The breeze still swept across the hillside, stirring the lush grass until it rustled from one end of the slope to the other.
After deciding on their ultimate destination, Su Yu didn't immediately put away the map.
He straightened up and strode directly toward the highest point of the hillside.
A massive outcropping of rock rose there, like a natural lookout.
Su Yu pushed off the grass with his toes and lightly leaped to the top of the rock.
Facing the wind, he clasped his hands behind his back and gazed toward the distant south.
Tang Wu and Xiao Wu stood below, looking up at Su Yu's back without making a sound.
They knew that whenever Su Yu struck this pose, he was using his uncanny ability to detect things.
Standing atop the rock, Su Yu drew a deep breath. Soul Power began surging wildly through his body.
Through the broad meridians altered by the System Origin Fragment, Soul Power roared like a breached river, rushing toward his eyes.
"Vmm—"
A faint tremor of energy rippled through the air.
Golden light blazed from deep within Su Yu's eyes.
It was dazzling, like two miniature suns burning in his pupils, radiating the oppressive authority of rules that stood above all things beneath heaven.
The Eye of Truth, fully activated!
With the support of his vast Soul Power, he pushed it straight to its limit for long-range perception.
In Su Yu's sight, the world before him changed beyond recognition.
Its true colors were swiftly stripped away. Mountains, rivers, trees, and clouds all became microscopic outlines composed of countless black and white lines.
His field of vision seemed to break free of space's constraints, extending southward at an inconceivable speed.
His sight pierced layer upon layer of dense clouds, crossed vast plains, and swept past scattered villages and bustling cities.
A hundred li, two hundred li, three hundred li...
This extreme-range vision, spanning hundreds of li, consumed a tremendous amount of Soul Power.
Even with reserves far beyond those of others at his level, Su Yu felt a faint trace of fatigue.
But he didn't stop. Instead, he continued squeezing the power from his dantian, fixing his gaze on the spot marked on the map.
At last, his sight crossed the immense distance and landed precisely on the remote village outside Suotuo City—the place known as Shrek Academy.
The moment he made out the sky in that direction, Su Yu's breathing stopped for an instant.
"Good grief..." Su Yu exclaimed silently.
Through the microscopic vision of the Eye of Truth, the sky above that village was a madhouse of writhing demons.
It was packed with countless rule-threads in every color.
Each thread represented a system bound to a host.
He had seen system threads in Nuoding City, too, but those low-tier systems' threads were usually no thicker than strands of hair. Their colors were dim, and they were sparsely scattered throughout the city.
But the sky above Shrek Academy was completely different.
The rule-threads there were as thick as steel cables!
Some were red, radiating dazzling blood-red light—the mark of evil systems brimming with a desire to kill and devour.
Others shimmered with brilliant golden light, usually belonging to invincible sign-in or tycoon systems.
Still others glinted with a strange purple light: vicious cheats designed to plunder other people's luck and talents.
Hundreds, even thousands, of these thick rule-threads wove, twisted, and collided wildly in the sky.
They repelled one another even as they tangled together, turning the underlying logic of that place into utter chaos. It was a huge, multicolored ball of yarn.
In the few seconds Su Yu watched, he even saw several threads snap in midair due to logical conflicts, bursting into clusters of energy sparks invisible to the naked eye.
Su Yu immediately reached a conclusion.
"As expected of the core of fate's convergence in the original story." Su Yu sneered.
Shrek Academy was where Douluo Continent's fortune had originally gathered most densely.
Every transmigrator with some kind of cheat had treated Shrek Academy as a sacred place they absolutely had to visit—whether they wanted to recruit the protagonist as a lackey, seize his opportunities, or build a harem of beautiful women.
As a result, that remote, ramshackle village had now gathered an enormous number of high-tier system hosts.
Sign-in, plunder, invincibility—cheat users of every kind were packed in there. They were surely already fighting tooth and nail in secret to seize fortune and resources.
To ordinary Soul Masters, it was a battlefield where death could strike at any moment.
The slightest approach would get them crushed like cannon fodder by those system hosts.
But to Su Yu, who possessed the Conceptual Eraser, it was a perfect farm for experience packs, tailor-made for him!
"With so many high-tier system origins, how powerful could I become if I severed their connections and devoured them all?" Su Yu licked his lips, his heartbeat quickening despite himself.
He slowly drew back his gaze. The golden light in his eyes gradually dimmed, then vanished completely.
Standing atop the rock, Su Yu looked down at the southern horizon.
There wasn't a hint of fear in his eyes at the thought of those high-tier cheat users. Instead, they gleamed with the undisguised bloodlust and excitement of a hunter spotting top-tier prey.
He could hardly wait to enter that tangled ball of yarn and use his eraser to wipe out those self-important system hosts one by one, turning the cheats they prided themselves on into fuel for his own growth.
"Su Yu, can you see what it's like over there? Is it fun?" Xiao Wu called loudly from below, interrupting his thoughts.
Su Yu leaped off the rock and landed steadily on the grass.
"Fun. Ten thousand times more fun than Nuoding City." Su Yu brushed the dust off his hands, his voice edged with impatience. "There are more prey over there than we can count. We'll have plenty to feast on."
At the mention of prey, Xiao Wu's eyes lit up. The rabbit ears atop her head sprang straight up with excitement.
Tang Wu obediently came forward. She took a clean handkerchief from her Storage Soul Tool and gently wiped the fine sweat on Su Yu's forehead, brought on by the excessive expenditure of Soul Power.
"Now that we've chosen our destination, let's not waste any time." With a casual wave, Su Yu rolled up the enormous map on the ground and tucked it back into his Storage Soul Tool.
"Check your things. Do you have everything—rations, water flasks, and defensive powders?" Su Yu asked the two girls.
"I've been ready for ages! My Soul Tool is stuffed with dried carrots. There's enough to last a month!" Xiao Wu patted the small pouch at her waist.
"Don't worry, Brother Yu. I've sorted the antidotes and healing medicines into separate containers, so they're ready whenever we need them." Tang Wu gave her report seriously.
The three packed their belongings and made sure nothing had been left behind.
Su Yu turned around, gazing over the hillside for one last look at the familiar city in the distance.
Nuoding City's walls looked a little shabby in the sunlight, and the pointed roofs of the Junior Soul Master Academy were faintly visible within.
For six years, they had lain low and grown stronger here, transforming from three children who had just awakened their Martial Souls into monsters powerful enough to shake the region.
This place had witnessed their entire campaign against low-tier parasites, and it was where they had built their initial foundation.
But now, they had squeezed every last resource out of this beginner's village. There was nothing left to keep them here.
"Let's go."
Su Yu turned away, not looking back again.
With a broad sweep of his hand, he led the two beautiful, powerful girls beside him forward with firm, determined strides, officially setting off on the long journey to Suotuo City.
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