In the original story, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan was the first of the Upper Three Sects to be wiped out. Its fate was truly tragic.
It was because of this that Yu Tianheng went from a young noble heir to a stray dog without a home in the original story, forced to start from scratch and rebuild.
Of course, now that he had transmigrated here and possessed the Heavenly Mandate System, he would never allow that to happen.
With the Heavenly Mandate System, he could obtain Heavenly Mandate Points by changing the destinies of characters from the original story. He could exchange those points in the System Shop for all sorts of wondrous things, such as cultivation manuals, divine weapons, and cultivation resources.
But to change the destinies of others, he first had to change his own.
And to change his own destiny, he had to be strong enough.
Thus, he had to continue cultivating both his Martial Soul and the Martial Dao.
People who cultivated Martial Souls were called Soul Masters on the Douluo Continent. To become a Soul Master, one first had to awaken a Martial Soul, then hunt Soul Beasts to obtain Soul Rings and advance.
This method of cultivation meant that Soul Masters were few and far between. By a rough estimate, there were only a few hundred thousand Soul Masters on the entire Douluo Continent, a tiny fraction of the total population.
It could be said that becoming a Soul Master depended heavily on talent. Usually, one's birth decided everything.
Most commoners could not become Soul Masters.
Martial artists who cultivated the Martial Dao were different. In the early stages, talent did not matter at all. Anyone could cultivate the Martial Dao, and advancing did not require hunting Soul Beasts for Soul Rings. When the time came, one could break through to the next realm.
Compared to Soul Masters, martial artists undoubtedly had greater prospects for development.
But there was one condition that had to be met to become a martial artist: a cultivation technique. Without the appropriate cultivation method, even if one trained until death, one would only be a little stronger than an ordinary person, which was not much use.
And on the entire Douluo Continent, Yu Tianheng was the only person with a complete Martial Dao inheritance, including cultivation techniques. Tang San barely counted as half.
With that thought, Yu Tianheng quickly came up with a way to expand his own forces: spread the Martial Dao.
He would teach the Martial Dao to people who would obey him, then use the system to buy large quantities of the resources needed to cultivate it, such as Body Tempering Liquid and Origin Stones, helping them rapidly increase their strength so that he could command greater power.
That way, he would have a place of his own in the chaotic times to come.
Of course, in the early stages, he could not spread the Martial Dao indiscriminately on a large scale. He had to do it in secret.
Moreover, the people chosen to learn the Martial Dao had to meet certain conditions.
After some thought, Yu Tianheng came up with a few.
First: those who cultivated the Martial Dao had to be ordinary people, not Soul Masters, and preferably commoners without much of a background.
This was crucial. If a cultivator were a Soul Master, he would have to cultivate both his Martial Soul and the Martial Dao, making it easy to become distracted and difficult to achieve anything. There was an even more important reason: Soul Masters might not be willing to cultivate the Martial Dao. After all, they had never heard of such a thing before.
Compared to the unknown Martial Dao, people with Martial Souls would rather become Soul Masters.
Commoners were different. They could not become Soul Masters, yet were unwilling to remain ordinary people all their lives. Now that the path of the Martial Dao lay before them, they would want to try it. Once they became martial artists and felt how powerful martial artists were, they would naturally continue down that path.
Besides, without much of a background, they could only take orders from him, making them relatively easy to control.
Second: those who cultivated the Martial Dao could not be older than twenty.
Although aptitude did not matter in the early stages of Martial Dao cultivation, the earlier one started, the greater one's future achievements would be. Past the age of twenty, unless one was truly gifted or supplied with abundant cultivation resources, it was difficult to achieve much.
Third: those who cultivated the Martial Dao had to be able to endure hardship.
Martial Dao cultivation was different from a Soul Master's cultivation. The latter only needed to sit and meditate to raise their Soul Power Level, but Martial Dao cultivation was different. In the early stages, one had to forge one's muscles and bones and temper one's physique. The process involved hardships beyond what ordinary people could endure. That was also why Yu Tianheng did not intend to teach the Martial Dao to noble children.
Most of them had been pampered and could not endure such hardship.
For now, Yu Tianheng had only thought of these three points. He would give the rest careful thought and add to them later.
As Yu Tianheng walked and pondered, a familiar figure caught his eye.
It was the boy he had let go earlier, now sneaking through the crowd.
Yu Tianheng's heart tightened. He set aside his thoughts about the Martial Dao and watched with interest.
The boy's eyes were alert as he constantly surveyed his surroundings. While a merchant was talking to someone, his little hand darted like lightning into the man's money pouch. He deftly pulled out several Silver Soul Coins in one smooth motion. Clearly, he was a habitual thief.
Seeing this, Yu Tianheng did not immediately call out to stop him. Instead, he silently followed the boy.
He wanted to see what the child intended to do with the money. At the same time, a trace of curiosity stirred in him, and he thought, This one is rather interesting. Though there isn't the slightest fluctuation of Soul Power about him, he's extremely nimble. Even an ordinary Soul Master can't match his speed.
With some training, perhaps he'd be a promising seedling for cultivating the Martial Dao.
With that thought, Yu Tianheng quietly followed behind him. With his current cultivation, as long as he made the effort, he had no fear of being detected.
Yu Tianheng softened his footsteps and followed the boy like an invisible shadow. The boy first plunged into a bustling, noisy shop and skillfully pulled out the stolen money to buy dozens of steamed buns.
The buns were piping hot, and he carefully wrapped them in cloth. Next, he bought several bags of rice, struggled to hoist them onto his shoulders, and hurried toward the outskirts of the city.
Yu Tianheng was full of questions and grew even more curious about the boy's destination. After winding through countless turns, they arrived at a dilapidated slum.
Rotting planks and rundown thatched huts stood in disarray, and the air reeked of pungent mold and sour rot.
People in tattered clothes lay or sat by the roadside, their eyes full of despair and helplessness. The boy hurried along, seemingly unaffected by the sights around him, and headed straight for an even more rundown hut.
The boy pushed open the hut's door and rushed inside. Yu Tianheng leaped onto the roof to observe in secret.
The moment the boy stepped through the rickety door, the previously quiet room stirred to life. A group of children quickly gathered around him like fledglings returning to the nest.
At their head was a slightly older girl of about ten. She was thin, with a head of dry, yellow hair loosely tied behind her. Her clothes were covered in countless patches, and the fabric had been washed until it had faded white.
Her eyes held a maturity and wariness beyond her years. Only when she saw the food in the boy's hands did a flicker of pleasant surprise and relief pass through them.