After Wu Zhangkong left the house and headed toward the academy exit, he thought for a moment about the little guest in his house.
‘A martial soul that guides its owner from who knows how far to a person it doesn’t even know, in another city.
What kind of strange soul and abilities are these?
But at least he was honest about everything he said.
Still, he doesn’t seem like a child when he talks with that calmness and coldness and smokes from a pipe.
The clothes—he must have gotten them during his journey to me.
I’ve never seen eyes that dead before.
What’s his real story, I wonder?
The only emotions that showed in the conversation were when I asked about his family.
He even said he wouldn’t answer because he didn’t trust me yet.
That level of honesty isn’t normal for a child.
If he were an ordinary child, he’d probably run away or lie…’ Wu Zhangkong walked while slowly analyzing the previous conversation from beginning to end, and discovered that Mu Ji Wu had been truthful about everything he asked.
He’d even mentioned the ability of his soul ring with complete calmness.
But he hadn’t said anything about his background except the name of a city and a dead family.
After finishing his analysis of what happened, Wu Zhangkong’s focus returned to the road ahead.
With a thought, he activated the soul power in his body and began moving quickly.
At the same time, his figure became a faint, transparent shadow as he moved fast until he reached a bus station.
After fifteen minutes, the bus arrived on schedule.
He boarded, paid the fare, and sat in the nearest seat.
He felt enthusiastic gazes sweeping over him slowly from behind and beside him, something he was used to because of his handsome face.
Indeed, all the gazes were from women.
After half an hour of travel, the bus reached a water district of the city, but remote in terms of buildings and population density.
After getting off, Wu Zhangkong headed to a place marked by a sign: “East Sea Soul Guidance Technology Complex.” After entering, he went toward a wide garden.
After walking through it for a while, he faced a nameless building with blue walls like glass that gleamed under the evening sun.
He placed his hand on the door, and after a light scan, a semi-mechanical voice with a hint of amusement was heard: “So it’s little Zhangkong from the East Sea.
You’re a little late as usual.” “Just open the door,” Wu Zhangkong said, already used to this and ignoring it coldly.
“Boring,” the same voice replied, but then the door opened.
After he entered, the door closed behind him immediately.
Inside, he saw the same blue walls with a white concrete floor and soft white light.
He walked quietly down the corridor before passing another blue door, entering another tunnel.
After a few more turns, he entered a transparent door, and the scene around him disappeared as he was spatially transferred to another place.
The new place he was transferred to was a dark blue space.
The ceiling and floor were made of dark blue crystals, while the walls were made of silvery white metal.
Light refracted, creating an extraordinary effect.
Unsurprised or uncomfortable from the sudden transfer, he went toward a certain wall where a scanner opened, revealing a screen and keyboard.
After activating the screen, he typed in the search records: Leaf Fire City.
A satellite image of the city from above appeared with information.
“A third-tier city with no particular features or benefits.
It has one small branch of the sect.
The same goes for the other guilds and the Spirit Pagoda.
No outstanding academy is known there.
Any soul master reaching the third or fourth ring with talent leaves due to lack of opportunity there, or joins the city guards and security forces to develop.” ‘So the city is real,’ Wu Zhangkong thought as he continued searching for it and found nothing strange or special about it.
He searched for the Mu family from Mu Ji Wu’s name and indeed found nothing about a family with that name, which confirmed that the name was self-created.
But what drove him to get this strange name?
‘Personal details,’ he recalled the answer from the child a while ago.
After some thought, he submitted a report to the AI that had welcomed him at the entrance.
“Purple-rank worker Wu Zhangkong has found a vagrant who possesses a rare body-type martial soul: his eyes.
The child has no official legal identity, according to his words.
I request legal registration for him from the sect.
I also request a recommendation for admission to East Sea Elementary School so he can be accepted as a student in East Sea Academy Elementary School, so I can supervise him.
The child’s full name is Mu Ji Wu, nine years old.” After some thought, Wu Zhangkong decided to submit news that was mostly true except for Mu Ji Wu already possessing a soul ring and that he had searched for him specifically because of it.
Indeed, Mu Ji Wu was a vagrant and hadn’t lied about that.
But since the child had come from far away and trusted him enough to tell him almost everything, he didn’t expose him completely.
Another thing: on the way, after analyzing the matter, he found that it matched Mu Ji Wu’s requests for help—a strong person with the ability to make his status legal in the government through his sect, a teacher who could guide him.
Those eyes hadn’t guided him wrong, so he wanted to supervise him himself and watch him instead of exposing everything.
Then he submitted his monthly report with the mission he had completed this month during the school break.
As for the response to his request, it would arrive in a few more days after review by a higher rank.
….
Returning to Mu Ji Wu, he was reading a book he found on a table titled _First Year Curriculum_.
And coincidentally, it seemed Teacher Wu was the homeroom teacher of first grade and he would be in his class after entering school.
He seemed about nine in body, and children entered first year at age nine, so it was logical for him to do the same.
While reading, he didn’t understand some things, then remembered the soul master training course from age six to nine that every child who awakened went through.
He, of course, had never gone through it and decided to ask Wu Zhangkong after his return.
He stood up and opened the window so the smoke would exit and not leave the house foggy, which might bother the owner.
Then he returned to sit on the sofa and filled his pipe professionally.
Suddenly he heard a knock on the door, so he immediately decided to ignore it since he wasn’t the owner of the house.
After ten seconds, the door was knocked again with the sound of a woman shouting: “Wu Zhangkong, I know you’re inside.
Open the door.
I just saw you open a window!” Her voice and the constant knocking annoyed Mu Ji Wu, who by nature loved quiet.
He stood up with the pipe in his hand to open the door.
After opening the door, a woman appeared in his sight who looked to be in her late twenties with a beautiful but arrogant face.
She also had a beautiful figure.
He noticed the woman was looking straight ahead in shock and hadn’t found anyone after the door opened, meaning she hadn’t noticed him.
He raised the pipe a little, then slapped her thigh with it and said, “I’m down here.” The woman was stunned by the sudden hit with the voice.
She looked down at a handsome child holding a pipe and looking at her with dead eyes.
“Who are you?” the woman asked with some anger from the fear she’d just felt, and at the same time from embarrassment that a child had scared her.
“Isn’t it polite to introduce yourself before asking others about their identity?” Mu Ji Wu replied calmly while blowing a cloud from his mouth with no reaction at all.
He didn’t even look at her anymore and began watching the clouds in the sky.
“Hmph, I’m a teacher at this school and my name is Ye Yingluo.
Where is Wu Zhangkong, and who are you?
Are you his son?!” Ye Yingluo replied before asking the last question with a sharp scream.
“Why are you screaming, child?
First, Wu Zhangkong left a while ago.
I don’t know where.
As for me, I’m his guest for some time and I’m not his son.” Mu Ji Wu, who was used to quietness throughout the month of travel and during his talk with Teacher Wu, felt some headache from this crazy woman.
“Did you just call me a child?!” Mu Ji Wu heard the screaming again, and here he decided to end the conversation.
“The owner of the house isn’t here.
You can go on your way now.” Saying this, Mu Ji Wu blew smoke in her face before entering and closing the door, leaving Ye Yingluo standing outside, stunned by what had just happened.
Ye Yingluo’s face flushed red with anger at this ignoring behavior.
She was used to attention from everyone and always acted arrogantly.
She stepped forward and punched the door, screaming: “Open the door, you rude child.
I’ll teach you today what it means to ignore manners with your elders.
Open!” After Mu Ji Wu returned inside, he extinguished the half-finished pipe with his finger and some saliva from his mouth and placed it on the table.
Then he closed his eyes and spread spirit energy from inside his head in the form of a small dome around him, blocking sound from outside.
This was a technique he had taught himself during his journey after being bothered by many animals.
Besides blocking noise, it could also conceal his presence.
Then he continued reading the book without interest.
After Ye Yingluo screamed angrily for a while and saw it had no effect, she kicked the door lightly before leaving.
True, she was angry, but it didn’t mean she could break someone’s door and enter like that.
She left thinking, ‘Hmph, annoying little devil.
I won’t stoop to your level.’ And after another half hour, with sunset approaching, Wu Zhangkong finally returned.
After opening the door and entering, he found Mu Ji Wu wrestling with a book with a face full of incomprehension.
He noticed it was a first-year student curriculum book, which he had gotten to study so he’d know what students were taught this year.
Mu Ji Wu raised his head and said, “Welcome back, Teacher Wu.” “Welcome.
Was everything alright?” Wu Zhangkong replied as he removed his shoes and outer coat and entered.
“Nothing happened except that an annoying child who only knows how to scream came looking for you a while ago,” Mu Ji Wu replied calmly after putting the book down.
“An annoying child who knows how to scream?
Is her name Ye Yingluo?” Wu Zhangkong replied, feeling some amusement at Mu Ji Wu’s way of describing it.
This was the second time he’d seen emotions from this child.
“That’s her.
She gets angry easily like a child.
After I drove her away, she kept screaming outside for some time before leaving.
She came looking for you.” “Ignore her.
She’s just an annoying person,” Wu Zhangkong said about her.
“Understood.
Is everything alright on your end?” Mu Ji Wu asked in return and didn’t bother himself further with a woman with the mind of a child.
“Yes.
I’ve completed everything.
I’ve already started looking into the identity and recommendation.
Expect a response soon,” Wu Zhangkong replied and didn’t reveal anything about the sect, at least for now.
“Hmm.” Mu Ji Wu nodded calmly, and with that the conversation ended.
Wu Zhangkong wasn’t the type to talk much.
Mu Ji Wu was even worse in that regard.
Neither of them felt awkward about this silence.
They just felt the comfort of quietness and found some compatibility from that aspect.
Wu Zhangkong picked up the book on the table and began reading from it without speaking.
On the other hand, Mu Ji Wu lit his half-finished pipe again, approached the window, and began watching the sunset and sky while exhaling smoke outside.
Fifteen minutes after sunset, Wu Zhangkong suddenly said as he set the book down, “Mu Ji Wu, come with me.” Then he stood up from the chair and put on his coat and shoes.
Mu Ji Wu put on his shoes too and followed him.
He didn’t take the bear-head cloak this time and left it with the bag.
“Is the place safe?” he asked as he went out.
“Why?” Wu Zhangkong asked calmly.
“My bag is very, very, very important to me.” “Then don’t worry.
No one is allowed to enter others’ rooms without permission,” Wu Zhangkong nodded to him.
Mu Ji Wu followed quietly afterward and didn’t ask where they were going.
Noting this, Wu Zhangkong’s admiration for Mu Ji Wu increased a little in terms of quietness and his trust in him.
After a while, the two arrived at a slightly wide hall with rows of tables and chairs.
The smell of food wafted from it.
Clearly, it was the teachers’ cafeteria in the academy.
The two entered, where Mu Ji Wu followed Wu Zhangkong as he took a plate and iron chopsticks, then went to fill the plate.
He followed from behind and also filled his plate with a suitable selection.
The two sat together afterward and began eating.