The atmosphere in the open space at the center of the village was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.
"Hello, everyone. I'm Hun Yuntao from Spirit Hall. My Martial Soul is Lone Wolf, and I'm a level 26 Power Attack System Battle Soul Master." The deacon standing in the middle introduced himself to the villagers. When they heard that this Lord Soul Master had Soul Power as high as level 26, everyone looked astonished.
"You may have heard of me. I have a younger brother named Su Yuntao. He came here a few years ago. When we were little, he liked eating vegetables, while I liked eating meat, so our parents gave us those names."
Hearing the name Su Yuntao, Gu Tian knew that at this very moment, in Holy Soul Village of the Heaven Dou Empire, that treacherous Tang San was awakening his Twin Martial Souls as well.
"Enough chatter. Let's get started! First, Wang Ergou."
Hun Yuntao called out with a frown. A fine sheen of sweat had appeared on his forehead, and his face looked a little pale. As a level 26 Soul Grandmaster, he could clearly feel the Soul Power inside him draining away at an alarming rate. It felt like standing beside a leaking barrel, watching helplessly as his cultivation dried up.
"Hurry up. Stop dawdling!" Hun Yuntao urged impatiently. There was only one thought in his mind: finish testing these last few brats and get out of this cursed place at once.
The boy named Wang Ergou walked forward trembling and put his hand in the center of the Awakening Stone array.
A faint yellow light flashed.
"Martial Soul: hoe. Trash Martial Soul, no attack power." Hun Yuntao waved a hand, signaling the boy to test his Soul Power.
The boy pressed his hand against the crystal ball. After a long while, the transparent crystal ball didn't emit even the slightest glimmer.
"Innate Soul Power: zero. Next, Li Er'ya." Hun Yuntao didn't even raise his head.
The next few children—Hang Dali, Zheng Daniu, and Chen Xiaobao—were almost exactly the same. Sickles, Blue Silver Grass, even the roosters they raised at home. These Martial Souls were the most ordinary things on Douluo Continent. They could be awakened, but with no Innate Soul Power to support them, they were destined to serve only as tools in the lives of common folk.
It wasn't necessarily a curse, either. With names like extras, if they weren't supporting characters, who was?
"Damn it, this place really is cursed." Hun Yuntao muttered a curse under his breath. He put away his notebook, his eyes full of disdain. The children here had such appallingly low-quality Martial Souls that they were practically wasting his Soul Power and time.
"Last one, Gu Tian." The village chief called Gu Tian's name with some embarrassment.
Gu Tian took a deep breath and walked forward under his parents' encouraging gazes. He silently reached out to her in his mind. Sister Lin Xi, I'm counting on you. Disguise it.
"Don't worry, little one. The tricks of this low-level nobody won't fool me." Ao Linxi replied playfully.
The instant Gu Tian's hand touched the Awakening Stone, a warm force coursed through his body. In his palm, the nine-colored radiance was forcibly suppressed beneath a deep dark-golden hue.
Buzz—!
The shadow of a savage dark-golden claw flickered behind him and vanished. Its thick, hardened scales made it look powerful and rugged, even somewhat ferocious. But compared to the majestic, sacred Dragon God from the night before, this claw seemed brutally wild, without the slightest trace of divinity.
"Martial Soul: Dragon Claw?" Hun Yuntao's somewhat unfocused eyes lit up briefly, only to dim again. "It's a Power Attack System Martial Soul, but it looks like some sort of impure mutated subspecies of dragon. In a village like yours, it's probably just a little stronger than average. Go on, test your Soul Power."
Hun Yuntao handed over the somewhat worn crystal ball.
Gu Tian reached out, and the instant his palm touched the crystal ball—
Boom—!
An energy of utter purity poured madly from Gu Tian's palm. The crystal ball erupted with dazzling light, so brilliant that it even outshone the setting sun on the horizon.
Then, under Hun Yuntao's horrified gaze, countless fine cracks appeared inside the crystal ball.
Bang!
The crystal ball exploded outright, bursting into a shower of glittering fragments.
The force of the blast knocked Hun Yuntao back two steps, and a shard cut his palm, leaving a streak of blood. He stared at his empty hands, first stunned, then spat fiercely.
"Bah! This lousy place is so rotten it's even corroded the crystal ball!" Hun Yuntao angrily shook the fragments off his hand, his face written all over with bad luck. "I've used this crystal ball for years without a problem, and it breaks as soon as I enter your village. That kid's Martial Soul isn't anything special, either. He's probably destined for only one or two levels, or maybe he doesn't even have Soul Power. I'm done testing, I'm done!"
Still grumbling, Hun Yuntao quickly packed his things. Without so much as glancing at Gu Tian, he hurried through the Purple Mist and ran out of the village. He didn't want to spend even one more second in this cursed place that could drain away his cultivation.
Silence fell over the village.
Gu Hai and Lin Ping turned deathly pale.
"The crystal ball shattered... Does that mean there's no result?" Lin Ping's voice quavered with tears.
As far as they knew, a shattered Soul Power testing crystal ball meant the test had failed. And with the deacon's spiteful remarks before leaving, they thought Gu Tian really was just like the other children in the village—a commoner without Soul Power.
Gu Hai sighed heavily. His thick right hand rested on Gu Tian's shoulder, and his normally straight back looked a little hunched in that moment.
"Tian'er, it's all right. It's fine if you don't have Soul Power. You can stay by Dad's side. You can handle the carpentry work our family does."
The journey home was so heavy with grief it was suffocating.
As soon as they entered the house, Gu Tian shut the door and looked at his despondent parents. He knew he couldn't keep certain secrets from the two people who had given everything for him.
"Dad, Mom. Actually... that crystal ball didn't break."
Gu Tian spoke softly. He held out his right hand, and the rough disguise over the dark-golden dragon claw vanished in an instant.
Nine-Colored Divine Light filled the cramped earthen house in an instant, like the rosy glow of dawn spilling down from the clouds.
His Martial Soul was no longer a savage claw, but a noble, peerless divine dragon. Its sacred aura didn't absorb the essence in the air. Instead, it made his exhausted parents feel an ease that came from the depths of their hearts, as if even the old aches built up from years of hard labor had eased.
"This... what is this?" Gu Hai was so shocked that the pipe in his hand fell straight to the floor. His Dragon Claw Martial Soul nearly manifested on its own, beyond his control, but under the pressure of the Nine-Colored Divine Light, it lay pressed firmly against his palm, not daring to move at all.
"My Soul Power is level twenty." Gu Tian calmly dropped the bombshell. "I was the one who burst the crystal ball."
Gu Hai and Lin Ping looked at each other. Shock gradually gave way to overwhelming joy in their eyes, then to awkward uncertainty.
"Level twenty... a divine dragon Martial Soul... Son! This is my son!" Gu Hai repeated, his voice trembling. Suddenly, he rushed to the door like a madman and locked it and the windows tight, afraid that even a sliver of that colored light might escape.
That night, Lin Ping cooked the half a smoked pig's leg they had been saving for a long time. There was meat on the table, and Gu Hai even opened a jar of home-brewed aged liquor, something he rarely did.
At the dinner table, Gu Tian put down his chopsticks and looked at his parents, whose eyes were red. He voiced the decision he had carefully considered.
"Dad, Mom. I want to leave Ancient Dragon Village tomorrow."
The laughter around the table stopped dead.
Lin Ping's hand trembled, and a piece of meat fell into her bowl.
"Already? You're only six, Tian'er. It's too dangerous out there." Lin Ping put down her chopsticks, her eyes full of reluctance.
"Mom, you know about our village's curse. If I stay in Ancient Dragon Village, the environment here will cause my Martial Soul to mutate and deteriorate. I have to go out into the world and find my own path." Gu Tian spoke plainly. He couldn't tell his parents about the Dragon God Trial, but he knew leaving was the only choice.
Gu Hai remained silent for a long time. He took a large gulp of strong liquor and coughed twice as it burned his throat.
"Go." Gu Hai lifted his head, determination shining in his eyes. "Our village is a dragon stranded in a shallow pool. Since Tian'er is a true dragon, he shouldn't be trapped in this lifeless mountain ravine. Dad will support you."
"Gu Hai! He's only six!" Lin Ping cried out, tears streaming down her cheeks in great drops.
"What does being six have to do with it? His mother, you know that at Xiao Tian's age, he should be going to a Soul Master school. We can't waste talent this good. We can't let a Zhong Yong go to waste!"
That night, Gu Tian lay in bed, listening to his parents arguing in hushed voices in the next room.
Lin Ping cried while Gu Hai shouted. One spoke of her worries for their son, the other of how a man should aspire to travel far and wide. Their argument went on until late into the night, then finally dwindled into Lin Ping's stifled sobs and Gu Hai's heavy sighs.
Gu Tian clutched the edge of his blanket, his heart aching as if it were being cut apart. But he knew that only by becoming a god, only by reaching the summit, could he truly protect these two ordinary people who loved him more than life itself.
The next morning, before dawn.
Gu Tian got up early. He slung a simple bundle over his back, planning to slip away before his parents woke. He was afraid he'd see his mother's swollen, tearful eyes.
But when he reached the wooden table in the main room, he froze.
There were no leftovers from the night before on the table. Instead, there was a neat, clean cloth bundle. A wrinkled sheet of yellow paper was tucked beneath it.
Gu Tian picked up the paper with trembling hands. On it were Gu Hai's crooked characters, written with the rugged force of a mason:
"Tian'er, we know you're afraid to see your mom cry, so we won't come see you off. There's food your mom made for you overnight in the bundle, along with a little money. It should be enough to let you study outside for a few years. Don't go without what you need out there. If you run short of money, write to your mom. If you get tired or someone bullies you, come home. There'll always be food here."
Gu Tian opened the bundle. Inside were warm, dry rations, as well as a heavy little pouch.
With trembling hands, he opened the money pouch.
Inside lay three Gold Soul Coins, more than twenty Silver Soul Coins, and a large handful of loose Copper Soul Coins.
According to the exchange rate on Douluo Continent, one Gold Soul Coin could be exchanged for ten Silver Soul Coins, and one Silver Soul Coin for a hundred Copper Soul Coins. One Gold Soul Coin was enough to support a family of three for several months.
Gu Tian knew this was the hard-earned money his father had built up, brick by brick, over decades at construction sites. It was the dowry money his mother had saved by stitching away under the lamplight, needle by needle, until her eyesight failed.
It wasn't the amount of living expenses your parents gave you that mattered. What mattered was whether they came in odd bits and pieces.
Because this was everything they had.
The morning fog was still thick, beating against Gu Tian's face like cold waves.
He slung the bundle over his back, pressed the heavy money pouch against his chest, and faced the house, kowtowing three times.
"Dad, Mom. When I come back, I'll bring you a different world."
The boy turned around and plunged into the endless purple mist, without a backward glance.