Late at night in the Tang family guest room.
The bedding had been warmed by the afternoon sun, soft and fluffy.
Two children under ten squeezed into the same bed, pressed close together. Neither thought there was anything wrong with it.
Na'er curled up her tiny body.
Her long lashes drooped, hiding the tiny flecks of light in her eyes.
Her breathing was even and steady. She slept soundly.
Beside her, Su Hui was wide awake.
His eyes held a gravity wholly at odds with his age.
All his attention was fixed on the Martial Soul deep within his sea of consciousness.
The Hundred-Year Soul Ring he had absorbed not long ago had vanished without a trace.
There was no dissipation of Soul Power, no backlash through his meridians. It felt as if it had never existed at all.
Even stranger, the Anywhere Door was now tightly shut.
The clock hand above the door was turning counterclockwise at a speed visible to the naked eye.
No matter how he tried to activate it, his Martial Soul remained motionless. The door had not opened even the tiniest crack.
"So, can I still return to my original timeline or not?"
After half a night of testing and investigating, he had made no progress at all.
Su Hui exhaled slowly, forcing down the turmoil of panic.
"If I can't go back, then I suppose I'll just have to make the best of it."
He muttered under his breath.
Besides, he was right beside the protagonist of this world.
Tang Wulin, who possessed the Golden Dragon King Bloodline, and Na'er, the Silver Dragon King.
It seemed he might gain unexpected benefits from being around them.
He unconsciously clenched his fist.
"Crack!"
His bones popped sharply.
Terrifying strength, far beyond that of his peers, flowed slowly through his muscles.
Su Hui could say for certain that his physical condition was much better than before.
He suddenly remembered what Na'er had said earlier.
While he had been unconscious, Tang Wulin seemed to have fed him some of his own blood.
It was true that Tang Wulin possessed the Golden Dragon King Bloodline, but it shouldn't have been activated yet.
No, more accurately, Tang Wulin had always possessed the Golden Dragon King Bloodline. It had simply been sealed.
"Could this transformation in my body really be because of the power of the Golden Dragon King Bloodline?"
This seemed even more potent than Whale Rubber!
Suddenly, a thought came to him.
"If I could keep getting blood from Tang Wulin, or even Na'er, could I use it to improve my physical condition?"
The power of the Dragon God's two halves—there probably wasn't a more supreme treasure on the Douluo Continent.
If he could absorb more of it, wouldn't the road ahead be smooth sailing?
Of course.
Su Hui had no intention of staking his entire future on this.
Besides that, he had a clearer plan—one that was far more practical and achievable.
For example, the Soul Tool technology of this era, along with its top-tier forging techniques.
At the thought of Battle Armor, which could double a Titled Douluo's strength and bring them close to the god level, a burning light kindled in Su Hui's eyes.
It was a ticket to the pinnacle of power on the Douluo Continent.
With the foresight of a transmigrator, there was no reason he shouldn't learn all of it!
Early the next morning.
After hearing from Su Hui that his Soul Power had reached level ten, Tang Ziran and his wife learned that he had no Soul Spirit or Soul Ring.
They immediately decided to take him to the Spirit Pagoda to obtain a Soul Spirit.
However, after trying it out, they found that the Anywhere Door didn't seem capable of absorbing Soul Spirits.
It couldn't even form a contract with the lowest-tier artificial ten-year Soul Spirit.
The Spirit Pagoda staff concluded, "His Martial Soul has no slot to house a Soul Spirit, so he can't absorb any Soul Rings or Soul Spirits. By standard classification, it's a Trash Martial Soul."
At that conclusion, Tang Ziran sighed softly.
A Trash Martial Soul... To be honest, it was a rare sight in an era when artificial Soul Spirits were available. They were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.
He hadn't expected Su Hui's "door" Martial Soul to reach level ten, yet be unable to form a contract with a Soul Spirit.
It was truly bad news.
Back home, Tang Ziran told Lang Yue what had happened.
Lang Yue took Su Hui's hand and comforted him gently.
When Tang Wulin heard about it, he came over too and said earnestly, "Big Brother Su Hui, once I get stronger, I'll protect you!"
"..."
Na'er stood to one side without saying anything more.
She simply held his fingertips tightly in her little hand. Her touch was cool, a silent show of support.
But Su Hui himself felt not the slightest ripple in his heart.
A Trash Martial Soul?
What a huge joke!
How could the Martial Soul that had let him cross ten thousand years of time be trash?
At the very least, it had to be a god-level Martial Soul!
Still, its rules of operation were probably not so simple.
He just hadn't figured them out yet.
But this outcome worked in his favor.
Su Hui took the opportunity to voice the plan he had already made.
"Uncle Tang, Aunt Lang Yue, I'm not too upset."
"My Martial Soul seems difficult to develop, but I don't plan to give up."
"I want to study Martial Soul theory on my own and develop my Martial Soul myself."
Tang Ziran was a little surprised to hear this, but also delighted. He encouraged him, "That's the spirit, Xiao Hui. That's the right attitude. I'll buy you some theory books, and you can look things up online too."
"Mm-hmm, thank you, Uncle Tang!"
Su Hui added, "By the way, I also want to learn forging and about Soul Tools. I was wondering... if that would be all right?"
He looked at Tang Ziran hopefully.
Tang Ziran was taken aback, then nodded firmly. "All right. Whatever you want to learn, I'll support you with everything I've got."
In his eyes, Su Hui was planning to take a different path.
It would be difficult.
But Tang Ziran had no intention of undermining Su Hui's confidence.
Nor would he look down on anyone lightly.
Every path was unknown, but someone always managed to forge ahead. What if Su Hui became the next pioneer?
When Tang Ziran agreed, Su Hui was overjoyed.
What looked like a dead end to others became the perfect stepping stone in Su Hui's plans.
It all fell into place, without a flaw.
Before long.
Su Hui and Tang Wulin were introduced to the master blacksmith Mang Tian by Tang Ziran, and became apprentice smiths.
Unlike Tang Wulin, who devoted himself wholeheartedly to forging,
Su Hui also took on a whole roomful of Soul Tool books and stored them in the Storage Soul Tool ring Tang Wulin's father had given him.
Soul Tool technology in this era had already reached its zenith, permeating every aspect of ordinary people's lives, from food and clothing to travel and daily necessities.
As long as one had talent and patience, one could teach oneself from books and online resources and become a top Soul Engineer.
Their skill would far surpass that of the Soul Engineers in Huo Yuhao's time, ten thousand years earlier.
Over the course of a month.
Su Hui voraciously absorbed knowledge about Soul Master theory, Soul Beasts, Soul Tools, and forging.
At the same time, he grew closer to Tang Wulin and Na'er.
The two children had long since come to see him as their closest, most trusted big brother.
Na'er especially clung to him.
She even had to sleep pressed up against him, far closer to him than she was to Tang Wulin.
Su Hui would often tell her stories he had made up based on novels he had read before.
A month later, late at night in the room.
Su Hui sat on the bed, holding two sealed test tubes.
Inside the tubes was bright red blood.
One tube had come from Tang Wulin, the other from Na'er.
Over the past month, the two children had willingly saved a little for him each day.
He had only told them he wanted to study blood.
They had agreed without a second thought.
Na'er sat beside him, her round purple eyes wide with curiosity as she stared at the test tubes in his hands.
"Big Brother Su Hui, will you feel sick if you drink that?"
The little girl tilted her head. Her voice was tinged with worry, and her tiny hand clutched the hem of his clothes.
Su Hui shook his head and ruffled her hair, his voice gentle. "You don't have to worry, Na'er. Your big brother knows what he's doing."
For once, a trace of guilt stirred in his heart.
These two children had given him their whole hearts, yet he was using them for his own ends.
But the feeling vanished in an instant.
In this world of the law of the jungle, a little calculation like this was nothing.
He tipped his head back and drank the contents of both tubes.
The blood slid down his throat.
"Roar!!!"
Two terrifying dragon roars exploded in his mind.
Golden and silver light burst from his body.
The Golden Dragon King's domineering power surged through every inch of him.
Every muscle and every bone strengthened and transformed at a terrifying speed.
The Silver Dragon King's Spiritual Origin flooded into his spiritual core, raising a stormy sea.
Su Hui's Spirit Origin Realm spiritual power surged several times over in an instant. It broke through the barrier and stepped into the Spirit Connection Realm!
The spiritual power of this era was clearly divided into different levels.
From lowest to highest, they were: Spirit Origin Realm, Spirit Connection Realm, Spirit Sea Realm, Spirit Abyss Realm, and Spirit Domain Realm.
Above the Spirit Domain Realm lay the God Origin Realm, a domain truly belonging to the gods.
With Spirit Connection Realm spiritual power, one could begin to control it for offense or defense, and could support two yellow Soul Spirits or one purple Thousand-Year Soul Spirit.
That meant Su Hui was now qualified to absorb a Thousand-Year Soul Ring.
The two powers of the Dragon God Origin blended perfectly within him, without the slightest rejection.
Just then,
"Dong~~~!"
A distant, uncanny bell tolled in the depths of his consciousness.
The Anywhere Door, which had been shut for a month, suddenly appeared before him.
The clock hand spinning wildly backward above the door had, at some point, stopped at its original position.
"Dong~~~!"
The second toll rang out.
The tightly shut bronze doors swung open with a thunderous crash!
Beyond the door was the familiar, roiling vortex of spacetime. An irresistible force once again enveloped Su Hui.
"!!!"
Su Hui's pupils contracted sharply. His body floated toward the vortex, beyond his control.
Was he going to be sucked inside?
Was he about to return to his original time?
"What's going on, Big Brother Su Hui?"
Na'er, beside him, panicked.
She hurriedly reached out to grab Su Hui, only to be viciously thrown back by an invisible barrier of spacetime.
"Big Brother Su Hui!!!"
Na'er scrambled up from the floor. Her voice broke with tears, and her eyes turned red.
Su Hui turned to look at her, a relieved smile appearing on his face.
Though he hated to leave, it seemed the time had come to say goodbye.
"Goodbye, Na'er."
The moment the words left his mouth, he was completely swallowed by the vortex of space and time.
"Brother Su Hui—!!!"
Na'er's cry shattered the silence of the deep night.
The next second, her watery purple eyes turned icy cold.
Terrifying dragon might burst forth from her tiny body.
"Clang!"
A silver dragon spear appeared out of thin air in her hand.
It was the Silver Dragon King's divine weapon—the Silver Dragon Spear!
"Give him back to me!"
Na'er's gaze was frigid. With all her might, she hurled the Silver Dragon Spear at the vortex of space and time as it began to close.
But the indestructible Silver Dragon Spear was swallowed whole the moment it pierced the vortex.
It didn't even stir the slightest ripple.
With a "crack," the Anywhere Door closed completely.
Then it vanished without a trace, vortex and all.
"..."
The dragon might around Na'er abruptly faded, and confusion returned to her icy purple eyes.
She stood rooted to the spot, staring at where Su Hui had disappeared, her tiny body trembling slightly.
After a long silence, the little girl finally murmured in a tearful voice,
"Brother Su Hui... I'll find you, no matter what..."
She left a note on the table.
Then she turned and leapt out the window, her petite figure disappearing into the boundless night.
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