Su Yu watched her earnestly fabricate a story, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upward.
"Yeah."
Su Yu played along, pretending to imagine for a moment. "Maybe my brain will suddenly go 'ding' and bind a system or something."
A casual, offhand remark.
But it spoke the truest secret of all.
Lin Xiaoxiao was momentarily distracted by Su Yu’s rare smile.
She suddenly realized that today’s Su Yu seemed different from usual.
The boy who was always frowning, with a look of endurance and weariness in his eyes, now carried an indescribable calm.
It felt like a peerless blade hidden in its sheath, finally revealing a glint of cold edge.
Lin Xiaoxiao dropped her playful expression.
She stepped forward, staring intently into Su Yu’s eyes.
“Su Yu.”
Her voice became serious, more so than ever before. “Tell me the truth.”
“Do you really want to get into Kyoto’s No. 1 Martial Arts University?”
Su Yu’s smile faded.
He looked at Lin Xiaoxiao, his deep eyes still and unwavering, showing only absolute determination.
“Yes.”
No extra explanation.
Two words, spoken with force.
Lin Xiaoxiao stared at Su Yu for several long seconds.
She found no trace of vanity, arrogance, or jest in those eyes.
He was serious.
He really wanted to go to that seemingly unreachable place.
Lin Xiaoxiao bit her lower lip, as if making an immensely heavy decision in her heart.
She took a deep breath, and when she spoke again, her voice was low, meant only for the two of them.
“Perfect.”
Lin Xiaoxiao looked at him. “My family has a special recruitment slot.”
“Do you want it?”
The evening breeze continued to blow.
Leaves rustled softly.
Su Yu stared at Lin Xiaoxiao’s earnest eyes, stunned for two or three seconds before slowly replying.
“A special recruitment slot?”
He frowned slightly, his voice carrying a reasonable suspicion. “From Jiangcheng Martial Arts University? Or some key martial arts university in a province?”
Su Yu instinctively made a judgment in his mind.
Given the Lin family’s wealth, arranging a guaranteed admission slot to a key martial arts university in Jiangcheng or a nearby province—while extremely difficult—wasn’t entirely impossible.
That would already be an immense favor, one he felt was too heavy to bear.
But then.
Lin Xiaoxiao looked at him and gently shook her head.
She met his probing gaze and repeated herself, word by word, with absolute clarity:
“It’s from the capital of Great Xia.”
“The No. 1 Martial Arts University.”
Boom!
Su Yu’s pupils contracted sharply, and his heart skipped a beat.
He stared hard at the girl before him. Even having lived two lives, even having just awakened his system, his mind went momentarily blank.
A special recruitment slot?
A slot for the Great Xia Capital No. 1 Martial Arts University?!
How was that possible?
The slots for Kyoto Martial Arts University had always been the focal point of games played by provincial governors, military bigwigs, and top-tier families.
Every single slot represented incalculable resources and power!
A family like the Zhao family—local heavyweights in Jiangcheng with assets over a hundred million—had to scheme and buy his liberal arts scores just for a regular university admission slot.
And now.
Lin Xiaoxiao casually mentioned that her family had a special recruitment slot?
And she wanted to give it to him outright?
Su Yu looked at Lin Xiaoxiao, his expression completely changed.
He had always known she came from a well-off family, but now it was clear: this wasn’t just “well-off.”
This was sky-high connections!
“You…” Su Yu opened his mouth, rarely at a loss for words.
“Don’t ask how I got it.”
Lin Xiaoxiao avoided his probing gaze, her tone hurried. “As long as you say yes, this slot is yours. No college entrance exam, no fighting for those hundred spots.
“Direct admission.”
At that moment, the streetlights flickered on one after another, casting a warm yellow glow on Lin Xiaoxiao’s face.
Su Yu looked at her.
Silence.
A deathly silence.
A special recruitment slot. A shortcut to the top.
If he nodded, he wouldn’t even need to reveal the existence of his system or take any risks. He could walk steadily into Great Xia’s highest martial arts academy.
It was a shortcut that countless people wouldn’t even dare dream of.
But.
Su Yu slowly closed his eyes, and in his mind, Zhao Ze’s condescending face appeared.
“You have no background, no resources. You think passion and hard work are enough?”
“If hard work mattered, what would be the point of talent and family?”
Zhao Ze’s mockery was still fresh in his memory.
If he accepted this slot, how would he be any different from Zhao Ze?
Besides, that was Lin Xiaoxiao’s family slot.
How much would Lin Xiaoxiao have to sacrifice to offer him a resource of this level?
Debts of gratitude were the hardest to repay.
And let’s be real.
He had his system now. He had 328 bucks in his pocket!
Why couldn’t he charge in with his own strength and trample those so-called geniuses underfoot?
Su Yu opened his eyes again.
The shock in them had completely faded, replaced only by a calm and pride as solid as rock.
“Xiaoxiao.”
Su Yu spoke, his voice soft but carrying an undeniable firmness.
“Thank you.”
“But I don’t want it.”
“Don’t want it?”
Lin Xiaoxiao froze in place. The dim streetlight stretched her shadow long.
She looked at the boy, standing in his worn-out, washed-thin uniform, with eyes so calm they were unsettling. She felt a surge of absurdity.
That was a special recruitment slot to the No. 1 Martial Arts University in the capital!
Countless dignitaries across Great Xia would pay a fortune, bankrupt themselves, or even start a bloodless war for a chance at that slot.
And now, it was handed to Su Yu on a silver platter.
And he refused?
“Su Yu, do you even understand what this slot means?”
Lin Xiaoxiao stepped forward, her voice carrying a frustrated, almost reproachful edge.
“It means you don’t have to fight millions of high school seniors across the country for that single-plank bridge!”
“It means even if your qi and blood value is only 0.8, you’ll still enjoy the top-tier martial arts resources of Great Xia!”
“You wanted to go to Kyoto Martial Arts University, didn’t you? This is your only chance!”
She stared straight at him, trying to find a shred of impulsiveness or pride in his deep eyes.
But there was nothing.
Nothing at all.
Su Yu’s gaze was like a dry well—not even a ripple.
“I know.”
His voice remained soft, but his resolve was unshakable.
“But I can’t take it.”
He looked at Lin Xiaoxiao’s face, flushed with urgency, and truly understood her goodwill.
In this high-martial world of the weak being prey to the strong, having someone willing to hand over such a resource—that was a debt heavier than the sky.
But precisely because it was too heavy, he couldn’t bear it.
Why would the Lin family give such a precious special recruitment slot to an outsider?
Maybe Lin Xiaoxiao was driven by her obsession to repay a life-saving favor. But what about the Lin family elders?
Would they agree?
And besides—
He had his system now.
He had those 328 bucks and fifty cents.
“Xiaoxiao, saving you a year ago was just something I did on a whim.”
Su Yu turned around, his back to the streetlamp, hiding most of his face in the shadows.
"You don’t owe me anything, and I’m not about to use that incident to gain something in return."
"See you at the college entrance exam."
With that, he didn’t give Lin Xiaoxiao a chance to respond. Hands stuffed into his school uniform pockets, he strode straight into the dim street of the old town, where more than half of the streetlights were broken.
Decisive.
Clean.
No hesitation. No loose ends.
Lin Xiaoxiao stood there, watching the silhouette gradually dissolve into the darkness, biting her lower lip hard.
"Too proud for your own good!"
She stomped her foot in frustration, though her eyes inexplicably reddened.
She thought Su Yu was clinging to his pathetic pride.
A civilian with a blood energy value of 0.8, turning down a shortcut to the top, insisting on crashing headfirst into the wall of reality.
"Fine! You want to take the exam on your own?"
She shouted after the blurry figure disappearing into the night.
"Let’s see how you manage to pass the qualification line in the Martial Arts Exam three days from now!"
No reply.
Only the rustle of night wind sweeping dead leaves along the ground.
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
