Arrival at Silves City.

He let out a long, steadying breath.

Amidst the flickering firelight, he noticed a slender blade of blue grass growing quietly beside the spot where the stone box had originally rested.

That Blue Silver Grass was crystal clear and blue throughout, its leaves seemingly traced with faint golden veins, emitting a weak, gentle halo under the reflection of the fire.

Ah Yin's true form.

Looking at this seedling, Ye Feng fell silent for a moment, eventually just shaking his head.

He did not touch it.

Everyone has their own destiny.

Taking the spirit bone was already enough to cut off a major opportunity for Tang San; there was no need to be ruthless and finish the job completely.

After finishing all this, Ye Feng tied the rope back around his waist and climbed up along the original path.

Returning to the top of the cliff, he untied the rope and, without even looking, threw it down.

Destroying the evidence, leaving no traces behind.

Having done this, he identified his direction, turned, and strode off toward the Sunset Forest.

The journey to the Sunset Forest was far longer than he had imagined.

It took Ye Feng a full month of travel, dusty and weary, to finally arrive at the transit point of this trip—Silves City.

For over a month, he had lived in the open, spending most of his time trekking through desolate mountains and forests.

Along the way, he had not let his guard down for a single moment.

His experience in the Star Dou Great Forest had made him deeply understand the cruelty of this world. Greed was the original sin carved into the bones of every spirit master.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, he had kept his conspicuous spirit master robe packed away the entire time, changing into ordinary linen clothes bought from small towns along the way. He had even used a special medicinal liquid to stain his face a sallow yellow, making him look like an ordinary mercenary who had been traveling for years.

When the silhouette of that majestic city appeared on the horizon, the nerves Ye Feng had kept taut for over a month finally relaxed just a little.

Silves City.

This was one of the most prosperous cities in the Heaven Dou Empire and the largest supply point closest to the Sunset Forest, with a straight-line distance of less than a hundred miles.

The city walls were towering, built from massive blue-gray rocks, covered in the marks of time, carved by blades and axes.

At the city gate, the flow of people was like a weave, with carriages and horses passing in an endless stream.

There were spirit master teams carrying giant swords with fierce auras, itinerant merchants pushing small carts with faces weathered by the elements, and even the carriages of nobles, surrounded by entourages.

People from all walks of life gathered here.

Following the crowd, Ye Feng paid a few Copper Soul Coins as an entrance fee and successfully walked into this city, which was filled with both vitality and danger.

Unlike the ease of a remote small town like Nuoding City, the air in Silves City seemed to be permeated with a faint scent of blood and the copper stench of Gold Soul Coins.

Shops lined both sides of the street; the clanging of ironwork drifted from blacksmith shops, various herbs hung drying at the entrances of pharmacies, and the taverns were bustling with noise, with the rough laughter and cursing of spirit masters spilling out from time to time.

He was in no hurry to find a place to stay. Instead, he found an inn that looked reasonably clean, rented a room, and enjoyed a refreshing hot bath, washing away all the dust and exhaustion of the past month.

After changing into clean clothes, he walked out onto the street at a leisurely pace, beginning to truly size up the city.

His goal was clear.

Here, he would cultivate his spirit power to level twenty, then enter the Sunset Forest to find his second spirit ring.

After that, he would find a decent high-level spirit master academy to settle down for a few years and systematically learn the knowledge of this world.

As for which academy to attend...

Heaven Dou Royal Academy?

Ye Feng curled his lip and immediately crossed it off his list.

That was a private garden for nobles. As a commoner with no power or influence, even if his talent were exceptional, he would have to keep his head down once inside. Who knew when he might become a thorn in the side of those spoiled brats, dying without even knowing how it happened.

Then... Shrek Academy?

As soon as this thought emerged, Ye Feng couldn't help but sneer, his laughter filled with undisguised contempt and disdain.

Shrek Academy, only accepting monsters and not ordinary people?

It sounded so impressive, so unconventional.

But in reality?

It was nothing but a joke! A complete, black joke built upon the bones of countless geniuses!

To this day, Ye Feng still remembered the detail from the original story that made his skin crawl.

Dai Mubai had personally said that in the twenty years since Shrek Academy was founded, it had recruited a total of forty-two students, and only fourteen had survived to graduate!

Forty-two!

To be scouted by Shrek, the minimum standard was a genius with an Innate Soul Power of level seven or higher!

In twenty years, out of forty-two geniuses with Innate Soul Power of level seven or higher, twenty-eight had died for no apparent reason!

The mortality rate was as high as two-thirds!

Tsk tsk, just thinking about that number was enough to make one shudder.

This is no academy; this is a goddamn slaughterhouse!

And as for those fourteen who survived, did they really make it through on strength and luck alone?

Ye Feng deeply doubted it.

One only needs to look at the original Shrek Seven Devils to understand.

Dai Mubai is a prince of the Star Luo Empire.

Would Flender dare let him die? Would Zhao Wuji?

If he did, the Star Luo Empire would likely have sent people to grind Shrek Academy into dust by the very next day.

Ning Rongrong is the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Try touching a single hair on her head and see what happens; Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo would scatter Flender's ashes to the winds.

As for Tang San, it goes without saying that he has Tang Hao standing behind him—a man who protects his own with unreasonable, terrifying ferocity.

Whoever dared to keep his son from graduating, Tang Hao would make sure their entire family "graduated" from existence.

Oscar was picked up by Flender when he was just a child.

As for the rest... Ma Hongjun is Flender's own disciple.

Qin Ming was even an acquaintance of Zhao Wuji; it was Zhao Wuji who introduced him to Shrek. The nepotism is practically written on their faces.

Those who truly had no background and relied solely on their talent to get in were likely long ago reduced to that twenty-eight out of forty-two.

The bullying, sycophantic nature of Flender, Zhao Wuji, and their ilk was displayed in vivid detail in the original story.

Would these people dare to lay a lethal hand on Ning Rongrong or Tang San? They would not.

They only swing their butcher knives at those civilian geniuses who have no power, no influence, and whose deaths no one would bother to investigate.

They use the lives of these civilian geniuses to build the illustrious reputation of their "Monster Academy" and to satisfy their own pathetic, laughable vanity.

And they have the gall to call it "practical combat training"?

Bullshit!

Ye Feng dares to assert that if you threw those forty-two geniuses—who averaged innate rank eight soul power—into a top-tier organization like Martial Soul Hall or the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, even without unlimited resources, just with careful cultivation and guidance from experts, they would at the very least all be Soul Douluo in a few decades!

If they were lucky, producing a Title Douluo would be nothing out of the ordinary!

Even an institution like Blue Sunshine Academy could likely have cultivated them into Soul Douluo!

Yet in this backwater academy called Shrek, most of them ended up dead, and the few who remained achieved nothing of note. They call Qin Ming a genius? A genius who couldn't even manage a standard soul ring configuration? What kind of genius is that!