Everyone ate their fill and returned to Dorm Seven in a grand procession.
The work-study students strode along with light steps. Wang Sheng led the way, his back ramrod straight as he burped every now and then.
In the past, they had always kept their heads down on this route. But today was different. Their new boss had pulled off that spectacular slide-kneel in the cafeteria, putting the upperclassmen troublemakers firmly in their place. Who would dare cross them now?
At the entrance to Dorm Seven, Wang Sheng eagerly pushed the door open for Su Chen and gestured for him to enter.
"Boss, after you."
Su Chen nodded in satisfaction. The kid had a good eye for things. He had a bright future ahead of him.
Back in the dormitory, most of the work-study students sat cross-legged and began meditating and cultivating.
They understood the law of the jungle better than anyone. Their boss could protect them today, but in the end, they would need to become strong enough to fend for themselves.
Su Chen, meanwhile, sprawled on his bed and rested with his eyes closed.
Cultivating? Not a chance. Not in this lifetime.
Night fell.
Tang San's bed in the corner remained empty and silent.
Wang Sheng and the others barely spared it a glance.
In their eyes, the guy who had taken that fraud Yu Xiaogang as his master and then been forced by their new boss to slide-kneel in front of everyone had become a complete joke.
Elsewhere, Xiao Wu looked at Su Chen's spacious bed and bit her lip.
Now that her identity had been exposed, she felt strangely at ease, as though she had decided to let the chips fall where they may.
She recalled what had happened in the cafeteria, and a lingering fear still gripped her. Though she had angrily bitten Su Chen there, the terror of having her identity exposed had never left her.
Aside from his sharp tongue, Su Chen didn't seem intent on killing her and taking her Soul Bone.
After weighing it over, Xiao Wu gritted her teeth.
The first rule of survival for a hundred-thousand-year-old Rogue Rabbit: if you can't beat them, join them.
Once she had grown stronger, she'd crush this brat beneath her heel.
With no bedding, Xiao Wu did just as she had in the original story: she pushed her empty bed frame across the floor with all her might until it sat snugly beside Su Chen's.
"What are you doing?" Su Chen asked, raising an eyebrow.
Xiao Wu pointed to her bare bed frame, which didn't even have a straw mat, and said as if it were only natural, "I don't have a blanket! It's so cold at night. If I catch a cold, how am I supposed to serve you, Boss? How am I supposed to bring you tea and water, or make your bed?"
She said all this without the slightest blush.
Su Chen's Ice Silkworm Silk Bedding was so big that one person couldn't possibly use all of it.
She didn't want to humble herself by asking Su Chen to buy her a blanket, so she had simply come over to share his.
More importantly, staying beside this mysterious little brat meant she could shelter under his protection and avoid the Titled Douluo secretly watching her from outside.
Two birds with one stone.
When Su Chen didn't refuse, Xiao Wu immediately scrambled onto the bed and pulled out a small pink bundle. It was everything she owned.
With a soft thump, she placed the bundle neatly on the centerline between the two joined beds.
"There. That's the boundary."
Xiao Wu put on a stern little face and raised a delicate white finger, solemnly drawing an invisible line between their territories.
"You sleep on that side, and I'll sleep on this side. Whoever crosses the line..."
She paused deliberately, revealing two adorable little rabbit teeth as she issued a fierce warning.
"Is a puppy!"
Su Chen nearly burst out laughing.
She was a rabbit, yet she insisted on calling herself a dog. That cross-species oath was something else.
He turned onto his side, too lazy to deal with this drama queen of a rabbit.
A hundred-thousand-year-old rabbit spirit taking human form—back in the world he'd come from, she'd have been a peerless demoness who could topple kingdoms.
Even if she hadn't fully grown up yet, she was already a beauty in the making.
When it came to looks, people were willing to bend their principles. What did it matter if she took up a little bed space?
With all those seniors setting an example for Su Chen, what did he have to fear?
After all, some of his predecessors had played with snakes, some with foxes, and even some with ghosts. They'd all gotten up to all sorts of scandalous, shocking things.
As the successor of a new age, surely he could play with a rabbit—and later, take that Blue Silver Emperor tree for a spin too.
Thinking of Ah Yin's identity, Su Chen couldn't stop his mischievous thoughts from bubbling up.
What would Little Scumbag have to call him then?
Heh heh heh!
Hearing Su Chen's chilling laughter, Xiao Wu couldn't help shivering.
How could this hateful little brat laugh so evilly?
With his back to Xiao Wu, Su Chen opened the system panel.
[Host: Su Chen] [Soul Power Level: 11] [Soul Skills: First Soul Skill: 100% Barehanded Blade Catch (Unlocked)] [Abstract Value: 798]
The information was clear enough. Su Chen opened the system shop, and rows of products cascaded down the screen.
[Soul Power Level +1: 500 Abstract Value (Soul Master stage)] [Random Soul Bone: 100 Abstract Value (Randomly unlocks a body part; requires Abstract Value to increase its age)] [Douluo Planet Controller: 10 billion Abstract Value] [God King Divine Position Inheritance: 1 billion Abstract Value] [First-Level God Divine Position Inheritance: 500 million Abstract Value] ... [Soul Ring Age Upgrade Card: 10 Abstract Value; increases a Soul Ring's age by 100 years]
Su Chen promptly closed the shop interface.
With the few hundred Abstract Value he had on hand, he could at most pick up some cheap stuff from the miscellaneous section.
Spend five hundred points to raise his Soul Power by one level? He'd have to be out of his mind.
The Douluo Continent was known as a fantasy world's sewer, with an absurdly low power ceiling.
Rule-based Soul Skills, meanwhile, were all about playing dirty.
No matter how high the opponent's Soul Power was, once they drew their sword, they had to obediently kneel and catch it.
Whether he leveled up or not made no difference to his strength. The sensible thing was to save his Abstract Value for something more fun.
By his reckoning, Tang San was probably getting ready to follow Yu Xiaogang to the Soul Hunting Forest and obtain his First Soul Ring.
Su Chen rolled over on the bed, folded his hands behind his head, and pondered the fun he'd have in the future.
The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the Eight Spider Lances—Little Scumbag wouldn't even get the chance to catch a whiff of such treasures.
But simply snatching his opportunities would be too dull. He'd have to pave the way for Tang San's growth too.
Su Chen reopened the shop and searched the miscellaneous section in the corner. Before long, something caught his eye.
[Snake Star Grass: 1 Abstract Value. Effect: Emits a special scent that fatally attracts snake-type Soul Beasts. Lasts four days.]
Su Chen's eyes lit up. This thing was practically made for Little Scumbag.
After spending one Abstract Value, a dark green dried herb appeared in his palm out of thin air. Fine serrations lined the edges of its leaves, and it gave off a fishy-sweet smell.
"Off you go." Su Chen snapped his fingers, spending another Abstract Value to activate targeted teleportation.
Target: Tang San's Soul Tool.
At the same time.
In Yu Xiaogang's dormitory.
Tang San was happily polishing the Hidden Weapons he had finished making, tucking them one by one into his belt.
The belt, set with twenty-four pieces of jade, was a welcome gift from Yu Xiaogang.
He had given it an elegant name: Twenty-Four Bridges Moonlit Night.
With these Hidden Weapons as his trump cards, plus his teacher's unparalleled Invincible Theory, this trip to the Soul Hunting Forest was guaranteed to go smoothly!
Once he returned from hunting a Soul Beast, that wicked little brat Su Chen would pay the price!
He would repay the humiliation of being forced to kneel a hundredfold.
But Tang San, lost in his sweet dreams, had no idea.
Deep inside the Soul Tool he was so proud of, a stalk of Snake Star Grass giving off a deadly scent was quietly laying out a broad road to hell for him and Yu Xiaogang!