The carriage rolled to a slow stop before Suotuo City's towering gates.
Su Yu casually tossed over a few Silver Soul Coins, readily paying the entry fees for all three of them, along with the carriage's passage tax.
Seeing their generous payment, the soldier manning the gate immediately put on a fawning smile and respectfully waved them through.
Su Yu lifted the carriage curtain and jumped down with Tang Wu and Xiao Wu.
The three entered Suotuo City without a hitch. The streets teemed with traffic, and the city was exceptionally prosperous.
The broad roads were paved with smooth bluestone, wide enough for four carriages to travel side by side.
Shops lined both sides of the streets, their signs and banners fluttering in the breeze.
There were restaurants, blacksmiths, Soul Tool shops, and fabric stores—everything one could need.
The hawkers' cries, horses' neighs, and passersby's conversations mingled into a vibrant, bustling scene.
However, the moment Su Yu stepped through the city gates, he abruptly stopped.
His brows rose slightly, and his gaze instantly turned profound.
As soon as he crossed the gates, he felt the powerful fluctuations emitted by several intertwined high-level System Panels in the air.
These fluctuations were completely different from those of the low-level life-skill systems in Nuoding City.
The systems in Nuoding City had flickered like faint candle flames, but the fluctuations here were like several erupting volcanoes, radiating an intensely invasive aura that twisted the rules themselves.
The high-level systems forcibly drew in the energy around them, creating invisible vortices of spiritual energy.
Ordinary Soul Masters couldn't detect this disorder in the underlying laws, but to Su Yu, who had mastered the power of rules, it was as obvious as a searchlight blazing in the dark.
I knew I'd come to the right place. The prey here is fat with riches. Su Yu gave a cold snort inwardly.
Without a moment's hesitation, he activated the Eye of Truth, making no effort to hide it.
"Vmm—"
Two brilliant golden lights flared deep within Su Yu's eyes.
His powerful Soul Power sustained his vision. The bustling streets and noisy crowds around him instantly lost their color, transforming into a microscopic domain composed of countless lines of rules.
He swept his gaze across the city, his eyes like a pair of peerless blades.
His vision passed unhindered through layer upon layer of walls and the packed crowds.
In the Eye of Truth's microscopic field of vision, several painfully conspicuous red panel labels hovered above Suotuo City's sky and ground.
They radiated a dense, bloody glow, marking systems that had deeply bound themselves to their hosts and were frantically siphoning the world's Origin Power.
Su Yu focused his gaze on Shrek Academy, outside the city.
The system fluctuations there were the densest—and the most violent.
Above that remote village, several enormous high-level cheat labels flashed with absurdly dazzling light, brazenly announcing their presence.
Su Yu drew his gaze closer and read the words on the labels.
On the left, a gigantic panel emanating a lurid pink glow clearly read [More Children More Blessings System].
Indecent prompts scrolled frantically beneath it: "An exceptional furnace has been detected. Main quest: Forcefully marry a noble girl from the Star Luo Empire and produce an heir. Reward: one Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring and one God-Level Martial Soul Evolution Card!"
On the right, an even more brazen panel radiating dark golden light flashed with the words [Dragon King Son-in-law System].
Its quest list displayed an absurd command: "The three-year period of forbearance has expired. Proceed immediately to the entrance of Shrek Academy and kneel in public. After suffering humiliation, activate the 'Ten Thousand Soldiers Come to Welcome You' effect. Reward: one Titled Douluo cultivation trial card!"
There were also things like [Invincible Sword Drawing System] and [Starting Sign-in Chaos Body System].
All kinds of flashy labels, completely contrary to the cultivation principles of the Douluo Continent, were packed tightly into that tiny patch of sky.
Looking at these outlandish quests and rewards, Su Yu sneered.
The golden light in his eyes slowly dimmed as he withdrew from the Eye of Truth's microscopic field of vision.
Utterly ridiculous. Su Yu mocked them inwardly.
It seemed that the world's plane-origin had already been ravaged by these cheats who had appeared from who knew where.
The plane's will had completely lost its defenses, allowing even tasteless, utterly nonsensical systems like [More Children More Blessings] and [Dragon King Son-in-law] to brazenly emerge and seize its fortune.
Relying on the unreasonable rewards their systems bestowed, these people treated the world as a playground where they could indulge their selfish desires, show off, and slap their enemies in the face.
They didn't need to cultivate diligently or undergo life-and-death trials. All they had to do was act like clowns and complete their systems' vulgar quests to instantly gain power that others might never obtain in several lifetimes.
But your good days are numbered. Su Yu clenched his fist, feeling the immense power within him—power enough to rewrite every rule.
The higher the level of these systems, the more outrageous they were, and the greater the Origin Fragments they contained.
To Su Yu, these cheat users weren't lofty protagonists. They were fattened pigs waiting to be slaughtered.
The Conceptual Eraser in his hand existed precisely to erase these vulgar systems.
Meanwhile, Xiao Wu and Tang Wu stood excitedly at the side of the street.
They had grown up in a small place like Nuoding City. Neither had ever seen the bustle of a metropolis like Suotuo City.
Xiao Wu's rabbit ears stood straight up with excitement, and her ruby-red eyes brimmed with curiosity.
She gazed at the dazzling array of shops along both sides of the street and the exquisite jewelry and weapons displayed in the windows, each radiating Soul Power. She was dazzled.
"Wow! Su Yu, look! That dress hanging in the fabric shop is so pretty—it's a hundred times nicer than anything they sell in Nuoding City!" Xiao Wu pointed at an upscale tailor shop in the distance and tugged at Su Yu's sleeve, shouting excitedly.
Tang Wu was more reserved by nature, but even she was drawn in by the city's splendor.
She clung tightly to Su Yu's arm and eyed a pastry shop nearby, wafting with an irresistible aroma. She quietly swallowed.
"Brother Yu, Suotuo City is really huge, and there are so many people." Tang Wu turned to Su Yu, her clear, deep-blue eyes fixed on him, and asked obediently, "Where are we going to stay? Should we find an inn first, or go straight to that Shrek Academy place?"
Hearing Tang Wu's question, Su Yu gathered his wandering thoughts.
He stood in the middle of the bustling street, surrounded by passing merchants and Soul Masters.
He didn't answer Tang Wu right away. Instead, he slowly turned and looked toward Shrek Academy, outside the city.
Replaying the vulgar System Panels he had seen through the Eye of Truth, Su Yu stared in the direction of Shrek Academy. He lightly tapped his right index finger against his temple, a cruel smile spreading across his lips.
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