Xiao Wu: Big Brother, you're quite the cultured one!?

Notting Academy finally welcomed the start of the holidays.

Wang Sheng and the other work-study students respectfully bid Su Chen farewell before picking up their luggage and heading home.

Inside Dormitory Seven, Xiao Wu lay comfortably on her bed, swinging her legs as she asked, "Boss, it's the holidays, where are you going? Are you going home?"

At the mention of the word "home," Su Chen froze.

He immediately clasped his hands behind his back and walked to the window, leaving Xiao Wu with a desolate and aloof silhouette.

Xiao Wu looked bewildered, having no idea what kind of fit her eccentric boss was throwing this time.

"Have you forgotten? I snuck out, and my home is a full one hundred and eight thousand li away from this place!"

"Do you even know how far one hundred and eight thousand li is?" Su Chen looked up at the ceiling at a forty-five-degree angle.

Xiao Wu shook her head and answered honestly, "I don't know."

"Do you remember the stories I told you?"

Xiao Wu nodded repeatedly.

Over the past year, whenever Su Chen had nothing to do, he would tell her all sorts of strange stories, like the one about a monkey fighting monsters.

"Back then, Tang Sanzang rode an Ultraman to Nebula M78 to seek the true scriptures, and the distance was only one hundred and eight thousand li!"

He spouted nonsense with a straight face.

"That is quite far, then." Xiao Wu seemed to half-understand.

"In this scene, at this very moment! I feel the urge to recite a poem."

Xiao Wu widened her eyes, looking at him as if he were an alien: "Boss, you're actually a man of culture?"

Having followed Su Chen for a year, she hadn't learned much, but her ability to retort had certainly improved.

What kind of talk was that? What kind of talk was that?

Su Chen glared, asserting his authority as the boss.

"Listen closely! This poem is a forty-eight-character mantra I created myself, titled Classic of Poetry: That Sun!"

He cleared his throat, clasped his hands behind his back, and began to recite, swaying his head from side to side.

"That sun arrives, the dawn rises in the east."

"Crimson mist veils, like a curtain of silk."

"That sun glows green, mist drizzles over the stream."

"Red stones in the winter creek, like an agate pool."

"That sun's evening intent, warm dreams like music."

"Drifting in slumber, like a pheasant dancing."

Xiao Wu was left stunned.

She didn't understand it, but for some reason, she felt that the pronunciation and the rhythm were just a little bit off.

"Boss, what exactly does this mean?"

Su Chen smiled inscrutably.

"It means... praising the sun."

[Ding! Detected that Xiao Wu has suffered extremely abstract cultural pollution. Gained Abstract Value: 500 points!]

Listening to the notification in his mind, Su Chen felt satisfied.

He had taught this silly rabbit another profound lesson.

On the muddy dirt road leading to Holy Soul Village.

Two figures were moving forward.

"Boss, wouldn't it be better if we went to play in the Star Dou Great Forest? Why do we have to go to that godforsaken Holy Soul Village?"

Su Chen had a stalk of Blue Silver Grass dangling from his mouth.

"What do you know? Just follow along and stop complaining."

Xiao Wu grumbled and gave Su Chen a playful punch with her small fist.

This damn rabbit was taking him less and less seriously as the year went on.

Su Chen hadn't really left Notting City in the past year, and this trip to Holy Soul Village was being made entirely on foot.

He had originally wanted to take in the scenery of this other world.

But after walking for an entire morning, his legs were exhausted.

His eyes darted around, and he beckoned to Xiao Wu with his finger: "Come here."

"What for?" Xiao Wu leaned in, looking wary.

The next second, Su Chen flipped over and sat on Xiao Wu's shoulders, grabbing her rabbit ears with both hands: "Giddy up! Destination: Holy Soul Village, full speed ahead!"

Xiao Wu's face flushed red with rage; she nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.

This bastard, he really doesn't act like a human!

However, cowed by Su Chen's tyranny, Xiao Wu could only grit her teeth and continue carrying him forward.

[Ding! Xiao Wu is being ridden like a horse, extremely abstract, Abstract Value gained: 800 points!]

Before long, an old farmer appeared ahead.

The old farmer was trying to hoist a heavy bundle of firewood onto his shoulders.

Hearing footsteps, the old farmer turned his head and saw a cute little girl walking over while riding a little boy.

Huh!

Wait, no!

He rubbed his cloudy eyes and looked again.

He had indeed seen it wrong; it was a little boy walking over while riding a little girl.

Young people these days, they sure know how to play.

Su Chen hurriedly jumped off Xiao Wu's back and ran toward the old farmer with a smile on his face.

As a fish that slipped through the net of nine-year compulsory education, he decided to do one good deed a day!

The old farmer looked at the approaching Su Chen with a kind and gentle expression. Su Chen saw this and knew he had it in the bag; this good deed was as good as done.

He walked over and said very politely, "Grandpa, let me help you!"

The old farmer nodded in gratification.

What a good child, truly a warm-hearted boy.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Su Chen picked up the heavy bundle of firewood and, with a grunt of "Heave-ho!", dumped it squarely onto the old farmer's back!

"..."

The old farmer staggered under the weight, completely stunned.

Didn't you say you were going to help me? Why did you just dump the whole thing on my back?!

Su Chen brushed the dust off his hands. "I do good deeds without leaving a name. Grandpa, let me ask you, which way to Holy Soul Village?"

Do a good deed your grandfather!

The old farmer's face turned as black as the bottom of a pot; he wanted to open his mouth and curse.

He had actually thought this was a well-behaved child just a moment ago; this bastard was no good child at all.

"Get lost?"

Su Chen pouted aggrievedly and sighed, "The world is going downhill. Nowadays, you even get scolded for doing a good deed."

"Forget it, forget it. It's hard to be a good person."

Xiao Wu, following behind, had black lines all over her face, her mouth twitching uncontrollably.

You call this a good deed?

Even she, a rabbit, knew that you were just being a jerk!

After some tossing and turning, Su Chen finally arrived at Holy Soul Village.

As the most famous starter village in the Douluo World, Su Chen naturally had to check in for a souvenir, and while he was at it, raid the lair of a certain eunuch.

"Boss, you're being so mysterious, what exactly are you doing?"

Xiao Wu playfully leaned on Su Chen's back, poking her head out curiously.

"If you hadn't spoken, I really would have forgotten about you."

Su Chen gave his shoulder a disdainful shake, tossing Xiao Wu right off his back.

Xiao Wu stuck out her tongue, her face full of smugness.

He remembered that in the original work, A Yin was located in a waterfall behind Holy Soul Village.

Spending one copper soul coin, Su Chen obtained directions from a local.

Afterward, he led Xiao Wu straight toward the mountain behind Holy Soul Village.

Soon, the sound of deafening water reached them.

Su Chen looked at the rushing waterfall; the rock face was smooth, towering steeply into the clouds, nearly ninety degrees vertical.

In this setting, his poetic inspiration struck once again.

"It falls three thousand feet, as if the Milky Way is cascading from the ninth heaven!"

The environment was nice, very aesthetic—a great place for a date or a wild romp.

"Boss, I think this poem sounds better than the last one," Xiao Wu praised sincerely.

"None of your business."

Su Chen couldn't be bothered to pay any mind to this illiterate rabbit. With a flick of his consciousness, he exchanged for a flight-type soul guidance device directly from the system shop.

A Yin, I'm coming.

He pressed the soul guidance device against his back, and it instantly transformed into a pair of metallic wings. He swept an arm around Xiao Wu's slender waist, drawing a startled cry from her.

The wings flapped once, lifting the two of them into the air.

Braving the immense impact of the water, they flew steadily through the curtain of the waterfall and into the hidden stone cave at its center.

As soon as he entered the depths of the cave, Su Chen spotted a small, artificially excavated stone chamber.

In the center of the chamber was a small mound of earth, and growing atop it was a slender little blue blade of grass. This plant was completely different from ordinary Blue Silver Grass.

Its leaves were patterned with golden veins, radiating a faint yet pure aura of life.

However, the plant was in a wretched state, drooping and wilted as if it might wither away at any moment.

Su Chen circled around the Blue Silver Emperor.

This was Tang San's mother, the hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor, A Yin.

Still, her half-dead appearance suggested that the fertilizer hadn't been applied properly.