A bead of sweat traced a path down Yu Shiyun's forehead. No matter how much she pondered, she never expected the person to appear would be the founder of their school, the very wealthy overseas Chinese tycoon Ye Wen, whom she had been specifically instructed to observe.

She had certainly heard rumors that Principal Ye was a master of Guoshu (National Arts), even defeating the nationally renowned martial artist Guan Luyan.

Yet, she still believed that even the so-called grandmasters of Guoshu, despite their lofty reputations, would ultimately be no match for her, a special operative trained in legitimate, formal combat disciplines. In a way, she even held a degree of contempt for people like Guan Luyan, assuming his decision to serve as Vice Principal in this somewhat remote location was purely due to Ye Wen’s immense wealth.

After all, people need to earn a living! What disgusted her even more was that Guan Luyan not only came himself but also brought his apprentice and daughter along.

But at this moment, Ye Wen’s subtly curved smile utterly pulverized all her previous judgments. She realized that if Ye Wen hadn't spoken up, she might never have detected someone lurking so close beside her.

Had it been anyone else, Yu Shiyun would have simply denied everything, or even lashed out physically. But facing this… Immortal… she began racking her brain for an excuse to defuse this crisis. Deep down, however, she felt this wasn't a major issue; at worst, she could reveal her identity, assuming this overseas Chinese tycoon wouldn't dare act against her—he would likely treat her respectfully, perhaps even like a high-ranking official sent down for inspection.

If that were the case, even though she found this assignment thoroughly displeasing, she wouldn't mind as long as she could live comfortably and happily. She viewed this task as nothing more than something to navigate and get through quickly.

Before her thoughts could fully settle, she heard Ye Wen speak: "Teacher Yu, is that right?"

"Hm?" Yu Shiyun blinked, then quickly snapped back to attention. "Ah, yes, that’s me! Principal Ye, why are you still up so late?"

Ye Wen glanced at her, a trace of mockery playing on his lips, giving off an undeniable impression of, “Isn’t it obvious?”

This feeling irritated Yu Shiyun profoundly. She desperately wanted to pull out her identification badge, slam it onto Ye Wen’s face, and stand there proudly awaiting his deference.

Even though Ye Wen was obscenely rich and not a citizen of this country, Yu Shiyun believed that since he placed such high value on tradition, even spending heavily to return to his ancestral land to establish a school for promoting those ancient skills, he must be fundamentally traditional. And tradition in this country, since ancient times, dictated: The commoner does not contend with the official!

She failed to realize that Ye Wen’s return to open a school had nothing to do with those convoluted reasons; everything he did was for himself and the Shu Mountain Sect.

Thus, from the outset, Yu Shiyun had made a flawed judgment, and she was rapidly heading further down the wrong path.

“If Principal Ye has nothing else, I shall return to rest now,” her tone was stiff, carrying an air of arrogance, as if Ye Wen were not her employer, but she were his benefactor.

Seeing her posture, an unwelcome surge of anger rose in Ye Wen, and the look in his eyes toward Yu Shiyun shifted slightly.

If she had spoken to him politely, Ye Wen might not have made a fuss even after learning her identity. Since you are sending someone anyway, if I deal with this one, you’ll just dispatch another. It's better to have everything under my control than to have you sneaking around causing trouble behind my back.

But Yu Shiyun’s attitude…

Ye Wen was not known for having a gentle temper. Furthermore, having been a Sect Master in that other world for so long, he was a top figure in the martial world. How long had it been since someone dared to put on airs in front of him?

“I was just about to discuss that matter. Teacher Yu, you don't need to come to class tomorrow!” “What do you mean?” Yu Shiyun was taken aback, genuinely confused by this sudden pronouncement.

Ye Wen tilted his head up: “It’s very clear. You are dismissed! You are no longer a teacher at this school starting now.” “Wh—?” Yu Shiyun froze in place, utterly bewildered, as this scenario was completely outside her expectations. “You can’t do that!”

Ye Wen shrugged: “Of course, I can. This is my school. You are merely an employee I hired. If I can’t even fire an employee, who can? You?”

As he spoke, the sarcasm in Ye Wen’s gaze intensified, the look suggesting he was observing someone with a severe intellectual disability. Yu Shiyun felt a painful mix of anger and frustration under his gaze. In the next second, she wasn't just thinking of slapping her badge against his face; she actually reached into her coat and displayed the credential to Ye Wen.

In the faint light, Ye Wen clearly saw the national emblem on the small booklet, along with a line of text indicating the department to which she belonged.

Unfortunately, Ye Wen had zero interest in such matters. The moment he saw Yu Shiyun’s puffed-up, superior demeanor, any shred of desire to spare her face vanished completely.

“Since Miss Yu already has such a fine job, why bother coming to teach in this desolate place?”

Hearing this, Yu Shiyun momentarily thought Ye Wen was backing down, only for him to continue immediately: “And since Miss Yu has such a good job, I assume the benefits are also excellent. You clearly look down on the living conditions at our school… so you don’t need to stay on campus tonight…”

This was an undisguised order to leave, offering no grace period—telling her to scram immediately.

Yu Shiyun’s otherwise attractive face flushed crimson, her features contorting with rage. She had fully expected that once she showed her credentials, Ye Wen would jump in alarm, or at the very least, treat her with utmost courtesy, perhaps even trying to curry favor.

How could it be that before she showed her badge, Ye Wen only dismissed her, but now that she revealed it, she was facing immediate eviction without even a night's notice?

“You… you don’t know what this represents?”

Ye Wen shrugged again: “I don’t know, nor am I interested in knowing, nor do I care to know! All I know is that on my land, you obey me! Of course, once you leave, I have no say—that becomes your superiors’ business.”

This was the first time Yu Shiyun had encountered someone so utterly impervious to pressure. She contemplated threatening him with shutting down the school upon her return tomorrow, but after a moment’s thought, she withheld the words.

She wasn't new; she wasn't a novice. A tycoon of Ye Wen’s caliber was beyond the reach of petty figures like herself. Resentfully, she tucked her identification away and turned to pack her belongings.

She commanded the bespectacled girl standing nearby: “Come with me and help pack!” To her surprise, Ye Wen, seemingly making a deliberate counterpoint to her action, immediately interjected: “This person is still a student of our school, and our students have no obligation to help a departing teacher pack personal belongings!” He then told the girl, Zhang Ling: “Hurry back to the dorm and get some sleep. Don't be late for class tomorrow…”

Zhang Ling glanced between Ye Wen and Yu Shiyun, then obediently walked toward her dormitory. She still had an assignment. Since her superiors hadn't canceled her mission, she had to remain at the school as a student.

After Yu Shiyun left, she would surely report back. Then a decision would be made whether Zhang Ling should stay (though it was unlikely she’d willingly stay unless the investigation switched from covert to overt communication) or return to base.

Seeing Zhang Ling depart, Yu Shiyun shot one last look at her, then back at Ye Wen, who seemed intent on making trouble for her. She stomped her foot fiercely, and with a sharp snap, the slender heel of her shoe broke clean off.

“Ouch!” Her ankle twisted sharply. If Yu Shiyun hadn't been trained, the fall might have severely sprained her ankle. But even with her training, the sharp twist caused her discomfort, and having lost a heel made walking considerably more difficult…

Out of habit, Yu Shiyun immediately turned her gaze to the only man left present: Ye Wen. Unfortunately, he stood still, arms crossed, watching her coldly. She instantly understood that asking this man for assistance in walking back was an impossibility.

“Man with no manners…” she muttered under her breath before limping away, leaving behind a silhouette that seemed rather forlorn.

Ye Wen felt no compunction. The woman had been arrogant and looked down on everyone from the start. Now that she was in trouble, she expected polite treatment? Ye Wen didn't consider himself so pathetic.

“Chivalrous conduct? Chivalry is reserved for ladies… Who has the time or inclination to play the gentleman with a shrew?”

Admittedly, the term ‘shrew’ was harsh, but Yu Shiyun’s attitude toward Ye Wen had been poor indeed. A person like Ye Wen could discern clearly who respected him and who looked down on him from mere expressions and words.

Furthermore, he was not without means. Now that Ye Wen had touched upon the cultivation world, he didn't need to concern himself overly much with these worldly trifles. If pushed too far, he could always find a few students with good aptitude but poor backgrounds, hide away in some remote valley, train intensely for ten or eight years, and be set. There was no need to deal with these people.

Once both women were out of sight, Ye Wen formed a hand seal and teleported back to his residence. He decided against sleeping and instead sat in the living room to meditate and circulate his Qi. He had been practicing the Meixia Dang Zhenqi for a long time but hadn't reached mastery, partly because his focus hadn't been entirely on cultivation recently.

Ye Wen mused that this situation arose because his current strength was more than sufficient; he hadn't encountered anyone who truly threatened him, lessening the urgency to improve his own capabilities.

Hands resting on his knees, a plume of white mist gathered in his left hand, and a ball of blazing crimson light formed in his right. Feeling the Zixinghe Jinqi within his Dantian, Ye Wen felt these three energies were like completely unrelated internal arts. He wondered how far he needed to cultivate before the Huantian Baojian could truly become a cohesive technique.

He finished his practice and stood up. The night had passed. Huayi and Ning Ruxue had not come down, likely busy with their own training.

Not only was Huayi’s Gengjin Sheng Guang troublesome to master, but the green lotus between Ning Ruxue’s brows also seemed to have other marvelous uses. Since her Green Lotus Sword’s power increased, the imposing aura emanating from the lotus on her forehead caused Ye Wen a slight unease; he couldn't decipher what exactly this object was.

Unable to figure it out quickly, Ye Wen took the opportunity to organize his current possessions.

He had two spatial rings: one retrieved from Zhang Hengguang’s storage room, and the other obtained from that dark mage.

Ye Wen managed to peel back another layer of the restriction seals on the black gem ring. He had previously thought breaking these seals would be a slow grind, as completely unlocking the ring immediately was impossible.

But this time was unexpectedly different. After cracking this layer, Ye Wen could finally use the ring.

He could sense through his divine consciousness that the ring contained a vast space, potentially holding vastly more than the space ring currently in use.

What surprised Ye Wen, however, was that this space was utterly empty—just a massive, vacant area. On a whim, he touched the two rings together, and all the gold stored in the former ring instantly transferred into the black gem ring.

Even after moving all that gold, the space inside the new ring was still more than half empty. It seemed Ye Wen wouldn't need the old ring anymore; the black gem ring would suffice.

Ye Wen transferred the other miscellaneous items from the old ring into the black gem ring as well—things like the Beretta pistol kept for collection, a pile of rune bullets, holy light grenades, and a stack of talismans he specifically requested from Zhang Hengguang.

After the transfer, Ye Wen looked at the now-empty original ring and conducted one final experiment. Crucially, this experiment succeeded.

Looking at his left hand, holding only the black gem ring, Ye Wen’s divine sense could confirm that the former ring was now contained within the space of the black gem ring. He was now certain that this black gem ring was an artifact vastly superior to the previous spatial ring, though he couldn't yet gauge exactly how advanced it was.

However, from the fragments of information he gleaned after breaking the first seal, he learned that this ring had seventeen remaining restrictions. Breaking each one would grant him further control over the ring.

Furthermore, he learned the ring was called the Ring of Josephine (Beisefen'ni zhi Jie). Based on Ye Wen’s experience playing Western fantasy games, anything named "Ring of X" was usually good, and anything named after a person was a very good item.

What irked him was that he had never heard of this Josephine character…

“Perhaps it’s something an ancient powerhouse made using the name of a wife or daughter!” Ye Wen told himself, then paid the ring less mind. After all, he had only broken the outermost seal. He realized that the previous seals he broke were those applied by Mudelake, who possessed an incantation specifically designed to undo his own seals. Ye Wen had no idea how far he had progressed on the ring's inherent restrictions.

This wasn't to say Mudelake was stronger than Ye Wen; it was just that Mudelake’s cultivation system was directly related to the ring’s origin, allowing him to break the seals using the correct methodology.

Ye Wen? He had purely used brute force to smash through them. However, this method had an advantage: the seals he broke were completely destroyed. If Ye Wen could shatter all the remaining restrictions, the ring would become his absolute property, impossible to reclaim even by its creator.

Having settled the matter of the ring, the only remaining item Ye Wen wrestled with was the foot-long long needle—a magic treasure snatched from the Old Ancestor of Blood Splendor. How to allocate it was proving troublesome.

For Huayi, he already had three Thunder Fire Orbs. While the power of the Bimang Shenzhen (Green Light Divine Needle) far surpassed the Thunder Fire Orbs, Huayi already possessed two magic treasures, and giving her another might cause imbalance.

But if he gave it to his junior sister… his junior sister didn't seem to need magic items much. Ning Ruxue was still focused entirely on tempering her Green Lotus Sword, and now she had a new enigma to slowly uncover: the green lotus on her brow.

After much deliberation, Ye Wen decided to ask his junior sister first. If she wanted it, she could have it; if not, he would toss it into the ring to gather dust.

Fiddling with the needle, Ye Wen even tried channeling his Gong power into the Bimang Shenzhen. Since he hadn't re-consecrated it with his own divine sense, operating it was still clumsy.

“Long needle…”

Ye Wen scratched his cheek, the object making him think of that character, Dongfang Mang, whose gender was currently uncertain.

Just as he was thinking, Huayi suddenly spoke from behind him: “Are you thinking of Miss Dongfang?” After a pause, she continued in a teasing tone: “Master is so wicked, giving Miss Dongfang such a title…” Having been here for many years, Huayi had certainly seen The Smiling, Proud Wanderer.

“Th-that incident was purely an accident! … …” …… … … …