Martial Soul Awakening

Eastsea City's midsummer was always swept by salty, damp sea winds, but every Awakening Day, the entire city fell into a strange silence.

The plane tree leaves lining the streets had curled under the blazing sun. Even the cicadas seemed to have their cries caught in their throats, afraid to disturb the children about to enter the Spirit Pagoda.

Qi Ji stood at the end of the long line. Above him loomed the Spirit Pagoda's towering dome, while beneath his feet, the marble floor had been polished to a shine.

The line ahead crept forward slowly. Each time the Awakening Chamber doors opened and closed, faces filled with disappointment or confusion emerged.

He counted silently—seventh, eighth, ninth... Not one of them had successfully awakened Soul Power. Qi Ji could not help but grow nervous.

Six years after transmigrating into this world, Qi Ji had finally reached his own Awakening Day.

In his previous life, he had been an utterly ordinary college student. He had squeezed across the single-plank bridge of the college entrance exam, studied an unremarkable major, and after graduation would probably have become one of the countless faceless workers in the city.

Even so, that world had milk tea, food delivery, and gaming friends still online at three in the morning. But what did this place have?

The laws of the Douluo Continent were cruel and straightforward—Soul Power determined everything.

Without Soul Power, you would not even be worth a second glance from the old man guarding Shrek Academy's gates.

He had repeatedly considered a backup plan. If his awakening failed, he would profit from Shrek's destruction—according to the plot, Shrek City would sooner or later be flattened by a Level 12 Godslaying Cannon shell.

When that happened, he could scavenge for bargains.

Besides... with his current face, becoming an idol trainee and debuting after learning from Brother Chicken should not be a problem, right?

"Next."

The Awakening Master's voice interrupted his wild thoughts. Qi Ji took a deep breath and stepped across the threshold.

The Awakening Chamber was smaller than he had imagined. Warm yellow Soul Tool lamps were set into all four walls, and at the center stood a circular formation with patterns as dense as a spiderweb.

The middle-aged man presiding over the awakening wore a Spirit Pagoda uniform, his features softened somewhat by the lamplight.

His brow had initially been slightly furrowed, clearly worn irritable by the nine consecutive failures before this. Yet when his gaze fell on Qi Ji's face, the crease between his brows inexplicably eased.

"Come, little one. Put your hand on this crystal ball." Su Haotao's tone became much gentler.

He had worked in this field for twenty years and had seen far too many children of mediocre aptitude. Yet the clean, bright aura and handsome features of the boy before him inexplicably made him feel fondness.

Qi Ji walked forward as instructed. The instant his palm touched the crystal ball, its icy smoothness sent a shiver through him.

He could not help looking up and asking, "Uncle... do you think I can awaken a good Martial Soul?"

There was undisguised unease in his voice. He was an orphan, abandoned on the stone steps of the orphanage in the west of the city, without even a note in his swaddling clothes.

He did not know who his parents were, what kinds of Martial Souls they possessed, or why those two strangers who had never met him had abandoned him.

He could only pray that, at least when it came to genetics, fate would be merciful to him once.

Before Su Haotao could answer, a sudden change occurred.

The crystal ball seemed to ignite, abruptly erupting with dazzling radiance woven from seven colors!

The light was so dense it was nearly tangible. It spilled through the Awakening Master's fingers, spreading madly along the formation patterns on the floor, and instantly dyed the entire room in magnificent rainbow hues.

At the same time, Qi Ji's consciousness seemed to be violently ripped from his body—he saw a chaotic void, a colossal nine-colored dragon, and that dragon tightly clutching a shriveled dragon resembling Eri and another dragon resembling him with its foreclaws. Every tear rolling from its dragon eyes was as large as a millstone, shattering into specks of light that filled the sky when they struck the ground.

"My son—my son!"

That mournful cry struck directly against his soul.

Qi Ji's eyes snapped open. A dragon's roar burst from his mouth, clear and majestic. The sound waves struck the walls and rebounded, making the Soul Tool vessels on the table clatter.

Seven-colored light pierced through the Awakening Chamber's dome and shot into the sky. The once-white clouds above Eastsea City were churned into a massive vortex, within whose center a dragon-shaped phantom of light faintly writhed.

Pedestrians in the streets stopped and looked up. Spirit Pagoda staff leaned out from every floor, and all of Eastsea City was thrown into an uproar.

Inside the Awakening Chamber, Su Haotao had already retreated into a corner. His back pressed tightly against the cold stone wall, and his lips moved three times before he recovered his voice.

Behind Qi Ji, two phantoms appeared at once.

On the left was a seven-colored dragon, its body winding like a mountain range.

On the right floated a nine-tasseled crown. Nine strings of jade beads hung from its coronet, each ending in a gemstone the size of a pigeon egg. Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, gold, and silver—the nine colors flowed endlessly.

"T-Twin Martial Souls!" Su Haotao's voice was as dry as sandpaper scraping across wood.

In twenty years of work, the greatest genius he had ever encountered had only possessed a single Martial Soul and Level 6 Innate Soul Power. Yet what lay before him now had already surpassed the limits of his understanding—Dragon Clan Martial Souls, and a crown-type Martial Soul at that. What did the combination of the two signify?

Qi Ji slowly withdrew his Martial Souls. He turned toward the Awakening Master slumped against the wall and tried to make his voice sound calm.

"Uncle, I still don't know your name."

Su Haotao braced himself against the wall and straightened up. He wiped away the cold sweat that had somehow seeped onto his forehead and forced out a smile uglier than crying. "Uncle... my surname is Su. My name is Su Haotao. I heard that my ancestor even awakened the Martial Soul of Sea God Tang San—"

He gave two awkward laughs. "But I've always treated it as a story."

He frantically pulled out a Soul Power tester, his fingertips still trembling.

The instant the device touched Qi Ji's wrist, the number on its LCD screen began jumping wildly before finally settling firmly on "10."

Full-scale light overflowed, illuminating Su Haotao's face. He stared at that number for a full five seconds, then suddenly threw back his head and laughed, tears even glimmering at the corners of his eyes.

"Innate Full Soul Power! Twin Martial Souls! A Dragon Clan Martial Soul and a crown Martial Soul!" He grabbed Qi Ji by the shoulders, gripping him as though he wanted to carve the boy into his professional career.

"Little one—no, little friend! Do you know what this means? My performance bonus this year, my promotion by three ranks next year, my evaluation as a senior Awakening Master the year after—all of it is secured!"

Qi Ji was dizzy from being shaken, but inwardly, he quietly let out a sigh of relief.

The joke about the "little friend realm" circled on the tip of his tongue before he swallowed it. His eyes curved as he smiled. "Then congratulations, Uncle."

In truth, Qi Ji was not only congratulating Su Haotao—was he not congratulating himself as well? The good news was that his Martial Souls had awakened, and they were Twin Martial Souls with Innate Full Soul Power.

The bad news was that they were Dragon Clan Martial Souls, which might be suppressed by the Golden and Silver Dragon Kings in Douluo 3.

But there was another piece of good news... the Martial Soul I awakened seemed to be the Dragon God Crown Prince.