"Cough, cough, cough..."
Inside the room, a thin, delicate-looking boy of about five or six coughed as he walked to the stove, took down the medicinal decoction, and slowly poured it into a bowl.
Once the medicine had cooled a little, the boy picked up the bowl and drained it in one gulp.
The medicine was bitter, but the boy did not so much as furrow his brow, as though he had long since grown used to all this.
"Six years."
Setting the bowl on the table, the boy silently reflected, In the blink of an eye, I've already spent six years in this world.
His name was Luo Chen, and he had originally been an ordinary young man on Blue Star.
One day, while Luo Chen was playing a game, his vision inexplicably went black.
When he regained consciousness, Luo Chen discovered that he had arrived in another world and become a baby abandoned by his parents, shivering in the bitter wind beneath his swaddling clothes.
Fortunately, a passing woman had taken him to an orphanage, saving him from becoming a loot box the moment he landed.
"Martial Souls, Soul Beasts, Soul Rings."
"Douluo Continent, Nuoding City, Spirit Hall..."
As he grew older, Luo Chen began to glimpse the tip of this world's iceberg.
Although the language and writing had both changed, Luo Chen still recalled a certain work he had seen online and on Douyin in his previous life-Douluo Continent.
"If I'd known I was going to transmigrate, I wouldn't have played Legends of Runeterra."
After learning that he had transmigrated into the world of Douluo, Luo Chen could not help regretting it immensely. "Why didn't I watch the Douluo Continent anime back then?"
To be honest, Luo Chen was not familiar with the work at all.
The only information he knew came from comments he had read while browsing Tieba and short videos on Douyin.
For example, Spirit Hall was a villainous faction.
Its Supreme Pontiff was named Bibi Dong, and she had a daughter named Qian Renxue. Later in the story, she went crazy and started stirring up all sorts of trouble.
Then there were the women in this work, practically all of whom were hopelessly love-brained, with hardly any exceptions.
If someone asked Luo Chen what his strongest impression of Douluo Continent was...
Luo Chen's answer would be, The Douluo Continent fan art on Pixiv is seriously good!
Especially the pictures of Bibi Dong. Those were genuinely excellent!
Aside from that, the protagonist, Tang San, apparently was not a good person. He had extreme double standards and was forever declaring, "You have courted death."
"Thinking about it that way, I'm probably doomed sooner or later."
In this life, Luo Chen was an orphan who had been taken in by Nuoding City's orphanage while still in swaddling clothes.
Why was he doomed?
Because this orphanage was run by Spirit Hall.
Spirit Hall had raised Luo Chen and shown him kindness, and he could not bring himself to forget that kindness or repay it with betrayal.
Whenever he thought of Spirit Hall's eventual destruction, Luo Chen felt that his future was shrouded in darkness.
"Ah, if only I knew how Tang San rose to power. Then I could snatch his opportunities first..."
Unfortunately, there were no ifs.
Luo Chen did not know where he was in the timeline. He was unfamiliar with the plot and had no way to work it out.
He had never even heard anything about Tang San, his only reference point. "I suppose Tang San hasn't awakened his Martial Soul yet."
The reason he thought so was Su Yuntao, an attendant of Nuoding City's Spirit Hall, whom people nicknamed Spirit Hall's traitor and Blind Douluo-Brother Tao.
That was right: protagonists came and went, but Su Yuntao stood firm.
A Douluo Continent story that did not begin with Brother Tao was incomplete!
"When Brother Tao last came, I specifically asked him about Blue Silver Grass."
Grandmaster Ma Xiunuo also served as the director of Spirit Hall's orphanage. Su Yuntao occasionally visited to check the children's health and teach them some basic knowledge about Martial Souls.
Not long ago, Luo Chen had sounded him out indirectly, first asking about innate full Soul Power, then casually bringing up the question, "Can a Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul have innate full Soul Power too?"
Su Yuntao's answer had been that Blue Silver Grass was a trash Martial Soul. Forget innate full Soul Power-even having any Soul Power at all was extremely rare.
"From the looks of it, I should be older than Tang San?"
"No, he might be awakening this year. We could be the same age."
"If I get the chance, I could visit Tang San's hometown." At that thought, Luo Chen looked troubled again. "But where exactly does Tang San live?"
It seemed to be some village, with a stone at its entrance bearing a palm print.
Too much time had passed. Luo Chen really could not remember those details.
"Knock, knock."
A knock came at the door. Luo Chen hurriedly grabbed the cane leaning against the table and slowly went to open it. "Coming."
When he opened the door, he saw a boy about his own age standing outside. His name was Wang Sheng, and like Luo Chen, he had grown up in this orphanage.
"Xiao Chen, today's the Martial Soul Awakening. The director sent me to get you."
Wang Sheng's voice was filled with excitement. "Are you feeling all right? Do you need me to help you walk?"
"Thanks, Brother Wang Sheng."
"Hey! We're brothers. What are you being so polite for?"
Luo Chen did not refuse Wang Sheng's kindness. He seemed to have caught a chill that night as a baby and had been frail and sickly ever since.
Not only did he frequently suffer from fevers and colds, but his body was also far more fragile than an ordinary person's. Even a little strenuous exercise left him dizzy.
With such a constitution, he probably would have struggled to survive even in his previous life.
He had only made it this far thanks to the Gold Soul Coins left behind by the woman who had brought him to the orphanage, which allowed the director to regularly buy herbs to nourish his weak body.
"I hope I awaken a powerful Martial Soul."
Luo Chen silently prayed as he and Wang Sheng slowly made their way toward Spirit Hall.
Soon, the two arrived at Spirit Hall's branch in Nuoding City.
Nuoding City's Spirit Hall was an imposing domed building. Its facade alone stretched over a hundred meters wide, and its three floors rose more than twenty meters high. The entire building was brown.
A longsword was engraved on its doors-the emblem of Spirit Hall.
According to Spirit Hall's ranking system, an emblem with only one image meant that Nuoding City's Spirit Hall was merely the lowest-ranking type of Spirit Hall.
"Halt."
Two guards stood at Spirit Hall's entrance. They were around twenty years old, and an invisible power faintly stirred around them, though it was not very noticeable.
Nuoding City lay in a remote part of the Heaven Dou Empire. By the standards of Luo Chen's previous life, it barely qualified as a small fourth-tier city.
Thus, the Spirit Hall members stationed here, Hall Master Ma Xiunuo and Attendant Su Yuntao, were only Soul Grandmasters.
The two guards' cultivation was even more ordinary. Neither had reached rank 10; they were merely Soul Scholars who possessed Soul Power.
Even so, people with Soul Power were not opponents two children could afford to provoke.
Supported by Wang Sheng, Luo Chen respectfully greeted the two guards. "Hello, uncles. We're here to awaken our Martial Souls."
"You're the children coming to awaken their Martial Souls today?"
"Yes."
Wang Sheng hurriedly spoke up. "My name is Wang Sheng, and he's Luo Chen."
"Mm, that's right. Those are the two names."
Once their identities had been confirmed, the guards let them through.
The orphanage had around a hundred children, but only Wang Sheng and Luo Chen were eligible to awaken their Martial Souls this year.
"Wow, this is my first time visiting Spirit Hall."
The two walked into Spirit Hall side by side. Its twenty-meter-high dome was magnificent, and its grandeur left even Luo Chen, who had seen countless high-rises in his previous life, filled with wonder.
"As expected of a world with Soul Power. Even some little backwater has a building like this."
Unlike Wang Sheng, who exclaimed at everything, Luo Chen silently tilted his head back. The hall's dome was covered in murals, with images of all kinds of Martial Souls painted within small squares. They shone brilliantly, looking resplendent without losing their ancient, profound character.
"Xiao Chen, what kind of Martial Souls do you think we'll awaken?"
Huge crystal windows surrounded them. Sunlight refracted through the transparent crystal and spilled over the murals, its shimmering golden radiance dazzling to behold.
As the two children walked through the hall, they seemed to be bathed in light, unconsciously giving rise to boundless imaginings of the future.
"As for me, I'll be perfectly happy as long as I have Soul Power."
Wang Sheng did not ask for much. Having Soul Power was his greatest dream.
Yet Douluo Continent had a population of over a hundred million, while its Soul Masters numbered only a little over a hundred thousand.
With awakening odds of one in a thousand, the difficulty an ordinary person faced in awakening Soul Power was easy to imagine.
"Xiao Chen, Wang Sheng, you're here?"
A female Soul Master appeared before them. She was tall and voluptuous, with somewhat above-average looks.
The young woman was named Sisi. She was Su Yuntao's girlfriend and a rank 19 Soul Master. "Come on, I'll take you over."
The attendant responsible for awakening people's Martial Souls at Spirit Hall was Su Yuntao.
He was also the person the director had entrusted with purchasing medicinal herbs, as Su Yuntao had grown up in the orphanage too.
However, the real reason the two had become close lay with the young woman before them.
Su Yuntao had had a crush on Sisi.
Unfortunately, a clueless straight guy like him had no idea how to win a girl's heart.
Although Luo Chen had also been single in his previous life, even someone who had never eaten pork had seen a pig run, right?
Who says being single means you don't know how to pick up girls? Who are you looking down on?
And so, using the various flirting techniques he had learned in his previous life, Luo Chen had advised Brother Tao and finally helped this single dog win the beauty's heart.
Over time, Su Yuntao and Sisi had grown increasingly close to Luo Chen, and Wang Sheng had benefited by association.
"You're here?"
With Sisi leading the way, the two children arrived on Spirit Hall's second floor.
Opening the door, Su Yuntao greeted Luo Chen. "Xiao Chen, Wang Sheng, stand over here. I'll help you awaken your Martial Souls."
In the Douluo World, Soul Masters were arrogant.
They looked down on ordinary people, considering those without even Soul Power to be nothing but mud-legged peasants.
Spirit Hall's members, however, were particularly friendly toward commoners and did not casually insult or bully them. This was one reason Spirit Hall enjoyed such an excellent reputation across Douluo Continent.
So just how hard did Spirit Hall have to court death to end up destroyed?
Luo Chen had wondered about this more than once.
He had received Spirit Hall's kindness, so he sincerely did not want this faction, to which he owed a debt, to walk the road to destruction.
Unfortunately, Luo Chen was unfamiliar with the original plot and could not use foreknowledge to make preparations.
It all comes down to my Martial Soul.
If my Martial Soul is poor, all the thinking in the world will be useless.
I'm no saint, Luo Chen thought. If I don't have the ability, the only thing I can do is find a way to protect the people around me.
Luo Chen had not been a martial arts expert in his previous life. He knew nothing about internal cultivation or movement techniques.
Nor did he know much about advanced technology. He mainly knew what things did, not how or why they worked.
As for golden fingers or special abilities...
Luo Chen had already been in this world for six years and had never discovered anything special about himself.
Instead, this body caught a cold or developed a fever every few days. It was so weak that he barely seemed like someone from Douluo Continent.
I'm not asking for twin Martial Souls. Could you at least give me innate full Soul Power?
Looking at Su Yuntao standing before him, Luo Chen took a deep breath. He knew very well that his Martial Soul was his only chance to secure a place for himself in this world.
"Don't be nervous, Xiao Chen."
Su Yuntao had known Luo Chen for almost four years, and Brother Tao had always liked this precocious child.
"With your intelligence, even if you can't awaken a Martial Soul, you should have no trouble going into business or becoming a clerk."
As he spoke, Su Yuntao opened his bundle on a nearby table and took out two things: six pitch-black round stones and a gleaming blue crystal ball.
Su Yuntao arranged the six black stones into a hexagon on the floor. "This is the awakening formation. In a moment, you'll stand in the middle, and I'll awaken your Martial Souls."
"All right."
Su Yuntao asked, "Which of you wants to go first?"
"Me!"
Wang Sheng hurriedly spoke up. He strode forward into the center of the formation. "I'll go first, Brother Tao."
"Mm."
"Don't be afraid. Close your eyes and feel carefully."
Su Yuntao nodded. Light shone from his eyes, and he gave a low shout. "Lone Wolf, possess!"
Here it comes!
Luo Chen had seen this scene in short videos. The iconic scene-Brother Tao's Lone Wolf possession!
Having lived two lives, Luo Chen ought to have been more mature and composed.
Yet seeing a once-familiar scene unfold before his eyes, Luo Chen still could not help feeling a surge of excitement.
Inside the awakening chamber, a faint wisp of azure light emerged from between Su Yuntao's brows, rose upward, and entered his hair.
Su Yuntao's black hair turned gray and rapidly lengthened. Then gray fur instantly covered his exposed hands.
At the same time, Su Yuntao's body swelled considerably, his entire frame bulging with muscle.
Spirit Hall's specially made uniform was extremely elastic and did not tear at all despite the changes to Su Yuntao's physique.
"Hah!"
With a low shout, Su Yuntao's eyes began to gleam with an eerie green light, and sharp claws extended from all ten fingers, flashing coldly.
At that moment, two rings of light, one white and one yellow, lit up beneath his feet and continuously traveled between his feet and the top of his head. They were Su Yuntao's ten-year first Soul Ring and hundred-year second Soul Ring.
"So this is Martial Soul Possession!"
Wang Sheng's eyes were filled with envy. Rather than being frightened by Su Yuntao's Lone Wolf possession, he strode forward and excitedly took his place in the center of the formation.
The next moment, pale golden light enveloped Wang Sheng. Points of light drifted out of the black stones on the floor and entered his body.
"Hold out your right hand."
At Su Yuntao's instruction, Wang Sheng instinctively extended his right hand.
In an instant, all the points of light surged forth and formed an orange-yellow tiger in his palm.
"It's a beast Martial Soul."
Su Yuntao was somewhat pleasantly surprised. "A tiger? As one of the finest among carnivores, it has a high chance of possessing Soul Power."
But Wang Sheng only had a chance of possessing Soul Power. Whether he actually did would only be known after testing.
"Come, let's test it."
Su Yuntao said, "Withdraw your Martial Soul with your mind, then place your hand on the crystal ball."
Wang Sheng hurriedly followed Brother Tao's instructions. He felt somewhat uneasy, yet desperately hoped he could become that one-in-a-thousand lucky soul.
"Humm~~"
The instant Wang Sheng pressed his hand against the crystal ball, a pale blue light bloomed from within it.
"Innate Soul Power, level 2."
Looking at the information relayed by the Soul Power testing crystal ball, Su Yuntao smiled. "Congratulations, Wang Sheng. You have the aptitude to become a Soul Master."
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(End of chapter)