A Knife Up the Butt

Douluo Continent, Holy Soul Village.

The afternoon sun glared down.

Li Hao lay on a large boulder by the river, a blade of foxtail grass dangling from his mouth. The Fishing Rod in his hand didn't budge.

His eyes stared blankly at the sky.

The sun was so dazzling that he didn't dare look directly at it.

"I've been in Douluo Continent for over two weeks. Other transmigrators either end up as Tang San's big brother or Qian Xunji's big brother. At the very least, they get Innate Full Soul Power."

"Meanwhile, I ended up a fishing bum."

He wasn't just feeling sorry for himself. He'd been young once, and he'd had his moments of hot-blooded enthusiasm.

Just two weeks ago, he'd turned six, a spirited young lad in the prime of his life.

At the Martial Soul Awakening ceremony, with everyone watching, he'd casually reached out.

A flash of golden light—

It nearly blinded everyone.

But what blinded them even more was...

An utterly ordinary Fishing Rod, with its paint even chipped in places, appearing in his hand.

Just by appearances, this rod was even more pathetic than the sickle Trash Martial Soul awakened moments earlier.

Grandmaster Su Yuntao had comforted him, saying that Tool Martial Souls could hold surprises. After all, the most powerful Martial Souls in the world were Tool Martial Souls.

Li Hao had believed him.

Just like how he'd believed someone on Blue Star was Qin Shi Huang and sent him every last cent he had—fifty yuan.

Then came the thrilling Soul Power test...

The crystal ball lit up for just a moment, so faintly it was almost impossible to notice.

"Soul Power: half a level!"

That result shook the heavens and stunned the entire crowd.

Everyone knew that Soul Masters were an extremely rare group. The vast majority of people were ordinary folk with no Soul Power at all, and scored zero on the test.

Over ninety percent of Soul Masters scored between one and three. They could cultivate, but their talent was ordinary and their potential extremely limited.

Li Hao, however, was a freak of nature.

You couldn't say he wasn't a Soul Master, since he had 0.5 levels of Soul Power.

But you couldn't call him one, either, since he had half a level less than even the lowest-ranked Soul Master.

That result earned Li Hao the glorious title of the first Soul Master in Holy Soul Village's hundred-year history.

Who knew if there'd be anyone after him? There certainly hadn't been anyone before.

That result alone had opened Grandmaster Su Yuntao's eyes in a way that made a knife up the butt seem tame.

Fine. He'd put up with it.

One Soul Master awakened out of ten children—that was already a sweet deal.

Official statistics said that only one Soul Master was born for every thousand ordinary people.

Taking home someone with a mere 0.5 levels of Soul Power already made the trip worthwhile.

As expected, the children who came after him all did their part and became entries in the statistics.

Until the blacksmith's child...

That six-year-old brat awakened Blue Silver Grass with Innate Full Soul Power.

Everyone was both envious and disappointed.

Su Yuntao couldn't laugh, but he couldn't cry, either.

Li Hao, meanwhile, remained calm.

Tang San was simply doing well in the world that belonged to him. There wasn't much to say.

He glanced at his Fishing Rod.

What the hell was the point of even trying?

The problem was, he didn't even have a hammer to play with...

Afterward, Li Hao decisively gave up and spent his days mooching off Nuoding Academy.

But Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy politely advised him to leave, saying he was beyond teaching and as useless as a rotten log.

There was no other reason.

Two weeks after enrolling, his Soul Power was still stuck at level one.

The academy had also seen through his mooching ways, so it let him cut short his two-and-a-half-year career at the junior Soul Master Academy.

Left with no choice, Li Hao returned to Holy Soul Village early and took up the life of a fishing bum.

"Brother Li Hao, fishing again?"

A few village kids, seven or eight years old, came running over. The snot on the leader's nose hadn't even been wiped away.

"You've been fishing all afternoon and haven't caught a single fish. You'd be better off coming grasshopper-catching with us!"

"Nice weather today."

Li Hao gave a completely unrelated reply, then turned his head away, looking too lazy to deal with them.

His couldn't-care-less attitude instantly riled up the little brats.

"Brother Li Hao, you can't keep wasting your talent like this! You and Brother Tang San are the only ones in our batch with Soul Power. You've got to get it together!"

Another kid chimed in. "Exactly! Look at Brother Tang San. He goes to the back hill to train before dawn every day. And you just lie around all day, you lazybones!"

Li Hao couldn't even be bothered to lift an eyelid.

Here we go again.

These annoying little brats.

Tang San was a try-hard, and he was a couch potato. They stayed in their own lanes, so what was the point of comparing them every day?

"Training? What's the point of working so hard? Can you eat it?"

"With half a level of Innate Soul Power, my potential's terrifyingly low—more miserable than Grandmaster's. I've got my secret grilled-fish recipe, and I'm thriving in this village. Isn't that better than Tang San's drunken, abusive father?"

Of course, he only said all that in his head.

He couldn't be bothered arguing with the little brats.

Seeing that Li Hao was ignoring them, the kids lost interest and ran off, shouting, "Lazybones Li Hao!"

At last, the world was quiet.

Li Hao let out a long sigh, rolled over, and prepared to get back to his lazy ways.

Just then—

The Fishing Rod in his hand suddenly dipped!

A tremendous force yanked at the end of the line, nearly pulling the rod from his grasp!

Huh?

Something had taken the bait?

Li Hao sprang to life and sat upright on the boulder.

With a pull like that, it had to be a big one!

Dinner was taken care of!

He gripped the rod with both hands, braced himself, and used the proper technique to lift it.

"Up!"

But the big fish leaping from the water that he'd imagined never appeared.

As he gave the rod a hard pull, a rustling came from the grass by the river.

Then a pink, furry thing was dragged out of the grass by the line and rolled twice across the ground.

Li Hao took a closer look and froze.

It wasn't a fish.

It was a rabbit.

A rabbit covered in pink fur, with long ears and a harmless appearance.

Li Hao couldn't help remarking, "Kid, are you so poor you've started fishing on land?"

The rabbit was covered in blood. One of its hind legs was tightly tangled in his fishing line, and its breathing was so faint that it looked as if it could die at any moment.

Was this a Ten-Year Soul Beast, a Soft Bone Rabbit?

Li Hao frowned.

Something wasn't right.

There were Soft Bone Rabbits around the outskirts of Star Dou Forest, but they were all clever. Why would one come all the way to a riverbank?

And those wounds on its body...

Li Hao moved closer to examine them.

The wounds were smooth and deep, with a barely perceptible trace of sharpness lingering at their edges.

No ordinary Soul Beast's claws or teeth could have caused them.

They looked more like injuries from some extremely sharp blade.

A terrible thought surfaced in Li Hao's mind.

A Soul Master.

This rabbit had been hunted by a Soul Master and fled here!

Trouble.

A whole lot of trouble!

Save it?

With my pitiful Soul Power, what if I nurse it back to consciousness and it kicks me flying?

And what if the Soul Master hunting it comes looking for it?

How am I supposed to fight them?

With this broken Fishing Rod?

Better not to get involved.

Put it back—yes, hurry up and toss it back into the grass. Pretend I never saw anything.

"Life and death are fated; wealth and honor lie with Heaven."

"Bunny, it's not that I don't want to save you. I'm truly powerless."

Muttering to himself, Li Hao reached out to untangle the line from the rabbit's leg, planning to toss it into the grass nearby.

But just as his fingertips were about to touch its warm, soft fur...

He couldn't help giving it a few extra strokes.

Then a couple more.

And a few more after that.

Mm, he'd toss it once he got tired of petting it.

Suddenly!

A mechanical voice, utterly devoid of emotion and cold as if it came from the depths of the netherworld, exploded in his mind without warning!

It startled him so badly that he nearly flung the rabbit back into the river!

[Pure soul unit on the verge of death detected.]

[Target: Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit (reincarnation period).]

[System activation conditions met...]

[Soul Beast Girl Raising System activating!]