The Baffled Jiang Nannan: She Recognized Every Word, So Why Were They So Hard to Understand Together?

She gently untied the knot with her fingertips and poured out every 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 prolong her mother's life.

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

She raised her gaze toward Li Changsheng before her, her voice soft and laden with guilt and pleading. "Young master, this is all the money I have at the moment."

She knew this amount was pitifully small and hardly presentable, yet she still gathered her courage and pleaded quietly, "If it isn't enough, could you please give me some time? From now on, I'll set up my stall more often and go into the mountains to gather wild vegetables. I'll work desperately to earn money, and once I have it, I'll make up the rest to you immediately."

To repay his life-saving grace, she was willing no matter how difficult or exhausting her future might become.

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

As the son of Divine Kings, he had traversed the myriad God Realms and grown accustomed to seeing vast quantities of divine crystals and primordial treasures.

The copper soul coins of the lower realm were inherently worthless mortal objects to him.

Although he knew the broad course of events on the Douluo Continent, the fates of its people, and the changes of the ages, and understood the shifting landscape and rise and fall of factions over the next ten thousand years...

That did not mean he knew everything.

In particular, he had never learned in the slightest about the value of mortal currency or the specific fees for a soul master's awakening ceremony.

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

After all, he was the child of two Divine Kings. How could he possibly have looked into the cost of living in the lower realm?

That was clearly unreasonable.

After silently studying the coins for a moment, Li Changsheng asked bluntly, somewhat puzzled, "Is this enough to hire a soul master to awaken a martial soul?"

The moment those words fell, the air froze.

Holding the coins and filled with guilt, Jiang Nannan completely stiffened on the spot. Her mind went blank with a boom, and she was utterly dumbfounded.

She stared up at Li Changsheng in a daze, her beautiful almond eyes widened round, filled with absolute bewilderment and astonishment.

Enough?

He was actually asking whether this little money 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 had long since been abolished.

Nowadays, any private soul master in Heaven Dou City, or even the awakening service at an official soul master hall, charged a clearly listed minimum price of one Gold Soul Coin.

One also had to pay an additional fee for Soul Power testing.

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 even a single soul master to help awaken a martial soul.

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

She clearly recognized every word, but why did they become so difficult to understand when put together?

Was this still a Douluo novel?

Seeing the girl's stunned expression and her prolonged silence, with disbelief and confusion filling her eyes, Li Changsheng frowned slightly and asked softly, "What's wrong?"

His crisp question pulled Jiang Nannan's wandering thoughts back.

She abruptly came back to her senses and blinked her stinging eyes hard. After suppressing the shock and doubt in her heart, she hesitated again and again before finally asking softly, voicing her greatest confusion. "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 of many years... and yet you haven't awakened your martial soul?"

In her understanding, only extraordinary people who had embarked upon the path of soul masters and possessed martial souls and Soul Power could wield all kinds of incredible abilities.

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

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

This completely overturned everything she knew.

Li Changsheng gently shook his head and frankly revealed the truth without concealing anything. "I have not."

He possessed the bloodline of Divine Kings. Born with authority over the laws of the heavens, his primordial power was innate and transcended the rules of the Douluo Lower Realm, so he naturally had no need for a martial soul's support.

However, after descending into this plane, he was constrained by the world's rules. 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.

Although she too was the daughter of a Divine King, she still needed to cultivate with the aid of martial souls.

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

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

She fell silent for a long while, looking at the young man before her with his transcendent bearing and pure, open nature.

Then she thought of how he possessed peerless power yet was hampered by such mundane matters as worldly money and martial soul awakening. 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, and he was an old acquaintance of my mother's. He has a good heart. He was the one who awakened my martial soul for free back then. He isn't like those private soul masters who charge outrageous prices. He is righteous and may be willing to help you once."

The instant she said this, a bright gleam flashed through Li Changsheng's dark eyes, and the helplessness in them vanished.

It was enough that someone could help. As for the other person's identity or relationship with Jiang Nannan and her mother, he did not care in the slightest.

With that thought, his tone became somewhat lighter as he immediately said, "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 his hand and gently pushed the entire pile of copper soul coins back toward her.

Since there was a reliable, free way to awaken his martial soul, these insignificant mortal coins were naturally no longer needed.

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

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

Then she gently turned her head toward the inner bedroom.

On the bed, her mother had been healed by the divine power of life. Her illness was gone, and her blood and vitality were stable.

She had already fallen into a deep sleep. Her breathing was long and steady, and her complexion was much rosier, no longer carrying its former haggard weakness.

Knowing that her mother was now safe, sleeping peacefully, and no longer needed constant care at her side, Jiang Nannan finally set her mind at ease.

She gently tucked in her mother's blanket, her movements exceedingly soft for fear of disturbing her rest.

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

With that, the girl took the lead and guided 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 shimmered brilliantly beneath the sunlight. At last, the exhaustion and darkness that had lingered in her eyes for years had completely faded, replaced by hope and radiance for the future.