Life Was Too Hard!

Douluo Continent.

Frost City, Cold North Village.

The frigid wind howled, lashing Lin Wan's face like a whip wrapped in ice chips.

He was curled up deep inside a shack barely put together from straw and dead branches at the village entrance, trying to make himself into an even smaller ball.

The biting wind seeped into the shack from every direction, making Lin Wan shudder.

He buried his frostbitten, purple toes, covered in tiny cracks, deep within the pile of rotten grass beneath him, which gave off a faint moldy smell.

In such a cold environment, decaying and fermenting plant fibers could provide Lin Wan with a trace of heat as they slowly broke down.

This was knowledge he had learned in his previous life. He was somewhat grateful now that he had paid attention in college, or he would have frozen to death in this winter.

"Day 1,086."

Lin Wan stretched out a finger that was red with cold and nearly numb, carefully scratching a clear short mark into the hard dirt.

He had been transported to the world of Douluo Continent for exactly three years, enduring from the age of three to six.

Heaven knew how he had survived these years. He would never believe those transmigration novels again.

They said that after transmigrating, one could easily make a fortune, effortlessly exude an aura of dominance, gather followers and beauties, then possess peerless talent and become the strongest in the world.

So why had he transmigrated only to become an orphan? Being an orphan would have been fine if he had at least been in the temperate inland regions.

But he had ended up in a village near the Far North, where it was freezing cold and he could do nothing at all.

He still vividly remembered the moment before his transmigration. He had clearly done nothing wrong; he had simply been diligently doing his job.

Yet the archives had collapsed while he was working overtime, wiping down a gold-embossed copy of Andersen's Fairy Tales. Then he had closed his eyes and opened them again, only to become an orphan in this tiny rural village.

Now, Lin Wan could only wait for the imminent Martial Soul awakening to change his fate.

He did not ask to awaken a one-in-ten-thousand top-tier Martial Soul and full Innate Soul Power like those senior transmigrators. He only hoped to awaken a Martial Soul with Soul Power.

It was not that Lin Wan lacked ambition. Over the past three years, he had seen this world for what it was.

It was a society where the rich relied on technology while the poor relied on mutation.

For an ordinary person like him, whose parents had both been ordinary people without Soul Power, the odds of awakening a Martial Soul with Soul Power were minuscule.

Take Cold North Village, where he lived. Most of the villagers were ordinary people without Soul Power. Their children were generally ordinary people without Soul Power as well. Over the decades, only a handful had awakened Innate Soul Power.

And those who awakened Soul Power generally left the village to live in the city.

When they married, they would generally only marry Soul Masters. Only then would their descendants have a high chance of possessing Innate Soul Power.

Thus, on Douluo Continent, Soul Masters begot Soul Masters, while ordinary people begot ordinary people. A clear dividing line had formed between them.

A descendant of ordinary people like Lin Wan, who had transmigrated into this world, had a great chance of possessing zero Innate Soul Power.

Having understood that reality, Lin Wan did not ask for much. He only hoped his Innate Soul Power would not be zero.

"Brother Wan! Old Village Chief is handing out porridge!"

A childish voice, thick with congestion and trembling from the cold, reached Lin Wan through the biting wind.

The shack's ragged cloth curtain was roughly lifted by a tiny hand, red with cold and covered in grime. Doggie's small face, likewise covered in frostbite, appeared before Lin Wan.

Two streams of cloudy snot had frozen into tiny icicles, hanging beneath Doggie's nostrils in a sight both ridiculous and pitiful. He grinned happily at Lin Wan.

"Brother Wan, the village chief told me to call you over for porridge."

Like Lin Wan, Doggie was an orphan who had grown up eating whatever the villagers could spare.

After Lin Wan had transmigrated here, however, he had been an adult in his previous life. Unlike a real three-year-old, he was not so naïve and acted more maturely. From time to time, he would also help this orphan who shared his plight.

As a result, the orphan named Doggie naturally began following Lin Wan around.

Aside from his kindness, Lin Wan had another reason for helping Doggie: he suspected Doggie had a high chance of possessing Innate Soul Power.

For some reason, Doggie had been born with a stronger constitution than every other child in the village. It was as if he did not fear the cold at all.

Just like now, in this freezing weather, Lin Wan could only huddle in his shack to escape the cold, while Doggie seemed unable to feel it as he ran around happily outside.

The moment he heard the word porridge, Lin Wan's mind, frozen stiff by the wind, instantly cleared.

Cold North Village was unlike inland villages. Being close to the Far North, it was frozen year-round, making it impossible to grow common crops or grain. Therefore, most Cold North villagers earned food by hunting animals and soul beasts.

And since most villagers in Cold North lacked Soul Power, their Martial Souls were generally ice-elemental.

This meant that the villagers of Cold North Village generally did not fear the cold, except for children who had yet to awaken their Martial Souls.

To earn an income, Cold North Village would organize hunting parties every so often to hunt in the forests and mountains. The proceeds from the hunt would then be sold and distributed collectively.

It was precisely because of this unique cooperative system that the villagers of Cold North Village generally ate together.

Without hesitation, Lin Wan climbed out of his pile of rotten grass, which held a faint warmth. He grabbed the chipped crude pottery bowl beside him, brushed the bits of grass from his body, then rammed through the ragged curtain and charged into the raging snowstorm with Doggie.

Beside the large iron pot in the center of the village, blackened by smoke and fire, a long, crooked line had already formed.

Everyone in the line tightly clutched their own bowls, their eyes fixed on the steam rising from the iron pot.

Lin Wan pulled Doggie swiftly to the end of the line. His tiny body could not stop shivering in the cold wind, his teeth chattering.

He struggled up onto his tiptoes, looking past the heads of several children in front of him toward the iron pot.

The old man beside the pot was Cold North Village's chief, Old Drus. The oldest and most respected man in the village, he looked especially aged and exhausted at that moment.

Wearing an old padded coat covered in patches, he struck the cold rim of the pot hard with a large wooden ladle, creating dull, grating bang bang sounds as he tried to drown out the roar of the wind and snow.

"Listen up!"

Old Drus's voice was somewhat hoarse, but it carried an unquestionable severity.

"Eat sparingly. The blizzard has blocked the mountain roads, so the supply convoy can't get in today. They'll return the day after tomorrow with the Soul Master from Martial Soul Hall. This porridge is our last ration. If anyone dares to snatch it or waste it, don't blame this old man for showing no mercy!"

At those words, a spark of joy instantly rose in Lin Wan's heart.

Finally, it was coming.

After waiting for so long, he was finally about to undergo his Martial Soul awakening.