Soul Guidance Train incident?
Hearing Long Hengxu's words, the other five immediately turned their curious eyes toward Nan Fusheng—even Wu Zhangkong was no exception.
"Uh…"
The moment Long Hengxu mentioned it, Nan Fusheng's mind jumped straight to the mountain of wealth he had lost because of one careless slip. A faint expression of pain crept onto his face before he could stop it.
As for being found out as the main culprit behind most of the casualties on that train… that thought never even crossed his mind. Back when he made his move, he had been very thorough in tying up loose ends.
With Sequence One's capabilities, he had methodically erased every factor that could implicate him.
"Child, I understand your pain," Long Hengxu said gently. "But the dead are gone. You did everything you possibly could to save as many lives as possible—don't place too heavy a burden on yourself.
"Those you rescued survived because you stepped in. You're a hero."
Seeing Nan Fusheng's "pained" expression, Long Hengxu couldn't help but sigh inwardly—this kid does have such a kind heart. Even after more than ten days, he was still grieving for the passengers of the Soul Guidance Train.
Still, comfort was needed. You couldn't let a promising talent sink into self-blame. One of the main reasons he'd come here was to check the boy's mental state and see if guidance was needed.
From the looks of it, his mentality was fine. But a student who'd done such a great deed deserved a reward—otherwise, outsiders would think Eastsea Academy was stingy.
Pausing for a moment, Long Hengxu continued,
"In light of Nan Fusheng from Eastsea Academy's Year One, Class Zero, who, during the Soul Guidance Train attack over ten days ago,
bravely took action, fought and defeated an evil soul master at the Soul Elder level, and saved many passengers' lives.
The Academy hereby awards him the right to claim one millennium-grade immortal herb, or an item of equivalent value."
"What?!" The rest of Class Zero exclaimed in unison. They hadn't expected Nan Fusheng to have gone through something so intense—and a millennium herb?! Or something equally valuable?
Even the cheapest millennium herb was worth at least three million Federation coins, and the rarest could reach tens of millions. The Academy was being extremely generous.
"He defeated a Soul Elder–level evil soul master?" Wu Zhangkong murmured to himself. The value of the herb didn't impress him much—it was only truly significant for soul masters at two or three rings. For a Soul Emperor like himself, the effects would be minimal.
What did surprise him was that Nan Fusheng had managed to take down a Soul Elder. From Long Hengxu's words, it even sounded like he'd done it single-handedly. No matter what method he'd used, killing someone of that level was no small feat.
The others had caught Wu Zhangkong's muttering, and their shock deepened. Xie Xie couldn't hold back a loud, "Damn, that's awesome!"
"I just got lucky that time," Nan Fusheng said with an embarrassed scratch to the head. "You guys know my soul skill—it's easy to pull off a 'first sight kill' if the target doesn't know about it. I just exploited that evil soul master's arrogance."
The part about the Academy's reward was what he cared about most. See? Being a good guy does pay off.
As for how the Academy had found out? Well, considering that government personnel had gone missing in the incident, the Federation was suppressing the news. That much was clear from the fact that the attack hadn't even appeared in national broadcasts.
It must've been the Sun Moon City garrison, he guessed. I'd already firmly refused their silly idea of giving me a little red flag for my deed, but the matter was big enough that they'd still have reported it to the Academy.
Nan Fusheng decided the garrison troops were good people after all, and magnanimously forgave them for likely pocketing part of his spoils.
"Even so, it's still proof of your ability," Wu Zhangkong said with a rare smile. "Well done."
"Yeah, yeah! Who knew you were hiding this deep?" Xie Xie said theatrically, the others nodding in agreement.
"It's just a shame I couldn't save more people," Nan Fusheng said gravely, letting a single "crocodile tear" slide down his cheek. His face took on a look of great compassion as he spoke in a heavy tone.
"This wasn't your fault," Wu Zhangkong said solemnly. "You did all you could. If you truly feel guilty, then use it to drive yourself—grow stronger, so next time you can save even more lives."
"Yeah! You already did way better than I could have," Xie Xie added.
Only for Gu Yue to undercut him: "True. If it were you, you'd probably be cowering in a corner."
"Who are you calling a coward?" Xie Xie fumed. First, she'd sabotaged him; now she was openly insulting him.
This was the classic case of: when I'm your teammate, I'm all obedience; when I'm your enemy, I hit you with everything I've got.
And Gu Yue was even worse—ever since they'd met, she'd been a constant source of disaster for him, beating him in every verbal spar and crushing him in every fight. Now she wasn't even pretending to be polite.
"Who do you think I mean?" she said with a sidelong glance.
"Haha, yeah, who indeed?" Xie Xie forced a laugh, deciding it wasn't worth it to fight with a girl.
Their bickering lightened the mood again.
Nan Fusheng took the opportunity to turn back to Long Hengxu.
"Director Long, may I discuss with the Academy exchanging the reward for its equivalent in Federation coins instead?"
Long Hengxu frowned. "Are you sure? You should know millennium herbs are extremely rare—it's not a good deal to trade one for cash."
That was his honest opinion. The reward hadn't specified which herb, which meant there was room for Nan Fusheng to potentially pick something truly precious. Such herbs were not only expensive but sometimes impossible to find on the market.
He'd even brought the Academy's internal catalog for Nan Fusheng to choose from—yet this kid wanted cash instead.
I'm sure. I choose Federation coins, Nan Fusheng said with firm conviction.