"Judging by those looks, could he be a disciple of the Hehuan Sect?"
"His luck really was terrible, getting struck by stray lightning. But this sect disciple's strength is pretty lacking, too. He couldn't even withstand the remnants. Could he only be a Qi Refining disciple?"
"A mere Qi Refining disciple dared to wander this forest alone. Bold of him. Luckily, he ran into me."
Lin Qian sat beside Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan, who had just fallen from the sky, muttering under his breath.
He had laid Chrysanthemum Douluo to one side. Green liquid lingered at the corners of the man's mouth-the extract of a spirit plant Lin Qian had just boiled. Although it was only residual Tribulation Lightning, it had still come from his own tribulation. If it struck someone, he ought to take some responsibility.
Beside him, Yue Guan had already awakened. Although he could not make out what the Qi Refining and Hehuan Sect Lin Qian mentioned were supposed to be, it was not as though he could not hear the disparagement and disdain.
He had been a Titled Douluo for several decades.
Even among Titled Douluo, he was someone of note. Fewer than ten people in the world could reliably defeat him.
This brat actually thinks I'm weak?
Yue Guan swept his Soul Power over him and was inwardly shaken. The boy beside him had no small amount of Soul Power within him, equivalent to that of a Soul Douluo. He did not look very old, either-probably only twelve or thirteen.
Could this brat really be a reincarnated Soul Beast?
After all, whether it was Qian Renxue within Spirit Hall or Hu Liena, who had only recently begun following him, they were currently only at the Soul Elder and Soul King levels.
A twelve-year-old Soul Douluo!
That was something impossible anywhere. In his astonishment, Yue Guan coughed lightly a few times, drawing Lin Qian's attention.
"You're finally awake. I could see spiritual energy inside you, too, so I figured you wouldn't stay unconscious too long." As Lin Qian roasted meat, he casually handed Yue Guan a skewer of meat from some unknown beast.
Yue Guan took the roasted meat instinctively, but none of his thoughts were on it.
"The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, or the Clear Sky Sect? Which sect are you a disciple of?"
Lin Qian looked at Yue Guan in confusion. Those familiar names sounded as though he had heard them somewhere before. "I'm merely an independent cultivator. I was only making a breakthrough and undergoing my tribulation here today. No need to be nervous, fellow Daoist."
Lin Qian felt rather pleased with himself. The man before him was dressed so extravagantly that he had to be either a sect disciple or the son of a wealthy merchant.
As long as he was not a disciple of the Hehuan Sect, perhaps Lin Qian could get this fellow to provide an introduction.
"My name is Yue Guan, and I come from Spirit Hall. You may also call me Chrysanthemum Douluo. A level ninety-five Power Attack System Titled Douluo, Martial Soul: Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum."
Listening to the rapid-fire introduction rattled off by the neither-male-nor-female fellow before him, Lin Qian felt the scene before his eyes blur. Much of his dust-covered memory resurfaced, but half the strength drained from his body.
Spirit Hall, Titled Douluo, Martial Soul...
Could this place be not some remote mountain village in a cultivation world, but Douluo Continent?
I've already broken through to Nascent Soul, and now you're telling me this is Douluo Continent.
Lin Qian tilted his head toward the sky, looking at the few tribulation clouds that had yet to disperse and feeling the endless "Immortal Power" within him. Then what kind of Dao have I been cultivating all these years? Where did this Nascent Soul come from, and what kind of Immortal am I supposed to become?
This is Douluo Continent-a world where a God King's divine weapon weighs only a hundred and eight thousand jin.
Even if I attain the Dao and become an Immortal, how powerful could I possibly become? No wonder that Tribulation Lightning struck so viciously just now. It really was trying to erase me from this world.
"Is this the Star Dou Great Forest?"
Unwilling to give up, Lin Qian asked again. But when he saw the other man's matter-of-fact expression, he abandoned his fantasies and accepted reality.
"Have you heard of Shrek Academy?"
"Never heard of it. Could you be a student there?"
Lin Qian hastily shook his head. To be fair, if the most painful thing in Douluo Continent was becoming Tang San's benefactor, second place definitely went to becoming a student at Shrek Academy.
It was a diploma mill through and through. Never mind the quality of the teaching-even among the faculty, hardly anyone was dependable.
So what if the teachers' average strength was high? Flender slacked off and did not teach his disciples, while Zhao Wuji had a violent temper and taught crudely. Grandmaster alone held everything up. It could be said that the Shrek Seven Devils only avoided being ruined by those teachers because each had their own avenues.
Ning Rongrong was the little fairy of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Tang San had memories and techniques from his previous life, Xiao Wu was a reincarnated Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, and Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing were children of royalty. That left only Oscar and Ma Hongjun.
Of those two, Oscar had poured his heart and blood into proving himself and climbed onto the high branch of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Without Tang San, Ma Hongjun really would have been finished.
Still, Yue Guan had not yet heard of Shrek Academy, which was enough to prove that the plot had not yet gotten to the main story. Lin Qian still had enough time.
"You have no master, aren't a student, and don't know about Spirit Hall. Then where did you awaken your Martial Soul?" Yue Guan continued asking.
"Martial Soul? What's that? I've always stayed in the forest. Nobody taught me." Lin Qian could hardly say he was cultivating to become an Immortal. He would most likely be taken for a lunatic, so he could only go along with Yue Guan's words.
"You haven't even awakened your Martial Soul? Then how have you been cultivating?"
Yue Guan perked up. He had not brought back a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's Soul Bone, but bringing back a genius-no, a monster-would also be a great achievement.
"I've lived in the forest since I was little. Once, I came across a badly wounded rabbit. She spoke like a human, and I was too frightened to move. But the rabbit didn't hurt me. She just leaned against me, so I lay down against her and fell asleep. When I woke up again, it felt like my body had more strength than I could ever use."
To conceal the fact that he cultivated toward immortality, Lin Qian could only fabricate a lie.
"Could a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast have been badly wounded, left with nowhere to retreat, and ultimately sacrificed herself to this brat?" Yue Guan frowned, pondering for a long while. "To think your luck would actually be this good."
It was not impossible. Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were highly intelligent. If one had been gravely wounded in an ambush and could not accept it, she might indeed sacrifice herself to keep her attacker from obtaining her Soul Ring and Soul Bone.
That would explain the vast amount of Soul Power within this boy, as well as his physical constitution.
"Sacrificed herself? Then can she still be revived?" Lin Qian followed Yue Guan's train of thought, afraid he might figure things out.
"She's already sacrificed herself. How could she possibly be revived? Though if you become a god, there might be a chance." Yue Guan chuckled a few times, letting down his guard toward Lin Qian.
In his eyes, Lin Qian had become a boy whose tremendous luck reached as high as the heavens.
As for the mad ramblings at the beginning, they were merely fantasies a boy living alone in the forest used to entertain himself.
"In that case, would you like to join our Spirit Hall?" Yue Guan explained, "Our Spirit Hall is the strongest power on the continent. With your talent, even becoming a god might not be impossible."