On the outskirts of Star Dou Forest, ancient trees towered into the sky.
Sunlight was sliced into fragments of gold by layer upon layer of canopy, falling sparsely across clearings in the forest.
The air was thick with the damp scent of rotting leaves. Now and then, a few low growls from unknown Soul Beasts sounded in the distance.
Jiang Lin sat cross-legged on a moss-covered bluestone, eyes closed.
He had just turned ten that year. He was tall for his age, and sweat had soaked his black hair, plastering it to his temples.
Before him, a purple Soul Ring spun slowly, merging with the Martial Soul in front of him.
Purple.
A Thousand-Year Soul Ring.
And yet this was his third Soul Ring.
A ten-year-old child, absorbing his third Soul Ring.
If any Soul Master saw this configuration, their eyes would pop out of their sockets. Most Soul Masters at ten were still fretting over their First Soul Ring; having a hundred-year Yellow Soul Ring already meant they had decent talent.
At Jiang Lin's feet floated a yellow Soul Ring and a purple one. The third, now merging with him, was a deep-purple Thousand-Year Soul Ring from a Blood-Armored Berserk Bear that had lived for over 9,300 years.
The absorption process was anything but easy.
The Blood-Armored Berserk Bear's Soul Power carried a naturally savage aura, rampaging through his meridians. Jiang Lin's brows were tightly knitted, his teeth clenching with a grinding sound, and the veins at his temples bulged slightly.
But he showed no sign of giving up. His back remained ramrod straight as he steadily guided that violent power through his meridians.
Not far away, an old man with a full head of white hair stood watching him, his frame as straight as a pine.
The old man wore a simple gray robe. At his feet, nine Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black—revolved in orderly fashion. He was unmistakably a Titled Douluo.
His name was Chen Xuan, and he was Jiang Lin's protector.
About two hours later, the pained expression on Jiang Lin's face gradually faded. The purple Soul Ring had shrunk a little and grown more solid, merging with the war halberd before him, whose entire shaft was wrapped in dark-red divine lightning.
After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Lin's body suddenly jolted.
The purple Soul Ring settled completely around the Blood Fiend Divine Thunder Halberd. A wave of air surged outward from him, sending dry leaves and dust skittering across the ground.
As the light faded, three Soul Rings—one yellow and two purple—rose from beneath Jiang Lin's feet, turning slowly.
Level thirty-three. Success.
Jiang Lin opened his eyes and looked down at his hands. Feeling the Soul Power in his meridians, now more than twice as potent as before, he couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from lifting.
Chen Xuan dismissed his Martial Soul and walked over to Jiang Lin, a faint smile appearing on his gaunt face.
"In all my hundred-plus years, I've never seen a Soul Ring Configuration like this."
"It was just luck."
Jiang Lin wiped the sweat from his brow and got to his feet.
His Martial Soul, the Blood Fiend Divine Thunder Halberd, floated beside him. Three Soul Rings revolved along its shaft, while dark-red fiendish energy and lightning intertwined around its blade.
Honestly, it had taken him four years to advance twenty levels. Even Jiang Lin felt he'd disgraced the transmigrator predecessors.
Those overpowered predecessors could have spent four years beating Qian Daoliu and Bibi Dong into the dirt, yet here he was, still wrestling with a nine-thousand-year-old bear on the outskirts of Star Dou Forest.
But what could he do? His golden finger was weak in the early game. So over the past four years, he'd focused mainly on tempering his body and improving his physical fitness, hoping to absorb Soul Rings with a higher age limit.
Build the foundation deep, then rise in one burst. It wasn't a bad deal.
And now, his foundation was nearly ready, and the main storyline was about to begin.
Jiang Lin weighed things over. It was time to get his startup funds and officially begin his cheat-powered journey.
At the thought of cheating, Jiang Lin instinctively opened his system.
His system was a shop, and its functions were extremely simple:
Trade in valuable items for points, then use those points to buy things. The shop had only four items, and its stock refreshed once a day.
He hadn't checked the refresh last night because he'd wanted to rest. It was past midnight now, so the new items should have appeared.
Jiang Lin swept his eyes across the shop interface, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
Dog Talisman, Price: 500,000 points.
God-Bestowed Soul Ring, Price: 10,000 points.
His heart skipped a beat.
Two dazzling golden items hung in the shop, almost blinding him.
He immediately opened the Dog Talisman's description—eternal life, immunity to all fatal injuries, aging, and disease, and everlasting youth. Its effects were entirely passive.
It came from a world called Jackie Chan Adventures.
Jiang Lin stared at the description for several seconds, then shifted his gaze to the upper-right corner.
Balance: 13 points.
"...Damn."
He closed the shop without expression.
Five hundred thousand points. He didn't even have the spare change.
There was nothing wrong with this system, except that everything cost too much.
Nearby, Chen Xuan had already cut off the Blood-Armored Berserk Bear's two paws and put them into his Storage Soul Tool. He scanned the corpse with his spiritual power but found no Soul Bone.
Jiang Lin wasn't disappointed. Soul Beasts always dropping Soul Bones was a perk reserved for the children of destiny. He clearly wasn't at that level yet.
Come to think of it, last night's events had been a complete accident.
They'd planned to rest for the night before looking for a suitable Soul Beast, but happened to run into a pack of Cold Peak Beasts chasing this Blood-Armored Berserk Bear.
Cornered with nowhere to run, the bear had presented Jiang Lin with its Soul Ring and the honeycomb he'd just pulled out of it.
Absorbing a Soul Ring at night was risky, but with Chen Xuan, a Level 92 Titled Douluo, guarding him, that risk hardly mattered.
"You're already level thirty-three. What are you planning to do next?"
Chen Xuan stroked his beard as he asked. He'd watched Jiang Lin awaken his Martial Soul at six and come all the way to this day. He'd eaten so much Whale Rubber he'd thrown up, and trained his body until he collapsed from exhaustion. Across the entire Douluo Continent, there were few people his age with that kind of perseverance.
"First, we leave Star Dou Forest."
Jiang Lin looked up at the sky. The horizon was already paling like a fish's belly; without realizing it, they'd spent the entire night at it. "It's about time. I should go collect my startup funds."
He hoisted the Blood Fiend Divine Thunder Halberd onto his shoulder and started toward the edge of the forest. Behind him, the system's shop interface still hung in midair, the words Dog Talisman gleaming enticingly in the morning light.
Five hundred thousand points.
Jiang Lin made a note of the number in his mind.
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