Douluo Continent, outskirts of Xingluo City.
Starlight dotted the silver moon, and the land lay quiet beneath its misty glow. All was still.
What a beautiful night. What a beautiful moon.
On a grassy hillside, a tiny figure knelt helplessly, as though praying to the starry sky.
He was a little boy in ragged clothes, with short black hair and a wan, sallow face. His sapphire-blue eyes were dull and lifeless.
He gazed up at the beautiful night sky, tears brimming in his eyes.
It was hard to believe that a five-year-old child could feel something like wanting to die.
Just then, a spatial doorway was silently torn open, and a young man stepped out.
He was exceptionally handsome, with pale-blue hair falling loosely down his back. An indescribable, otherworldly air surrounded him, and his clear gaze seemed to reflect the entire cosmos.
But the most striking feature was the mysterious, diamond-bright vertical eye on his forehead. It was riddled with cracks, though, and looked ready to shatter.
"..."
His eyes, too, had grown dim. He could hardly bring himself to look at the child. He knew him better than anyone: the protagonist of this era, and the person he himself had once been.
The Child of the Plane in this era—the last hope of Douluo Continent, almost without question.
[Huo Yuhao].
No. Right now, his name was still Dai Yuhao, and he was at the lowest point of his life.
This is when he's five. There's still time!
The God of Emotion casually brushed a hand over his face. His handsome features vanished, replaced by the ordinary face of a middle-aged man.
He walked over to Huo Yuhao, ignoring the boy's wary, puzzled gaze, and gave him a broad smile.
"Hello, little guy. My name is... Baili Du."
One year later, in the outskirts of Xingluo City, Douluo Continent.
"Come on, little Yuhao. Put your hand on it, and we'll begin your Martial Soul Awakening ceremony."
The speaker was a middle-aged man of about thirty, with short black hair and unremarkable features. Only his eyes stood out, bright as the sun.
Standing in front of him was a six-year-old boy dressed in white. It wasn't fancy clothing, but it was clean.
It was little Huo Yuhao.
A year had passed, and the boy who had once gone hungry and cold had changed tremendously. His small face was no longer wan and sallow; it was delicate and refined, so much so that you might not realize he was a boy unless you looked closely. His skin had the fair complexion of a child his age, and he had grown quite a bit taller. Compared to a year ago, he was like a different person.
After the Spirit Hall was destroyed ten thousand years ago by the "fair and impartial," "pure and unsullied" Buddha, Tang San, who was both Sea God and Asura God, the three original kingdoms of Douluo Continent never carried on its welfare program. In this messed-up era, awakening a Martial Soul cost money—and not a small amount, either. Ten Gold Soul Coins.
Ten thousand years later, the Spirit Pagoda, founded by Huo Yuhao, took up the Spirit Hall's mantle and provided free Martial Soul Awakenings to ordinary people on a wide scale.
Twenty thousand years later, the level of life energy and technology on Douluo Planet had advanced so far that awakening a Martial Soul was a trivial matter. If you had a little money, you could buy an instrument and do it yourself at home.
By comparison, Huo Yuhao's era really was a mess. And as for why things were so bad, well, that was a question for a certain Tang.
Of course, there was another way. The powerful families and sects of Douluo Continent held their own Martial Soul Awakening ceremonies for their members.
For Huo Yuhao and his mother, the only advantage of living in the Duke's Mansion was that they could take advantage of a powerful clan's welfare and get his Martial Soul Awakening for free.
But in Baili Du's memory, after he had awakened his Spirit Eye Martial Soul at age six, he and his mother had been squeezed for money by Dai Hao's good wife, who had come up with all sorts of excuses to force them to pay the ten Gold Soul Coins for the awakening.
Ten Gold Soul Coins went a long way in that era. In fact, a big reason Huo Yuhao's childhood had been so miserable was that he and his mother had to do all kinds of hard labor to earn money and pay off that debt.
But fortunately, he had returned. His mother and his younger self would not have to pay anything this time.
Little Yuhao obediently nodded and gently placed his small hand on the crystal ball.
Then he felt the Soul Power inside him surge toward it, as if it had found a doorway.
A blinding white light burst forth. Then, with a sharp crack, the crystal ball suddenly exploded!
Baili Du's eyes lit up.
Clearly, this wasn't the tenth level of Innate Full Soul Power.
It was the twentieth level—innate divine talent!
Golden light shone in those big blue eyes. As expected, it was still Huo Yuhao's iconic Spirit Eye.
And Baili Du could see it clearly: deep in Huo Yuhao's eyes, profound nine-colored ripples were stirring. They were probably connected to the power of emotion.
But what if... that wasn't all?
Little Yuhao suddenly raised his head and let out a roar.
"...Ah!"
His small body slowly grew taller and more slender, and deep-blue scales emerged across his skin. The features and aura of a human gradually disappeared, replaced by those of a dragon.
"Roar!"
The dragon's cry was not loud, but it carried an indescribable force. The clear sky instantly darkened, as if the sun had been swallowed.
Then his Martial Soul appeared.
A deep-blue radiance spread out from little Huo Yuhao's body. His figure vanished within its glow, and the entire courtyard seemed to transform into a watery land. Ripples gently crossed the surface. Though it was an illusion, it was overwhelmingly lifelike.
A huge shape burst from the phantom waters with a thunderous splash.
Its dragon's head was gentle in outline, yet majestic, crowned with four ornate horns. Faint, deep-purple lightning coiled around them. Its eyes were icy-blue, vertical pupils seemingly carved from permafrost, its gaze cold and keen. Its white fangs gleamed, and when its jaws closed, pale mist laced with frost slipped from between them.
Its slender body stretched a full hundred meters. As it twisted, clawed hind legs emerged, and its whip-like, pointed tail swept through a wide arc. Its powerful body shimmered with a brilliant, deep-blue glaze. From head to back to tail, scales gleaming with blue-glass luster stood raised, while four pairs of blue Dragon Wings—eight in all—spread out at evenly spaced intervals.
It was impossible to tell whether it was a Western or Eastern dragon. It was entirely unlike the native dragons of the Douluo Plane, yet its presence was solemn and magnificent.
The dragon opened its jaws wide and let out a thunderous roar. Even the air grew damp, as though lightning serpents were dancing within it and a storm would break at any moment.
Everyone knew that when famous emperors and generals were born, all manner of celestial signs appeared: red light filling their homes, dragons and phoenixes flying out, and the like. The most famous example was His Majesty Li Erfeng, the strongest carbon-based life-form of the seventh century.
The same held true on Douluo Continent. If a Martial Soul could change the weather after awakening, it naturally meant that it was incredibly powerful.
Baili Du narrowed his eyes and watched Huo Yuhao awaken with keen interest, nodding in satisfaction.
Ultimate Water and Ultimate Lightning, plus... a very good combination. Once he fused with Brother Sky Dream, he'd be able to turn water into ice.
His essence blood and the Dragon God Marrow hadn't gone to waste. They'd directly produced Twin Martial Souls.
And both were divine-grade Martial Souls!
Of course. They were the essence blood of two God Kings, after all. It would've been strange if they hadn't produced a new Martial Soul.
Not a trace of the White Tiger Bloodline remained in Huo Yuhao. In its place was another trait: a dragon!
And not just any dragon. Its quality was no lower than that of the Nine Great Dragon Kings. Its rank was already very close to that of the Golden Dragon King or Silver Dragon King.
Of course, he could have fashioned a divine-grade Martial Soul for Huo Yuhao—something like the God of Emotion, for example. But considering the fated bond between Huo Yuhao and Qiu'er, he had used his own source bloodline and a little Dragon God Marrow to completely replace little Yuhao's original bloodline, while also washing and refining his body.
Since they were the same person to begin with, their bloodlines had fused with effortless smoothness. As for that drop of Dragon God Marrow... Thinking of it, Baili Du couldn't help wearing a sly, crafty smile.
He wondered what expression that certain second-generation Dragon God, who had also transmigrated into this era, would make if he saw his "uncle-in-law" suddenly acquire the Dragon God Bloodline.
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