In the Star Luo Empire, in the hills not far from the White Tiger Duke's Mansion.
Empty, desolate, bleak-all those negative feelings painted a true picture of the place.
Wind swept over the hilltop, kicking up fine dust. A wooden gravestone stood starkly alone, its surface bleached pale by years of wind and sun, with traces of its newness remaining only along the edges and corners.
A short-haired boy dressed in clothes covered with patches knelt motionless before the gravestone. His back was silent and lonely.
On the gravestone before him were carved the large characters: "Tomb of My Birth Mother, Huo Yun'er."
The boy was called Huo Yuhao, but he was not, in the usual sense, the protagonist Huo Yuhao from Peerless Tang Sect.
He was a transmigrator who drifted with the current. Great Fortune had given him a kiss, and when he opened his eyes again, he had become a fetus.
Only when he first laid eyes on that woman who had given birth to him did Huo Yuhao realize he had transmigrated into the world of Peerless Tang Sect, becoming its most miserable protagonist, Huo Yuhao, God King Tang's lapdog.
Huo Yuhao's entire life followed the ending God King Tang had arranged for him. He could not even have an independent thought of his own; the moment he did, God King Tang would erase it.
He could not even do what he had kept saying he would in the early days: kill his enemies with his own hands and avenge his mother.
He could do nothing.
For the sake of the White Tiger bloodline, the Dai Family could not be allowed to die out. God King Tang forcibly snatched Huo Yun'er's soul from the underworld and resurrected her, and Huo Yuhao acknowledged his ancestry and changed his surname to Dai, forcibly creating a happy ending for everyone.
It looked like a happy ending, but the Huo Yuhao from the early days had long since died. The one who lived on afterward was Dai Yuhao!
Huo Yuhao reached out and gently stroked the characters for Huo Yun'er's name in "Tomb of My Birth Mother, Huo Yun'er."
"Mom, you really were foolishly devoted."
"People on the Douluo Continent with love for brains really are terrifying."
Huo Yuhao murmured under his breath, but his eyes reddened without his noticing.
After his Martial Soul Awakening, he had wanted more than once to take Huo Yun'er away from here, away from the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, but Huo Yun'er loved that man too deeply and was unwilling to leave just like that.
She believed Dai Hao would come looking for her someday. She had been his personal maid, by his side since childhood, and Dai Hao would not forget her.
From then on, Huo Yun'er forbade him to speak of leaving this place.
He was only a six-year-old child, and Huo Yun'er was his mother. He could not bear to watch her stay here and suffer alone.
Had it been someone else with no ties to him, he would have fled long ago.
"Mom, I'm leaving. This time, I, Huo Yuhao, will kill them with my own hands and carve out my own path. I'll never become someone else's running dog."
Huo Yuhao stood and slung his small bundle over his back.
Inside were only a change of clothes, a little money, the White Tiger Dagger, a level-five melee Soul Tool, and a simple map.
At present, he had three paths he could take.
First: follow the original story, go to the Star Dou Great Forest to obtain the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Electrolux, then join the Tang Sect and head to Shrek, taking things one step at a time.
Second: still go to the Star Dou Great Forest to obtain the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Electrolux, but on this path, he would do something different and head to the Body Sect.
Third: still get the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Electrolux, then go to the Sun Moon Empire to study Soul Tools.
Whichever path he chose, he could not do without the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Electrolux. The first and third paths carried the greatest risks.
Those two places had God King Tang, Evil Soul Masters, and Qiankun Asking Love Valley presiding over them.
As he was now, even getting to the Sun Moon Empire would probably be a problem. He might end up being killed by an Evil Soul Master like a speed bump the moment he entered the empire.
"Then the answer is obvious. Body Sect, get ready to welcome your God King!"
Huo Yuhao made his final decision. His deep blue eyes, gleaming with an uncanny light, gazed north from the hill, toward the Star Dou Great Forest.
Just then, a "ding" sounded in his mind.
[Ding!] [The Intercept the Protagonist's Fortuitous Encounters System has activated] [The system has only one purpose: to help the host intercept the fortuitous encounters of this world's child of the plane. Intercept fortuitous encounters to receive incredibly generous rewards] [World scan complete] [Host's current world: Douluo Continent, Peerless Tang Sect era] [Protagonist: Huo Yuhao, child of fortune] [The host can seize Huo Yuhao's fortuitous encounters to obtain rewards] [According to the timeline: Huo Yuhao has not escaped the White Tiger Duke's Mansion. Host, please proceed to the Star Dou Great Forest as soon as possible and seize Huo Yuhao's major fortuitous encounters, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Electrolux]
A long string of information appeared in Huo Yuhao's mind without the slightest warning.
Huo Yuhao was stunned.
He was indeed a transmigrator, but his current identity was none other than Huo Yuhao, the protagonist of this world!
A system for intercepting the fortuitous encounters of the protagonist-that was him-had bound itself to him.
Was that reasonable?
Could any kind of system make it these days?
It had not even noticed that the Huo Yuhao it had bound itself to was Huo Yuhao himself.
But...
In any case, having a system was better than not having one.
Before this, Huo Yuhao would have had only ninety-nine percent confidence in surpassing Tang San.
But now, he was one thousand percent confident he could surpass Tang San.
If not for Tang San's interference, the Huo Yuhao of the original story would only have been stronger than Tang San, and would have become the true central figure who brought about coexistence between Soul Beasts and humans.
Huo Yuhao shook his head helplessly and set off at a run toward the north of the Duke's Mansion.
Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.
In a dense forest, Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged beside the corpse of a ten-year-old God-Slaying Wind Baboon.
His patched change of clothes had been torn to shreds by the God-Slaying Wind Baboon. There were even traces of blood on parts of his body, and he was panting heavily.
Huo Yuhao had not absorbed the Wind Baboon's Ten-Year Soul Ring. Instead, it had completely merged with the natural surroundings.
A glowing white Soul Ring rose from beneath his feet. It looked like an ordinary Ten-Year Soul Ring, but it was in fact a genuine Million-Year Soul Ring.
In Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness.
His gaze remained fixed on the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, who had already fallen asleep above, and the small gray bead.
After reaching the Star Dou Great Forest, Huo Yuhao had merely washed and changed his clothes by a stream, eaten some grilled fish, and gone through the indispensable step of meeting Tang Ya and Bei Bei before hurrying here for a one-on-one, real-man duel with the Wind Baboon.
Now he possessed the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Electrolux, a pair of top-tier cheats.
Just then, however, the system's emotionless electronic voice rang out again.
[Ding!] [Detected that the host successfully impersonated Huo Yuhao, intercepted Huo Yuhao's top-tier cheats, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Electrolux, and seized his identity as the protagonist and child of fortune] [Rewards obtained: all of God King-level Huo Yuhao's combat experience, Soul Tool knowledge, and theoretical knowledge]