The Day of the Village's Destruction, Ling Yuan

"Xunhuan, don't come out!"

"No! Dad! Mom! Don't!"

The little boy whose bones were fractured all over curled up beneath the bed.

His eyes splitting with grief, he stared fixedly at the ever-enlarging giant hammer before him, whimpering soft, tiny sobs from his mouth.

His name was Ye Xunhuan, a transmigrator from Blue Star who was about to turn six and had a fairly happy family... as of a day ago...

All of this was because of that single event.

Three years ago, Old Man Huang and the village chief drank quite a bit of wine, and while relieving themselves in the woods, they accidentally overheard Tang Hao, one of the Clear Sky Twins, and his beloved wife Ah Yin conversing.

They learned that Ah Yin was a hundred-thousand-year soul beast in human form.

After being discovered, Old Man Huang repeatedly promised Tang Hao that he would never speak of it.

He truly did so as well, until Tang Hao arrived in person today and slaughtered the entire village, and the innocent villagers only found out about this matter then.

Yet how could the high-and-mighty Clear Sky Douluo possibly care?

In his eyes, it was the villagers of this very village who leaked the news and caused Ah Yin's death, and he wanted the people of the entire village to pay with their lives for Ah Yin.

Inside the house, Ye Xunhuan stared blankly at the remaining half of his mother's arm just outside the door, feeling the world spin wildly around him as he helplessly and completely lost consciousness.

I do not know how much time had passed.

Ye Xunhuan's consciousness seemed to sink into a pitch-black abyss, the surroundings frighteningly silent, save for the faint, ethereal sound of calling drifting from afar.

...Child... wake up...

Mom...

Ye Xunhuan snapped his eyes open, the blinding glare outside the wooden window forcing him to raise a hand to shield them, barely managing to make out the scene before him through the gaps in his fingers.

What met his eyes was not that bloody night, nor that blood-stained giant hammer, but an unfamiliar face.

It was an exceptionally exquisite visage.

The woman looked to be only in her early twenties, with a tall figure and a cascade of fiery red hair tumbling down to her shoulders, her brows and eyes radiating a cold, aloof temperament, though at this moment, her fiery eyes concealed an inability to suppress worry.

She wore the formal attire of a Spirit Hall elder, a black robe embroidered with six-petal spirit emblems and bound at the waist by a slender silver sash, accentuating a slender and upright figure.

Inlaid upon her left chest was a fist-sized gemstone badge engraved with a relief of a six-winged angel, adding a touch of solemn majesty.

"Little one, awake?" Seeing Ye Xunhuan open his eyes, she let out a slight breath of relief and placed the dampened cloth from her hand onto the small table by the bedside. "You've been unconscious for a day and a night."

Ye Xunhuan opened his mouth, his throat feeling as though it had been scoured by sandpaper, too parched to produce a sound.

The woman had anticipated this; she picked up the cup of water on the table, used one hand to support the back of his head, and brought the rim to his lips.

The warm, cool stream of water slid down his throat, and Ye Xunhuan greedily swallowed a few mouthfuls, his chapped lips finally ceasing their burning pain.

"Thank you." His voice was so hoarse it was barely audible.

The woman set the water cup back on the table, sat down on the chair beside the bed, and let her gaze rest on Ye Xunhuan's face, remaining silent for a moment before speaking.

"My name is Ling Yuan, an honorary elder of Spirit Hall (a title personally bestowed by His Holiness the Pope upon Titled Douluo from other factions and individuals with special contributions within Spirit Hall). You are currently in the Spirit Hall branch of Sky Star City." She paused, her tone softening slightly. "What is your name?"

"Ye Xunhuan."

"Ye Xunhuan." Ling Yuan recited the name in her mouth as if committing it to memory. "You're a child from Golden Bear Village? What happened that day?"

Golden Bear Village...

These three words were like a blunt blade, fiercely carving into Ye Xunhuan's heart.

The tragic scene of the village's destruction surfaced before his eyes once more, and Ye Xunhuan felt the blood and vital energy surge violently through his body, several wounds faintly threatening to tear open.

"Calm down." Sensing his emotional fluctuations, Ling Yuan channeled thick, enduring spirit power into Ye Xunhuan's body, helping him stabilize his wounds.

Ye Xunhuan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the churning emotions.

"It was a nine-ring Titled Douluo holding a hammer," Ye Xunhuan said hoarsely. "One of his spirit rings was red."

As a transmigrator, he naturally knew that the enemy who murdered his father and slaughtered his mother was Tang Hao, but as a six-year-old child whose parents were ordinary people without spirit power, he ought not to have known that name.

Ling Yuan furrowed her brows, her eyes laden with gravity: "Titled Douluo, red spirit ring, Tang Hao!"

Ye Xunhuan timely put on a blank expression.

After a long while, Ling Yuan slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, her tone rather solemn: "Little brother, the matter of the village's destruction is of great consequence. It might be a bit tricky for me to handle alone; I must report it to the Pope in Martial Soul City."

Ye Xunhuan nodded, not surprised in the least.

Tang Hao was a top-tier powerhouse capable of escaping from the hands of Qian Daoliu, the ninety-ninth-rank Ultimate Douluo reputed to be invincible in the heavens; he was definitely not someone a Spirit Hall elder could deal with.

Another silence fell between the two of them, and Ye Xunhuan blurted out unceremoniously.

"Sister, what were you doing going to Golden Bear Village?"

Ling Yuan answered without a moment's hesitation: "I went to awaken the spirits for the children turning six. I came out of Luanfeng Village, five miles away from Golden Bear Village."

As an honorary elder of the main Spirit Hall branch and an eighty-seventh-rank assault-system Spirit Douluo, it stood to reason that awakening spirits was a matter that did not require her personal intervention at all.

It was simply that a mission assigned by His Holiness the Pope happened to be near her hometown, so she casually accepted the task of awakening them.

Yet she never imagined that when she emerged from Luanfeng Village and arrived at Golden Bear Village, what awaited her was not a group of skipping, expectant children, but a patch of scorched earth and corpses.

At this thought, a trace of gloom inevitably clouded Ling Yuan's eyes.

Ye Xunhuan closed his eyes, his eye sockets stinging somewhat.

Clenching his fists hard, he spoke with a resolute tone: "Sister Ling Yuan, I want to awaken my spirit! I want to take revenge for the fallen elders and villagers, for my parents!"

Ling Yuan gave his small hand an unexpected touch, feeling his bone age.

Her beautiful eyes flashed with maternal pity and fondness; the little fellow was born so fair, yet his physique was more than a size smaller than his peers.

Ling Yuan made up her mind: regardless of whether Ye Xunhuan's awakened spirit and rank were good or bad, she would take him by her side and carefully tend to him.

"Alright, then follow me. I'll take you to the Awakening Hall."

Ye Xunhuan followed closely behind Ling Yuan step by step. Along the way, quite a few people cast probing gazes at the two of them.

Yet more than that, there was reverence toward Ling Yuan.

It seemed that the pretty older sister who had picked him up held a most extraordinary status in Spirit Hall.

Before long, the two walked up to the entrance of the Awakening Hall, where a batch of offspring from Spirit Hall branch staff were currently undergoing spirit awakening inside.

"Wang Mian, Gale Wolf spirit, innate spirit power rank 6."

"Li Xiangxiang, Healing Scepter spirit, innate spirit power rank 5."

"Liu Zhuangshi, Three-Headed Hell Boar spirit, innate spirit power rank 6."

Ling Yuan did not pull rank or create special exceptions due to her special status as an elder; she took Ye Xunhuan's small hand and consciously joined the end of the line.

Ye Xunhuan watched the children awakening their spirits ahead with idle boredom; some rejoiced while others sorrowed.

Even so, no matter how poor the spirits and spirit power they awakened were, they could not be that bad.

After all, they were the children of Spirit Hall staff. After studying diligently at an academy, securing an official post or minor position back home relying on their parents' connections was not a problem.

Most of the children of Golden Bear Village possessed mediocre talent; leaving aside that their spirits were farming tools, some children could not even awaken a spirit at all.

"Elder Ling Yuan, this young master is?"

The spirit master responsible for awakening spirits wiped the sweat from his brow; awakening so many children at once was no small test for him, a mere two-ring Great Spirit Master.

"My younger brother," Ling Yuan said casually, not wishing to expose Ye Xunhuan's identity. "You rest for now; I will personally awaken his spirit."

As she spoke, Ling Yuan's spirit avatar merged with her, and the phantom of a Blazing Spirit Kite materialized behind her.

Ye Xunhuan immediately felt a wave of dry heat.

Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black.

Eight spirit rings representing Spirit Douluo cultivation manifested, and the formidable spirit power of an eighty-seventh-rank Spirit Douluo instantly enveloped the Awakening Hall.

Ye Xunhuan's pupils contracted slightly; he had not expected the one who saved him to actually be a Spirit Douluo powerhouse.

Moreover, judging by this spirit and spirit ring configuration, Ling Yuan gradually overlapped with a graceful figure from the original work.

Spirit Douluo Ling Yuan, with the Blazing Spirit Kite spirit, made her final appearance already as a ninety-third-rank assault-system Titled Douluo with a minor role. During the battle where Bibi Dong led an army of spirit masters to encircle and suppress the Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape, she was killed by the Azure Bull Python's ultimate move, Azure Annihilation Thunder.

Clearly, her current cultivation was still far from reaching the level described in the original work.

Ling Yuan naturally had no idea what Ye Xunhuan was thinking, simply assuming that her Spirit Douluo cultivation had frightened the little fellow.

"Xunhuan, step into the awakening array and guide your spirit power to summon your own spirit," Ling Yuan said in a deep voice.

Trembling slightly, Ye Xunhuan walked into the hexagram array, uncharacteristically displaying a nervous emotional state.

Damn it, how could a mere spirit awakening make me break out in a sweat?

Aiyigu, so it turned out I pissed my pants!

Under Ling Yuan's expectant gaze, Ye Xunhuan began the arduous task of channeling his spirit.

Ding, congratulations to the host for successfully binding the Douluo Godhood System!