Jiang Nannan's Bewilderment: She Knew Every Word, So Why Was It So Hard to Understand When They Were Put Together?

Gently undoing the knot with her fingertips, she poured every last coin from the money pouch.

A mere few dozen mottled copper soul coins lay quietly in her palm.

They were few in number and weighed almost nothing, yet they were all this impoverished girl possessed—the life-saving money she had planned to save bit by bit to buy medicine and keep her mother alive.

Jiang Nannan held the meager pile of coins in both hands, her fingertips tightening slightly as embarrassment and unease filled her clear almond eyes.

She looked up at Li Changsheng before her, her voice soft and sweet, filled with guilt and pleading. "Sir, this is all the money I have right now."

She knew this sum was pitifully small, nowhere near enough to show anyone, but she still gathered her courage and pleaded softly. "If it isn't enough, could you please give me some time? From now on, I'll set up my stall more often, gather more wild vegetables in the mountains, and work desperately to earn money. Once I do, I'll make up the rest to you immediately."

To repay the debt of saving her life, she was willing to endure any hardship or exhaustion in the future.

Li Changsheng lowered his gaze to the few dozen shabby copper soul coins in her palm. His expression remained calm and undisturbed, without the slightest hint of disdain.

As the son of God Kings, he had traveled the myriad divine realms and was accustomed to seeing vast quantities of divine crystals and primordial treasures.

To him, the copper soul coins of the lower realm were worthless mortal objects.

Although he knew the general course of events on Douluo Continent, the fates of its people, and the changes of the ages, and understood the shifting landscape and rise and fall of powers over the ten thousand years before and after...

That did not mean he knew everything.

In particular, he had never learned the value of mortal currency or the exact fees for soul master awakenings.

More importantly, there had been no way for him to learn such things.

After all, he was the son of two God Kings. How could he possibly concern himself with the cost of living in the lower realm?

That would have been obviously unreasonable.

After silently studying her for a moment, Li Changsheng asked with some confusion, "Is this enough money to hire a soul master to awaken a martial soul?"

The instant those words left his mouth, the air froze.

Jiang Nannan, who was holding the coins with a heart full of guilt, went completely stiff. Her mind boomed blank, and she was utterly dumbfounded on the spot.

She stared up at Li Changsheng in a daze, her beautiful almond eyes wide open, filled with utter bewilderment and astonishment.

Enough?

He had actually asked whether this amount was enough to awaken a martial soul?

For a moment, Jiang Nannan even suspected that she had misheard him.

In the Peerless Tang Clan Era, Spirit Hall had been destroyed for ten thousand years, and the old system of free martial soul awakenings for all people had long since been abolished.

Now, any private soul master in Heaven Dou City—or even the awakening service at an official soul master hall—charged a clearly marked minimum price of one gold soul coin.

There was even an additional fee for testing soul power.

One gold soul coin was equivalent to one hundred copper soul coins!

In other words, the mere few dozen copper soul coins in her palm could not possibly hire a soul master to awaken a martial soul.

But the question was, what did he mean by asking whether this little money was enough to hire a soul master for a martial soul awakening?

She clearly knew every single word, so why was it so difficult to understand when they were put together?

Was this still a Douluo story?

Seeing the girl's face blank out as she remained silent for so long, her eyes full of incredulous confusion, Li Changsheng frowned slightly and asked softly, "What is it?"

The crisp question pulled Jiang Nannan back from her wandering thoughts.

She abruptly came to her senses and blinked hard against the sting in her eyes. After suppressing the shock and confusion in her heart, she hesitated again and again before finally asking softly, voicing the question that troubled her most. "N-Nothing... There's just something I want to ask you."

"You possess such powerful, miraculous strength. You even instantly cured my mother's chronic illness... and yet you still haven't awakened your martial soul?"

In her understanding, only those extraordinary people who had embarked on the path of soul masters and possessed martial souls and soul power could wield all manner of unimaginable abilities.

Such heaven-reaching methods had to be controlled by high-level soul masters or people with special martial souls.

Yet the person before her had not even awakened the most basic martial soul?

This completely overturned everything she knew.

Li Changsheng shook his head lightly. Without concealing anything, he frankly stated the truth. "I haven't."

He possessed the bloodline of God Kings and had been born wielding the laws of the myriad heavens. Primordial power was innate to him, transcending the rules of Douluo's lower realm, so he naturally had no need for the support of a martial soul.

However, having descended into this plane, he was constrained by the world's laws. If he wished to remain, cultivate, and establish himself here normally, he had to follow the rules of the lower realm and complete a martial soul awakening.

Just like Tang Wutong.

Though she was also the daughter of a God King, she still needed martial souls to cultivate.

That was why the Light Goddess Butterfly and Clear Sky Hammer existed.

Yet those three simple words left Jiang Nannan unable to calm her turbulent emotions for a long time.

She was silent for a long while as she looked at the boy before her, whose bearing was extraordinary and whose manner was pure and candid.

Then she thought of how he possessed peerless strength, yet was hindered by trivial matters at the bottom of society, such as worldly money and martial soul awakenings. She felt both moved and enlightened.

After coming back to herself, she gently bit her lip and said, "I do know a soul master."

"He is kind, an old acquaintance of my mother's, and has a good heart. He awakened my martial soul for free back then. He isn't one of those private soul masters who demand outrageous prices. He's righteous, and he might be willing to help you once."

The moment she finished speaking, a bright gleam flashed in Li Changsheng's dark eyes, sweeping away the helplessness from his gaze.

As long as someone could help, that was enough. As for the other person's identity and his relationship with Jiang Nannan and her mother, Li Changsheng did not care in the slightest.

With that thought, he immediately said in a somewhat lighter tone, "That would be perfect. Take me there at once."

As soon as he finished speaking, he did not even glance at the coins in Jiang Nannan's palm. He simply raised a hand and gently pushed the entire pile of copper soul coins back toward her.

Since there was a reliable way to awaken his martial soul for free, there was naturally no further use for such insignificant mortal money.

Seeing his swift, decisive action, warmth surged through Jiang Nannan's heart, and she felt even more grateful.

She did not refuse any further. Carefully, she gathered up all the coins, retied the pouch, and tucked it close against her body.

Then she turned her head toward the inner bedroom.

On the bed, her mother's illness had completely vanished after being healed by the power of life. Her blood and vital energy were steady.

She had already fallen into a deep sleep, her breathing long and even, her complexion far rosier than before, with none of her former gauntness or weakness remaining.

Knowing that her mother was now fine and sleeping peacefully, no longer requiring constant care by her side, Jiang Nannan finally put her mind at ease.

She gently tucked in her mother's blanket, her movements exceptionally soft for fear of disturbing her peaceful sleep.

Only after finishing all this did she quietly leave the room and gently close the wooden door. Turning to Li Changsheng, she said softly, "Let's go. I'll take you to find that senior soul master."

With that, the girl took the lead and brought Li Changsheng out of the dilapidated little courtyard.

One after the other, they left the narrow, aged alleyways of the slums and hurried toward the bustling center of Heaven Dou City.

Sunlight fell across their shoulders, sweeping away the gloom and bitterness of her former life.

The girl's golden hair gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight, and the exhaustion and darkness that had clouded her eyes for years finally faded away, replaced by hope and light for the future.