"Boss Han… are you really sure you want me to go all-out on you?"
"Yeah, Boss Han. Even though Degui's first spirit ring is only a ten-year one, he's still an assault-type spirit master. You're not even using your first spirit ring—are you sure that's okay…?"
Outside the classroom of Grade 3, Class 2 at Stan City Junior Spirit Master Academy, two boys stood awkwardly in front of a tall, fair-skinned, and sharp-featured teenager, trying to reason with him. But that handsome youth only looked more and more irritated.
After enduring their hesitation for long enough, the teen snapped.
With a flick of his hands, he smacked each of them on the forehead with a loud pop, scolding, "Can you two stop whining?! I told you to hit me, so hit me! What's with all the drama?! No wonder Er'ya and Huniu don't give you the time of day!"
That jab hit hard. Both boys flushed deep red at the mention of those girls' names. For a long moment, they couldn't get a single word out.
Seeing their embarrassed silence, the sharp-featured boy gave a sly grin and threatened,
"Alright then... Degui, either you come at me full-force right now, or I go tell Er'ya that you were following her around yesterday!"
"Ah—!"
Degui exploded with rage. A gray-furred mutt burst out from his body, its form outlined by a faint white spirit ring. As the ring flashed, the dog merged with him, his martial spirit taking form. He charged straight at the handsome teen.
The other boy was startled and tried to stop him—but it was too late. All he could do was sigh in defeat.
I can already see the future… both of us face down on the ground in five minutes.
The handsome teen only grinned with satisfaction. "Now that's more like it. I told you to hit me, not the other way around. Stop acting like a bunch of princesses!"
He pulled out a blazing red shield wrapped in flames—the Shield of Seraphim. Without even summoning a spirit ring, he simply raised the shield in front of him and stood motionless.
Enraged and humiliated, Degui had no thoughts of holding back. All he wanted was to shut that mouth.
"First Spirit Skill—Mad Dog Pounce! "
BOOM!
"ARGH! It burns—it hurts!"
Degui turned into a streak of gray and white, hurling himself at the flaming shield. A loud thud echoed across the courtyard, followed by a scream of pain.
The moment he hit the shield, the flames exploded like a volcano. They surged toward him in a blaze of heat, enveloping him in a wave of searing fire.
The handsome teen's brow furrowed. He quickly withdrew the flames and deactivated his martial spirit. Walking over, he knelt beside Degui and discreetly ran his left hand over the burn marks. A faint blue light flickered—and Degui calmed down almost instantly.
Realizing he had just struck the school's biggest figure, Degui panicked. He didn't even have time to process how the pain had suddenly vanished—he was already scrambling to apologize.
But the older boy waved him off.
"No worries. You two can go now. And relax—I won't tell Er'ya about what happened yesterday. I'm very good at keeping secrets. Like last year—I saw a senior get dragged away in broad daylight. Never said a word. By the time we found him after school... not even his mother could recognize him."
Degui didn't fully register what was being said. He was too relieved that the incident was being brushed aside. Grabbing his friend, he bolted before the older boy could change his mind.
Watching the two boys flee, the teen sighed and muttered, "Getting burned and still saying thanks... This kid's too honest."
But soon, his expression turned a little regretful. He murmured to himself:
"Sigh… still can't control Solar Flare. The spirit power leaks too much. It's fine against peers, but against anyone even one rank above me, it's basically useless..."
This teenager was Han Feng.
Two and a half years had passed since he gained his first spirit ring. In that time, he'd focused heavily on refining the quality of his spirit power, condensing it far beyond the norm. No exaggeration—his current spirit power was already comparable in quality to a Spirit Expert (Rank 30+).
This dense spirit power made the flames of his Shield of Seraphim hotter, fiercer, and more cohesive. His martial spirit itself had become sturdier and more potent.
Naturally, while compressing his spirit power, Han Feng hadn't slacked off on developing his own soul skills either.
And it had actually paid off.
Thanks to inspiration from his mother, Zhang Lingling, Han Feng had successfully developed two self-created soul skills, both support-based.
The first was called Concealment Shield. It worked by expanding the Shield of Seraphim to cover the whole body, then suppressing its aura to mask his presence. While it didn't make him invisible, it hid his spirit power signature. It wasn't hard to learn, and while it lacked flash, it was incredibly practical.
The second was Solar Flare, born from his mother's third spirit skill—Flame Ring of Retaliation.
Her Flame Ring allowed an ally to be surrounded by a fire barrier. Any attacks that entered the ring would be countered by flames.
Han Feng had thought, My martial spirit has fire too. Why not turn that into an offensive option?
He couldn't use flames actively due to the nature of his spirit, but a reactive defense? That was doable!
Like tanks in his past life's games—useless for damage, but deadly with the right gear. Equip some Thorns and Sunfire Cape, and the enemy would hurt themselves just by hitting you.
That was exactly what Solar Flare aimed to be—a soul-skill equivalent of a reflect-damage armor. It didn't look flashy, nor did it deal explosive damage, but if you touched his shield, you burned—simple as that.
From the moment he saw the Flame Ring, Han Feng had dreamed of giving his shield this "reactive armor." But Solar Flare was a hundred times harder to master than Concealment Shield.
It took him over six months just to get the basics working and more than a year to refine it further. Yet even now, it still wasn't perfect.
"Sigh… there's still a long road ahead."
Han Feng let out a theatrical sigh and turned toward the road home.
Today, Han Dang and Zhang Lingling were taking him to the Star Dou Forest to hunt for his second spirit ring.
He had broken through Rank 20 a month ago. Of the five levels he'd gained since his first ring, four came from passive growth over two and a half years. The fifth… he scraped together through some half-hearted cultivation (and even that included natural growth).
Without his golden finger, Han Feng was basically the poster child for laziness.
As for why they were heading all the way to Star Dou instead of the Soul Hunting Forest outside Stan City?
That was because Zhang Lingling had just reached Rank 40 and needed to hunt a 6,000-year-old soul beast for her fourth spirit ring. The Soul Hunting Forest simply didn't cut it.
So in truth, this trip wasn't really for Han Feng—it was for his mother. He was just tagging along.
Han Feng had overheard that Han Dang had even hired two Soul Kings—one assault-type and one control-type—to assist. Combined with Han Dang, a defensive-type Spirit Ancestor, and Zhang Lingling, a near-breakthrough support-type Spirit Ancestor, a 6,000-year beast would be no problem.
Han Dang even nearly emptied his private stash to hire those two experts.
Han Feng understood this well. For someone like him—a defense-type spirit master—wanting strong spirit rings in the future would mean asking others for help. There was no way around it.
He also knew that even if Zhang Lingling didn't break through this time, he'd have to hire help again once he reached Spirit Expert level.
A thousand-year soul beast could already rival a Spirit Expert in raw strength. Some elite soul beasts were so powerful that they could even take on high-level Spirit Experts head-on. With Han Dang's current strength, subduing such a beast without killing it was almost impossible.
"Outsiders will always be outsiders... Let's hope this trip to Star Dou doesn't go sideways."
Han Feng muttered under his breath.
The two Soul Kings Han Dang had hired were said to be trustworthy and reputable. As long as nothing unexpected happened, they wouldn't turn on them.
But unexpected could mean a lot of things—like stumbling upon a powerful 10,000-year soul beast, or worse...
Like a hunted soul beast dropping a soul bone.