From the time he started thinking to the moment he officially chose his Martial Soul, Lin Huo had only taken a few breaths, so the middle-aged man noticed nothing unusual.
But once Lin Huo successfully awakened his Martial Soul, the faint fluctuations of Soul Power immediately roused the middle-aged man from his daze.
"Hm? The awakening succeeded, and it looks like you have Soul Power too. Let me take a good look at what exactly your Martial Soul is, little friend..."
The middle-aged man motioned for Lin Huo to release his Martial Soul. Lin Huo readily complied and swiftly summoned the Little Fire Dragon Martial Soul he had just obtained.
Under the middle-aged man's patient and detailed guidance, the phantom of Little Fire Dragon appeared in Lin Huo's palm without entering the Martial Soul Possession state.
It had orange-red skin, a cream-colored belly, a round head, and a pair of lively blue eyes. At the tip of its tail, a small flame burned fiercely.
The middle-aged man carefully examined Lin Huo's Martial Soul, muttering his assessment as he looked it over.
"Hmm... I've never seen this type of Martial Soul before.
"It looks a little like a round-headed little lizard, and there's even fire burning on its tail. It doesn't seem like an ordinary Martial Soul...
"I've got it! Your Martial Soul shall be called the Round-Headed Fire Lizard!"
"Uh!" Hearing that utterly ridiculous name, several black lines immediately dropped across Lin Huo's forehead. He had never expected this middle-aged man to possess such a talent for comedy.
"Uncle, my Martial Soul is called Little Fire Dragon," Lin Huo said helplessly.
Round-Headed Fire Lizard was simply too unpleasant to hear. Even Round-Headed Old Man would have sounded better. He had to set the record straight.
Realizing that the name he had chosen was indeed so awful that even a child disliked it, the middle-aged man did not get angry. He merely scratched the back of his head and laughed, covering up his embarrassment.
"Haha, Little Fire Dragon is indeed a much nicer name. Then your Martial Soul will be called Little Fire Dragon. Now, Uncle will test your Soul Power first." As he spoke, the middle-aged man picked up the crystal ball and handed it to Lin Huo.
Lin Huo obediently placed his hand on the crystal ball's surface, and a faint azure glow began flashing from within it.
"Innate Soul Power Level Five! It's actually Innate Soul Power Level Five! Little friend, you have a bright future ahead of you!"
Seeing that Lin Huo possessed Soul Power, the middle-aged man looked as delighted as if he had won the lottery.
After traveling through more than a dozen remote backwater towns, this was the first time he had awakened someone with Soul Power above Level Three. Finding gold in the sand felt absolutely refreshing.
Not to mention that Lin Huo's Martial Soul was a fire-element Martial Soul, exactly the kind he favored most.
Lin Huo paid no attention to the man's delight and instead pondered the matter of Soul Power Levels on his own.
"Level Five Soul Power? Could it be because Pokémon always start at Level Five, so my Innate Soul Power is also Level Five?
"Does that mean Pokémon levels might be connected to Soul Power Levels on Douluo Continent?
"Then once my Soul Power reaches Level Sixteen, will the Little Fire Dragon Martial Soul be able to evolve again?"
He rapidly formed several guesses based on the information available to him, but Lin Huo did not dwell on them for long.
A guess was only a guess. He could verify the truth later.
For now, he needed to see whether he could obtain some information from this middle-aged man.
His instincts told him that this middle-aged man seemed to be more than a mere temporary laborer.
Taking advantage of the fact that children could speak without restraint, Lin Huo pretended to be innocent as he began fishing for information.
"Uncle, is Innate Soul Power Level Five very impressive? Can I become someone as powerful as a Titled Douluo someday?"
"A Titled Douluo?!" The middle-aged man nearly burst out laughing at the fantasy of becoming a Titled Douluo, but quickly realized that it was merely the uninhibited talk of an innocent child.
Without any intention of mocking him, the middle-aged man immediately changed his tone. "A Titled Douluo... You'll have to work very hard if you want to achieve that goal.
"But as long as you're willing to cultivate diligently and have a force willing to provide you with sufficient resources,
"reaching the cultivation of a Soul Saint with Innate Soul Power Level Five should be a sure thing for you, little friend."
"A force willing to provide sufficient resources." Lin Huo sharply caught the implication in the middle-aged man's words.
However, he was still unsure of the middle-aged man's background, so he had no intention of probing further.
After all, he only looked like a child right now. Asking too many questions would inevitably make others suspicious of him.
Perhaps because he had traveled to too many places to conduct Martial Soul awakenings recently, the middle-aged man seemed somewhat weary, and a hint of exhaustion showed on his face.
After filling Lin Huo with a large bowl of inspirational nonsense and stuffing an awakening certificate into his hands, the middle-aged man dismissed the children and sent them home.
With the awakening certificate tucked away, Lin Huo hurriedly left the town's council hall and rushed back to his shabby little home.
He circled through the empty fields nearby, and only returned indoors after confirming that no one was following him.
"System, come out!"
With a thought from Lin Huo, a game interface in the pixelated style of early Pokémon games appeared in midair.
Miniature models of Little Fire Dragon and Bulbasaur stood side by side on the interface. By simply focusing his mind on the bouncing miniature Pokémon, Lin Huo could see their basic information.
[Trainer: Lin Huo] [Pokémon: Little Fire Dragon/Bulbasaur/?] [Type: Fire/Grass Poison/?] [Ability: Blaze/Overgrow/?] [Level: 5] [Moves (Little Fire Dragon): Scratch, Growl, Ember, Belly Drum, Dragon Tail] [Moves (Bulbasaur): Tackle, Growl, Vine Whip, Toxic, Ingrain]
Lin Huo carefully studied the interface, attempting to communicate with the system and obtain some answers.
However, this Pokémon System apparently did not possess an intelligent program. No matter how Lin Huo tried, he could not get any response from it. All it ever displayed was the same unchanging interface.
"Looks like this Pokémon System isn't as intelligent as I imagined."
Lin Huo grumbled about the system. Left with no other choice, he continued turning his attention to the rest of the interface.
"?"
As his gaze moved down the information line by line, Lin Huo's attention quickly settled on the question mark alongside Little Fire Dragon and Bulbasaur.
"A question mark? What does this question mark mean? Since these two Pokémon are my Martial Souls, could this question mark possibly give me a third Martial Soul?"
The interface was dead. No matter how Lin Huo questioned it, it offered no response.
Coupled with the fact that he had far too little information at hand, Lin Huo could only temporarily set the matter aside and continue examining the interface.
The entries for type, ability, and level were all completely ordinary. What was there was there, and what was absent remained absent.
However, when Lin Huo's gaze reached the moves section, an exclamation burst from his mouth.
"Holy shit! The starter Pokémon actually have inherited moves! Could this have been given by a friend who's a wizard?"
So-called inherited moves were moves learned through breeding when either of a Pokémon's parents possessed certain moves.
The offspring hatched from the egg would naturally learn moves it otherwise would not have had.
Normally, starter Pokémon did not have inherited moves.
Although Lin Huo did not know why the Pokémon Martial Souls provided by the system had inherited moves,
since such a fortunate opportunity was right before him, there was no need to investigate it too deeply.
In his delight, Lin Huo focused all his attention on those four moves.
Belly Drum, Dragon Tail, Toxic, and Ingrain—without exception, all four were extremely sinister strategic moves.
At the thought of their powerful effects, Lin Huo's heart immediately burned with excitement.
If these varied Pokémon moves could be used, wouldn't that mean he naturally possessed countless powerful extra Soul Skills beyond those of other Soul Masters?
In his excitement, Lin Huo seemed to remember something. He quickly left the house and searched the surroundings once more, not even sparing the thatch on the roof or the pile of firewood in the yard.
Only after confirming that no one could possibly be watching did Lin Huo finally return to the house, ready to test the various effects of the innate moves of his Pokémon Martial Souls.
Before you continue