The Grandmaster Just Joined the Group, and His Descendants Were Already Digging Up His Past?
Suotuo City, Qihong Soul Master Academy.
At night, the people on the shared sleeping platform were already fast asleep.
Qin Zhaoye was still sitting at the edge of his bunk. After counting the few Copper Soul Coins in his pouch, he took the wooden auditor's tag from his waist and tossed it to the head of the bed.
Ever since his Soul Power had reached level 10, he had been stuck there, unable to absorb any Soul Rings. He had scraped by at the academy with that tag for three years, and after hearing "cripple" for three years, the word had long since become background noise.
He had just stuffed the pouch under his pillow when an ancient scroll appeared out of thin air beside his hand. It was as hot as a flatbread fresh off the griddle. He grabbed it, scorching a red patch across his palm.
The scroll was called the Wordless Ancient Scroll, and it was his Martial Soul. He hadn't summoned it at all, and he had no idea how it had appeared on its own.
He had transmigrated from Earth three years ago, with all four original Douluo novels stored in his head. Unfortunately, this body had already awakened before he arrived. The pages of the scroll it summoned were completely blank, and a Spirit Hall deacon had declared it a Trash Martial Soul on the spot.
"It's been lying there like a blank sheet of paper for three years. Why did it suddenly start burning on its own tonight?" Qin Zhaoye asked, puzzled.
He gripped the hot bronze rods and pulled them apart.
Lines of golden text appeared on the blank pages. Closed, it was a Martial Soul; opened, it became a group chat interface. "Myriad Ages Douluo Group" hung at the top, and messages were scrolling up beneath it one after another.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Just finished the Suotuo files in the Official History of the First Era. People in the First Era had to go everywhere on foot because they didn't even have Soul Guidance Trains back then. Wasn't that ridiculously primitive?]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Don't be disrespectful to the First Era! That was the age when our Tang Sect's grandmaster rose to prominence, after all!]
[The Bystander Sees Clearly: Primitive or not, First Era Soul Masters fought fiercely. Read fewer unofficial histories and more accounts of actual battles.]
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Pfft. As far as I'm concerned, isn't digging up the past all about eating melons?]
At that moment, another line of golden text popped up in the center of the scroll.
[Group Hub: Myriad Ages Group Hub activated. Group owner privileges awaiting acceptance.]
Qin Zhaoye reached out and tapped it. A small seal appeared in the upper left corner of the interface: Group Owner · Myriad Ages Historian.
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: ??? Since when did our group have an owner? How come I didn't hear a thing about it?]
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Why is the profile blank? Which era are you from?]
He said nothing and opened the member list.
The Bystander Sees Clearly, Second Era · Huo Yuhao.
Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion, Third Era · Tang Wulin.
Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor, Fourth Era · Lan Xuanyu.
Qin Zhaoye was delighted. The protagonists of the last three original novels were all here.
He himself was at the very top of the list. The group owner's profile was completely blank, with neither a real name nor an era.
He had just swiped back to the main interface when golden text popped up again.
[Group Hub: Automatic recruitment initiated. Selecting the first member from the First Era timeline. Countdown: three breaths.]
Before Qin Zhaoye could make sense of it, three breaths had passed and the countdown had already reached zero.
[Group Hub: New member has joined the group. Real name displayed on the first day. Profile locked: First Era · Tang San. First-day revelations yield double conversation points.]
Qin Zhaoye opened the new profile. A line of gray text beneath it read: Real name displayed on the first day, change it as you please from the second day onward. But when he tapped his own profile again, it was still blank.
Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy.
Tang San had just finished practicing the Mysterious Heaven Skill when a bronze-colored screen of light appeared before his eyes. His name hung at the very top: First Era · Tang San.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Holy shit! Tang San? The first-day real name can't be faked. Did the living grandmaster just join the group?]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: !!!]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Grandmaster? Alive?]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: A Third Era disciple of the Tang Sect pays his respects to the grandmaster! I've been able to recite the general principles of the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record backward since I was little. I'll never let Hidden Weapons fall into the hands of evildoers!]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Grandmaster, what level are you now? You must have put together the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus by now, right?]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Wait, let me wash my hands before I kowtow to you]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: No, wait, why wash my hands when we're several eras apart?]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Even though we're several eras apart, you need only give the word, and everyone in the Third Era Tang Sect will be ready to die for you at any time!]
Seven messages came flooding in all at once.
Tang San's back went taut, and his left hand reached for his Sleeve Arrow. Both the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record and the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus belonged to the Tang Sect of his previous life, and he had never mentioned them to anyone in this one.
He sent a cautious reply.
[Tang San: Who are you? Where did you hear the words "Tang Sect"?]
[The Bystander Sees Clearly: Judging by that reaction, there's no sign of the Tang Sect yet. Going by the official history, the grandmaster is probably still studying at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy.]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: A junior academy? He hasn't founded the Tang Sect yet? If that's true, then what does that make the thirty thousand words of ancestral precepts I recite every day?]
Back in Suotuo City, Qin Zhaoye nearly laughed aloud. The rose-colored glasses Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion wore had shattered completely.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Hahaha, Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion's idol just fell off his pedestal! You're paying your respects to an elementary schooler!]
Over in Nuoding, Tang San stared at Huo Yuhao's message, his fingers motionless for a long time. The other party had deduced exactly where he went to school.
[Tang San: Who are you people, really? Did Spirit Hall send you to sound me out?]
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Spirit Hall? It doesn't have what it takes. The grandmaster's exposed to the world on his first day, so let's give you some hard proof!]
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Here comes the post! "Tang San, grandmaster of the Tang Sect, son of Tang Hao, young master of the Clear Sky Sect." Confirmed by the official history. The source is the Official History of the First Era: Annals of Tang San. Look it up yourself.]
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: For anyone too lazy to look it up, here's the original passage: Tang Hao, young master of the Clear Sky Sect, lived in seclusion in the countryside with his son and made a living as a blacksmith.]
Tang San read that line over and over for a long time.
His dad? The man who had worked as a blacksmith in the village for so many years, who slept until the sun was high whenever he drank?
Young master? How could those words possibly have anything to do with his dad?
He wanted to say a few words in his dad's defense, and he also wanted to say that his dad was just a blacksmith. But each time he got halfway through typing, he deleted it. He deleted his words three times in all.
After quite a while, he finally sent a message.
[Tang San: My dad has never mentioned the Clear Sky Sect. How do you even know his name? And what is the Official History of the First Era?]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Because your life has already been recorded in the history books, Grandmaster! It's all written in the official history textbooks, so we've been tested on it since we were little!]
[The Bystander Sees Clearly: Spirit Hall was at the height of its power around this point in the First Era.]
[The Bystander Sees Clearly: By the Second Era, all that was left of it was a historic site.]
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Speaking of historic sites, here's something fun for the grandmaster]
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: New post: "A day trip to the Spirit Hall historic site: which angle gets the best photos of the Pope's Palace?" Students get half-price admission, and you get a commemorative wooden plaque of the Pope's Palace too.]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: I went to that historic site on an autumn field trip! The plaque was just a thin piece of wood. It cracked as soon as I dropped it.]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: There were also people selling grilled sausages outside the Pope's Palace. The line stretched all the way outside the square. I waited forever and still didn't get any!]
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Bump it for me, all the way to the top!]
Replies piled up one after another, filling the screen in no time. Tang San's eyes were still fixed on the words "Spirit Hall historic site," and he didn't come to his senses for a long while.
Spirit Hall, a power as great as Spirit Hall, had become a tourist attraction that people could buy a ticket to visit in later generations?
Back at Qihong Soul Master Academy, two more lines of golden text popped up on Qin Zhaoye's scroll.
[Group Hub Announcement: First Era timeline enabled as an intervention-enabled timeline. Monitoring for historical deviations has begun.]
[Golden Text Report: One group opening gift pack has been delivered and is awaiting opening.]
A gift pack? There was no rush; it wasn't going anywhere. Qin Zhaoye first typed his first message since joining the group.
[Group Owner: The historian keeps accounts and accepts only hard proof.]
[Group Owner: Tang San, grandmaster of the Tang Sect, son of Tang Hao, young master of the Clear Sky Sect. Confirmed by the official history. This historian has recorded it.]
[Golden Text Report: One major first-day revelation. Historian's record accepted. First-day reward doubled. Group owner credited with 1,000 conversation points.]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: This historian??]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Group owner, I feel like you sound even more pompous than our Tang Sect elders!]
The number in the account jumped to 1,000. After looking at it twice, Qin Zhaoye grinned and muttered, "Even a cripple has a day when he gets something credited to his account."
Before the golden text had faded, another announcement popped up at the top of the scroll.
[Group Hub Announcement: Next automatic recruitment target: First Era · Bibi Dong, Pope of Spirit Hall. Countdown to group entry initiated.]
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Holy shit! We just finished talking about admission tickets to the historic site, and now the Pope herself is about to join the group?]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Protect the grandmaster! Bibi Dong was his greatest mortal enemy in the First Era!]
[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: But the ticket post is still sitting at the top!]
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Don't delete it! Let her see it the moment she walks in!]
Over in Nuoding, Tang San stared at the name "Bibi Dong," his fingers frozen before the screen of light for a long time.
Back in Suotuo City, Qin Zhaoye leaned against the head of the bed and leisurely typed a line.
[Group Owner: Make way, everyone. The countdown to the Pope being exposed to the world on her first day has begun!]