"Boss Han… are you sure you want me to go all out?"
"Yeah, Han-ge. De Gui's first soul ring may only be a ten-year ring, but he's still an assault-type soul master. Are you really okay not using your first soul ring at all...?"
Outside the classroom of Class 2, Year 3, at Stan City Junior Soul Master Academy, two teenage boys looked nervously at a third youth—a fair-skinned, handsome boy. But that boy, Han Feng, looked utterly impatient and annoyed.
As their hesitant concerns dragged on, Han Feng lost his temper. He swatted both of them on the head, one left, one right.
"Could you two stop whining already? I told you to attack, so just attack! Why so much yapping? No wonder Er Ya and Hu Niu want nothing to do with you."
At the mention of those two girls, the boys turned beet red, mumbling incoherently.
Han Feng smirked, voice full of mischief.
"Well then, De Gui… either attack me with everything you've got right now… or I go tell Er Ya that you were tailing her yesterday!"
"WHAT!?"
De Gui's embarrassment instantly turned to panic and fury. With a flash of white light, a gray earth dog charged out from within him, trailing behind a white soul ring.
His martial soul attached to him with a flare, and he lunged straight for Han Feng without hesitation.
The other boy cried out in alarm, but it was too late to stop him. All he could do now was sigh in resignation—he could already picture himself and De Gui lying flat on the ground in a few minutes.
Han Feng, on the other hand, grinned in satisfaction. "Now that's more like it! I said you're hitting me, not the other way around. What's with all the drama, like you're some dainty little maiden?"
As he spoke, Han Feng casually pulled out a shield wreathed in crimson flames with his right hand. He didn't even activate a soul ring—just raised the blazing shield in front of himself without making another move.
De Gui, half out of his mind from shame and anger, didn't hold back at all. He charged forward.
"First Soul Skill: Savage Dog Pounce!"
Bang!
"Argh! So hot—ow!"
De Gui turned into a streak of gray-white light and smashed directly into the blazing shield.
A deep thud echoed, followed by a yelp of pain. The impact seemed to enrage the flames on the shield, which burst outward violently, engulfing De Gui with a wave of scorching heat.
Han Feng's brows furrowed slightly. He quickly pulled back the flames and withdrew his martial soul. He walked over and subtly ran his left hand over the burn on De Gui's arm—an icy blue flash flickered faintly. The pain disappeared, and De Gui calmed down almost instantly.
Realizing he had offended the academy's resident big shot, De Gui panicked. He didn't even have time to question why the burn suddenly stopped hurting—he just rushed to apologize.
But Han Feng waved him off.
"No big deal. You guys can go. And don't worry, I won't tell Er Ya. I'm good at keeping secrets. Just last year, I saw a senior get dragged off early in the morning. I didn't say a word. When we found him after school… even his own mom didn't recognize him."
Hearing that, De Gui was just relieved that Han Feng wasn't holding a grudge. He didn't even process the creepy second half of the story. Overjoyed, he thanked Han Feng profusely and dragged the other boy away, like he was afraid of Han Feng changing his mind.
Han Feng watched them go and chuckled. "They got burned and still thanked me… now that's an honest kid."
Then, his smile faded. He sighed and muttered to himself.
"Still can't control Sunfire properly. My soul power's too unstable. Works fine against soul masters at my level, but against someone even a stage higher… the effect drops way too much."
This young man was, of course, Han Feng.
It had been two and a half years since he obtained his first soul ring. In that time, he had focused on refining his soul power, compressing it to increase its quality. And honestly? His soul power density was already comparable to an average Soul Elder (level 30).
The benefit was clear—his Blazing Heaven Shield was now sturdier, and its flames hotter and more condensed than ever before.
But refining power wasn't all he did. Han Feng had also dedicated himself to developing self-created soul skills.
And thanks to some inspiration from his mother, Zhang Lingling, he'd made real progress.
Over the two and a half years, Han Feng had created two support-type soul skills.
The first was called "Concealing Shield."It worked by spreading the Blazing Heaven Shield across his entire body, then suppressing its presence to avoid detection. It wasn't true invisibility, but it could hide his soul power signature, making it extremely hard to track. Easy to train, highly practical.
The second was "Sunfire."This came from observing Zhang Lingling's third soul ring ability—Counterfire Ring—which created a fire barrier that retaliated against attackers.
Han Feng had a revelation: if his martial soul also had a fire attribute, why not use that to create his own offensive capability?
Though he couldn't make the flames attack proactively, he could still set up reactive burns—like tanks in video games that wear thornmail or burn auras. They couldn't dish out damage actively, but touch them, and you'd regret it.
That's what Han Feng wanted Sunfire to be—a reactive flame armor. No flashy bursts, no explosive damage. Just one rule: you touch my martial soul, you burn. Period.
Since the moment he saw Counterfire Ring, he'd been obsessed with creating this reverse-damage skill. But unlike Concealing Shield, Sunfire was far more complex. It took him over six months just to build a prototype, and more than a year after that to refine it.
Still, it wasn't quite perfect.
"Man… still a long way to go."
With a sigh of melodramatic self-pity, Han Feng turned and headed home.
That day, Han Dang and Zhang Lingling were taking him to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for his second soul ring.
He'd hit level 20 a month earlier. Of the five levels he'd gained over two and a half years, four were from passive growth, and only one from actual cultivation (some of which was natural development, not effort).
Even with the high quality of his soul power, that pace was... not impressive.
Honestly, without his golden cheat, he was a total slacker.
As for why they were going to the Star Dou Forest instead of the nearby Soul Hunting Forest, it was because Zhang Lingling had recently broken through to level 40. She needed to hunt a 6,000-year-old soul beast for her fourth ring, and the local forest just didn't cut it.
So really, the trip was for her. Han Feng's second ring? Just a convenient bonus.
He'd heard that to help Zhang Lingling get her fourth ring, Han Dang had gone all out—recruiting a power-type Soul King and a control-type Soul King, adding himself as a defense-type Soul Ancestor, and Zhang Lingling as a near-Soul Ancestor support-type. A 6,000-year soul beast? Piece of cake.
The cost? Nearly emptied Han Dang's private savings.
Han Feng understood the reality: if he wanted decent soul rings in the future, especially as a defense-type soul master, he'd need help. No way around it.
Even when he reached Soul Elder, it would be the same story. A 1,000-year soul beast could rival a Soul Elder, and stronger ones might even match high-level assault-type Soul Elders. For Han Dang, defeating one without killing it was already pushing it.
"Outsiders are still outsiders… just hope nothing unexpected happens in the Star Dou Forest."
Han Feng murmured.
The two Soul Kings Han Dang hired were reliable. As long as nothing went wrong, there was no reason to suspect foul play.
But "unexpected" could mean many things—running into a powerful ten-thousand-year beast, or even worse… finding a soul bone in the target, tempting betrayal.