Innate Soul Power, Level 1

Heaven Dou Empire, Heding City, Martial Soul Sub-Hall.

On the burgundy lambswool carpet, golden and silver threads wove patterns into a formation. Following instructions, Zhang Yang stood in the middle, his face tight with nerves.

He couldn't help being nervous. In the world of Douluo Continent, a person's future was decided the moment their Martial Soul awakened.

Only with Soul Power could you talk about the future.

As a transmigrator, Zhang Yang wanted to lie with beauties in his arms and command the world in this land where great power belonged to the individual.

But without Soul Power, it was all empty talk.

Ignoring the tension on Zhang Yang's face, the Spirit Hall deacon in a white martial outfit raised his hand and injected a stream of Soul Power.

Pale purple Soul Power flowed like water along the patterns on the floor, circling once. Then a hazy golden radiance rose from the formation, forming a pale gold barrier around Zhang Yang.

Inside the magic circle, Zhang Yang's tense expression instantly calmed.

Then, as if something had broken out of its shell inside his brain, Zhang Yang felt a cool sensation wash through his head. Warmth surged from the palm of his right hand.

Zhang Yang raised his right hand. A strange weapon, 1.12 meters long and assembled from metal and hardwood, floated quietly in his palm.

Zhang Yang opened his eyes and couldn't help blurting out, "Holy crap!"

Beside the Martial Soul Awakening ceremony stood several upright, middle-aged men in their forties, accompanying a middle-aged couple.

They chatted casually, but when Zhang Yang's Martial Soul awakened, every one of them turned to look.

The Spirit Hall deacon in charge of the ceremony looked at Zhang Lingyue. "This is a strange Tool Martial Soul I've never seen before. Its shape is refined and unique, and it looks like it has a lot of substance."

A middle-aged man beside him smiled. "Congratulations, Lingyue. Zhang Yang's Martial Soul looks like a much higher-grade one than your axe."

Pride showed on the father's face, while the smile on his wife's face grew even brighter.

A Martial Soul's level of detail was a major factor in determining its quality.

Zhang Yang's Martial Soul looked so refined and substantial. That meant it had to be powerful.

And a powerful Martial Soul meant his Innate Soul Power couldn't be low.

None of them had seen a Martial Soul with such a strange appearance before, but that was no big deal.

There were plenty of Martial Souls nobody had ever seen. What was there to make a fuss about?

The golden light gradually faded. The Spirit Hall deacon flipped his hand, producing a crystal orb. "Recall your Martial Soul with your mind, then place your right hand on this."

Zhang Yang came to his senses and thought, M14, come back.

At his mental command, Lord M14 vanished from his hand in an instant.

Seeing how easily Zhang Yang had recalled his Martial Soul, everyone looked pleased.

His talent for controlling his Martial Soul was impressive. The boy clearly had a gift.

Everyone was already working out what to say to congratulate Zhang Lingyue and his wife once Zhang Yang's Innate Soul Power had been measured.

Zhang Yang obediently placed his palm on the crystal orb. A moment later, a faint blue light emanated from it.

The crystal was clear and glowed a soft blue, beautiful beyond words.

But the expressions around him stiffened at once.

"This..." Everyone present looked awkward, and many sneaked glances at Zhang Lingyue and his wife.

At some point, the pride and delight had vanished from Zhang Lingyue's face, replaced by helplessness.

His wife had both hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with shock.

"Innate Soul Power... Level 1."

Level 1.

Zhang Yang wore an expression of bewilderment as he went over to his parents.

His mother, Zhu Ranqing, crouched and pulled him into her arms. Tears streamed down her cheeks, soaking his clothes.

Seeing his wife sobbing as she held their son, Zhang Lingyue could only pat Zhang Yang's hair.

Zhang Lingyue's parents, and all the generations before them, had been farmers who couldn't awaken Innate Soul Power.

If nothing unexpected had happened, Zhang Lingyue's life would have been just like his parents': unable to awaken Innate Soul Power, he would have to toil in the fields and live out a life without a ripple.

But fate had given him a chance. At his Martial Soul Awakening ceremony at age six, Zhang Lingyue had been lucky enough to awaken five levels of Soul Power.

With five levels of Soul Power and an axe Martial Soul, Zhang Lingyue had met the requirements to become a Power Attack System Battle Soul Master.

The Spirit Hall deacon who had awakened his Martial Soul took him to Spirit Hall and enrolled him in its exclusive academy.

After more than thirty years of cultivation and hard work, Zhang Lingyue was now in his early forties, with Soul Power at level 53. He worked at the Heding City Martial Soul Branch Hall as its deputy hall master.

He was one of the most prominent figures in all of Heding City.

For a farmer's son to reach such heights, Zhang Lingyue's life could be called complete.

But there had always been one unspoken worry in his heart.

His child.

Zhang Lingyue was the only person in the Zhang family in a hundred years to possess talent as a Soul Master. In a sense, he was a fluke.

He had always worried that his child wouldn't inherit his talent as a Soul Master.

He never imagined that his fear would come true.

His child probably didn't yet understand what Innate Soul Power at level 1 meant.

Seeing his mother look as though the sky had fallen, Zhang Yang instead wiped Zhu Ranqing's tears and said, "Mom, don't cry. It's okay."

Because Zhang Yang's cheat had finally arrived.

At a thought from Zhang Yang, a pale blue screen appeared before his eyes.

That was right. Along with Zhang Yang's Martial Soul, a pale blue screen that only he could see had awakened as well.

He'd exclaimed "Holy crap!" because he was shocked that his cheat had appeared in this form.

What a little rascal.

On the screen, six-year-old Zhang Yang stood in a grand hall with a sacred, temple-like style, dressed in camouflage and holding Lord M14.

Crystal chandeliers lit the space. Red banners hung on the milky-white walls, their details picked out in gold and silver thread. Stained-glass windows lined the hall, and a dark red wool carpet covered the floor.

All around him were option tabs just like those on Delta Force's standby screen.

A dark gray label in the lower-right corner caught Zhang Yang's eye.

"No Target"

"Loadout" "Deploy"

The familiar screen left Zhang Yang even more speechless.

Once a Delta Force Assault Master, Zhang Yang hadn't seen this screen in six years.

Seeing it again brought a jumble of feelings.

Zhang Yang silently selected "Loadout," and the screen instantly changed to an even more familiar layout.

In the center of the screen stood Zhang Yang in a simple outfit. On the left were equipment slots for a helmet, body armor, backpack, and chest rig.

The right side of the screen, however, had changed.

The two primary weapon slots and the pistol slot had disappeared, replaced by two translucent magic-circle icons.

In the center of the first magic circle, a blue hand axe was displayed.

In the bottom-left corner of the equipment slots, a line of small text read, "Martial Soul—M14."

The second magic circle was empty, with the small text "None yet" in its bottom-right corner.

Below the Black Sea was a slot labeled "Carry Medicine."

Zhang Yang tried selecting the armor slot.

"You have not unlocked armor yet. Please try again after completing the tutorial."

Not unlocked?

Puzzled, Zhang Yang tried selecting the helmet, backpack, chest rig, and medicine slots. Each gave him the same message that they weren't unlocked.

The tutorial?

After checking the loadout screen, Zhang Yang looked through the other screens, then closed the display. He needed a safe place to examine his cheat.

The awakening ceremony was over. Zhang Lingyue and his wife didn't keep Zhang Yang at Spirit Hall any longer. They left at once, leaving behind the place that had brought the Zhang family such sorrow.

When they got home, Zhang Yang used "I'm tired" as an excuse to go to his room, leaving Zhang Lingyue and Zhu Ranqing in the living room, their brows furrowed with worry.

At last, he was home and could calmly study his cheat.

Zhang Yang looked at the row of tabs across the top of the home screen: "Start Game," "Storage," "Department," "Trading House," "Special Operations Bureau," and "Tutorial."

"Tutorial?" Zhang Yang wondered aloud. "Did the game even have a tutorial? And where's my Gun Modification Bench? What happened to my operator selection screen?"

Although it didn't match the game screen he remembered, Zhang Yang didn't dwell on it.

There was no Gun Modification Bench, but there was a tutorial.

Zhang Yang swore this was the first time in either of his lives that he'd ever taken a tutorial so seriously.

He wouldn't skip a single second.

With that resolve, Zhang Yang selected "Tutorial" with his mind.

"Lincoln's dead, big shot."

In an instant, everything went black. When Zhang Yang came to, he found himself on a plane.

Then the command center's voice sounded in his ear. "Operator, you're about to reach the operation zone."

"This operation is high difficulty. You'll need to acquire supplies on your own."

"The Silent Forest has never seen large-scale human activity. It belongs solely to the Soul Beasts."

"Gather biological and plant samples in the area if you can, or defeat Soul Beasts and take supplies from them. If you're defeated, you'll lose everything you're carrying."

"Reach the extraction point and extract before time runs out."

"Remember the rules of survival: engage, search, and get out once the job's done!"

Zhang Yang swore this was the first time he'd ever listened so closely to the command center. He committed every word to memory.

Then the helicopter door slid open. The fast-rope was hooked up and tossed out of the cabin. Zhang Yang's body moved against his will as he stepped forward, grabbed the rope, and descended to the ground.

By the time Zhang Yang regained control of his body, he was already in a forest dappled with shifting light.