Burial and Rebirth

"Dad!"

Su Zhen roared, his voice loud and full of pain, the fierce cries echoing through the ruins.

Su Zhen cried for a long time, an hour, two hours, perhaps a lifetime.

"Alas, foolish child,"

Qian Daoliu sighed as he watched Su Zhen's grief-stricken appearance.

Perhaps Su Zhen was tired from crying, he stopped, kneeling quietly in the deep pit. Qian Daoliu simply watched Su Zhen silently, doing nothing, saying nothing.

After an unknown amount of time, Su Zhen, who had turned into a statue, moved. He used the tattered cloth embroidered with lotus flowers to wrap the wooden hairpin and carefully put it into his inner shirt pocket.

Su Zhen climbed out of the deep pit, ignoring the dirt covering his body, and ran towards home.

As Su Zhen ran, he kept looking around, hoping to see even one intact house. If a house was intact, it would mean the person was still alive. However, Lady Luck did not favor Su Zhen; not a single house in the entire village was undamaged.

Su Zhen finally reached home, but his once warm home had turned into a pile of ruins.

"Mom, brother, where are you?"

"I've awakened my martial soul, it's very powerful, I can protect you now, come out!"

"I'm going to join the Martial Soul Hall, I can earn a lot of money in the future, I can support you, you haven't had time to enjoy yourselves yet!"

"Dad is already gone, are you going to leave me too?"

Su Zhen desperately searched through the ruins, calling out as he searched. How he wished his mother and brother were just buried underneath.

Su Zhen's searching hands stopped. He had found his mother and brother. They were embracing each other, even if only skeletons remained.

Su Zhen did not cry out hysterically, nor did he shed tears. He simply gazed calmly at the two embracing skeletons.

One second, two seconds, a quarter of an hour, two quarters of an hour, an hour...

Su Zhen just stood there quietly, without any extra movements.

From dusk to deep night, from evening to dawn, Su Zhen finally made a move.

"Dad, Mom, brother, everyone wait for me, I will come find you. Before that, I'll bring you some pets to play with."

Su Zhen's tone was as calm as water, showing no trace of sadness or anger.

He turned around, and as soon as he took a step, his vision went black, and he fell backward.

Qian Daoliu appeared behind Su Zhen and caught him, shaking his head as he looked at the unconscious Su Zhen.

"How terrifying is his martial soul that it could cause a deity to secretly scheme."

He still couldn't forget the faint divine power emanating from Tang Hao.

The dark night quietly receded, and dawn finally arrived.

The first ray of sunlight pierced Su Zhen's face. His eyelids slowly fluttered open, and the warm sunlight entered Su Zhen's heart, lifting his heavy eyelids.

"You're awake. Come over and eat something now that you're awake."

Su Zhen turned his head and saw Qian Daoliu meditating on a nearby rock. A blanket was spread out in front of him, with some dried food and wild fruits on it. Qian Daoliu had exchanged Gold Soul Coins for these in a nearby village.

Su Zhen sat up, walked slowly to Qian Daoliu, and sat down, picking up the dried food and eating.

"Don't you have anything you want to ask?"

"Senior, who was it?"

"Tang Hao. You can only know this name for now. Anything else is too far away for you at the moment."

"Tang Hao."

Su Zhen didn't react much, only biting down harder on the dried food.

He knew who Tang Hao was, or rather, he knew Tang Hao from his previous life. His previous life came from a place called Blue Star. He had died from overwork due to staying up late. In that place, this world was just an ordinary novel that he had read. He knew all the major events that were about to happen in this world and all the named characters. Because he had experienced immense pain, he had awakened his memories from his previous life.

"Why?"

Qian Daoliu was not angry at Su Zhen's rudeness. People who had just lost their loved ones would naturally be a bit dazed.

"I am hunting him. He massacred the village just to delay me. In a way, I am also your enemy. If I weren't hunting him, your family wouldn't have died."

Qian Daoliu hid many things; he didn't want Su Zhen to bear too much.

"This is not your fault, Senior. I have no reason to blame you. I am already grateful that you saved my life."

Su Zhen finished the dried food, stood up, and bowed deeply to Qian Daoliu. Qian Daoliu accepted the bow without refusing.

"Let's go. I'll take you to the Martial Soul Hall. There, you will eventually gain the power to exact revenge."

"May I ask Senior to wait here for two days? I need to arrange the funeral rites."

"You may."

Su Zhen began to collect the remains of the villagers. He jumped into the deep pit and gathered all the broken bones. Here were not only the remains of his father but also those of the village chief, the children, and Shi Heng. He couldn't distinguish which belonged to his father, so he collected them all and brought them to the center of the village. After tidying up the deep pit, he went to his home to collect his mother and brother. He dug a pit behind his house and buried the remains of his mother and brother, erecting a wooden tablet. On it, he wrote: Tomb of my mother Li Xiulian and my elder brother Su Ming. Erected by your unfilial son Su Zhen, Douluo Calendar 2631, April 23rd. He wrote this in simplified Chinese characters from Blue Star.

After doing this, Su Zhen began collecting the remains of the villagers from the end of the village. Some that were outside were easy to find, while those buried under the ruins, he would ask Qian Daoliu to help move the stones and wooden beams.

Su Zhen worked from day to night, and from night to day. When he was tired, he would rest for a quarter of an hour and continue. When he was hungry, he would eat some dried food. He worked tirelessly for two days to complete the collection of the villagers' remains.

He dug a large pit in the center of the village. He did not ask Qian Daoliu for help with this, burying the remains of his father and all the villagers inside. He also erected a wooden sign in front: Tomb of my late father Su Changkong and all the villagers of Hound Village, erected by Su Zhen, April 25th, Douluo Calendar 2631.

"Why have I never seen the characters on this tombstone before?"

"Senior, I just scribbled them randomly; consider it a memento belonging solely to me."

Qian Daoliu looked thoughtful but did not say anything more.

"It is time to depart. I will send you to the Martial Soul Hall Junior Soul Master Academy, where you will learn the most systematic soul master knowledge on the entire continent."

"Senior, I... I do not want to go to the Soul Master Academy."

"Oh? Why do you not want to go? For a soul master at your stage, the Junior Soul Master Academy is the best choice. Why do you object? Or are you saying you think the Junior Soul Master Academy cannot teach you anything?"

Qian Daoliu stared at Su Zhen, feeling a bit puzzled by the actions of this six-year-old child before him.

"Senior, I wish to take you as my master."

"Take me as your master? Hahahahahahahaha."

Qian Daoliu was amused by Su Zhen's words.

"Do you know who I am? Do you know my status within Martial Soul Hall and even the entire soul master world? Do you know how long it has been since I last took an apprentice? You know nothing at all, so on what grounds do you ask to be my apprentice? What do you have that makes you worth taking as a disciple? Are you worthy?"

"I do not know who you are, Senior, nor do I know your status or strength. I only know that you saved me, Senior, and you helped me find the remains of the villagers. You are a good person, Senior."

"Hahahahaha, I am a good person. To think I would actually be called a good person. Do you know that the number of people who have died by my hands is more than ten times this village? Tang Chen, Tang Zhen, can you imagine that people like us would one day be called good people?"

Qian Daoliu laughed wildly, as if he had heard the funniest joke under the heavens.

"Senior, does my Martial Soul qualify me to be your disciple?"

"Martial Soul Possession."

As Su Zhen spoke, he summoned his Thunder Prison Qilin Martial Soul.

"Roar—!"

A majestic beast roar erupted from within Su Zhen's body.

Su Zhen's body suddenly shot up in height. His exposed skin became covered in purple-gold scales, ten sharp claws extended, purple-gold manes grew on his face, and a single horn protruded from his forehead, wreathed in lightning. His pupils turned into purple-gold vertical slits, and his entire being exuded an aura of nobility and majesty. A formidable, awe-inspiring purple-gold Qilin phantom appeared behind Su Zhen.

"Senior, this is my Martial Soul, the Thunder Prison Qilin, a top-tier divine beast-level Martial Soul."

Qian Daoliu examined Su Zhen after his possession and the Qilin phantom behind him.

"A very powerful Martial Soul. Not bad; it actually managed to cause my Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul to stir."

Qian Daoliu was very satisfied with Su Zhen's Martial Soul. He had previously guessed that Su Zhen's Martial Soul was not weak, but he had not expected it to reach the level of a top-tier Martial Soul, or even be a leader among them, with a chance to touch the threshold of a god-level Martial Soul.

"The Martial Soul has the qualifications, but what about you as a person?"

"I can take you as my apprentice, but I have one condition."