Douluo Dalu: Sword!

Chapter 3: A Young Master in Nuoding

Carrying the heavy body of the Three-Eyed Shadow Cat on his shoulders, Gu Lin walked unhurriedly. The strength the "Path of the Star Jade Body" had given him made the task trivial. With the general direction in mind and the main road as a guide, the journey was surprisingly short.

A few beasts of lower cultivation got in his way, treating him as prey, but in the end, all were killed with just a few attacks.

In about half a day, the gates of Nuoding City appeared on the horizon.

His first stop was not the academy, but a shop that bought spirit beast materials. The carcass of a nearly thousand-year-old beast, even a common one like the Shadow Cat, was valuable.

He sold it for a fair price: One thousand three hundred silver coins, a small fortune for any common person.

With a heavy pouch, his next destination was a clothing store.

As he entered, the smell of new fabrics filled his lungs. The attendants looked him up and down, their skeptical glances fixed on his ragged, travel-stained clothes.

'Bunch of greedy people. Judging a person by appearance. As expected of a big city.'

Ignoring them, Gu Lin approached the counter and, with a deliberately audible sound, placed his pouch of coins on the polished wood.

Clink!

The sound of money changed everything. A young female attendant with short hair and a professional uniform, previously disdainful, hurried over with a careful smile.

"Welcome, young master. How may I help you?"

"I need a complete set of clothes. Something practical, but elegant," Gu Lin said. "And I'd also like permission to use your restroom, if possible."

He was truly filthy and smelled of sweat. A bath and clean clothes were all he wanted at that moment.

Quickly, she attended to him.

Gu Lin looked around the shop and soon found something he found interesting.

The upper part was a black robe with straight cuts that fit the body, ideal for not hindering movement. Over the chest, there was a light gray V-shaped fabric, sewn over the black tunic, with simple silver details. The collar and shoulders were lined with thick white fur, made to protect against the cold.

The sleeves were black, with dark leather reinforcements on the forearms, decorated with thin silver lines that formed symmetrical patterns. The bracelets were dark, made of rigid material, with a smooth and discreet finish.

At the waist, a brown rope belt, tightly secured and practical, kept the tunic firmly in place. A small, simple wooden pendant was attached to the belt, possibly decorative.

The pants were black and made of the same durable fabric as the upper part, tight enough not to hinder, but wide enough to ensure mobility. The boots were black leather, high-cut, reaching almost the knees, and had silver details on the clasps and stitching, matching the sleeve reinforcements.

The entire outfit seemed made for someone who needed practicality, protection, and discretion.

"This is it!"

He chose it, in his size, and went to the restroom to wash and change.

---

When he emerged from the restroom, the transformation was absolute. Bathed, with his silky black hair tied back and dressed in the new clothes, he looked like a different person. His upright posture, combined with his above-standard beauty, gave him the aura of a young noble from a great clan.

"Wow! What a cute little boy!"

"How beautiful! He doesn't even look like the little beggar who just came in."

The attendants' jaws dropped. They stared, incredulously, at the boy who seemed to have stepped out of a painting.

Gu Lin smiled, revealing perfectly white teeth.

He threw a hundred silver coins onto the counter, which was much more than the total cost.

"Keep the change."

And with that, he turned and left, leaving a trail of stunned gazes behind him.

His walk to Nuoding Academy was short, but it didn't fail to attract attention wherever he went. At the gates, a middle-aged guard with a bored expression stopped him, exactly as he expected. It was the same man who had given Tang San trouble.

Gu Lin wasted no time with words. He reached into his pouch.

Flick. Flick.

Ten silver coins flew through the air and landed perfectly in the guard's hand. The man's eyes widened. That was almost a month's salary for him as a guard.

But before he could say anything, Gu Lin presented his Spirit Hall certificate.

The change in the guard was instant. Surprise gave way to a servile smile. "Young master! Welcome to our Nuoding Academy! Please forgive my rudeness." He bowed slightly. "Allow me to personally escort you to the registration office!"

Gu Lin nodded. "Of course, then I'll be troubling older brother with this."

The guard quickly waved his hand in front of his face. "No trouble, no trouble at all. Come, follow me."

As they walked through the campus, the guard spoke incessantly, praising the academy's virtues and pointing out the various buildings.

Gu Lin just listened, absorbing the information, and comparing it with what he knew.

Nuoding was just a primary academy, as expected. He would graduate in six years, and in the future, if he performed well, he would then be recommended to a prestigious intermediate academy, or possibly taken in by some minor clan.

He wasn't interested in that, especially since his plans had already been shaped long ago.

When they arrived, the registration office was as humble as he remembered from the stories: a small room with a desk, two chairs, and some dusty bookshelves. Two middle-aged teachers were chatting when they entered.

Gu Lin handed over Su Yuntao's report. The teachers' eyes widened as they read the document.

"Sword Martial Soul... Innate Spirit Power, Level 7!" one of them exclaimed, looking at Gu Lin with new respect. "That's excellent! More than eighty percent of new students don't even have spirit power of level 3. It seems the academy will have a genius this year."

The process was quick. The other teacher smiled and gently handed him a blue school uniform and a room key. "You've been assigned to dormitory five. Just follow that path and look for the building with number five."

Gu Lin frowned internally. 'Dormitory five?' Not that he expected to be placed in the seventh, along with Tang San and Xiao Wu, but he felt that the chances of that happening were very high.

'Interesting. Fate enjoys small twists.'

However, he didn't care about that. In fact, perhaps it was better this way. Xiao Wu was never really his type, and he had no further desire for her. Nor did he have any interest in discovering how the world would change if she didn't become Tang San's "reverse scale."

Besides, she was truly a bit problematic.

A hundred-thousand-year-old spirit beast in disguise, the Spirit Hall, the possibility of a Spirit Bone... it was a minefield of dangers.

"Alright, thank you, teacher."

Following the instructions, he found dormitory five. It was a simple two-story building. He went up to his room and opened the door.

What he saw surprised him. The room was large, with ten wooden beds lined against the walls. It was clear it was a mixed dormitory.

Eight people were already there, and four of them were girls. None were stunning beauties, but all seemed to be a year or two older than him. Probably veterans and diligent students.

The moment he entered, all conversations stopped.

Eight pairs of eyes fixed on him. They saw an incredibly handsome boy, dressed in high-quality clothes, carrying an aura of quiet nobility.

They looked at each other, confused. The question silently hung in the air between them:

What was a young master like him doing in the diligent students' dormitory?