Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 113
Expensive Wolf Care and the Magic Capital Hunter Union
The early morning ocean breeze drifted through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the second-floor bedroom in Golden Eagle Villa, carrying the crisp, fresh salinity of the sea mingled with the earthy fragrance of wild garden turf.
Lin Feng sat cross-legged upon a thick rug woven from snow-sheep fleece. Before him, the ancient white jade coffer—personally bestowed by Headmaster Gu Tianya—lay open by a finger’s width. A faint wisp of five-colored mist curled outward, exuding the pristine, clarifying aroma of millennial spirit wood that coaxed every pore across his body to dilate in invigorating relief.
Suspended weightlessly within the heart of the coffer was a solitary bead of liquid, shimmering like a luminescent glazed pearl: the Condensing Core Spirit Gathering Liquid.
“Potent medicine like this... if I swallowed it whole, an early-stage Intermediate sea of consciousness would buckle under the violent medicinal deluge...”
Lin Feng muttered under his breath. Drawing a deep breath, he focused his spiritual sense, guiding a gossamer silver thread of mental energy to brush against the suspended drop. Under his meticulous control, the jewel-like liquid partitioned cleanly into thirds. A single luminous bead detached, arcing straight between his parted lips.
The moment it touched his tongue, it dissolved into liquid frost, chilling him like alpine glacial melt beneath a midsummer sun. Yet scarcely half a breath later, that icy draft detonated into a roaring cataract of warm, surging arcane power, racing along his meridians and plunging headlong into the depths of his sea of consciousness!
Boom!
A soundless clap of thunder detonated across Lin Feng’s mind.
Inside the boundless expanse of his mental realm, the four magic star formations quietly rotating were instantly invigorated, eagerly drinking in the downpour of pure essence.
In the eastern quadrant, the Fire Nebula—studded with forty-nine crimson Star Particles—seethed like boiling magma. Waves of Scarlet Flame surged skyward as each Star Particle gorged itself on refined spirit energy, their crystalline surfaces coating in brilliant, iridescent phosphorescence.
In the western sector, the deep purple-black Lightning Nebula howled with savage fury. Arcs of jagged lightning danced across its churning surface like ancient thunder dragons, voraciously refining the thunder-beast core marrow locked within the spirit brew, sharpening its destructive aura until it grew darker, keener, and colder still.
Below, anchored at the seabed of his consciousness, the pitch-black Shadow Star Dust flickered with its seven ink-dark Star Particles. The surrounding gloom expanded another ring, turning twice as dense, viscous, and inscrutable.
And dead in the center, the silvery-white Summoning Star Dust emitted gentle, rhythmic ripples, reinforcing the indestructible soul conduit that spanned the spatial divide between him and his contracted battle beast.
Resting against his sternum beneath his shirt, the Primordial Dragon Jade Pendant vibrated in steady resonance, venting soothing warm streams that nourished the meridians newly scoured by the arcane flood. Lin Feng snapped his eyes open. Within his pitch-black irises, a violet spark and a crimson ember intertwined before sinking back into the depths, restoring his usual calm, fathomless gaze.
“My sea of consciousness has expanded by nearly half! My spiritual focus is substantially purer, and the alignment speed of my Star Tracks and Star Diagrams has increased by at least thirty percent!”
Lin Feng flexed his fingers, testing the rich mana coursing through his sinews. The champion’s reward seized from sweeping the Beast Battling Tournament truly lived up to its legendary reputation. Consuming barely a third of the droplet had yielded gains far surpassing months of arduous closed-door cultivation with conventional mana stones.
Yet before that hard-earned satisfaction could settle, the heavy oak door of his bedchamber shuddered with sudden violence.
Thud! Thud! Scritch-scratch-scratch...
The unmistakable rasp of razor-sharp claws gouging wood was accompanied by heavy, snorting huffs from the hallway.
Lin Feng pressed his fingertips to his temples, letting out a weary sigh. “That wolf... keeps time better than an atomic clock.”
With a flick of his sleeve, he dismantled the defensive warding matrix guarding the room and unbolted the door.
The instant the door cracked ajar, a massive pitch-black lupine head forced its way through. The Abyssal Thunder Wolf flared its long snout, snuffling the lingering medicinal fragrance in the air, before wedging its colossal frame straight into the bedroom.
Following its lone rampage across the arena of the Shenzhou Archmage Academy and its subsequent tempering by a wisp of ancient Dragon Qi, the beast’s body had stretched to nearly four meters from snout to tail. Its fur shone like premium black velvet, while rows of jagged, violet-sheened thunder scales bristled along its spine. The obsidian horn crowning its brow crackled intermittently with violet sparks, exuding the suffocating, primal majesty of an apex predator that thickened the surrounding air.
Yet that terrifying, peerless presence collapsed in the span of a heartbeat. The titanic beast folded its ears flat against its skull, extended an enormous pink tongue to lick the back of Lin Feng’s hand, and wagged its tail so enthusiastically that the gusts sent the floor-length window curtains fluttering wildly.
Gurgle... rumble... grooowl...
A stomach rumble like rolling thunder reverberated through the wolf’s broad ribcage, echoing across the quiet bedroom. It stared pleadingly at the spatial ring resting on Lin Feng’s finger, its golden eyes glistening with mournful wetness as though it had been starved in a dungeon for half a month.
“Alright, alright. You really are a starved ghost reincarnated, aren’t you?”
Lin Feng shook his head between laughter and tears, rapping his knuckles against the wolf’s skull, which was as hard as cold forged steel. Turning his wrist, he withdrew a massive haunch of meat weighing over thirty pounds from his spatial ring—still dripping with fresh, rich blood—along with three pristine, luminescent blue-violet mana stones.
The slab came from a mid-tier Soldier-class Blazing Rhinoceros, vacuum-sealed and preserved in a cryogenic formation, while the three stones were Tier-2 Lightning Mana Stones specifically harvested for thunder-attuned beasts to assimilate raw lightning elements.
Catching the pungent scent of fresh gore and high-density electrical charge, the Abyssal Thunder Wolf’s eyes lit up like automotive high-beams. Splitting its crimson maw, bristling with dagger-like fangs, it clamped onto the thirty-pound haunch in the blink of an eye.
Crunch! Snap!
The sound of splintering bone was sharp and crisp. The wolf devoured the entire slab in three massive gulps, then curled its tongue around the three diamond-hard mana stones, crunching them down like peanut brittle! Sparks of violent electricity crackled through the gaps of its teeth before plunging into its gut, rapidly metabolizing into a dazzling surge of lightning mana that rippled along the dorsal scales lining its spine.
Barely thirty seconds had passed. Licking its jowls with lingering greed, the Abyssal Thunder Wolf nudged its wet nose against Lin Feng’s hip, emitting a soft, pathetic whine: Still hungry!
Lin Feng’s eyelid twitched. Tapping the magitech optical bracer around his wrist, he brought up the holographic interface of the Jinghai Mana Stone Bank app.
On the virtual readout, the remaining figure sent a sharp throb through his brow.
Account Balance: 38,000 mana coins.
“Barely a week, and it’s cratered this badly...” Lin Feng released a bitter sigh.
The hero subsidies and bounties awarded for defending Bo’an City had sounded like an astronomical fortune at the time, but the economic reality of a sprawling metropolis like the Jinghai Magic Capital was merciless. To provide his family with enduring stability, he had spent the lion’s share securing a lavish 140-square-meter condominium in the South Jinghai Urban District for his father, Lin Hai, and his younger sister, Xiao Mo. Located in the city’s most secure sector, protected under a Tier-4 metropolitan warding barrier, it stood less than two kilometers from the Central Magic Hospital.
On top of that, procuring rare therapeutic herbs to stimulate and repair the damaged nerve pathways in Xiao Mo’s legs, setting aside a comfortable retirement fund for his father, and paying the steep security deposit to rent a suite in Golden Eagle Villa had virtually wiped out his reserves.
And now, his heaviest financial burden was the bottomless black hole of a stomach belonging to the four-legged young master drooling beside him!
Having awakened the bloodline of an ancient sovereign, the Abyssal Thunder Wolf was currently perched at the pinnacle of the Soldier class, poised to molt and ascend into a Warrior-class beast. To sustain its titanic constitution and amass enough raw arcane energy for the impending breakthrough, it required at least fifty pounds of freshly butchered, mana-infused beast flesh alongside three to four pure lightning mana stones every single day!
Low-grade fresh beast meat ran about 80 mana coins per pound. Premium cuts like Blazing Rhinoceros or Thunder-Horned Ram commanded as much as 120 coins a pound.
A single Tier-2 Lightning Mana Stone fluctuated between 1,800 and 2,000 coins on the open market.
Doing the rough math, the moment Lin Feng opened his eyes each morning, this glutton had already devoured well over ten thousand mana coins!
Three hundred thousand a month! Over three million mana coins a year!
That was enough money for an ordinary working-class family in the Magic Capital to live in carefree luxury for a decade. Yet dumped down the throat of this giant wolf, it vanished into thin air after a few satisfying crunches!
“At this rate, in less than four days, you and I will be sleeping under an overpass, chewing dry lawn grass to get by!”
Lin Feng rapped the wolf sharply on the bridge of its snout. Sensing that its master’s purse had run dry, the wolf shrank its neck, drooping its golden eyes guiltily before sprawling flat against the floorboards in an exaggerated display of repentance.
“Lin Feng! Are you in there?!”
A clear, lively voice echoed up from the ground floor, followed by the brisk thumping of footsteps dashing up the wooden staircase.
With the door already unlatched, a young woman poked her head inside. Her chestnut hair was gathered into a perky side ponytail, complementing an oversized tee emblazoned with a lightning bolt graphic and a pair of frayed denim shorts. It was Gu Xiaowei—Lin Feng’s bubbly housemate and a fellow freshman Lightning prodigy at Shenzhou Academy, whom he had befriended upon moving into the villa.
Gu Xiaowei took half a step forward before freezing at the sight of the Abyssal Thunder Wolf sprawled across the floor, its hide still crackling with stray violet static. She scrambled back half a pace, puffing her cheeks in mock outrage:
“Hey, Lin Feng! Tell your wolf to rein in its electromagnetic aura! Ever since this morning, my hair dryer’s been sparking like crazy—it nearly singed my favorite bangs off!”
Behind Gu Xiaowei, another graceful figure ascended the stairs with measured, elegant steps. Ye Qingwan wore a tasteful jade-green silk gown that drifted around her ankles, her long black hair cascading across her shoulders, carrying an ethereal presence as soothing as a mountain spring breeze. Noticing the bone splinters scattered across the hardwood and Lin Feng’s helpless expression, her lips curved into a knowing smile:
“Demanding food again, is it? High-lineage demonic beasts burn through an appalling fortune during their developmental spurts. When my cousin’s Glacial Crane was preparing to break through to Warrior-class, our clan had to empty an entire vault of spirit herbs to nourish it.”
Gu Xiaowei blinked, peering curiously at the crystalline dust beneath the titan wolf’s paws. “Good grief, did it just scarf down Lightning Mana Stones? Chomping on mana stones like tea biscuits... Lin Feng, can you honestly afford to keep this thing fed?”
Lin Feng offered a wry smile. “I’m still treading water for now. A few days from now is another story.”
“Need a loan?” Gu Xiaowei thumped her chest proudly, grinning ear to ear. “I’ve still got tens of thousands left in my monthly allowance! I’ll give you a sweetheart rate—just one cup of boba milk tea a day!”
“I appreciate the generosity, Miss Gu, but I’ll manage,” Lin Feng chuckled, waving a dismissive hand.
Having clawed his way through the jaws of death in Azure Thunder Ridge, he had zero intention of relying on charity or loans. Besides, raising a battle beast was a marathon; borrowing a few tens of thousands was a stopgap that bought a couple of meals at best. It would never fill the bottomless trench required when the wolf triggered its true evolutionary metamorphosis.
If he wanted to earn vast sums of wealth legitimately and quickly, only one place existed: The Hunter Union!
Lin Feng wove a Summoning hand seal. Beneath the Abyssal Thunder Wolf’s paws, a silver magic circle rippled like liquid starlight. The giant wolf let out an affectionate, low rumble, its massive frame dissolving as it returned to the contract realm.
“Feel free to make yourselves at home. I have some personal errands to handle outside.”
Bidding farewell to his two housemates, Lin Feng returned to his desk to pack. He tucked the ancient white jade box holding the remaining two-thirds of the Condensing Core Spirit Gathering Liquid into the deepest spatial pocket of his dragon pendant. Then, slipping into his familiar charcoal-gray hooded tactical duster, he secured a silver mask etched with ancient crimson flame runes inside his inner breast pocket.
Exiting Golden Eagle Villa, Lin Feng briskly walked toward the municipal transit hub and boarded a high-speed maglev line heading straight south.
His destination: The Jinghai Port District.
That place held none of the grand lecture halls or pristine, manicured uniforms of Shenzhou Archmage Academy. It was a crucible of blood, mud, raw coin, and ruthless hunting beyond the city’s perimeter defense lines:
The Grand Headquarters of the Jinghai Magic Capital Hunter Union!
Half an hour later, the maglev slid smoothly into the Jinghai Port Terminal.
The moment Lin Feng stepped past the arrival gates, a stiff ocean gale buffeted his face, heavy with the reek of tidal mud, brine, and the metallic stench of slaughtered beast entrails.
Towering over the colossal black-stone plaza was a titanic structure modeled after an arcane naval anchor driving deep into the earth. Rising more than sixty stories into the skyline, the skyscraper was constructed entirely of polished black basalt and ultra-reinforced stress-bearing steel, encircled by towering arcane lightning rods as thick as ancient redwoods.
At the skyscraper’s spire, an insignia depicting crossed silver broadswords embraced by bronze eagle wings cast a dazzling brilliance across the clouds: the supreme seal of the National Hunter Union!
Below on the plaza grounds, thousands of combat magi swarmed like industrious ants.
In stark contrast to the sheltered, scholarly disciples of the great clans inside the academy, the hunters here carried a grim, razor-edged bloodlust forged by survival. Towering Earth mages walked shirtless, baring broad chests crisscrossed with savage claw scars; lithe Wind huntresses in skintight beast-leather armor carried belts lined with vials of harvested venom and hollow predator fangs; heavily armed mercenary squads clad in dented, gouged magic armor strode by, passing around jugs of fiery rum and laughing with gravelly voices that competed against the distant roar of the ocean swell.
Lin Feng tugged the brim of his hood lower, slipping quietly through the revolving reinforced-glass doors and entering the ground-floor grand hall.
The grand atrium of the Magic Capital Hunter Union was vast enough to house a regulation soccer stadium. Beneath the towering vaulted ceiling hung hundreds of colossal magic-crystal digital displays, their luminescent readouts continuously flickering with real-time updates: hunting bounties, wilderness expeditions, wanted fugitive notices, and market purchase rates for beast carcasses.
The deafening cacophony slammed into his ears like an overturned beehive:
“Gale Squad seeking one Intermediate Fire Mage! Heading into the Abyssal Swamps to hunt Scarlet Blood Caimans, spoils split strictly by merit!”
“Flash sale on three fresh Water-element Warrior-class monster cores butchered this morning! Friendly price of 1,600,000 mana coins, firm!”
“Damn it all, the eastern seawall patrol difficulty jumped a tier again. Those deep-sea nightfiends are getting bolder by the night...”
Lin Feng didn’t linger near the open exchange counters catering to low-ranked hunters in the main foyer. Keeping his pace steady, he navigated toward the red-carpeted corridor in the western wing—the high-tier commission sector reserved exclusively for Silver-rank hunters and above.
The arrival of such a youthful, lean teenager with an untouched, boyish face immediately caught the eye of several veteran hunters lounging at the perimeter bar.
“Hey, did that whelp lose his way?” A scar-faced hunter with a scruffy beard and a half-empty glass of rum gave a raspy chuckle, flicking his chin. “Look at those tailored trousers and polished leather shoes. Probably some academy brat skipping class to play adventurer.”
“Just another naive young master looking to snag a hunter medal to buff up his graduation transcript,” another hunter scoffed, shaking his head. “That wing is the Silver-rank sector. Stumble around blindly, and the enforcers will toss him out on his ear.”
Snickers rippled through the gathering. Lin Feng acted as though he hadn’t heard a syllable. He walked up to Reception Counter 03, crafted from polished black marble.
Seated behind the counter was a woman in her mid-twenties dressed in a sharp navy business suit, a gleaming nameplate pinned to her lapel: Song Jia – Tier-2 Appraiser. Surprised by the youthful customer standing before her, she nevertheless maintained a polished, professional smile:
“Welcome to the Hunter Union. Are you inquiring about public records or searching for a family member? This counter is reserved for special commissions of Silver rank and higher. If you’re looking to register as an Iron-rank apprentice, please head to Hall B on your right...”
Lin Feng didn’t waste words. Reaching into the inner breast pocket of his duster, he produced a heavy metal token and set it gently onto the tempered glass counter.
Click.
Forged from pure sterling silver alloy, the badge’s perimeter was embossed with a blazing scarlet lotus encircling a razor-sharp longsword. In the center, three gilded ancient characters stood out in proud, lustrous relief:
FAN CHEN.
“I’m here to reactivate my credentials and accept a commission,” Lin Feng said evenly.
The practiced corporate smile on Song Jia’s face instantly froze.
Her eyes widened, staring unblinkingly at the emblem on the counter. As a senior appraiser at the Magic Capital Grand Headquarters, she understood precisely what that metal disk represented!
This was no honorary token handed out by prestigious academies to reward promising students—this was a Combat-Verified Silver Hunter Badge jointly authenticated by the Imperial Military and the National Hunter Union! To attain this rank, a mage had to accumulate at least ten thousand merit points, meaning they had personally slaughtered dozens of Warrior-class demonic beasts or spearheaded the defense of a frontline outpost during a catastrophic siege!
Song Jia’s fingers trembled slightly. Picking up the badge with both hands, she slotted it into the union’s mana scanner terminal.
Beep——!
A beam of cerulean light swept across the badge’s surface. An instant later, a dazzling column of silver radiance erupted from the desk, coalescing into a floating, high-clearance holographic dossier:
CODENAME: FAN CHEN
RANK: SILVER HUNTER (SECOND CLASS)
ISSUING BODIES: BO’AN CITY HUNTER UNION & AZURE THUNDER RIDGE GARRISON COMMAND.
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE: PARTICIPATED IN NEUTRALIZING NETHER CHURCH INFILTRATORS; ASSISTED IN SLAYING A PEAK WARRIOR-CLASS DEMONIC BEAST DURING THE DEFENSE OF OUTPOST NO. 3.
STATUS: INDEPENDENT (AUTHORIZED FOR ALL C-RANK TO B-RANK COMMISSIONS).
The entire bar corner fell deathly still!
The scar-faced hunter mid-gulp choked violently on his rum, coughing in ragged gasps while staring bug-eyed at the silver text hovering in midair. The mocking snickers from moments ago vanished without a trace, replaced by stunned disbelief and deep, instinctual wariness.
A teenager barely seventeen or eighteen years old... was a combat-decorated Silver Hunter who had crawled out of the meat grinder of Bo’an City?!
In a metropolis like the Magic Capital, young Intermediate mages were uncommon but not unheard of. But a youth possessing a Combat-Verified Silver Badge—bought with rivers of beast blood and severed monster heads—was an entirely different caliber of monster!
“S-Sir Fan Chen!” Song Jia swallowed dryly, her posture shifting into one of deferential humility. Cupping the badge in both hands, she respectfully pushed it back across the marble, her voice laced with reverence: “The network has synchronized your credentials with the Jinghai Magic Capital Grand Headquarters. You are fully authorized to accept high-threat commissions. Are you seeking a solo assignment, or do you intend to join an expeditionary hunting party?”
Pocketing the emblem, Lin Feng answered smoothly: “I require commissions offering high-grade Lightning Mana Stones or substantial cash bounties. Coastal or subterranean waterlogged zones are preferred...”
CLANG——!!
Before he could finish, a resonant, heavy arcane alarm bell clanged from the high tower of the central atrium!
Every suspended crystal display in the hall shifted simultaneously from soothing azure to a blinding, crimson alert. Thousands of hunters jerked their heads skyward as one.
Across the colossal central display, blood-red glyphs pulsed urgently, stamped with the purple verification seal of the Magic Capital Municipal Administration:
EMERGENCY COMMISSION: INVESTIGATE JINGHAI BAY UNDERGROUND CULVERT ANOMALY (RANK B)
DETAILS: OVER THE PAST 48 HOURS, 3 CONSECUTIVE MAINTENANCE TEAMS AND 1 COMBAT PATROL (COMPRISING 4 PEAK PRIMARY MAGI) HAVE VANISHED WITHOUT TRACE INSIDE DRAINAGE SECTOR 7 OF THE JINGHAI BAY CULVERT NETWORK. RESIDUAL EVIDENCE OF HIGHLY CORROSIVE, MUTATED MANA CONFIRMED.
TEAM COMPOSITION: MINIMUM 3 HUNTERS (MANDATORY: AT LEAST 1 WATER MAGE FOR TOXIN PURIFICATION/WATER RESISTANCE OR 1 EARTH MAGE FOR SUBTERRANEAN SENSING/COLLAPSE MITIGATION).
COMPLETION BOUNTY: 800,000 MANA COINS CASH + 1 PURE INTERMEDIATE LIGHTNING ESSENCE ORE!
“Eight hundred thousand in cash?!”
“And a pure Intermediate Lightning Essence Ore?! That raw ore alone would fetch at least six hundred thousand at auction!”
The grand hall erupted into a frenzy! A combined payout exceeding 1.4 million mana coins for a B-rank assignment—this was the single highest bounty posted in the Magic Capital over the past three months!
Yet once the initial fever cooled, several veteran hunters shook their heads with grave apprehension:
“A bounty that bloated? Who has the lives to collect it? Sector 7 of the Jinghai Bay drainage network sits thirty meters beneath the bedrock—pitch black, flooded, and connecting straight into the open ocean abyss. It’s choked with toxic filth and stagnant sludge. In spaces that tight, no one dares fire off wide-area spells for fear of collapsing the tunnel and burying themselves alive!”
“Too true! Even a fully equipped four-man vanguard patrol vanished before they could loose a single distress flare. Whatever is nesting down there has to be at least a Quasi-Commander beast armed with lethal neurotoxins!”
While the surrounding hunters traded uneasy whispers, hesitating to step forward, Lin Feng’s gaze remained glued to the words Lightning Essence Ore on the crystal screen. A cold, calculating smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
Eight hundred thousand in cash would comfortably cover his bottomless-pit wolf’s appetite for nearly three months.
And that pure Intermediate Lightning Essence Ore... was the ultimate catalyst for the Abyssal Thunder Wolf to shatter its evolutionary bottleneck and step into the Warrior class!
“Miss Song,” Lin Feng turned to the flustered receptionist, his tone calm and unyielding. “Register me for this commission.”
Song Jia gasped: “S-Sir Fan Chen wants to take the Jinghai Bay culvert commission?! But this assignment strictly mandates a minimum of three members, and must include a Water or Earth specialist...”
Lin Feng slipped the silver mask from his duster and calmly fastened it over his face, concealing his youthful visage and leaving only a pair of hawklike eyes gleaming coldly from the darkness:
“Then post a recruitment notice right at this desk. I’ll wait fifteen minutes.”