That night.
"Grandpa, I want to go to the Soul Master Academy in Nuoding City." Xiang Yang had spent a long time thinking on his own, but even the cleverest cook couldn't make a meal without rice. With no reference materials, he could only give up.
The original novel had never gone into detail about these basic settings, and he had read it back in middle school. Nearly ten years had passed since then, and aside from knowing some of the main plot thanks to the occasional video, he really didn't remember much.
But the Soul Master Academy specialized in teaching Soul Masters. It should be able to help him, or at least give him some basic knowledge about Soul Beasts.
"Hmm? All right, no problem." Xiang Ming wasn't surprised. "Our family has a fair amount of savings. Enough to put you through the junior Soul Master Academy, at any rate."
"Mm." Xiang Yang wasn't surprised either. He had often heard his grandpa boast about his past exploits. Though they were clearly exaggerated, his grandpa was still quite impressive among ordinary people. He had visited many big cities and earned plenty of money. Only when he grew older had he brought Grandma back to their hometown, where they had lived ever since. Their family was quite well-off as a result.
On top of that, his parents left some money behind whenever they came home, and living expenses in the village were low. By his estimate, they had around one or two thousand Gold Soul Coins, so naturally they could afford to send him to the junior Soul Master Academy.
"What about my cousin?" Xiang Yang meant the Blue Silver Grass girl with half a level of Soul Power. Her name was Lin Ping, and she was the daughter of his mother's younger sister. Her Martial Soul and Soul Power Level brought two people to mind.
"Don't worry. Our village was the last of the villages sharing the quota to be tested, and we were the only one with two children who had Soul Power. I've already spoken to the village. The place will go to that girl." Xiang Ming had prepared for this.
In their eyes, Xiang Yang was the person in the village most likely to awaken Soul Power in all these years. There was no evidence that being clever meant he would have Soul Power, but there was no evidence it was impossible either, was there? At the very least, his chances were much higher than anyone else's, so Xiang Ming had sent someone to ask about it long ago. After all, who would complain about having too much money?
He just hadn't expected there to be two children, but that was even better.
In fact, villages like theirs often went several years, or even a decade or more, without a single person with Innate Soul Power. So several villages generally shared one work-study place, but most of the time, there was simply no need to use it.
Even if there really weren't enough places, the village and the academy would both do their best to provide assistance. After all, people with Soul Power were far too rare.
Soul Masters had a long history. Even counting only from the appearance of the Spirit Hall, it had been over two thousand years, yet the total number of Soul Masters in any era had never exceeded one hundred thousand in the records.
The vast majority were concentrated among the nobles and sects. The chance of a Soul Master appearing among ordinary people could be said to be less than one in ten thousand.
Moreover, anyone with Soul Power was certain to cultivate to level ten. As long as they could keep cultivating, the path was smooth all the way to level thirty, with no bottlenecks standing in their way.
The teachers at junior Soul Master Academies were generally only in their twenties in level, and with the Spirit Hall around, no Soul Master would be abandoned under normal circumstances.
Work-study places only seemed few because the chance of someone with Soul Power appearing in an ordinary village was so low that the places often went unused. If there weren't enough, the matter wouldn't be ignored; such cases were simply extremely rare.
"If I remember right, registration doesn't start for another half month, does it? Can I go early?" There was only one junior Soul Master Academy in Nuoding City and the surrounding area, and it admitted students twice a year, rather like schools in his previous life.
"Well, that should be possible. I'll ask around later." Xiang Ming hadn't expected him to want to go to the academy early. It seemed his grandson couldn't wait to step into the world of Soul Masters. But never mind children—even adults like them would react far more strongly if they could cultivate. He had heard that high-level Soul Masters were not only powerful, but could also prolong their lives and live for hundreds of years!
"Thanks, Grandpa. Have a chicken leg, and this, and this..." Xiang Yang kept putting food in Xiang Ming's bowl.
"Oh, that's enough, enough! Grandpa can't eat that much..."
After helping clear away the bowls and chopsticks, Xiang Yang returned to his room. He lay on his bed, gazing at the moon outside the window, and summoned his Martial Soul. The flower head, as large as a washbasin, gave off a faint golden glow in the night. This was the limit of what he could manage now; if he let it shine freely, it would be no different from a big light bulb. It was fine during the day, but far too conspicuous at night.
Two days later.
Ever since learning that this was the Douluo Continent, Xiang Yang had made a conscious effort to exercise. And sure enough, over the years, he had used the sports knowledge he'd gained at school in his previous life to work out a simple exercise routine suited to him, leaving him noticeably fitter than others his age.
These past few days, he had deliberately exercised in the sunlight and kept a record, but there had been no change. He didn't know whether sunlight energy had no strengthening effect on his body or whether too little time had passed.
At that moment, he was leading a dozen or so children on a slow jog around the houses when someone called, "Xiao Yang!" Hmm? Xiang Yang looked toward the voice. It was Grandpa, and his relaxed expression gave Xiang Yang an idea of what had happened.
"Halt! At ease!"
The sight must have looked comical to an outsider: a child a little over a meter tall was solemnly directing a dozen or so youths around his height, some even a head or two taller than him. Yet they actually obeyed him. "Yes, sir!"
Shouting the strange words, they lined up in two rows by height, stood straight at attention, and pointed their right hands diagonally above their heads, giving off an indescribable sense of discipline.
"Mm, I'm leaving. From now on, practice the way I taught you whenever you have time. I'll come back to see you every year during the holidays. You're all dismissed." Once their "king" had spoken, the children, who were only around ten years old, cried, "Oh~ Time to go home~"
The youths scattered in a rush. There were plenty of fun things to do with Xiang Yang, but he required them to obey him if they wanted to play together. Unable to resist the temptation, they had no choice but to do as he said.
"Grandpa, how did it go?" Though Xiang Yang asked, he already had an idea. Sure enough, Xiang Ming said, "I had your dad ask someone. There's no problem with registering and moving in early. The academy teachers live there anyway, and some students even stay at the academy for years at a time. But work-study students can't do that. Still, Xiao Ping can stay with your parents for a few days and go when school starts."
"All right, I understand." In his excitement, Xiang Yang's voice grew noticeably louder without his realizing it. The reason they weren't having Lin Ping come at registration time was that Xiangjia Village was among the most distant of the hundred or so villages around Nuoding City. The journey alone took two days, to say nothing of feeding both people and ox along the way. Counting the return trip, that was four days. The expense was considerable, and it was a great deal of trouble.
At the first light of dawn, Xiang Yang had already washed up and climbed onto the ox cart, his luggage packed away. A while later, a thin woman in her thirties, dressed in gray, came hurrying over with Lin Ping, who had clearly been tidied up.
Once the little girl had climbed onto the cart, the woman glanced at Xiang Yang sitting on the other side and couldn't help saying, "Xiao Yang, your aunt knows you've been clever since you were little. Xiao Ping is a very obedient child. Please keep an eye on her when you have time, so she doesn't get bullied."
Xiang Yang had been watching them for a while. When he heard her, he answered seriously, "All right, Auntie. I will."
Come to think of it, his aunt could be said to have finally seen better days after the worst of times. Her father had died in an accident when she was young, leaving her mother to raise the two sisters. But their mother eventually collapsed from exhaustion. Her health declined, and without proper treatment, she passed away in less than a month. The sisters had been forced to fend for themselves, but what respectable work would hire girls in their early teens?
So they could only beg while looking for odd jobs. Later, through a series of coincidences, they met Xiang Yang's father, Xiang Huo. Back then, he had been just like his name: hot-tempered, with a young man's chivalrous spirit. How could he stand by when he saw girls being bullied? So he stepped forward and took a beating, but at least he could be said to have played the hero saving the beauties.
Xiang Yang had been hearing this story since he was one or two, and by now he had heard it no fewer than a hundred times.
Later, after Xiang Huo and the older sister confessed their feelings for each other, he brought them both back to the village and held a wedding. The younger sister also found a husband in the village, but fate had other plans. After their child was born, her husband had wanted to earn more money, only to die in an accident at work. Xiang Yang's family had considered taking them in, but she was unwilling to live under someone else's roof and trouble others. She had always refused, even when her own sister asked.
Still, she couldn't bear to see her child suffer, so she accepted most of the material necessities they gave her, everything except money. She had also turned down several marriage proposals, and mother and daughter had lived alone together ever since.
"I'll take good care of Xiao Ping." Xiang Yang glanced at his cousin, who didn't know what to do, then turned back to her mother and spoke with emphasis.
"All right." She visibly breathed a sigh of relief. Xiao Yang was a capable child. "With your word, Auntie can rest easy. Xiao Ping, you must listen to your cousin at the academy and cultivate hard, understand?"
"Mm, I understand." Six-year-old Lin Ping couldn't really understand what was happening, but she knew she had to listen to her mother.
"All right, we're off! Giddyup, giddyup!" The man driving the cart was the village blacksmith, whose years at the forge had given him a sturdy build. The village chief, Xiang Ming, sat beside him. With a flick of the whip, the cart carried the four of them down the road.
At noon, the ox cart stopped by the roadside, and the four of them paused to eat. This was also one of Xiang Yang's "inventions." He had provided the idea and a rough method, and the adults had used wood and a little copper to make lunch boxes that could keep cooked food fresh for a while.
For this, Xiang Yang had even taken the time to work out how to make ice with saltpeter. How could the villagers ever have seen anything like that? From then on, everyone had been certain that Xiang Yang would become a Soul Master.
And ever since this thing appeared, the blacksmiths and carpenters had gained another source of business. After all, few people liked dry, hard flatbread or jerky.
"Slow down, little cousin. There's plenty more." The two adults were outside while the children ate in the cart. Seeing Lin Ping eating quickly, Xiang Yang put a piece of meat in her bowl as he spoke.
"Mmm." She swallowed the food in her mouth first, then said, "Cousin, this is really good. You have some too." She put a piece in Xiang Yang's bowl as well.
Xiang Yang had kept Lin Ping talking throughout the journey, and the little girl was much more cheerful than before.
In the village, people could provide many things for themselves, but precisely because it was a village, there weren't many jobs that paid. Besides farming, his aunt could only make a little money doing simple handicrafts. Lin Ping had started lending her mother a hand long ago, so Xiang Yang rarely saw her, only meeting her during festivals or when his mother took him to visit. He had thought she was a quiet little girl who didn't speak much.
But now, he could only say that the children of poor families learned to take charge early. How many children were naturally averse to being active? They were simply forced into it by life.
The journey went smoothly, with no accidents and no surprises. They arrived safely in the city, then safely reached his parents' house.
The couple rented a two-story house and ran a flower shop. Though they had no Soul Power, their chrysanthemum Martial Souls gave them an instinctive sense for similar plants, and they had some talent for growing different varieties of chrysanthemums.
Business was fairly good each month, bringing in three or four silver coins, sometimes as many as six. This was mainly because Soul Masters accounted for the bulk of the spending in this line of business. Su Yuntao was one example. After seeing him come to conduct awakening ceremonies several times, Xiang Yang had asked his parents when they returned to the village. They told him that the deacon often bought flowers for another female Soul Master.
Aside from them, most customers were academy teachers and some senior students. Most of them came from wealthy families. Moreover, as Soul Masters, they had Soul Power strengthening their bodies and developed much faster than ordinary people, so naturally their needs in that regard also arose much earlier.
Xiang Yang remembered that whenever his parents came home, his mother would take him to visit his aunt. She had asked her several times to come help run the business. He could tell his aunt had been tempted, but she had still refused. He supposed it was probably for her daughter's sake, and because she didn't want to disturb her sister and brother-in-law's life together.
Come to think of it, Xiang Yang's early registration had affected them too, but the villagers were very tolerant of him. He had been a "child prodigy" before, and now they could add "future Lord Soul Master" to that. Moreover, he had offered to cover everything their side ought to pay for Lin Ping's early arrival, so naturally there was no issue.
Of course, Grandpa and his parents wouldn't object. Their child wanted to learn about Soul Masters sooner, so how could they object? But if it affected someone else, especially when that person was their own younger sister—or relative—they couldn't let her suffer a loss.
The next morning, the sun shone brightly.
The previous night, Xiang Huo and Lin Yin had taken the two children shopping, buying plenty of snacks and toys. After they returned, Xiang Yang had washed up quickly and hurried to bed. It seemed that, no matter the world, girls all had much the same talent for this. Even the usually quiet Lin Ping had never stopped moving, her cheeks flushed with excitement as she kept pulling him over to look at this and that.
A habit built up over several years woke him around six or seven. After washing up and doing a simple set of exercises, he found that his parents had already prepared breakfast.
After eating, he said goodbye to everyone, and his father took Xiang Yang alone to Nuoding City's only junior Soul Master Academy.
Along the way, Xiang Huo kept talking, telling him the things he had found out that Xiang Yang should keep in mind. Xiang Yang listened quietly, his own thoughts in some turmoil. His Martial Soul and Innate Soul Power were only tickets. Now he was finally about to enter the door—er, no, knock on it.
About half an hour later, Xiang Yang watched his father exchange a few words with the gatekeeper. Once his father showed him the Spirit Hall certificate, the gatekeeper let them through without mocking them as he had in the story. After all, the circumstances were different. The gatekeeper was just an ordinary person; he didn't try to squeeze money out of everyone. Bullying the weak and fearing the strong was only human nature.