The little grove behind Nuoding Academy was dim.
Dense leaves blocked most of the sunlight, and only a few shafts of light slipped through the gaps to fall on the leaf-strewn ground.
It was very quiet all around. Not even a bird called; the only sound was the rustling of leaves in the breeze.
Su Yu and Xiao Wu crouched behind a thicket of waist-high bushes.
They were only a dozen paces from the century-old tree in the center of the grove.
Xiao Wu irritably brushed a tiny bug off her shoulder and shifted her weight.
Lowering her voice, Xiao Wu leaned close to Su Yu's ear and asked, "You dragged me all this way just to tail that bald fatty? He doesn't have even a trace of decent Soul Power fluctuations. He's a total waste."
Su Yu kept his gaze fixed ahead and replied casually, "Don't let his useless appearance fool you. He's carrying a huge stroke of fortune. If we wait here, we'll soon get a windfall for free."
Xiao Wu looked unconvinced and curled her lip. "A huge stroke of fortune? Him? Back when I was in Star Dou Forest, every heavenly treasure capable of completely transforming someone had several Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts guarding it. Soul Beasts would fight until they were battered and bloody over a single Immortal Herb. If that fatty can have a huge stroke of fortune, I'll eat every leaf in this thicket."
Su Yu turned to look at Xiao Wu's pretty face, written all over with defiance, and chuckled. "Then get ready to fill your belly with leaves. The rules of this world have long since changed from what you remember. That fatty has something called a Sign-in System bound to him."
"A Sign-in System? What kind of Soul Skill is that?"
Xiao Wu was utterly baffled.
"It's not a Soul Skill. It's a tumor festering in this world."
Su Yu patiently explained, "He doesn't need to cultivate or fight, or even venture out on an adventure. All he has to do is go to a spot designated by the system each day and stand there like an idiot for a while. Then the system stuffs all kinds of god-tier rewards into his pocket."
Xiao Wu's mouth fell open when she heard this, her face full of disbelief. "He can get treasures just by standing around? How is that possible! There's no such thing as a free lunch! If something like that really existed, then what would be the point of us Soul Beasts cultivating for a hundred thousand years? And what about the Soul Masters who train every day on the brink of death?"
Su Yu looked coldly at Zhao Dabao up ahead. "That's why I call people with systems cheaters. They've thrown the world out of balance. But it doesn't matter. The treasure he gets from today's sign-in will soon be ours."
Up ahead, the instructor named Zhao Dabao had stopped beneath the century-old tree.
Standing beside its thick trunk, Zhao Dabao looked around like a thief.
Once he was sure there wasn't a soul around, his chubby face instantly lit up with wild delight.
He rubbed his hands together excitedly, his heavy body quivering slightly.
He even paced back and forth on the spot, greed gleaming in his beady eyes.
"Almost there, almost there. Just another thirty seconds."
Zhao Dabao muttered nonstop, staring intently at the empty air in front of him. "Once I get this Top-Grade Marrow Cleansing Pill, I'll cleanse my meridians and marrow. Then my Martial Soul will definitely evolve, and my Soul Power will break through level thirty. Let's see who at the academy dares look down on me then. That old Dean of Students will have to get out of my way too! Those female instructors who never even give me the time of day will be lining up to suck up to me!"
Su Yu paid no attention to Zhao Dabao's ugly display.
He took a deep breath, and his eyes instantly turned a brilliant gold.
The Eye of Truth was fully activated.
In Su Yu's field of vision, the golden System Panel above Zhao Dabao's head was clearly visible.
A line of green countdown numbers kept ticking over on the panel.
[Sign-in countdown: 10 seconds] [9 seconds] [8 seconds]
Su Yu's gaze grew focused and icy.
The Innate Full Soul Power in his body began to surge wildly, rushing along his meridians and pouring into the palm of his right hand like a rising tide.
A cloud of gray mist quickly gathered in his right hand, soon taking the shape of a dull-gray eraser.
His Second Martial Soul, the Conceptual Eraser.
In the bushes beside him, Xiao Wu had initially been watching with an amused expression.
But the instant that gray eraser appeared, it was as if lightning had struck her.
Her instincts as a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast gave her a far keener sense of danger and power than an ordinary person.
She couldn't see the System Panel above Zhao Dabao's head, but she could clearly feel the terrifying aura radiating from the eraser in Su Yu's right hand.
It was a power that stood entirely above Soul Power.
Xiao Wu felt the air around her grow heavy, as if an invisible hand had closed around her heart.
She sucked in a sharp breath, her pupils suddenly contracting as her scalp prickled.
She stared at Su Yu's profile in terror, her body trembling uncontrollably.
At last, she understood why this boy, who looked only six years old, could see through her true identity with a single glance.
The ability to control the rules was a power no human should possess.
[3 seconds] [2 seconds] [1 second] [Countdown complete.]
Beneath the century-old tree, Zhao Dabao rubbed his hands together excitedly and impatiently shouted in his mind, "System, sign in now!"
This was the moment Su Yu had been waiting for.
The golden System Panel above Zhao Dabao's head refreshed in an instant, displaying a line of large text:
[Sign-in successful! Reward: One Top-Grade Marrow Cleansing Pill. Delivered to the host's inventory.]
Su Yu focused all his attention, his brilliant golden eyes locked on the words "Delivered to the host's inventory" on the panel.
"Now."
Su Yu gave a low shout.
He raised his right hand, gripping the gray Conceptual Eraser, and from a dozen paces away, swiped it through the air at the panel.
This was an operation that directly interfered with the underlying process for distributing system rewards.
Changing ownership of an item was far more difficult than changing the objective of an ordinary task.
Su Yu immediately felt his Soul Power being drained at a furious rate. The Soul Power vortex in his dantian instantly shrank by more than half.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his face paled, but his hand never faltered.
The gray mist traced a strange path through the air and landed precisely on the System Panel.
The words "the host's inventory" were instantly swallowed by the gray mist.
The golden light points that formed the characters struggled violently against the Conceptual Eraser's power, but they lasted barely half a second before crumbling and vanishing, leaving a blank space on the panel.
Then Su Yu used his finger as a pen, channeling his remaining Soul Power to quickly write four new characters in the empty space.
[Su Yu's pocket]
A flash of gold, and the prompt on the panel was forcibly rewritten:
[Sign-in successful! Reward: One Top-Grade Marrow Cleansing Pill. Delivered to Su Yu's pocket.]
The power of the rules formed a closed loop in that instant.
The channel that had originally connected Zhao Dabao to the reward was snapped by Su Yu, who then forcibly connected it to himself.
The Hooligan Rabbit, Xiao Wu, crouching beside him, had witnessed the entire process of Su Yu gesturing in the air.
She clearly felt the air around them twist strangely, as if the laws of heaven and earth themselves had been forcibly bent by an invisible pair of hands.
Xiao Wu's eyes widened. She clapped both hands over her mouth, afraid she might let out a startled cry.
Her heart pounded wildly, and her gaze filled with deep awe as she looked at Su Yu.
Beneath the century-old tree, the system's mechanical yet wonderful prompt rang in Zhao Dabao's mind right on time:
"Ding! Sign-in successful. Reward delivered."
"Hahaha! It's here! My Top-Grade Marrow Cleansing Pill!"
Zhao Dabao danced with excitement, his chubby face bunching up like a chrysanthemum.
He eagerly reached for the storage pouch at his waist, the one he used as an inventory, ready to welcome the moment he would be reborn.
Meanwhile, behind the bushes a dozen paces away,
Su Yu let out a long breath, deactivating the Eye of Truth and putting away the Conceptual Eraser.
Although he had consumed a large amount of Soul Power, a satisfied smile spread across his face.
He felt his coarse-cloth pocket suddenly grow heavy, as though something had appeared inside it from thin air.
Calmly, Su Yu reached into his pocket and firmly grasped the object that had materialized in his palm.
He pulled out his hand and opened it.
A pill the size of a longan rested quietly in his palm.
The pill was a translucent milky white, with a faint sheen flowing across its surface. It gave off a rich, refreshing fragrance.
As soon as the pill's fragrance spread, the air around them seemed to grow a little fresher.
The instant Xiao Wu caught the scent, her eyes widened like bells.
She stared fixedly at the Marrow Cleansing Pill in Su Yu's hand, swallowing audibly.
As a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, she knew better than anyone what this pill was worth.
It was unquestionably a genuine top-grade heavenly treasure. The pure energy within it was enough to completely transform a Trash Martial Soul in an instant.
"Th-this... how is this possible!"
Xiao Wu stammered, her voice full of stunned disbelief. "You've been crouching here the whole time without moving an inch. How did this top-grade pill end up in your pocket? What kind of sorcery did you use?"
Xiao Wu felt as if her worldview had taken another severe blow.
She had assumed that when Su Yu said he was going to steal the reward, he meant he would charge over, beat up the fatty, and take it by force.
Who could have guessed that Su Yu only needed to gesture at the air a couple of times for the fatty's stroke of fortune to teleport straight into his pocket?
This was ten thousand times more unreasonable than simply robbing someone!
Su Yu tucked the Marrow Cleansing Pill back into his pocket, then turned to Xiao Wu, whose face was full of shock. His tone was calm. "This isn't sorcery. It's the rules. In this world, as long as you control the rules, every stroke of fortune belongs to me."
Looking at Su Yu's unruffled expression, Xiao Wu felt a storm raging in her heart.
She was secretly glad she had chosen to submit yesterday. If she had really opposed a monster like him, she probably wouldn't even have known how she died.
At that moment, Zhao Dabao beneath the century-old tree was on the verge of madness.
He reached into his storage pouch and felt around for a long time, but found nothing.
"What's going on? Where's the pill?"
The delight on Zhao Dabao's face froze, replaced by panic.
He untied the pouch and dumped everything inside onto the ground.
A few copper coins, half a leftover flatbread, and a filthy handkerchief spilled out, but there was no sign of the fragrant Marrow Cleansing Pill.
Zhao Dabao stood frozen in place. Cold sweat poured down his forehead.
"Impossible! The system clearly said the reward had been delivered!"
Zhao Dabao slapped at his pockets, turning every one inside out.
He even stripped off his outer robe and shook it hard, then took off his shoes and tipped them upside down, desperately searching for the pill that could change his fate.
But his pockets and shoes were all completely empty.
Zhao Dabao panicked completely. He collapsed onto the ground, frantically clutching the few hairs he had left and muttering in terror, "It's gone... How could it be gone... System, answer me! Where did the reward go? Is there a bug?!"
Before you continue