Who was the most despicable person in the entire Douluo Continent?
Was it the double-standard, hypocritical, pure and ice-clean God King Tang? Or Yu Xiaogang, who lacked all responsibility, bolted after flirting, and ruined someone's entire life? Or perhaps a few little white-eyed wolves of Spirit Hall, or other characters from ten thousand years later...
Regardless of the answer, at this moment, Lin Yue only felt that Tang Hao was the most sickening one of all...
"Get lost! If you love running outside, then get the hell out! Don't come back!"
A furious roar came from the dilapidated wooden cabin, making the scrawny child outside the door tremble.
Inside the wooden cabin, the sloppy man with a face flushed red from drunkenness stared with wide, angry eyes, fixing his gaze on the child who had returned late.
In the gloomy, ruined room, the oppressive atmosphere was pressed even heavier by anger, until it made people's hearts tremble.
Braving the man's terrifying coercion, Lin Yue clenched his fists tightly, stepped forward amid the heavy tension, and blocked in front of Tang San.
This year was the sixth year since he had come to Douluo Continent.
In his past life, Lin Yue, who had been up all night grinding raids, dropped dead in front of his computer, and in the blink of an eye, he became an orphan picked up from the outskirts by Grandpa Jack in Holy Soul Village.
However, after coming to Holy Soul Village, Lin Yue discovered what kind of coldness and contempt Tang San's childhood—which had been glossed over with a single stroke in the original work—had experienced.
Left entirely to fend for himself before he was even three years old, having to fetch all the materials for making fires and cooking meals every single day...
Even a Victorian-era chimney sweep child was no better than this...
When Lin Yue watched with his own eyes as a scrawny child less than three years old, poorly clad, stumbled around the edges of the rice paddies to gather straw and pick up grains--
The rage suppressed deep within Lin Yue's heart instantly exploded after all, thoroughly incinerating his reason.
Regardless of status, regardless of temperament. A soul hailing from beneath glory would not allow Lin Yue to watch such a weak child endure starvation.
Starting from that day, he began sharing all his food with that child called Xiao San.
Eating together, training together, helping the villagers in the village together, even if it was just to vie for two more grains of food.
Time flew, and in the blink of an eye, it was the eve of the Martial Soul Awakening Day.
However... today, having returned home a mere half an hour late, Tang Hao, that rat soaked in a vat of wine, began to roar and scold like a madman...
Facing the obviously manic, sloppy man, Lin Yue held his head high and confronted him:
"If it weren't for Xiao San's care, you drunkard would have already drunk yourself to death at home!"
Facing the boy's resentful and dissatisfied gaze, the bearded Tang Hao twitched the corner of his mouth, treated Lin Yue as if he were nothing, and hurled veiled criticisms at Xiao San:
"Not coming home, liking to run outside so much—anyone who didn't know would think you were some unwanted bastard from who knows where!"
"You..."
Lin Yue's eyes turned red, and he was just about to step forward to argue when his right hand was fiercely grabbed by a small hand, the touch ice-cold.
"It's fine... Brother Lin, I'll just apologize to Dad..."
"Xiao San..."
Looking at the child with a gloomy complexion, who seemed to have long been accustomed to taking things lying down, Lin Yue gritted his teeth slightly, and turned away in resentment.
A pitiful person must have something hateful about them. A hateful person must have some tragic sorrow.
Lin Yue only realized after witnessing it with his own eyes that the hypocritical, double-standard God King Tang... had his roots entirely in this damn childhood.
He had been an assassin in his past life, and his only name was the serial number given to him by his sect.
In this life, he ran into this kind of father, suppressed all day long in a narrow, dark blacksmith shop, with his only close person being a sloppy old man full of alcohol and fickle in mood. No wonder his temperament would twist into that kind of appearance ten thousand years later.
Coming to think of it, Tang San's performance during Douluo I being barely normal was precisely because the brilliant past bestowed upon him by his assassin career in his past life managed to barely suppress the bitterness of this lifetime.
If he didn't have his past life's experiences to hold him down, Tang San probably would have broken long ago.
"Running into trash a dad like this, the tragic life of being an assassin can even be called redemption..."
Lying on the wooden bed, Lin Yue gritted his teeth and cursed inwardly.
Still, it didn't matter. Tomorrow was Awakening Day, and as long as Tang San revealed his Twin Martial Souls, Tang Hao would naturally eagerly cozy up to him again.
And his own task would come to an end here.
"I wonder what kind of Martial Soul I'll be able to awaken tomorrow..."
Feeling the hard wooden board, gazing at the slightly damp ceiling, with the cicadas' chirping quietly rising and falling in his ears, Lin Yue kept his eyes open, growing increasingly nervous inside.
Having transmigrated for six years, with no golden finger and no system, the only thing that could be counted as an achievement was that his relationship with Xiao San was pretty good. The other... was that sword technique in his mind that grew increasingly clear and familiar with time...
The scenes he had manipulated his game character to execute in his past life now seemed to have completely become memories of his own personal doing, deeply engraved in his mind and impossible to shake off.
"If my Martial Soul awakening turns out poorly, I wonder if I can just be a swordsmanship master..."
Gazing at the bright moonlight outside the window, Lin Yue smiled bitterly, yet his state of mind remained perpetually unable to settle.
If his Martial Soul awakened well, perhaps he could even tag along to secure a god position, or go even further... and taste the beauty of various maidens.
If it awakened poorly, or if he couldn't cultivate at all, he would simply make use of his past-life experience, do some business, take a few wives, and live a steady, peaceful life.
Carrying worries and aspirations for the future, unable to sleep, he finally rolled off the bed, came to the fields under the night sky, grasped a small wooden sword, and began practicing those sword forms that seemed to have been repeated ten thousand times, completely carved into his mind and soul.
Upward Slash, Cross Slash, Triple Slash, Silver Light Falling Blade, Moonlight Slash...
The youth danced with his sword under the moonlight, yet his posture and movements were like those of a master who had immersed himself in the way of the sword for decades; between every single move and stance, a trace of the Dao's rhythm flowed...
The youth held what seemed to be a wooden sword, yet when he swung it casually, it felt like a divine weapon, distorting and trembling the air itself and emitting faint, unnoticeable hums...
As the youth executed form after form of flowing sword moves, the anxiousness between his brows slowly faded, leaving only absolute focus and immersion, completely lost in the moment, his heart like an ancient well and his sword like a startled dragon...
The next day.
When boiling cheers and commotion poured in from the village entrance, Lin Yue understood that the people from Spirit Hall had arrived.
The small house at the corner of the village, once used as a warehouse, had been cleaned out early on.
Grandpa Jack, who always wore coarse linen clothes, had changed into new clothes he usually cherished dearly today, a smile plastered across his face and anticipation flashing in his eyes.
"Children, come one by one, line up."
Su Yuntao, dressed in standard white work clothes, smiled as he maintained the line of people, neatly arranging the six black stones for awakening martial souls inside the corner house.
"Alright, Little Lin, you queue right here, exactly. Let me see if everyone has arrived."
Kind Grandpa Jack patted Lin Yue's shoulder, his gaze sweeping across the children in the queue before his expression suddenly froze.
"Huh? Where is that child Xiao San? Why hasn't he come yet? Tch, that guy Tang Hao is really..."
Amidst shaking his head and sighing, Grandpa Jack turned and left, not forgetting to look back and remind him, "I'll go call Tang San over, you queue up for the awakening here first."
As they spoke, Su Yuntao inside the wooden house gave a low shout.
"Lone Wolf, possess!"
With his body covered in downy fur and transformed into a werewolf shape, Su Yuntao made a hush gesture while his Soul Power flickered continuously—
"Blue Silver Grass, zero soul power; sickle, zero soul power; axe..."
Moving swiftly, Su Yuntao rapidly executed the awakening task, looking extremely skilled in his business; facing children with no soul power, his expression remained calm, as if this were the norm.
However, today's plot seemed to have a rather large discrepancy from expectations.
Anxious, Lin Yue frowned and looked behind him, only to find that Tang San, who should have been at the very back of the queue, had somehow still not appeared.
That's not right. According to the plot, he should have watched Su Yuntao help the children awaken.
Could it be that yesterday...
Recalling Tang Hao's anger from yesterday, Lin Yue frowned tightly.
Amidst his worry, at the corner of the village street, an aged figure stepped out slowly, followed by a small figure.
Before Lin Yue could look closely, the queue had reached its end, and Su Yuntao's call reached his ears.
"Hey, little fellow, it's your turn."
"Mm, ah, oh, okay."
Under Su Yuntao's urging, Lin Yue stepped forward and stood in the center of the six awakening stones.
With a wave of Soul Power spreading from Su Yuntao's palm, the air in the formation suddenly grew viscous, as if a force were resonating with something inside his body.
Those wisps of warm power drifted outward from his dantian, gathering at his left hand.
The fluctuating power within his body grew increasingly turbulent; Lin Yue's eyes widened, and a trace of crimson radiance erupted abruptly from his left hand!
The surging crimson Qi gushed from his palm, spreading wildly along his fingertips toward his arm, and scorching blood Qi tore through his clothing, instantly dyeing the child's entire left arm red!
Inside the entire awakening chamber, a terrifying death coercion instantly erupted!
"This, this is..."
Looking at the red mist of blood that rapidly spread upward and finally stopped at a ring-shaped, bizarre inscription, Lin Yue's eyes widened and his breath hitched!
The red dog's Ghost Hand?
Isn't this the left hand of a DNF Berserker?
Bathed in the plague of Destruction Demon God Kazan! Bringing the power to command blood Qi and endless fury!
This thing actually became his martial soul?
wisps of blood Qi condensed from his fingertips, turning into the phantom of a sword.
Grasping that blood sword, Lin Yue looked at his left hand, which had completely turned crimson, clenched his right fist and hid it behind his back, his heart beginning to beat wildly out of control.
Martial Soul—Ghost Sword!
With just this sword, he could make Douluo's seas of blood surge to the heavens!
[Ding, Arad System is binding—] [Today is another day full of hope~]
Hm?
In the distant sky, a deity's figure paused, looking downward with a strange expression.
"Did something happen, Destruction?"
"No, nothing. It was probably just my imagination."