Chapter 1
Douluo: Gathered Children of Fate, but Misaligned Eras
Author: Bamboo Grove's Two Sages
Traveling through Douluo Continent, Bai Chen obtained three martial souls across three different eras.
Next, let us welcome—
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion!
The child of fate in the Douluo II Era, the Emperor Auspicious Beast, possessing the dual ultimate attributes of ultimate fire and ultimate light, bearing the bloodline of the Golden Dragon within her body, with a main attribute of mental power even stronger than the sub-attributes of the dual ultimates, and a fate attribute capable of bringing infinite surprises.
The Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff!
The child of fate in the Douluo III Era, the ancestor of canine and feline soul beasts, coming with her own domain, whose strength at ten thousand years of cultivation rivaled a four-hundred-and-eighty-thousand-year-old Dark-Gold Terrorclaw Bear, and whose ten-thousand-year cultivation of the Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff was enough to suppress a Title Douluo Tang Wulin who was not using his full strength, immune to the bloodline suppression of the Golden Dragon King with verifiable battle records.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger!
The child of fate in the Douluo I Era, possessing six attributes of evil, time, darkness, space, lightning, and hurricane, coming with its own domain, whose trump card technique Life-and-Death Arena nearly ambushed and killed the Title Douluo Tang San, possessing the potential to grow into an evil god, later even becoming the external cheat of another protagonist Zhou Weiqing, with remarkable achievements.
Gathering the power of these three children of fate, he would surely...
Wait, is the sequence a bit wrong?
What do you mean, the children of fate are not in their own eras?
Douluo I Bai Chen
Martial Soul: Three-Eyed Golden Lion
Soul Power Level: ??? (Currently in a state of fusion)
Soul Rings:
Three-Eyed Golden Lion Martial Soul: First Ring (Sky Dream Ice Silkworm), Second Ring (Water Dragon King), Third Ring (Seventy-Thousand-Year Mental Attribute Soul Beast), Fourth Ring (Demon Spirit), Fifth Ring (Demon Spirit), Sixth Ring (Demon Spirit), Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Rings (Evil-Eyed Tyrant Ruler)
Water Dragon King Martial Soul: First Ring (Water Dragon King), Second Ring (Titan Snow Demon King), Third Ring (Ice-Snow Bear King), Fourth Ring (Ice Empress), Fifth Ring (Snow Empress), Sixth Ring (Snow Empress), Seventh Ring (Snow Empress), Eighth Ring (Deep Sea Demonic Whale King), Ninth Ring (Empress)
Soul Bones: Skydream Iceworm Skin Bone, Bright Dragon King Torso Bone, Water Dragon King Left Arm Bone, Fire Dragon King Right Arm Bone, Demon Spirit Left Leg Bone, Ice-Snow Bear King + Titan Snow Demon King Fused Right Leg Bone, Snow Empress Left Palm Bone, Evil-Eyed Tyrant Ruler Skull, Evil-Eyed Tyrant Ruler Eye Bone, Deep Sea Demon Whale King Fish Scale Bone
Soul Guidance Talent: 10
Forging Talent: 10
Status: Kindness God's Divine Trial Fourth Trial
Douluo II Bai Chen
Martial Soul: Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff
Soul Power Level: ??? (Currently in a state of fusion)
Soul Rings: First Ring (Thousand-Year Dark-Gold Terrorclaw Bear), Second and Third Rings (Ten-Thousand-Year Dark-Gold Terrorclaw Bear), Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Rings (Hundred-Thousand-Year Dark-Gold Terrorclaw Bear), Seventh and Eighth Rings (Bear Lord)
Soul Bones: Bear Lord Right Palm Bone, Bear Lord Left Arm Bone, Ten-Thousand-Year Dark-Gold Terrorclaw Bear Right Palm Bone, Mountain Dragon King Torso Bone, Ten-Thousand-Year Left Leg Bone (Tyrannosaurus Rex Close Relative), Golden Dragon Right Leg Bone
Soul Guidance Talent: 8
Forging Talent: 10
Status: Asura God's Divine Trial Fifth Trial
Douluo III Bai Chen
Martial Soul: Dark Demon Evil God Tiger
Soul Power Level: ??? (Currently in a state of fusion)
Soul Rings: First Ring (Evil Tiger Shark), Second Ring (Evil Tiger Shark), Third Ring (Three-Eyed Demon Ape), Fourth Ring (Aromatic Silk Beauty), Fifth Ring (Aromatic Silk Beauty), Sixth Ring (Aromatic Silk Beauty), Seventh Ring (Million-Year God-Given Soul Ring)
Soul Bones: Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear Right Palm Bone, Time Dragon King Left Leg Bone, Dark Dragon King Torso Bone, Qiluo Tulip Left Arm Bone, Ice Empress Scorpion Tail Bone
Soul Guidance Talent: 8
Forging Talent: 9
Status: Evil God's Divine Trial Fifth Trial
Chapter One: Three Children of Fate
"Xiao Chen, come, let Lord Soul Master help you awaken your martial soul."
"Bai Chen, it is your turn to awaken your martial soul."
"Student Bai Chen, clear your mind and spirit, and prepare for the martial soul awakening."
Called by different awakening masters, Bai Chens in three worlds nodded simultaneously, flashes of excitement gleaming in their eyes.
"Yes!"
After waiting for six years, he was finally going to awaken his very own martial soul.
Six years ago, due to an accident, he—originally just an ordinary college student—had crossed over into the world of the Douluo Continent.
Unlike ordinary time-travelers, however, his journey spanned three eras simultaneously.
Namely, the Douluo I, Douluo II, and Douluo III eras.
Because of the differences in the eras he crossed into, his identities in each era also had subtle distinctions.
The one in the Douluo I era had crossed into a village near the Star Dou Great Forest. His parents had died in an accident when he was very young, and now he was living under the roof of relatives.
The one in Douluo II became an orphan of a member of the Nine-Rinz Glazed Sect. Backed by such a major sect, he lived reasonably well—at least better than his Douluo I counterpart.
The one in the Douluo III era was the only son of a wealthy tycoon in Skysea City. His father, having had a child in his later years, doted on him immensely, granting virtually any request he made.
Generally speaking, the later the era, the more privileged his family background.
After crossing over, what he looked forward to most was the martial soul awakening that would take place when he turned six.
The core cultivation system of the Douluo Continent was the soul master system. This system was essentially a matter of seeing a person's future at age six; the martial soul awakened at six and the innate soul power were basically enough to determine a child's cultivation ceiling.
If a child did not even possess first-rank innate soul power, then they were essentially useless when it came to martial soul cultivation.
Bai Chen did not ask to awaken some overpowered martial soul; his requirement was simply being able to cultivate at all.
No matter the era, soul master lords were superior beings. If one wanted to live a good life, awakening soul power was indispensable.
Guided by the people around them, the versions of him in all three eras made their preparations.
Seeing that he was ready, the Spirit Hall member, the Nine-Treasure Glazed Sect elder, and the Spirit Pagoda Master each initiated the martial soul awakening ceremony.
"Huh?!"
As their soul power surged into Bai Chen's body, the Bai Chens in all three worlds shuddered, wearing expressions of pain.
The moment the awakening ceremony began, he felt a intense discomfort well up from deep within his body.
Perhaps due to the differing martial souls awakening, the discomfort felt by each of his three selves varied entirely.
The Douluo I version first felt his mind become clear in a way he had never experienced before.
The next moment, a fierce, scorching heat spread from his chest, accompanied by the warmth of being bathed in sunlight.
While scorching heat and warmth were temperatures on different levels, the two should not have appeared simultaneously; yet right then, he felt both sensations at once.
As this bizarre sense of dissonance intensified, countless red and golden specks of light appeared in his field of vision, crowding toward him with overwhelming familiarity and coming to his side.
This is... fire and light elements?
Bai Chen instinctively grasped the truth.
Beyond the red and golden specks of light, what appeared in his perception was a profound and mystical power.
He could not articulate what it was, sensing only its supreme nobility and might.
Then, he felt a magical new vision emerge at the center of his forehead—he had actually grown a third eye.
Unlike the Douluo I version, what the Douluo II version experienced was straightforward.
It was a simple, pure, agonizing pain, as though his entire body was being torn apart.
All the blood in his body boiled, his bones cracking. Beneath this matchless torment, the entire world seemed to warp.
Golden fur sprouted from his skin, and Bai Chen's physique bulked up directly after the martial soul awakened.
Meanwhile, the Douluo III version experienced the least amount of pain.
He only felt as though he had fallen into an ice cellar, a bone-chilling cold rising from the depths of his soul.
Countless whispers echoed in his ears, attempting to tempt him and lead him into depravity.
Finally, those whispers merged into a bizarre voice.
"Awakening of the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger martial soul detected. Go kill, go devour, go plunder. When you reach the Seven Rings, the evil god's divine trial will unfold for you."
As the voice faded, the chill that had permeated Bai Chen's body vanished completely in an instant.
Whether by coincidence or not, the pain felt by his counterparts in the other two timelines also vanished without a trace, as though his recent ordeal had merely been a dream.
Yet feeling the surge of power pulsing from within his body, he realized this was no dream; he had truly succeeded in awakening his martial souls—three martial souls akin to external cheats.
The three martial souls were the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, the Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff, and the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion: the Emperor Auspicious Beast, a dual ultimate martial soul of ultimate fire and ultimate light, bearing a portion of the Dragon God's bloodline, capable of transforming into the Golden Dragon martial soul possessing ultimate strength, while also possessing a mental attribute stronger than the two major ultimate attributes, topped off with the fate-defying power of destiny.
The Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff: the ancestor of canine and feline soul beasts, naturally possessing the Domination Domain. A ten-thousand-year Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff possessed strength rivaling at least a four-hundred-and-eighty-thousand-year-old Dark-Gold Terrorclaw Bear, suppressing the careless Title Douluo Tang Wulin with merely ten thousand years of soul beast cultivation, easily ignoring the bloodline suppression of the Golden Dragon King, and evaluated by Tang Wulin as being on par with the quasi-god-level Er Ming upon reaching one hundred thousand years.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger: possessing six attributes including evil, time, darkness, space, hurricane, and lightning, carrying the legacy of an evil god, possessing a powerful innate domain, capable of simultaneously facing two top-tier hundred-thousand-year soul beasts—Da Ming and Er Ming—at just ten thousand years of age, and whose ultimate move, the Life-and-Death Arena, even nearly ambushed and killed Tang San who had already completed the Sea God's Seven Trials.
These three soul beasts were entities that could be called children of fate. Normally, it was impossible for them to appear as martial souls on a soul master's body, but perhaps due to Bai Chen's identity as a transmigrator, he had simultaneously awakened these three beast martial souls, which could be called the strongest of their respective eras.
Logically speaking, having awakened three such powerful martial souls, Bai Chen should have been ecstatic.
Yet for some reason, his state of mind at the moment was somewhat delicate.
Because...
The Douluo I Bai Chen blinked the third eye on top of his head, struggling to adapt to the strange sensation brought by his new vision.
The Douluo II Bai Chen swung his right fist with force, the massive power contained within his body making him feel as though he could accomplish anything.
The Douluo III Bai Chen retracted the wings and tail hook behind him, smiling sheepishly at the Spirit Pagoda Master.
[...]
Were the awakening times of his three martial souls a little problematic?
Chapter 2: The Misaligned Version Answers
Since Bai Chen rated these three Martial Souls as version-breakers, there were naturally his reasons for it.
In his view, the first three installments of Douluo each had different version answers.
In the Douluo I Era, the Douluo Plane had not yet been reduced to Tang San's back garden, and many gods in the Divine Realm were watching the Douluo Continent. Therefore, the version answer of Douluo I was the divine trial, and the four gods who finally achieved godhood all took the divine trials to ascend step by step.
In the Douluo II Era, thanks to the unprecedented cheat that was the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, the version answer was undoubtedly the mental-attribute Martial Soul, because only mental-attribute Martial Souls had the qualification to fuse with the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
In the Douluo III Era, the bloodline system began to show its initial signs. The original soul power and soul skill systems were gradually replaced by the bloodline and physical vitality systems. In this era, the most important thing was to have a powerful bloodline and fierce physical strength.
Summarizing it this way, one could see why these three Martial Souls were said to be the version answers corresponding to their respective eras.
The version answer of Douluo I was the divine trial, so the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger Martial Soul came with its own divine trial, and it was even the divine trial of the Evil God King.
The version answer of Douluo II was the mental attribute, so the Three-Eyed Golden Lion not only possessed the mental attribute, but its mental attribute even underpinned its two ultimate attributes. It was definitely the entity with the strongest mental power in the Douluo II version.
The version answer of Douluo III was bloodline and strength, so the strength of the Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff even surpassed Tang Wulin, who possessed the Golden Dragon King's Bloodline, and on the bloodline level, it was not suppressed by Tang Wulin's bloodline either.
However now, these three version-breakers failed to awaken in the versions that belonged to them.
Then the trouble was huge...
A major reason why the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was strong in the Douluo I era was that there was no concept of Evil Soul Masters yet, and soul beasts were numerous and inexhaustible, allowing him to devour and level up at will.
Without an environment like Douluo I, it was entirely possible for him to be regarded as an Evil Soul Master and hunted down. At the same time, in Douluo III, due to soul beasts being on the verge of extinction, even figuring out how to cultivate was a major hassle.
Most importantly, the Evil God, which originally belonged to the future promotion direction of the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, had already been inherited by Ji Dong at this time. Even if he passed the divine trial, it would be of no use; if the most critical divine position could not be obtained, everything would be in vain.
At the same time, the Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff, which should have appeared in Douluo III, appearing in the timeline of Douluo II also directly led to it missing out on the two biggest cheats, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Electrolux.
Among the three version-breakers, only it had absolutely nothing to do with the mental attribute. The Evil God Tiger at least had a multi-element control ability that was slightly related to the mental attribute, while the Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff had no eye-catching mechanics or special abilities at all, possessing only incomparably overpowered numerical stats.
As for the final Three-Eyed Golden Lion, it awakened in Douluo I, where the cultivation speed was at its most turtle-like, under circumstances where cultivation was already difficult after reaching level 30 for an ultimate Martial Soul.
Before you continue