Thankfully, Tang San had finally managed to use an ordinary hammer to conceal the fact that he possessed twin Martial Souls.
"Next."
Su Yuntao's voice brought him back to reality.
Su Mo took a deep breath.
Everything depended on this one moment.
Golden light surged forth. He could feel something awakening inside him.
An aura utterly out of place in this world slowly emerged.
A phantom took shape behind him.
Everyone around them held their breath.
It was a Martial Soul unlike anyone else's, one that had never appeared before.
It was an old man!
The old man wore an ancient, flowing robe and a Confucian cap. His face was kindly, and his eyes brimmed with wisdom.
He stood quietly behind Su Mo, hands tucked into his sleeves.
He exuded no pressure and gave off no Soul Power fluctuations, yet somehow he made people feel utterly at ease.
For a moment, the wooden hut fell silent. Then a flurry of discussion broke out.
"What kind of Martial Soul is that? I've never seen one before."
"A Beast Martial Soul? But who ever heard of an old man being a Martial Soul? Still, it doesn't look like a Body Martial Soul either."
"A Martial Soul's strength is closely tied to its type. An old-man Martial Soul like that won't be strong, even if it isn't a Trash Martial Soul."
Tang San glanced at Su Mo's Martial Soul, then looked elsewhere, paying it no further attention.
Even Su Yuntao, who had seen plenty, wasn't optimistic about this Martial Soul. He had seen phantom-type Martial Souls like it before, and their strength usually depended on the strength of the phantom itself. But in his estimation, this old man wasn't even a Soul Master!
Old Jack couldn't help shaking his head, either. Su Mo had it even harder than Tang San. If he could, he truly wanted to give Su Mo the Work-Study Student slot.
But both boys were children he had watched grow up. He couldn't let personal feelings make him break the rules.
Of everyone there, only Su Mo recognized the phantom old man.
He was none other than the supreme sage of his previous life, the teacher of all generations, the peerless sage of letters—Confucius!
Unfortunately, in the Douluo World, where martial might was supreme and strength came first, those titles were practically useless.
It was more or less a Trash Martial Soul.
Though disappointed, Su Mo didn't lose heart. As long as he had Soul Power, he still had a chance to become a Soul Master.
Besides, in his previous life, he had worshipped at the statue of Confucius with his old principal. He could just about count himself as half a student.
He took a deep breath, composed himself, and bowed solemnly with cupped hands.
"Your student, Su Mo, pays his respects to Master."
This bow was for the past he had left behind, for the supreme sage who had shaped his inner world.
The instant he bent at the waist—
"Why is there a trace of my bloodline in this world as well?"
The voice didn't enter through his ears. It exploded directly in the depths of his soul!
Su Mo's vision blurred. The scene of the shrine around him receded like a rising tide.
He found himself standing above the clouds, with a churning sea of clouds beneath his feet and a vast starry sky overhead.
Before him, the originally gentle statue of Confucius was undergoing an earth-shaking transformation.
The statue swelled at a visible speed, becoming a giant a hundred feet tall!
The ancient robe became a radiant golden sage's robe. His kindly face turned majestic, and his once-gentle eyes slowly opened. Stars seemed to be born and die within them, civilizations to rise and fall.
The sage looked down upon him. His gaze pierced flesh and blood to see into the depths of his soul, laying bare Su Mo's past, present, and future.
"Interesting."
The sage's voice rumbled. Every word made Su Mo's soul tremble.
"You were willing to give yourself up to save another. That is benevolence."
Su Mo's mind flashed to the moment he had shielded Lin Xiaowu with his body as they fell.
"In your previous life, you followed your heart and did what you believed was right. That is righteousness."
He saw himself returning to teach at his old school, earning a meager salary yet doing everything he could to send each child on to university.
"You found yourself in another world, yet still bowed upon seeing my portrait. That is propriety."
He saw himself respecting his elders and cherishing his teachers.
"At the age of six, you already knew how to read and write. You could write books to earn money and teach others. That is wisdom."
He saw the vast sea of books in his previous life's library, line after line of ink beneath his pen in this life, and the children's bright eyes as they listened to his stories.
"At the age of six, you already understood how to earn money to save your mother. That is filial piety."
He saw himself staying up late copying books, leading Big Black Ox through the streets and alleys to rent them out, and his mother smiling gently from the wheelchair he had made himself.
"Faced with a sea of flames, you still charged in. That is courage."
He saw the library blaze sky-high, and himself forcing his way into the fire through the thick smoke to save people.
A hint of satisfaction passed through the sage's eyes.
"Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, filial piety, and courage—you possess them all!"
"Not bad. I like you!"
The unexpectedly down-to-earth choice of words left Su Mo momentarily stunned, but the change that followed gave him no time to think.
"Since my blood flows through your veins, I shall bestow upon you my supreme divine ability—the Saintly Body of Virtue."
"I hope you will spread my teachings and the Way of virtue throughout this world, and enlighten all under heaven."
As the sage's final word fell, the hundred-foot giant transformed into endless holy light and surged into Su Mo's body!
BOOM!
In the shrine of the real world, everyone witnessed a wondrous sight: the once-gentle phantom of the old man suddenly erupted in dazzling golden light, so brilliant it was hard to look at!
Amid the radiance, the phantom became a golden torrent that poured wildly into Su Mo's small body.
"Ugh!" Su Mo let out a pained groan.
His body began to change violently in the golden light. His bones cracked like rolling thunder! His muscles swelled, bulging like rising mountains!
The body of the six-year-old child rapidly expanded at a terrifying speed, his clothes bursting into shreds in an instant.
He shot upward.
One and a half meters, one point eight, two meters, two point two!
As the golden light slowly faded, the shrine fell deathly silent.
Su Yuntao instinctively stepped back and tilted his head upward, his pupils contracting violently.
He stood one point eight meters tall and was considered a strapping man even in Notting City.
But now, his line of sight only reached the other man's chest.
What kind of body was that?
Two point two meters tall, with shoulders nearly as broad as the shrine's doorway. Every muscle was like steel tempered by a thousand hammer blows, sharply defined yet brimming with explosive power. A faint golden sheen shimmered beneath his skin.
But most shocking of all was the broad, door-panel-like back, where bulging muscles had naturally formed an ancient seal-script character.
"Virtue"!
Yet there was not a trace of scholarly softness in that character. It was like a battle standard, a brand, a declaration left behind by some primeval beast—filled with raw, overwhelming power.
And atop that body, terrifying in its sheer size, was a face.
The face of a six-year-old child.
Round cheeks, clear, bright eyes, and lips puckered slightly from pain and shock.
The face and the enormous muscular body beneath it formed an absurd contrast that seemed to tear the eye apart.
"Waa... waaah!" One child finally couldn't hold back and burst into terrified tears.
The wail was like a fuse being lit. The children screamed and rushed for the exit, plunging the shrine into chaos.
Su Yuntao's Adam's apple bobbed. He stared fixedly at that child's face, his voice so hoarse it hardly sounded like his own. "Old Jack... c-could you say that again? How old is Su Mo?"
Old Jack was stunned too. He stammered, trembling, "S-six, sir. Su Mo just turned six this year..."
"Six?" Su Yuntao pointed at the wall of muscle, his voice shooting up an octave. "Does that look like a six-year-old to you?!"