Douluo Calendar Year 1000, Sun Moon Empire, Mingdu.
The night sky was like ink, and countless lights in the Imperial City lit up one by one. Towering soul guidance towers emitted a soft glow, and soul cars dragged trails of light as they sped across intersecting streets. Their wheels ground against the bluestone pavement, producing a crisp and rhythmic sound.
The most prosperous city on the continent was immersed in the night, but on this very night, a golden light suddenly lit up the sky above Mingdu.
That golden light came without any warning, as if falling from beyond the heavens. At first, it was merely an imperceptible speck of light, but in the blink of an eye, it transformed into a golden rainbow piercing the night sky.
The clouds along its path were quietly torn apart, and a low roar echoed through the air. The dazzling golden light illuminated all directions, and the entire Mingdu seemed shrouded in broad daylight.
The golden light finally plummeted toward the outskirts of the city.
BOOM—
The earth shook violently, and a muffled, giant roar echoed from the distance.
Countless soul lights flickered simultaneously, and detection soul tools in the skies above Mingdu successively emitted piercing alarms. Patrolling soul engineers looked up into the night sky, but could only see a wisp of golden radiance that had yet to dissipate.
No person knew precisely what had fallen from the heavens that night.
Yet it was also on that very night that the wife of Xu Mo, the War Prince of the Sun Moon Empire imperial family, conceived a child.
Meanwhile, deep within the Star Dou Great Forest.
Endless ancient trees blocked out the sun and sky, and a rich aura of life flowed slowly among the forest. Suddenly, a pair of purple dragon pupils opened in the darkness.
Those eyes were profound and beautiful, yet carried an unconcealable fury and hatred. A melodious voice rang out from deep within the forest, resembling a woman's whisper.
He has fallen...
Within that voice, killing intent quietly permeated.
Time slipped away in a flash.
Today was the day of the martial soul awakening for Xu Tianming, the seventh prince of the War Prince's Residence, and the entire War Prince's Residence attached immense importance to it.
Early in the morning, Xu Tianming sat before the dining table, accepting the service of a pretty maid.
His breakfast was extremely lavish.
The staple food was spirit rice produced from the imperial spirit fields. The grains were crystal clear and plump, and when boiled into porridge, they emitted a faint fragrance. Every bite contained a gentle soul power that flowed slowly into his body upon swallowing, nourishing his limbs and bones.
The main dish was the fish meat of a deep-sea soul beast.
The fish meat was cooked in a soul guidance stove, slightly charred on the outside while remaining tender and juicy on the inside. When knife and fork cut into the fish meat, a rich aroma immediately diffused. After entering the mouth, the delicious taste melted on the tip of the tongue, and the spiritual energy contained within it scattered into his meridians accordingly.
Several kinds of precious spirit fruits were also placed beside the dining table.
There were frostberries from the far north, their peels covered with a thin layer of frost. Sweet and sour upon entry, the cool breath went straight into his spirit sea. There were violet cloud fruits, a specialty of the southern Sun Moon Empire, whose flesh was soft and sweet, capable of slowly nourishing spiritual power. There were also thinly sliced golden-silk spirit jujubes, honey-colored and with an alluring aroma.
The beverage was spirit spring water drawn from the Imperial Secret Realm.
The spirit spring water was crystal clear to the bottom, and a faint silver light rippled in the cup. Just taking a single sip allowed one to feel the cool breath flow down the throat into the body, instantly refreshing one's entire spirit.
Xu Tianming leisurely finished his breakfast, took the warm towel handed over by the maid, and wiped his hands.
Time passes really quickly.
He spread his arms, allowing the maid to help him change into a white-and-gold formal attire, and could not help but sigh in his heart.
He was a transmigrator.
In his past life, he was a single dog outside the three major loans and five major insurances. When he went out one day, he ran into great luck, and during the process of transmigration, he accidentally carried away a stellaron from the Path-Crazed World.
That was a terrifying entity capable of corrupting myriad worlds, known as the Cancer of Myriad Worlds.
The stellaron possessed the power to grant wishes, except that it tended to fulfill wishes in a twisted manner.
During the transmigration process, his physical body was torn apart by the temporal turbulence, but his soul merged with the stellaron. In other words, he could no longer be considered an ordinary lifeform nowadays, but rather a star core spirit.
It was precisely because of the arrival of the stellaron that the Douluo Star System seemed to encounter unprecedented temporal turbulence. The gods resisted hastily, the order of the Divine Realm fell into chaos, and the Golden Dragon King, which had been sealed for a long time, seized the opportunity to break out of its seal.
Then, a fierce brawl took place.
Xu Tianming witnessed with his own eyes the Golden Dragon King wreaking havoc in the Divine Realm, subsequently suppressed by the joint forces of the five God Kings, and ultimately falling under the siege of all the gods.
Xu Tianming, who considered himself kind-hearted, simply could not stand this kind of bullying in numbers, so he immediately wished upon the stellaron, hoping to obtain the Golden Dragon King's Divine Core.
As a result, this wish was fulfilled quite thoroughly; he obtained the Golden Dragon King's Divine Core and also reincarnated into Douluo Continent.
The price was likewise immense.
Rifts appeared.
Reality was silently torn apart, matter was eroded, life was distorted and assimilated, and rift realm creations were born from nothingness, constantly devouring the countless planes under the Douluo Star System and gradually driving the entire world toward an unknown decline.
After learning the truth, Xu Tianming remained silent for a long time. In the end, he swore an oath that he must save the myriad planes from fire and water.
As for how this fire and water actually came to be, he chose not to pursue the matter further.
In this lifetime, his identity was a member of the Sun Moon Empire imperial family, the seventh son of War Prince Xu Mo.
What made Xu Tianming even more surprised was that his eldest brother turned out to be Xu Tianran, the major villain from his original destiny.
Xu Tianming looked at himself in the mirror.
The youth in the mirror possessed a head of bright golden short hair, red eyes that were clear and bright, a handsome face, and a composure between his brows that was incongruous with his age.
I never expected that I would actually become the younger brother of the major villain.
He muttered a complaint in his mind.
A maid adjusted his collar and said respectfully, "His Seventh Highness, the awakening ceremony is about to begin."
Xu Tianming pulled back his thoughts and turned to walk out of the room. Today he would awaken his Martial Soul, and he too was very eager to know what kind of Martial Soul he would actually be able to awaken.
Was it the Golden Dragon that inherited the power of the Golden Dragon King?
Was it one of the three major Martial Souls passed down by the Sun Moon Imperial Clan?
Or was it some mutated Martial Soul that had never appeared before?
Xu Tianming raised his head to look into the distance, a flicker of anticipation flashing through the depths of his eyes.
No matter what Martial Soul he awakened, he believed that he would ultimately become that blazing sun towering above all things.
The Awakening Hall was located on the east side of the War Prince's Residence, a building specifically used for the Martial Soul awakening and Soul Power testing of the prince's descendants.
The entire hall was constructed from white jade and obsidian, with a towering dome and Soul Guidance crystals embedded all around it.
The crystals emitted a soft white light, illuminating the inside of the hall down to the smallest detail. In the center of the floor, a hexagram array was already prepared, its complex patterns intersecting with one another and faintly radiating Soul Power fluctuations.
When Xu Tianming arrived at the hall, quite a few people were already standing inside.
His father, Xu Mo, and his mother stood at the very front, with his eldest brother, Xu Tianran, also accompanying them to the side. Several of his other brothers had likewise hurried over early, clearly all placing great importance on this younger brother's Martial Soul awakening.
Of course, there was also that Columbina who had been pestering him ever since he walked through the door.
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