A Winding Path to Enlightened Village

"Thank you, Grandpa Zhang!"

Ning Wuque pulled himself out of his utter despair and gave Zhang Can a slight bow. After straightening up, he did not become dejected like the other children who had awakened low-grade Soul Power. Instead, a resolute look appeared on his face as he said:

"I won't be disappointed because of this. Some things are destined to be unfair, and all we can do is accept them. But!

A thousand green mountains, ten thousand layers of mist; along winding paths, one realizes Enlightened Village.

Even if countless precedents have already decreed my future, I believe I will eventually find a path that suits me and walk it to the end. So what if I only have Level Three Soul Power? Even Blue Silver Grass can become a god!"

"Good, good child! You've always been very mature. I'm relieved that you can think this way. Come, I'll teach you how to retract your Martial Soul now. Then you can go back with Grandpa."

Zhang Can reached out and patted Ning Wuque on the shoulder, his expression gratified yet tinged with heartache.

He had watched Ning Wuque grow up. The boy had always been precociously mature and sensible, never crying or making a fuss. He loved reading and exercising.

But... Heaven had not favored him because of that. Zhang Can could only hope that, after personally experiencing the gap in Innate Soul Power levels, he would still be able to think this way.

As Zhang Can began teaching Ning Wuque how to summon and retract his Martial Soul,

little Ning Tian stood nearby with her mouth slightly open. She stood beside her father, while Wu Feng and her father, Wu Yan, stood on the other side.

Ning Wuque's voice was not loud, but he had made no effort to conceal it. Besides, the hall where Martial Souls were awakened was fairly quiet to begin with. When no gifted child appeared, hardly anyone spoke loudly.

Thus, she heard what he had just said, as well as the ambition and unyielding spirit in his tone.

"Dad, that boy..."

She tugged at her father's sleeve. Her little heart had been deeply shaken; it was the impact of culture.

"It's rare to see a child with such aspirations and learning. Ning Tian, remember what he just said as well, understand?

Our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was born with shackles. It is just like Innate Soul Power. What you must do is break the chains that your predecessors could not, and find your own Enlightened Village!"

Ning Tian's father sighed with feeling.

Did their Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda not also have countless precedents deemed inevitable? Ten thousand years—over ten thousand years, there had only been that one exception from ten thousand years ago!

Therefore, although Ning Wuque's talent was not much to speak of, he still thought highly of the boy.

After all, there was an essential difference between a person with ambition and one without it. Moreover, he was a direct descendant of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan. If he truly became that exception, they would lose nothing.

Mockery? Ridicule? Quite a few talented children were indeed whispering such things.

But what he saw was merely a child's unreservedly voiced ambition! A great yet nearly unattainable ideal!

But how could the Innate Shackles be so easily broken? Blue Silver Grass becoming a god—the god from ten thousand years ago had possessed Twin Martial Souls and Innate Full Soul Power, and even his Blue Silver Grass had been extraordinary...

After hearing Ning Wuque's aspirations, quite a few elders present developed a favorable impression of him. At the very least, their first impression was that he was an extraordinary, diligent, and ambitious child.

"I understand, Dad!"

Ning Tian nodded as she spoke, looking toward the boy who had already retracted his Martial Soul and returned to wait in his original spot.

Curiosity and admiration filled her eyes. After all, even her father had praised him!

"Tch..."

Beside her, Wu Feng curled her lips in disdain. If hard work were useful, what would be the point of geniuses?

She was not fond of Ning Wuque, not only because of his words, but also because Ning Tian's gaze upon him made her unhappy.

Ning Tian was hers!

Just a worthless trash with Level Three Innate Soul Power!

Not far away, Ning Wuque had no idea that some simp had taken note of him. Even if he knew, he would not care. He could just avoid her in the future.

Feeling the gentle gazes of the observing elders, he secretly felt pleased.

This is the cunning of an adult... Using a child's innocence to gain adults' favor. It might not be very useful, but at least I've left an impression.

Ning Wuque did not remain idle. Instead, he began using the knowledge he had encountered since childhood, along with the meditation method he had learned, to meditate and communicate with his Martial Soul.

He had not said those words merely for show. He truly wanted to defy fate and change his destiny!

If he had awakened Level Eight Soul Power, he guaranteed that he would have slacked off on the spot, honestly cultivated to become a Titled Douluo, then lived a carefree life.

But he only had Level Three Innate Soul Power now!

If he did not risk his life trying to figure out how to defy fate and change his destiny, then when the Sun Moon Empire invaded in the future, would he not become cannon fodder?

One had to know that, at the future ending, the day Huo Yuhao ascended was also the day the Sun Moon Empire invaded once more.

A Soul Douluo could barely protect himself, but a Soul Elder or Soul Ancestor was not even worth less than an ant! Run? Where could a collateral descendant of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan run? Being purged was practically inevitable.

And the first step in defying fate and changing his destiny was understanding his Martial Soul.

How could he defy fate and change his destiny in this Martial Soul-supreme world if he did not even understand his own Martial Soul?

Very quickly, Ning Wuque used meditation to establish a certain connection with his Martial Soul and obtained some vague information from it.

Since it was his father's Martial Soul, Ning Wuque had learned about this type of soul beast from a young age.

The Black-Gold Ant was a low-ranking soul beast of the Dark Gold Terror Ant Clan, equivalent to a worker ant. Above it were the Dark Gold Soldier Ant, Dark Gold Terror Ant, and Dark Gold Ant King/Dark Gold Ant Queen.

It was a fairly common soul beast group with a hierarchical structure, and it possessed the possibility of evolving further.

His father's Martial Soul had evolved from a Black-Gold Ant into a Dark Gold Soldier Ant when he obtained his fourth ring.

From the information passed to him by his Martial Soul, Ning Wuque understood that his Martial Soul had not mutated in any way. It was merely an ordinary Black-Gold Ant, without any exceptional talent.

Just like his father, who had possessed Level Six Innate Soul Power.

Level Three might be the average standard for this Martial Soul.

"Do I have to start from somewhere else? My brain only transmigrated when I was in high school... you absolute genius, hurry up and think of something!"

Ning Wuque stopped meditating. After leaving that state, he thought to himself, wanting to establish contact across time and space with the peak of his intelligence from a full six years ago.

He would use that world-shaking wisdom to seek a path to breakthrough!

Very quickly, perhaps Clear Sky had closed a door on him but opened a window, his long-sealed brain trembled as it awakened from slumber!

Naruto... Eight Gates Formation... Douluo Dalu 1... Ring Blasting... Chakra... Soul Power... the human body...

Fragment after fragment of memory abruptly surfaced in Ning Wuque's mind.

Then—

Ding—!

It was as if a lightbulb had lit up above his head with a crisp chime.

Ah~!

His world-shaking intelligence had already told him this idea, one sufficient to shake the world.

He suddenly had a bold idea.

It was just that...

Ning Wuque gritted his teeth with some hesitation. This idea would be very bitter! It would also be very exhausting! For a modern person from a peaceful era in his previous life, it was an enormous challenge and torment!

I'm about to pull some fancy tricks. The original novel has a setting called Ring Blasting, and I just happened to think of the principles behind the Eight Gates Formation.

OK, next comes fusion and evolution!