A nameless little village under Shrek City.
In front of an earthen house, a haggard-looking woman crouched on the ground, both hands resting on the shoulders of the boy before her.
Her gaze was complicated.
"Xiao An," the woman said, her voice a little hoarse. "You're six years old. Today... it's time to awaken your Martial Soul."
Hearing his mother Lin Xiu's words, Gu An said nothing.
He sighed inwardly.
He had been born into the world of Douluo II, and from the start, he'd gotten the same treatment as Great Buddha Tang: his parents were hunted down.
The only difference was that the pursuers were from Shrek Academy instead of Spirit Hall.
The reason was simple.
Xuanzi thought his parents' Martial Souls were too wicked and wanted to enact justice on Heaven's behalf.
He came charging in, shouting something about "evil begetting evil."
The reason was simple: Xuanzi said his parents' Martial Souls were too wicked, and that the descendants of Evil Soul Masters were bound to become Evil Soul Masters too, so they had to be snuffed out in the cradle.
What a high-minded excuse.
Gu An lowered his lashes, a trace of coldness flashing in his eyes.
He knew better than anyone what had really happened.
His father had obtained something Xuanzi wanted. Xuanzi had also offered to recruit him, but his father had refused.
That was all.
After being refused, Xuanzi flew into a rage, slapped the label of Evil Soul Master on them, declared that evil begot evil, and hunted them to the ends of the earth.
They had no powerful connections. They were just children raised by two commoner families, who had saved Gold Soul Coins for generations just to scrape together enough to pay for a Martial Soul awakening.
By sheer luck, their Martial Souls mutated, and they became Soul Masters. They had thought it was the beginning of their families' rise.
Instead, both families were slaughtered to the last.
After the massacre, Xuanzi pinned the blame on Gu An's parents, claiming they had awakened Evil Martial Souls, gone berserk, and killed their own families.
His father had burned his very source, fighting with everything he had to give mother and son a chance to escape.
His mother had also been badly injured by a single strike from Xuanzi. The damage had reached her very foundation, and she still hadn't recovered. She could only conceal their identities and hide in this nameless little village under Shrek City.
Perhaps Xuanzi thought that anyone who took that blow from him couldn't possibly survive, which was why he hadn't sent anyone to keep searching.
Gu An clenched his fists.
Having lived through all this himself, he knew full well that the thing his father had obtained probably wasn't anything particularly important.
Xuanzi had simply felt that his pride had been wounded.
He was a Sea God Pavilion Elder of the mighty Shrek Academy. He had personally asked for something, and someone had actually dared to refuse him.
Then that person had to die.
Gu An pressed down the emotions surging within him, and his gaze settled back into calm.
This was the backyard of Great Buddha Tang's backyard—not yet wholly claimed by him—and it was so close to Shrek City.
The most dangerous place was the safest place.
He hoped he could grow strong here.
Mother Gu went to the crude wooden table and laid out the formation for the Martial Soul awakening.
If she hadn't prepared it before Gu An was born, she wouldn't have been able to awaken his Martial Soul without an Awakening Stone, not with her current strength.
She turned to look at Gu An. Her expression was complicated, and her lips moved. Only after a long while did she speak, her voice hoarse.
"Xiao An, your mother hopes you'll awaken a powerful Martial Soul, but she also hopes you'll awaken an ordinary one."
"The first... would let you avenge your father and kill those hypocrites from Shrek Academy."
Her fingers trembled slightly, her nails digging into her palms.
"The second would let you stay with your mother in this little village and live out your life in peace."
Gu An raised his eyes and looked at his mother.
Her eyes were bloodshot, and her lids were red, but she didn't cry. She had shed all her tears already.
He didn't speak, only gave a slight nod.
Mother Gu suppressed her emotions and released her Soul Power, which had fallen from over sixty levels as a Soul Emperor to just thirty.
A hexagram formation lit up beneath Gu An's feet, enveloping him.
Gu An closed his eyes.
The simplest way to defy fate on the Douluo Continent was through a Martial Soul Mutation.
With one mutation, a barnyard fowl could become a phoenix, and a Trash Martial Soul could become a top-tier Martial Soul.
The light grew brighter and brighter.
Just then, an unremarkable black sphere in the corner suddenly stirred.
It shot silently toward Gu An and merged into him the instant it touched his body.
No one noticed what had happened.
Gu An felt a buzz ring through his mind.
A weak female voice spoke inside his head.
"An outsider?"
Gu An's pupils contracted sharply.
"Only you have a chance to stop Tang San, who's also an outsider."
The woman's voice was extremely weak. Gu An feared she might croak before she could finish speaking.
Before Gu An could ask anything, the voice continued, speaking rapidly as if she knew she didn't have much time.
She said she was the Plane Consciousness of the Douluo Continent.
But not the Douluo Continent of this world. She was from the Douluo Continent in Douluo III: Legend of the Dragon King.
The Abyssal Plane had moved too quickly, and the Douluo Continent hadn't had time to gather the strength to fight back.
She had found a way to escape Tang Hao, who had been suppressing her. Fortunately, she had held something back at the time and hadn't been completely devoured. She had remained dormant ever since.
Just as Gu An began awakening his Martial Soul, she sensed the fluctuations of an outsider's soul within him and entered his body of her own accord.
Gu An was stunned.
His heart thumped wildly, the pounding loud enough to shake his eardrums.
It took him several seconds to absorb everything she'd just told him.
"What can you give me?"
Gu An had already weighed the pros and cons in his mind.
His hatred was real, and so was his desire to grow stronger.
If this Plane Consciousness could give him the means to become stronger, then it was worth it.
If not, they would have to talk.
The Plane Consciousness's voice weakened further.
"Everyone in this world is still alive, though its World Origin has been severely damaged. You can choose one of them to be your bodyguard."
"At the same time, I can give you two Martial Souls."
"Check things out for yourself next. I'll hand the permissions over to you."
"Don't worry. I've recognized you as my master. We're in this together, so I won't harm you."
"I'm about to fall into a deep sleep. Only the World Origin of this world can repair me."
"This is very important for you and will greatly benefit your future."
Her voice paused, and she spoke her final words with an almost solemn air.
"There may even be a chance to make this Douluo Planet a world that rivals the Divine Realm."
With that, her voice faded completely.
Gu An stood where he was. The hexagram formation still revolved beneath his feet, and golden light continued to coil around him.
But he could no longer spare a thought for the awakening taking place around him.
He didn't fully believe what she'd said.
Gu An silently repeated her words in his mind and turned his awareness inward.
The next moment, his breath caught.
He could really sense it.
The Douluo Planet inside him, the whole planet's outline, was crystal clear. Mountains and rivers, continents and oceans—all appeared within his consciousness.
And it was entirely under his control.
Only, most of its regions were gray and white, like a faded painting, drained of life.
They lacked World Origin.
Gu An slowly let out a breath, but his heart was beating faster and faster.
He believed some of it now.
At the very least, a bodyguard and a more powerful Martial Soul were exactly what he needed most right now.
Whatever else the Plane Consciousness hadn't told him, he would take the benefits right in front of him first.
His awareness settled on the options given to him by Douluo Planet.
Since he was in the middle of awakening his Martial Soul, the first thing he looked at was the list of Martial Souls he could replace it with.
The moment the list unfolded in his consciousness, Gu An's eyelid twitched.
It included nearly every Martial Soul with a name in Douluo I, Douluo II, and Douluo III.
At the top were the Martial Souls belonging to the members of Shrek's Seven Devils.
Gu An's gaze swept upward and landed on the first entry.
The Martial Soul that appeared surprised him.