Ultimate Spoils

The dense canopy was instantly pierced by that grey-gold stream of light, and thick branches were ground into a fine mist of powder under the force of such unreasonable impact.

Accompanied by a dull, thunderous boom, soil mixed with grass clippings sprayed wildly in every direction.

The hard ground was forcibly smashed into a charred, deep crater, and a visible ripple of energy swept across the surface, uprooting shrubs within a dozen meters.

The sudden turn of events made Xiao Wu and Tang Wu instantly alert.

Xiao Wu, who had been feeling a tinge of sour jealousy over Tang Wu successfully absorbing a soul ring, now had every muscle in her body tensed to the limit.

The intuition of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was screaming warnings at her; this power descending from the sky did not belong to the Star Dou Forest, nor did it belong to any form of soul power fluctuation she had ever known.

She immediately took a wide step, her pink-white rabbit ears standing tall, using her petite body to shield Su Yu firmly.

She clenched her fists, her nails digging deep into her palms, staring fixedly at the smoking crater, her breathing coming to a halt.

"What the hell is that? How is this pressure even more terrifying than when Da Ming and Er Ming are enraged!" Xiao Wu gritted her teeth, her voice laced with unconcealable wariness.

Tang Wu's reaction was just as swift.

She had just finished absorbing a nearly four-hundred-year-old Datura Snake soul ring, and the soul power within her was at its absolute peak.

Without a moment's hesitation, she pushed her fair, slender hands forward.

"Blue Silver Grass, protect!"

Her level ten soul power erupted without reservation, and a dozen thick strands of Mutated Blue Silver Grass burst through the soil.

These vines not only shimmered with golden patterns on their surface, but their edges were also coated in the purple-black, lethal poison of the Datura Snake.

The vines, like dozens of venomous pythons protecting their master, quickly coiled around Su Yu to form an impenetrable wall of vegetation, shielding him tightly in the center.

"Brother Yu, don't move! This thing is too dangerous, I'll block it!" Tang Wu's small face was deathly pale, but her eyes were exceptionally firm.

She had sworn to protect Su Yu; even if a ten-thousand-year soul beast crawled out of that pit, she would tear a piece of flesh off it.

Su Yu looked at the two girls standing before him, feeling the determination to protect him at the cost of their lives radiating from them, and a sense of satisfaction rose in his heart.

He raised his hands and patted Xiao Wu and Tang Wu on their shoulders twice, signaling that there was no danger.

"Alright, retract your martial souls; it's not an enemy attack." Su Yu's voice was steady and powerful, carrying a calm that put others at ease.

"But, the thing in that pit..." Xiao Wu was still uneasy, her body remaining in a defensive stance.

"I know what I'm doing." Su Yu interrupted her.

He pushed aside the Poison Vine in front of Tang Wu that emitted a fishy, sweet scent, and strode forward with unhurried steps.

His pace did not falter in the slightest as he arrived directly at the edge of the charred crater.

Looking down, there was no terrifying monster at the bottom of the pit, only a fragment the size of a fingernail lying quietly on the dirt.

This fragment had no physical form, condensed entirely from pure energy.

Its surface emitted a strange grey-gold fluctuation; it was not blinding, yet it carried an arcane aura that seemed to transcend all things in heaven and earth.

The scorched soil surrounding it, under the influence of this fluctuation, showed strange signs of being crystallized.

Su Yu's gaze fell upon the fragment emitting the strange fluctuation at the bottom of the pit, and brilliant golden light ignited deep within his pupils.

The Eye of Truth activated at high speed!

A massive stream of information reorganized rapidly on his retinas, and the world around him instantly shed its original colors, transforming into a microscopic realm composed of countless rule lines.

A line of dazzling golden analytical information immediately popped up in his vision:

[Item Name: Intermediate System Origin Fragment]
[Item Source: Condensed from the total collapse of the Luck Plunder System]
[Item Status: Ownerless, can be devoured]

Looking at these three lines of golden text, Su Yu's heart jolted.

He instantly connected all the clues, realizing immediately that this was the ultimate trophy dropped after Yu Xiaogang met his end in the wilderness.

Su Yu knew very well that once a Luck Plunder System failed its mission completely, it would trigger an extremely severe punishment mechanism.

Yu Xiaogang not only suffered social death, but the system within him also crashed due to a severe conflict in its underlying logic.

The fragment before him was the core energy crystal left behind after that system completely collapsed and vanished into dust.

"What a dutiful little delivery boy." A cold sneer curled Su Yu's lips.

These transmigrators who thought they could rule over the Douluo Continent with a cheat, once stripped of their system's shell, were essentially nothing more than fragile parasites.

Once the system rules were erased and tampered with by the Conceptual Eraser in his hand, they didn't even have the qualifications to resist.

Yu Xiaogang not only provided him with a good show by ruining his own reputation, but even after death, he had sent this precious origin power across space right to his feet.

Just then, the golden light of the Eye of Truth flickered again, and the panel in his vision refreshed, continuing to display more detailed analytical content:

[Effect Analysis: Devouring this fragment will significantly increase the host's soul power limit. This increase ignores the traditional laws of the Douluo Continent and ignores the body's endurance limit.]
[Permission Unlocked: After absorbing the origin energy, the advanced rule permission for the second martial soul "Conceptual Eraser" will be unlocked.]

A wave of fanaticism surged in Su Yu's heart.

He knew all too well what terrifying value these few lines represented.

Traditional Soul Masters of the Douluo Continent must endure day after day of tedious meditation just to raise their soul power by a fraction, and they must risk their lives hunting soul beasts to break through bottlenecks.

Even those Title Douluo who are lucky enough to hunt a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast gain nothing more than vast soul power and a few formidable soul skills.

But the fragment before him is entirely different.

This is pure energy that points directly to the origin of dimensions; it does not belong to any power system within the Douluo Continent.

The improvement gained from devouring it is a hundred times greater than the benefits obtained from hunting any Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

What excites Su Yu even more is the so-called "Advancement Permission."

The current primary permission of the Conceptual Eraser can only modify non-core vocabulary on the task panel, yet it has already allowed him to play a cheater and possessor like Yu Xiaogang in the palm of his hand.

Once the Advancement Permission is unlocked, he will possess absolute power of life and death when facing the rampant high-level system hosts across the Douluo Continent.

This fragment is the stepping stone that will allow him to completely transcend all cheats.

"Xiao Wu, Tang Wu." Su Yu turned around, his voice permeated with an irresistible majesty.

"Present!" The two women responded in unison, immediately standing at attention.

"Spread out ten meters and stand guard for me. From now on, no matter what happens, you are not allowed to come within a step of me." Su Yu's expression was stern. "If you discover any person or soul beast attempting to approach, kill them without mercy."

Hearing Su Yu's grave tone, Xiao Wu and Tang Wu realized the severity of the situation.

"Don't worry, Brother Yu. Whoever dares to come near, I will crush them into pulp with my Poison Vine!" Tang Wu nodded vigorously.

She immediately channeled the soul power within her, and over a dozen highly toxic Mutated Blue Silver Grass vines rapidly spread outward, weaving into an airtight plant defense line ten meters away.

Purple-black poisonous mist permeated the vines, forming an absolute restricted zone.

Xiao Wu was even more direct.

She exerted force with her legs, launching herself like an arrow from a bow, landing lightly at the very top of a towering tree.

Standing on the canopy, she unleashed the full sensory perception of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, her sharp gaze scanning in all directions; not even a mosquito flying by could escape her eyes.

After arranging the perimeter, Su Yu took a deep breath.

He sat cross-legged on the spot, ignoring the charred and warm soil at the bottom of the pit.

He extended his right hand, splayed his fingers, and without hesitation, grasped the Origin Fragment radiating a gray-gold light.