Ten thousand years ago, before Spirit Hall existed on the Douluo Continent, there were only two great empires on the entire continent: Heaven Dou and Star Luo.
The Heaven Dou Empire occupied the northern Douluo Continent, while the Star Luo Empire occupied the south opposite it.
Initially, the Heaven Dou Empire's territory was almost three times the size of the Star Luo Empire's. In the clashes between the two nations at the time, the Heaven Dou Empire consistently held the upper hand and showed signs of swallowing up the Star Luo Empire.
But despite its advantage, internal problems prevented the Heaven Dou Empire from wiping out the Star Luo Empire in one fell swoop.
This also gave the Star Luo Empire a chance to catch its breath.
Added to this were the White Tiger, the top-tier Beast Martial Soul passed down through the Star Luo Imperial Family, and the brutal struggles within that family.
As a result, almost every emperor of the Star Luo Empire was a formidable ruler of his generation.
Under pressure from the powerful Heaven Dou Empire, each successive emperor of the Star Luo Empire devoted himself to strengthening his nation. Finally, ten thousand years later, its national strength surpassed that of the Heaven Dou Empire.
If not for Spirit Hall's existence, swallowing up the Heaven Dou Empire would have been only a matter of time.
In recent years, however, almost no wars had broken out between the two great empires, and they maintained a brief peace amid a peculiar atmosphere.
The source of all this was Spirit Hall, which had risen over the past ten thousand years.
Spirit Hall helped commoners awaken their Martial Souls and recruited all kinds of talented commoners. By now, it had grown into the undisputed foremost power on the continent.
Even the two great empires were deeply wary of it. Between them, they had even set aside a territory almost as large as a province, placing it under Spirit Hall's direct jurisdiction.
The two great empires feared not only that Spirit Hall had the largest number of Soul Masters on the continent, but, more importantly, that its ideals clashed with their own.
The two great empires represented the interests of the nobility, while Spirit Hall helped commoners awaken their Martial Souls free of charge and encouraged cultivation.
This all but shook the very foundations of the interests of those nobles who squeezed the commoners dry.
This doomed the two sides to have no room for reconciliation.
Spirit City, home to the Pope's Palace and Worship Hall, served as Spirit Hall's headquarters. Both its size and its prosperity surpassed even the capitals of the two great empires.
Moreover, Spirit City was not a place just anyone could enter. Only Soul Masters were allowed in, and they had to be Soul Grandmasters above level twenty.
At the very center of Spirit City, within a luxurious manor in the Worship Hall.
A little boy of around five or six, with golden hair and clear blue eyes, was training his body on a flat, open square, his head drenched in sweat.
His delicate little face was flushed red with exertion, and his clear eyes shone with a maturity beyond his years.
"Huff... huff..."
After taking a deep, panting breath, the little boy struggled to unfasten the weights strapped to his limbs. They stirred up clouds of dust as they hit the ground.
Clearly, the weights were far from light.
"Six years. Is it finally almost time to awaken my Martial Soul?"
The boy plopped down on the ground and murmured to himself. Despite his physical exhaustion, his expression showed no distress. Instead, he glanced with a smile at the Elder Hall towering nearby.
The boy's name was Tian Chen, and he was not from this world.
In his previous life, he had been an ordinary student. His only real hobby had been reading novels now and then.
Since Douluo Continent had been his first novel, it had left a particularly deep impression on him.
He had also yearned for the many powerful Martial Souls and dazzling Soul Skills in Douluo Continent.
He had never expected that an accident would actually transmigrate him into the Douluo Continent.
Naturally, he had felt no attachment to his previous life. Without the slightest inner struggle, he had readily accepted his current identity.
Moreover, his name in this life happened to be Tian Chen as well, sparing him the need to consciously adjust to a new name when he was already accustomed to this one from his previous life.
What excited him even more was that the body's original owner had actually been the grandson of Golden Crocodile Douluo, Spirit Hall's Second Worship.
Familiar with the original novel, he naturally knew who Golden Crocodile Douluo was.
He was a Level 98 Super Douluo, one of the strongest figures of the age. Although he could not beat the cheating Tang father and son in the original novel, he was more than enough to serve as Tian Chen's staunchest backing.
Besides, Tian Chen already knew how the plot would unfold. When the time came, who could say who the protagonist would be?
As Golden Crocodile Douluo's grandson, he had an extremely high chance of inheriting their family's Golden Crocodile King Martial Soul.
The Golden Crocodile King was a top-tier Martial Soul absolutely no weaker than the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. Otherwise, Golden Crocodile Douluo could never have cultivated to Level 98.
Not only that, Golden Crocodile Douluo also held an exceptional position within Spirit Hall.
Already over a hundred and twenty years old, Golden Crocodile Douluo was even older than Qian Daoliu. Within the Elder Hall, even Qian Daoliu had to show him a measure of respect.
As Golden Crocodile Douluo's only grandson, Tian Chen had never lacked people deliberately trying to curry favor with him since childhood. He turned none of them away, readily accepting their goodwill.
He probably counted as the typical rich second-generation villain in a novel. Wasn't it perfectly normal for him to have a few lackeys?
But he knew very well that on the Douluo Continent, strength was everything. Thus, he had not let those people's deliberate flattery make him slack off. Instead, he worked tirelessly, day after day, to improve his physical constitution.
This was also preparation for absorbing more powerful Soul Rings in the future. He had read the later installments of Douluo Continent in his previous life and knew that the age of the Soul Rings one could absorb was directly related to one's physical constitution.
His advantage in theoretical knowledge gave him the possibility of attempting to absorb more powerful Soul Rings.
Thanks to his grandfather Golden Crocodile Douluo's status, he had enjoyed an endless supply of heavenly treasures and meat from all kinds of Soul Beasts since childhood. His physical constitution had already reached an astonishing level.
It was even stronger than that of an ordinary Soul Scholar who had awakened a Martial Soul-and specifically one who had awakened a Beast Martial Soul.
Tian Chen's gaze focused as he came back to his senses. Squinting, he waved a hand, signaling a maid to bring him a towel.
He carefully wiped the hot sweat from his body and tidied himself up a little in the mirror the maid held. Only then did he leave the manor.