The Ultimate Spoils

The dense canopy was instantly pierced by a streak of gray-gold light. Sturdy branches shattered into a rain of dust beneath its unreasonable force.

With a muffled boom, dirt and grass clippings blasted in every direction.

The hard ground was smashed into a charred crater. A ring of visible energy ripples spread across the earth, uprooting the shrubs within a dozen meters.

The sudden change put Xiao Wu and Tang Wu on immediate alert.

Xiao Wu had still been feeling a twinge of sour jealousy over Tang Wu successfully absorbing a Soul Ring, but now every muscle in her body was taut.

The instincts of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast screamed a warning at her. This power from the heavens did not belong in Star Dou Forest—not even among any kind of Soul Power fluctuation she knew.

She immediately stepped in front of Su Yu, her pink-and-white rabbit ears standing straight up, and used her petite body to shield him.

She clenched her fists, her nails digging deep into her palms, and stared at the smoking crater. She had even stopped breathing.

"What the hell is that? Why is this pressure even more terrifying than when Da Ming and Er Ming get angry?" Xiao Wu gritted her teeth, unable to hide her apprehension.

Tang Wu reacted just as quickly.

She had just finished absorbing the Mandala Snake Soul Ring, which was nearly four hundred years old. The Soul Power in her body was at its peak.

Without a moment's hesitation, she thrust out her pale hands.

"Blue Silver Grass, protect!"

Her tenth-level Soul Power erupted without reserve, and more than a dozen thick Mutated Blue Silver Grass vines burst from the ground.

Golden patterns shimmered across their surfaces, while the edges carried the Mandala Snake's purplish-black venom.

Like dozens of venomous pythons protecting their master, the vines quickly coiled around Su Yu, forming an impenetrable wall of plants that sheltered him at its center.

"Brother Yu, don't move! This thing is too dangerous. I'll hold it back!" Tang Wu's face was pale, but her gaze was resolute.

She had sworn to protect Su Yu. Even if a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast crawled out of that crater, she would bite off a chunk of it.

Su Yu looked at the two girls standing in front of him. Feeling their determination to protect him at the cost of their lives, he was somewhat pleased.

He raised a hand and gave Xiao Wu and Tang Wu a gentle pat on the shoulder, reassuring them that everything was fine.

"All right, put your Martial Souls away. We're not under attack." Su Yu's voice was steady and firm, carrying a calm that put them at ease.

"But whatever's in that crater..." Xiao Wu still wasn't convinced. She remained in a defensive stance.

"I know what I'm doing," Su Yu cut her off.

He pushed aside the Poison Vines in front of Tang Wu, their scent sickly sweet, and strode forward with unhurried composure.

His steps didn't falter once. He walked straight to the edge of the charred crater.

Looking down, he saw no terrifying monster at the bottom, just a fragment no bigger than a fingernail, lying quietly in the dirt.

The fragment had no physical form. It was made entirely of pure energy.

A strange gray-gold shimmer rippled across its surface. It wasn't dazzling, yet it carried an inscrutable aura that seemed to transcend all things in heaven and earth.

Under the influence of that energy, the scorched dirt around it showed faint, strange signs of crystallization.

Su Yu's gaze settled on the fragment radiating its strange fluctuations at the bottom of the crater. Brilliant golden light flared deep within his pupils.

His Eye of Truth began operating at full speed on its own!

A massive stream of information rapidly reassembled across his retinas. The world around him shed its colors, transforming in his eyes into a microscopic realm woven from countless lines of rules.

A line of dazzling golden analysis data immediately appeared in his vision:

[Item Name: Intermediate System Origin Fragment]

[Item Origin: Condensed from the completely collapsed Luck Plunder System]

[Item Status: Unclaimed, absorbable]

As he read the three lines of glowing text, Su Yu's heart gave a jolt.

All the clues instantly fell into place. He understood at once that this was the ultimate spoils left behind when Yu Xiaogang had met his end in the wilderness.

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

Yu Xiaogang had suffered social death, and the system inside him had also crashed due to a severe conflict in its foundational logic.

The fragment before him was the system's most essential energy crystal, left behind after it had completely collapsed and been reduced to nothing.

"What a conscientious little treasure-delivery boy." A cold smile curled Su Yu's lips.

These transmigrators thought that having a cheat would let them throw their weight around on Douluo Continent. Strip away the systems, and at their core they were nothing but fragile parasites.

Once the rules of their systems were erased or altered by the eraser in his hand, they wouldn't even be able to fight back.

Yu Xiaogang had given him a good show by ruining his own reputation. Even after death, he'd sent such precious Origin energy across space and right to Su Yu's feet.

Just then, golden light flashed again in the Eye of Truth. The panel in his vision refreshed, revealing a more detailed analysis:

[Function Analysis: Absorbing this fragment will greatly increase the host's Soul Power limit. This increase ignores the conventional laws of Douluo Continent and the limits of the body's ability to endure.]

[Permission Unlocked: After absorbing the Origin energy, the advanced rule permission for the Second Martial Soul, "Conceptual Eraser," will be unlocked.]

A surge of fervor rose in Su Yu's heart.

He knew all too well how terrifyingly valuable those lines were.

Traditional Soul Masters on Douluo Continent had to meditate day after day just to improve their Soul Power by a little. To break through a bottleneck, they also had to risk their lives hunting Soul Beasts.

Even Titled Douluo lucky enough to hunt a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast gained no more than massive Soul Power and a few powerful Soul Skills.

But this fragment was completely different.

It was pure energy that reached straight into the Origin of a higher dimension, belonging to none of the power systems on Douluo Continent.

The gains from absorbing it would be a hundred times greater than those from hunting any Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

What excited Su Yu even more was the so-called "advanced rule permission."

The Conceptual Eraser's current basic permission could only alter a few nonessential terms on mission panels, yet that alone had let him toy with a possessor like Yu Xiaogang who had a cheat.

Once the advanced permission was unlocked, he would hold far more absolute power of life and death over the countless high-level system hosts flooding Douluo Continent.

This fragment was the stepping stone that would let him rise above every cheat for good.

"Xiao Wu, Tang Wu." Su Yu turned around, his voice carrying an authority that brooked no disobedience.

"Here!" The two girls answered in unison and immediately straightened up.

"Move ten meters away and stand guard. Starting now, no matter what happens, don't come within a step of me." Su Yu's expression was stern. "If anyone or any Soul Beast tries to approach, kill them without mercy."

Hearing the severity in Su Yu's voice, Xiao Wu and Tang Wu realized how serious the situation was.

"Don't worry, Brother Yu. Anyone who dares come close, I'll twist them into mincemeat with my Poison Vines!" Tang Wu nodded firmly.

She immediately channeled the Soul Power in her body. More than a dozen venomous Mutated Blue Silver Grass vines spread outward, weaving an impenetrable barrier of plants ten meters away.

Purplish-black poisonous mist drifted between the vines, turning the area into a forbidden zone.

Xiao Wu was even more decisive.

She drove off with both legs, springing up like an arrow loosed from a bow before landing lightly atop a towering tree.

Standing in the crown, she unleashed the full force of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's perception. Her sharp eyes swept across every direction, and not even a flying mosquito could escape them.

With the guard in place, Su Yu took a deep breath.

He sat down cross-legged on the spot, ignoring the charred, still-warm earth at the bottom of the crater.

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