Gu Yuan

Douluo Continent, Las City.

Outside a wooden house near the slums.

Early morning, when the sky had only just begun to brighten.

Dozens of parents stood in a long line here with their children.

Some were peddlers and laborers, some owned general stores, and some were blacksmiths... In short, they had only one purpose.

To awaken their children's martial souls.

In this era without Spirit Hall.

Commoners had only two options if they wanted to awaken their martial souls.

The City Lord's Manor and the black market.

The City Lord's Manor was too expensive, requiring one hundred Gold Soul Coins. Few could afford it.

The black market was much cheaper, naturally making it the first choice for commoners.

"Line up properly! Anyone who wants to awaken a martial soul must pay twenty Gold Soul Coins, and testing Soul Power costs another ten Gold Soul Coins."

"What? You think it's too expensive?"

"You think it's expensive? So do I!"

"Martial soul awakening equipment is tightly controlled now. Do you know how much trouble my brothers and I went through to get this?"

"Enough. Why bother explaining that to these lowborn scum? If you want to awaken, pay up now. If you have no money, go cool your heels somewhere else..."

Gu Yuan stood in the line, listening to the commotion ahead, and sighed helplessly.

He was a transmigrator.

Born in the slums, he had neither father nor mother. Not long ago, the only grandfather who had taken him in had also died of illness.

Before he passed, his grandfather took out the savings of his entire life and told him to become an apprentice at a blacksmith's shop and live out his days in peace.

If it had been anyone else, they might have done as their grandfather said.

But Gu Yuan was unwilling to settle for that.

So he sold the house.

Together with the savings his grandfather had left behind through years of frugality, he had finally scraped together enough for a martial soul awakening.

"What a fucking life..."

Gu Yuan was ten years old this year.

His features were fairly decent, but years of malnutrition had left him thin and scrawny.

He gripped the cloth pouch in his arms, the only thing that could change his fate, and could not help feeling nervous and uneasy.

A moment later, it was finally his turn.

"Lord Soul Master, this is my payment."

Carefully taking out the cloth pouch, he removed two Copper Soul Coins from it, then handed the remaining money and the pouch to a horse-faced middle-aged man guarding the entrance.

"Fuck, another pauper."

The white and yellow soul rings circling the horse-faced man's body proved his identity as a soul master. Seeing the cloth pouch Gu Yuan handed over, he cursed under his breath and began counting it impatiently.

There were very few Gold Soul Coins inside. The vast majority were Silver Soul Coins and Copper Soul Coins.

The horse-faced man spent a full quarter of an hour counting before confirming that the amount was correct and putting it away.

"Twenty Gold Soul Coins. Martial soul awakening."

At the horse-faced man's shout, Gu Yuan entered the wooden house.

He happened to see a hook-nosed middle-aged man, likewise surrounded by one white and one yellow soul ring, awakening a child's martial soul.

As six streams of Soul Power entered the awakening formation, the child was enveloped in golden light.

The next moment, a Blue Silver Grass appeared in the child's hand.

The child seemed to understand something and immediately burst into tears.

"Blue Silver Grass. A useless martial soul. No need to test Soul Power. Refund his money."

Although the hook-nosed man looked rather unremarkable, he was fairly decent. He told the horse-faced man outside, who was responsible for collecting fees, to refund the child's parents for the Soul Power test.

It was Gu Yuan's turn.

Without needing any reminder, Gu Yuan walked into the awakening formation himself.

The hook-nosed man said nothing and conducted Gu Yuan's martial soul awakening as a matter of routine.

A moment later, a white snake phantom several meters long appeared behind Gu Yuan.

As the white snake appeared, the hot air inside the wooden house abruptly turned cool.

"Eh? An ice-attribute beast martial soul." The hook-nosed man could not help exclaiming softly, and the way he looked at Gu Yuan became much gentler. He smiled and said, "Little fellow, what's your name? Would you like to join my team?"

"I can see you're already nearly ten. At your age, even if you have money, no Soul Master Academy may be willing to accept you."

"If you join my team, not only can I help test your Soul Power, I can also guide your cultivation."

"Thank you, Uncle, but my grandfather already found me some connections." Gu Yuan forcibly suppressed his excitement and politely declined.

Just moments ago, at the instant his martial soul awakened, he had bound a system.

The Treasure Exchange System!

As its name implied, it could obtain items from countless worlds through exchanges, including but not limited to cultivation techniques, heavenly treasures, and more.

Items of the same type could only be exchanged once.

Furthermore, the exchanged items were upward-compatible.

In other words, the higher an item's value, the greater the chance of obtaining a treasure.

Of course, exchanges were also limited in number.

Each increase in Soul Power level granted one exchange opportunity.

Besides that, there was joining a faction.

The higher one's status within that faction, the more exchange opportunities one could obtain.

If he could usurp that faction, he would even receive an additional Godhood as a reward.

The rank of the Godhood depended on the faction's status on the Douluo Continent.

That was also why he had refused the hook-nosed man.

"Then I wish you good luck." Seeing Gu Yuan refuse, the hook-nosed man said nothing more.

Gu Yuan gave him a slight bow, then turned and left the wooden house.

After leaving the wooden house, Gu Yuan hurried back to the plank house that would soon no longer belong to him.

He took one last look at the home where he had lived for nearly ten years.

Gu Yuan packed his belongings, then resolutely left Las City and headed deep into a small forest on the outskirts.

After confirming that no one was around, he silently said, "System, open my personal panel."

[Gu Yuan--]

[Age: Ten]

[Martial Soul: Ice Snake]

[Soul Power: Level 1]

[Current exchange opportunities: 1]

[Ding. Detected exchangeable items: Ice Snake martial soul, Copper Soul Coins, tattered clothes, coarse flatbread]

Seeing that the Ice Snake martial soul had only innate level-one Soul Power, Gu Yuan was slightly stunned.

Then he remembered the impoverished life he had lived these past years and the malnutrition it had caused, and he understood.

"I didn't expect martial souls could be exchanged too. System, exchange my Ice Snake martial soul."

Gu Yuan muttered to himself, then chose the Ice Snake without hesitation.

[Ding. Treasure Exchange System exchange in progress...]

[Ding. Congratulations, Host. You have obtained the remnant soul of the Ice Dragon King!]

[Ding. Congratulations, Host. Your Soul Power has risen to level 10. You have obtained nine exchange opportunities.]

"Fuck, fuck, fuck..."

Gu Yuan, who had failed Chinese in his previous life, had no idea how to describe how he felt at this moment.

Unable to hold it back, he cursed three times in his heart.

The Ice Dragon King. It was actually the Ice Dragon King.

One had to know that she was one of the Nine Great Dragon Kings, the controller of the ice and water elements.

If the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion possessed Ultimate Ice, then the Ice Dragon King possessed the Ultimate Ice of Ultimate Ice.

The two were not comparable at all.

Before Gu Yuan could recover from his overwhelming joy, the Ice Dragon King's remnant soul exchanged from the Ice Snake martial soul automatically transformed into his martial soul.

Then, the phantom of an enormous ice dragon with wings on its back emerged from nothingness.

The instant it appeared.

A vast, bone-chilling dragon's might swept outward.

Wherever it passed, whether grass, trees, birds, or beasts, all turned into ice sculptures.