Long Hengxu

Just as the silence became as deathly as a graveyard, and the air itself seemed to have frozen into something suffocating—

"WHAT! IS! GOING! ON?!"

A deep, authoritative roar, filled with shock and fury, exploded from the end of the corridor like thunder striking level ground!

Accompanied by heavy, hurried footsteps, a burly middle-aged man in an Eastsea Academy teacher's uniform, his face livid—

Like an enraged lion, he charged aggressively toward the shattered doorway of Dorm 205 with several dorm supervisors whose expressions were equally grim!

His gaze swept across the scene in an instant:

The broken doorframe, the snapped corridor railing, Zhou Changxi below on the grass clutching his chest and groaning in agony, and Yun Xiao and Xie Xie collapsed inside the dorm, trembling like sieves...

Finally, his blazing eyes locked onto the boy standing in the middle of the room with his back to the door, slowly turning around.

Their eyes met.

When Long Hengxu's furious gaze met Hei Lin's cold eyes—calm as a ten-thousand-year frozen pool, yet so deep they seemed capable of swallowing all light—his heart involuntarily skipped a beat, and an indescribable chill quietly crawled up his spine.

Ten minutes later.

Eastsea Academy's Intermediate Division Academic Affairs Office.

The atmosphere was as heavy as lead.

Long Hengxu, the director of academic affairs, sat behind a broad desk with a face so dark it seemed ready to drip water. His fingers hammered against the desktop, producing dull thudding sounds.

His sharp, blade-like gaze moved back and forth between the three students standing side by side—Hei Lin, Xie Xie, whose face was still deathly pale and who had yet to recover from the shock, and Zhou Changxi, who had just been carried in, bruised and swollen, with two broken ribs and a constant stream of groans.

Yun Xiao, as a witness, had also been summoned. He huddled in a corner, not daring to breathe too loudly.

"WHO! CAN! GIVE! ME! AN! EXPLANATION?!"

Long Hengxu's voice was like a suppressed volcano, every word carrying immense anger and unquestionable authority.

"The first day of school!"

"The dorm door was smashed!"

"The railing was broken!"

"Students fighting!"

"Are you trying to turn the whole academy upside down?!"

His gaze finally nailed itself onto Bai Lin. Looking at the boy's clean, innocent face, one that even carried a hint of shy determination, an utterly absurd moment of dazed disbelief flashed through Long Hengxu's anger—

Was the figure from earlier, who had chilled his spine even from a distance and radiated aggression like an Abyssal beast, really this harmless-looking child before him?

The contrast was far too great, wasn't it?

Bai Lin met Long Hengxu's scrutinizing gaze and sighed helplessly inwardly.

That guy Hei Lin had really been ruthless, but his motive...

Had indeed been to protect him.

He steadied himself. His voice was clear and calm, carrying the particular composure of a young man who had seen the ways of the world.

"Director Long, I'm sorry."

"This matter..."

"I acted impulsively."

He lowered his head slightly, revealing just the right trace of remorse, though his tone remained steady.

"I had just entered the dorm when this student, Zhou Changxi, ordered me to clean it. His attitude..."

"Was rather forceful."

He paused, as though choosing his words carefully. His voice took on an almost imperceptible heaviness.

"Perhaps..."

"I was too sensitive."

"Because when I awakened my martial soul, it was Blue Silver Grass..."

"At my former academy, I heard too many mocking and contemptuous remarks..."

Bai Lin raised his head. His clear brown eyes were filled with sincerity, even carrying a trace of carefully restrained grievance.

"So when I heard that commanding tone just now, I lost control of my emotions for a moment..."

"And... punched him."

"I didn't expect him..."

"To crash through the door and fall down."

He had skillfully softened "retaliating" into "losing control of his emotions and throwing a punch," while placing the root cause on the discrimination he had suffered in the past because of his useless martial soul.

As for those fellows from Red Mountain Academy who had been scared witless by a single look from Hei Lin, and the classmates who had obediently behaved themselves for three whole years afterward, he naturally chose to forget them.

Long Hengxu opened his mouth, but the fury filling his chest deflated by more than half like a punctured balloon.

He looked at Bai Lin's face, so full of "innocence" and "grievance."

He listened to that perfectly reasonable explanation, especially the words "Blue Silver Grass" and "mockery and contempt," which pierced the reality Long Hengxu understood all too well deep within his heart like a precise needlepoint.

Yes, Blue Silver Grass...

In the world of Soul Masters, weakness itself was the original sin.

As the academic affairs director of Eastsea Academy's Intermediate Division, he had seen far too many cases of students with powerful martial souls and high Innate Soul Power bullying those with weaker martial souls without restraint.

Most of those bullied children could only swallow their anger. Those like Bai Lin, who dared to directly "strike back," were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.

Could he really point at Bai Lin's nose and scold him for being wrong to hit someone just because he had been ordered around a few times?

Wouldn't that be indirectly encouraging students to become punching bags?

Besides...

This "punching bag" before him was the extraordinary genius the academy had gone to great lengths to recruit, one who had shattered common sense!

A nine-year-old Soul Grandmaster!

His future potential was limitless!

The fury in Long Hengxu's chest ultimately turned into a long sigh filled with complicated emotions.

He stopped looking at Bai Lin. For some reason, that gaze made him feel a little guilty.

He suddenly turned toward the groaning Zhou Changxi, his face darkening again, his voice as icy as winter frost.

"Zhou Changxi!"

"You've really got nerve!"

"On the first day of school, you're already throwing your weight around and ordering a new student to clean the dorm?"

"Who do you think you are?"

"Eastsea Academy isn't the heated kang in your home!"

He pointed at Zhou Changxi's nose, his spittle nearly spraying across his face.

"If I catch you using your strength to bully fellow students again, don't wait for expulsion—I'll personally throw you out the academy gates!"

"Did you hear me?!"

Zhou Changxi shrank his neck under the scolding, his face burning hot. Even the pain from his broken bones seemed to intensify.

He opened his mouth to argue, but when he saw Long Hengxu's dark expression, as though he might erupt at any moment, he ultimately swallowed his words. He could only nod resentfully and reply in a muffled voice,

"I... I heard you."

Long Hengxu's gaze shifted to Xie Xie, whose face remained pale. His tone eased slightly, though it was still stern.

"Xie Xie, you are a child of the Xie Family. You have a good background and good talent."

"But that is not capital for you to look down on everyone and speak so harshly!"

"Move?"

"Don't block the way?"

"Is that the attitude students should have toward one another?"

"Eastsea Academy teaches you soul skills, but it must also teach you how to conduct yourself!"

"This habit of yours must change!"

How could Xie Xie still possess even a trace of his previous arrogance?

Hei Lin's almost tangible deathly stare and terrifying pressure had already crushed his pride to pieces.