"System, you said I'd shoot straight to level 99 Limit Douluo if I took on one disciple?"
"Ding! That's right, Host. As long as your disciple meets the system's requirements, you'll immediately gain the power of a level 99 Limit Titled Douluo."
"Guaranteed?"
"Guaranteed, Host!"
"If it isn't, I'll find a watermelon and smash myself to death on it right here. Then you can grow old alone as a system!"
"Tell me the requirements."
"Ding! The system's criteria for accepting a disciple:
One: the potential to become a god.
Two: top-tier talent.
Three: stunning looks."
"Damn it! You know my Martial Soul is a wooden stick and I was born with no Soul Power, right? You want me to take a top-tier genius like that as my disciple? Was that deliberate or an accident?"
"Ding! Host, I'm only the system's initial guiding intelligence. I'll disappear once you accept a disciple, and I can't interfere with the system's rules. So it was deliberately accidental."
"You have ten days left to find a disciple. If you fail, you'll be classified as a complete shit-tier waste. The system will abandon you and seek another host. Please keep trying!"
"Fuck, ********, ****, ****, *****..."
"Please mind your language, Host..."
Yang Xing reached the outskirts of Suotuo City after sleeping under the stars and eating in the wind. He gazed at its high walls and unfamiliar architecture, an unknown leaf clenched between his teeth. He kept mumbling barely intelligible, obscenity-laden "polite language" at the system, his eyes slowly going unfocused.
Looking back, his legendary life had begun one night eighteen years ago.
He vaguely remembered battling eighteen fierce foes alone. He had fought bloodily for five and a half hours, wielding his raging dragon against their phoenixes, and had barely emerged victorious.
But there had been too many foes and their assault too fierce. Though he had won, he had died of exhaustion.
When he next woke, he found himself in the world of Douluo Continent.
Yang Xing had read the Douluo Continent novel. He had expected the kind of life that took off like a calf on a rocket—straight to the heavens.
But at six years old, heaven had proved jealous of his gifts. His dreams sank like a broken spear into the sand: he awakened only a tiny wooden stick as his Martial Soul, with zero Soul Power.
He had been furious. Even if he was so outstanding that heaven had grown jealous and rigged the result, how could his Martial Soul be nothing but a tiny wooden stick?
Did that suit his style?
No. It did not!
It should at least have been a big wooden stick, a thick wooden stick, or a fire poker!
That tiny wooden stick was an insult too far!
He had spent the next two and a half years crushed.
Yet no matter how hard heaven tried to hide his brilliance, it could only cover the surface. It could never grind away the dazzling gold beneath.
Then the system arrived!
When it introduced itself, it boasted enough to shake heaven and earth. All he had to do was take one disciple.
No ninety-nine years of cultivation!
No eighty-eight years of cultivation!
No fighting his way through life and death!
He could walk away painlessly with the complete package of a level 99 Titled Douluo's cultivation and equipment.
And so began Yang Xing's next ten years of disciple hunting—just a touch of wind and frost.
Then his parents and the village aunties successfully drove him out of the village, and out of the city.
Yang Xing still remembered how hard Aunt Seven's number 365 prospective disciple—already two months along in her belly—had found it to part with him.
Aunt Seven and Uncle Seven had conveyed it all through the four lips they sent flying at him.
So, carrying his parents' reluctance to see him go, his village's hopes, and his only worldly possession besides ten Copper Soul Coins—a map—he walked for half a month. Over mountains and through valleys, sleeping under the stars and eating in the wind, he made it to the outskirts of Suotuo City.
He had not forgotten his grand ambition to find a disciple along the way.
Unfortunately, everyone he met was an uneducated country bumpkin. None recognized a dragon stranded in the shallows, and all were too shortsighted to accept him.
He did not blame them. He only regretted that they had lost what might have been the greatest opportunity of their lives.
Still, some of those who had turned him down had shown a little vision and made a modest investment in him.
Yang Xing never forgot a kindness. Once he made it, he would repay them.
Ten days remained before the system left him and declared him a shit-tier waste.
Yang Xing had never been one to accept his fate.
His wandering gaze sharpened. He spat out the chewed leaf, rose with a swagger, thrust out his chest, and strode toward Suotuo City's gates.
"Damn it! Take a gamble and turn a bicycle into a motorbike! Worst case, I get reincarnated again!"
Three days later, a plain but well-kept carriage stopped outside Suotuo City's gates.
A young woman in a simple white dress soon stepped down.
Her neat hair ended at her ears, and she stood a little over five feet three. The skin visible at her neck was exceptionally fair and smooth.
After politely paying the fare, the young woman strolled into Suotuo City.
As soon as she entered, the unfamiliar architecture and dizzying array of shops and stalls caught her eye. Before long, her hands were full of bags and parcels.
She was strikingly beautiful. As she skipped through the bustling streets, she looked like a butterfly flitting among flowers, drawing eyes wherever she went.
She was clearly used to being the center of attention and thought nothing of it.
Soon, though, a fortune-telling stall fifty meters from Suotuo City's south gate caught her eye. She had never seen one like it before.
About three minutes earlier, she had begun to lose interest in exploring Suotuo City. As Ning Rongrong, the young lady of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, what hadn't she seen? She had only been intrigued by the unfamiliar local sights because she had never visited this part of the country.
Once she had seen enough, it all felt much the same. She had come to this small city in the Balak Kingdom, a vassal state of the Heaven Dou Empire, to enroll at Shrek Academy, which had caught her interest. After asking for directions, she had been surprised to learn that the academy stood outside Suotuo City. She had headed for the south gate to go and register.
Then she heard two voices suddenly rise above the street noise.
"Wow! Grandmaster! Grandmaster! Your calculations are miraculous! Three months ago, you said my position was wrong and that was why my wife couldn't get pregnant. I went home and followed your instructions, and it worked on the first try! She's pregnant now! Thank you so much! But my wife has always been frail. I want her to become your disciple and serve you for the rest of her life. All I ask is that you ensure my son is born safely!"
"You're very thoughtful, sir. But your wife's pregnancy was already written in your fate. This humble Daoist merely used a small trick to predict the position you'd use that night and told you ahead of time. There's no need to bow so deeply. Besides, I only take disciples with whom I share a destined bond. Just leave a modest payment and be on your way."
"No, Grandmaster! If you won't take my wife as your disciple, I won't be able to rest easy! You have to—"
"Pfft—"
Before you continue