"This... Na'er, if this brat bullied you, just tell us. Don't cover for him, whatever you do. I'll stand up for you!"
Zhuo Shi still found it hard to believe. After all, what he had heard was quite different from what Na'er had described.
Holy Spirit Douluo said nothing, but she studied Na'er's eyes closely. Na'er merely shook her head gently.
Holy Spirit Douluo looked at the anxious Zhuo Shi, then at Na'er shaking her head.
Finally, her gaze fell on Qing Linyun, who was leaning against the wall nearby with a melancholy expression, looking up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle. The corner of her mouth twitched.
Holy Spirit Douluo rubbed her brow helplessly.
"Come on, brat. What's going on with you?"
Qing Linyun sighed and turned his head slightly away, as though he had suffered a tremendous injustice. Looking aggrieved, he said,
"Sister Ya Li, Na'er and I were just playing around, and you two forced the door open and charged in. You even slapped me into the wall. That was going too far! I'm such an honest kid. What did I ever do to anyone?"
"Honest, my ass! If you hadn't said those suggestive things to Na'er, would I have..."
"Zhuo Shi, shut up."
Ya Li cut Zhuo Shi off with a sharp rebuke.
Though reluctant, Zhuo Shi pursed his lips and shut his mouth. Still, he kept glaring daggers at Qing Linyun, the anger in his eyes practically overflowing the screen.
"Sister Ya Li, look at my master."
"He's still glaring at me, and he was eavesdropping!"
Qing Linyun put on another aggrieved look.
Ya Li sighed helplessly and pointed a finger forward. A green glow flew from her fingertip and sank straight into Qing Linyun's brow.
A warm sensation instantly spread through his body, and Qing Linyun closed his eyes in comfort, enjoying it.
"Enough of your glib talk, brat. We all know what you're like. Come on, what were you trying to trick Na'er out of this time?"
Ya Li said irritably.
"Sister Ya Li... how can you say that about me? I'm one of Shrek Academy's model youths. Who in the whole academy doesn't know that I, Linyun, have a loyal liver and a righteous heart, that I'm honest and trustworthy, helpful and noble..."
"You have a loyal liver and a righteous heart? You're honest and trustworthy? You're helpful? You're noble? Pah! Listen to yourself. Do you believe a word of it?"
Zhuo Shi, standing nearby, couldn't hold back any longer.
He knew exactly what his disciple was like.
The brat was a complete little devil. From the day Zhuo Shi took him in, he had never known a moment's peace.
Zhuo Shi gave him plenty of spending money every time, yet the brat insisted on going out to swindle and cheat people. Who in Shrek Academy hadn't been tricked by him?
The outer court had even set up a ranking especially for him, called the This Fellow Deserves Death Ranking. Qing Linyun stood at the top, beyond anyone's reach.
Whenever outer court students, or even inner court students, mentioned the brat, every last one of them ground their teeth in hatred.
It wasn't as though he swindled them out of anything particularly valuable, just some Federation Coins and, at most, some precious metals.
But nobody liked being made a fool of by the brat all the time!
"Tell me, when have you ever let us rest easy? I give you ten million Federation Coins to spend every month. But what do you do?"
"You still go out swindling and cheating. You trick people in the outer court, con people in the inner court, and even swindle us. Are you deliberately trying to go against me, brat?"
"You're talented, all right. You reached the level of a Seven-Ring Soul Sage at fifteen. Those people in the outer court get tricked by you all day long, and they can't beat you in a fight or outwit you."
"Even in the inner court, there are only a few who dare provoke you."
"But that doesn't mean you can act even more outrageously, does it?"
Qing Linyun merely pursed his lips.
"The point is, I didn't trick anyone today."
"I was just playing around with Na'er."
"Bullshit. Haven't you tricked Na'er enough?"
Zhuo Shi stared speechlessly at Qing Linyun and shook his head helplessly. This brat was a complete slippery customer, refusing to get to the point.
"Huh? Brother Linyun tricked me before?"
"That's not right. Brother Linyun's always been very good to me. I gave him that money of my own free will."
Na'er spoke in puzzlement.
At those words, all three people present fell silent.
Qing Linyun especially. Even with the thick skin he had from swindling and cheating all day, he rubbed his head in embarrassment.
"Sigh... forget it..."
"Since it was a misunderstanding, let's leave it at that."
Zhuo Shi sighed, glared at Qing Linyun, and started to turn toward the door.
The old fellow really didn't want to stay here anymore.
"Master, don't go yet."
"You haven't given me my compensation."
Qing Linyun's calm words nearly made the old fellow stumble.
He turned his head, hardly daring to believe what he had heard.
"What did you say?"
Qing Linyun rubbed his nose and took two steps back. His gaze wandered toward Ya Li, who was standing to one side, holding Na'er without a word.
The plea for help in his eyes was obvious.
"Say that again? You want compensation from me?"
Zhuo Shi's eyes widened as he demanded an answer.
He truly hadn't expected that, after all his earnest persuasion, the brat would still dare to be so shameless. A thief never left empty-handed, was that it?
"Sigh, Zhuo Shi, don't be angry."
"This brat won't stop until he gets what he wants. Besides, we gave him something to use against us, so let him say what compensation he wants."
Ya Li's tone was gentle as she spoke. There were only a few youngsters on Sea God Island to begin with, and she had watched Qing Linyun grow up.
As a woman, Ya Li was more attentive and had always paid close attention to the two children. She also knew that this was simply what Qing Linyun was like.
Zhuo Shi wanted to say more, but a look from Ya Li dissuaded him. He silently stepped aside, lowered his head, and said nothing more.
"Linyun, I watched you and Na'er grow up. Your Uncle Yun Ming and I have no children of our own, so Na'er and you are our children."
"You're incredibly talented: a Soul Saint and a Two-Word Battle Armor Master at fifteen, and you even have the super Martial Soul Dark Demon Evil God Tiger. Your talent could be said to be the finest on the continent. Your Uncle Yun Ming often remarks that the waves behind drive on those ahead."
"Your master doesn't really mean to be harsh with you. He just hates that iron won't become steel. From a very young age, you seemed especially fond of valuable things. You liked heavenly treasures and Federation Coins alike."
"You even went out of your way to collect them."
"When you got a little older, you used your own methods to keep bringing back Federation Coins, heavenly treasures, and things like that."
"Mm... it's just that your methods were a little unusual-what your master calls swindling and cheating. Of course, what you did was more like children playing around, but it did show that you really do have a fondness for money."
"Although I, your Aunt Ya Li, don't know what you want all that money for, I respect your preferences. But you're growing up, and the excuse that it was all a joke won't work anymore. You and Na'er will surely take over Shrek Academy in the future."
"With this attitude, you won't be able to win people's respect, so I hope you can rein yourself in."
Qing Linyun kept his head slightly lowered and said nothing, making it impossible to see his eyes.
Ah, actually, I don't want to be like this either.
But what choice do I have? The things this damn system sells in the Daily Shop are too expensive. Any random item costs hundreds of millions of Federation Coins. How am I supposed to get that kind of money?
As it turned out, Qing Linyun was a transmigrator from Blue Planet. As for how he had transmigrated, it was simple: he had walked into a stroke of luck and transmigrated.
When Qing Linyun woke up again, he discovered that he had transmigrated to the Douluo Continent, arrived at Shrek Academy, and been adopted. Then he discovered that he had awakened the Daily Shop System.
The Daily Shop seemed to have learned from Valorant, refreshing only four products a day. There were things like Martial Souls, divine artifacts, Battle Armor metals, even Soul Rings, Soul Spirits, Soul Bones, and some Soul Tools.
Any of them might appear in the daily refresh.
Of course, most of the time it was still junk, like chilled Blue Silver Grass or braised rabbit heads.
Every Spring Festival, on the first day of the first lunar month, the Annual Night Market opened. Its six product slots came with discounts of up to fifty percent off, and the event lasted a month.
The goods really were excellent, but they really were expensive too. His Dark Demon Evil God Tiger Martial Soul, for instance, had appeared in the Spring Festival Night Market when he was six.
It had cost him a full three hundred million Federation Coins.
That was after a sixty-five percent discount.
Just like that, Qing Linyun had put in all the money he had saved over six years.
After all, the Daily Shop's products only lasted twenty-four hours before refreshing.
Qing Linyun had no choice but to make money quickly, in case something truly good appeared and he didn't have the money to buy it.
It had happened before. In the second year after Qing Linyun's arrival, when he hadn't saved much money yet, the divine position of the God of Space had appeared. Its price had been very "affordable" too: even after the night market discount, it had cost a full two billion Federation Coins.
"Of course, I'm not saying you can't make money. As I said, I respect your preferences, but you can't use those methods to make money anymore."
"From now on, the Sea God Pavilion will give you money instead, but you'll need to complete the tasks we assign you."
"I'll give you a task right now. As for the reward, I'm sure it'll tempt you: I'll give you one hundred million Federation Coins."