Born Without a Martial Soul? A Chance Encounter with a Million-Year Lone Bamboo

His head hurt, as though it had been struck by a heavy hammer. When Lin Qing opened his eyes, he thought he was still dreaming.

Three seconds ago, he had been sitting at his computer, revising his proposal. His boss had sent him a message: "Revise it again. It's still no good." Then everything went black, and he collapsed onto his desk.

Yet when he opened his eyes, he was lying in a bamboo forest, beneath an unfamiliar starry sky, with unfamiliar insects chirping in his ears. "Where... am I?"

He pinched himself. It hurt.

"Holy shit, it's not a dream."

He sat up and looked at his hands-they were twenty years younger, with no calluses and none of the polish worn into them by a keyboard. The setting sun shone on his arms, his skin too pale to belong to a 996 corporate slave.

When Lin Qing managed to open his eyes, a vast stretch of green bamboo forest filled his vision. The wind rustled the leaves, carrying an ancient, timeless presence.

A sudden, violent pain shot through his head as unfamiliar memories flooded wildly into his mind.

This was the Douluo Continent, a world where Soul Masters and Soul Beasts coexisted.

His current identity was an orphan from Holy Soul Village, whose parents had died when he was young. He had collapsed from hunger and frailty in the bamboo forest outside the village. His name was also Lin Qing.

He had been taken in by the village chief, Old Jack...

"Did I... transmigrate?" Shouldn't he have been rushing to finish his work at his computer? How had he ended up in a place like this?

A violent wave of dizziness swept through his mind. Memories that did not belong to him poured in like a tide, frantically washing over everything he knew.

"Transmigration?" Countless webnovels flashed through his mind. "Where's my golden finger? My system? My grandpa?"

Lin Qing propped up his limp body and sat up. Looking down at his skinny arms, he felt a jumble of emotions.

As a reader who had followed the entire Douluo series, he knew this world's rules all too well: strength reigned supreme, and the weak were prey to the strong. Without Soul Power or a Martial Soul, even staying alive in this world was difficult.

And the original owner's memories told him that when this body had undergone its Martial Soul awakening at the age of six, nothing had awakened.

The Spirit Hall deacon had announced on the spot: born without a Martial Soul, an ordinary person.

Yet on the Douluo Continent, whether or not they awakened Soul Power, everyone could awaken a Martial Soul. It was a treasure the Douluo Plane bestowed upon all humanity.

Every awakened Martial Soul had its own use, regardless of whether its owner had Soul Power.

And he was worse off than someone with a Trash Martial Soul.

Lin Qing took a deep breath and told himself to stay calm.

First, he had to stay alive. This was the mountain behind Holy Soul Village, not far from the village itself, and the original owner remembered the way.

He would head back first, find the village chief named Old Jack, and then...

He took a step. Something tripped him. Looking down, he saw a bamboo root as thin as a finger wrapped around his ankle. "Damn." He bent down and pulled at it.

The bamboo root didn't budge.

He pulled harder.

The bamboo root still didn't budge.

He pulled harder still-

The bamboo root suddenly jerked back into the soil. Pain stung his palm. He looked down and saw that the rough root had cut it open. Beads of blood seeped out and dripped onto the ground.

The blood seeped into the soil and came into contact with the bamboo root...

Suddenly, the earth trembled violently. Bamboo leaves scattered in a patter, but instead of falling to the ground, they hung suspended in the air.

A fierce wind sprang up. A current of air carrying bamboo leaves swirled around Lin Qing, and bamboo stalks rose from the ground one after another, forming a ring of high walls around him.

A sudden wave of dizziness came over him. It wasn't a headache, but more like a summons from the depths of his soul, drawing him in.

When he opened his eyes again, the world had changed. The bamboo forest was still there, as was the sunlight, and the leaves around him were still spinning.

But there was another stalk of bamboo. This was no ordinary bamboo.

It was green from top to bottom, so vivid it seemed to glow. Light striking its body actually bounced off, turning into a faint green halo.

Its trunk was as thick as an arm, and when he counted its sections upward, he still hadn't reached the end by the time he got to three zhang.

Each joint was sharply defined, and light seemed to flow faintly between them, as though it were alive.

Even the bamboo leaves drifting down around it gave off a dark golden glow.

Stranger still, the surrounding bamboo had all bent low, as if bowing in submission to the giant stalk.

A melodious yet aged voice rang out. "I've finally waited for you, person from another world."

Lin Qing's heart jumped. "Who! Who's speaking?"

Lin Qing looked around and confirmed that the voice was coming from the bamboo before him. "You're... a talking bamboo? Or a Soul Beast?"

"My name is Chaos Lone Bamboo. A Soul Beast? Perhaps..."

Lin Qing pondered in secret. In his previous life, he had been a Douluo fan and knew its contents very well.

"A Soul Beast that can talk... could you be a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast?"

"A hundred thousand years?" The voice paused, as if chewing over the words. "Perhaps. But... probably more than that."

More than that? Lin Qing froze. What did that even mean?

On the Douluo Continent, Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were already the stuff of legend. Beyond that...

"Then you're..."

Lone Bamboo did not answer directly. His tip lowered slowly and gently touched the center of Lin Qing's forehead.

At once, Lin Qing felt a gentle presence enter through his forehead and travel throughout his body. Like a soft breeze, and like tender moonlight, it circled through his meridians bit by bit...

He said, "I've lived a long time. So long I can't remember. Perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. Perhaps a million. Or perhaps... even longer."

Lin Qing's mind went blank.

A million years? Wouldn't that put him at the god level? Even the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King had only come close and had been unable to break through.

Then the one before him... "Could this heaven-sent opportunity really be mine? But I've transmigrated here without even a Martial Soul..."

"Right now, I'm hiding in these mountain woods in the form of a ten-year-old bamboo.

"Your blood awakened me, and I sensed your presence."

"Because of the plane's laws suppressing me," Lone Bamboo's voice was calm, "I had no choice but to return to my original simplicity and suppress my presence to that of a ten-year-old. That way, the plane won't notice me, and neither will the Divine Realm."

"The Divine Realm?"

"You don't need to know too much. You'll find out when the time comes." He paused.

Lin Qing fell silent.

He looked at the giant bamboo standing three zhang tall before him, at the green light flowing over its body, and at the surrounding bamboo bowing in worship.

Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo? Who was he trying to fool? But Lin Qing didn't press the matter.

"Are you willing to accept my inheritance?"

Lin Qing froze for a moment.

"...What?"

The voice said, "I sensed that you came from a universe that does not belong to this plane.

"Perhaps you can take us with you beyond the restrictions of the laws... You might even return to that world."

"Could this be the newbie benefit I got for transmigrating? A cheat handed to me the moment I arrive?"

Lin Qing looked down at his child's frame, then up at the giant bamboo standing three zhang tall.

"Of course I'm willing," he said, spreading his arms, thinking, Who but a fool would turn down a cheat?

"In my previous life, I had such a hard time. In this life, I have the script in hand, and I'll become the protagonist who rules the world."

The next second, the giant bamboo began to sway. Countless golden bamboo leaves drifted down in an ominous shower and became a torrent. A golden storm spun beside him, radiating powerful energy fluctuations.

Nine hundred and ninety-nine bamboo joints lit up green one after another, each connected to green-gold light resembling the veins of a leaf.

Then the giant bamboo began to disintegrate. It didn't fall; it turned into countless specks of green light that surged toward him alongside the bamboo leaves, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.

Lin Qing's feet left the ground, and he gradually rose into the air. The specks of light filling the sky burrowed into his skin, merged with his blood, and sank into his bones.

Green light flashed all over his body, and a bamboo pattern appeared on the inside of his arm, dark gold flowing through its lines...

Lin Qing felt warmth surging through his body, as though he were shedding his mortal body and being reborn.

The golden vortex continued to spin like a storm.

After an unknown length of time, the specks of light scattered and vanished.

Lin Qing slowly descended to the ground. He opened his eyes and looked down at himself.

They were still the same hands, but the wound on his palm had disappeared. His skin was smooth, as though it had never been injured, and had become more supple.

The surroundings had also returned to the bamboo forest they had been before.

"Close your eyes, focus, and channel your consciousness into your right hand."

Lin Qing stirred his thoughts.

A stalk of bamboo emerged from his palm.

It was about three chi long and two fingers thick, with a green trunk and several leaves at the tip.

It resembled the giant bamboo from before, only smaller and without some of the green-gold patterns.

Lin Qing looked at it. "This is... my Martial Soul? Is this what summoning a Martial Soul feels like? You've become my Martial Soul?"

The Martial Soul in his hand did not respond, but a voice came from within his mind.

"I now exist within your spiritual sea. I have fused my bloodline into your body.

"I helped you unseal the plane's restrictions and awaken a Lone Bamboo Martial Soul containing a portion of my bloodline. From now on, it is a part of your body.

"I exist inside you in a manner akin to half Martial Soul, half Soul Spirit."

Lin Qing was secretly delighted. From what the bamboo had said of his origins, he knew he was no ordinary being.

He withdrew his Martial Soul and, relying on the memories in his mind, turned and headed down the mountain to find the village chief Old Jack's home.

Moonlight fell over the quiet bamboo forest. Whenever the wind blew, the leaves rustled.

Nothing remained where the giant bamboo had stood.

He didn't know exactly how old the bamboo was.

He didn't know how many millions of years he had lived.

He didn't know why he had chosen him.

But deep down, he understood that from this day forward, he would become the ruler of this world and even return to his former world.

Far away, in Holy Soul Village, a six-year-old boy suddenly woke from a dream.

He sat up and looked out the window at the mountain behind the village.

He didn't know why, but he had a feeling there was something over there, something very important.

But he didn't know what it was.

For that brief instant just now, he seemed to have missed something.