He Didn't Want to Die!

Day and night, the pill furnace refined mystic essence; secret scriptures scoured a hundred arts to completion.

He plucked heaven's secrets to hide within his jade viscera, seized creation's workings to pour into a golden goblet.

Heart and liver could be exchanged to secure the spiritual root; bones and blood could be replaced to lighten the Dao body.

So long as true essence condensed and never scattered, what harm in bearing an infamous name through ten thousand tribulations?

Hu Fangyuan was nine years old that year.

He had transmigrated into this world before birth.

His memories of his previous life had already blurred, leaving only scattered fragments-towering buildings, cars and planes, phones and computers, and a place he called "Earth."

Those things were useless in this world, because unlike the natural sciences, the foundation driving this world's progress was called soul guidance technology.

Soul power ran through the entire history of humanity.

Everyone awakened a unique martial soul at the age of six, divided into two main categories: beast martial souls and tool martial souls. An exceedingly small number possessed soul power upon awakening and became soul masters, developing along different paths such as the power attack system, control system, and defense system. Soul masters hunted soul beasts or absorbed soul spirits to obtain soul rings, climbing upward one level at a time.

In this world, soul masters stood above other people.

And Hu Fangyuan was a soul master.

Level-six innate soul power.

Neither particularly high nor particularly low.

In Lingbi City, this remote little city in the southern region of the Douluo Continent, innate level six already qualified him as a genius. If he were blessed with abundant good fortune, he might even touch the threshold of Titled Douluo.

The Hu Family was a lineage of soul masters.

More precisely, Hu Fangyuan's father, Hu Heming, was the current head of the Hu Family, a Soul Ancestor with level-forty-six soul power.

All in all, Hu Fangyuan should have been born into a very good family.

But...

On a moonless, windswept night, dark clouds pressed low over the Hu Family Manor in Lingbi City, like an overturned black pot clamped tightly over the entire estate.

There was no moon, no stars, and even the wind carried a sickly, bloody sweetness.

"Hu Heming! Still talking tough with death at your door? Did you think washing your hands of it all would let you sever ties with us?"

A shrill howl tore through the night sky, followed by a burst of utterly unbridled laughter.

"Hahaha! Hu Heming, run! Keep running! How imposing you were in the cult back then! Why are you scurrying around with your tail between your legs now, like a homeless dog?"

Flames, roaring flames!

At some unknown point, towering flames had erupted simultaneously from all four corners of the Hu Family Manor. Crimson tongues of fire licked the night sky, staining half the heavens the color of blood.

The pavilions and towers built from hundred-year-old spirit wood crackled sharply in the flames, like countless bones snapping at once.

"Once a member of the Holy Spirit Cult, always a member of the Holy Spirit Cult!"

Another furious shout rang out, accompanied by the thunder of colliding soul power.

In front of the manor's main hall, a figure hurtled backward in disarray and slammed heavily into the ground, plowing a deep furrow.

It was none other than the head of the Hu Family, Hu Heming.

In this small city in the northern region of the Douluo Continent, this level-forty-six Soul Ancestor was practically synonymous with the word "strongest." Ordinarily, a single command from him would make all of Lingbi City tremble three times.

But now, his hair and beard bristled, blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, and a great tear in the front of his clothes revealed the charred flesh beneath.

He braced himself against the ground and tried to rise, but his knees buckled, sending him kneeling back down.

"Hu Heming, did you think hiding inside this turtle shell would save your life?"

Three dark figures walked slowly out of the firelight. Their leader was tall and thin, with a deathly white mask covering his face. His voice was as shrill as nails scraping an iron plate. "Your family's Soul Guidance Defense Array is rather interesting. A pity... it needs you, the family head, to personally feed it soul power to operate. Once you run, who will feed it?"

"Still, a fellow as timid as a mouse like you probably wouldn't fight to the death, would you?"

Hu Heming's pupils contracted sharply.

Instinctively, he glanced back into the depths of the manor-his wife was there, his clansmen were there, and his son, Hu Fangyuan, only nine years old, was there.

Then he did something no one had expected.

He sprang to his feet, the soul rings around him blazing with light. His Fourth Soul Skill erupted with a roar, becoming a violent shock wave that swept toward the depths of the manor behind him!

"Family head! You-"

Several Hu Family guards stationed deep within the manor cried out in alarm, but before they could finish, the shock wave hurled them away. Hu Heming had actually struck his own people!

He was going to use his clansmen and family as bait!

Taking advantage of the chaos caused by that strike, Hu Heming darted away like a startled rabbit, fleeing madly toward the secret passage at the rear of the manor. He moved incredibly fast, squeezing every bit of his level-forty-six Soul Ancestor cultivation into his legs, and vanished into the darkness in the blink of an eye.

"After him!"

The masked Evil Soul Master sneered, but did not immediately give chase. He turned his head and told the two companions behind him, "A homeless dog won't get far. You lot, slaughter everyone in this manor first. Leave no one alive. The hall master wants Hu Heming's life, but he never said we had to leave any survivors."

"Hehehe..."

Quite a few Evil Soul Masters let out lewd chuckles. One licked his lips, his greedy gaze sweeping toward the depths of the manor. "I hear the Hu Family's women are all quite pretty. Especially Hu Heming's wife-she was one of Lingbi City's finest beauties back in the day..."

"Enough chatter. Get to work." The masked Evil Soul Master waved impatiently.

Meanwhile, the Hu Family's Soul Guidance Defense Array-

Without Hu Heming feeding it soul power, the pale golden barrier over the manor began to tremble violently. At the array's nexus, the grade-five Soul Power Source Core visibly dimmed, cracked, then shattered with a crash!

Crack-!

A sound like a shattering mirror rang throughout the manor.

The pale golden barrier broke into countless motes of light, like a sky full of dancing fireflies, and dissipated into the night.

Without the defense array's protection, the three Evil Soul Masters were like tigers descending upon a flock of sheep.

Screams, sobbing cries, clashing weapons, burning flames... all the sounds intertwined into a symphony of hell.

Blood stained the manor red.

The ground paved with blue bricks became soaked in blood, turning dark brown.

The Hu Family clansmen, normally accustomed to comfort and privilege, were now lambs awaiting slaughter, falling in swathes beneath the Evil Soul Masters' soul power attacks.

Some tried to resist, but even the strongest among them were only Soul Elders. Before several Evil Soul Masters who were at least Soul Elders themselves, they were like ants.

One life after another faded into the dark night.

And in one corner of the manor, a small, thin figure was stumbling along at a run.

Hu Fangyuan.

His left arm had been severed at the shoulder. Blood still gushed from the wound, staining half his body red. He clamped his right hand tightly over the stump, but blood kept seeping between his fingers, running down his arm and dripping to the ground, leaving a horrifying trail of blood.

He was only nine.

His cultivation was only level thirteen.

There was nothing he could do in this massacre.

"Run... keep running..."

Hu Fangyuan's teeth chattered. The pain was secondary; a chill seeped out from deep within his marrow.

He could hear footsteps behind him, neither hurried nor slow, like a cat toying with a mouse.

"Little brat, run! Keep running!"

A coarse voice sounded behind him, filled with undisguised mockery. "Your father already abandoned you all and ran off by himself. What are you still running so hard for? Be good and stop. Let your grandpa here kill you with one stroke, and spare yourself more suffering!"

Hu Fangyuan did not look back.

He gritted his teeth and ran forward with everything he had.

With every step, the ground beneath his feet trembled.

With every breath, his lungs burned as though they had been filled with lava.

The wound at his severed arm kept tearing open as he ran. More and more blood flowed, his vision began to blur, and his steps began to falter.

But he dared not stop.

He wanted to live.

For someone who had already died once, the chance to live another life was so very precious.

He was an ordinary, worldly person.

He wanted to see sights he had never seen;

He wanted to experience love he had never experienced;

He wanted to taste foods unlike those in the fragments of his memories...

He wanted...

He didn't want to die!