As I mentioned in my publication announcement, what I originally wanted to write was a Douluo Dalu III: The Legend of the Dragon King fanfic, with Lu Mingfei crossing over into The Legend of the Dragon King.
Then I realized hardly any Legend of the Dragon King fanfics had been completed. With a mediocre author like me writing one, it would probably end up abandoned too.
After thinking it over, I decided to just post it here. You can all read it for a bit of fun.
Douluo: Lu Mingfei, what kind of Dragon King are you?
Synopsis:
[The Legend of the Dragon King fanfic] [Lu Mingfei before his return]
Gu Yuena: I am the Silver Dragon King, sovereign of all soul beasts. I possess the Dragon God's wise divine nature and shoulder the mission of restoring the soul beasts.
Tang Wulin: The power sealed inside me belongs to the Golden Dragon King, but I also have another martial soul, Blue Silver Grass.
"So, Mingfei, what kind of Dragon King are you?"
Lu Mingfei: I don't know. Someone invited me to play this fully immersive virtual reality game, so I came. He still owes me a bottle of Nutri-Express, too.
Chapter 0: Loser Lu's crossover
Lu Mingfei stared blankly at QQ. The avatar of the girl in a baseball cap was still gray and motionless. He scratched his head, a little disappointed.
Spring had gone and autumn had come. The first semester of his senior year was nearly over, and Lu Mingfei would be taking the college entrance exam in another six months. Yet the greater the pressure, the lazier he became. He either ran off to an internet café to play games or lay in bed staring blankly at the ceiling.
What was the point of living?
Lu Mingfei often sank into the sort of contemplation befitting a philosopher, along with confusion over his future.
Plato believed the real world was an imitation and projection of the world of Forms, and that life consisted of recalling Forms such as "goodness," "beauty," and "justice" through learning, thinking, and other means;
Schopenhauer's view was more pessimistic. He believed life was fundamentally suffering, a process in which the will constantly surged blindly forward yet struggled to find satisfaction;
Sartre emphasized that existence preceded essence. People were first thrown into this world without an essence, then had to shape their own through their choices and actions. Thus, the meaning of life lay in continually making free choices and giving oneself an essence.
Whenever Lu Mingfei thought about these things, he could hear his homeroom teacher's old assessment:
"Lu Mingfei, were you born a deadweight? All you think about is useless nonsense. If you've got time to stare into space, improve your grades instead. Life may come around again, but the college entrance exam only comes once."
Lu Mingfei had a quiet mischievous streak. He really wanted to argue that if life could come around again, then the college entrance exam would come more than once too-unless you weren't reincarnated in this country next time.
But he didn't have the guts.
So Lu Mingfei could only sit in his seat by the window in the back row, burying his face dejectedly in his school uniform. Only once everyone's gazes had drifted away would he sneak a glance toward Chen Wenwen.
As long as she didn't have a problem with me.
Chen Wenwen didn't have any problem with Lu Mingfei.
Every week, Lu Mingfei still read bleak, sorrowful European and American literature at the literary club, and Chen Wenwen still wore a white dress and white ankle socks trimmed with lace. As the two sat in the classroom, time stood still, leaving only the flowers and grass outside the window to grow wild.
But after school, the avatar of the girl in a baseball cap on QQ was always gray.
Sometimes Lu Mingfei felt the world would be exactly the same with or without him. Zhao Menghua would still be a wealthy young master, the Little Heavenly Maiden's family would still own all those mines, and Chen Wenwen would still sit on a bench holding a copy of Duras's The Lover.
What was the meaning of life? Lu Mingfei couldn't answer that question, but he could choose to go get some fries at the docks.
So Lu Mingfei switched away from QQ, planning to start a round of StarCraft.
[Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want... to live?]
A line of text appeared on the computer screen.
Lu Mingfei couldn't keep a straight face. He had read infinite-flow novels too. An opening this obvious was far too easy to recognize.
Was the Main God going to ask him next whether he was willing to shine and burn for Main God Space?
Then he'd wave his flag and cheer nonstop, "Hooray, hooray! I've had enough of this damned life! It's time to take the initiative for my future!" And off he'd run with the Main God, leashed like a dog and barking all the way.
Lu Mingfei rested his hand on the mouse and lightly clicked [NO].
He refused.
Lu Mingfei had fantasized about his own moment of glory: a helicopter descending from the sky to pick him up, a group of men in black suits and sunglasses walking in with the cold demeanor of movie agents and saying, "Mr. Lu Mingfei, the organization needs you." Then they'd escort him out of the venue.
The point wasn't what he was going to do. The point was the way everyone else would look at his departing back.
If I went to Main God Space, could I even come back and return in glory in front of Chen Wenwen?
Uh, actually, maybe I could.
Lu Mingfei decided not to think about anything so complicated. He went out and headed to a nearby internet café.
Since he'd decided to go get some fries at the docks, he absolutely had to play a round today.
Lu Mingfei could be quite stubborn sometimes. Besides, that internet café had no shortage of wealthy patrons. With a little luck, someone might even treat him to Nutri-Express.
In the smoke-choked internet café, Lu Mingfei battled other players until heaven and earth seemed to darken. Plenty of fellow StarCraft players were stunned and crowded behind him.
"Bro, you're a pro player, right?"
His eyebrows drooping, Lu Mingfei shook his head listlessly. "No, no. Just an ordinary guy."
The guys in the café were filled with respect and all urged Lu Mingfei to play another teaching match. "One more round, master... Boss, get me two bottles of Nutri-Express."
The owner set the Nutri-Express in front of Lu Mingfei. He shifted awkwardly in his seat, secretly delighted. "Thanks, thanks."
Lu Mingfei played one teaching match after another until the show was over and everyone had left. Looking at the gloomy sky outside, he stood and stretched his back, his eyes aching.
"I've got an even better game here. Want to give it a try, master?" The café owner leaned over and waggled his eyebrows.
"It's getting late." Lu Mingfei actually wanted to refuse.
"I've got a fully immersive virtual reality online game. Sight, hearing, smell, touch... all exactly like the real world. The only one of its kind in the world." Brimming with swagger, the owner slapped the table. "Don't you want to try it, master?"
Lu Mingfei's mouth twitched. "What is this, some kind of novel premise?"
Afraid Lu Mingfei wouldn't believe him, the owner took a helmet from beneath the front desk. It was shaped much like a motorcycle helmet, opaque black inside and out, and looked thoroughly unremarkable. "Give it a try. I'll cover all your Nutri-Express from now on."
As he spoke, he took out another bottle of Nutri-Express.
Lu Mingfei was itching to try. It wasn't that he was coveting the Nutri-Express; he mainly wanted to see what sort of game this supposed "fully immersive virtual reality online game" really was.
Lu Mingfei put it on his head, and then...
And then there was no "then." In an instant, he lost all awareness.
Chapter 1: Crossing over for Nutri-Express
Douluo Continent's East Sea, Aolai City.
Lu Mingfei stared vacantly ahead. In front of him was the Blue Screen that only he could see.
[Main quests] [Become the strongest in Douluo (incomplete)] [Kill the Final Boss (incomplete)]
"The café owner wasn't wrong. The game really does offer a lot of freedom, and it really is fully immersive virtual reality. But it seems to have gone a little too far. Rather than entering a game, I'd say I've crossed straight into another world."
Lu Mingfei muttered a stream of nonsense no one else could understand. He had been in this world for a year and had more or less figured out the situation.
This other world was called the Douluo Continent. Its technology and history differed from those of his original Earth. More importantly, the humans here possessed a supernatural ability called a martial soul.
After awakening their martial souls, humans with soul power could cultivate just like characters in fantasy novels and become soul masters. The strongest could move mountains, fill seas, and do practically anything... like Sea God Tang San and Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao from ten thousand years ago.
Before crossing over, Lu Mingfei had been a high school senior preparing for the college entrance exam. But his gaming addiction had flared up, and he'd spent an afternoon playing StarCraft at an internet café. Then the unscrupulous owner had lured him into staying with Nutri-Express and invited him to try a fully immersive virtual reality game.
Lu Mingfei was a veteran anime fan who had watched Sword Art Online, so he shouldn't have been so easily fooled. But his mouth and throat had been parched, and he hadn't thought too much about it. He'd taken a sip of the Nutri-Express the café owner gave him and put on the supposed "helmet-style sensor."
Then... then Lu Mingfei had crossed over and become a five-year-old child.
Fortunately, people didn't die everywhere Lu Mingfei went, so he didn't need to rename himself Edogawa Mingfei. Unfortunately, he was permanently stuck in this "game world," so he might have to rename himself Kirigaya Mingfei.
After living on the Douluo Continent for a year, Lu Mingfei had fully accepted that he had crossed into another world.
If this was a game world, with no logout option, no character panel, and no beginner tutorial, what kind of game was it?
But if he treated the quest panel on the Blue Screen before him as a transmigrator's "game system" cheat, Lu Mingfei felt everything made sense.
And today was the day Lu Mingfei would officially unlock his cheat.
Through observation, Lu Mingfei had discovered that every six-year-old child attended a martial soul awakening ceremony, making this day the Douluo Continent's Awakening Day.
Lu Mingfei realized that once he awakened his own martial soul, the entire game interface might become available to him. Then he wouldn't have to spend every day staring blankly at three lines of [Main quests].
More importantly, Lu Mingfei hoped he could return to his original Earth after completing all the main quests. He had already spent a year on the Douluo Continent. If time flowed at the same rate, the college entrance exam back there would already be over...
How was Chen Wenwen doing? Which university had she gone to?
"Ow!"
Completely absorbed in his tangled thoughts, Lu Mingfei collided squarely with a little boy.
"Sorry, sorry."
Lu Mingfei staggered back several steps before barely steadying himself. The collision had left his head spinning too. He instinctively raised a hand to rub his forehead and focused on the person he'd bumped into.
The boy had short black hair and was slightly taller than others his age. His large eyes had sharply defined whites and dark pupils, and his long eyelashes put even some girls' to shame.
Compared with Lu Mingfei's somewhat scruffy, careless appearance, the boy looked positively aristocratic.
"It's all right."
The little boy had a pleasant disposition and introduced himself first. "My name is Tang Wulin. I'm here for martial soul awakening. You're here for that too, right? Where are your parents?"
Only then did Lu Mingfei fully come back to his senses. "My name is Lu Mingfei. I'm an orphan, so I came to Awakening Day by myself."
Like most protagonists in novels, Lu Mingfei had ended up in an orphanage after crossing over. There, he was the sort of loser nobody paid much attention to, so he had no choice but to come for martial soul awakening alone.
Wasn't that how losers were? A loser was a loser in any world. That was why Chen Wenwen taking the initiative to invite him into the literary club had meant so much.
Now it was Tang Wulin's turn to apologize to Lu Mingfei. "Sorry. I didn't know you were..."
In little Tang Wulin's eyes, a child who had lost his parents and become an orphan was terribly pitiful. Asking where his parents were had been like sticking a knife into Lu Mingfei's heart.
"It's fine. I'm used to it." Lu Mingfei truly didn't mind. Before crossing over, he'd lived with his uncle and aunt. His parents were like elusive dragons, showing their heads but never their tails, and he'd never felt much sense of belonging. After crossing over, he was even more alone.
Hearing Lu Mingfei say "I'm used to it" only made Tang Wulin feel guiltier. He offered, "Lu Mingfei, come awaken with me. I'll take you to register."
Tang Wulin reached out to take his hand, but Lu Mingfei suddenly dodged it. Tang Wulin froze.
"Sorry, my hands are a little dirty." Lu Mingfei wiped his palm against his chest, then held it out again with a broad smile. "You looked so neatly dressed..."
Lu Mingfei never had the chance to finish. Tang Wulin took his hand on his own initiative and led him toward the gates of Red Mountain Academy.
"This is my dad. Dad, this is my friend, Lu Mingfei. Help us both register."
"Hello, Uncle Tang." Flustered, Lu Mingfei ducked his head, looking as timid as a newly adopted little white rabbit.
"Mingfei, is it? My name is Tang Ziran. Just call me Uncle. I'll register you both right away. Don't worry, it's only a matter of putting down your details."
Tang Ziran was an ordinary-looking man who reminded Lu Mingfei of his uncle before he crossed over, but he was very courteous in his dealings with others.
Only an Uncle Tang with manners like these could raise a good child like Tang Wulin, so different from the other children in this world.
After arriving on the Douluo Continent, Lu Mingfei had discovered that society here was remarkably fond of bravado and fighting. Even many children would deliberately provoke trouble and bully others. After learning more, he realized this was an educational philosophy passed down by the ten-thousand-year-old Shrek Academy:
Those who don't dare make trouble are mediocrities.
What did "those who don't dare make trouble are mediocrities" mean? It meant even eating a meal in the orphanage cafeteria could get someone killed.
Lu Mingfei had seen it with his own eyes.
Over who got to sit beside a girl, two little boys had unleashed their martial souls and fought like gorillas competing for a mate. Though neither had soul power, the flames of battle still swept everywhere and caught innocent bystanders in the crossfire. Dozens of people were scalded by millet porridge.
If they'd wasted food like that at Shilan High School, the cafeteria ladies would have chased them down three streets, swinging ladles.
Tang Ziran went to fill out the registration forms for them. Lu Mingfei and Tang Wulin found a cool spot under a tree and sat down to rest. A breeze brushed gently past, rustling the leaves and branches. It was wonderfully relaxing.
"Lu Mingfei, have you thought about what your martial soul might be?" Tang Wulin's eyes were full of anticipation for his awakening.
Lu Mingfei hunched his back and let his shoulders droop. "I haven't."
He really hadn't thought about what his martial soul might be. As long as awakening one could unlock the game interface, that was enough. Surely a cheat wouldn't shortchange its transmigrator.
"Tang Wulin! Lu Mingfei!" A teacher emerged from Red Mountain Academy and called their names while looking at a form.
"I'm here!" Tang Wulin's eyes flew wide, and he sprang up excitedly.
Lu Mingfei perked up too.
It would have been a lie to say Lu Mingfei wasn't hoping to awaken some powerful martial soul. He was just that contradictory a person. He genuinely had no idea what his martial soul would be, though.
Surely it couldn't be a Zergling from StarCraft.
Chapter 2: Word Spirit: Emperor
Inside Red Mountain Academy, the teacher led Lu Mingfei and Tang Wulin to a round classroom building, then told Tang Ziran, "Parents should wait here."
Tang Ziran nodded and looked at his son. "Follow the teacher's instructions. You can do it, son! Dad will be waiting right here. Mingfei, good luck to you too."
Lu Mingfei nodded.
Beside him, Tang Wulin looked radiant with excitement. "Dad, I'll have a powerful martial soul."
Tang Wulin entered the round building's awakening chamber first, and Lu Mingfei followed like a little tagalong, his head lowered.
Every elementary academy had awakening chambers like these, designed specifically to help six-year-old children awaken their martial souls. Whenever Awakening Day came around, the academy would invite a spirit transmitter from the Spirit Pagoda to perform the ceremonies.
There wasn't just one place for martial soul awakening inside. The building had seven floors, each with its own awakening chamber. Tang Wulin was taken to the chamber on the third floor, while Lu Mingfei went to the seventh.
"Enough talk. I'm going to begin."
The gentle white light glowing in the spirit transmitter's hands drew Lu Mingfei's attention.
"Mm-hmm. Go right ahead. This humble one's body can withstand the torture." Lu Mingfei nodded, spouting nonsense as he stared fixedly at the white light.
The spirit transmitter's mouth twitched at the child's nonsense, but his hands continued moving at an unhurried pace.
Beautiful, dazzling patterns lit up throughout the awakening chamber. Starting at the ceiling, they extended down the walls and spread toward Lu Mingfei's feet, finally converging where he stood.
"Hss..."
A warm power surged into his body through the soles of his feet. Lu Mingfei felt his whole body begin to tremble slightly, as though an electric current were passing through him.
Everything before his eyes blurred. Images flashed through his mind one after another, and Lu Mingfei widened his eyes, trying to see them more clearly.
Boom-
Ice covered a mountain that stabbed straight into the sky. The heavens were a deep blood-red. At the summit, a black dragon lay motionless, its wings hanging all the way to the mountain's foot. Thick, reeking blood stained the entire icy peak red.
"This dragon..." Lu Mingfei suddenly felt a sorrow, the grief of one creature for its own kind.
Almost simultaneously, every dragon-type martial soul and every dragon of noble blood on the Douluo Continent felt a tremor from deep within their bloodlines. It was as though a newborn Dragon King were roaring, wantonly unleashing his imperial might in the East Sea.
Word Spirit: Emperor.
The Silver Dragon King, who had only recently risen from the depths of the Star Dou Great Forest, felt her pupils contract slightly. She had just sensed that fellow dragon growling upon his throne, his immense power sweeping across half the planet, crossing the vast ocean and striking awe into the other continent on the far side.
"Is it you? Did you escape from the Divine Realm? Are you in the east?"
In the spirit transmitter's eyes, all he saw was Lu Mingfei's pupils turning gold-a pale gold filled with an emperor's incomparable majesty, yet somehow so sorrowful.
Although this Spirit Transmitter did not have a dragon-type martial soul, he still could not look directly into the blazing golden eyes of Lu Mingfei. He quietly lowered his head to record the information.
A body martial soul? As for its characteristics... golden eyes?
Faint energy fluctuations quietly radiated from Lu Mingfei.
"A body martial soul with soul power, just as I thought." The Spirit Transmitter was delighted. Often, even after conducting awakening ceremonies for an entire day, he might not encounter a single child with soul power.
Especially in a small place like Aolai City.
Lu Mingfei's golden eyes dimmed, returning to black. As he concentrated, the Blue Screen appeared before his eyes, and all the information on it had changed.
[Lu Mingfei] [Martial soul: ** bloodline] [Soul power: Lv.1 (0/100)] [Spiritual power: 49 (Spirit Origin Realm)] [Passive skill: Word Spirit: Emperor]
It was finally something other than those three lines of main quests. Delighted, Lu Mingfei began studying his personal panel.
Wait, what does this ** bloodline mean? Does my personal panel have censored words too?
Seeing Lu Mingfei standing there in a daze, the Spirit Transmitter happily patted his hunched back. "You've awakened your martial soul. A body martial soul, Golden Eyes, with level-one innate soul power... you're practically identical to our founding Pagoda Master!"
The founding Pagoda Master? Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao?
Lu Mingfei came back to his senses. Having lived on the Douluo Continent for a year, he had naturally heard the stories of Spirit Ice Douluo. Compared with Sea God Tang San, the founder of the soul spirit system had greater influence among lower-ranking Soul Masters.
After all, Tang San smashing the evil organization Spirit Hall twenty thousand years ago had little to do with people today. But without Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao ten thousand years ago, the entire soul spirit cultivation system would not exist, and who knew where today's Spirit Pagoda would be?
The Spirit Transmitter had no intention of recruiting Lu Mingfei into the Spirit Pagoda. Though he had a body martial soul like their founding Pagoda Master, Lu Mingfei ultimately had only level-one innate soul power. His future was still uncertain.
After all, not everyone was Spirit Ice Douluo. Most Soul Masters with level-one innate soul power spent their whole lives amounting to nothing.
Lu Mingfei muddled his way through registration and walked out. He was still wondering why his martial soul was the censored ** bloodline rather than the Golden Eyes the Spirit Transmitter had mentioned.
At the awakening room's entrance, Lu Mingfei ran into Tang Wulin. The pretty boy looked utterly dazed, as though he had suffered a crushing blow.
Lu Mingfei knew that state well. Back when Chen Wenwen had ignored him on QQ for several days, he had looked exactly like that-bereft of his soul, like a dog with its spine pulled out.
Chen Wenwen... that profile picture of a girl wearing a baseball cap...
"Mingfei, you're out too." Seeing that it was Lu Mingfei, Tang Wulin perked up a little and asked, "What's your martial soul?"
"Golden Eyes... basically just my eyes. Level-one innate soul power." Lu Mingfei scratched his head, his gaze wandering as he lied to Tang Wulin about his martial soul. "They said I have the same talent as Spirit Ice Douluo. Pretty good."
"Uh..."
Tang Wulin silently griped, What do you mean, the same talent as Spirit Ice Douluo? They just mean you have level-one innate soul power, right? Spirit Ice Douluo had twin martial souls.
Tang Wulin had grown up reading stories about Lord Sea God and Spirit Ice Douluo, so of course he knew the Spirit Transmitter had only said that to fool a child.
"What's your martial soul?" Lu Mingfei asked in turn.
Tang Wulin's mouth twitched. "My martial soul is Blue Silver Grass, just like Ancestor Tang San's. Level-three innate soul power."
"Uh..."
Lu Mingfei silently griped, Blue Silver Grass... even I know that's the textbook trash martial soul. No wonder this brat looks like he's swallowed a bitter melon. Out of the whole Blue Silver Grass martial soul family, Tang San was the only one who ever made anything of himself.
"Well."
Lu Mingfei patted Tang Wulin's shoulder, but the comforting words on his tongue turned into nonsense. "Blue Silver Grass is actually pretty good. Green, environmentally friendly, and a renewable resource. It's no good in a fight, but at least you have level-three soul power. Look at me. I only have level one."
Warmth filled Tang Wulin's heart. He knew Lu Mingfei was trying to comfort him. Besides, Lu Mingfei was even worse off than he was, yet his spirits were perfectly normal. That was really impressive.
"You're right! We still have soul power!" Tang Wulin's fighting spirit flared again. "I have Blue Silver Grass, and you have Golden Eyes. We can definitely become the Lord Sea God and Spirit Ice Douluo of this era!"
"..." Lu Mingfei had no response.
What was with that speech straight out of a hot-blooded anime protagonist's mouth?!
Chapter 3: You have the makings of Spirit Ice, Mingfei!
Lu Mingfei envied Tang Wulin's boundless energy. After saying goodbye to Tang Wulin and Tang Ziran, he dragged himself back to the orphanage.
"Even though I've unlocked my cheat, I can't see any hope of leveling up... I guess this is how a loser should be. My martial soul sucks, and my innate soul power is only level one. This life's just like my last. Still a loser."
The lingering hopes in Lu Mingfei's heart and the quips he had made while comforting Tang Wulin all turned into self-mockery. A moment ago, he had still been able to encourage Tang Wulin. Now he had sunk into an emotional quagmire himself.
It was not as though Lu Mingfei had never held any hopes for his martial soul and innate soul power.
It was like liking a girl who stood shining in the sunlight, wearing a white cotton dress and holding a book. Even if you humbled yourself into the dirt, wouldn't you still hope she might spare you another glance?
Lu Mingfei thought of Chen Wenwen again and felt a surge of hurt.
At least Chen Wenwen had once invited him to join the literature club. His awakened martial soul and soul power had given him no chance at all.
Although Lu Mingfei thought his luck had hit rock bottom, others did not see it that way.
The orphanage director's surname was Lin. When he learned that Lu Mingfei actually had soul power, he was so delighted that he broke with tradition and took every staff member and child at the orphanage out for a meal.
Previously, this orphanage director had barely bothered acknowledging Lu Mingfei.
"Mingfei, you're the pride of our Qidian Orphanage."
Director Lin happily patted Lu Mingfei's hunched back, straightening it as though the boy were his own nephew. "Excellent, excellent. After twenty years, our orphanage has finally welcomed another Soul Master!"
Why did he sound like a village celebrating its second college student at last?
Lu Mingfei felt a sense of déjà vu, as though he were still at Shilan High School but had secured guaranteed admission to a Project 985 university through outstanding grades. His uncle and aunt would suddenly hold their heads high and tell everyone they met, "See? We're the ones who pushed Mingfei to study every day. Otherwise, how could he have gotten into a top university?"
Lu Mingfei asked, "Director, don't I only have level-one innate soul power? It's not particularly impressive."
Director Lin clicked his tongue twice, looking as though he had inside knowledge not meant for outsiders. "But you have soul power, and a body martial soul at that. Not some trash martial soul like Blue Silver Grass. Do you know the chance of having soul power and becoming a Soul Master is one in a thousand?"
Actually, mine isn't a body martial soul either. It's a censored-word bloodline martial soul.
That was what Lu Mingfei thought.
Director Lin drank a glass of liquor, his face flushing, then firmly patted Lu Mingfei's back, which had hunched over again. "Mingfei, you need confidence. Apart from not having twin martial souls, you practically have the makings of Spirit Ice!"
Unused to Director Lin's enthusiasm, Lu Mingfei awkwardly raised his juice and smiled. While the director was boasting about the glory of his own martial soul awakening back in the day, he escaped to a corner and diligently tackled a greasy pork knuckle.
Red Mountain Junior Academy.
Its white roofs and red walls shone with a distinctive charm in the sunlight, as though every brick carried stories of the years, silently recounting fragments of the academy's past. Two thousand students studied and lived here, adding a lively touch of everyday bustle to this place steeped in history.
Lin Ximeng walked ahead while Lu Mingfei dragged a rather heavy suitcase, following closely behind.
After Lu Mingfei awakened his martial soul, Director Lin had pulled strings to contact Lin Ximeng at Red Mountain Academy, asking her to arrange a place for Lu Mingfei as a boarding student, with the opportunity to earn some money working on campus.
And so Lu Mingfei moved from the orphanage to Red Mountain Academy.
Lu Mingfei was quite surprised.
The orphanage's Director Lin might not have been like the Bumbles in Oliver Twist, beastly enough to skim the children's thin gruel rations, but he was hardly a good person like the siblings Matthew and Marilla in Anne of Green Gables, either.
Since when had Director Lin become so kind? Just because I awakened a martial soul and gained soul power?
Maybe that really was it. Just like Fan Jin passing the imperial examination.
Before Lu Mingfei awakened his martial soul, when he climbed onto the roof to gaze at the sea, the matron would chase him away like a stray cat. Since he had awakened and gained soul power, whenever he returned after spacing out in the evening, she instantly conjured up the smile of a five-star hotel supervisor.
Wasn't this just a goddamn Douluo Continent remix of Fan Jin passing the imperial examination? Before, you were a filthy beggar, your father-in-law swinging his palm and calling you a plague-ridden pig. After you passed, every local gentleman in the county suddenly became your long-lost brother.
Lu Mingfei realized that he seemed to have entered a "circle"... a "circle" belonging to the ruling class.
Soul power was authority and might in this world!
Following the winding bluestone path, the two passed several teaching buildings and a lush little garden before finally reaching the dormitory area.
"We're here." Lin Ximeng looked back at the somewhat dazed Lu Mingfei, the corners of her mouth lifting into a faint smile. "This is where you'll be living from now on. Make sure you settle in properly."
Lin Ximeng was the homeroom teacher of Red Mountain Academy's Soul Master class, and would be Lu Mingfei's homeroom teacher for the next three years. She was also a Soul Master who had grown up in an orphanage.
Only then did Lu Mingfei come back to his senses. He hurriedly bowed in thanks. "Thank you, Ms. Lin."
"Call me big sister." Lin Ximeng extended her slender fingers, gently pinched Lu Mingfei's cheeks, and tugged them outward. "I saw you at the orphanage before. Hehe, so cute. You're so timid. It's adorable."
Lin Ximeng ruffled Lu Mingfei's hair. This child really was cute, and not bad-looking either-practically a rare treasure with a pitifully endearing air.
Under Sun Moon Federation regulations, elementary and intermediate academies provided free compulsory education. Elementary education lasted three years, and intermediate education six.
The ordinary classes at junior academies only offered standard academic education. In addition to that, Soul Master classes primarily taught students born with soul power how to become Soul Masters, along with knowledge about Soul Masters, preparing them to enter intermediate academies.
Red Mountain Academy's Soul Master class had only sixteen students this year.
When Lu Mingfei entered the classroom, the first person he noticed was Tang Wulin. The boy's eyes were so beautiful that he was a conspicuously handsome little guy among children his age.
"Mingfei." Tang Wulin greeted him first. It was his first time attending school, and seeing a familiar face in an unfamiliar environment felt wonderful.
"Wulin." Lu Mingfei scratched his head and chose the seat beside Tang Wulin.
"Hey, what are your martial souls?" A short, chubby boy leaned toward Tang Wulin and asked.
They were all children of the same age, full of curiosity about their upcoming lives in the Soul Master class.
Tang Wulin looked proud. "Blue Silver Grass, just like Ancestor Tang San." As he spoke, he turned his right hand palm-up. Blue light surged in his palm, and strands of Blue Silver Grass sprouted from it.
"Pfft-" The chubby boy sounded thoroughly disdainful. "Blue Silver Grass! That's a trash martial soul."
Then he turned to Lu Mingfei.
"What about you?"
Chapter 4: The bond between deskmates is harder than diamond, Wulin
"My eyes..."
Lu Mingfei did not even mention that his registered martial soul was actually Golden Eyes. He felt there was no need. This chubby boy was clearly looking to feel superior to them, and Lu Mingfei had seen plenty of that before.
Back at Shilan High School, the round, chubby twins Xu Yanyan and Xu Miaomiao had loved finding ways to feel superior in front of Lu Mingfei. Since Lu Mingfei liked video games, the twins would flaunt how they played Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots on a Sony PlayStation 3, while Lu Mingfei could only play StarCraft at an internet café.
"A body martial soul!" The chubby boy looked surprised. "Then yours is way better than Blue Silver Grass."
"..." Tang Wulin had no response.
"Huh!" Lu Mingfei was still rather unused to being treated with respect. Wasn't the plot supposed to involve this chubby boy coming over to sneer at him?
Just like those two "basketballs," Xu Yanyan and Xu Miaomiao.
Was he afraid to do it because I had a body martial soul?
But mine is a censored-word bloodline martial soul... sure, it sounds more impressive, but I don't even know what bloodline I have. What if I'm half goblin?
All right, I can't be half goblin, because...
Lu Mingfei focused on the [Passive skill: Word Spirit: Emperor] entry.
[Word Spirit: Emperor: Inflicts absolute mental awe upon those with dragon bloodlines within its domain. It can be regarded as an immensely amplified "dragon's majesty," capable of completely suppressing its targets through sheer authority alone.]
This bloodline should have something to do with dragons, so... a goblin-dragon hybrid? In any case, Lu Mingfei felt that a loser like him could not possibly have some prestigious bloodline.
Tang Wulin asked indignantly, "What about you? What's your martial soul?"
The chubby boy snorted and waved his right hand. A cold gleam flashed, and a short blade appeared in his hand.
"My martial soul is a blade. If I cultivate to Titled Douluo someday, I'll call myself Blade God Douluo. I could chop those strands of Blue Silver Grass into pieces without even trying."
Looking at the short blade in the other boy's hand, then at the Blue Silver Grass in his own, Tang Wulin's silence was deafening.
Blue Silver Grass really did seem to fall short.
Seeing Tang Wulin suffer a setback, Lu Mingfei thought for a moment, then summoned the courage to stand up for his friend. "A blade's pretty ordinary too, isn't it? Every household has a kitchen knife. You think it's an enchanted watermelon knife that can hack its way from the Southern Heavenly Gate to Causeway Bay?"
"Mine isn't an ordinary short blade. It's a blade with level-five innate soul power." The chubby boy sounded somewhat anxious, as though he wanted to impress this body martial soul "genius," Lu Mingfei. "Understand? Level-five innate soul power! What level is yours?"
Lu Mingfei's raised head slowly drooped. His back hunched slightly, his head hanging low. "Level-one innate soul power. Laugh if you want."
The chubby boy did not laugh. Instead, he wiped his nose and raised his chin. "Spirit Ice Douluo also had level-one innate soul power. You body martial soul types have loads of potential, unlike Blue Silver Grass martial souls."
"..." Tang Wulin had no response.
So everyone gets to stomp on Blue Silver Grass martial souls, huh? My innate soul power is level three, you know.
As the bell rang, Lin Ximeng walked in. First, she introduced herself as the Soul Master class's homeroom teacher, then had all sixteen students introduce themselves.
With so few students, the introductions went quickly. When Lin Ximeng heard Tang Wulin introduce his martial soul as Blue Silver Grass, even she could not help looking startled. The other students burst into laughter.
At once, the whole classroom filled with a merry atmosphere.
Tang Wulin's little face flushed crimson, as though a ball of fire were trapped in his chest.
Lu Mingfei lay across his desk, chin resting on the desktop, eyes half-closed as though he might fall asleep at any moment. At the crucial moment, he had chickened out again. He did not dare stand up for Tang Wulin in front of the entire class.
Blue Silver Grass was a trash martial soul to begin with.
That was what Lu Mingfei thought.
Even if his eloquence made lotuses bloom from his tongue and he praised Blue Silver Grass as a heavenly mountain snow lotus, he could hardly change its nature as a trash martial soul. Just as a loser was a loser-insist on dressing him in a sharp suit and polished shoes, and he would still be nothing but a monkey wearing a crown.
Lin Ximeng began the lesson. The first class introduced the oldest profession on the Douluo Continent: Soul Masters.
Lu Mingfei glanced at his deskmate. Tang Wulin had his head lowered, his shoulders slightly tense. His tightly pressed lips pricked Lu Mingfei's heart like a little thorn.
Lu Mingfei knew that feeling all too well: being treated as a joke by everyone, wishing he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
At Shilan High School, he had been that worthless dog everyone made fun of.
"Sigh..." Lu Mingfei sighed silently in his heart.
Fine, a worthless dog was a worthless dog. He didn't dare offer public support. Who did he think he was, anyway? What would he do if he pissed off a classmate who looked like he could really fight?
But looking at Tang Wulin's stiff profile, Lu Mingfei felt that he could not live with himself if he did nothing.
He sneaked a glance at Lin Ximeng, who had turned to write on the board, then pulled an academy-issued notebook from his desk compartment. Carefully, he tore a strip from a page's corner, his movements as light as a thief's. Then he fished a pencil from his pocket, braced the notebook on his knees, and quickly began writing, his crooked handwriting carrying a touch of guilty haste.
After finishing, Lu Mingfei quietly crumpled the note into a tiny ball. Taking advantage of Lin Ximeng turning away again, he discreetly nudged Tang Wulin's arm with his elbow and flicked his fingers.
Pew~
The little paper ball landed precisely in the crease of Tang Wulin's open textbook.
Tang Wulin was absorbed in learning about Soul Masters. The light touch on his arm and the foreign object landing on his book startled him, and his body instinctively tensed.
It's for you, for you~
Lu Mingfei blinked rapidly at Tang Wulin.
Tang Wulin glanced at Lu Mingfei. His deskmate was now making a show of watching the blackboard, as though everything that had just happened had nothing to do with him. Only his slightly sidelong gaze betrayed a trace of barely perceptible nervousness.
Using his textbook as cover, Tang Wulin picked up the tiny paper ball and quietly unfolded it beneath the desk.
[Wulin. Ignore them. What's wrong with Blue Silver Grass? You can weave a straw hat in summer to block the sun and stay cool. If you're starving, you can even roll it into noodles and cook instant ramen. As for fighting... don't you have Sea God Tang San's shining example before you? Your surname's Tang too. Who knows, maybe you were one family five hundred years ago. That's pretty badass.]
Tang Wulin was stunned at first. Then an indescribable, faintly absurd warmth welled up inside him.
The wilted-looking Lu Mingfei had offered neither hollow comfort nor hot-blooded encouragement. Instead, he had clumsily reached out with a wildly off-topic bit of banter.
Tang Wulin's tense shoulders relaxed almost imperceptibly. Staring at the line about "rolling it into noodles and cooking instant ramen," the corners of his mouth actually lifted a tiny fraction, though he quickly pressed them back down.
[Thank you, Mingfei.]
[It's fine, it's fine. The bond between deskmates is harder than diamond, Wulin.]
Chapter 5: Gu Yuena's Watchful Gaze
Outside the window, the moonlight washed everything clean. Crickets chirped in the grass, the half-withered ivy at the foot of the wall stood illuminated down to its veins, and a school uniform hanging from the clothesline rustled in the night breeze.
Lu Mingfei sat cross-legged on his dormitory bed and calmed his mind. The Federal Compulsory Education textbook, "Basic Meditation Method," lay open on his knees, its frayed page edges steeped pale blue-white in the moonlight.
Two hours later, Lu Mingfei finished cultivating and looked at the blue screen appearing before him.
[Lu Mingfei] [Martial soul: ** bloodline] [Technique: Basic Meditation Method] [Soul power: Lv.1 (30/100)] [Spiritual power: 49 (Spirit Origin Realm)]
They really did things properly here on the Douluo Continent. On the afternoon of their very first day, their homeroom teacher, Lin Ximeng, had taught the students a meditation method for cultivating soul power, as casually as handing out compulsory education textbooks.
Back at the orphanage, Lu Mingfei had assumed that obtaining a soul power meditation method would be difficult. To fight for the Nine Yin Manual, you first had to jump off a cliff; to learn the Sunflower Manual, you first had to castrate yourself. At the very least, you would have to offer a pledge of allegiance, like Lin Pingzhi joining the Mount Hua Sect-but the Federal Education Bureau had delivered it straight to school, shipping included, with an embossed "For compulsory education use" stamp on the cover.
The Blue Screen changed in response to Lu Mingfei's thoughts.
[Main quests] [Become the strongest in Douluo (in progress)] [Kill the Final Boss (incomplete)]
The main quests had finally begun. Lu Mingfei exhaled. If there was anything he wasn't afraid of, it was playing games. Thank goodness his cheat came in the form of a game interface. If it had followed the college entrance exam study routine from before his transmigration, he would already have cracked. He would rather admire the city skyline from a rooftop than study.
"Besides my martial soul, my spiritual power stat looks pretty strange too. Forty-nine points, and that Spirit Origin Realm after it. Tsk, is that high or low? Our teacher never explained it."
[Spiritual power: 49 (Spirit Origin Realm)]
Lu Mingfei perked up and focused on his spiritual power entry. Sure enough, the text changed.
[Spirit Origin Realm: From the first beginning, all things are renewed. The most fundamental spiritual level.]
"That's it? Who told you to write explanations like that? You haven't explained anything! What can I do with forty-nine spiritual power? Pay my phone bill?" Lu Mingfei felt the indignant frustration of someone who had looked up a game guide only to get fobbed off.
He climbed out of bed and took a cold shower in the communal bathhouse to cool his temper. Then, hopping about like a scrawny little monkey as he dressed, he began his daily work at the academy.
Naturally, the academy couldn't assign a six-year-old any heavy labor. Although the headmaster of Red Mountain Academy had a distinctly bureaucratic manner, he wasn't a Victorian-era bureaucrat who would actually send a child like Lu Mingfei up a chimney to clean it.
Lu Mingfei's work at the academy was much like being on cleaning duty. He made a round of the campus at night, picked up any litter he saw, and tossed it in a bin. The only drawback was the meager pay.
"The moon shines overhead, the flowers smile at me, the birdies say sleep, sleep, sleep, why've you got explosives on your back~"
Moonlight spilled across the stone path like overturned milk. Lu Mingfei skipped through patches of light, his shoes kicking up stray fallen leaves as he hummed his absurd lyrics and passed the classroom building.
Red Mountain Junior Academy was deserted at night. Apart from the residential staff and boarding students, there was no one on campus.
Soul Guidance Lamps shone along both sides of the deathly silent path. Lu Mingfei's shadow stretched and shrank across the ground, as though invisible hands were playing with its silhouette.
The wind suddenly stilled. Lu Mingfei choked on his own lyrics.
Within the enormous shadow cast by the classroom building, a dwarf in black robes looked like a blot of ink seeping from a crack in the earth. Three feet away from the little black-robed figure, the lamplight bent unnaturally, as though it had struck an invisible wall.
"B-big bro, don't mind me..." Lu Mingfei hunched his neck and shuffled backward, his shoes slipping on the flagstones. "I'm just passing through... I know my singing's awful. Just pretend I'm a fart... Haha, the moon sure is beautiful tonight."
After forcing out those terrible lines with a dry laugh, Lu Mingfei turned and fled.
The little black-robed figure remained motionless until a middle-aged man dressed in black, with golden eyes, appeared behind her.
"My lord. We have secretly investigated thirteen cities in the direction of the East Sea. Our next stop is Hailu City." The golden-eyed man bowed respectfully to the little black-robed figure.
The little figure lifted her hood. As the fabric slipped away, it revealed not the hunched dwarf's face Lu Mingfei had imagined, but a delicate, luminous chin-the unmistakable contours of a little girl.
Her long silver hair resembled silk woven from moonlight. Her deep purple eyes held nobility and the authority of a ruler far beyond her years, as though a single word from her should bring vast armies bowing before her.
"Di Tian, there's no need," she said. "Return to the Spirit Pagoda."
"My lord..." Di Tian wanted to question her further.
A week earlier, that supreme Dragon King aura had appeared in the direction of the East Sea coast with almost no attempt at concealment. They had believed one of their own had emerged, so they had come to investigate. Along the way, they had even run into quite a few ancient human Titled Douluos with dragon martial souls.
They had started searching in Skysea City and worked their way to the vicinity of Eastsea City. Now they were simply stopping?
The silver-haired, purple-eyed girl walked into the darkness. "I'm still too weak. We must be patient for now. I already have a plan."
"Yes." Di Tian was wholeheartedly convinced. As expected of our lord. She inherited the Dragon God's wise divinity and bears the mission of restoring the soul beasts.
"Mingfei, didn't you sleep well? You look awful."
The moment Tang Wulin entered the campus that morning, he saw Lu Mingfei cosplaying a panda with two dark circles under his eyes.
Lu Mingfei yawned and said listlessly, "You'd look like this too if you ran into a dwarf ghost at night."
"A dwarf ghost?" Tang Wulin shivered. He knew Lu Mingfei was a boarder. "There are ghosts at the academy at night?"
Lu Mingfei deliberately told Tang Wulin a horror story about Delia in the toilet, frightening him into clutching his pen as tightly as a knight gripping his sword.
"Your story's supernatural horror. I've got an even more realistic horror story. Want to hear it?" A chubby boy whose martial soul was a saber chimed in. His name was Wan Yunchao, and after a week together, Tang Wulin and Lu Mingfei got along quite well with him.
The chubby boy wasn't bad at heart. In fact, by the standards of the Douluo Continent, where seemingly everyone was a hyperaggressive troublemaker itching for a fight, Wan Yunchao was fairly normal. At most, he liked showing off.
"Let's hear it," Tang Wulin said flatly.
"If you can't afford a soul spirit, you won't have a soul ring even if you reach level ten." The chubby boy spread his hands. "Without a soul ring, you won't get a recommendation letter for an intermediate Soul Master Academy either. My dad told me."
"Buy a soul spirit?" Question marks appeared over both Lu Mingfei's and Tang Wulin's heads. "Doesn't the Spirit Pagoda have soul spirits?"
Naturally, their soul master classes had covered soul spirits and soul rings. These were essential for soul masters to advance. But their homeroom teacher, Lin Ximeng, had never said they needed to buy soul spirits, only that the Spirit Pagoda had created them.
"You think the Spirit Pagoda's a charity? Of course you have to pay!" The chubby boy looked eager to play teacher. "Well? Want me to explain?"
More like listen to you show off.
Unlike the indifferent Tang Wulin, Lu Mingfei cleverly gave the chubby boy all the validation he wanted, slinging an arm around his shoulders. "Brother Chao, tell us. Broaden our horizons."
"Hey~ Now that you've called me brother, how could I refuse?" Wan Yunchao patted his plump chest. "I'll tell you right now."
Chapter 6: The Information Gap Revealed by "Little Zhao Menghua"
The chubby boy swayed his head as he held forth on the world. "In a little place like Aolai City, the Spirit Pagoda only offers ten-year white soul spirits, hundred-year yellow soul spirits, and random soul spirit draws. A ten-year soul spirit costs seventy thousand Federal Credits. A hundred-year one costs a million."
"That expensive!" All color drained from Tang Wulin's face. In an instant, he looked even worse than the sleep-deprived Lu Mingfei.
Tang Ziran was only a wage earner, and Lang Yue was only a housewife. They were an ordinary family. How could they possibly produce seventy thousand Federal Credits in available cash?
Lu Mingfei had an even harder time keeping his composure. He was an orphan with none of an adult's earning power. How could he possibly save seventy thousand during three years at a junior Soul Master Academy?
The chubby boy clicked his tongue twice in sympathy, plainly realizing that neither of them could afford it. "Then your only option is a random soul spirit draw. Thirty thousand Federal Credits. You might get a ten-year soul spirit, or you might get a hundred-year one."
"You're guaranteed at least a ten-year soul spirit?" Lu Mingfei had discovered a promising loophole.
But... could the Spirit Pagoda's gacha system really be that stupid? Thirty thousand guaranteed you a ten-year white soul spirit worth seventy thousand? That made no sense. Was the entire Spirit Pagoda running a charity?
"You're actually trying to get one over on the Spirit Pagoda?" The chubby boy snorted twice. "A random soul spirit draw has a very high chance of giving you a defective soul spirit."
Only then did Lu Mingfei feel satisfied. That was more like it. Useless white cards had to make up the largest share, followed by ordinary blues, rare purples, and legendary golds with the lowest odds.
"What's a defective soul spirit?" Tang Wulin truly knew nothing, no matter what he was asked. He was even worse off than Lu Mingfei, who could at least make judgments using common knowledge and experience from before his transmigration.
"Making artificial soul spirits doesn't always succeed, so you get defective ones. But that doesn't mean those defective soul spirits can't be fused with someone. The Spirit Pagoda poured so much effort into researching them, they can't just throw them away when they fail. So they put them in the random soul spirit draws."
The explanation left the chubby boy parched. He drank a cup of water Lu Mingfei handed him before continuing, "Blue Silver Grass doesn't need to worry about all that. Even reaching level ten is a problem for you. But Lu Mingfei, you'll have to think about it."
"..." Tang Wulin was speechless.
"Okay." Lu Mingfei nodded. "But what if we really can't afford a soul spirit?"
"Get a loan from the Federal Bank, or sell yourself into working for some company." The question had taken the chubby boy beyond the limits of his knowledge. "But if you do that, I doubt you'll need to attend an intermediate Soul Master Academy anymore."
Seeing Lu Mingfei and Tang Wulin fall silent, both deep in thought with furrowed brows, the chubby boy understood that buying a soul spirit was extremely difficult for their families.
So he changed the subject. "Do you know which intermediate Soul Master Academies are good?"
Lu Mingfei had a modern person's understanding and naturally knew the importance of information gaps. Seeing that Wan Yunchao was willing to volunteer his boasting, he obligingly said, "Brother Chao~"
The chubby boy took the bait. Instantly energized, he launched into his boasting with dancing eyebrows. "We're part of the Skysea Alliance, so naturally the best intermediate Soul Master Academy is in Skysea City. But they're picky. They only accept geniuses. Considering distance and the quality of the teaching staff, Eastsea Academy is pretty good. They also have a senior division, which is equivalent to a senior Soul Master Academy."
"Eastsea Academy in Eastsea City?"
The name sounded familiar to Lu Mingfei. Back at the orphanage, he had often studied the map of the Douluo Continent hanging on the wall when he had nothing to do. Under the Federation's classifications, Aolai City was a small city, while Eastsea City was a large one.
"Eastsea City is the second-largest city in our Skysea Alliance, so Eastsea Academy is naturally pretty good." The chubby boy finally let his own secret slip. "My uncle works in Eastsea City."
"Hmph. No wonder you keep talking up Eastsea Academy. Your uncle's in Eastsea City. Just a frog at the bottom of a well." A reasonably handsome boy with an arrogant air cut in, provoking him with merciless mockery.
"Zhou Shaolong, what's that supposed to mean?" The chubby boy bristled.
The arrogant boy opposite him was named Zhou Shaolong. His family was well-off, and he was popular with the girls at Red Mountain Academy. In Lu Mingfei's mind, Zhou Shaolong occupied Zhao Menghua's ecological niche.
"Eastsea City is Skysea's second-largest city only because its economy is better than the other cities'. In terms of the number and quality of its soul masters, it's merely middle of the pack. Oh, its Blacksmith Association might be stronger, since a Saint Craftsman lives there permanently."
Blacksmiths? Saint Craftsman?
Lu Mingfei didn't understand, but it sounded impressive. Small-town test grinders like him and Tang Wulin had never even heard of such things, yet Zhou Shaolong spoke about them with perfect assurance. Who knew what his family did for a living?
He really was "Little Zhao Menghua"!
Zhou Shaolong returned to his seat with the air of someone who believed "the upper classes do not mingle with commoners."
There were sixteen students in the entire soul master class, and Zhou Shaolong looked down on every one of them. Only Wan Yunchao, with his level-five innate soul power, and Lu Mingfei, with his body martial soul, could get him to initiate a few words.
"Ah." Zhou Shaolong had thoroughly deflated the chubby boy. "He's right too. But we don't have a well-connected dad in Skysea City like he does. Eastsea Academy really is a good choice for us. After all, Aolai City doesn't even have an intermediate Soul Master Academy."
Wan Yunchao was an Aolai City native. His parents and relatives were all civil servants, but he still only belonged to the small-town Brahmin class.
Zhou Shaolong had never discussed his family, but rumor had it that his mother was the officer in charge of public security in Aolai City, while his father held a management position at a soul guidance technology company in Skysea City. Their relatives and friends were middle-class figures too.
Lu Mingfei looked around. Their homeroom teacher, Lin Ximeng, hadn't arrived yet. Their classmates were noisily playing around, Zhou Shaolong sat by the window apart from the rest of the world, and the three of them were discussing soul spirits and further schooling.
It really did have something of "children know no sorrow, while old men fret over a hundred things" about it.
"There are only sixteen of us in this soul master class. Who knows how many will actually be able to afford a soul spirit?" Lu Mingfei felt an inexplicable trace of loneliness.
...Or how many of us will be able to go to an intermediate Soul Master Academy together.
Lu Mingfei had actually left that half of his thought unspoken.
To be honest, Lu Mingfei wasn't really that close to his other classmates,
He had simply recalled his middle school days before transmigrating, when he and a group of classmates would swagger down the street side by side, taking up almost half the road. Car horns would sound behind them again and again, and then one of the boys would immediately rein in his swagger, obediently climb into his family's car, and disappear in a cloud of dust.
Their numbers dwindled one by one. In the end, Lu Mingfei was often the only one left, still swaggering onward.
It would probably be the same this time.
Three years later, his classmates in the soul master class would scatter in every direction, like a handful of dandelion seeds tossed into the sky. A gust of wind would disperse them, and the places where they landed and took root would lie mountains and rivers apart.