Dark clouds crowded the sky.
Before a grave, a boy stood in a long vigil.
Huo Yuhao stood quietly before a tombstone, his arms folded across his chest, gazing at it without a word.
The tombstone was enormous, a full two meters tall-even taller than Huo Yuhao. It was made from expensive, rare granite and carved with exquisite, lifelike patterns. Behind it lay a spacious, beautifully maintained grave.
With such a lavish resting place, its occupant must surely have been wealthy or noble.
Yet the location hardly suited the luxurious tomb. It was merely a secluded hillside overgrown with grass and trees.
Huo Yuhao continued to stand and gaze in silence. Who knew how long he had stood alone before this grave beneath the overcast sky?
The wind howled, the trees rustled, and dark clouds blotted out the heavens. Occasional flashes of lightning illuminated gaps in the clouds, heralding the approaching downpour and lending an eerie air to the world.
And amid this darkened world, a faint, icy-blue glow shone from the cold, piercing eyes of Huo Yuhao, the boy standing alone before the grave.
The owner of those eyes was only eleven this year. His handsome face had already begun to shed its childishness, while the resolve in his eyes made him seem even more mature.
People in this world developed quickly. Though Huo Yuhao was only eleven, he already stood 1.7 meters tall.
Why emphasize "this world"? Because Huo Yuhao had not originally belonged to it. He was-a transmigrator.
Huo Yuhao had forgotten how he had transmigrated. All he knew was that he had arrived in this world eleven years ago.
This world was called-the Douluo Continent.
On the Douluo Continent, everyone could awaken their martial soul at the age of six, be it a tool martial soul or a beast martial soul. Those with talent could cultivate soul power and become soul masters.
Cultivation was the reason Huo Yuhao had developed so quickly.
Tool soul masters could summon weapons, and beast soul masters could use Martial Soul Possession, but Huo Yuhao belonged to neither category.
His martial soul was his eyes!
It was neither a tool martial soul nor a beast martial soul, but a rare and powerful-body martial soul!
Unfortunately, a powerful body martial soul had not come with powerful talent. When people awakened their martial souls, their innate soul power was also tested, on a scale from zero to ten.
The highest was level ten, known as innate full soul power. Those who possessed it were dragons and phoenixes among men.
The vast majority of commoners, however, had no talent at all. With no innate soul power, cultivation lay beyond their reach.
So how much innate soul power did Huo Yuhao have?
One.
Level-one innate soul power.
His terrible talent might have foretold his troubled fate long ago.
A trace of bewilderment and resentment seemed to linger in Huo Yuhao's otherwise calm eyes as he gazed at the towering tombstone before him.
Two columns of words were engraved in its center:
Grave of my beloved wife (loving mother), Huo Yun'er. Dai Hao (Huo Yuhao).
The person buried here was none other than Huo Yuhao's mother in this world, Huo Yun'er.
Huo Yuhao had been an orphan in his previous life. Although his eldest uncle had adopted him and never deprived him of material necessities, his uncle had been too busy with work to fill the void left by the familial affection Huo Yuhao lacked.
He still cherished the maternal love he received in this world.
If that man-who was, by birth, his father-had fulfilled his responsibilities, perhaps Huo Yuhao could have enjoyed the love of a complete family.
Huo Yuhao stared fixedly at one name on the tombstone.
Dai Hao.
This man was the White Tiger Duke, whose exalted title in the Star Luo Empire passed down through his lineage without reduction in rank.
Huo Yuhao's mother, Huo Yun'er, had been the White Tiger Duke's personal maid since childhood. They had grown up together, and she had enjoyed his favor. Thus, one night, Huo Yuhao had come into being.
Yet a maid was still a maid, and Huo Yuhao was nothing more than an illegitimate son. The duchess constantly oppressed mother and son. During the White Tiger Duke's frequent absences on military business, they not only had to perform all manner of heavy labor but were even driven into the woodshed of the Duke's Mansion to live.
"Old hag, I'll beat the shit out of you!"
The young Huo Yuhao could only vent his emotions through curses. Whenever he gathered firewood, he would use a stick to give the duchess in his imagination eight savage beatings.
He knew he could never shake the duchess from her lofty perch, especially since she was a member of the Star Luo Imperial Family. (The duchess's background was retconned in the original work; the initial setting is used here.)
Still, though life was hard and he had no choice but to do so much work, whenever Huo Yuhao saw his mother's gentle smile as she tenderly cleaned and soothed his wounds, a warm current of happiness would flood his entire body.
So this was... a mother's love?
During their moments of leisure, Huo Yuhao would sometimes put on a childish tone and deliberately ask his mother, "Where's Daddy?"
"Why doesn't he come to see us?"
Huo Yun'er would always answer gently, "Your father has gone to fight for our country."
"Yuhao, don't hate your father..."
Her answers were always along those lines. Though they still carried a mother's tender love, they steadily wore away at Huo Yuhao's patience.
Why?
Why would you think that?
Don't you know what kind of life you're living?
Why do you have to forgive that man?
Huo Yuhao could not understand why Huo Yun'er had to be so... blindly foolish.
Still, he endured it. His negative emotions continued to build under pressure, but they were nowhere near the point of eruption.
At last, after day upon day of toil, Huo Yun'er fell ill. Huo Yuhao was only seven that year.
Though Huo Yuhao had only level-one innate soul power, his constitution was still stronger than an ordinary person's. Huo Yun'er, on the other hand, was a frail woman without even a trace of soul power!
An ordinary cold could easily snatch away this woman's fragile life.
"Mom, get some rest. I'll go find a doctor."
Huo Yuhao settled Huo Yun'er, whose condition had improved slightly, then resolutely walked out of the Duke's Mansion.
He knew nothing of medicine and had no idea where to find a doctor, but his eyes were resolute, his target clear-
The White Tiger Duke, Dai Hao.
Huo Yuhao understood all too well that this man was the key to ending his mother's suffering at its source.
He could flee the Duke's Mansion whenever he wished, walk away, and be done with it all. But for his mother's sake, he had to resolve the problem once and for all!
No one knew how Huo Yuhao, at only seven years old, had traveled hundreds upon hundreds of miles alone to find the army camp where the White Tiger Duke was stationed.
The White Tiger Duke, Dai Hao, had just won a major victory in a medium-scale battle and was preparing to visit his troops when, to his utter astonishment, a seven-year-old child arrived at the camp to demand an accounting from him.
Upon learning that this furious child was his son with Huo Yun'er, Dai Hao rushed back to the Duke's Mansion like a madman.
From that day onward, Huo Yun'er's fate changed.
The White Tiger Duke was adamant. Whatever the duchess might have wanted to say, it would have made no difference. After all, the Duke's Mansion ultimately answered to the White Tiger Duke!
Huo Yun'er gained an official standing and no longer had to toil. Huo Yuhao, too, was formally recognized as the duke's son. Though he was only a concubine's son, he received better treatment and better food, no longer had to work, and grew increasingly tall and strong.
The servants who had once joined the duchess in oppressing them now had to treat Huo Yuhao and his mother with the utmost respect.
But... kindhearted by nature, Huo Yun'er could not bear to order the servants around and still handled many chores herself.
After only a few peaceful years, Huo Yun'er caught another cold. This time, she was not so fortunate. Despite receiving the finest medicine, she still departed this world.
"I'm begging you, treat yourself better, for fuck's sake!"
After a long silence, an inexplicable fury surged through Huo Yuhao's heart, and he forced those words through gritted teeth.
His tone was filled with grief for her misfortune and anger at her refusal to fight for herself.
Rumble-
Thunder exploded across the sky, and raindrops gradually began to fall.
"Is it raining?"
Huo Yuhao raised his head slightly and held out his right hand, feeling the increasingly dense raindrops.
Rainwater filled his palm. Then a chill radiated outward, and the water in his hand actually froze into a chunk of ice.
Huo Yuhao calmly placed the ice in his mouth and chewed it gently.
Crack-
The ice shattered, turning into coolness in his mouth and calm in his mind.
This was Huo Yuhao's second martial soul-
Ice!
He was also one of the rare possessors of twin martial souls!
At some point, chewing ice had become Huo Yuhao's way of forcing himself to calm down.
Swish-
Behind him came the sound of heavy footsteps pressing into wet grass and earth, as though they carried the weight in their owner's heart.
Huo Yuhao snorted coldly. Without turning, he already knew who had arrived, and said with biting sarcasm:
"Well, what a rare visitor~"
"What wind has blown you here?"
"Your Grace, the White Tiger Duke?"