"Damn system, I have an eight a.m. class!"
Three-year-old Zhao Ming had no idea how many times he had cursed the system that had brought him here.
The village where he lived was being slaughtered by two fallen soul masters, their bodies shrouded in bloodthirsty aura and reeking of a thick, foul stench.
Zhao Ming watched helplessly as his parents in this life and the villagers he saw every day fell one after another into pools of blood. All he could do was huddle in a corner, trembling, utterly powerless. He could only pray that the two fallen soul masters would not find him.
Just as Zhao Ming sank into despair, a four-man squad descended from the sky.
They were all angel soul masters. Working together seamlessly, the four Soul Ancestors slew the two fallen Soul Kings.
Afterward, the angel soul masters searched the village and found only two surviving children, Zhao Ming among them. They helped bury the villagers' bodies, then sent the two children to an orphanage in a nearby city.
Three years later, at the Spirit Hall in Vast Sea City, a group of little children stood in line, waiting to awaken their Martial Souls. Zhao Ming was among them.
Most of the children in the line looked nervous and uneasy, but Zhao Ming remained calm, because he had long known what his Martial Soul would be.
That began with Zhao Ming's transmigration.
Zhao Ming was not originally from this world. He was a transmigrator from Blue Star. In his previous life, he had been chosen by the system after saving a drowning child while acting bravely for a just cause, and it had taken him away from Blue Star.
The moment Zhao Ming was born in this life, he heard the system's notification: [Ding~ Congratulations, Host, for binding with this system. This system is known as the Path to Sainthood System. The Host has now been brought to the Primordial World, where the Host will receive this system's assistance...]
The system abruptly stopped halfway through speaking, followed by a frantic barrage of warnings and error messages.
[Ding~ Due to a coordinate calculation error, the Host has arrived in the world of Douluo Continent. This world's power system is too weak and requires no assistance from this system. The system has left the Host a gift pack. Have fun.]
After saying that, the damn system ran off, leaving behind only the so-called gift pack.
Zhao Ming cursed the damn system furiously in his heart before choosing to open the gift pack.
The gift pack contained five items: the Treasure-Dropping Coin (imitation), a portable Mustard Seed Space capable of storing living creatures, one of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Fiend Divine Abilities, Nine-Breath Qi Absorption, and two prize wheels that could be used after his Martial Souls awakened.
Once the gift pack was opened, the Treasure-Dropping Coin automatically transformed into Zhao Ming's Martial Soul. The Mustard Seed Space flew into his brow and merged into his Spiritual Sea. As a result, the newborn Zhao Ming opened up his own Spiritual Sea.
Meanwhile, Nine-Breath Qi Absorption was directly imprinted upon Zhao Ming's soul.
Nine-Breath Qi Absorption was the only breathing and qi-refining method among the Thirty-Six Heavenly Fiend Divine Abilities. Each cycle consisted of nine complete breaths, allowing its practitioner to absorb the pure qi of heaven and earth and expel the impure qi within the body. Over time, it could transform the practitioner from the inside out.
It took Zhao Ming three years after transmigrating to reach the beginner level of Nine-Breath Qi Absorption. That was only because the divine art had been directly imprinted on his soul, making it equivalent to Nine-Breath Qi Absorption operating on its own and guiding him through the entry stage.
Yet before he could even celebrate, he encountered the fallen soul masters. His parents in this life and the villagers of his village had all been slaughtered by evil soul masters. Had he not encountered Spirit Hall's Angel Legion, he likely would not have escaped misfortune either.
After being sent to the orphanage, Zhao Ming cultivated Nine-Breath Qi Absorption day and night without rest, because he had set himself a small goal: kill every fallen soul master in the world.
During cultivation, Zhao Ming discovered that besides the Treasure-Dropping Coin, he actually possessed another Martial Soul. This Martial Soul was a wooden rod, identical to his father's Martial Soul in this life.
In other words, if Zhao Ming had not received the Treasure-Dropping Coin from the system, his Martial Soul in this life would have been that wooden rod.
As Nine-Breath Qi Absorption continued to operate, Zhao Ming was shocked to discover that his wooden rod Martial Soul seemed to be slowly evolving.
Thus, three years passed. Under the transformation of Nine-Breath Qi Absorption, Zhao Ming's wooden rod Martial Soul underwent a complete metamorphosis. It changed from an ordinary wooden rod into a wooden whip, then evolved into an iron whip, and had now become a Steel Whip.
His Martial Soul had evolved three times in three years, and that was while it remained unawakened. It was enough to show just how terrifying Nine-Breath Qi Absorption was.
Now that it was time for his Martial Soul awakening, Zhao Ming had already determined that he would awaken Twin Martial Souls: the Treasure-Dropping Coin and the Steel Whip.
Even as an imitation, the Treasure-Dropping Coin would definitely grant him the talent of Innate Full Soul Power.
And even without the Treasure-Dropping Coin, three years of cultivating Nine-Breath Qi Absorption had evolved his wooden rod into a Steel Whip. The current Steel Whip was, at worst, a high-grade Martial Soul, so his Innate Soul Power would not be low either.
As for Innate Soul Power at level twenty, that was a blessing bestowed by the gods of this world. It was probably impossible.
The line moved forward bit by bit, and soon it was Zhao Ming's turn.
Zhao Ming stood within the hexagram formation. The deacon in charge of the awakening possessed a Water Snake Martial Soul, with two yellow Soul Rings beneath his feet. He extended a scaled hand before Zhao Ming and released Soul Power as he spoke. "Carefully feel the changes in your body!"
As golden light from the awakening stone flowed into his body, Zhao Ming felt as though he had been immersed in hot water. His entire body felt warm, and a current of heat appeared within him, coursing through his body before finally gathering in his right hand.
"Hold out your right hand," said the Water Snake Martial Soul deacon.
Zhao Ming obediently did as he was told, raising his right hand while clenching his left.
A completely black Steel Whip, about three feet long, appeared in Zhao Ming's right hand.
At first glance, the Steel Whip looked utterly ordinary, but it was actually incredibly heavy. Zhao Ming could tell that it weighed roughly three hundred jin.
If he remembered correctly, the Clear Sky Hammer weighed five hundred jin before any Soul Rings were attached. The Clear Sky Hammer was a top-tier tool Martial Soul, hailed as the number one tool Martial Soul in the world.
For his Steel Whip to start out at this weight, it should be considered quite good even among high-grade Martial Souls.
"Is this Martial Soul a mace? That's rare!" The Water Snake Martial Soul deacon looked at Zhao Ming's Martial Soul and said.
"Sir Deacon, my Martial Soul isn't a mace. It's a Steel Whip," Zhao Ming said.
"Steel Whip? Oh! Right, this Martial Soul does look more like an Iron Whip. I remember there's a soul master with an Iron Whip Martial Soul at the main Spirit Hall in Fasno. His Innate Soul Power was level five! Little one, hurry and test your Soul Power."
As he spoke, the Water Snake Martial Soul deacon handed a crystal to Zhao Ming. Zhao Ming placed his hand on the crystal, and a suction force came from within. Then the crystal ball was instantly filled with brilliant azure light.
The Water Snake Martial Soul deacon could not help crying out, "Heavens! Innate Full Soul Power! It's actually Innate Full Soul Power!"
Such a huge commotion naturally alerted the bishop of Vast Sea City's Spirit Hall. The middle-aged man, who looked to be around forty, hurried down from upstairs.
Before you continue