letting her be free.

Instead of having her follow him around, eating instant noodles and digging mushrooms.

But thinking back on it now, Lin Yan only wanted to slap his two-days-ago self hard across the face.

Let her go?

Let a dragon capable of granting an unlimited number of divine soul rings go?

A ten-year soul ring alone was worth seventy thousand Federation credits.

Once she recovered more of her divine power in the future, how much would hundred-year and thousand-year soul rings be worth?

Would he be throwing away a dragon?

He would be throwing away a mountain of gold.

Lin Yan shook his head, a trace of relief appearing on his face.

Good thing.

Good thing those useless feelings had not defeated reason in the end.

"I wonder if this world has a black market..."

He muttered under his breath as he pushed open the Spirit Pagoda's glass doors. "If soul rings can be sold in batches, fifty thousand each, once a month, we'll be rich."

"What are you thinking about?"

Gu Yue's voice came through their mental connection, carrying a trace of inescapable wariness.

This beast.

Even if he had become more handsome, that air of a black-hearted capitalist in his bones had not changed one bit.

She had dug so many mushrooms these past two days that she was about to throw up. All four claws had been soaked in mud, and dirt was packed into the gaps between her scales.

The dignified Silver Dragon King had been turned into a living excavator.

What crazy idea was he plotting now?

"Thinking about you."

"...You think I'd believe that?"

Gu Yue rolled her eyes in the small world.

"I'm warning you, don't sell me."

She had seen through this bastard completely by now.

Earlier, he had said something about "giving you a good life."

Bullshit.

He was simply too poor to keep the pot boiling and wanted to sell her for money.

Whatever little bit of gratitude she had felt had long since gone to the dogs.

Lin Yan ignored her accusations and walked straight into the lobby.

The Spirit Pagoda's lobby was as deserted as ever.

The polished marble floor reflected the crystal chandelier hanging from the dome.

A few people handling business stood in line before the service windows, quietly discussing something among themselves.

The air conditioning was turned up high, making it feel like a different world from the muggy streets outside.

He crossed the lobby, went up to the third floor, and arrived at that familiar loan window.

Su Hai Tao was slumped over his desk, dozing off.

His head bobbed up and down, with a suspicious glimmer of drool at the corner of his mouth.

A file folder lay open on the desk, and a ballpoint pen had rolled to its edge.

Clearly, as usual, nothing had happened that afternoon.

Hearing footsteps, Su Hai Tao groggily raised his head and rubbed his eyes.

Then his expression instantly became as though he had seen a ghost.

"Why are you back again, kid?"

He looked Lin Yan over from head to toe, his mouth slightly open as all drowsiness vanished in an instant.

The facial features were still the same, and the school uniform was still that same shabby uniform.

But the whole person looked completely different.

His skin was unbelievably pale, and the contours of his brows and eyes were more refined than before by far.

Standing there, he looked like someone who had stepped out of a classical oil painting.

But handsome as he was—the uniform was still stained with mud, his hair was a mess, the cuffs were unraveling, and the hems of his pants were frayed.

Anyone who did not know better would think some destitute noble had fallen into the streets and become a beggar.

Su Hai Tao sighed inwardly.

He had already heard about it.

Lin Yan's mother had run off after racking up a mountain of debt, even mortgaging the house.

The boy was all alone. Rumor had it that he had developed mental problems and went out to the suburbs every day to dig up poisonous mushrooms and eat dirt.

The news of him being hospitalized for mushroom poisoning last time was still in the papers, yet he had gone right back out again.

The fact that he was still standing alive in front of him was already something to thank the heavens for.

"Lin Yan..."

Su Hai Tao's voice softened for once as he leaned out from behind the counter. "Have you been doing alright lately? Was that two hundred enough last time? Uncle still has—"

Before he could finish.

Lin Yan vanished from where he stood.

Su Hai Tao's pupils contracted sharply.

The next second, Lin Yan appeared in the waiting area three meters behind him.

His body seemed to have condensed out of thin air.

There was no sound, no visual effect. He had simply changed locations without a trace.

"You—"

Su Hai Tao sprang to his feet, sending his chair crashing into the filing cabinet behind him with a loud bang.

The file folder slid off the desk, scattering papers all over the floor, but he had no mind to pick them up.

Lin Yan turned around and looked at him calmly.

A silvery-white soul ring slowly rose beneath his feet.

"This proves that I have a god-tier spatial martial soul, right?"

Lin Yan's voice remained calm. "Can I get the loan now?"

Su Hai Tao opened his mouth, but no words came out for a long while.

It was not as if he had never seen spatial soul skills before.

There were several stewards in the Spirit Pagoda who possessed spatial abilities.

But they were all high-level soul masters, with soul rings that started at the thousand-year or ten-thousand-year level.

Which one of them had not spent a fortune on high-level soul rings?

Yet a ten-year soul ring—a ten-year one!—actually came with spatial teleportation?

"Where did you find a ten-year soul beast?"

Su Hai Tao rushed around the counter and reached Lin Yan in a few quick strides. He grabbed Lin Yan by the shoulders, his fingers unconsciously tightening. "Within three hundred kilometers of Eastsea City, wild soul beasts have long gone extinct! You can't find so much as a hair from a ten-year soul beast! Where did you get it?"

Lin Yan's expression did not change. He did not even blink. "Got lucky."

Su Hai Tao stared at him for a full five seconds.

Emotions churned in those clouded eyes.

Shock, doubt, concern—then all of it sank away, turning into complicated silence.

He stopped asking.

He would just assume Lin Yan's mother, who had run away, had suddenly found her conscience before leaving and secretly given him money to buy a soul spirit.

After all, where else could one get a soul ring these days?

Other than the Spirit Pagoda, there was only the black market.

But black-market prices were something Lin Yan could never afford. Had he sold a kidney or something?

"Come with me."

He grabbed Lin Yan by the arm and turned toward the testing room.