The night passed without another word.
The following morning, the moment Luke stepped through the wrought-iron gates of Third High School, a tidal wave of students surrounded him.
The crowd consisted of his own peers and a swarm of younger underclassmen, all buzzing with frantic energy.
Although the unified exam had concluded the day before, a single night was hardly enough to cool the boiling excitement.
The tournament remained the absolute center of gravity for the student body.
For the first time in countless years, Third High School had seized the absolute peak, leaving the elite bastions of First High School and Second High School choking on their dust.
Standing at the epicenter of this historic victory, Luke naturally drew every eye.
Within mere minutes of crossing the threshold, he found himself drowning in a sea of sweet perfumes and flushed faces.
Female classmates and younger girls alike pressed close, dropping heavy hints about forming a deeper connection.
Even the notoriously aloof beauties of the academy, girls who usually treated their peers like invisible air, were suddenly flashing him bright, eager smiles.
“Luke, if you have the time, I would love to invite you over to my house for some private tutoring after school.” A particularly bold girl leaned in, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.
“My parents happen to be out of town today.
We would have the whole place to ourselves.” “Oh, please.” Another student scoffed loudly, rolling her eyes and flipping a very unceremonious middle finger at the bold girl.
“You do not care about learning Magic Card creation.
You just want his body.” Before the situation could devolve into a full-blown catfight, Zhang Ming materialized from the throng.
He grabbed Luke by the shoulder and hauled him out of the suffocating encirclement, dragging him toward the quieter corridors of the academic building.
“Good heavens, since when did the girls here get so aggressive?” Luke let out a long breath, adjusting his uniform.
“Old Zhang, you saved my life again.” It was not that Luke possessed zero interest in the opposite sex.
A private after-school tutoring session in an empty house certainly held a distinct appeal.
However, his standards had been permanently warped.
With Dark Magician Girl standing by his side, representing the absolute apex of pure, unadulterated charm, he simply had no desire to settle for the mundane offerings around him.
“Who told you to become the most famous guy in the city overnight?” Zhang Ming shot him a sideways glance, a teasing smirk playing on his lips.
“Besides, from where I was standing, you looked like you were enjoying the view.” Luke merely rolled his eyes in response.
“You showed up at the exact perfect second.
Do not try to play it off.
The principal sent you to fetch me, didn’t he?” “Sharp as always.” Zhang Ming snapped his fingers, entirely abandoning his previous teasing.
He still vividly remembered the sting of being verbally outmaneuvered by Luke the day before, and he had no intention of repeating the experience.
“Sharp, my foot,” Luke grumbled, brushing a stray wrinkle from his sleeve.
“The absolute second I stepped onto school grounds, you popped out of nowhere like a guard dog.
Add that to what the vice principal told me yesterday, and even an idiot could put the pieces together.” “Fair enough.” Zhang Ming shrugged, completely unbothered by the grumbling.
He led the way down the hall, taking several sharp turns until the noise of the student body faded entirely, finally bringing them to the heavy oak doors of the principal’s office.
“Ah, our conquering hero has arrived.” Principal Gu sat behind his massive desk.
Despite holding the highest authority at Third High School, he was far from a rigid, humorless man.
Seeing Luke walk through the door, he offered a warm, welcoming joke.
A split second later, the casual amusement in Principal Gu’s eyes fractured into genuine shock.
His gaze locked onto the subtle shift in the young man’s aura.
Luke had broken through to the Battle General Realm.
Could the Magic Power Feedback from forging a single Six-Star Magic Card truly elevate a person’s cultivation by such a terrifying margin?
Principal Gu kept his expression steady, though his mind raced.
He could not be entirely certain.
After all, he had never managed to create a Six-Star Magic Card back when he was merely in the Soldier Realm.
Vice Principal Zhou Rong stood near the window, offering Luke a gentle, approving smile.
After she had reported her decision to temporarily increase Luke’s reward the previous day, Principal Gu had reacted exactly as she hoped.
He offered no objections and instead showered her with praise for her quick thinking.
Yet, having handled the treacherous waters of academy politics for years, Zhou Rong had detected a hidden layer of meaning beneath Principal Gu’s praise.
The principal had refused to elaborate, but his silence spoke volumes.
It was more than enough for Zhou Rong to realize that Luke harbored a deep secret, one so heavy that even an Emperor Realm powerhouse like Principal Gu dared not speak of it casually.
“Principal, please do not make fun of me.” Luke offered a helpless smile, though he silently appreciated the older man’s casual greeting.
It instantly dissolved the heavy, formal tension in the room.
“Zhou Rong already briefed you on the details of the unified examination yesterday, so I will save us both the breath of repeating it.” Principal Gu reigned in his lingering shock and shifted to a professional demeanor.
He reached across his desk.
A sleek Storage Card now rested between his fingers.
Unlike the standard-issue card Zhou Rong had presented the day before, this particular Storage Card bore a heavy, complex engraving on its surface.
It was the official crest of Cangling City.
In this entire metropolis, only the City Lord’s Mansion possessed the authority to stamp that crest onto a Storage Card.
“This was entrusted to me by City Lord Cang Fenghua, with explicit instructions to pass it on to you.” Principal Gu slid the uniquely marked card across the polished wood, stopping right in front of Luke.
“Inside are the official rewards for securing first place in the unified examination.” Another Storage Card?
Luke picked up the cold, metallic card, turning it over in his palm.
He had to admit, the technology was incredibly convenient.
For long-distance travel, a person could simply dump their entire livelihood into one of these cards and walk away with empty hands.
Because of that sheer utility, Storage Cards were actually far more popular among the ordinary civilian population than among Magic Card Masters.
For a true professional, the personal Magic Card Editor provided vastly superior storage capacity and airtight security.
Sending a pulse of energy into the card, Luke peered at the contents.
Even with his usually calm demeanor, a flash of raw astonishment widened his eyes.
The City Lord’s Mansion truly lived up to its reputation.
The sheer generosity was staggering.
The nature of the rewards mirrored what Zhou Rong had given him, consisting primarily of raw crafting materials.
While both packages included a hefty sum of monetary compensation, any Magic Card Master worth their salt cared infinitely more about the materials.
The difference lay in the sheer, overwhelming quality.
The absolute lowest-grade items in the City Lord’s package were Green Grade.
The highest breached the threshold of Purple Grade.
Materials of that terrifying caliber possessed enough latent energy to forge Eight-Star Magic Cards.
Although there were only two or three of these high-tier items scattered in the inventory, their true value could never be measured in mere currency.
A single piece of that Purple Grade material was worth more than the entire vault of rewards Zhou Rong had handed him yesterday.
A brief pang of regret touched Luke’s thoughts.
Even among this king’s ransom, he still could not find any Dragon-type materials.
Still, he pushed the disappointment aside.
The haul was magnificent.
“It seems you are quite satisfied with the contents.” The subtle shift in Luke’s gaze did not escape Principal Gu.
An Emperor Realm Magic Card Master missed nothing.
“Under normal circumstances, the absolute highest tier of reward the City Lord’s Mansion issues for this tournament is Blue Grade.
Do you have any idea why your specific package contains Purple Grade materials?” Purple Grade materials!
Hearing those words spoken aloud, Zhang Ming sucked in a sharp breath, clicking his tongue in disbelief.
If he liquidated every single asset to his name, he still would not possess more than a handful of Purple Grade items.
Standing by the window, Zhou Rong maintained her composure far better than the student, but a deep, unmistakable flash of envy rippled through her eyes.
As a vice principal, she naturally had access to high-tier resources, but her memory painted a harsh contrast.
She had only earned the right to touch Purple Grade materials after clawing her way up to the Monarch Realm.
Luke, on the other hand, was barely stepping past the starting line of his journey, and the world was already handing them to him on a silver platter.
[Akarin’s Note: Enjoying the story?