Early the next morning.
Tang Wulin got out of bed at the crack of dawn. He brushed his teeth and washed his face, even wiping his hair with a damp towel.
He seemed to be heading somewhere important to take care of a major life event!
Watching his son dart around the house, so impatient that he'd only eaten a few bowls of breakfast, Tang Ziran couldn't help laughing. "Can't sit still, huh? Don't rush. The Spirit Pagoda isn't even open yet."
But today was the day Tang Wulin would buy his Soul Spirit. How could a nine-year-old boy possibly stay calm?
"Dad, what kind of Soul Spirit do you think I'll get?" Tang Wulin asked excitedly, his little face wreathed in smiles.
After three years of quietly working hard on his own, he'd finally saved up thirty thousand Federal Coins in starting funds;
yesterday, he'd also gained a level in Soul Power, reaching the first bottleneck of his Soul Master career.
It was a double blessing!
Although Na'er had said some rather baffling things to him on the beach yesterday evening, that couldn't dampen his drive or happiness today.
He hugged his mother, then ran out the door—
A fresh morning breeze greeted him, carrying the crisp, sweet fragrance of Blue Silver Grass.
Tang Wulin suddenly felt as if he were wrapped in happiness.
He knew this was the happiness he'd earned bit by bit over the past three years, through sweat and tears.
If he could get a Soul Spirit that suited him and was decent in quality today, then Tang Wulin would feel his life was already close to perfect!
The morning sun wasn't especially bright, but the greenery along the road made even the air seem sweet.
Father and son chose not to take a vehicle. Instead, they walked toward the central street of Aolai City.
Tang Wulin bounced along the city streets, turning back every so often to urge his father on.
"Dad, hurry up! Come on, faster!"
Children always had energy to spare, and that was even truer of a big eater with a healthy set of teeth.
At last, it was midmorning—the time when Federation civil servants started work.
A three-story, octagonal building came into view at the end of the main road beneath their feet.
It was the largest building in Aolai City—the Spirit Pagoda.
A holy place in Tang Wulin's heart.
Everyone knew where it was, but very few had ever gone inside.
His teacher had said the Spirit Pagoda organization wasn't confined to Douluo Continent, where the Federation was based.
This ancient and powerful force had existed for ten thousand years. In an era when Soul Beasts were so scarce, it was naturally of immense importance to Soul Masters.
Its status had risen even further after it developed Artificial Soul Spirits. Its influence now spanned all three continents, and its resources were enough to rival the Sun Moon Federation.
For some reason, the Spirit Pagoda looked different from when Tang Wulin had last seen it.
There seemed to be a small extra half-story at the very top, shaped like a little tent fixed in place.
This filled Tang Wulin with even greater awe for this glimpse of a top-tier power, while also stirring a touch of mystery and anticipation in him:
Could the Spirit Pagoda in Aolai City be expanding?
That would be an important sign of the city's development!
By the time his father caught up with him,
the Spirit Pagoda's front doors were already open, but hardly anyone was coming or going. After all, only Soul Masters qualified to enter this place, and in a backwater like Aolai City, their numbers could be counted on one hand...
Tang Wulin stopped to wait for his father, gazing up at the broad, octagonal tower.
But as he raised his head toward the top, for some reason, a cluster of flowing purple crystal seemed to peek out from the upper floor too, casting down two beams of purple-gold light.
A strange sense of familiarity... rose within him.
"Why aren't you going in?" Tang Ziran had caught up with his son. While Tang Wulin stood there dazed, he'd already walked quite a distance past him toward the front entrance on the first floor.
"Hm? Oh, right." Tang Wulin came back to himself, stopped staring at the person atop the tower, and hurried after his father.
When father and son entered the Spirit Pagoda together, Tang Wulin's curious eyes swept around the inside of the building.
The Spirit Pagoda's interior was spacious, its floor tightly paved with marble.
Doors lined the walls around the first-floor lobby, leading to places unknown.
A circular counter stood in the very center of the lobby.
A Spirit Master in a gray robe sat at his workstation, beginning a new day.
Seeing someone enter in the morning light, the Spirit Master quickly stood and addressed the father and son. "Hello. How can I help you?"
Tang Ziran promptly replied with respectful warmth. "Hello, honored Spirit Master. I've brought my son to buy a Soul Spirit. His Soul Power has reached level ten."
At his words, half the warmth vanished from the Spirit Master's face, since the visitor wasn't a Soul Master.
"Have you brought enough money?" the Spirit Master asked coldly.
Tang Wulin hurriedly cut in. "We have! We have enough!"
As the Spirit Master prepared the paperwork, he asked, "What level of Soul Spirit do you want to buy?"
Tang Ziran asked, despite already knowing the answer, "Honored Spirit Master, we don't know much about this. Could you please explain it to us in detail?"
The Spirit Master let out a long breath through his nose, sounding rather impatient.
"You came here without even asking around? In a backwater coastal city like Aolai, which isn't a port, we only offer ten-year white Soul Spirits, hundred-year yellow Soul Spirits, and random-draw Soul Spirits."
"A white Soul Spirit costs seventy thousand. A yellow one costs a million. Which do you want?"
Tang Wulin froze in shock. His childish voice cracked as he blurted out, "Honored Spirit Master, doesn't buying a Soul Spirit only cost thirty thousand?"
"How could it be... so expensive?"
The cheerful sunlight at his back and the fresh air still lingering along the road suddenly seemed to be swallowed up by half by this cold building.
The Spirit Master gave him an unsympathetic glance. "Thirty thousand gets you a random Soul Spirit. Usually, you'll draw a ten-year white one, but you might draw a hundred-year yellow one. There's also a good chance of getting a Soul Spirit that doesn't suit your Martial Soul."
"Some people try to save money by gambling on luck, but I don't recommend it. Betting on one benefit among a hundred drawbacks is no different from chasing a pipe dream."
Tang Ziran's heart was a tangle of emotions.
All he could do was crouch down, pat his son's stiff shoulder, and gently reassure him. "Wulin, let's choose a random-draw Soul Spirit. Your Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul is quite adaptable. Most Soul Spirits should be compatible with it."
"Okay."
Just as Tang Wulin's spirits began to lift, a bucket of cold water was poured over him.
"Looks like I should remind you of a couple things."
The Spirit Master spoke again. "A random draw does have a small chance of getting you a hundred-year yellow Soul Spirit, but there's also a chance you'll get a defective Soul Spirit."
"With our current technology, we can't successfully create Artificial Soul Spirits every time. Quite often, we end up with defective ones. A Soul Master can still fuse with one, but it offers little benefit and will at the very least waste one Soul Ring slot."
Tang Ziran wanted to play it safe.
So he told his son he planned to borrow another forty thousand and put together enough Federal Coins to come back and buy him a suitable white Soul Spirit.
But Tang Wulin thought of his adoptive parents, who worked day and night to raise two children and couldn't even bring themselves to eat meat...
The memory struck the precocious boy hard, making his heart ache.
So he immediately refused and bravely turned around to comfort his adoptive father.
While Tang Ziran was still moved by him,
Tang Wulin took the initiative and said he wanted to draw a Soul Spirit. He handed over the thirty thousand Federal Coins, his little face set with determination.
The Spirit Master was touched. He immediately waived the mental power test fee, leaving Tang Ziran, who wasn't a Soul Master, where he was.
He took Tang Wulin alone and led him toward one of the doors.
Along the way, the Spirit Master also went over the different levels of mental power.
From highest to lowest, they were: Spirit Origin Realm, Spirit Connection Realm, Spirit Sea Realm, Spirit Abyss Realm, and Spirit Domain Realm.
These five mortal realms were each divided into three minor stages: low, middle, and high.
Everyone possessed basic mental power from birth—the Spirit Origin Realm.
The words "Spirit Origin" also carried the meaning of "all living things possess spirit; the beginning of all things is one."
Of course, the Spirit Master also mentioned the God Origin Realm, a legendary level of mental power possessed only by deities.
After Tang Wulin put on the testing helmet, the result was just as expected. The precocious boy's mental power was considerably higher than that of ordinary children, reaching a full thirty-eight points.
By the "three-six-nine" ranking system, that was equivalent to the middle stage of the Spirit Origin Realm.
At last, there was some good news. Tang Wulin's mood immediately improved, and he also learned of another path of development in the Soul Master World.
Next came the truly tense moment.
Tang Wulin was led into a small room nearby.
It was much more spacious than the testing room next door.
A huge, semi-transparent machine stood at the far end of the room. It was three meters tall and six meters wide.
A large number of spherical objects glowed as they floated inside its semi-transparent glass casing.
The Spirit Master explained that those were Soul Spirit spheres, and pointed out the machine's two buttons on the front: start and stop.
Finally, he left the choice to Tang Wulin, letting luck decide his fate.
Tang Wulin's heart beat faster. The moment that would decide his fate had finally arrived.
He clenched his teeth and pressed the green button hard.
A string of tiny lights suddenly flashed inside the machine. Hundreds of Soul Spirit spheres sped around the track, making his eyes swim.
Everything was in the hands of fate.
At one moment, as if guided by some unseen blessing, Tang Wulin reached out and touched the red button. His hand, usually steady on the Thousand Refined Tungsten Steel Hammer, trembled slightly now.
Taking a deep breath, Tang Wulin shut his beautiful eyes. He pressed down with his right hand, then immediately sprang back as if he'd touched a glowing hot iron.
The machine stopped turning, and a Soul Spirit sphere dropped from the outlet with a "thump."
Tang Wulin's eyes flew open. His heart pounded like a drum in his chest.
The Spirit Master walked over, took out the Soul Spirit sphere, and handed it to him.
Tang Wulin's breathing grew ragged as he accepted it, as if he were taking a priceless treasure from the world... or a curse.
Nervousness, anticipation, and a hint of reluctance to face what lay inside tangled together in his heart.
With his jumbled feelings stirring, Tang Wulin returned to his father and accepted an oval-shaped tool from the Spirit Master.
Unbeknownst to them, at the stairwell between the second and first floors,
a pair of Purple-Gold Eyes gradually turned pure gold again, and the expanding Will of Destruction slowly withdrew.
The cluster of Purple Crystal Crimson Flower that had watched Tang Wulin from across the building swayed, then murmured regretfully, "What a pity. He ended up with a dad like that."
The moment the words left his mouth, the three breaths in the distance abruptly stopped.
"A ten-year Soul Spirit."
Inside the pure white Soul Spirit sphere, a threadlike creature lay curled up.
It was no more than ten centimeters long and about half a finger wide. Its whole body was earth-yellow, and only on the closest inspection could one make out a layer of fine, diamond-shaped scales.
"This... can this really be a Soul Spirit?" Tang Ziran asked, his voice filled with disbelief.
The thing was a Grass Snake that could only prey on weak mosquitoes and other insects. It was still a juvenile, and on Douluo Continent it didn't even count as a Soul Beast. How could it qualify as a Soul Spirit?
It looked utterly harmless. What kind of competitive edge could a Soul Master gain by absorbing it?
The Spirit Master admitted that it was a defective Soul Spirit, and not one made from Soul Beast blood. It was an experimental failure made from the blood of an ordinary animal.
This failed experiment had also proved one thing: ordinary animals' genetic makeup was too poor, making them entirely unsuitable as experimental material.
The little Grass Snake in Tang Wulin's hands was therefore one of the worst failed specimens in the world.
A defective product, and a failed experiment.
Those two thousand-jun hammers smashed through his adoptive father's sigh and crushed Tang Wulin's spirit into darkness.
He felt that although he was still standing, he'd already been dragged into the shadows of this cold building. His helpless struggle within left him trembling uncontrollably.
At that moment, three years of hard work turned to ashes.
Even the Spirit Master urged Tang Wulin to give up on the Soul Spirit. This kind of failed experimental product had ten disadvantages for every one benefit.
Tang Ziran also stroked his head and tried to comfort him, saying he'd find a way to get the money and buy him a suitable ten-year Soul Spirit.
But Tang Wulin rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes, clearing the tears that had blurred his vision.
He knew his parents were already struggling to keep the household going; this family couldn't shoulder even one more burden.
So Tang Wulin forced himself to act strong and lighthearted. "Dad, let's go home first."
He desperately wanted to escape these shadows and return to the sunshine outside, to the air scented with Blue Silver Grass.
But just then, from the deepest part of the pitch-black shadows, a cluster of Purple Crystal Crimson Flower emerged at an unhurried pace.
In an instant, all three of them froze in place.
Surprise appeared on Tang Ziran's face. He'd discovered a boy even more handsome than his son, especially with those golden eyes.
The gray-robed Spirit Master, however, looked completely at a loss. He clearly knew who had arrived... and how mysterious and distinguished he was.
Only Tang Wulin, struggling to hold back his sadness, was bewildered by the inexplicable familiarity he felt. It seemed he'd met this person somewhere before.
He immediately remembered—it seemed to be the person who'd looked at him from the top of the tower before he went inside.
But an even older memory surged into his mind, and a title stumbled out of his mouth. "B-bad guy..."
"Huang."
He hadn't expected that bad guy to really work for the Spirit Pagoda—or even to live right there in the Spirit Pagoda in Aolai City.
And over the past three years, this bad guy with the surname Huang hadn't turned into a lecherous devil. He'd only grown even more handsome.
Back then, Tang Wulin had even threatened him, saying he'd get Uncle Officer to arrest him if they ever met again.
But...
Would the law really work on him?
The cluster of purple hair on Dragon Emperor's shoulders swayed gently with his steps.
He walked up to the three of them, ignoring the gray-robed Spirit Master's bow, and fixed his intensely predatory gaze on the space between Tang Wulin's chest and abdomen.
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