The Evolution of the Martial Soul

"Nine-Leaf Sword Grass? I've never heard of that before! You didn't make up that name yourself, did you?"

The deacon was puzzled. The name sounded impressive enough, but how could a grass Martial Soul with only one leaf dare call itself that?

Then he suddenly thought of another possibility: it might be a mutated weed Martial Soul. No wonder he had never seen it before.

That had to be it.

That explanation perfectly accounted for why he did not recognize this Martial Soul.

Jiang Yunzhou froze, silently griping to himself: Do you even hear yourself? What do you mean I made it up?

He did not even know how to refute that, because he had no idea what was going on either.

"There's nothing special about it, is there?"

He could not figure it out. He truly could not figure it out.

Clearly, this had already touched upon a gap in his knowledge.

Since he could not understand it, then by his usual standards, it naturally had to be treated as a useless Martial Soul.

He had painstakingly traveled through several villages, yet not a single child capable of cultivation had turned up. The trip had been a complete waste.

After asking his questions, he shook his head to himself and made as if to leave.

He could not even be bothered to continue with the Soul Power test.

Jiang Yunzhou panicked at once. From the look of it, was the man not planning to test his Soul Power?

How could that be allowed? Why was he being treated differently?

He swiftly raised a hand and called out:

"Um, Lord Soul Master, please wait. You haven't tested my Soul Power yet..."

How could his Martial Soul possibly be useless? He could not accept that.

He only had one chance. Missing it would cause trouble.

The deacon glanced at Jiang Yunzhou, a flicker of impatience passing through his eyes.

Yet when he saw the hopeful look in Jiang Yunzhou's eyes, it seemed to stir what little sense of responsibility he had left. In the end, he still took out the crystal ball.

Fine, he would test him. It would only take a moment anyway.

"Here, put your hand on it..."

Then something unexpected happened.

"Buzz..."

The previously dim crystal ball suddenly erupted with an extraordinarily dazzling blue radiance.

The light instantly filled the entire small room. To the other children who possessed no Soul Power, it was even somewhat blinding.

"Ah!"

"My eyes!"

"So bright!"

A wave of noisy chatter followed.

The Spirit Hall deacon's eyes went wide, his mouth slightly agape, his face full of disbelief.

"Full Soul Power? Innate Full Soul Power? Th-this makes no sense!"

How could an ordinary weed possess Innate Full Soul Power?

Upon hearing that he had Innate Full Soul Power, no one was more excited than Jiang Yunzhou himself.

He was relieved. Now he could truly relax.

His transmigration had not been in vain.

He knew it. His Martial Soul could not possibly be something ordinary.

Right now, he wanted to see what expression would appear on the Spirit Hall deacon's face. Shocked, or even more shocked?

A thrill of proving everyone wrong suddenly rose within him.

He simply stood there, quietly watching the speechless Spirit Hall deacon.

After pondering for a while, the deacon took out paper and a pen, asked Jiang Yunzhou for some basic information, and then wrote him a Spirit Hall certificate.

"Here, kid. Keep this safe. You can use this certificate to enroll in school..."

Even after thinking it over, the deacon still did not take this child with Full Soul Power seriously.

So what if he had Full Soul Power? The grass had already been branded a useless Martial Soul in his mind.

In the eyes of ordinary people, Soul Masters could not possibly make mistakes.

If he went back on his word now, would that not be slapping himself in the face?

Jiang Yunzhou did not care much about the deacon's reaction.

As long as he had the certificate and a chance to enroll, that was enough. He did not need to ask for anything more.

He was merely curious why, despite having Innate Full Soul Power, he had not even received a token invitation to join Spirit Hall.

Surely they could at least make a gesture?

It felt as if something was missing, which left him deeply dissatisfied.

He had even thought that, if possible, joining Spirit Hall would not be a bad option.

At the very least, his future livelihood would have been secure.

But it seemed there was no hope of that now. They simply did not think highly of him.

He looked over the certificate, and after spotting the deacon's signature, his expression turned rather strange.

So this Lord Soul Master's name was Su Yuntao.

He had a title: Blind Douluo.

Well then, that explained everything.

Shenma Village

For decades, not a single Soul Master capable of cultivation had emerged from the village.

Thus, Jiang Yunzhou's ability to cultivate became a major event for Shenma Village...

In the six years since arriving in this world, the days before school began were the most luxurious Jiang Yunzhou had ever lived.

Overnight, the villagers collectively became enthusiastic, treating him like a young master.

They kept sending all kinds of tasty food to his home.

There was meat at every meal, and he always ate his fill. His complexion visibly grew rosier.

And so, he coasted through village life until school started.

After enrolling.

As an orphan, Jiang Yunzhou had no source of income. He understood the essential tricks of transmigrators, but this world already had all of them.

As for anything more difficult, he did not understand it at all. Making money off such things was impossible.

Thus, his life remained fairly impoverished.

Although his work-study status exempted him from tuition, he still had to pay for meals out of pocket.

The small subsidy from Spirit Hall, along with the old village chief's occasional assistance, became what he relied upon to survive.

There was no helping it. His Martial Soul seemed especially capable of absorbing energy; he alone could eat as much as three people.

He could only survive on cheaper foods. Even so, he completed the six years of cultural and theoretical classes at the Junior Soul Master Academy.

During his first few years at school, he had been so skinny that he was little more than skin and bones. Even stray dogs by the roadside would disdainfully walk around him.

In the dead of night, he would sometimes curl up on his cold bed and quietly complain:

Why hadn't I, like the protagonists in storybooks, encountered some benefactor descending from the heavens? Was my fate not miserable enough?

Was that kind of treatment really a privilege reserved for the protagonist's group?

He felt as though someone had set him up, reducing him to a peripheral character, like a shadow deliberately forgotten in a corner, utterly devoid of presence.

His current situation could be summed up in two words: passerby.

Even though he had entered the academy with Innate Full Soul Power, he still received little attention.

Moreover, the arrogance ingrained in those students from aristocratic families made them disdain commoners. How could they possibly want to befriend him?

For a time, Jiang Yunzhou had seemed entirely out of place among them simply because he was not wealthy enough.

He was proud as well. Since that was how things were, he could not be bothered to curry favor with those little brats who looked down their noses at everyone.

This life of poverty and loneliness continued until his Martial Soul began to reveal its edge, finally earning him some notice from the academy's upper ranks and slightly improving his circumstances.

He discovered that his Martial Soul could change after becoming a Soul Grandmaster. When he added a Soul Ring at level 20, his Martial Soul underwent its first transformation.

A second leaf quietly grew from that Sword Grass!

At first, this change took Jiang Yunzhou by surprise, but it also gave him a vague idea about his Martial Soul: it could grow as his realm improved.

It was not until he reached level 30 and became a Soul Elder that he gained a more comprehensive understanding of the Nine-Leaf Sword Grass Martial Soul.

He had always believed that his Martial Soul was extraordinary, and that was indeed true. It was even a hidden, top-tier growth-type Martial Soul!

With the Nine-Leaf Sword Grass Martial Soul, every time he broke through the upper limit of a Soul Ring Slot, the Sword Grass itself would grow another leaf.

And every additional leaf directly doubled both his base strength and cultivation speed from their original level!

By the time he broke through to become a Soul Elder, the Sword Grass Martial Soul already possessed three lush, verdant sword leaves.

That meant his strength and cultivation speed had become three times that of ordinary people!

With these boosts, Jiang Yunzhou cultivated faster and faster in the later stages, swiftly overtaking others from behind.

Whether in actual combat ability or the rate at which his Soul Power increased, he far surpassed his peers.

The academy could no longer regard him as a peripheral character. It began to value him, exempted him from miscellaneous chores, and provided some financial assistance for daily life, essentially a special scholarship.

Only then did his precarious, impoverished life finally come to an end.

(Supplementary explanation of the Sword Grass Martial Soul: at level ten, it has one leaf; at level twenty, as a Soul Grandmaster, it has two leaves; and so on. At level ninety, it will reach its complete form as the Nine-Leaf Sword Grass, granting a ninefold boost.)