"It's not expensive, just one hundred gold soul coins," Flender said calmly, eyes half-open.
With that, he withdrew his gaze and lay back down, eyes closed.
That's outrageous, seriously shady. Yang Yunhai shook his head, turned around, and said, "Zhuqing, let's go."
However, this time, Zhu Zhuqing didn't respond with her usual nod and "mm." Instead, she glanced at the crystal and softly said, "If you really want it, I can lend you the money for now. Just treat it as a loan from me."
Yang Yunhai, who had planned to bargain more, thought for a moment and nodded slightly. "Alright, thanks."
Zhu Zhuqing gave a small nod and stepped up to Flender. She tucked her hair behind her ear and took out a pouch of gold soul coins, handing it over.
"Boss, here," Before she could finish, Flender's calm voice cut in.
"Sorry, that's not enough."
"What?" Zhu Zhuqing looked confused, weighed the pouch again, and said, "Boss, there's no mistake. This is exactly 100 gold soul coins, not one less."
"But my crystal now costs 200 gold soul coins," Flender said, still with his eyes closed and tone unchanged.
"Hiking the price on the spot? What a scammer!" The words flashed through Zhu Zhuqing's mind as her brows furrowed.
Hah, trying to scam me? I might not be great at flirting, but I know a thing or two about business. Who isn't a bit of a scammer these days... Yang Yunhai kept a straight face and called out, "Zhuqing, if the boss doesn't want to sell, then forget it."
Zhu Zhuqing didn't hesitate. She immediately put the pouch away and turned to walk back toward Yang Yunhai.
Though they hadn't known each other long, she could tell from his tone,Yang Yunhai was angry.
"Let's go." When she reached him, Yang Yunhai smiled faintly and said, seemingly out of nowhere:
"Zhuqing, I was planning to take you to see that so-called 'monsters-only' Shrek Academy in the south of Soto City, but now I think we'd better skip it."
"Ugh, I didn't understand before, but now I realize,you only know how little money you have when you actually need it."
"I heard that Shrek Academy is dirt poor. We'll have to pay registration fees, tuition, and even cover our own living expenses. I've just had a breakthrough and barely have any savings left,can't even afford hair and skincare, let alone extra costs."
"So, I think it's better if we head to Heaven Dou City and find a proper advanced soul master academy. I've heard that some of them even offer free meals, and top students get free lodging too. Sounds like a good deal."
"If that works out, we'll save a lot of money."
"Since we've come all this way and don't know when we'll return, we need to be smart with our spending."
Could that guy be from Shrek Academy? Hearing Yang Yunhai's random remarks and his sudden mention of Shrek Academy, Zhu Zhuqing couldn't help but suspect something. Without even glancing at Flender, she simply nodded coolly and said, "Alright."
Then she turned and followed Yang Yunhai out.
Crap, I screwed up! These two little monsters actually came to Soto City specifically to enroll in my Shrek Academy?! On the other side, Flender felt his heart tighten unexpectedly.
He had just wanted to fleece a couple of naive youngsters, not realizing he'd almost scared away potential recruits for his own school.
From their skin and appearance, Flender had already judged their general age. As a Soul Saint with the Owlcat martial soul, his vision was superb. One glance at their skin and he could tell they were about the same age as his own student, Ma Hongjun.
And thanks to the echo-sensing ability of his martial soul, he could roughly gauge soul power fluctuations from the resonance of their voices and physical aura,his specialty.
Unless the person had terrifying control and could completely suppress their soul power, Flender's sensing was highly accurate.
That skill alone had allowed him to survive many dangerous journeys across the continent in his youth.
But that wasn't the main point now.
The main point was,these two kids. The girl's soul power was definitely over level 25, not much worse than Ma Hongjun's. As for the boy? Ridiculous. He was already at level 30.
Absolute monsters.
Who knew which powerful clan they might have run away from.
If they were just passing through Soto City, then fine,he could fleece them and move on. But if they came here _for_ Shrek Academy, then there was no way he could let them slip away.
Seriously? One of them has two storage soul tools on his ear, and they dress so plainly,trying to play poor? Couldn't they bring more money when running away from home? Getting stingy over 200 gold soul coins... who would've guessed?
Thinking this, he quickly cleared his throat and, pretending to be annoyed, said with a sigh, "Fine, fine. 100 gold soul coins it is. Pay up and take it."
Zhu Zhuqing, who had already reached the door with Yang Yunhai, stopped immediately. She looked up at him, then jogged back.
She took out another pouch from her soul guide device and placed it next to Flender, then quickly walked over to the crystal, took it, and stored it away.
Click click click,she soon returned to Yang Yunhai's side and said quietly, "I'll keep it for now."
"Thanks." Yang Yunhai nodded slightly.
Zhu Zhuqing gave a slight nod and said nothing.
"Let's go." Yang Yunhai turned around, walking toward the exit. As he moved, he looked up at the darkening sky and added, "It's almost night. Let's find a hotel to stay the night. I'll get some rest and head out tomorrow."
Zhu Zhuqing clenched her fists subconsciously but followed in silence.
"You too. It's fine if we go to Shrek Academy tomorrow instead." Yang Yunhai continued, "By the way, that shop owner just now was Flender, the headmaster of Shrek Academy. And if I'm right, he already figured out our soul power levels."
He didn't know how exactly, but in the original story, Flender had seen through Tang San's power at a glance. So Yang Yunhai guessed that Flender must have sensed theirs just now too.
That shady merchant from earlier was actually the headmaster of Shrek Academy? Zhu Zhuqing's steps froze for a moment. She bit her lip slightly.
So... Yang Yunhai brought me there on purpose, to let me see what kind of person Flender really is?
After all, that crystal didn't seem worth 100 gold soul coins, no matter how you looked at it.
Also, Flender suddenly backing down and returning to the original price wasn't because he was worried it wouldn't sell, or because he grew a conscience.
It was because he saw our soul power levels and realized we far exceeded the school's recruitment standard.
So Yang Yunhai said all those "random" things earlier just to drop hints to Flender.
He was hinting that they _were_ going to enroll in Shrek Academy, but now were reconsidering because of the academy's poor conditions and their limited funds.
In other words, Flender got scared that they'd actually leave and not enroll, which is why he changed his mind?
All of a sudden, many thoughts filled Zhu Zhuqing's mind.
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