Xu Qingjia sat on the edge of the bed, his small hands unconsciously clutching the soft sheets.
Was it a dream?
The deathly stillness of the boundless Netherworld, the eerie ink-black Nether Sea, the horror of drifting soul remnants, and his journey alongside Electrolux-everything had been far too real. Especially that lingering coolness deep within his mind, which still refused to fade. It was as though his soul had taken a thorough cold shower, leaving his thoughts clearer and sharper than ever before.
He could even "hear" the faint rustling of leaves farther beyond the window and "see" the paths of tiny dust motes suspended in the air, things he ordinarily would never have noticed. Such a leap in perception could never have come from an illusory dream.
"It wasn't a dream..."
Xu Qingjia murmured to himself.
Just as he concentrated on these strange changes, trying to sense himself more deeply, his strengthened spiritual power seemed to unwittingly touch some hidden switch.
Humm-
A faint vibration that only he could "hear" sounded deep within his mind.
The scene before his eyes changed again, but without the world-turning upheaval and weightlessness he had felt when waking in the Netherworld and returning to reality.
A beautiful vista of sea meeting sky appeared in Xu Qingjia's eyes.
Calling it a sea was somewhat inaccurate, though, since it was no larger than a small lake.
"Is this my Sea of Consciousness?"
He might never have tasted pork, but he had seen pigs run.
Since childhood, he had read and studied a considerable amount about Soul Masters. Private tutors, his family's deep foundations, and the memory granted by a soul far beyond the ordinary had already given him an impressive store of knowledge about Soul Masters. Yet this was his first time learning that someone could open a Sea of Consciousness before awakening their martial soul. He was probably the only case.
Xu Qingjia's consciousness surveyed his surroundings curiously. He could feel a fundamental connection between himself and this space. A single thought could set its "seawater" churning, and his mind could clearly perceive every corner. Everything here was under his control.
Except...
Xu Qingjia's gaze settled on a strange book.
It firmly occupied center stage within his Sea of Consciousness. Rather than a physical object, it looked more like a phantom woven from countless strands of dark-gold and deep-black light. Its outline alternated between clarity and obscurity, as though it were the embodiment of some rule. The book was closed, revealing only patterns he could not understand, yet which seemed to contain the ultimate truths of heaven and earth.
"The Book of Life and Death!"
Xu Qingjia blurted out.
The instant he saw it, that information flowed into his mind.
"The Book of Life and Death, one of the Three Books!"
Why is this thing in my Sea of Consciousness?
Has another monkey gone rampaging through the Netherworld Court?
Xu Qingjia remembered this treasure from the myths of his previous life quite well. First, because of its incredible power to decree life and death. Second, because in all those adapted novels, films, and shows, a rampage through the Netherworld Court hardly deserved the name unless someone tore up the Book of Life and Death or altered its contents.
He felt he understood why he had gone to the Netherworld earlier.
After all, this mythical treasure associated with the Netherworld Court was now inside his Sea of Consciousness. Although the Netherworld was not the Netherworld Court, both were places where souls went after living beings died-in other words, the world after death.
Even if someone beat Yun Ming to death, he would never believe this thing had nothing to do with his soul's earlier journey to the Netherworld.
The peculiar phenomenon Elder Yi had mentioned-his soul being nourished rather than eroded by the Netherworld's aura and laws-was probably also due to the Book of Life and Death.
After all, there was nothing else supernatural about him.
Xu Qingjia tried to use the Book of Life and Death. According to the myths of his previous life, this divine artifact governed the life and death of all living things, recording their times of birth and death, their allotted years among the living and the dead, and every detail of their lives from birth to death. If this book contained a record of him, he should be able to figure out what had happened earlier.
Yet no matter what he tried-activating it with his mind, or even bringing his consciousness closer and attempting to turn the pages himself-there was not the slightest response.
If the version of him inside the Sea of Consciousness had not been merely his consciousness, he would have tried claiming it with a drop of blood.
"Forget it."
Xu Qingjia gave up for the moment.
He would try again once he had officially awakened his martial soul and set foot on the path of the extraordinary, when he had more methods at his disposal. After all, its powers in mythology were truly overwhelming. Moreover, it was very likely the thing that had brought him to this world, so its standing could hardly be low.
Still, this should be my cheat, right?
The ambitions Xu Qingjia had once considered wishful thinking slowly revived in his heart.
His plan to live freely and sleep forever after death was scrapped.
It was time for version 2.0!
As for the specifics, he first needed to see just how much weight he could throw around.
"Tang San, the Silver Dragon King, the Abyssal Sage King, immortality..."
He wanted immortality!
Having died once, he did not fear death, and he treasured his time alive all the more.
But that absolutely did not mean he wanted to experience his life slipping away, bit by bit, again!
The final curtain on this ten-thousand-year scheme would be far more spectacular than anyone imagined.
His consciousness returned to his body. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Xu Qingjia opened his eyes, a faint smile curling his lips. It was not the polite mask he had learned to wear around others in etiquette lessons, but joy from the bottom of his heart.
At last, he had something to rely on.
Xu Qingjia had never agreed with the notion that "those who dare not cause trouble are mediocre," deliberately provoking others. The road was wide enough for everyone to walk their own path.
But having no gun to use and having a gun without using it were two different things.
Besides, sometimes trouble really did come knocking on its own.
He glanced at the soul-tool clock on the wall and found that he still had plenty of time.
"I'll wash up and change first."
The Book of Life and Death, the Netherworld, Electrolux-he did not yet have the ability to investigate them.
But today was his big day.
On the Douluo Continent, martial soul awakening was every bit as important as the college entrance examination, if not more so. After all, everyone knew that the Douluo Continent was a world with a rigid hierarchy of bloodlines and castes.
Whether someone was a young dragon or a mere grub was essentially decided at their martial soul awakening.
A grub might grow into a dragon, but the chances were vanishingly small. There were very few such cases even in the Douluo Continent's more than twenty thousand years of detailed recorded history.
His cheat remained uncertain, something he had yet to master.
His martial soul, however, was an extraordinary power he would soon possess.
"I've really got a good foundation."
Dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and trousers made from thousand-year-old ice silkworm silk, Xu Qingjia looked at the noble young boy in the mirror, now with an added air of spirited poise
and remarked with admiration.
"Narcissist." The cool voice carried a young girl's distinctive tone.
A girl who looked about Xu Qingjia's age stood in the bedroom doorway. Her exquisite little face wore a cool expression. Its lines, painstakingly carved by the Creator, were still slightly immature-the very picture of a budding beauty who had yet to grow into her looks.
Her long golden hair, brilliant as a river of stars, was tied into a neat, practical ponytail. Xu Qingjia's figure was reflected in her bright blue eyes, but she hurriedly looked aside when he turned toward her.
Wearing matching white short-sleeved shirts and trousers, Xu Qingjia and Ye Xinglan looked like a golden boy and jade maiden standing together, a particularly pleasing sight to anyone who saw them.
Xu Qingjia turned to his childhood sweetheart, a faint smile on his lips. "You look very pretty today, Xinglan."
"Mm." Ye Xinglan pressed her rosy lips together. Her small body instantly stiffened, and her ears reddened visibly as her thoughts tangled into a mess. "I'm not... um..."
Ye Xinglan shook her head, trying to force her thoughts to settle. She raised her small, fair fist, her earnest little face brimming with fighting spirit. "Xu Qingjia, once I get my first soul spirit, I'll definitely be able to beat you."
"Mhm." Xu Qingjia wore his usual gentle smile, his clear eyes fixed on Ye Xinglan. "You definitely can, Xinglan."
"Mm." Ye Xinglan tried to meet his gaze without backing down, but her little face betrayed her by turning red. Within seconds, she suffered a lightning-fast defeat.
Her delicate feet, wrapped in white ankle socks, slipped into white sneakers. The thin-skinned little girl dashed away, leaving only, "Aunt Shen told me to get you."
Xu Qingjia's dark eyes reflected his childhood sweetheart's fleeing figure, a trace of affection surfacing in them. "Very cute, too."
He truly had no idea how his childhood sweetheart, who blushed at a single compliment, had become the arrogant, conceited girl who appeared in the original story.
Shrek had done no end of harm. When the upper beam was crooked, the lower beam followed suit.
Take, for example, that bastard who had come to Mingdu and forcibly stolen away the gifted healing-type Soul Master trained by the Federal Parliament.
When Xu Qingjia heard his elder talk about that incident, it was the first time he had seen the man's veins bulge with anger. The good girl he had raised as his successor and treated like his own daughter had been snatched away by that blond punk surnamed Yun. Even decades later, that fury had not faded in the slightest.
When he had time, he needed to give his childhood sweetheart a proper training... education.
Xu Qingjia left his sleeping quarters at an unhurried pace and headed toward the main hall, unable to stop wondering what martial soul he would awaken today.
Generally, an awakened martial soul was related to one's parents and ancestors. And the Xu in Xu Qingjia was the Xu of Mingdu's Xu Family. People might not know the Xu Family of Mingdu, but if it were described another way-the Xu Family of the Sun Moon Imperial Family, not Xu Yunhan's line-anyone who had studied history would recognize it.
Leaving aside martial souls whose inheritance had been sporadic, the Xu Family had three inherited martial souls that appeared in almost every generation: the sun, the silver moon, and the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon, hailed as the progenitor of lesser dragons and said to be the Dragon God's twin brother. Of course, the gulf between their Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon and that Dragon King was almost equivalent to the gap between an ordinary golden dragon and the Golden Dragon King. Even so, it was a top-tier beast martial soul, comparable to some powerful true dragons.
Xu Qingjia personally preferred the sun or the silver moon.
Ideally, he would get both, with sun and moon shining together.
It was not that the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon lacked prestige, but this era was called the Legend of the Dragon King. Never mind having a dragon martial soul-even a soul spirit with a trace of dragon blood would leave you suppressed by the Golden and Silver Dragon Kings.
Unless he could find the bones and dragon soul of that Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon King, whom the Dragon God had killed for being too destructive, then simply raise a hand and refine his own ancestor.
Still, Xu Qingjia now hoped even more that his martial soul would be the Book of Life and Death. That was impossible, however, because the book was inside his Sea of Consciousness, and his control over it was nowhere near the Silver Dragon King's control over the Silver Dragon Spear. He could not turn it into his martial soul.
As his thoughts surged, he unwittingly reached the main hall.
The hall, rich with antique charm, was clean and bright, exuding a grand and imposing presence. Its noble yet elegant decorations spoke of the foundations his family had accumulated over more than ten thousand years.
The Xu Family now lived in what had once been the Sun Moon Imperial Palace, and this main hall had once been the political heart of the entire empire.
By the time Xu Qingjia arrived, quite a few people were already in the hall-men and women, young and old. As the Xu Family head's only child, Xu Qingjia was very likely to become the next family head if he displayed exceptional talent. His awakening ceremony was naturally bound to attract the attention of family members, as well as the Xu Family's closer allies.
For example, Ye Xinglan's Ye Family also had a legacy spanning more than ten thousand years. Its ancestors had included many Level 9 Soul Engineers, the most famous probably being Starry Sky Douluo Ye Yulin, who specialized in airborne soul tools. The Level 9 Soul Tools he developed, such as the Eye of Terror and the Sun Moon Divine Needle, remained among the foremost airborne instruments of slaughter even ten thousand years later.
"Father, Mother."
Xu Qingjia quickened his steps. The noble young boy with his exceptional bearing gave the man and woman standing at the center a perfectly proper greeting bow. After all, many guests were visiting today.
The man was handsome and refined, the woman elegant and noble. Yet both possessed a maturity and composure that belied their apparent ages.
Xu Ye, head of the Xu Family. His martial soul was the sun. He was the current Sun Douluo, a Level 99 Limit Douluo who had entered the demigod realm.
Shen Xi, daughter of the Federal Military's chief of general staff, one of its three leading figures. Her martial soul was the silver moon. She was a Level 98 Super Douluo, the Moon Douluo.
Both parents alive and well-he had already surpassed at least 95 percent of transmigrators.
Shen Xi studied her well-behaved son with her beautiful eyes. "Little Qingjia seems a bit different today?"
"My mind feels especially clear today," Xu Qingjia said.
"Your soul fluctuations are active." As a mother, Shen Xi knew she could not spoil her child excessively, but she had never paid any less attention to her dear son. "It seems your spiritual power has grown quite a bit, little Qingjia."
Shen Xi was not particularly surprised. After all, awakening a martial soul meant drawing out the extraordinary power within a Soul Master's body. This power did not appear out of thin air; it had always been there, finally taking shape when the martial soul awakened at six years old. As awakening approached, some people with powerful martial souls and bloodlines would display a few extraordinary traits ahead of time.
Every mother who loved her child firmly believed that child was a genius.
"Ahem." Xu Ye spoke, restoring quiet to the hall. "Since Qingjia, Xinglan, and Lizhi, the three children who will awaken their martial souls, are all here, let's begin at once."
"Qingjia, you go first."
Xu Qingjia took a deep breath. Although the appearance of the Book of Life and Death had given him no
small measure of confidence, facing an event that would all but determine his life still left him somewhat nervous, even after living two lives. But more than anything, he felt anticipation.
Click-
Grooves running throughout the hall, resembling the lines of a magic formation, suddenly lit up.
"Focus your mind and steady your breathing."
Pure, gentle energy from heaven and earth poured into the futuristic grooves. Beginning at the ceiling, it flowed along the walls and converged on the center where Xu Qingjia stood. Wisps of gentle energy entered his body at an exceedingly slow pace.
The extraordinary...
His strengthened spiritual power had given Xu Qingjia sharper perception.
He could feel some long-dormant power within him being stirred by that gentle energy, like warm currents quietly flowing beneath the ice in early spring.
A cool, pure aura rose from his lower abdomen, flowing along his meridians like a stream beneath the moon. Flecks of silvery moonlight escaped through his pores, gathering and circling a few meters above his head. Like moonlight molded by an invisible hand, they gradually traced the outline of a slender, graceful crescent moon.
Moonlight flowed and spilled its clear radiance, casting the entire hall into a dreamlike scene.
At this sight, everyone in the hall understood.
A flash of joy crossed Xu Ye's eyes. Although he trusted his son, who had been renowned as a prodigy since childhood, only now, upon seeing the result with his own eyes, did the heavy stone in his heart finally settle.
As a Limit Douluo with Level 99 cultivation and Spirit Domain Realm spiritual power, he needed no soul-power testing device to sense his son's soul power level.
"The silver moon martial soul."
A gleam of silvery moonlight was reflected in Xu Qingjia's eyes.
That was within his expectations.
Yet just as Xu Qingjia was about to withdraw his martial soul possession, an abrupt change occurred.
The scene before his eyes shifted rapidly, and his consciousness was instantly drawn into his Sea of Consciousness. The Book of Life and Death, which had appeared there at some unknown point and had refused to react to any of his earlier attempts, as though it were merely an illusion, suddenly shuddered violently without warning, as if answering some summons.
The Book of Life and Death began rapidly turning its pages on its own, producing a rustling sound like the surging waters of a river of the dead echoing through the depths of the ancient Netherworld Court. Wisps of dark-gold aura gathered above its pages and, in the blink of an eye, formed a divine tablet that resembled neither gold nor jade.
The divine tablet descended from above the Book of Life and Death. A streak of radiance imbued with supreme divinity, bearing the will to judge all things and decree life and death, shot straight into Xu Qingjia's consciousness and branded itself deep within the core of his soul.
A voice from some ancient, unknown era, filled with supreme majesty and the weight of countless years, echoed within Xu Qingjia's mind.
"By divine decree-one of the Ten Yama Kings, the Yanluo Heavenly Son."
Outside, Xu Ye immediately noticed that something was wrong with his son. There was not the slightest trace of life in those dark eyes.
Humm-
Under everyone's astonished gazes, the pure silver moon let out a mournful hum, as though unable to bear its burden. Its radiance flickered wildly, its form twisting and wavering violently. In a single instant, like lingering snow meeting the blazing sun, the cool moonlight within the hall was overwhelmed and devoured by a torrent of ink-black energy that roared out of Xu Qingjia's body-deeper, older, and more domineering, sweeping everything aside like rotten wood.
Like a drop of ink falling into a water vat, that ink-black aura, which made living creatures instinctively uneasy, spread rapidly in every direction. Everyone in the hall instinctively gave it a wide berth. They did not retreat out of fear, but to avoid interfering with Xu Qingjia's martial soul awakening. If they caused it to be interrupted, they could not bear that responsibility. Only Xu Ye and Shen Xi remained where they stood, forcibly enduring their instinctive discomfort.
Xu Qingjia stood motionless at the center of the surging, churning nether energy. The pressure naturally emanating from his body made the air thick and heavy, almost suffocating.
Behind him, deep within the impenetrably dense black mist, the phantom of a towering, ancient Ghost Gate flickered into view, radiating boundless desolation and deathly stillness. Its enormous doors were tightly shut, yet seemed ready to burst open at any moment and unleash the endless Netherworld Ghost Soldiers and divine generals within.