Awakening the Martial Soul

Douluo Continent.

Douluo Continent was a land of unimaginably ancient origins, so old that no one could trace the age of its birth.

Tens of thousands of years ago, the entire continent had been covered by boundless primeval forests. Seas became mulberry fields, and ten thousand years passed in the flick of a finger. The vast forests of old had long since changed beyond recognition, and towering buildings now rose in tightly packed rows across sprawling plains, piercing the heavens.

Once upon a time, humans had struggled for a humble existence in this world, often becoming prey in the jaws of soul beasts, desperately caught between hunting and fleeing. Through more than ten thousand years of change, humanity had risen step by step until it firmly held dominion over the entire continent.

Aolai City in the East Sea region belonged to the Sun Moon Federation. It was an unremarkable coastal town whose entire livelihood depended on merchant ships coming and going through its harbor and the flow of cross-border trade.

It was the annual martial soul awakening day. Every child in the city who had turned six would go with their parents to the Red Mountain Junior Soul Master Academy to take part in the all-important awakening ceremony.

In the early morning, a gentle sea breeze brushed across Aolai City, carrying the salty dampness unique to a coastal town, mingled with a faint fishy smell. It was cool and unmistakably real.

A sea of people had already gathered outside the gates of the Red Mountain Junior Soul Master Academy. Today was the day all the city's six-year-olds would awaken their martial souls together. Amid the bustling crowd, parents' undisguised hopes mingled everywhere with the children's barely concealed anxiety and nervousness.

Two figures stood out amid the noisy, surging crowd, drawing repeated sidelong glances from the parents and children waiting in line around them. Those gazes were filled with confusion and surprise.

The middle-aged man wore a simple white shirt and black trousers. His clothes were clean and neat, but utterly unremarkable. His face and features were ordinary, and he even looked a little older than others his age. He was the sort of person who would be forgotten the moment he disappeared into a crowd, without a single outstanding quality.

Yet the little boy standing beside him presented a striking contrast.

The boy likewise wore a plain white shirt and black shorts, made from cheap fabric in an ordinary style. On him, however, they seemed to carry an innate air of refinement, rivaling an exquisite, tailor-made formal outfit.

His skin was fair and luminous, like freshly gathered snow. His short azure hair was soft and fluffy, glimmering with delicate blue light beneath the morning sun. His eyes were clear and crystalline, like sapphires polished by the deep sea. Within them lay a depth and secrecy beyond his years, as though they held all the countless mysteries of an unexplored ocean.

Such an enormous difference in their appearances left everyone around them privately puzzled. It was truly difficult to believe they were father and son.

Sensing the child's tension, Tang Ziran lowered his head, his eyes brimming with inexhaustible tenderness, and gently reassured him, "Wulin, don't be nervous. Every six-year-old has to go through this martial soul awakening. It'll be all right."

Tang Wulin tilted his little face upward, his short blue hair swaying gently in the breeze. His jewel-like eyes looked earnestly at his father, and his voice was firm yet childish. "Dad, I know. I'll definitely awaken an incredibly powerful martial soul. Then I'll work hard and give you and Mom the best life."

He answered obediently, but inwardly he heaved a silent sigh, filled with helplessness and uncertainty.

No one knew that this seemingly obedient, sensible six-year-old did not belong to this world at all.

After dying in a car accident in his previous life, he had transmigrated into the Douluo God Realm. That alone had been enough to overturn everything he knew, but then he had learned an earth-shattering secret: his biological father was none other than the supreme Sea God Tang San. Moreover, a dragon soul was sealed within his body. Unless he found a way to resolve it soon, he would never live to adulthood.

Timing, fate, fortune.

From the moment he was born, he had been destined for a life completely unlike that of ordinary children.

Another helpless sigh rose in his heart, and Tang Wulin smiled bitterly to himself.

In the original story, my innate soul power was at rank three... Don't tell me I'll have to follow the same difficult road as that Flame Emperor, starting with meager soul power and fighting against the wind to turn everything around?

Ever since being reborn into this world, he had never wasted a single moment.

A miracle beyond ordinary people's imagination had begun unfolding when he was only two months old. Still in swaddling clothes, he had already shaken off an infant's ignorance. Not only had he learned to crawl, but he could even speak clearly, completely defying every normal pattern of childhood development.

Once he could barely stand steadily and had learned to walk, he wasted no time studying the writing of Douluo Continent. Starting with the simplest words—"you," "I," and "he"—he babbled his way through them one at a time, patiently working through the basics until he could smoothly read complete sentences and passages. Throughout the process, his development outpaced that of his peers by decades.

Faced with their child's outrageously rapid development, his father, Tang Ziran, and his mother, Lang Yue, were utterly at a loss, trapped in a constant state of profound shock and disbelief. They had seen gifted children before, but never one who defied all reason like this. With only a little guidance, Tang Wulin had taught himself the continent's writing at just one year old and could independently read all sorts of books and articles. His intelligence surpassed anything they could comprehend.

His extraordinary inborn mind had allowed Tang Wulin to display terrifying talent that eclipsed everyone else's from an early age.

In his free time, he had practically lived in every public library in Aolai City, large and small, reading every book they held. The history of Douluo Continent from ancient times to the present, the rise and fall of soul master civilization over tens of thousands of years, the complete development of soul tools from their infancy to their golden age, the Tang Sect founded single-handedly by Sea God Tang San whose might shook the continent, the Spirit Pagoda established by Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao that controlled transactions between soul beasts and soul masters, the officially compiled Soul Beast Power Rankings and Top Continent Experts Rankings... He had read every word of every publicly available source he could find in Aolai City's libraries, committing the continent's entire landscape and hidden lore to memory.

Over time, the federation library staff had become thoroughly familiar with this beautiful little boy who spent every day immersed in a sea of books. Whenever they saw him, they would take the initiative to reserve a quiet reading seat for him. They had long since ceased to find him strange.

Yet the more Tang Wulin learned about this continent, the deeper his worries grew.

In the original story, his innate soul power was at rank three. The Golden Dragon King Divine Core lay secretly sealed inside him, and his true identity as the Sea God's son remained hidden. His path ahead was shrouded in layer upon layer of mist.

Today's martial soul awakening would be the first crucial hurdle of his life.

Looking at his earnest son, Tang Ziran's eyes grew even more tender. He gently reassured him, "Dad believes in you. But no matter what martial soul you awaken, and whether or not it comes with innate soul power, Mom and Dad will always love you."

Those gentle words eased some of the anxiety in Tang Wulin's heart. Before he could say anything more, however, the awakening instructor's cool voice rang out ahead, calling the next name.

"Next, Tang Wulin."

The children ahead of him had completed their awakenings one after another, and in the blink of an eye, it was his turn. In the six years since he had transmigrated into the Douluo World, this was his first real encounter with martial soul awakening, his formal entry into the world of soul masters. It would have been a lie to say he wasn't nervous.

Tang Wulin took a deep breath, suppressing the emotions surging in his heart. He looked up at his father beside him and said softly, "Dad, I'm going to awaken my martial soul."

With that, he stepped forward and jogged toward the awakening instructor.

The young teacher guiding the children looked up at the exceptionally beautiful little boy before him. An almost imperceptible flicker of surprise crossed his eyes before he spoke warmly. "What a cute little fellow. Come with me. You're going to Awakening Room Five."

Having said that, the young teacher led the way. The Red Mountain Junior Soul Master Academy had several separate awakening rooms, and Awakening Room Five was the last in the row.

Tang Wulin nodded calmly and followed. Outwardly, he appeared composed and unruffled, but his thoughts were already flying in every direction, refusing to settle.

Six years. Six whole years. The moment of my martial soul awakening is finally here.

In truth, he had long known that the martial soul he would awaken was destined to be blue silver grass. His family's blue silver emperor bloodline was far too domineering and powerful, passed down through the generations without fail. His father had a blue silver grass martial soul, and so would he. Even his future offspring in the original story could not escape the same martial soul. He could only marvel at how terrifyingly potent his grandmother Ah Yin's hundred-thousand-year blue silver emperor bloodline truly was.

Even though Tang Wulin did his utmost to control his emotions, a faint ripple remained impossible to conceal in the depths of his sapphire-like eyes.

Being reborn as Tang San's son had brought him endless advantages, but also countless troubles. In his previous life, he had read innumerable opinions about Tang San, with criticism and scandals filling the skies: severing the continent's original godhood inheritances, keeping the Douluo God Realm firmly under his control, turning the whole of Douluo Continent into the Tang family's backyard... There were enough such topics to talk about for three days and nights without finishing.

He had been born with this bloodline. He had no way to escape it, nor could he run from it.

As Tang San's son, he was destined to face these disputes and accusations sooner or later. He could neither avoid them nor flee.

For now, however, he did not want to dwell on storms so far in the future. Living well in the present mattered most.

Tang Wulin sighed softly to himself and slowly emptied his mind of its tangled thoughts.

Forget it. I won't think about those knots of fate or future conflicts for now.

It's rare to get a second chance at life. Setting aside all my worries for a while and simply being a carefree six-year-old sounds pretty good, too.

Following the teacher ahead, Tang Wulin walked into Awakening Room Five.

At the center of the room, a spirit transmitter specializing in martial soul awakening was already waiting. The middle-aged man was around thirty or forty, dressed in the Spirit Pagoda's traditional red uniform robe. Faint red light flowed through the subtle patterns on the fabric, the most distinctive attire of a spirit transmitter. His expression was gentle as he looked at Tang Wulin entering the room. Raising a hand, he pointed toward the six-pointed awakening array inscribed on the floor and said softly, "Little one, just stand in the middle of the array."

"All right."

Tang Wulin answered softly. Feeling a little nervous, he rubbed his slightly chilly hands together, then stepped forward and planted himself firmly at the very center of the array.

Once he was in position, the middle-aged spirit transmitter did not waste a moment. He immediately activated his soul power to begin the awakening ceremony. Three soul rings—two yellow and one purple—rose around him in succession. Their halos slowly revolved as powerful soul power poured continuously from his fingertips into the array on the floor.

In an instant, brilliant six-colored light flared along the array's markings. It rapidly spread over the walls and ceiling before converging at the array's center, enveloping Tang Wulin completely.

A gentle, soothing warmth instantly flooded his limbs and every part of his body. It was like being immersed in a comfortably warm spring. All his fatigue vanished as the warmth flowed slowly through his meridians, gently drawing his slumbering martial soul toward awakening.

Tang Wulin silently held his breath. Though he had long foreseen the result, when the moment of awakening truly arrived, he still could not suppress the excitement in his heart.

Come on, my martial soul.

The next instant, a faint blue glow slowly emerged from his right palm. A slender, fragile, utterly inconspicuous blade of grass quietly unfurled its leaves.

It was entirely unremarkable, without a single unusual phenomenon.

It was none other than Douluo Continent's most common and most useless tool martial soul—Blue silver grass.

Sure enough, it's still you.

Tang Wulin understood perfectly. This seemingly ordinary blue silver grass was no common thing, but the blue silver emperor, a top-tier plant-type martial soul still in its juvenile form and suppressed by his bloodline.

But before that thought could settle, a sudden change erupted!

Blindingly brilliant, incomparably domineering golden light exploded from within his body. It surged violently, instantly swallowing all six colors of the awakening array's radiance. Its brilliance far surpassed all the soul power the spirit transmitter had released, forcing both teachers present to instinctively squeeze their eyes shut, unable to look directly at it.

The two spirit transmitters present were startled to their cores and could not help crying out.