The Boy's Origins

Yuwen Tuo lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling as he drifted into his memories.

He was not from this world. He was a transmigrator—and one who had transmigrated twice.

Both times, however, he had been terribly unlucky.

Before his first transmigration, he had merely been an orphan. At the orphanage, everyone chose their names from the dictionary. He had flipped to a random page, closed his eyes, and pointed at a character. It happened to be Tuo, so everyone called him Xiao Tuo.

His grades had been decent enough to get him into a good university. He had supported himself through part-time work and completed his studies, then managed to land a respectable supervisor-level job. He rented an apartment, worked hard, and saved money. Back then, his greatest wish had been simple: once he had saved enough, he would buy a home of his own and build a family.

Later, after earning a little money, his wishes kept growing—buying a car, getting married, having children.

One of his neighbor friends had always mocked him for it, asking just how many wishes he had. He was far too greedy.

Life had been going fairly well, but then one weekend, while he was resting in his room, a massive explosion suddenly erupted in the apartment across the hall. It seemed a computer had exploded, but the blast was inexplicably powerful, blowing through the entire floor. He had tragically been caught up in it.

Come to think of it, the neighbor across the hall had been one of his few friends. He wondered how that man was doing.

He should have died, but his soul seemed to have been drawn by something, pulled into the Space-Time Turbulence by an unknown force.

There were three similar planes there. At the time, he could sense that two other souls seemed to have been with him.

The three of them each entered a different plane. The plane he entered was the world of a television drama he had once watched—Tears of the Sky.

His soul fused with a golden fragment and became an infant.

After that, he was found by a handsome, arrogant man. At the time, he only heard the man say, "Hehe, interesting. I came here because I sensed the Xuanyuan Sword, yet I never expected to find an infant. No, that is not right. You should be an adult in an infant's body. Tell me, should I kill you and reclaim the power that belongs to me?"

The man drew a Golden Ancient Sword and pointed its tip at Xiao Tuo's brow. As long as he thrust it forward, he could reclaim the power he claimed belonged to him.

He had clearly seen that Xiao Tuo was a transmigrator, that an adult soul resided within the infant's body.

Thus, killing Xiao Tuo was not truly the same as killing a baby. Yet in the end, he gave up.

"Forget it. Perhaps this is fate. This was not your fault, and perhaps you are the one more suited to wield this power. You are innocent, and there is still time before the future catastrophe arrives. I will give you an opportunity. From this day on, cultivate under me. If you can lend me a hand in the future, I will spare you. Otherwise, if you are worthless, then for the sake of all living beings, I will still kill you and reclaim the Xuanyuan Sword's true power!"

With that, the man picked up Xiao Tuo and headed into the distance.

He knew that the little fellow in his arms could understand his words and should grasp what he meant.

Xiao Tuo naturally understood, because he already knew who this man was: Yuwen Tuo, the strongest man under heaven. He knew of this Yuwen Grand Tutor.

Invincible Yuwen Tuo, a Grand Tutor who turned the tide alone. With one shoulder, he held up the Sui Dynasty's sky; with one arm, he bore a millennium of infamy.

A man capable of bearing a thousand years of infamy was hardly someone easy to deal with.

He was an extremely contradictory figure. He could be called an evil man, because he had indeed slaughtered many innocents in his lifetime. Those killed on battlefields did not count, but in order to refine the Myriad Spirits Blood Pearl, he had massacred six entire cities, taking the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Yet he could also be called a good man, because although he had killed those hundreds of thousands, he had done so to save others. Their deaths had saved a populace counted in the hundreds of millions.

Xiao Tuo knew what future disaster he had spoken of: the Tears of the Sky. Yuwen Tuo was the reincarnation of the ancient artifact Kunlun Mirror, an artifact capable of seeing through—and even traveling across—the past and future.

Using it, Yuwen Tuo foresaw the future and learned that the Scarlet Piercer Star would tear through the barrier of the Nine Heavens Divine Province. He decided to abandon all concern for the Sui Dynasty and devote himself to searching for ancient artifacts, determined only to stop this crisis and shoulder the responsibility of saving the Divine Province.

Having awakened the Kunlun Mirror's power, his Cultivation Power alone at the time was enough to rival that of true immortals. With the Xuanyuan Sword in hand, the powers of two ancient artifacts combined into one. He was more than ten times stronger than the legendary demonic beast Taotie. Even Gu Yue Immortal, who possessed a thousand years of cultivation, was no match for him. Few in the Immortal Realm could contend against him any longer. He was already invincible beneath the heavens.

However, the Xuanyuan Sword in his possession seemed to be like the one in the television drama—it was not perfect. During Xuanyuan Huangdi's battle with Chi You, although he had won, the Xuanyuan Sword had been cracked by Chi You, leaving a tiny chip. That fragment had vanished for thousands of years.

In the television drama, the fragment from that chip sensed the crisis of the Tears of the Sky, reappeared in the world, and fused into an ancient sword. It later became Chen Jingchou's sword, Fifteen.

Now, due to the butterfly effect caused by Xiao Tuo's arrival, it had not fused with any ancient sword. Instead, it merged with Xiao Tuo's soul, turning him into someone like Yuwen Tuo—a reincarnation of an ancient artifact.

Of course, he still could not compare to Yuwen Tuo. After all, Yuwen Tuo was the reincarnation of the complete Kunlun Mirror, while Xiao Tuo was merely a fragment of the Xuanyuan Sword.

Still, even as only a fragment, it was a fragment of the Xuanyuan Sword, said to possess the greatest power. His talent was therefore extraordinary.

Xiao Tuo took Yuwen Tuo as his master and diligently learned Dao Arts and swordsmanship from him, never relaxing for even a single day.

Yuwen Tuo was also a disciple of the Ghost Valley School, which belonged to the Daoist tradition. Daoist cultivation had always emphasized teaching according to one's aptitude.

The Ghost Valley School believed that every person was born with either martial fortune or heavenly fortune. If both were weak, it meant they had no affinity with Ghost Valley and could not enter its ranks.

Those with powerful heavenly fortune could cultivate the Five Spirits Mystical Arts of the Ghost Valley Dao Arts. The five spirits of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, combined with support and healing arts, formed the complete Ghost Valley Dao Arts. For example, Yu Xiaoxue, the reincarnation of the Nuwa Stone, was a genius in mystical arts.

Those with strong martial fortune could focus on martial techniques such as swordsmanship, saber arts, and fist techniques. Chen Jingchou was one such person. Though he also knew mystical arts, he had never truly grasped them, while his swordsmanship had achieved some success.

Yet there were always a few people blessed with exceptional talent, whose martial fortune and heavenly fortune were both immensely powerful. They could cultivate both Dao and martial arts, such as Yuwen Tuo. Whether in swordsmanship or mystical arts, he had already reached a state of perfection.

Xiao Tuo was the same. Yuwen Tuo discovered that his martial fortune and heavenly fortune were not much inferior to his own.

Xiao Tuo knew that if he had accomplished nothing by the time the Scarlet Piercer Star arrived and could not help Yuwen Tuo, then Yuwen Tuo truly would kill him for the sake of all living beings and use him to restore the Xuanyuan Sword's power.

Fortunately, Yuwen Tuo did not withhold anything from him. The Ghost Valley Dao Arts, Divine Fire Doppelganger, and his strongest Xuanyuan Sword Art—he taught them all without reservation.

By the time Xiao Tuo was fifteen, he had achieved success in martial arts such as saber techniques, swordsmanship, finger techniques, and movement arts. His strongest skill was naturally the sword. He had already learned the first three strikes of the Xuanyuan Sword Art, while his Fire Elephant Power among the Five Spirits Mystical Arts had reached the level of mastery. His strength was enough to rival the elite disciples and even elders of certain minor immortal cultivation sects.

One day, Yuwen Tuo suddenly asked Xiao Tuo whether he had only a given name and no surname.

Xiao Tuo fell silent. That was indeed the case. Although he had casually filled in the surname Lin when registering his household in his previous life, making his full name Lin Tuo, that had merely been a random choice to give himself an official identity.

Xiao Tuo had never believed that such a casual choice meant he had truly decided upon his surname. A surname was different from a given name; it represented a family and could be passed down through generations.

Since Xiao Tuo did not yet have a family, he did not dare decide on his surname lightly.

Yuwen Tuo smiled and asked him whether, since he had no surname, he wanted to inherit his. Master and disciple sharing the name Yuwen Tuo would also be quite a fine fate.

Xiao Tuo hesitated. It was not that he felt unworthy of the name Yuwen Tuo, but rather that he felt his way of doing things was completely different from Yuwen Tuo's, and did not suit that name.

Yuwen Tuo acted decisively and ruthlessly. At critical moments, for the sake of all living beings, he would rather kill three thousand by mistake than let a single threat escape. Yet because of a friend's influence, Xiao Tuo sometimes had the same flaw as Chen Jingchou—his heart was not ruthless enough.

Yuwen Tuo merely smiled and said Xiao Tuo was being too constrained. Since when had that name belonged to him alone?

A name was merely a label. What kind of Yuwen Tuo one wished to become was something that person should decide for himself.

Besides, shortcomings could be changed slowly. That was what growth meant.

Xiao Tuo was suddenly enlightened by those words. That was right. What kind of Yuwen Tuo he would ultimately become was for him to decide. He accepted the name at once.

From that point onward, Xiao Tuo and Yuwen Tuo were no longer merely master and disciple. There was also a trace of affection between them, like that between father and son.

Later, the Scarlet Piercer Star finally arrived. Xiao Tuo assisted Yuwen Tuo in gathering the five artifacts as quickly as possible. He also persuaded Chen Jingchou to set aside his personal grudges and temporarily join forces with Yuwen Tuo. Together, they stepped onto the Road of Babel, formed the Lost Array, stopped the Scarlet Piercer Star, and fought bitterly against the Demon Lord of the Demon Realm.

Perhaps because of the butterfly effect caused by Xiao Tuo's arrival, the Demon Lord this time was not possessing Chen Fu. He descended in his true body, and his incomparably powerful strength was beyond even Yuwen Tuo and Chen Jingchou working together.

This time, the Xuanyuan Sword did not make the foolish choice of abandoning Yuwen Tuo for Chen Jingchou out of some supposed reverence. It was still wielded by Yuwen Tuo, but the incomplete Xuanyuan Sword was still unable to defeat the Demon Lord.

How could Xiao Tuo watch Yuwen Tuo, who had raised him for so many years and was both master and father to him, die at the Demon Lord's hands? In the end, he ignited his own body, reverting to a fragment and merging into the Xuanyuan Sword.

The restored Xuanyuan Sword displayed incomparably terrifying power. With one strike, Yuwen Tuo heavily wounded the Demon Lord. With another, he slashed at the Tears of the Sky, annihilating every demon and monster that had emerged from it.

In the end, the Lost Array successfully sealed the Tears of the Sky and resolved a world-ending catastrophe.

But after the battle ended, Xiao Tuo's body collapsed and his soul was severely weakened. Yuwen Tuo had also expended too much power. Even using the Kunlun Mirror's remaining strength, he could only employ a special method to preserve Xiao Tuo's soul and keep it from dispersing. Saving him completely was no longer possible.

Yet heaven never bars every path. At that moment, the sealed Tears of the Sky suddenly opened once more. This time, however, what emerged was no longer demons and monsters from the Demon Realm, but two people. Their Cultivation Power was not inferior to the Demon Lord's in the slightest, and they were no weaker than Yuwen Tuo wielding the complete Xuanyuan Sword.

After speaking with Yuwen Tuo for a time, they took Xiao Tuo's soul away.

When Xiao Tuo awoke from his slumber, he discovered that he had transmigrated once more, arriving in a new world—Douluo Continent.