Outside Holy Soul Village.
Dawn was just breaking, and a dense white fog blanketed the village's modest wooden houses.
A little boy dressed in plain hemp clothes slowly jogged out through the fog-shrouded village gate.
He had wheat-colored skin and bright eyes. Breathing evenly, he ran toward the small hill ahead at an unhurried pace.
Halfway there, he suddenly remembered something and stopped at the foot of the hill, looking toward a boulder. and*图*书
Lying on the boulder was a little boy about his own size.
The boy had delicate, pleasing features, but right now he looked utterly lazy. He lay on the boulder with one leg crossed over the other, a strand of Blue Silver Grass-common all over the village-dangling from his mouth as he chewed away with relish.
"Brother Feng, you get up so early every day. Want to work out with me today?"
He smiled at the little boy on the boulder.
"Little San? Go on, get out of here. I'm lying here in perfect comfort. Let me snooze a little longer. It's getting hotter and hotter. Come wake me up after you finish working out."
The little boy on the boulder didn't open his eyes. He seemed to have known who was coming and spoke languidly.
"...Brother Feng, could you please stop calling me Little San?"
Tang San gave a wry smile.
Brother Feng's full name was Wang Feng.
He was a few months older than Tang San and was Holy Soul Village's famous little lazybones.
Most five- or six-year-old boys got up early at that age to exercise, preparing for their upcoming Martial Spirit awakenings.
Otherwise, they got up early to work the fields and help their parents with farm chores.
But Brother Feng would lie around all morning, looking as though life held no hope, doing absolutely nothing.
Still, Brother Feng had had a rough life. When he was born, his mother had died in childbirth, according to Grandpa Village Chief.
His father was overcome with grief and fell ill from overwork. Less than a year later, he passed away too.
So Grandpa Village Chief had taken Brother Feng in.
As the days went by, Brother Feng gradually grew more sensible. Aside from visiting his parents' graves once a year, he no longer sank into grief over their early deaths.
Though he was lazy by nature, Brother Feng really was exceptionally clever.
Thinking of this, Tang San looked at the little boy lying on the boulder with some admiration.
Over the past few years, Tang San had no idea what methods Brother Feng had used, but he'd greatly increased Holy Soul Village's grain and vegetable yields, gradually making the once-impoverished village prosperous.
Brother Feng had also set up the pillar at the village entrance-the one that Grandpa Village Chief said might bear the handprint of a legendary Spirit Saint.
He claimed to outsiders that the handprint had been left by a Spirit Saint, and spun a whole slew of fantastical stories, saying that anyone who came to admire and touch it might one day become a Spirit Saint!
He'd actually attracted visitors from several nearby villages, and even people from Notting City often came to visit.
In less than two years, he'd turned the once remote, impoverished Holy Soul Village into something like a little town.
Even Dad had said that young Feng's brain worked differently from other people's... He was quick-witted and sensible.
Everyone in the village liked him.
He was just a bit too lazy.
"Don't call you Little San..." Wang Feng thought for a moment. "Then how about Big San?"
"..." Tang San was speechless. "Just call me Little San, Brother Feng. I'm going to work out."
With that, Tang San waved and nimbly scrambled toward the small hill in the distance.
Though he was little, his hands and feet were remarkably nimble. The hill was more than a hundred meters tall, yet to him it was as easy to climb as level ground.
In just a few minutes, he reached the summit.
"As the saying goes, 'Three parts are fated by Heaven, seven parts depend on hard work'... Ninety parts depend on a cheat... Being the protagonist of Douluo Continent really is different..."
Wang Feng watched Tang San's swift, sure movements with an expression like he'd just bitten into a lemon.
How was this the kind of skill a six-year-old boy should have?
As for him, he'd be panting hard after running for a little while, never mind climbing up there.
"We're both transmigrators... Little San, you're a powerhouse reborn..."
Wang Feng let out a drawn-out sigh. "I'm different. I'm a weakling reborn... How did I, an ordinary little homebody from the twenty-first century, end up transmigrating into the world of Douluo Continent? And on top of that, I transmigrated into some bit-part supporting character."
"They didn't even give me a cheat. How am I supposed to play this?"
That was right.
Wang Feng was a transmigrator too, but compared with the protagonist Tang San, he was far behind.
He had no heaven-defying background, no ding-dong system, and no ridiculously powerful Martial Spirit...
Of course, Wang Feng desperately wanted one, but he didn't have one!
So Wang Feng had been a salted fish for six years. He could only rely on the wisdom from his previous life to barely improve Holy Soul Village a little, making things just a bit more comfortable for himself and the villagers.
"Before long, the official story of Douluo Continent will begin. The plot-device Su Yuntao should be arriving soon too... If I awaken some sickle Martial Spirit or hoe Martial Spirit, I might as well bash my head against a block of tofu and die."
Wang Feng chewed on the Blue Silver Grass as he watched Tang San on the hilltop, breathing in and out while practicing the Mysterious Heaven Skill and Purple Demon Eye.
His eyes were filled with envy.
He spent every day on this boulder, watching Tang San practice, hoping he might secretly pick up a move or two.
Unfortunately, he wasn't a genius, and he didn't have X-ray vision.
He'd watched for more than a year and still hadn't figured out a thing.
All he'd gotten from watching Tang San gradually grow stronger was lemon after lemon.
"In those Douluo fanfics I read in my previous life, you'd just swear brotherhood with Tang San, and he'd pass on all the Tang Sect Secret Arts to you... What a load of bullshit!"
At the thought, Wang Feng cursed those damned, idiotic authors in his heart.
Tang San wasn't a six-year-old child. His soul belonged to a genius who'd played the Tang Sect's higher-ups for fools, crafted the Tang Sect's supreme Hidden Weapon, the Buddha Fury Tang Lotus, and mastered the Tang Sect's highest inner art.
He was an adult's soul, too!
He hadn't even told his own father, Tang Hao, about the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record.
When he was six, he'd kept it hidden as his greatest secret.
Why would he tell an outsider?
He'd only recently transmigrated to Douluo Continent himself. Even if you were his biological brother, Tang San might not pass it on to you.
"I really want to go back... Sigh, no phone, no computer, can't scroll through Douyin or play games. I don't even know whether G2 or FPX won S9."
Wang Feng sighed.
For all six years, he'd been thinking about going back every moment.
If he had a cheat, Wang Feng felt sure he'd be full of ambition, roaming the length and breadth of Douluo Continent, battling on every front, marrying a few beautiful girls, making a great name for himself, and leaving behind a legendary tale...
He didn't?
Forget it. He'd be a salted fish.
Before long, as the morning sun rose over the horizon, ten thousand rays of purple light spilled across the land, seeming to drape it in a bright new garment.
Wang Feng also felt a faint warmth.
"That kid Little San should be about done practicing, right?"
Wang Feng had barely finished muttering when he saw Tang San come down from the hill, looking full of energy.
"Brother Feng, why are you still chewing on Blue Silver Grass?"
Tang San looked at Wang Feng, who was still lying on the boulder and basking in the rising sun, and asked helplessly.
"What, you look down on Blue Silver Grass?"
Wang Feng chewed a few times.
"It's just... the most ordinary kind of grass."
Tang San thought carefully before answering. "But even ordinary grass has the strongest vitality and resilience. In that respect, Blue Silver Grass isn't ordinary. I don't mean to look down on it."
Wang Feng stared at Tang San, dumbfounded.
As expected of the protagonist. He was different from the other little brats; he could even come out with words that held such deep meaning.
"Exactly. So I've decided, Little San: your Martial Spirit will be Blue Silver Grass!"
Wang Feng said lazily.
"Brother Feng, that's too mean..."
Tang San gave a wry smile. "You're cursing me!"
It was still just the most ordinary plant, and Tang San hoped his Martial Spirit would be at least a little better...
"But a Martial Spirit only appears after it awakens, so you don't get to decide, Brother Feng..."
Tang San smiled and left, not forgetting to call back, "Brother Feng, remember to come back to the village for dinner."
Wang Feng watched Tang San walk away in silence and let out a drawn-out sigh, his heart turning sour again.
And just then-
"Ding! The story of Douluo Continent has officially begun... Congratulations, Host, on your first check-in. Reward: Meteor Tear!"
"Note: The item will be delivered to the Host's side by ordinary means and is expected to arrive tonight... Please remember to collect it."
"Next check-in location: Holy Soul Village, Spirit Hall! If you can achieve an Innate Full Soul Power check-in, you will trigger an additional mysterious Martial Spirit! The Host is urged to work hard to improve!"
Boom!
As the voice rang out in his mind, Wang Feng leaped off the boulder like a startled cat!
His face flushed with excitement...