"Tomorrow, I'll send someone to arrange your class assignment and teach you the academy's rules while they're at it. In short, as long as you don't cause me trouble, you can do whatever you want. Whether you attend classes is up to you."
As the saying went, prejudice in people's hearts was a mountain.
Clearly, Jing Hongchen felt that Xu Tianyuan hadn't come to the academy to study. Most likely, this spoiled young master had simply taken a sudden fancy to finding somewhere new to keep fooling around.
Xu Tianyuan was the sixth prince. Even if Jing Hongchen was displeased, he would still show him some consideration rather than deliberately target him.
But a cold shoulder was unavoidable.
"Oh."
Xu Tianyuan held the key, his heart blooming with joy.
Yet his face still wore a dazed, muddleheaded expression.
He let his shoulders droop and dragged his feet as he slowly left the office.
When he went out, he even deliberately left the door open.
"This brat..."
Jing Hongchen quietly watched him leave. For some reason, he kept feeling that something was off.
The way he walked, the way he hunched his neck-there was something incongruous about all of it.
Still, he didn't dwell on it. He casually used his soul power to shut the door again and went back to burying himself in his blueprints.
Xu Tianyuan walked out of the office building.
When the night breeze blew over him, the tightness of the dried blood on his body made him give his shoulders a shake.
He looked up at the moon in the sky and felt his spirits lift.
At last, he no longer had to live in fear.
From now on, he would stay at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy and bask in the sun to build his strength.
He could eat whenever he wanted, play whenever he wanted, and sleep whenever he wanted. Life couldn't get much sweeter.
As for Xu Tianran, he would let that dear elder brother of his live a little longer.
After all, no matter what happened, one of them would have to die.
And it definitely wouldn't be him.
"Come to think of it, the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament should be starting soon."
Xu Tianyuan glanced down at the house number on his key and followed the signs along the road, searching for his future home.
As he walked, he gradually sorted out the current timeline in his mind.
A few days earlier, in the imperial palace, Xu Tianyuan had heard that the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament was about to begin-the same tournament where Huo Yuhao encountered the Death Messenger and nearly had his whole team wiped out.
According to the original novel, Huo Yuhao should have been twelve at this point.
With that established, the exact timeline fell into place as well.
"Hmm, I'd better avoid contact with Huo Yuhao as much as possible."
Xu Tianyuan muttered to himself.
After all, Huo Yuhao was someone God King Tang was watching.
He didn't want Tang San setting his sights on him too.
Tang San could stick to training Huo Yuhao like a dog. He absolutely mustn't try training him.
Whatever else he might be, Tang San was still a God King with dual godhood. Even with the Sin of Pride template bound to him, Xu Tianyuan couldn't oppose him yet.
Better to play it safe.
Xu Tianyuan quietly worked out his plans.
Before long, he reached a villa district.
Checking the house numbers, Xu Tianyuan soon found his future residence.
The surroundings in the upscale villa district were indeed lovely. The landscaping resembled a garden, and there was enough distance between each villa to ensure privacy.
There was even a dedicated soul tool defensive array at the entrance. Security was as tight as could be.
Just as he was about to go inside, take a bath, and rest, a trembling cry suddenly came from behind him.
"You... who are you!"
The voice was clear and bright. It belonged to a girl.
Having spent years frequenting brothels, Xu Tianyuan needed only a moment to recognize that the speaker was female.
He slowly turned around and saw two rather pretty girls standing beneath a streetlamp, their hands covering their mouths and their eyes full of fear.
One had smooth, long orange hair, fair, dewy skin, a pair of exceptionally lively eyes, and a slender figure. There was a somewhat languid air about her.
The other was more petite, with short green hair and a fair, clean face. She was quite cute.
"Uh, don't get so worked up."
Xu Tianyuan glanced at the blood on his clothes. Realizing they had mistaken him for a villain, he explained.
"I'm new here. I live in 007. Here's the key."
As he spoke, he held up the key for the two girls to see.
The key gleamed in the moonlight, the engraved "007" clearly visible.
"This..."
The orange-haired girl suppressed her fear and widened her eyes to take a look.
She then confirmed that it really was a villa key.
These keys were issued by the academy's senior staff. Ordinary people couldn't get their hands on one, so it essentially verified Xu Tianyuan's identity.
People living in the villa district were either the academy's gifted students or people with connections.
The orange-haired girl felt Xu Tianyuan was most likely the latter.
As far as she remembered, there wasn't anyone like him at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.
That meant he could only have entered midway through his connections.
"So it was a misunderstanding. Sorry."
The orange-haired girl hadn't entirely lowered her guard. Staring at the blood on Xu Tianyuan's clothes, she frowned and asked.
"But how did you end up like that?"
Naturally, Xu Tianyuan couldn't tell her the truth, so he made something up on the spot.
"I slaughtered three pigs a little while ago."
He spouted nonsense with a perfectly straight face, without blushing or missing a beat.
"The blood splashed all over me while I was slaughtering them, and I didn't have time to change. Slaughtering pigs takes skill, but there's plenty you can't predict, too. The blood sprays around like it costs nothing."
The excuse was absurd, but standing at the entrance to the villa district in the middle of the night covered in blood would sound suspicious no matter how he explained it.
Still, with the key as proof, at least his identity wasn't an issue.
He didn't pursue the subject. His gaze swept over the orange-haired and green-haired girls' faces, and a vague guess at their identities prompted him to introduce himself.
"My name is Xu Tianyuan, the sixth prince of the Sun Moon Empire."
"And you?"
At the name Xu Tianyuan, both girls' expressions changed in unison.
Clearly, they had both heard of his disgraceful reputation.
They instinctively took a step back, their eyes showing greater wariness and distaste.
"I'm Ju Zi, and she's Ke Ke."
"We have something to do, so we'll be leaving."
After throwing out those words, the orange-haired girl immediately pulled the green-haired girl away.
It was as though staying even one second longer might bring disaster down on them.
"So it really was Ju Zi..."
Xu Tianyuan shrugged.
He turned, unlocked the door, and entered the villa.
The villa had everything he could need, all of it top of the line.
The living room was spacious, the bedroom comfortable, and there were separate cultivation and bathing rooms.
Although it couldn't compare to the imperial palace, it had the advantage of being safe.
From now on, this would be the starting point of his revenge.
Xu Tianyuan made up his mind.
The moment the sun rose tomorrow, he would go straight into the courtyard and lie down.
He wouldn't waste even a sliver of time.
Not until the sun went down.
Aside from using the toilet, which really wasn't suitable for the courtyard, everything else had to be done in the sunlight.
After all, the Sunshine talent could only increase his soul power if he basked in the sun every day.
Time was strength, and strength was life.
He was only level 29 right now, still a hundred and eight thousand miles from becoming a Soul King.
He couldn't afford to waste a single minute or second of cultivation time.
Before you continue