Jiang He

Heaven Dou Empire, Heaven Dou City.

This was a courtyard residence in the staff family housing area of Heaven Dou Royal Academy.

In the front yard, a delicate-looking little boy was holding a massive stone and repeatedly doing squats.

Bang!

After an unknown amount of time, the exhausted little boy set down the stone and, drenched in sweat, walked from the front yard into the inner room.

Inside were two memorial tablets, bearing the following inscriptions:

[Spirit Tablet of Father Jiang Shan]

[Spirit Tablet of Mother He Yi]

Erected by their filial son, Jiang He]

These were Jiang He's parents, formerly two teachers at Heaven Dou Royal Academy.

Such a background already placed him above the vast majority of ordinary people on Douluo Continent.

But during an accident, the two had encountered a soul beast far beyond their strength while leading students into Sunset Forest to hunt soul beasts for spirit rings.

In order to protect the students, both of them had died in the line of duty.

Fortunately, after their deaths, Heaven Dou Royal Academy had not only given Jiang He a substantial pension.

It had also allowed Jiang He to continue living in the staff family housing and promised that, as long as he possessed Innate Soul Power, he could enroll in Heaven Dou Royal Academy.

Even if he amounted to nothing in the future, he could still find some position within the academy to make a living.

Jiang He first offered incense to his parents, then went to the backyard to wash up before finally returning to his room.

After sitting cross-legged, Jiang He said in his mind, "System, open my personal panel."

[Host: Jiang He]

[Age: Five years and six months]

[Soul Power: Level 10!]

[Cultivation Methods: <Tyrant Emperor World-Devouring Art (Jiang He Custom Version 2.0)> <Ancient Bear Visualization Method (Jiang He Custom Version 1.0)> Endless Life Technique]

[Martial Soul Not Awakened]

Looking at the familiar personal status panel, Jiang He did not hesitate and continued in his mind, "Begin martial soul deduction."

[Deduction in progress...]

[Ding! Deduction complete. Based on detection, the host's inherited bloodline is primarily bear-type. 11% chance of awakening the father's inherited martial soul, Giant Bear! 20% chance of awakening the advanced martial soul, Vajra Bear! 67% chance of awakening the top-tier martial soul, Blood Demon Berserk Bear! 1.4% chance of awakening the mother's inherited martial soul, Charm Fox! 0.6% chance of awakening the super martial soul, Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear!]

Looking at the result produced by the system, Jiang He frowned tightly.

"Is the probability still this low?"

Two and a half years ago, when Jiang He was three, a set of memories had suddenly awakened within him.

Those memories had felt incredibly real, as though he had truly lived through another lifetime.

Unable to tell whether it was Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming of Zhuang Zhou, Jiang He had spent several months coming to terms with it.

Along with those memories, a cultivation Auxiliary System had also awakened.

This system could thoroughly analyze Jiang He's condition and perform deductions and refinements based on the information he provided.

Because he had fused with the memories of his previous life, Jiang He understood that he was now in Douluo Continent, a world of supernatural power centered around martial souls.

At six, one's fate was known! Martial souls decided everything!

That was why he had constantly worked to use his memories and the system to create cultivation methods, hoping to give himself a better starting point when his martial soul awakened.

Of course, the system's deductions had their limits. Jiang He had tried having it deduce an invincible cultivation method, only for the system to directly state that no deduction could be completed without foundational data.

Still, after two and a half years of effort, Jiang He had gradually accumulated deductions through the system and created four cultivation methods.

One of them was the Tyrant Emperor World-Devouring Art Version 1.0, which he had once cultivated but had now discarded. The other three were the Tyrant Emperor World-Devouring Art Version 2.0, Ancient Bear Visualization Method Version 1.0, and Endless Life Technique that Jiang He was currently cultivating.

Beyond that, Jiang He had continuously used the system to devise a comprehensive body-tempering plan and nutritional supplementation plan without affecting his growth and development.

According to the system's assessment, the most important factor in martial soul awakening was the inheritance of a particular martial soul lineage within one's bloodline.

Second came the amount of Soul Power within one's body before martial soul awakening.

Last came physical strength.

If one possessed a martial soul bloodline as well as decent physical strength and Soul Power, one would certainly awaken a respectable martial soul.

As for the martial soul's ultimate strength, that still depended on the amount of Soul Power and the body's final level of strength.

Based on this, after two and a half years of training, Jiang He's martial soul deduction had gone from an initial 87% chance of inheriting his father's Giant Bear, 12% chance of inheriting his mother's Charm Fox, and various scattered martial souls.

To its current proportions.

According to the current analysis, Jiang He had an extremely high chance of awakening the top-tier martial soul, Blood Demon Berserk Bear.

This martial soul was also the martial soul of Spirit Hall's level ninety-five assault-type Title Douluo, Demon Bear.

Combined with Jiang He's current Level 10 Soul Power, becoming a Title Douluo in the future was practically guaranteed.

But Jiang He was not satisfied. He still wanted to go further and pursue the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear martial soul, despite its extremely low probability.

Yet even after working so hard for so long, the chance of awakening the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear martial soul remained incredibly low, almost negligible.

According to the system, this martial soul was too powerful and domineering. Given the physical strength of Douluo Continent's soul masters before martial soul awakening at this stage, awakening it was nearly impossible unless... special methods were used!

Knock, knock, knock!

"Little Jiang He, are you home?"

Just as he was thinking, a knock sounded outside the courtyard, accompanied by a clear female voice.

Jiang He gathered his thoughts, and the expression on his face instantly returned to the harmless smile of a child.

Then he called loudly toward the courtyard gate, "Sister Yan Yan, I'm here!"

With that, Jiang He ran toward the courtyard gate.

When he opened it, a girl with short purple hair stood before him.

"Wow, Little Jiang He, you're already this tall?"

Dugu Yan was clearly stunned when she saw Jiang He.

After years of training, Jiang He's height was no longer considered short. He stood a full one meter sixty, which was exceptionally tall for a five-year-old child.

Dugu Yan held up her hand to compare their heights and said, "I'm more than six years older than you. How are you only a little shorter than me? Didn't they say boys develop slower than girls?"

"Hehe, I don't know. Maybe I'm a special case."

Jiang He scratched the back of his head with a foolish grin, then asked Dugu Yan, "Sister Yan Yan, did you need something from me?"

"I almost forgot. It's my twelfth birthday the day after tomorrow. My grandpa came to Heaven Dou City to celebrate with me and said he'd spend a few days having fun with me. He's in Heaven Dou City right now, and he wants to know if you'll come over for dinner tonight. He also wants to see how your martial soul awakening preparations are going."

At that, a glint flashed through Jiang He's eyes, but he put on a puzzled expression as he looked at Dugu Yan and asked:

"Grandpa Dugu is looking for me? That can't be right. Didn't he say he hates children like us the most?"

Dugu Yan spread her hands helplessly.

"Oh, that's just my grandpa joking around. You know what he's like—his words are sharp, but his heart is soft.

If he really disliked you, he wouldn't have given you that Soul Master Awakening Preparation Manual back then.

And it's all his fault. He insisted on giving you that thing, and now you're at home tempering your body every day. You've trained yourself this tall already. Aren't you afraid you'll develop too early and end up not growing any taller?"

Hearing that, Jiang He chuckled again, scratching the back of his head as he said:

"Oh, okay. But I'd better not go. My martial soul will awaken in a few months, so I should stay home and prepare properly. Otherwise, if I don't have much Innate Soul Power, I might not even qualify to remain at Heaven Dou Royal Academy."

"Don't worry. Both your parents were Soul Kings, so how could you possibly lack Innate Soul Power? Besides, with my grandpa around, Heaven Dou Royal Academy wouldn't dare throw you out."

"I'd better not. I'll come watch when your martial soul awakens. I'm still a little scared of Grandpa Dugu. Don't worry, Sister Yan Yan—I'll definitely come on your birthday."

"Fine, fine. If you're not going today, forget it. I'm heading back first. Take it easy yourself, and don't train your body into the ground."

"Got it~"

After waving goodbye to Dugu Yan, Jiang He closed the courtyard gate, excitement appearing on his face.

"The opportunity is here. It's my first time going out to steal something. I hope everything goes smoothly!"