"Seriously? Heavens, are you messing with me? Fine, you said I'd be made permanent, so make me permanent, but what the hell is this reincarnating as a planet? And a half-crippled Douluo Star at that. Worse, it's Douluo Star during the Douluo II era. What point in time is this?"
Douluo Star, upon this beautiful, enormous planet.
As Huo Yun felt the changes in her body, she was honestly falling apart a little. Her hands, feet, and everything else were gone, leaving an indescribable sense of weakness, and she could already sense most of what happened in this world.
A flood of memories that had never belonged to her appeared in her mind, telling her the truth: she was no longer human, but a planet.
The problem was, fine, she had become a planet, but why the hell did it have to be Douluo Star? And a crippled Douluo Star at that.
An overwhelming weakness coursed through her. Her body was clearly an entire planet, yet part of it refused to obey her commands at all.
It was like-like being someone left half-paralyzed by a stroke, whose body refused to do their bidding, and who had little time left to live.
Huo Yun did know the reason for this. The memories left by the previous-or rather, original-Douluo Consciousness had already explained everything.
The portion of her authority that governed the oceans had been stolen. Even though the oceans were still on her body, they no longer belonged to her, and she could not control them even if she wanted to.
Of course, if she had merely lost some authority, she would at most have been unable to control part of her body. The weakness came from someone stealing part of her essence, something that genuinely endangered her life.
Back then, the original Douluo Consciousness had sensed the danger, sensed that someone intended to act against her, so she had expended energy and fortune to nurture a Child of Destiny herself, hoping to contend with whoever was targeting her.
But with part of her essence already stolen and some of her authority gone, she had already been half-crippled. Then, while preparing cheats for the Child of Destiny, the original Douluo Consciousness had managed to crash herself outright.
Just then, Huo Yun happened to reincarnate here, merging with the already half-crippled Douluo Consciousness and becoming the new Douluo Consciousness.
"Seriously, you nurtured a Child of Destiny, but you didn't guide him? Weren't you afraid your enemy would lead him astray? Train him like a dog?" Learning the whole story only made Huo Yun want to cry even more.
She had read Douluo Continent in her original world and knew what happened during the Douluo Continent II timeline.
Douluo Continent II: Peerless Tang Sect could just as well have been called Tang San's Dog-Training Chronicles.
The dog being trained was none other than the new Child of Destiny nurtured by Douluo Continent.
In the end, that Child of Destiny had not become Douluo Continent's ally against Tang San, but Tang San's right-hand man instead.
For the Douluo Consciousness, it had been like drawing water with a bamboo basket-all for nothing. Her final trump card was gone, and she herself had been refined by Tang San's father, Tang Hao, vanishing completely from the world.
Now that Douluo Consciousness was gone, merged with her, and Huo Yun had become the new Douluo Consciousness. In other words, Tang San's next target was her.
After falling apart for a long time, Huo Yun could only accept reality in the end. "No, I don't want to be refined. I don't want to die, even if I've already died once. Rather than sit around waiting for death, I need to see what trump cards I still have and what can break this situation."
Huo Yun swept through the areas of her body she could explore. Although there were oceans and certain other places he could not explore now, those were either places outside her authority and control, or the locations of god-level powerhouses. She could not investigate the details within and only knew who the powerhouses hiding there were.
However, those were either legacies left behind by people long dead or people currently suffering grievous injuries. Relying on them was impossible.
Looking across the entire planet, countless god-level powerhouses had clearly appeared on Douluo Star, yet not one of them could give her, its Douluo Consciousness, a sense of security now.
And the more she investigated, the more Huo Yun discovered that a planetary consciousness had restrictions too.
Those restrictions came from nowhere else but the Divine Realm, an existence that lived only in legends among mortals.
To better harvest faith from this planet and select people qualified to become gods and succeed to their divine seats, the gods of the Divine Realm had imposed all sorts of restrictions on planetary consciousnesses.
For instance, apart from maintaining the planet's normal operation, Huo Yun should ordinarily have remained asleep and concerned herself with nothing.
Had someone not taken Douluo's essence, the original Douluo Consciousness should also have remained asleep rather than awakening of her own accord to nurture a new Child of Destiny. Even that was only within the scope permitted by the Divine Realm.
Moreover, those damned restrictions made it impossible for the Douluo Consciousness to freely interfere in anything in the world. One could say that, although she should have been this planet's ruler, the authority she actually enjoyed might not even match an ordinary person's.
No wonder the original Douluo Consciousness had nurtured a new Child of Destiny to protect herself. This was the only method available to her. The rules the Divine Realm imposed on planetary consciousnesses were too ruthless. Even though Douluo Star's consciousness originally possessed the strength of a First-Level God, she could not resist the Divine Realm's rules.
It was far too stifling.
Although Huo Yun was slightly better off than the original Douluo Consciousness, it was not by much. After all, she was a transmigrator from elsewhere, and her soul's fusion with the Douluo Consciousness had barely allowed her to evade the Divine Realm's rules. Even then, she had only circumvented part of them and could merely pull a few strings.
"As expected, relying on myself won't work right now. I really do need to raise a powerhouse willing to help me. In that case, there's only one candidate." Having learned the full situation, Huo Yun sighed. With no other choice left, she could only turn her gaze toward the Child of Destiny nurtured by the previous Douluo Consciousness.
Huo Yun was Douluo Star now, so shifting her gaze took no more than a thought. Apart from the oceans, which were outside her jurisdiction, she could look anywhere else whenever she wished.
Inside the White Tiger Duke's Mansion!
Today was the Duke's Mansion's annual day for awakening Martial Souls.
On Douluo Continent, a martial soul was a special ability possessed by everyone, usually awakened at the age of six through a standard martial soul awakening ceremony.
A martial soul could be anything, such as a tool, an animal, and so on. Animal-type martial souls were generally called beast martial souls, while all other types were collectively known as tool martial souls. Of course, certain special mutated martial souls were exceptions.
After awakening their martial souls, only a very small number of people would gain a special power from them, known as soul power. Only those who possessed soul power upon awakening could cultivate and enter Douluo Continent's most prestigious profession: Soul Masters.
Soul Masters were divided into nine grades, which, from lowest to highest, were Soul Scholar, Soul Master, Soul Grandmaster, Soul Elder, Soul Ancestor, Soul King, Soul Emperor, Soul Saint, Soul Douluo, and Titled Douluo.
The higher a Soul Master's rank, the stronger their abilities. At the highest rank, Titled Douluo, they possessed terrifying strength approaching the power to move mountains and fill seas, turn the heavens and shift the stars.
Soul power from level one to level ten fell within the category of Soul Scholar. The stronger one's innate soul power upon awakening their martial soul, the greater their talent as a Soul Master and the faster they would cultivate.
If one's soul power was level ten upon awakening, that was innate full soul power, the greatest talent. Such people were also called genius Soul Masters, and provided their martial souls were not too poor, they would all attain considerable achievements.
Awakening a martial soul could also be said to determine a person's future. With a good martial soul and exceptionally high innate soul power, one could naturally defy heaven and change one's fate. Even a commoner could become a dragon upon encountering wind and clouds, fly onto a branch and become a phoenix.
For that reason, no one on Douluo Continent took this day lightly, including those in the Duke's Mansion.
"Next, Huo Yuhao!" the person overseeing the martial soul awakening ceremony called toward the door.
A six-year-old child in plain cloth clothing, looking like a servant's son, walked in from outside.
The child had clear, deep-blue eyes, clean and bright, as though an ocean lay within them.
This was precisely the Child of Destiny nurtured by the previous Douluo Consciousness, Huo Yuhao. However, Huo Yun preferred to call him Huo Yuhao, because his mother's surname was Huo.
The person responsible for awakening martial souls at the Duke's Mansion was an elderly man who looked exceedingly gaunt, with a long beard and graying hair. He gave the impression of someone with one foot in the grave. He wore black robes with the Duke's Mansion's emblem, a white tiger, embroidered on the right side of his chest.
His expression shifted slightly as he looked at Huo Yuhao. Then, with a businesslike manner, he pointed at the six-pointed star formation in the middle of the room and said, "Stand in the center. Remember, no matter what happens, don't be afraid!"
"Okay!" Huo Yuhao nodded obediently and stood within the six-pointed star formation as the old man instructed.
The old man raised his withered hands, shriveled like eagle claws, and struck out rapidly with both hands. Six faint streaks of white light flowed into the six black stones on the floor. At once, a golden haze shone from the stones, forming a pale-gold dome of light that enveloped Huo Yuhao.
"I'm really lucky. I've arrived just as Huo Yuhao is awakening his martial soul. I remember that in the original story, Huo Yuhao's awakened martial soul was Spirit Eyes, and his innate soul power was only level one.
"His physical condition really is awful. The meager level-one innate soul power he scraped together is the lowest innate talent among those who awaken soul power. His martial soul underwent a beneficial mutation, but the problem is that years of malnutrition left his body underdeveloped, so he couldn't withstand that mutation and only had level-one soul power.
"This child really has suffered. The old Douluo Consciousness didn't know how to raise a child, but I have to raise him well. That way, he can become my pillar of support and let me lie back in comfort." Watching Huo Yuhao awaken his martial soul, Huo Yun quickly examined his condition. Once she understood the details, she immediately made her decision.
She would begin raising Huo Yuhao right now, change his fate, and make him her future pillar of support-a protector who would defend this world and her as well.
Having made up her mind, Huo Yun stopped merely watching and acted, drawing on her meager reserves of energy.
Meanwhile, Huo Yuhao, who had entered the martial soul awakening state, first felt warmth, followed by a vast surge of energy rapidly sweeping through his entire body. Waves of pain struck him as though his cells were tearing apart.
It was an agonizing sensation that began in his eyes and spread outward, causing beads of sweat to cover his forehead.
This was proof that his body could not withstand the strength of his own martial soul.
"Aah-!" Huo Yuhao endured it for a long time, but finally could bear no more and screamed, startling the old man overseeing the awakening. Normally, children felt very little when awakening their martial souls, but in extremely rare cases, people with frail bodies could not withstand the impact of the energy and found themselves in danger.
The old man had heard of such things, but he had never encountered this problem while overseeing martial soul awakenings. Faced with it now, he chose not to intervene and instead silently retreated a few steps, lest Huo Yuhao's death splatter him all over.
Just then, the faint golden light radiating from the awakening formation suddenly turned multicolored. The old man, who had paid no heed to Huo Yuhao's suffering, froze at this unprecedented sight. This was his first time seeing such an awakening, and he had never even heard of anything like it.
Feeling the warmth radiating from that multicolored light, he instinctively stepped forward despite himself, reaching out to touch every little mote.
Yet that radiance ignored the old man completely, even down to its tiniest specks. Some even passed straight through his palm and flew into Huo Yuhao's body.
As the multicolored light entered Huo Yuhao's body, his pained expression gradually relaxed.
"Too fragile, far too fragile. How can his body be this fragile? Does the White Tiger Duke's Mansion really mistreat its own duke's son this badly? Even if he's a concubine's son, at least give him enough to eat! He's so poorly nourished that I have to waste the energy I've worked so hard to save just to stabilize his body.
"And I wanted to upgrade his martial soul too. No choice, then. I'll put together the upgraded form first and let him obtain it later, when this child receives his first opportunity." As Huo Yun directed her energy to stabilize Huo Yuhao's condition, she kept grumbling away.
Honestly, given Huo Yuhao's condition, had she not known he was the Child of Destiny, Huo Yun would have thought he was some poor family's child, loved by neither father nor mother.
His physical condition was so poor that it was barely any better than that of an ordinary poor family's child.
"Let me see. What ability should I give you? Oh, right. Later on, Tang San uses his own daughter to form a martial soul fusion skill with you and bind you two together. Then I'll give you a few more, and let's see how that bastard Tang San binds you afterward!"
"As for cultivation speed, Qian Renxue even had level-twenty innate soul power. Your soul power is level ten right now, so I'll give you the cultivation speed directly, adjust it to level twenty when your martial soul awakens, and give you a god-level martial soul outright."
"As for adding more martial soul abilities-hey, wait. The original consciousness ultimately chose Destiny as his martial soul ability? Good grief, what a powerful ability. A pity Tang San muddied it all up in the end. I'll leave that one unchanged."
"All right, done!"
Before you continue