Over the next three days, a bizarre game of cat and mouse played out at Nuoding Primary Soul Master Academy.
Every morning, the potbellied instructor Zhao Dabao would sneak out of his dorm like a thief, making his way to the special location designated by the system to check in.
Meanwhile, Su Yu would bring Xiao Wu along and always manage to appear in Zhao Dabao's blind spot one step ahead of him.
At noon on the second day, outside an abandoned warehouse in the hills behind the academy.
No one ever came here. Waist-high weeds grew thick all around it.
Zhao Dabao panted as he pushed open the rusty iron door. A cloud of dust billowed into his face, making him cough repeatedly.
Covering his nose, he walked inside and stood in the cobweb-covered center of the warehouse, his beady eyes gleaming with anticipation.
"System, check in!"
Zhao Dabao shouted impatiently in his mind.
Behind a battered wooden crate outside the warehouse, Su Yu and Xiao Wu were crouched side by side.
Golden light flashed in Su Yu's eyes as the Eye of Truth fully activated.
His gaze pierced the thin iron walls and locked directly onto the gleaming System Panel above Zhao Dabao's head.
[Check-in successful! Reward: One Intermediate Soul Power Potion. Delivered to the host's pants pocket.]
"Here comes another haul."
Su Yu's lips curled up as a cloud of gray mist instantly gathered in his right palm.
The Conceptual Eraser appeared in his hand.
From more than ten meters away, Su Yu drew on his Innate Full Soul Power and gently swiped at the panel that only he could see.
The words "the host's pants pocket" were instantly swallowed by the gray mist and vanished in specks of golden light.
Using his finger as a pen, Su Yu smoothly wrote four new characters: "Su Yu's pocket."
Almost at the same moment, he felt his jacket pocket grow slightly heavier.
He reached in and found a small, cold glass bottle resting snugly in his palm.
Inside was a translucent blue liquid, radiating pure Soul Power.
In the warehouse, Zhao Dabao grinned with delight as he reached into his pants pocket, ready to take out the Intermediate Soul Power Potion and admire it.
But after rummaging around for a long while, he found nothing but a wad of torn cotton.
The smile on Zhao Dabao's face froze. Refusing to give up, he turned out both pockets and even felt around his crotch.
Empty.
"Ah—where's my potion?!"
A heart-rending shriek, like a pig being slaughtered, burst from the abandoned warehouse and startled several birds from the woods.
Behind the crate, Xiao Wu watched the blue potion appear out of thin air in Su Yu's hand, then heard Zhao Dabao's despairing scream from inside the warehouse. She couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.
"That's way too ruthless."
Xiao Wu lowered her voice. "He goes to all that trouble to check in, and the reward ends up in your hands. You're probably going to drive that fatso crazy."
"That's what I call putting resources to good use."
Su Yu stowed the potion, stood up, and brushed the dust off his clothes.
At dusk on the third day, in the academy kitchen.
It was time to prepare dinner, and the kitchen was bustling with activity.
Zhao Dabao used the excuse of checking on the food to squeeze into the smoky kitchen, then stood in a corner piled high with cabbages.
"System, hurry up and let me check in!"
Sweat poured down Zhao Dabao's face as he prayed over and over that nothing would go wrong today.
In the shadows outside the kitchen window, Su Yu did as before.
[Check-in successful! Reward: Five hundred Gold Soul Coins. Delivered to the host's hand.]
Su Yu swung the Conceptual Eraser once more, changing "the host's hand" directly to "Su Yu's hand."
The next moment, a heavy money pouch appeared in Su Yu's hand out of thin air.
The weight of five hundred Gold Soul Coins made his wrist dip slightly.
The coins clinked together with a crisp metallic sound, music to Su Yu's ears.
Inside the kitchen, Zhao Dabao held both hands out in front of his chest, ready to receive his reward.
He waited a long while, but all he held was thin air.
"My Gold Soul Coins! Five hundred Gold Soul Coins!"
Zhao Dabao completely lost it. Like a madman, he rummaged through the corner, scattering the whole pile of cabbages across the floor.
"Instructor Zhao, what's gotten into you?!"
The head chef was a hot-tempered, heavyset woman. Seeing Zhao Dabao making a mess in the kitchen, she snatched up a greasy iron ladle covered in bits of cabbage and brought it crashing down on him.
"Get out! Stop getting in the way!"
The ladle struck Zhao Dabao on the head. He cried out in pain and fled the kitchen in a sorry state.
Cabbage leaves and grease clung to him, and he reeked of swill. Students passing by covered their noses and hurried away.
At dusk, in Dorm Seven.
Su Yu sat on his bed and split the pilfered bottle of Intermediate Soul Power Potion between two clean little porcelain vials.
He handed one to Tang Wu, who was sitting beside him, and tossed the other to Xiao Wu, who stood across from him.
"Drink it."
Su Yu spoke to Xiao Wu.
Tang Wu didn't hesitate. She took the vial and tipped it back.
Xiao Wu examined the vial, sensed the pure energy inside, then tipped it back and drank it in one gulp.
The potion dissolved as soon as it touched their tongues, turning into a warm current that flowed through their limbs and bodies.
Tang Wu and Xiao Wu immediately closed their eyes, sat cross-legged on the bed, and began absorbing the potion's effects.
In just the time it took an incense stick to burn, the Soul Power fluctuations within both girls had grown markedly stronger.
The feeling of abundant Soul Power brought them just one step away from reaching level ten.
With only a few more days of cultivation, they would be ready to hunt for their First Soul Ring.
"Brother Yu, I feel full of energy."
Tang Wu opened her eyes, her little face flushed with delight.
Su Yu smiled and ruffled her hair. Then he pulled the pouch containing five hundred Gold Soul Coins from his robes and weighed it in his hand, making the coins jingle.
"Come on. I'm taking you both out for a proper meal."
Su Yu stood up.
Half an hour later, they were in a private room at the most luxurious restaurant in Nuoding City.
A lavish feast covered the table. There was golden, crispy roast suckling pig, tender braised pork, and all kinds of precious game birds and animals.
Tang Wu rarely even ate meat back in Holy Soul Village. Her eyes lit up at the spread, but she obediently waited for Su Yu to pick up his chopsticks first.
Xiao Wu had no such qualms. She grabbed a chicken leg and gnawed at it in great big bites, grease coating her mouth.
"Being with you is the best."
Xiao Wu spoke around a mouthful of chicken. "That fatso busts his hump checking in, and it all turns into food for us. I love this kind of effortless score!"
Su Yu placed a piece of braised pork in Tang Wu's bowl and calmly took a sip of tea.
Meanwhile, back on the academy's training field.
Night fell, and the field stood empty.
Zhao Dabao looked considerably more haggard.
The sparse hair on his head had thinned until only a few strands remained around the edges, fluttering forlornly in the night breeze.
He stood alone in the middle of the field, nervously biting his fingernails. They were bleeding, but he seemed not to feel a thing; his eyes were filled with utter despair.
For three days straight, every check-in reward had vanished without a trace.
Watching mountains of gold and silver just within reach, yet being unable to touch them, was worse than death.
As he stared at the check-in reward panel floating in the air, its reward once again slipping away, Zhao Dabao's mental defenses finally crumbled.
"Fraud... They're all frauds!"
Zhao Dabao's knees suddenly buckled, and he fell heavily onto the cold stone slabs.
He raised his head and let out a long, anguished wail at the night sky.
"The system is a fraud! Give me back my Marrow Cleansing Pill! Give me back my Gold Soul Coins!"
His voice was thick with sobs and echoed through the quiet campus, drawing students and instructors from the nearby dormitories to poke their heads out and stare.
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