Past and Present Lives

Leaving the training grounds, Su Mo went straight back to his small courtyard.

Sitting on a stone stool in the courtyard, Su Mo felt a wave of frustration when he thought of his earlier Martial Soul awakening.

Awakening such a low-tier Martial Soul had completely exceeded even his own expectations.

"Fourteen years..." Su Mo's thoughts drifted as he murmured to himself.

In truth, Su Mo had not originally belonged to this world. He had come from Earth.

Su Mo had been a mercenary in the twenty-first century—more precisely, the King of Mercenaries, a legend of the mercenary world, a legendary hero of his generation.

He had been an orphan, living with relatives from childhood. At seventeen, he had resolutely dropped out of school and joined the army.

After two years of training in the military, Su Mo entered China's strongest special forces unit through his outstanding military aptitude. Before long, he became the ace of that special forces unit.

Over four years, Su Mo carried out nearly a hundred national military missions, completing every one of them flawlessly.

Originally, Su Mo had planned to dedicate his entire life to his country and the military. Unexpectedly, an accident forced him into early retirement, and he left the army in desolation.

After returning to civilian life, Su Mo was completely out of touch with society and could not find work at all. He had no education, no skills, and no connections—a complete nobody with nothing to his name.

After drifting through half a year in a daze, Su Mo finally decided to set out once more.

He contacted several former comrades and formed a small mercenary organization called Dragon Soul.

Over the following years, Su Mo and his Dragon Soul Mercenary Group left their footprints all across the world.

Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia—wherever there was war, there would be traces of them.

The Dragon Soul Mercenary Group rapidly expanded, growing from its original handful of members to dozens, then hundreds, until it finally numbered in the thousands.

The Dragon Soul Mercenary Group grew from an obscure little mercenary organization into a powerful mercenary army that shook the Dark World.

The Dragon Soul Mercenary Army had never failed a mission. So long as an employer could pay the price, they could do anything—from assassinating someone to destroying a small nation's government forces and toppling its government.

A year ago, the Dragon Soul Mercenary Army had even defeated the Black Blood Mercenary Army, known as the world's number one, becoming the new ruler of the mercenary world.

As the leader of the Dragon Soul Mercenary Army, Dragon Owl Su Mo was known as the King of Mercenaries.

It could be said that the name Su Mo was taboo in the Dark World. With one stomp of his foot, the entire Dark World would tremble.

But one who often walked by the river could hardly keep his shoes dry. In the end, Su Mo still fell—he fell completely!

He was betrayed by the brother he trusted most, trapped in a tight encirclement, and ultimately perished together with his enemies.

After coming to this world for fourteen years, Su Mo had long since adapted to everything here. He had nearly forgotten all that had happened in his previous life.

Su Mo was extremely curious about this world. It was a wondrous world, utterly different from Earth.

This land was called the Azure Continent, boundless and vast, stretching countless tens of thousands of miles in every direction.

Here, martial arts reigned supreme, and the strong preyed upon the weak. The powerful were like kings, revered by all; the weak were like ants, bullied and trampled.

When cultivated to its utmost limits, martial arts could overturn rivers and seas, soar into the heavens and burrow into the earth, roam the great void, and grant abilities that reached the heavens and pierced the earth.

Power, status, wealth, beauty—everything was inseparably linked to martial arts. The strong could grasp them at their fingertips.

And to become a powerful martial artist, one had to awaken one's Martial Soul. Only through the Martial Soul could one communicate with heaven and earth, absorb spiritual qi, temper the body, and condense true qi.

There were countless varieties of Martial Souls, too numerous to enumerate.

Naturally, different Martial Souls varied in strength. They were divided into three major grades—Heaven, Earth, and Human—with each grade further divided into nine tiers.

The higher the grade of one's Martial Soul, the greater a martial artist's strength and potential, and the faster their cultivation speed.

Since coming to this world, Su Mo had always worked extremely hard at cultivation.

Because this world was so vast and so magnificent, and he wanted to see it.

In his previous life, he had been strong enough to shake the entire globe.

In this life, he would still become strong and stand at the peak of this continent.

But today's Martial Soul awakening had poured a basin of cold water over his restless heart.

Wishes were beautiful, but reality was incomparably cruel!

"Mo'er."

At that moment, a deep voice sounded from the entrance, pulling Su Mo's drifting thoughts back.

The newcomer was a middle-aged man with a tall build and a stern face. He was none other than the Su Family Patriarch, Su Hong.

"Mo'er, don't dwell too much on the matter of your Martial Soul. Even if its grade is not high, as long as you cultivate diligently, you may still have a chance to become strong someday."

Seeing Su Mo, Su Hong spoke to comfort him.

Su Mo forced a bitter smile. It was more than merely not high—it could not possibly be any lower!

"Father, don't worry. I'll work hard!" Su Mo said, forcing out a smile.

He knew that his father was trying to comfort him.

Everyone knew that the grade of one's Martial Soul determined one's future accomplishments. The higher one's Martial Soul grade, the farther one could travel on the Martial Dao path.

This was an iron law of this world.

With a Human Grade First Tier Martial Soul, becoming strong was almost impossible.

"Mm."

Su Hong nodded, took out a jade bottle from his robes, and handed it to Su Mo. "This is a Qi Condensing Pill. After taking it, you can break through in cultivation and reach the Qi Refining Realm."

"Father..."

Su Mo's heart turned sour. Awakening a Human Grade First Tier Martial Soul meant that from now on, he was practically cultivation trash.

A Qi Condensing Pill was worth a fortune. The Lineage could never give him such a precious pill. The only explanation was that Su Hong had bought it himself.

Su Mo accepted the pill. After father and son spoke for a while longer, Su Hong left.

"I wonder what kind of Martial Soul I actually awakened?"

After his father left, Su Mo did not hurry to take the pill. He sat cross-legged in his room and released his Martial Soul.

A pitch-black vortex, gleaming with a ring of yellow light, floated silently above Su Mo.

"I wonder what special ability this Martial Soul has. I should cultivate with it first and see."

Su Mo calmed his mind, connected his consciousness to his Martial Soul, and sensed the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

The pitch-black vortex Martial Soul slowly rotated, and a powerful suction force emerged from within it.

Strands of spiritual qi from heaven and earth gathered toward Su Mo and entered his body.

Su Mo quickly immersed himself in cultivation, activating his Martial Soul and continuously absorbing spiritual qi.

After a long while, Su Mo stopped cultivating.

Su Mo opened his eyes, and a trace of delight flashed through them.

"Although my Martial Soul is only Human Grade First Tier, its cultivation speed rivals that of someone with a Human Grade Second Tier Martial Soul."

Su Mo had seen martial artists with Human Grade Second Tier Martial Souls cultivate, and they were not much faster than his Martial Soul.

This was an unexpected delight, and it soothed his heart considerably.

After thinking it over briefly, Su Mo understood. This was likely related to the characteristics of his Martial Soul.

His Martial Soul was shaped like a vortex, and vortices themselves possessed the nature of devouring and drawing things in.

Therefore, it was not strange that its speed of absorbing spiritual qi could rival a Human Grade Second Tier Martial Soul.

Next, Su Mo took out the Qi Condensing Pill his father had given him and prepared to advance into the Qi Refining Realm.

On the path of martial arts, one first underwent Body Tempering. After completing the nine levels of Body Tempering, one could awaken a Martial Soul, absorb the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, condense true qi, and step into the Qi Refining Realm.

Only upon entering the Qi Refining Realm could one be considered a true martial artist.

Su Mo swallowed the Qi Condensing Pill, and its surging medicinal power immediately erupted within his body.

Su Mo hurriedly guided the medicinal power into his dantian and began condensing true qi.

Time slowly passed. Two hours later, Su Mo's eyes suddenly opened, and a sharp glint flashed through them before vanishing.

At that moment, a mass of mist-like true qi had already condensed within his dantian.

Worthy of a Qi Condensing Pill worth a fortune—it had successfully allowed him to step into the Qi Refining Realm First Level.