The Silver-Winged Eagle, now named Sora by the group, was no longer the fierce, solitary predator of the mountains. Under Lin Fan's guidance—and his Flawless-Grade Beast-Nurturing Pills—Sora's wings had expanded by nearly five meters, and its feathers had taken on a metallic, crystalline sheen.
It was no longer just a Rank-3 beast; it was on the verge of evolving into a Rank-4 Storm-Eagle.
"Teacher, I still think this is a bit overkill for a simple trip to the capital," Fatty Lu wheezed, struggling to tie a massive leather saddle onto Sora's back. "And why do I have to carry the luggage while the eagle carries you?"
"Because, Lu Bao," Lin Fan said, looking up from a scroll, "your body is a Bottomless Void. If you don't keep your muscles under constant tension, the Qi you absorb will simply turn into fat instead of essence. Do you want to be a powerful shield or just a very large target?"
Lu Bao sighed and tightened the straps. Mu Tie and Ling'er stood nearby, looking at the horizon with excitement. For them, this wasn't just a trip; it was their debut. They were leaving the small, suffocating confines of Silver-Leaf City and heading toward the heart of the Azure Empire's scholarly world.
"Mount up," Lin Fan commanded.
With a powerful beat of its wings that sent a dust storm across the academy's plaza, Sora took to the skies.
The Voyage through the Clouds
As they soared thousands of meters above the ground, the world below transformed into a patchwork of green forests and winding rivers. Lin Fan sat at the front, his eyes closed, but his mind was far from resting.
[Divine Library: Expanding Sensory Scan...]
[Detection: 15 Flying Vessels within 50 kilometers. All are Rank-1 and Rank-2 wooden transport boats.]
[Warning: A Rank-3 'Cloud-Piercer' Galleon is approaching from the East at high speed.]
Lin Fan opened his eyes. In the distance, a massive ship made of white spirit-wood was cutting through the clouds. It was powered by a complex set of Array Formations that glowed with blue light.
On the deck of the galleon, a group of young men and women in lavish blue robes—the uniform of the Heavenly Sword Sect—were laughing and pointing at the Silver-Winged Eagle.
"Look at that! A bird-rider!" one of them shouted, his voice amplified by Qi. "Hey, peasant! This is an Imperial Air-Lane! Move that overgrown pigeon out of the way before we blast it with the ship's gale-arrays!"
"Teacher, they're being rude," Ling'er said, her hand reaching for the hilt of the training sword Lin Fan had given her.
"Let them be," Lin Fan said calmly. "The higher a person stands on a wooden boat, the more they forget that the wood can rot."
The Cloud-Piercer galleon pulled up alongside Sora. A young man with a thin mustache and a 1-Star Master Teacher badge pinned to his chest leaned over the railing.
"I am Teacher Wei of the Heavenly Sword Sect," the man sneered. "We are heading to the Master Teacher Exam. Seeing as you have a beast, you must be a Beast Tamer. But riding a Silver-Winged Eagle like a common donkey? You clearly have no taste. Why don't you sell that bird to me? I'll give you 500 Mid-Grade Spirit Stones. That's more than a border-city beggar sees in a lifetime."
Lin Fan didn't even turn his head. "500 stones? I spend more than that on my bird's breakfast. Move your boat, Teacher Wei. You're blocking our wind."
The disciples on the galleon gasped. No one spoke to a Teacher of the Heavenly Sword Sect that way.
"You seek death!" Wei roared. "Activate the Gale-Array! Blow them out of the sky!"
The galleon's arrays began to glow bright blue. A massive wall of wind began to form, aiming to send the eagle into a tailspin.
"Lu Bao," Lin Fan said softly. "You wanted a challenge. The wind is coming. Eat it."
"Eat the wind? Really, Teacher?" Lu Bao grumbled, but he stood up on the eagle's back, his feet locking into the saddle. He opened his mouth wide and activated his Bottomless Void.
As the massive blast of Qi-fortified wind hit them, it didn't push the eagle back. Instead, the air seemed to funnel directly into Lu Bao's mouth. His stomach expanded like a balloon, glowing with a faint blue light.
[Divine Library: Conversion Successful. Redirecting Kinetic Energy to Sora.]
"Now, spit it back," Lin Fan commanded.
Lu Bao let out a burp that sounded like a thunderclap. The compressed wind exploded out of him, hitting the Cloud-Piercer galleon with ten times the force it had sent.
CRAAAACK!
The spirit-wood railings of the galleon shattered. The ship tilted violently to the side, sending the Sword Sect disciples screaming as they tumbled across the deck. Teacher Wei barely managed to grab a mast to keep from falling into the clouds.
Sora let out a mocking shriek, beat its wings once, and accelerated, leaving the struggling galleon far behind in a trail of mist.
Arrival at the Provincial Capital: Azure City
Azure City was a Rank-4 Territory, and the difference was immediate. The Qi density here was three times higher than in Silver-Leaf City. The walls were made of white jade-stone, and the sky was filled with flying beasts and majestic spirit-boats.
As they landed at the beast-docks, Sora's appearance drew many eyes. A Rank-3 beast was common here, but one with such pure Qi and disciplined form was rare.
"We have three days before the Master Teacher Exam," Lin Fan told his students. "Mu Tie, Ling'er, go to the Combat Pavilion and register for temporary sparring. You need to get used to the gravity of a Rank-4 city. Lu Bao, you're coming with me to the Array Formation Guild."
"Array Formations?" Lu Bao scratched his head. "Teacher, I thought you were an Alchemist and a Beast Tamer?"
"To be a Master Teacher, one must be a polymath," Lin Fan said, walking toward the tallest building in the city's northern district—a tower wrapped in floating silver runes.
The Array Formation Guild: The Trial of the Thousand Strings
The Array Formation Guild was a place of silence and intense concentration. Here, masters calculated the flow of the world's energy to create barriers, weapons, and even artificial climates.
Lin Fan walked up to the front desk. "I am here to take the 1-Star Array Master Exam."
The clerk, an elderly man with thick glasses, didn't even look up. "Room 302. The fee is 200 Mid-Grade Spirit Stones. The test is the 'Trial of the Thousand Strings'. You must untangle a Rank-1 'Spider-Web Array' in under ten minutes without breaking a single thread of Qi."
Lin Fan paid the fee and entered the room. In the center of the hall was a glowing ball of light made of thousands of intersecting blue lines. It looked like a giant, glowing knot of yarn.
For most, this was a nightmare of mathematics and Qi control. If you pulled the wrong string, the whole array would collapse, failing the test.
[Divine Library: Scanning Array 'Spider-Web'...]
[Analysis: 1,024 threads. 456 are decoys. The core 'Heart-Thread' is located at the 78th intersection.]
[Flaws: 12. The array is inefficiently looped at the base.]
Lin Fan didn't use a focus-tool or a compass. He simply walked up to the glowing ball and reached in.
His fingers moved with the speed of a master musician. He wasn't untangling; he was rewriting.
Snap. Slide. Twist.
In exactly thirty seconds, the ball of light didn't just untangle—it expanded and transformed into a beautiful, perfect 'Heavenly Shield Array'.
The door to the room opened, and three 2-Star Array Masters walked in, their faces pale.
"Who... who did this?" the lead Master asked, looking at the perfect shield. "The test was to untangle it, not to upgrade it to a Rank-2 Shield!"
"The original design was flawed," Lin Fan said, wiping his hands. "I took the liberty of fixing it. Do I pass?"
The Masters looked at each other. They had never seen such a thing. To "fix" an array while untangling it required a level of mental processing power that usually only 3-Star or 4-Star Masters possessed.
"Pass? You've set a new record for the guild!" the lead Master said, bowing slightly. "Teacher, would you consider becoming an Elder here? We can offer you five thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones a year!"
"I'm a teacher," Lin Fan said, his voice echoing with quiet pride. "My place is in the classroom, not a tower. Give me my badge."
[Ding! Profession Mastered: 1-Star Array Master (Perfect Grade).]
[System Note: Third Divine Halo detected. Requirements for 1-Star Master Teacher Exam: MET.]
The Auction House: Buying a Dream
With his new badge, Lin Fan headed to the city's Grand Auction House. He needed something specific for the Celestial Path Academy: a Flying Boat Base.
While Sora was great for transport, a true academy needed a mobile base—a "Floating Classroom"—to travel between continents in the future.
Inside the auction house, the atmosphere was electric.
"Our next item!" the auctioneer shouted. "A damaged Rank-3 'Cloud-Drifter' Base. It was caught in a lightning storm and its core array is shattered. A new one costs 5,000 High-Grade stones, but we are starting the bidding at just 500!"
The room was silent. A flying boat without a core array was just a giant, expensive piece of wood. Fixing a Rank-3 core was almost impossible for a 1-Star Master.
"500," Lin Fan raised his hand.
"501!" a familiar voice shouted.
Lin Fan turned to see Teacher Wei from the Heavenly Sword Sect, his robes still torn from the earlier encounter. He looked at Lin Fan with pure hatred. "I don't know how you burped your way past my galleon, peasant, but you won't get this ship. I'll buy it just to burn it in front of you!"
"600," Lin Fan said calmly.
"1,000!" Wei countered.
"Teacher, we don't have that many High-Grade stones," Lu Bao whispered anxiously.
"We don't need them," Lin Fan smiled. He turned to the auctioneer. "I won't pay in stones. I will pay in 'Knowledge'."
The room erupted in laughter. "Knowledge? This is an auction house, not a library!" Wei mocked.
Lin Fan ignored him and looked at the Auctioneer. "Your auction house's main defensive array, the 'Golden-Bell Barrier', is failing. There is a fracture in the third pillar of the basement. In exactly ten minutes, the barrier will flicker, and if any thief is waiting outside, your entire vault will be vulnerable."
The Auctioneer's face went white. "Preposterous! Our barrier is maintained by—"
BZZZZZT!
Suddenly, the lights in the hall flickered. A low, ominous hum vibrated through the floor. The "Golden-Bell Barrier" outside groaned and turned a dull grey.
The head of security rushed in, panting. "Sir! The barrier! There's a fracture in the basement! How did he know?!"
The Auctioneer looked at Lin Fan as if he were a god. "Fix it... if you fix it, the Cloud-Drifter is yours for free!"
Lin Fan walked to the center of the hall, stamped his foot, and sent a pulse of his Deadly Poison Qi (in its corrective form) into the ground. The Qi traveled through the floorboards, straight into the array's fracture, and "stitched" it back together using the synthesis logic of the Divine Library.
The barrier outside instantly turned a brilliant, solid gold.
The Auctioneer bowed so low his forehead touched the floor. "The ship is yours, Master Lin! And please... take this VIP Platinum Card as a token of our gratitude!"
Teacher Wei stood frozen, his face turning from red to purple to a ghostly white. He had tried to outbid a man who could fix city-level arrays with a stomp of his foot.
The Night Before the Exam
That night, Lin Fan stood on the deck of his new (and now perfectly repaired) flying boat, docked at the city's highest pier. Mu Tie, Ling'er, and Lu Bao were practicing their forms on the deck.
Lin Fan called them over.
"Tomorrow is the 1-Star Master Teacher Exam," he said. "The Empire will test me on my knowledge, my professions, and my 'Divine Halos'. But more importantly, they will test you."
"Us?" Mu Tie asked.
"A Master Teacher is judged by the growth of his students," Lin Fan explained. "They will put you through a 'Trial of Potential'. They will try to find flaws in your cultivation. They will try to prove that I am a fraud."
Ling'er stepped forward, her fiery eyes reflecting the moonlight. "Let them try. They see a scar; I see a Phoenix. They see a cripple; I see a Dragon. They see a glutton; I see the Void."
"Good," Lin Fan nodded.
[Divine Library: System Update...]
[Status: Preparing for Rank-2 Upgrade.]
[Objective: Obtain 'Master Teacher License'.]
"Go to sleep," Lin Fan said. "Tomorrow, we show this Empire that the Celestial Path Academy doesn't just teach students. We forge Legends."
The Morning of the Exam: The Master Teacher Pavilion
The Master Teacher Pavilion was a gargantuan structure of floating white islands connected by bridges of light. Thousands of teachers from across the continent had gathered here.
Lin Fan walked toward the registration desk.
"Name?" the clerk asked.
"Lin Fan."
"Academy?"
"Celestial Path Academy."
The clerk paused and looked up. "Oh, the one General Han mentioned? The 'unorthodox' one? You're in Hall A. The Chief Examiner is Grandmaster Mo, a 4-Star Master Teacher. He's... not a fan of 'unorthodox' methods."
Lin Fan smiled and walked toward the hall. Behind him, three sunehre Divine Halos began to manifest, shining with a purity that made the other teachers' halos look like dim candles