"Uh… weren't you going to come home with me?"
Wang Teng scratched his cheek innocently.
Truth be told, he was a little reluctant to leave things as they were. Ever since gaining real confidence, he'd started letting himself go a bit.
Every time he saw Tang Yue, he couldn't help wanting to tease her—just to see that stunned, embarrassed, slightly angry expression.
Now that he thought about it, though, he really should rein it in.
Acting was acting—he couldn't go full method acting all the time. Otherwise, it'd look like he had no acting skills at all.
"Go home?"
"What home?"
"What nonsense are you thinking now?"
"I called you over to tell you that I've already submitted your review materials for joining the Judgment Council."
"Starting today, you're an Apprentice Judge. You'll be under my supervision—so don't you dare cause trouble."
Tang Yue had already grown accustomed to this guy's terrible sense of humor.
His eyes didn't carry desire—he just seemed to enjoy provoking her, watching her make a fool of herself.
"Oh~ that thing. Alright, got it."
"Want to come to my place for a drink?"
"No. Busy!"
Wang Teng watched as Tang Yue walked away in high heels, got into a red sedan not long after, and with a roar of the engine, disappeared down the road.
"…Maybe I should buy a car too?"
The thought crossed his mind, but then he remembered that in a little over two years, he'd be heading to Magic City.
"No, no—forget it."
"I wouldn't even drive it for long. Probably wouldn't need it anymore."
"When the time comes, I might even auction off the apartment. If things really go out of control after the chaos and properties get requisitioned by the military, that'd be a huge loss."
"If I do it right, that alone could cover my mid-tier cultivation resources."
"And once I leave, it'll be hard to ever come back to a small place like this."
Wang Teng walked toward his little electric scooter, already thinking far ahead.
As for what Tang Yue had just told him—he'd deal with that later.
He hadn't even been in high school for a full year yet.
Graduation was still a long way off.
Most likely, he'd end up being the longest-serving Apprentice Judge in history.
...
As the final exams drew closer, the atmosphere in the class grew increasingly heavy.
Jokes were jokes, but when it came time for actual class division, no one was completely calm.
Everyone was afraid of failing to enter the elite class.
That meant losing access to free resources—falling even further behind.
Under this oppressive pressure, people trained like mad.
It became common to see students looking utterly haggard in the mornings due to overtraining.
Some even showed signs of mental instability.
Others, who hadn't worked hard early on, found the pressure unbearable and simply gave up entirely.
A few days after that conversation, Zhang Jianguo suddenly revealed that Wang Teng was already controlling his seventh Star Particle.
The class exploded.
As one of the frontrunners, Xu Zhaoting—pressed hard by Wang Teng—had finally trained himself to meditate even inside the classroom.
At first, he'd felt smug, even amused.
That single announcement shattered his illusion.
Wang Teng's late-stage acceleration was terrifying.
It felt like something was chasing him from behind—an invisible ghost snapping at his heels.
The sense of urgency was overwhelming.
He even began to suspect that Wang Teng might surpass him and become Class 7's number one.
The moment that possibility crossed his mind, he couldn't sit still anymore.
He'd held the title of top student for far too long.
His confidence was built on it.
If he lost it, the blow would be devastating.
As Class 7's homeroom teacher, Zhang Jianguo was more than satisfied with the results.
The previously lax atmosphere was gone—everyone was pushing themselves to the limit.
This greatly increased his chances of becoming the elite class's homeroom teacher.
Wang Teng, however, paid no attention to any of it.
He wasn't someone like Mo Fan, who liked to explode with sudden breakthroughs every other day.
This was simply his rhythm.
And most likely, it would remain that way.
The class atmosphere had no negative impact on him whatsoever.
Actually—no, that wasn't entirely true.
There was one benefit.
Everyone's attention had become far more scattered.
As a result, the rate at which Spiritual Energy leaked unconsciously increased dramatically.
Thanks to that, the growth speed of his Spiritual Attainment nearly doubled.
Truly something worth celebrating.
Everyone had a bright future ahead of them.
Under this intense tension, the final exams finally arrived.
That morning, Old Zhang arrived unusually early and prepared a speech at the podium.
"Recently, everyone's been training very hard. I've seen it all—you've all done well."
Looking at the students below, some had unfocused eyes, others sharp and clear, but smiles still appeared on many faces.
"However, in one week, the magic assessment will begin. I need to emphasize how important it is."
"This will determine class restructuring—especially the formation of the elite class. All resources go there."
"Star Dust Magic Tools—you should all know about them by now. Only students in the elite class can use them."
"Now, about the assessment itself."
"One part tests magic power growth—your meditation results."
"The other tests spellcasting proficiency—your control over Star Particles."
"They're scored separately, then combined for a final ranking."
"That ranking will be the sole basis for class division—from the top down, with the last hundred excluded."
"That's the overall selection process."
"So for this remaining week, get proper rest."
"No more excessive meditation. You must maintain your condition, or you might not even perform at your usual level—and that would be the real regret."
Zhang Jianguo decisively halted further overtraining.
Accidents had happened in past years.
Leaving a buffer week made things much safer.
Wang Teng sat in the back, eyes half-closed.
These past six months had been extremely fruitful.
After prolonged accumulation, his Spiritual Attainment finally broke through.
Fourth Level.
The coverage radius of his innate talent—Spiritual Devouring—expanded to a full hundred meters around him.
Another massive leap.
What surprised him most was how dramatically Spiritual Attainment reinforced the Space Element.
Even he found it astonishing.
Upon reaching the Fourth Level, Void Phasing could finally be executed completely.
Previously, he'd been stuck skimming the surface of space—his Spiritual Attainment simply hadn't been strong enough.
That phase wasn't without gains, though.
His mastery over spatial control had become far more refined.
As the core of his cultivation, the development of Demon Arts always took priority.
With Void Phasing completed, the second Demon Art was now officially on the agenda:
Void Treasury.
For a spatial demon being, lacking an independent personal storage space was the real disgrace.
This Demon Art opened a stable internal spatial vault within his body.
Beyond storage, its core function was spatial retrieval.
If Void Treasury covered a radius of one hundred meters, then any object within that range—so long as it wasn't firmly restrained—could be instantly seized and drawn to him.
This Demon Art was developed specifically for scavenging in demon territories.
After all, demon lands were rich in resources.
But they were also full of demons.
Solo combat against hordes wasn't realistic.
With Void Treasury, however, many of those problems could be avoided entirely.