A Worthless Martial Soul? From Now On, Please Call Me Miss Ning

Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

In a servants' courtyard, a ten-year-old boy was playing a paulownia zither.

The melody flowed like drifting clouds and running water, tugging at the heartstrings.

The music shut out the distant shouts and hum of Soul Power collisions from the Martial Arts Arena, as well as the contemptuous gazes that deliberately or inadvertently swept over the courtyard wall.

Four years had been enough to deeply brand the identity of "feeble Innate Soul Power, martial soul unable to manifest" into the minds of every disciple of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Suddenly, a flurry of light yet hurried footsteps came from outside the courtyard gate.

The melody did not falter.

That charming figure in goose-yellow finally appeared at the low courtyard entrance.

Ning Rongrong stood there, her little face drawn tight. Her eyes, usually so bright and lively, were now lowered.

The air froze.

Even the light of the setting sun seemed to grow heavier at that moment.

Xiao Yin finally set down the wooden zither in his hands.

He raised his head, his lips curving into the same smile he had worn four years ago when he coaxed her from tears to laughter.

"Rongrong? What brings you here today? Aren't you afraid Uncle Ning will say you're slacking off again?"

Ning Rongrong's body trembled almost imperceptibly.

"I... I..." Ning Rongrong's voice was as soft as a mosquito's hum.

"Father... Grandpa Sword... and Grandpa Bone..." Every title felt especially heavy as she struggled to force it out.

The air between them congealed.

"They said..." Ning Rongrong's voice shook badly. "They said... you... you can't help me... You'll never... never be able to help me..."

Her voice grew softer and softer. "A Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda soul master... needs... powerful companions... people who can protect me... not..."

She ultimately could not say that final word, the "worthless trash" that had hung over Xiao Yin's head every moment of every day.

"They said... we can't be like we used to be anymore..." she choked out, finally raising her head.

A trace of distance flashed through her eyes, something Xiao Yin had never seen before.

"Xiao Yin... from now on, please call me... Miss Ning."

Those final three words were like three icy steel nails, viciously driven into the air.

Dead silence. Even the wind seemed to stop moving.

The smile on Xiao Yin's face was like a mask that had frozen in the wind for far too long.

He took a deep breath. Then the curve of his lips slowly lifted again.

"Alright."

His voice was astonishingly steady, even carrying a hint of relief, as though he had merely agreed to something trivial.

That overly calm reaction made Ning Rongrong, who had been drowning in overwhelming grievance, freeze. She even forgot to cry as she stared at him blankly.

Xiao Yin did not look at her again.

He turned around, picked up the paulownia zither that had accompanied him for four years, and walked toward the low courtyard gate.

The setting sun stretched his thin shadow longer and longer across the uneven ground, like a silent yet resolute farewell.

He did not look back.

Ning Rongrong stood there in a daze.

The blood-red sunset dyed the glazed tiles of the distant main hall with a bleak, vivid scarlet.

On a tall pavilion with an excellent view, three figures stood silently, taking in the scene at the servants' courtyard below.

"Four years." Ning Fengzhi's voice was soft, carrying the composed authority of a man long accustomed to high status. "There shouldn't always be such a... shadow around Rongrong."

He paused. That harsh word never left his mouth, but its weight already pressed down upon the air.

Sword Douluo Chen Xin stood straight as the Seven Kill Sword behind him, silently at Sect Master Ning Fengzhi's side, his gaze dark as he looked toward that lonely servants' courtyard.

"Ning Fengzhi is right," Bone Douluo Gu Rong said, his voice rasping like sandpaper, carrying its usual low hoarseness.

"The little princess's companion should be an outstanding young man like Feng Xiaotian, someone who can keep her safe and be worthy of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's glory.

"A... worthless trash who can't even manifest his martial soul?"

A faint scoff escaped through his nose, as though he were tossing aside a speck of insignificant dust.

"Sooner or later, he'll become a source of trouble. Cutting things off now is good for everyone."

Cold rain poured down like the Milky Way spilling from the heavens, smashing viciously against the icy stone steps at the mountain gate of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and sending water spraying everywhere.

Hugging his only possession—the paulownia zither—Xiao Yin stepped through the gates of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, gates that symbolized both glory and boundaries.

Four years had passed since the martial soul awakening ceremony when he was six, when that crystal ball had only glimmered with a light so faint it was nearly negligible.

Yet the "black hole" he had sensed within himself had remained completely hidden from the outside world. Thus, he had been branded as worthless trash.

Talent incapable of manifesting even a martial soul, coupled with Soul Power that had remained at level one for four years without budging, became the most helpless proof of his identity as worthless trash.

"Fine. If this place won't keep me, another place will," Xiao Yin muttered.

"I'd rather beg for food in Nuoding City than stay here and put up with people's looks!"

He licked his cracked lips, a trace of the unwillingness and ruthlessness of a transmigrator flashing in his eyes.

"What if... I run into some fortuitous encounter? Thirty years east of the river... pfft, I don't need thirty years. Today's humiliation will be repaid a hundredfold someday!"

However, ideals were full and beautiful, while reality... left his chest stuck to his back from hunger.

Three days later, in a dead-end alley in Nuoding City.

"Whew... this young master is exhausted..."

Xiao Yin dropped onto the ground, his back pressed tightly against the cold, damp wall. He felt as if his soul were about to float out through his mouth.

Staring at the overcast sky, Xiao Yin's mind grew hazy.

Ten years ago, Xiao Yin, then an intern music teacher, had just gotten off work when an AE86 overtaking on a curve sent him to this bizarre and fantastical world of Douluo Continent.

He had even become an orphan adopted by the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

When he was six, relying on the novel stories from his past-life memories and his fairly pleasant zither skills, he had become the closest companion of Ning Rongrong, the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

But now...

This was, after all, a world where strength spoke.

Without power, even the affection between childhood sweethearts was nothing more than dust that those in power could wipe away at any time.

Thinking of Ning Fengzhi's lofty indifference, Bone Douluo's gaze that regarded him as less than grass, and Ning Rongrong's final icy words, "Miss Ning"...

"Why?! Other transmigrators are either geniuses or have cheats!

"But me! I'm worthless trash who can't even manifest a martial soul..."

A sense of powerlessness that had been bottled up for far too long surged fiercely into his heart.

"If there's another life, I hope..."

Just then—

[ Ding! ]

A cold mechanical voice rang out in his mind without warning, like thunder striking from clear ground!

[Detected that the host's wish power has met the standard... Conditions for binding fulfilled...]

['Sentient Wish System' (Trial Version), activating! Binding in progress...]

[Ding! Binding successful! The Novice Gift Pack (including novice mission) has been issued. Please collect it!]

Xiao Yin: "???"

Auditory hallucinations? Had hunger made him delusional?

Before he could sort it out, that icy electronic voice rang out again:

[Novice mission issued!]

[Mission source: Plane No. [9527] from another world, a miserable wage slave named Ah Xing who had suffered long-term PUA from a 'hypocritical authority.']

[Wish core (heart-wrenching version): Tear off that hypocrite's mask! Slap the bastard! Knock some sense into him! Just one slap will do!!!]

[Mission adaptation (Douluo Continent exclusive version): Slap Nuoding Academy's 'theoretical expert' Yu Xiaogang! Requirement: The contact must be loud (≥80 decibels)!]

[Mission time limit: 2 hours.]

[Mission reward: Martial soul manifestation; Soul Power raised to level 20 (including the host's devoured Soul Power); Wish Value +10; Novice Lucky Gift Pack ×1.]

[Failure penalty: System unbinding (permanent blacklist), and a random removal of 50% of the host's length (including but not limited to height, limbs, and... special parts).]

Xiao Yin: "..."

There was too much information. His CPU was practically burning out.

A system? A cheat?

Slap? Yu Xiaogang? Hypocrite?

My Soul Power was devoured?

No wonder every trace of Soul Power I cultivated over the years vanished as soon as it appeared. It had been devoured?!

Xiao Yin fumed for a moment, then lowered his head to look at his thin, small body. His level one Soul Power was so weak he could not even catch a chicken!

Then he looked at the failure penalty... Who would dare gamble on that?

What if it was down there...

"Damn it!"

Xiao Yin slammed his fist against the ground, splashing mud all over his face. "I'm dead either way! I'm doing it!

"Yu Xiaogang, right?

"'Theoretical expert,' right?

"Not like you're anything good anyway!

"System, I'll take this job!

"Isn't it just a slap across the face?

"I'll slap the bastard!"