Brothers, I've transmigrated!
At that moment, he was in a quiet, elegant guest room in a side courtyard of the Crown Prince's Residence in Heaven Dou City.
The room smelled sweetly of fruit, its atmosphere relaxed and comfortable.
A maid with delicate features approached the door.
Knock, knock, knock!
The maid knocked on the door and called from outside.
"Young Master Fei, His Highness the Crown Prince sent me to ask you to come to the study at once for your martial soul awakening."
"Got it. I'll be right there."
A lazy voice, still tinged with childishness, drifted out of the room.
Inside, a child sprawled languidly on a soft sofa, his limbs stretched out without a trace of the reserve ordinary children showed.
The wooden tray beside him was piled with fresh, plump seasonal fruit, its fragrance filling the air.
He grabbed a grape and tossed it into his mouth before slowly sitting up.
The child was named Zhang Fei, and he had originally come from Blue Star.
In his previous life, Zhang Fei had been just an ordinary student taking the college entrance exams.
Three years earlier, fresh out of those exams, he had felt reasonably confident about his performance. Finally free of the crushing weight of ten years spent studying by a cold window, he had wanted nothing but to cut loose and celebrate.
He had asked his parents for some money, gathered a few friends, and holed up in an upscale internet café, battling away day and night for three straight all-nighters.
But as he dragged his exhausted body out through the café doors, the world had suddenly spun violently around him. His vision went black, and he collapsed straight to the ground, losing consciousness completely.
When he opened his eyes again, Zhang Fei's soul had transmigrated to the Douluo Continent, possessing the body of a child only three years old.
The original owner was named She Fei and was the same age as Tang San.
His background was far from ordinary: he was the only grandson of She Long, the Snake Lance Douluo, one of Spirit Hall's elders.
Whenever Snake Lance Douluo She Long came up, anyone familiar with the Titled Douluos would feel the urge to poke fun.
She Long was a bona fide level ninety-two power attack system Titled Douluo. He possessed the Blue-Purple Snake Lance, one of the continent's finest mutated tool martial souls, and wielded fierce, domineering lightning and poison powers.
His seventh soul skill, "Martial Soul Avatar," could even transform his tool soul avatar into a beast soul form-a Two-Headed Golden Python-giving him both the enhancement of a beast martial soul's transformation and the toughness and might of a tool martial soul. He was unquestionably among the continent's top powerhouses.
And yet this very Titled Douluo had become one of the greatest "running jokes of shame" in Douluo history.
A grand level ninety-two Titled Douluo, he had faced the level eighty-two Soul Douluo Yang Wudi during the Heaven Dou Palace Coup. Despite an overwhelming ten-level advantage, he had been suppressed head-on by his opponent's Soul Breaking Spear.
During the battle at Jialing Pass, with Yang Wudi receiving boosts from Ning Rongrong's Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, She Long had ended up retreating in defeat with serious injuries.
More absurd still, She Long was the only Titled Douluo in the entire history of the Douluo Continent whose fifth soul ring was still a purple thousand-year ring.
If Dugu Bo was the floor tile among Titled Douluos, Snake Lance Douluo probably wasn't much better.
The original She Fei's parents had both been stewards in Spirit Hall, with unremarkable strength. A year earlier, they had both died in the line of duty during an operation to wipe out evil soul masters.
As his only remaining pillar of support, She Long had spent these years carrying out top-secret missions elsewhere under Spirit Hall's orders, rarely returning to Spirit City even once in an entire year.
Very familiar with the original story, Zhang Fei knew that She Long was in Heaven Dou City with his friend Pufferfish, protecting Qian Renxue. They practically never left her side, making it impossible for him to return to Spirit City.
After his parents passed away, young She Fei had remained alone in the residence in Spirit City, with an Old Steward tending to his daily needs.
Three years earlier, on a gloomy day of thunder and pouring rain, the mischievous original owner had slipped out of his room while the steward wasn't watching. He had hidden beneath a large tree and, unfortunately, been struck by a bolt of lightning.
Everyone had thought the child was certain to die. Yet Zhang Fei, arriving from Blue Star, had used that lightning strike as an opening to take over this body and miraculously survive.
Learning that his grandson had escaped death, Snake Lance Douluo had been filled with fear at what might have happened, along with heartache and worry.
After much deliberation, he had approached Qian Renxue, who was hiding in the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace disguised as Xue Qinghe, hoping to arrange for She Fei to stay temporarily at the Crown Prince's Residence in Heaven Dou.
At the time, Qian Renxue was lying low in Heaven Dou, laying her plans in secret. She had only recently secured the position of Crown Prince and was plotting to overthrow the Heaven Dou Imperial Family. The last thing she wanted was an unforeseen complication throwing her plans into disarray.
But Snake Lance Douluo was a steadfastly loyal elder of her inner circle who had followed her for years.
What was more, she had heard that after narrowly surviving the thunder tribulation, She Fei's temperament had changed drastically. He had become obedient, sensible, calm, and reserved, no longer a troublesome child likely to stir up trouble.
After weighing the advantages and disadvantages, Qian Renxue had ultimately agreed.
Under the pretext of taking in an orphan, she had brought She Fei into the Crown Prince's Residence in Heaven Dou City and renamed him Zhang Fei.
Naturally, they had not told him Xue Qinghe's true identity, merely saying that they were secretly protecting the Crown Prince. After all, Zhang Fei was only a three-year-old child.
Time flew, and three years passed in the blink of an eye.
With Snake Lance Douluo protecting him in secret and Crown Prince Xue Qinghe looking after him openly, Zhang Fei had lived very comfortably over those three years.
Zhang Fei was different from those other "transmigrators" and Tang San.
He had no system, no cheat, and no cultivation method. On top of that, he was extremely lazy.
All Zhang Fei could do-and was willing to do-was learn to read and study a few books about martial souls.
This was the Crown Prince's Residence, after all, and Qian Renxue did her best to satisfy this child with such impeccable roots. Zhang Fei couldn't quite claim he lacked nothing, but whatever he asked for, he got.
Through Qian Renxue, he had even managed to wheedle Chrysanthemum Douluo's Immortal Herb Catalogue out of Spirit Hall.
As a transmigrator, Zhang Fei naturally knew how important the Immortal Herb Catalogue was.
The actual inhabitants of the Douluo Continent, however, regarded immortal herbs as little more than legends and paid them scant attention.
Beyond that, Zhang Fei did nothing but eat and sleep, showing none of the feverish drive that sent other transmigrators training as though they had been injected with chicken blood.
He was only a few years old, still at an age when his body was growing. Zhang Fei didn't dare mess around, lest he accidentally train himself into a wreck.
Besides, even playing on my phone in my last life made my hands ache. Now you suddenly expect me to rise at the rooster's crow to practice and sweat buckets? No way, okay? There has to be a process.
Now, Zhang Fei had turned six.
On the Douluo Continent, everyone underwent martial soul awakening after reaching the age of six.
Martial soul awakening could be called the most important event in a person's life here.
Whether one became a dragon or a pig hinged entirely on this single moment.
Some stepped onto the path of the strong because of it, while others plunged to rock bottom, becoming worthless failures scorned by everyone.
Besides awakening a martial soul, there was also the innate soul power test. It determined not only the strength of one's talent, but whether one could become a soul master at all.
Even half a level of soul power was enough to cross that threshold. Without it, one could only fall into the lowest ranks of commoners.
Apart from nobles and disciples of major sects, very few commoners awakened innate soul power.
Even if a commoner awakened relatively high innate soul power, it did not necessarily lead to a good outcome. They might well be seized by nobles or major sects, with men used as breeding studs and women reduced to childbearing machines.
For talented commoners seeking proper training, the best way forward was to join Spirit Hall or a support sect such as the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Spirit Hall asked nothing of one's origins or bloodline. As long as someone had enough talent and worked hard enough, they would receive its full support and training.
Even those without much talent could become ordinary stewards, helping commoners awaken their martial souls.
This was also the main reason Spirit Hall continued to grow stronger, gradually becoming the foremost soul master power on the Douluo Continent.
Zhang Fei's grandfather, Snake Lance Douluo, was the perfect example: born a commoner, with a mutated martial soul and innate soul power above level nine, he had been nurtured into a Titled Douluo entirely by Spirit Hall.
Many of Spirit Hall's middle- and high-ranking members, and even its elders, also came from commoner backgrounds.
Of course, with such an enormous organization and such a low barrier to entry, there was naturally no shortage of parasites and scum.
Before you continue