Heading to Shrek Academy!

"What are you still standing around for?"

"Hurry up, pack your things, and get out."

"That Utility Room leaks when it rains. Figure out how to fix it yourselves."

"And starting tomorrow, both of you will have to work."

"You, go help out in the kitchen."

"You, go clean the stables."

The steward waved his hand impatiently.

He pointed at Huo Yuhao, the corner of his mouth lifting in a mocking smile. "You little good-for-nothing. You should at least do something a good-for-nothing is supposed to do."

Huo Yuhao raised his head and looked at him.

His gaze was calm.

Far too calm for a six-year-old child.

The steward felt inexplicably uneasy. Then, humiliated and furious, he snatched up the teacup on the table and hurled it at him!

"What are you looking at? Get out!"

The teacup struck Huo Yuhao in the forehead and shattered across the floor.

Blood ran down his cheek.

Huo Yun'er cried out and rushed over to embrace him, pressing a handkerchief tightly against the wound.

Huo Yuhao didn't move, letting his mother hold him.

He only looked at the steward.

Kept looking at him.

Until his mother pulled him away.

The Utility Room was in terrible shape.

Several holes gaped in the roof, moss covered the walls, and the damp floor reeked of mildew.

Huo Yun'er busied herself tidying up. She stuffed rags into the cracks in the walls to block the drafts, then took off her own coat and spread it over the rickety wooden bed.

"Yuhao, sit here for a while. I'll go get dinner."

She stroked her son's head and forced a smile.

Huo Yuhao looked at the exhaustion on his mother's face and at her hands, so rough they didn't seem to belong to a thirty-year-old woman. Then he spoke abruptly:

"Mother, I'll grow stronger."

Huo Yun'er froze.

"I definitely will."

"When the time comes, I'll take you away from here."

"We'll go somewhere no one can bully us."

Huo Yuhao repeated himself. His voice was quiet, but firm.

Huo Yun'er's eyes reddened at once.

She crouched down and held her son tightly in her arms.

"All right. I'll wait."

She didn't say how many more years her body could hold out.

She didn't say that after washing clothes and mending them late into the night every day, her back could barely straighten anymore.

She simply held her son and stroked his head again and again.

Moonlight streamed through the holes in the window and fell on mother and son.

It was cold.

And bitterly so.

Meanwhile.

On the highway.

Bai Lan sat beneath a large tree, resting and chewing on some dry rations.

He didn't know why Huo Yuhao had suddenly come to mind.

Maybe the impression he'd left from the novels Bai Lan had read in his previous life was too strong. The boy who had clawed his way up from the very bottom of the White Tiger Duke's Mansion and eventually become a god was simply too legendary.

"How old is Huo Yuhao now?"

"When exactly did I transmigrate?"

As he chewed his rations, Bai Lan silently worked it out.

According to the timeline, Huo Yuhao had entered Shrek Academy at around eleven.

And given how most novels made the protagonist the same age as the transmigrator—

If he really was the same age as Huo Yuhao,

then Huo Yuhao should still be in the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, having only recently awakened his Martial Soul.

The Spirit Eye.

Innate Soul Power: Rank One.

That was the beginning of his years of darkness.

"Should I go rescue him?"

The thought had barely occurred to him before Bai Lan dismissed it.

First of all, he could barely look after himself. What could a six-year-old do to rescue someone from the White Tiger Duke's Mansion?

Besides, Huo Yuhao's growth had depended to a great extent on the hardships he'd endured.

Those very trials had forged his unyielding will.

It was his mother's death that had fueled his determination to grow stronger.

If Bai Lan interfered, it might not turn out for the better.

"Everyone has their own path."

"I'm no savior, and I have no obligation to change someone else's fate."

"Just looking after myself is already more than enough."

"Once I grow stronger, I'll help if I can."

"At least he won't be trained by Tang San into a dog."

"At least this guy can become a god."

"Douluo Continent might be a low-level world, but among all the fantasy novels, it's the easiest place to achieve immortality."

"How many people in this world never manage to become gods!"

Bai Lan stood up and brushed the dust off himself.

He continued on his way.

Half a day later.

Bai Lan stood before a city gate, looking up at the three large characters above it:

Nuoding City

"Finally."

He breathed a sigh of relief.

Nuoding City, the seat of Fasinuo Province, was also a necessary stop on the way from God Soul Village to Shrek Academy.

According to his plan, he needed to find a caravan in Nuoding City and travel north with them. That would be both safer and easier.

Traveling alone was too dangerous.

If he ran into another Soul Beast or encountered an Evil Soul Master, his life might be over.

"First, I'll find somewhere to stay, then ask around at the trade guild."

Bai Lan stepped into the city.

After ten thousand years of development, and with the renown of Sea God Tang San,

Nuoding City was now more prosperous than he'd imagined.

Shops lined both sides of the street, pedestrians thronged the roads, and Soul Masters in fitted outfits passed by from time to time.

Bai Lan's plain clothes made him look out of place, but he didn't mind. He found a cheap little inn and checked in.

After settling in, he went out to ask about the trade guilds.

As luck would have it, a caravan was heading north in three days, bound for Shrek City.

Its leader was a plump man in his fifties, surnamed Wang and known as Fatty Wang. Supposedly, he'd been a Soul Master when he was young, but after an injury forced him to retire, he'd switched to business.

Bai Lan found him and explained why he'd come.

"Kid, you're going to Shrek City all by yourself? Where are your parents?"

Fatty Wang looked him up and down, his gaze lingering on the sickle at his waist and the bundle on his back.

"I am the adult," Bai Lan said calmly.

Fatty Wang paused, then burst out laughing. "That's a good one! All right, I like you. Five Silver Soul Coins, and meals are included on the way."

Bai Lan nodded and paid on the spot.

After taking the money, Fatty Wang looked at him again, then suddenly lowered his voice. "Kid, a word of advice: the roads haven't been safe lately. There are Evil Soul Masters about, so stick with the group and don't wander off."

Evil Soul Masters?

"Thanks for the warning."

Bai Lan felt a chill in his heart, but his expression remained unchanged.

Three days later, the caravan set out.

Bai Lan left Nuoding City with the group and headed north.

The caravan was sizable, with more than twenty wagons carrying all kinds of goods.

It had more than a dozen guards, all second- or third-ring Soul Masters. Their leader was a middle-aged man in his forties, a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor surnamed Liu. Everyone called him Boss Liu.

Bai Lan was the only child in the group. At first, some people teased him and asked if he'd run away from home.

But Bai Lan wasn't much of a talker. If they asked too many questions, he'd simply give them a quiet look. His calm gaze made them inexplicably uneasy, and after a few attempts, no one bothered him anymore.

Fatty Wang liked him, though, and often pulled him into conversation.

"Kid, you're going to Shrek City to attend Shrek Academy, right?"

"Yeah."

"What Martial Soul do you have? What's your Innate Soul Power rank?"

"A book."

"Ten."

Fatty Wang nearly fell off his horse.

He stared wide-eyed at Bai Lan, and after a long moment, managed to choke out, "...Say that again?"

"Innate Full Soul Power," Bai Lan calmly repeated.