The heavy oak door made a deep creaking sound when gently pulled, a sound that time had worn smooth, before closing behind the last demon teacher as they left the principal's office.

  Through the wooden-framed window, starlight from the demon realm spilled into the room, overlapping with the warm lamplight to create a bright lattice of light.

  By the window at a square tea table, Lanqi sat comfortably in a soft woven armchair, feeling quite leisurely, like someone enjoying retirement.

  [Time Remaining: 0 hours 57 minutes]

  [Mission Objective 1: Academy exploration rate above 60%, current progress 1200%]

  [Mission Objective 2: Investigate tonight's source of danger—crisis currently resolved]

  [Mission Objective 3: At least 1 person survives until time limit, currently 6/6 surviving]

  [Challenger Lanqi is in t01 corridor, Principal's Office]

  After receiving the Great Love Poet's report of victory, he checked the Shadow World's information panel.

  Sure enough, the mission status had changed.

  It seemed all the objectives for this Shadow World had been completed, and time was in the latter half of the fifth period.

  Soon, the Shadow World would reach its conclusion.

  And he and Huberrian would be transported back to the real world's Icerite Academy.

  "No!"

  Just thinking about going from being principal of this dream campus back to being a student at that hell of a school, Lanqi didn't want to look at this painful countdown to awakening anymore.

  He then turned off the recording function of his [Shadow World Recording Program].

  The live broadcast function could be turned off or on at will, because sometimes in high-level Shadow Worlds lasting several days or months, challengers often needed to live their own lives and weren't always suitable for broadcasting.

  Since all mission objectives had been completed, even if Lanqi continued recording, it wouldn't affect the school's credit calculation or his promotion points from the South Continent Shadow World Management Association.

  So now he just wanted to peacefully study and take notes on the "Magic Beast Fur Processing Magic" that the magic science teacher had delivered to the principal's office.

  He didn't want the Association to record these spells, he only wanted to study them with Talia.

  Other humans didn't need to know the principles of this forbidden magic!

  Better to end the broadcast here and give viewers some light-hearted content.

  Once Lanqi turned his off, the real world's live broadcast would only show Huberrian's perspective.

  He believed that compared to watching him read books in the principal's office, viewers in the real world would prefer to see the Great Love Poet's happy smile.

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  "Let me experience this great product of demon wisdom!"

  Lanqi leaned back contentedly in his recliner and began reading this book of magical principles.

  "But why were Huberrian and I able to match into a fourth-level Shadow World..."

  He suddenly seemed to think of something and muttered to himself.

  Could it be that there was a fifth-level challenger who came in, raising the average difficulty?

  Since he and Huberrian were both below the Shadow World's rank, there should be someone among the challengers above the Shadow World's rank to balance it out.

  Among all the demon students invited to the principal's office earlier, there were both strong and weak ones, making it hard to distinguish, and high-level challengers were also skilled in magical power control techniques, making it difficult to determine which four were challengers.

  Of course, these four challengers also had no idea that Lanqi, as the principal, was also a challenger.

  After all, normally, people wouldn't think in the direction of "a student becoming the principal of a demon academy in just a few hours."

  "Hiss, if they all misunderstood me as this Shadow World's hidden NPC, wouldn't it be extremely awkward if we meet in the real world?"

  Lanqi suddenly realized,

  "Never mind."

  Lanqi shook his head, anyway they had already cleared the world, and there was nothing else to worry about, he just wanted to focus on studying this magic he had been thinking about for half the Shadow World.

  ...

  Above the foundation level,

  F03 corridor.

  The Demon Realm Plant Experimental Garden, where floral fragrance wafted through even beyond the door.

  In this classroom, the first thing that caught the eye was a vast lawn, spreading out like an emerald carpet.

  Along the winding paths grew various demon realm plants, from giant demon realm eucalyptus trees to tiny demon realm wildflowers, from brightly colored demon realm tropical plants to thorny demon realm vines, all seemingly natural treasures that could only grow in this land.

  The full, pristine plants in the subtle glow of magical lamps had blurred outlines, like ghosts in the night mist.

  They didn't necessarily have brilliant colors or extravagant forms, yet they were as quietly beautiful as a poem, standing there silently, remaining unchanged as time passed, quietly watching each sunrise and sunset.

  The Great Love Poet and Huberrian laid out a picnic blanket under a tree, preparing to enjoy demon realm dishes packed from the Demon King's Bestowed Restaurant in the early morning when starlight faintly shone through the windows.

  It was now 4 AM, barely qualifying as breakfast time.

  The happiness on the Great Love Poet's face seemed about to overflow as she lay on the ground, one hand propping up her face, the other gently touching flower stamens with her fingertips.

  Then, as if sensing her temperature, the flowers' petals gently bloomed in clusters like a miracle.

  The Great Love Poet's entrance special effect was originally making flowers bloom rapidly everywhere, but if they wanted to trigger this beautiful effect, Lanqi needed to spend more mana when summoning her.

  Correspondingly, she also possessed some ability to make plants grow, though it all consumed Lanqi's mana.

  Now that Lanqi had agreed to let her play as she wished, she didn't hesitate to squander his mana.

  Huberrian looked at the Great Love Poet, not knowing what to say while gradually letting down her guard.

  The Great Love Poet now looked nothing like that scheming succubus from before.

  Due to the arrival of the Great Love Poet and Huberrian, the plant science demon teacher of this difficulty 1 classroom temporarily changed the course content to [Free Appreciation].

  In other words, as long as they didn't damage the plants, they could rest freely in this classroom and receive a passing grade.

  After the vice principal's general assembly and announcement, the teachers naturally knew the identities of these two female demons.

  Today, the Inferno Corridor Academy had just been reborn, so as a celebration, they wouldn't make things difficult for students anymore.

  Who knows how much time passed in this peaceful atmosphere that made one easily forget time.

  Gusts of cold wind swept through, making the grass leaves rustle.

  The Great Love Poet raised her head in confusion.

  She felt that before her eyes, things seemed to become a bit dimmer for just a moment.

  The increasingly cold, thin starlight replaced the garden's tranquility with an indescribable silence.

  In the next instant.

  A whistling sound from an unknown source echoed across this open grassland!

  The strong sense of danger made Huberrian's spine go cold, and she immediately tensed her entire body.