*Crash!*
The already dilapidated classroom door was kicked right off its hinges, slamming onto the floor and kicking up a cloud of dust.
Asher narrowed his eyes.
Honestly, he had sensed the intruder well before the door was even struck.
Ever since his magic evolved into the B-Class **[Horned Python]**, his sensory perception had skyrocketed.
That enhancement had only grown sharper after his *Cosmic Breathing Technique* leveled up.
“Asher, I knew you’d be hiding here!” a sharp, grating voice screeched, sounding like two pieces of rusty metal scraping together.
“Who are you?” Asher’s brows knit into a deep frown.
The man standing in the doorway wore a Level Two Instructor badge pinned to his chest, but his head was wrapped in so many thick layers of medical gauze that he looked worse than a mummified corpse.
“You’re asking who I am?!
How dare you forget who I am!
You did this to me!” Seeing Asher’s genuine confusion, the gauze-wrapped mummy practically convulsed with rage.
“Look closely!
It’s me, Drake!”
“Drake…” Asher blinked hard.
He leaned in, giving the battered man a deeply weird look, before suddenly bursting into a snort of laughter.
Drake’s visible skin turned violently red.
“You’re actually laughing?!”
“No, no, I’m not laughing,” Asher gasped, covering his mouth as a series of strangled giggles slipped out.
“You are clearly laughing!”
“Impossible.
I’m a professionally trained instructor.
I never laugh.” Asher tried to force a straight face, but his composure shattered a second later.
“Unless it’s too funny!
Hahaha!
Oh my god, you look ridiculous!
Hahaha!”
“Asher!” Drake ground his teeth, his expression twisting into something deeply ugly beneath the bandages.
“The logistics department told me you took my class’s entire monthly resource quota!
Give it back!”
His lungs felt like they were going to explode from sheer fury.
He had only gone to the logistics counter to bully Asher into handing over his usual cut of resources.
He never expected to be the one getting robbed!
Not only had he failed to extort a single potion, but he had lost his own students’ supplies in the process.
His class had twenty students!
How the hell was he supposed to teach them without those resources?
He had lost his dignity, his face, and his supplies in one single morning!
“Resources?
What resources?
What are you even talking about?” Asher asked, blinking his big, innocent eyes without skipping a beat.
“Stop playing dumb!
Everyone saw you take my class’s cultivation resources under my name!” Drake’s voice pitched higher with hysteria.
“If you don’t hand them over right now, don’t blame me for—”
“For what?
Are you going to hit me again?” Asher’s gaze turned freezing cold.
His pupils constricted into dangerous vertical slits for a split second before returning to normal.
He had completely crushed Drake when he was just at Tier Three, Level Three.
Now that he was teetering on the edge of Level Four, Drake wasn’t even a minor nuisance.
“You—!” Drake flinched, instinctively taking a half-step back as a flash of genuine fear pierced through his anger.
He still had no idea how Asher had suddenly become so overwhelmingly strong, but their brief clash that morning had made one thing brutally clear: he was absolutely no match for him in a straight fight.
However, a venomous, calculating glint quickly flickered in Drake’s narrow eyes.
“So, you’re really not going to return my resources?”
Asher didn’t even bother looking at him.
“That’s right.
I never had any intention of giving them back.”
‘And it won’t just be this month, either,’ he added silently to himself.
If he didn’t avenge the years of extortion the previous Asher had suffered, it would forever remain a knot in his heart.
He had already made up his mind.
From this month onward, he was going to happily confiscate every single resource allocated to Drake’s class.
“Hahaha!
Good!
You said it yourself!” Hearing that answer, Drake’s voice suddenly spiked with wicked excitement.
He spun around, bowing respectfully toward the hallway outside.
“Director Crawford, you heard him!
Asher is completely disregarding academy regulations!
He publicly assaulted a colleague and stole teaching resources!
This behavior is a toxic influence on the academy.
I request that the administration immediately expel this stain on our staff!”
*Step!
Step!
Step!*
Heavy, deliberate footsteps echoed clearly down the empty corridor.
A moment later, an older man with graying temples, round black-rimmed glasses, and a Level Three Instructor badge pinned to his chest slowly strode into the classroom.
Asher silently took two steps back, his guard instantly rising.
The fine hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
Before this very second, he hadn’t sensed a single trace of another person in the hallway!
It was incredibly obvious that this newcomer’s cultivation level far surpassed his own.
“Asher!
As an instructor, you dared to assault a colleague in broad daylight and rob him of his resources!
How is your behavior any different from a common bandit?
Hand over Instructor Drake’s cultivation supplies immediately and apologize to him!” The man didn’t waste a single breath on pleasantries.
His overwhelming magic pressure instantly filled the room, making the air itself feel thick and suffocating.
“Director Crawford!” Seeing the man’s face, Asher’s heart immediately sank.
Crawford was the Director of Discipline and Morals.
Even though he had been stuck at Tier Three, Level Nine for over a decade with no hope of ever reaching the Transcendent Realm, he was still considered one of the academy’s top combatants.
However, Asher had a notoriously terrible impression of this man.
In the past, whenever Drake had robbed Asher of his resources, the original Asher had gone straight to Crawford to report it.
But Crawford had always brushed him off with empty promises to “look into it.” Now that the tables had turned and Drake was the one getting robbed, the Director had personally shown up at his door in less than a morning.
The double standard was sickeningly obvious.
“Asher!
Did you not hear me?
I will say this one last time!
Hand over Instructor Drake’s supplies right now and apologize!” Crawford’s voice boomed, laced with heavy irritation.
Asher’s expression turned frigid.
Crawford’s heavy-handed intimidation tactics were no different from trying to extract a forced confession.
If Asher hadn’t already reached the peak of Tier Three, Level Three, he would have been paralyzed by the sheer pressure rolling off the older man.
Asher let out a cold sneer.
“Director Crawford, you must be incredibly busy.
You certainly rushed over here remarkably fast this time.”
Crawford’s face darkened.
Having spent half his life navigating the treacherous politics of the academy, he easily caught the heavy sarcasm dripping from Asher’s words.
Accustomed to unquestioned authority, he felt deeply offended.
His tone turned overtly hostile.
“Insolence!
You are a mere Level Two instructor; you know nothing!
I’m only going to ask you one question.
Are you going to hand the resources over or not?!
Answer me!”
Asher nodded calmly.
“I can hand them over.”
Crawford’s expression relaxed slightly, while a sickeningly smug smile spread across Drake’s bandaged face.
“However—” Asher quickly pivoted.
“Only on the condition that Drake returns all the resources he previously extorted from me first!”
Before either of them could react, Asher locked eyes with Drake and started listing off the debt like a seasoned accountant.
“Subtracting this month’s resources, you still owe me a total of 240,000 Jewels in cultivation supplies.
Toss in the interest and round it up, and a clean 300,000 Jewels will settle your tab.”
The room instantly fell into a dead silence.
“Asher!
Have you lost your damn mind?!
Why don’t you just rob a bank while you’re at it?!” Drake’s swollen cheeks quivered furiously.
Sure, he had robbed Asher blind for years, but the total value definitely didn’t exceed 100,000 Jewels!
Since when did it magically inflate to 300,000?!
Crawford adjusted his round glasses, his face turning incredibly dark.
He never expected the notoriously spineless Asher to suddenly become this difficult to manage.
After a moment of heavy silence, he shot Asher a piercing look.
Having clearly made up his mind, his voice turned icy.
“Let’s not conflate separate issues.
Your complaints can be addressed at a later date.
Right now, we are resolving the immediate incident!
Return the resources to Instructor Drake at once!”
At this point, Crawford completely dropped any pretense of impartiality.
It didn’t matter to him if Asher had miraculously reached Tier Three, Level Three.
Asher’s father was just a lowly merchant peddling magical plants.
Drake, on the other hand, had the backing of Instructor Loke—the heir to the Loke family, one of Magnolia’s Six Great Families.
Deciding who to protect was a complete no-brainer.
Asher shook his head.
“It’s incredibly rare for Director Crawford to have free time.
We might as well settle everything right here, right now.”
“I said we are dealing with the current matter!
Do you not understand human speech?!
Are you going to comply or not?!” Crawford’s patience completely evaporated.
His already staggering magical pressure surged even higher, crashing down on Asher so heavily it was hard to breathe.
Taking a few deep breaths to steady himself against the crushing weight, Asher resolutely shook his head.
“No.”
“Good!
Very good!” Crawford’s face contorted with boiling rage.
“Since you refuse to be disciplined, I have no choice but to teach you a lesson myself!”
With a vicious glint in his eye, he unleashed his full magical aura, preparing to slam it entirely into Asher.
But right at that hair-raising moment, a breathtakingly cold voice exploded through the classroom.
“Stop!”