Son Abandoned by Heaven? No, a Fated Actor!

Brain Storage.

Sacred Soul Village.

The sunlight was dazzlingly bright, bathing the massive stone monument at the village entrance, carved with the words "Sacred Soul," in a brilliant glow, as if recounting the glory of a Soul Saint once born here.

Yet that glory had long become a thing of the past. The Sacred Soul Village of today was no different from any other remote village on the Douluo Continent—ordinary and impoverished.

Today was the village's annual big day—the Martial Soul Awakening ceremony.

In the village clearing, dozens of six-year-old children stood in line, their faces a mix of nervousness, curiosity, and anticipation.

Their parents gathered around the outer edge, whispering among themselves, their eyes full of hope for the future.

Among the crowd, an especially frail little boy with a sickly pale complexion—Han Yuchen—was doing his best to play the part of a nervous, uneasy child.

He kept his head slightly lowered, his tiny hands clutching the hem of his clothes tightly, his body giving an occasional faint tremble. He portrayed a sickly six-year-old terrified of the unknown to perfection.

Yet his heart was utterly calm. He even felt like laughing.

Here it comes, the classic opening. The Douluo Continent beginner village.

Deep within Han Yuchen's soul, the consciousness of an adult from the Azure Planet was frantically ranting.

That kid next door named Tang San is standing perfectly straight, with such calm eyes. One look and you can tell he's trained. The protagonist halo really is this unreasonable. Starting out with this Sickly Child constitution is practically hell difficulty.

As a transmigrator, Han Yuchen could not have been more familiar with the scene before him.

Six years ago, he had descended into this world in the form of a meteor, becoming an abandoned infant in Sacred Soul Village and being adopted by Village Chief Old Jack.

Even more coincidentally, he discovered that he had become neighbors with Tang San, the future Sea God and Asura God.

For the past six years, he had kept an exceptionally low profile. Other than his frail body, there was nothing remarkable about him.

Because he knew that his true power required a "key" to unlock it.

And today was the day to unlock the treasure.

"Children, quiet!"

A somewhat impatient voice rang out as Su Yuntao, the Spirit Hall Steward known as the "Blind Douluo," strode over.

He wore a fitted white outfit and a black cloak draped behind him. A fist-sized character for "Soul" adorned his chest, giving him a rather imposing appearance.

"My name is Su Yuntao. I am a rank twenty-six Soul Grandmaster, and I will be your guide. Now, I will conduct your Martial Soul Awakenings one by one."

His tone was professionally perfunctory. Clearly, he held no expectations for an awakening ceremony in such a remote village.

The ceremony proceeded in an orderly manner.

"Sickle. Tool Martial Soul. No Soul Power. Next."

"Blue Silver Grass. Wasted Spirit. No Soul Power. Next."

"Wooden stick. Wasted Spi... Hm?"

Su Yuntao's voice abruptly cut off as his gaze locked onto Tang San near the front of the line.

Tang San calmly extended his right hand, and a delicate blue blade of grass quietly grew from his palm.

"Blue Silver Grass again." A flicker of disappointment passed through Su Yuntao's eyes.

Han Yuchen watched coldly from the side. Don't rush, Brother Tao. The big reveal is coming.

Sure enough, when Tang San placed his hand on the Blue Crystal Ball, a miracle occurred.

Bzz—!

A dazzling blue radiance erupted in an instant, illuminating the entire wooden house like a crystal palace. That brilliant light was a hundred times stronger than the combined glow of all the children before him!

"Heavens... Innate Full Soul Power!" Su Yuntao's voice cracked. He stared fixedly at the crystal ball as though he had seen a ghost. "A Blue Silver Grass Wasted Spirit actually has Innate Full Soul Power?!"

The villagers also broke into cries of astonishment, and the way they looked at Tang San changed instantly.

Han Yuchen curled his lip. "Standard procedure. Sit down, all of you. He's the protagonist—how could he be called one without doing something special?"

Amid the shock and murmurs, it was finally Han Yuchen's turn.

He walked forward weakly, his small, thin figure appearing especially frail beneath the sunlight.

"Put your hand here." Su Yuntao had yet to recover from the shock of Innate Full Soul Power. He merely spoke as a matter of routine.

Han Yuchen obediently placed his hand in the center of the six pitch-black stones.

Golden motes of light poured from the stones and entered his body. A warm sensation spread through him, as though he were soaking in a hot spring, incomparably comfortable.

"Extend your right hand."

Han Yuchen raised his right hand, and a soft blue glow gathered in his palm. When the light faded, a palm-sized little fish, azure all over, appeared in his hand.

The little fish looked utterly unimposing. Its eyes were large yet vacant, its gaze dull, its mouth slightly open, as though it had not fully woken up. It even looked... a little adorably stupid.

"This is..." Su Yuntao leaned closer, his brows tightly furrowed. He searched through every bit of Martial Soul knowledge in his mind, yet found no powerful Martial Soul that matched it. In the end, he could only curl his lip in disappointment.

"An ornamental fish. No offensive ability. A Wasted Spirit."

That conclusion immediately drew several snickers from the villagers, who had just begun to harbor a trace of hope for Han Yuchen.

"Come, let's test your Soul Power. Let's see whether there'll be a miracle." Su Yuntao handed over the crystal ball, his tone once more calm. Clearly, he did not believe a miracle would happen twice.

Han Yuchen placed his hand on the crystal ball and injected into it the faint thread of Soul Power within him, so weak it was nearly negligible.

The crystal ball only lit up with a speck of light the size of a needlepoint, so dim it seemed as if it could go out at any moment.

The last trace of light vanished from Su Yuntao's eyes. Expressionless, he delivered the final judgment:

"Innate Soul Power, level one."

The moment he finished speaking.

"Pfft—"

No one knew who laughed first.

Then came undisguised, overwhelming laughter.

"Hahaha! Level one? That's even more useless than Tang San's Blue Silver Grass!"

"I thought that meteor was some lucky omen, but it gave us a worthless good-for-nothing! We raised him for six years for nothing!"

"Not even as good as Tang San's lousy grass! At least he has Innate Full Soul Power!"

The deliberately drawn-out words dripped with sharpness and malice.

Village Chief Old Jack let out a long sigh. His wrinkled face was full of disappointment as his cloudy eyes looked at Han Yuchen, and he shook his head.

Tang San's gaze carried a trace of sympathy—perhaps the kinship of two people sharing "Wasted Spirits," or perhaps simple pity.

At that moment, Han Yuchen's performance reached its peak.

His small body suddenly trembled, as though struck by lightning, and he stood frozen in place.

He lowered his head, biting his lips so hard they turned white. His eyes reddened instantly at a visibly rapid pace.

A crystalline tear fell with a patter onto the dust-covered ground, splashing up a tiny bloom of dust.

Perfect.

He clenched his fists and said nothing. With all his strength, he pushed through the crowd, turned, and ran.

That retreating figure was frail, lonely, yet carried a stubborn refusal to yield to fate. He looked exactly like the protagonists of those passionate tales, humiliated beyond measure but destined to rise in the future.

The villagers' laughter danced wildly behind him like countless invisible blades.

Han Yuchen turned a deaf ear to it.

Inside, he was already laughing his head off.

Act. Just keep acting.

The more emotional groundwork I lay, the better the later reversal will feel!

Laugh. Go ahead and laugh all you want.

In a moment, you'll be the ones crying!

He ran all the way back to the dilapidated little wooden house at the corner of the village that belonged to him, pushed open the door, and slipped inside.