Elysia~

At the far end of the distant hill, a figure in a pink dress stood with her back to Su Mu.

She turned gently, her light pink eyes brimming with an irrepressible smile.

"Hi, we meet again~"

Remiel Dan descended and stood side by side with Elysia.

Su Mu walked forward slowly, pondering to himself.

Remiel Dan and Elysia were here.

The remaining employee, Cyrene, had yet to appear. Where had she gone?

"Why don't you turn around and take a look?" A clear voice resounded between heaven and earth.

Su Mu turned his head and was startled to see a massive phantom floating between heaven and earth.

Those star-shaped eyes stared at him with a smile.

Cyrene and Demiurge's entire figure was so enormous that it could envelop the whole space.

The next moment, Su Mu was sent back to his original location.

Looking at the empty house and the cold wind blowing in through the broken window, he could not help but shiver.

"System, why not summon them directly into the real world?"

Su Mu puzzledly dumped the cold fries back onto the plate.

The flow of time in that space just now seemed different from here.

He clearly remembered that it had been evening when he entered, yet it was already night when he came out.

He had stayed inside for no more than two minutes, but two or three hours had passed outside!

Sensing Su Mu's question, the system responded.

"Please check the current time period: 10 p.m., outside employee working hours."

"Would you like to spend 100 Gold Soul Coins to summon the other party for three hours of overtime?"

Seeing another payment prompt appear on the system panel, Su Mu's eyes widened.

"Fuck, the characters are right, and the rewards are right too. So this is where you're screwing me over!"

"The moment you showed up, I found three problems!"

"I have to pay to use rewards I drew myself?"

"You're clearly giving me cheats, so why can't I pick all seven out of seven?"

"And lastly, you could clearly have made me work like a beast directly. Why bother giving me rewards at all?"

This time, the system did not answer Su Mu's questions. Instead, it continued issuing rewards.

Information about Hidden Hand and Passive Income appeared above the panel.

Yet Su Mu did not feel any changes. It seemed as though he had been born this way, with no additional sensation at all.

Then, seeing the system fall silent again, Su Mu studied it for a while longer.

But he could not find a way to exploit a bug and claim more rewards, so he could only hurriedly finish the fries.

Watching the night outside grow so thick it seemed impossible to dispel, he slept until broad daylight.

Knock, knock, knock~

Early in the morning, Su Mu was awakened by a knock at the door.

Still bleary-eyed, he walked into the courtyard and pulled out the latch, which stood slightly taller than him.

He pulled open the gate, and a slender figure blocked the doorway, obscuring the glaring sunlight.

The sunlight revealed her exquisite silhouette in full.

"Su Mu, I came to see you."

Jiang Nannan's voice was soft, but Su Mu knew it extremely well.

His expression immediately turned cold as he looked Jiang Nannan up and down.

"What are you here for?"

"My father is gone, and I don't have money to keep paying for your schooling. If you came to borrow money, leave." Su Mu spoke coldly.

Although Jiang Nannan had not offended him, her circumstances had indirectly caused his father's death, leaving him hungry and cold.

So Su Mu did not have much of a pleasant expression for Jiang Nannan.

Seeing Su Mu's indifferent expression, Jiang Nannan hesitated before squeezing through the gap in the door anyway.

She cautiously took out a pile of Gold Soul Coins from her clothes and held them out toward Su Mu with both hands.

"Su Mu, I came to pay my respects to Uncle, and you should take these Gold Soul Coins."

"A Soul Master will be coming to Pheasant Village today to perform paid awakenings. Like last year, you'll need this money."

As Jiang Nannan spoke, she looked at the Gold Soul Coins in her hands, warmed by her chest.

"You didn't even come back yesterday, and you ran here from Heaven Dou City early this morning. Just to give me these ten Gold Soul Coins?" Su Mu looked at her coldly.

It was because of this money back then! His father had given this money so Jiang Nannan could have a chance to awaken.

Otherwise, she would only have been an ordinary little girl from a village for her entire life.

An unintentional good deed cost you your life. Dad, it really wasn't worth it for you!

But there was no way he could refuse this money!

Su Mu reached out and picked up the scorching Gold Soul Coins from Jiang Nannan's hands one by one, placing them into his cloth pouch.

At the very least, this was the only thing he could do now. He could not let the thing his father had exchanged his life for become nothing more than a flimsy word of thanks.

"If there's nothing else, you can leave. I need to prepare to awaken my Martial Soul at the square."

As Su Mu spoke, he pointed at the gate.

Jiang Nannan grew a little anxious, but she did not know what to say first.

"Su Mu, if you have any difficulties, you can come find me. I'm right next door."

"Go get ready, then. Come to my house for dinner tonight. Mom said she's making something nice today, and she has something to tell you."

Jiang Nannan's voice was weak, but her cheeks suddenly flushed crimson.

Su Mu opened the gate and walked out toward the center of the village, his face utterly expressionless.

Could she not hold it in anymore? Now that I have no value to her, does she want to discuss breaking off the engagement with me, a child?

Jiang Nannan stepped back out, closed the door, and sat on a stone nearby without leaving immediately.

That left Su Mu feeling extremely conflicted as he walked.

Jiang Nannan had gone to study in Heaven Dou City for three years. She only returned once or twice each year and spent the rest of her time in Heaven Dou City.

Perhaps she was working while studying, or perhaps she simply did not want to come back and face him.

He laughed at himself.

His father had provided Jiang Nannan with quite a few Gold Soul Coins back then, yet now only this handful remained in her hands.

No more and no less, exactly ten Gold Soul Coins—just enough for one Martial Soul awakening.

"She has a conscience, but not much of one. At least she isn't an ungrateful wretch."

That was Su Mu's assessment of Jiang Nannan's actions.

After all, he had not met her many times and did not truly know what kind of person she was.

He had no time to observe someone who had nothing to do with his future. Nor was he the type to shamelessly cling to someone just because of an engagement contract.

"~A child bride with Innate Full Soul Power, a Soft Bone Rabbit Martial Soul, and the talent to attend Shrek Academy in the future."

"If I don't end up with a broken-engagement plot, I'd be letting down my status as a transmigrator."

Su Mu mocked himself, as though he had already guessed why Jiang Nannan had deliberately come to find him.

That meal was probably a feast with a hidden agenda~

"Fine. I can use this opportunity to settle everything clearly."

By the time Su Mu said this, he had already arrived at the village square.

Many parents had gathered there already.

They all shared one trait: each of them clutched a bulging coarse cloth bag in their hands.

They had probably already prepared the money for the awakening.

As the village chief and a person dressed in a black robe appeared, the villagers immediately surrounded them.

The children were also pushed and shoved into the line.

Su Mu glanced at the newcomer and silently followed at the very back of the line.

He possessed twin Martial Souls with two Ultimate Attributes, so it would be better to keep a low profile during his awakening.

If he waited until all the other children had awakened, there would be fewer eyes on him.

As the awakening began, two arms suddenly grew from behind the Soul Master.

All four arms shone with a bronze-green radiance.

He first took out a cash box, accepted the cloth bag from the first child, carefully counted it, and dropped ten Gold Soul Coins into the box.

Only then did he guide the child to stand in the center of the line, within the formation made up of six black pebbles.

"My name is Black Bear, a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster, and I will guide you on the path of Martial Souls."

"Next, I'll awaken your Martial Souls. Line up properly, one by one. Anyone who causes trouble will be kicked out of the awakening line!"

As the Soul Master finished speaking, two yellow Soul Rings slowly rose from beneath his feet.

Gentle Soul Power entered the first child's body.

As that pale blue glow appeared, a Blue Silver Grass-like plant emerged in the child's hand...