Everything Was Going According to Plan

Early the next morning, while the sky was still dim, Nan Fusheng got up and dressed. Today was the day he enrolled. He would officially enter Red Mountain Academy, and specifically the Soul Master Class, beginning at least nine years of schooling.

According to Sun Moon Federation regulations, both primary and intermediate academies provided free compulsory education. Primary academies taught for three years, while intermediate academies taught for six.

There were several ways to advance to a higher academy: either gain admission through excellent grades, or spend a large sum of money to get in. Alternatively, one could attend certain vocational academies and learn a practical skill.

I never thought I'd still have to go through nine years of compulsory education after transmigrating. But next, I need to start playing my role, or it'll be hard to get close to the protagonist.

Next door, Tang Ziran had just taken Tang Wulin outside when a roar came from the neighboring house. "Get the hell out of here early! How did I ever give birth to such a bastard?"

Amid a burst of smashing and crashing, a boy slowly emerged. He had fair skin, dark circles under his eyes, and a thin, undersized frame that made him look malnourished. Without saying a word, he closed the door and walked out. Judging by his direction, he seemed to be heading the same way as them.

Tang Ziran frowned slightly at the sight. To be honest, he did not know much about the neighbor next door, though he had heard a few things from others.

The neighboring household seemed to consist of only a mother and son. The man had abandoned his wife and child, while the woman often abused her own son. She stayed cooped up at home all day, relying on the child to bring her food.

That was what he had heard from the people around him. He had assumed it was all just gossip, but it now seemed to be true.

Still, he said nothing. This was, after all, someone else's family matter. He merely led his own child along behind Nan Fusheng.

Tang Wulin, whose hand Tang Ziran held, also looked at Nan Fusheng ahead of them as if he wanted to say something. In the end, however, he remained silent.

Walking ahead of them, Nan Fusheng wore a knowing smile. Yes, all of this was part of his plan. Although he possessed the foundation for godhood as the Lord of the Mysteries, the "Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings," he did not have the corresponding godhood ritual. Rituals could also be regarded as part of the Acting Method.

Lord of the Mysteries was a world filled with chaos and madness, and most high-sequence Beyonders had some sort of mental problem. The core purpose of a "ritual" was to maintain one's self-awareness and assist in advancement.

For certain reasons, he had become a Marauder, and he had yet to hear any "ravings." However, he had not forgotten his first experience entering Sefirah Castle.

At worst, he might never become a high-sequence Beyonder in this lifetime. Thus, he could only pursue both paths at once and strive to become a powerful Soul Master. Why was he so confident, one might ask?

Naturally, it was because he was already a Marauder. Though he was only a low-sequence Beyonder at present, he possessed some high-sequence abilities.

When Klein, the protagonist of Lord of the Mysteries, had still been a low-sequence member of the Fool pathway, he had been able, due to Sefirah Castle, to use part of the abilities of Sequence 2, Miracle Invoker, from that pathway: "Resurrection is a miracle."

Then surely there was nothing wrong with him, a "little Celestial Worthy" who possessed both Sefirah Castle and three Uniquenesses, being able to use some high-sequence abilities in advance!

Uniqueness was the tangible symbol of the authority corresponding to a given sequence. Only by truly mastering a Uniqueness and fusing three Beyonder characteristics could one complete the transformation from human to god and wield that sequence's authority.

That was the requirement for becoming Sequence 0. However, he did not need to go through so much trouble. He did not need three Beyonder characteristics; he only needed to become Sequence 1, fuse with the Uniqueness, and perhaps perform a ritual. Then he could become a True God.

That was getting off topic. Simply put, he could use the abilities of the Marauder pathway from Sequence 9 to Sequence 5. The only issue was that the cost was rather high. By paying a certain price, even Sequence 4 abilities were not impossible to use.

The Sequence 6 ability of this pathway was:

Steal: Temporarily steals another person's Beyonder ability for one's own use. Has a chance to steal one ability from a target within a fifty-meter radius. The more one understands the target, the easier it is to steal the desired ability; the less one knows, the closer it becomes to random chance and luck.

When the target's sequence is higher than 6, theft may fail. The higher the sequence, the greater the chance of failure. High-sequence powerhouses can also be stolen from, but the probability is lower. During the ten minutes the ability takes effect, the victim directly loses the corresponding ability, while the Apprentice of Concealment can use it proficiently. After ten minutes, the stolen ability disappears, and the victim will not recover it until the next day.

In terms of Soul Masters, the stronger one's cultivation, the lower the success rate of Steal.

Over the past few years, he had accidentally discovered that when he used Steal on a Soul Master, he could steal a portion of their Soul Power. Though it would be returned afterward, his body had gradually begun to possess Soul Power. The parents of this body had both been ordinary people.

Naturally, he had possessed no Soul Power either. Yet whenever he stole "Soul Power," his body was gradually nourished by it. Soul Masters needed Soul Power to use their Martial Souls and activate Soul Skills, so when he stole "Soul Skills," he could also steal a certain amount of Soul Power from them.

Honestly, he had not expected this. He had originally thought that the stolen target would simply be unable to use their Soul Skills. When he targeted Soul Power itself, however, he could steal most of the target's Soul Power if the gap in their strength was not too great.

After discovering this ability, he had not used it recklessly. He only stole two or three times, stopping once his body possessed a certain amount of Soul Power. This was also why his Innate Soul Power was only rank one.

The ability Steal could not be used carelessly. If his target was a Soul Scholar who had only recently awakened Soul Power, it did not matter much. But if the target was a Soul Master, then once they could not use their Martial Soul or Soul Skills, he risked being exposed. Though the possibility was small, he did not want to take that risk.

Especially since each use of Steal now required him to rest for a while. After all, this was not an ability he should have been capable of using at his current level. He could probably only use it once a day; if he used it again afterward, he would suffer side effects such as dizziness and blurred vision.

The "woman's roar" Tang Ziran had heard just now was also Nan Fusheng's doing: the Sequence 5 ability of the Seer pathway, Marionettist.

Because he possessed the Uniquenesses of three pathways at once, he could use the abilities of the other two pathways across pathways, though the cost was even greater.

Simply put, a Marionettist could gain the ability to see Spirit Body Threads. By manipulating a target's Spirit Body Threads, one could directly affect the target's Spirit Body, astral body, mind body, and ether body, then use the ether body to control the target's physical body.

However, perhaps because this was a different world, on Douluo Continent it worked like this: through the Spirit Body Threads, one gradually eroded the target's mind and Martial Soul before taking control of their body.

Once a target's Spirit Body Threads were initially controlled, they would immediately experience sluggish thoughts, stiff movements, and bodily rigidity, gradually developing in the direction of a puppet or marionette.

If the control process was not interrupted, the target would become a Marionette after five minutes. In a sense, the target would have truly died, and marionettization was irreversible.

Nan Fusheng's mother, the woman named Lan Yuxi, had been turned into a Marionette long ago, when Nan Fusheng had just been reborn with the aid of Sefirah Castle and still possessed some residual power.

The woman did not return home until noon on the second day after Nan Fusheng's "resurrection." To be honest, as a transmigrator, Nan Fusheng had always possessed his own way of thinking.

Toward strangers, even this body's parents, it was difficult for him to truly acknowledge them as family. Not to mention that, from a certain perspective, they had also killed him once.

So when Lan Yuxi returned home, he directly turned her into a Marionette. He had been too young then. If Lan Yuxi had gone out for another few days, he feared he might have died several more times. Afterward, he used Lan Yuxi's Soul Guidance Communication device to have someone prepare baby food.

Fortunately, Lan Yuxi had already become a Marionette and did not need to eat at all. Only then did he barely make it through that initial vulnerable period.

The scene that morning had also been deliberately staged by Nan Fusheng. A child without a father and unloved by his mother could easily win others' sympathy. It was also a move he had prepared for approaching Tang Wulin's family and for his future acting.

However, controlling Spirit Body Threads truly consumed too much mental strength. To perform that scene at precisely the right moment in front of Tang Wulin's family, he had needed to carefully time it. Furthermore, controlling a Marionette did not consume spirituality, but rather his mental strength, leaving him looking as though he had stayed up all night.

But it did not matter. Everything was going according to plan.