URBAN VILLAIN SYSTEM

The soft, rhythmic beating of the giant turtle’s flippers against the high-altitude winds created a gentle vibration that ran through the entire wooden deck.

Sitting at the absolute edge of the tail section, Tony Clark kept the paper plugs firmly inside his ears, completely insulated from the malicious laughter of the teenagers around him. His dark eyes remained fixed on the magnificent expanse of the clouds, completely enjoying the fairy-tale scenery.

However, his active Truth Eye suddenly caught a very distinct, incredibly pure fluctuation of spiritual energy right beside him. He shifted his gaze toward the nice-looking lady who was still focused on her artwork.

When Tony looked through his supreme vision, a sharp, villainous grin almost appeared on his face. He instantly perceived that beneath her faded, plain cotton clothes, she possessed an extraordinarily rich bloodline trace and carried multiple high-grade defensive treasures hidden inside her spatial ornaments.

This lady didn’t belong to the lower class at all; she belonged to one of the most powerful, multi-billion-dollar merchant families on the continent. She was currently traveling in the clever disguise of a poor lady with immaculate, good conduct just to observe the true nature of the applicants without her family’s massive shadow blinding her view.

Sensing Tony’s intense, analytical gaze on her wooden board, the lady slowly set down her paintbrush and pulled out a small spiritual token, utilizing a faint strand of her energy to project a localized sound barrier that bypassed his paper plugs. She wanted to strike up a serious conversation with this strange, older youth whose eyes carried a depth of strategic intelligence that absolutely didn’t match the rumors of a timid cripple.

"You possess a remarkably calm demeanor for someone who is facing the absolute judgment of the realm laws today," she spoke softly, her voice carrying a refined, elegant melody that completely betrayed her poor disguise. She looked into his dark eyes with genuine curiosity. "Most people in your position would be trembling in fear, yet you look as though you are merely taking a scenic vacation on this beast."

Before Tony could even formulate a lazy, sarcastic reply to her inquiry, a wealthy young noble from the middle deck suddenly noticed their interaction and loudly interrupted the conversation. The boy strode over with an arrogant smirk, his robes glittering with expensive gold embroidery as he barked out a cruel laugh to impress the surrounding crowd.

"Hey, beautiful lady, you shouldn’t waste your precious breath talking to that walking corpse!" the noble shouted, pointing his finger mockingly at Tony’s face. "Don’t you know who he is? This is his absolute seventh time taking the entrance test! According to the sacred realm laws of the Black Fire Academy, a cultivator is only allowed seven attempts before the age of nineteen. After failing this final time today, his spiritual sea will be permanently locked by the academy arrays, and he will legally be forced to live the rest of his miserable life forever as a common mortal! He is already a dead man walking!"

The surrounding teenagers let out another loud wave of mocking giggles, expecting the poor lady to instantly recoil in disgust and distance herself from the city’s famous failure.

However, the disguised merchant heiress completely ignored the shouting nobles, her elegant face turning entirely cold as she treated their rude interruption with absolute, silent contempt.

She didn’t say a single word to them, but the unpleasant noise had clearly ruined her conversational mood. She turned her attention entirely back to her wooden board, picking up her brush to resume painting the distant terrain, though her strokes became slightly tense.

Tony merely watched the small drama play out with his usual, unbothered nonchalance. He leaned closer toward her wooden board, his Truth Eye scanning the layout of her canvas. She was currently trying to capture the brilliant, blazing imagery of the Eternal Sun rising over the mountain ridges, but her brush was stuck, unable to find the correct hue to represent the unique, blinding solar laws of the higher realm.

"If you truly want to capture the absolute essence of that horizon, your current palette is entirely too shallow," Tony suggested smoothly, his deep, authoritative baritone cutting through her localized sound barrier. He pointed a lean, hardened finger toward three specific ink pots on her tray.

"Mix exactly two drops of the deep vermilion with a single speck of the spiritual amber, and then dilute it slightly with the crushed azure herb core. It will create a perfectly balanced new colour that can accurately depict the bleeding radiance of the sun without overwhelming the background terrain."

The lady’s hand froze mid-air, a look of deep skepticism appearing in her eyes. She didn’t believe his advice at first, knowing that the mixing of fire-attribute and water-attribute pigment bases usually resulted in a muddy, ruined canvas.

However, because she possessed a natural passion for the arts, her fingers moved on instinct, carefully blending the three distinct colours exactly according to Tony’s precise proportions.

The moment the new mixture touched the rough paper, her violet eyes suddenly widened to the size of saucers, and her breath completely caught in her throat in absolute shock. The resulting hue was too perfect. It was a magnificent, iridescent crimson-gold that captured the blinding majesty of the realm’s sun with a realism that she had never been able to achieve even with her family’s expensive master instructors.

"This... how is this possible?" she stammered, turning her head to stare at Tony with a look of profound, unadulterated awe. "The energy balance is completely flawless. Do you actually know the deep secrets of high-tier spiritual painting?!"

Tony didn’t offer a single word of explanation, nor did he boast about his supreme vision. He merely let out a soft, lazy smile, casually adjusted his dark hunting cloak, and closed his physical eyes, leaning his head back against the wooden guardrail to enter a state of deep, quiet meditation to nurture his newly acquired 7th Class Disciple magus energy.

Seeing him completely withdraw from the conversation, a sudden wave of deep guilt and regret washed over the merchant heiress.

She felt incredibly bad for temporarily ignoring his presence earlier just because she had listened to the superficial opinions and cruel jokes of the surrounding crowd. She realized that this older youth possessed a terrifying depth of hidden knowledge that completely mocked his public reputation as a talentless failure.

Meanwhile, all the way at the premium front deck of the transport, Lady Julie Faith was sitting under her luxurious silk canopy. Even though she was surrounded by wealthy young masters who were desperately trying to flirt with her and win her attention, her sharp gaze had secretly been tracking the rear section of the turtle. Seeing Tony casually talking and interacting with another lady—even one dressed in poor clothes—made a sudden, intense flash of irritation ripple through her proud chest.

She didn’t like the fact that a mortal trash who was supposed to be weeping over his broken engagement was acting so relaxed and unbothered. A cold, condescending smirk quickly returned to her beautiful face as she turned her head away, completely forcing her attention back onto the wealthy sycophants around her to clear her mind.

The long, quiet night passed by in a peaceful blur as the massive flying turtle soared effortlessly through the high-altitude winds, its giant body cutting through oceans of soft, white clouds under the starlight.

Tony remained in perfect meditation the entire night, manually stabilizing his hardened meridians until his physical frame felt completely synchronized with the laws of the realm.

Early the next morning, a deep, thunderous groan from the giant beast signaled the end of their long journey. The flying turtle began its majestic, slow descent through the morning fog, its massive shadow falling over a colossal valley carved directly into the mountain range.

As the mist cleared, the grand, towering iron gates of the Black Fire Academy finally appeared before the hundreds of wide-eyed applicants, surrounded by massive defensive arrays that hummed with absolute, terrifying power. The final stage for Tony’s ultimate gamble had officially arrived.

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