Being Too Handsome is Also a Sin

One day later, on the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest.

Su Chen, Bei Bei, and Tang Ya emerged from the dense forest, and the view before them suddenly opened up.

It was a vast plain. At the end of the plain stood a massive city so majestic it was breathtaking. The city walls towered into the clouds, constructed entirely of grey-white boulders that shimmered with a faint metallic luster under the morning sun.

The scale of the entire city far exceeded any metropolis Su Chen had seen in his previous life; even in his imagination, he could hardly conceive of such a magnificent sight.

"That is Shrek Academy!" Tang Ya pointed toward the giant city, her voice filled with pride, her purple eyes sparkling in the morning light. "The number one city on the continent, and also the place where our Shrek Academy is located!"

As she spoke, her gaze drifted unconsciously toward Su Chen beside her, hoping to see shock and admiration in his expression.

Su Chen nodded slightly, his gaze calmly assessing the legendary city.

Ten thousand years of heritage—it truly lived up to its reputation. From a humble academy with only a few dilapidated wooden huts ten thousand years ago to this vast, sprawling city with a population of millions, Shrek Academy certainly had the capital to be proud.

Tang Ya moved closer to Su Chen without realizing it, the distance between them shrinking to less than half a meter. She could clearly smell the faint, fresh scent on Su Chen, and her heartbeat involuntarily quickened a few beats.

Perhaps noticing that Bei Bei was still behind them, Tang Ya's cheeks flushed slightly, and she subconsciously pulled away a little, yet her gaze never left Su Chen.

Bei Bei watched the two walking side by side in front of him, a strange feeling flitting through his heart. He had naturally seen Tang Ya's enthusiasm toward Su Chen over these past few days. At first, he thought it was merely out of gratitude and the desire to recruit a genius, but now...

He shook his head, pushing the thought away. Tang Ya was his girlfriend; they had known each other for many years and shared a deep bond. How could she have other thoughts about Su Chen, whom she had only met a few days ago? He must be overthinking it.

As the three of them drew closer, the details of Shrek City became increasingly clear.

The four walls of the city each had their own characteristics. The west, south, and north gates were wide open, each over ten meters wide and twenty meters high, with heavy metal doors standing ajar.

Outside the gates, the traffic was like a flowing river, and the crowds were like woven fabric. Merchant caravans loaded with goods drove in slowly, travelers in various attires waited in line for inspection, and city guards in uniform maintained order—a scene of prosperity and bustle.

However, the direction of the East Gate was completely different.

Outside the East Gate, a dark, dense crowd of over several thousand people had gathered! The noise was deafening, the clamor rising straight to the heavens; even from over a mile away, it could be heard clearly.

A large number of vendors had long since set up colorful tents and stalls along the sides of the road, selling all kinds of food and simple Soul Tool items. The sounds of hawking, bargaining, and children crying were all mixed together, making for a lively scene.

Even more eye-catching was that the vast majority of the gathered crowd consisted of boys and girls between the ages of ten and fifteen. Some were alone, others accompanied by family, most wearing expressions of nervousness, anticipation, and longing.

"Is this Shrek Academy? It's certainly lively!" The voice of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm echoed in Su Chen's mind, filled with deep curiosity and a hint of excitement at watching the spectacle. "Hey, ten thousand years ago there were nine gods, and seven of them came from here. Although I'm more 'familiar' with the Angel God, the Rakshasa God, and that so-called Sea God, this Shrek Academy's background is truly frightening. No wonder it has stood for ten thousand years without falling."

Su Chen responded calmly in his mind: "After all, it is the current number one academy on the continent; every enrollment season is like this. Most of these people won't even pass the preliminary test."

"Tsk tsk, yet they're still breaking their heads trying to get in," the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm sighed. "But kid, you're about to become one of them now. How about it? Feeling a bit excited?"

"Excited?" Su Chen's heart was calm and waveless. "It's just a temporary stopping point."

"Hey, you kid, you're not very old, but your tone is quite something," the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm laughed and scolded, though his tone carried admiration. "But I like it! This is what befits my host!"

At this moment, Bei Bei pointed toward the bustling East Gate and explained to Su Chen: "Brother Su, look, it is currently the academy's annual enrollment season. These are young soul masters from all over the continent who have come here by reputation, along with their families, wanting to apply to the academy."

He paused and continued: "The enrollment lasts for several days, and now is the time when the crowds are at their peak. The preliminary test is very simple: as long as you are under twelve years old and your soul power is not lower than level 15, you can pass. But this threshold alone is enough to weed out eighty or ninety percent of the people."

Tang Ya also turned her head, smiling at Su Chen: "The queue outside to verify qualifications takes a long time, and the preliminary test is very strict. But for you, Su Chen, those are just small matters!"

"Twelve years old and level 27, with two thousand-year soul rings... If you went to line up, you'd probably give the teacher in charge of verification a fright!"

As she said this, her eyes shone brightly as she looked at Su Chen, as if to say, "You'll definitely have no problem."

Su Chen nodded, his gaze sweeping over the dense crowd. His spiritual power, under the enhancement of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, was already quite powerful, allowing him to clearly perceive the more prominent soul power fluctuations within the crowd.

Among those in line, there were indeed a few youths whose soul power had reached level 17 or 18, which was quite good for their age. But more had soul power of only level 12 or 13; these youths mostly wore nervous and uneasy expressions, clearly lacking confidence in whether they could pass the assessment.

"This is the holy land in the hearts of the continent's young soul masters," Su Chen thought to himself. "A place where countless dreams and competitions converge."

Seeing Su Chen observing the crowd, Bei Bei assumed he was worried about the assessment, so he smiled and said: "Brother Su, there is no need to line up outside. Xiao Ya and I have student identification, so we can use the fast track to enter the academy directly."

"Brother Su, just come with us. I will take you to see the teacher in charge of enrollment. With your talent, you can even be admitted without an exam."

"Then I will trouble you, Brother Bei Bei." Su Chen nodded.

The three bypassed the queue and walked straight toward the East Gate of Shrek Academy. Several students in yellow uniforms were maintaining order at the entrance. When they saw Bei Bei and Tang Ya, they clearly recognized them, and one of them greeted them with a smile: "Senior Brother Bei Bei, Senior Sister Tang Ya, you're back!"

Bei Bei smiled and nodded, taking out his student badge: "This is a friend we invited from outside, Su Chen. He also intends to apply to the academy, so we are bringing him in."

The student glanced at Su Chen, a look of amazement flashing in his eyes, but he quickly returned to normal and stepped aside: "Please, enter."

Upon entering Shrek City, the scene changed once again.

The wide streets were enough to accommodate eight carriages side by side. The ground was paved with smooth bluestone, and shops lined both sides, from material stores to restaurants, inns, and clothing stores—everything one could need.

The streets were crowded with people, roughly divided into two categories: one was the young soul masters and their families who had come to apply, their faces filled with longing, nervousness, or excitement; the other was the Shrek students wearing uniform school attire. Those in white were freshmen or lower-grade students, while those in yellow were the backbone of the outer courtyard.

"Shrek City is divided into the outer city and the inner city," Tang Ya said, walking beside Su Chen and introducing it enthusiastically. "We are currently in the outer city, where the commercial district, residential areas, and inns are concentrated. The inner city is the real Shrek Academy; the student dormitories, teaching buildings, simulated cultivation areas, and the Soul Fighting Arena are all there."

She paused and continued: "The academy covers a vast area, taking up nearly a third of the entire Shrek City. The outer courtyard alone has over five thousand students. Although the inner courtyard has fewer people, every single one of them is the elite of the elite."

Su Chen listened while observing his surroundings. He could feel that the city was permeated with a rich aura of soul power, especially in the direction of the inner city, where several powerful auras flickered in and out of existence—likely the experts of the academy holding down the fort.

After walking for about a quarter of an hour, Bei Bei noticed something was wrong.

The gazes cast from the surroundings were becoming increasingly dense.

As a prominent figure in the outer courtyard, Bei Bei usually received some attention when walking through the academy—after all, he was one of the top existences in the outer courtyard in terms of strength, and combined with his handsome appearance, he was quite a celebrity.

But today, feeling as if he were the center of the crowd's focus was a first.

Those gazes were burning, curious, surprised, and even carried a hint of infatuation... and, Bei Bei keenly noticed, the focus of these gazes was not himself.

Tang Ya, who was talking to Su Chen, also felt that something was off. She turned her head to look around and discovered that many passersby had stopped in their tracks, their gazes fixed squarely on... the Su Chen beside her.

Bei Bei suddenly realized the truth, a wry smile forming in his heart.

There was no other reason; Su Chen's appearance and aura were simply too outstanding amidst the bustling crowds of Shrek Academy.

His long, golden hair flowed with a soft luster under the sunlight, like molten gold. With features so handsome they seemed almost unreal, a tall and slender build, and an innate air of nobility and composure... even in Shrek Academy, a place teeming with geniuses, such an existence was far too dazzling.

"Tsk tsk, Su Chen, look, just look!" The teasing voice of Sky Dream Ice Silkworm rang out in Su Chen's mind, carrying a hint of schadenfreude and... a trace of imperceptible jealousy? "Isn't this face of yours a bit too flashy? You're the center of attention everywhere you go. Hmm... though, I suppose it barely compares to me back in the day."

"Back when I was in the Far North, I was the definition of dashing and elegant. All those fair-skinned, beautiful female silkworms in the clan would line up just to confess to me. It's a pity, really—I was single-mindedly pursuing the Great Dao and didn't even bat an eye. I broke so many hearts~"

Su Chen responded calmly in his mind: "I wonder who it was that said they were once chased by a female scorpion and had to hide in the ice, too afraid to come out?"

"That... that was a strategic retreat! Do you even understand strategy?" Sky Dream Ice Silkworm retorted, flustered and exasperated. "I was doing that for my cultivation! For the grand plan of becoming a god! Besides, even while hiding in the ice, my charm was impossible to conceal..."

Su Chen stopped paying attention to Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's boasting and continued walking calmly, turning a blind eye to the gazes cast his way.

Tang Ya, however, felt a complex emotion welling up inside her after the initial surprise.

On one hand, she felt a strange, inexplicable pride that Su Chen was receiving so much attention—look, this is the person Tang Ya brought back, how dazzling he is!

On the other hand, seeing the stunned and even adoring looks from those girls made her feel vaguely... uncomfortable. Especially when a few pretty female students in white uniforms whispered to each other with blushing faces, their eyes constantly darting toward Su Chen, Tang Ya subconsciously straightened her back and moved a little closer to him, as if asserting some kind of claim.

"Su Chen..." Tang Ya lowered her voice, looking a bit embarrassed. "About that..."

"It's fine, I'm used to it." Su Chen interrupted calmly.

Those gazes truly meant nothing to him. As a handsome shut-in in his past life, he had become the focus of attention in various settings whenever he went out; he was already accustomed to it. This level of attention wasn't enough to cause a ripple in his state of mind.

However, his flat response carried a different weight to Tang Ya.

"Used to it...?" Tang Ya blinked, looking at Su Chen's calm, water-like profile, and thought to herself, He said he's used to it... does that mean he's often watched like this? I suppose so. With his appearance and temperament, he would be the center of attention wherever he goes...

For some reason, this realization brought a strange feeling to Tang Ya—it felt both natural and yet carried a faint sense of loss. It felt natural because Su Chen certainly had the capital for it, but the loss was because... with him being like this, there surely wouldn't be a shortage of excellent girls by his side, right?

Passing through the inner gate of Shrek Academy, which symbolized glory and history, the scene before them suddenly opened up. A wide, blue-stone main road stretched straight ahead, flanked by carefully planned areas. The first thing to catch the eye was a garden specifically cultivated on the right side of the road.

This garden occupied a significant space, with at least dozens of different species of well-tended plants visible. They were cleverly arranged, varying in height and color, creating a harmonious display.

Su Chen's gaze lingered on the garden for only a moment before he withdrew it.

Continuing about two hundred meters along the main road, several exceptionally tall statues suddenly appeared in the center of the path, completely blocking the view ahead. There were ten statues in total, each nearly ten meters high, carved from a hard, grayish-white stone. Having weathered the elements, their surfaces now possessed a warm luster and the marks of time, which only added to their solemnity and weight.

The moment Bei Bei and Tang Ya saw these statues, they stopped in their tracks as if by reflex. The expressions on their faces became incredibly solemn and reverent—it was a form of heartfelt veneration.