"Sis! Sister Su!"
Before they even reached Lin Yang's door, Village Chief Talen's booming voice had already carried a mile.
With a creak, the wooden door, its paint so worn that its original color was unrecognizable, opened, and an old woman with a head of silver hair stepped out.
This was Lin Yang's grandmother, Su Xi.
"Grandma." Lin Yang hurried forward and deftly took Su Xi's arm to support her.
Su Xi had trouble walking, so Lin Yang had gone to Spirit Hall alone.
"Little Yang, how did it go?"
No sooner had Su Xi spoken than Talen eagerly cut in from beside her.
"Sister Su, you can enjoy a comfortable life at home from now on. Little Yang awakened innate Soul Power, and it's rank five! Rank five! He'll become a Soul Ancestor at the very least."
Talen held up five fingers, his voice trembling, clearly from excitement.
Disbelief filled Su Xi's face. Only when Lin Yang nodded did she believe that her grandson had actually become a Soul Master.
For humble families like theirs, becoming a Soul Master truly brought glory to their ancestors.
"Good, good, good. I knew Little Yang would amount to something."
"Oh, right, Sister Su." Talen hurried to introduce Su Yuntao.
"This is Master Su Yuntao, who awakened Little Yang's Martial Soul. He wants to take Little Yang to Spirit Hall. Would that be all right with you?"
"Ah... well..."
Though she was deeply reluctant to part with him, Su Xi still decided to bear the pain of letting him go for the sake of her grandson's future.
Just as she was about to speak, however, Lin Yang suddenly said beside her,
"I'm not leaving. Grandma's getting old, and I don't want to be too far away from her."
"Little Yang, I..."
"Grandma, listen to me this time," Lin Yang reassured her.
"My innate Soul Power isn't that high. With so many geniuses in Spirit Hall, I definitely won't get much attention. I'd be better off going to a junior Soul Master Academy first and deciding what to do once I've grown a little."
Hearing Lin Yang's well-reasoned words, Su Xi suddenly felt as though her grandson had matured.
"Well..." Talen instinctively glanced at Su Yuntao beside him, afraid he might be angry.
"I was too hasty."
Su Yuntao was not annoyed. Instead, he felt that despite his young age, Lin Yang had considered things very thoroughly, and said,
"How about this? I'll write up your Martial Soul certificate. In three months, just take it to the junior Soul Master Academy in Nuoding City to enroll. Use your village's work-study student quota."
He offered the work-study place because he had also seen how poor Lin Yang's family was.
"Yes, yes, of course, Master Su. Rest assured," Talen hurriedly said.
Lin Yang also bowed slightly. "Thank you, Master Su!"
Su Yuntao personally wrote out a Martial Soul certificate, left his own Martial Soul imprint on it, and handed it to Lin Yang. After offering a few more words of encouragement, he left Red Maple Village.
"Sister Su, just spend this time living well with Little Yang. When school is about to start, I'll have someone take him to Nuoding City."
Su Xi nodded. "Thank you, Village Chief."
"Oh, it's nothing." Talen waved a hand, then looked at Lin Yang with a kindly gaze.
"Little Yang is the only genius with Soul Power our Red Maple Village has produced in decades. Our village's future rests on him."
When one person attained the Dao, even their chickens and dogs ascended to heaven. Such things were extremely common in the world of Douluo Continent.
After giving them a few more reminders, Talen turned and left.
After Lin Yang helped Su Xi back into the room, she lit a stick of incense for her husband and murmured on and on in a low voice.
Lin Yang did not disturb her. He quietly left and returned to his own room.
Sitting on his bed, Lin Yang slowly raised his left hand, and a trace of blood-red light flashed and vanished.
As the light gathered, a drop of bright red, almost bewitching blood actually appeared above his small hand.
"How is this possible? This is..." Lin Yang's gaze darkened, his voice sounding as though it had been forced through clenched teeth.
"Demon Blood?"
Indeed, Lin Yang's second Martial Soul was actually the Demon King's blood.
"Could it have been back then..."
Thoughts churned through Lin Yang's mind.
At the very end of the final battle, Muzan's Flesh Thorns had wounded him. Perhaps a small amount of Muzan's blood had entered his body then.
Muzan had probably intended to turn him into a demon, but he had died too quickly.
Not only had the Demon Blood failed to take effect, it had also undergone some kind of mutation.
Even after Muzan's death, this drop of Demon Blood had survived, even lying quietly dormant within him until the moment of his Martial Soul awakening.
This drop of the Demon King's blood had seized the opportunity and become his second Martial Soul.
But why had he not turned into a demon before, and why had he not feared sunlight?
Lin Yang touched the Demon Slayer Mark on his face.
If his guess was correct, the only reason he had not turned into a demon over the past six years was that the Demon Slayer Mark had kept the Demon Blood firmly suppressed, preventing it from taking effect.
And his feeling that his innate Soul Power exceeded rank five was very likely due to the expenditure required for the Demon Slayer Mark to suppress the Demon Blood.
"If that's the case..."
Lin Yang's breathing suddenly changed. The Demon Slayer Mark on his face melted away completely like ice and snow, revealing a rather delicate face.
"Just as I thought." Looking at himself in the mirror, Lin Yang showed a trace of delight.
Though his memories had not returned over the past few years, his instincts as the Sun Hashira remained, and he had been subconsciously using the Demon Slayer Mark to suppress the Demon Blood.
He had not been born with a Demon Slayer Mark, but after this transmigration, his body seemed to have become even more compatible with Sun Breathing.
If his compatibility with Sun Breathing had been ninety percent in the Demon Slayer World, then now it was at least over two hundred percent.
Then Lin Yang looked at the Demon Blood in his hand, his expression shifting uncertainly.
As the Sun Hashira, he naturally loathed demons and had always simply killed every evil demon.
But now the Demon Blood had become his second Martial Soul. He could not throw it away even if he wanted to.
After some thought, Lin Yang left home and headed to a stretch of wasteland behind the village where hardly anyone went.
He wanted to try out what this Demon Blood Martial Soul could do.
After spending the entire afternoon experimenting, Lin Yang finally figured out the state of his Demon Blood Martial Soul.
Logically, blood should have been classified as a body Martial Soul.
Yet his Demon Blood Martial Soul was more like a special kind of beast Martial Soul, which could apply its attributes to him through "possession" and strengthen his physique.
After using the Demon Blood Martial Soul, Lin Yang unsurprisingly turned into a demon.
Apart from lacking a Blood Demon Art, he had an intense craving for flesh and blood, feared sunlight, gained a stronger physique, and possessed extraordinary regeneration...
He had every demonic trait he ought to have, and not one of those he ought not to have was missing either.
Ten thousand years later, he would have been a bona fide seedling of an Evil Soul Master.
Fortunately, Lin Yang could control whether he became human or demon by controlling his Demon Blood Martial Soul. That was a blessing amid misfortune.
"Ah, forget it. Since this is heaven's will, I'll make good use of this Martial Soul."
It was foreseeable that Lin Yang would certainly use his Demon Blood Martial Soul frequently in the future.
The extraordinary regeneration alone could be considered a bug in this world.
In other words, no matter how badly Lin Yang was injured, as long as he did not die immediately, he could use the Demon Blood Martial Soul to regenerate. Even being crippled would not matter.
Demons were simply that unreasonable.
Of course, he still needed to lie low when the situation called for it.
If he acted too brazenly, someone could easily capture him and slice him up for research.
Besides, as for his supposed immortality, apart from the sun, his greatest bane, destroying every last one of his cells could kill him just the same.
Given his current strength, quite a few people could accomplish that.
At the same time, he also needed to find a way to overcome his Demon Blood Martial Soul's weakness to sunlight.
Because of his involvement, the entire Kamado Family had survived, and Nezuko had not turned into a demon. Thus, even by the end of his second playthrough, not a single demon immune to sunlight had appeared.
Nezuko's experiences would be difficult to replicate, but the Douluo World was a fantasy world. There had to be some way to resolve his Martial Soul's flaw.
If he could resolve his Martial Soul's flaw, perhaps... he could let Grandma Su Xi live a little longer.
Lin Yang silently tucked this goal away in his heart.
Before you continue