Chapter 1: Awakening.
Douluo Continent, southwest of the Heaven Dou Empire, Fasno Province.
Hetan Village, a simple and unassuming name, is a small village of just over 200 households outside Xiyuehua City in Fasno Province, so named for the riverbank just outside the village.
By the riverbank, a small figure sat on a flat stone, wearing a straw hat and clutching a slender bamboo pole. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, dappling his figure, creating patches of light that swayed gently in the breeze, creating a coolness amidst the warmth of the sun.
A child stared intently at the water, waiting for the sign of a fish taking the bait. Occasionally, a dragonfly skimmed across the surface, creating ripples that drew the child's gaze, but he quickly returned to his focus on fishing, for it was crucial to his chances of getting a meal that day.
Suddenly, a subtle ripple appeared on the water, and the bamboo pole in his hand felt a pull. The child's heartbeat quickened, and he instantly lifted the pole, pulling a small fish from the water.
Watching the fish still bouncing around in the grass, a child in a straw hat caught them and placed them in the bucket he was carrying. A smile crossed his tender face as he watched the fish in the bucket.
As he gazed at the fish, as if remembering something, the smile faded, a hint of worry crossing his young face.
"Six years have passed in the blink of an eye. I'm not sure if I can awaken my soul power after coming here." The child looked up at the sky, a look unbecoming of his age on his face.
It was clear that this child didn't belong in this world. Even he himself didn't know how he ended up here.
He simply took a nap after work and woke up to find himself a baby, akin to Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly. But after six years, he still hadn't woken up from this dream, and gradually, he came to terms with reality.
He had been raised by the villagers of Hetan Village since childhood. Seeing many of them conjure objects from thin air to serve as their tools, he knew he had entered a different world.
A few years later, when he could speak again, he finally understood where he had arrived.
Douluo Continent, the legendary fantasy land, was the most hostile world to ordinary players. Without cheat codes and inheritance, they were no match for cannon fodder. The only chance for ordinary players was the faintest possibility of mutation when they awakened their martial spirits.
The child stood there, watching the fish in the bucket with a faint sense of wonder. His name was Shi Yi. In his previous life, he had been an orphan, just like now. This was the name the dean had given him. According to the dean, his surname was Shi. He had been found in the year of Yi Hai, Hai being the Chinese zodiac sign, so he took the name from the heavenly stem.
Yi could also mean inferior, lower than Jia, but only second to Jia. This position also matched his destiny, a perfect position that adhered to the doctrine of the mean, hence the name Shi Yi.
As a child, he didn't understand the doctrine of the mean, nor his own destiny. He only understood that Jia was better than Yi. But as he grew up, studied, and worked, he gradually realized that this perfect position was not easily achieved. Yi perhaps represented the upper limit of the average person, and the upper limit of most people.
Many people, despite their best efforts, still fail to reach the B-rank. A person's fate determines the highest point they can achieve, a fact even more pronounced in this world. However, when Shi Yi arrived in this strange yet familiar world, his fate was, to a certain extent, altered. This was the variable he remembered the dean often referring to.
"There are fifty great ways, forty-nine are derived from the heavens, and one is hidden by man. Perhaps I can grasp that one variable."
As Shi Yi reminisced about the past, his mind wandering to the heavens, a fish thrashed in the bucket. His hand, slick with slime from having just caught it, accidentally tipped the bucket over, and the lone fish in the bucket, swept away by the surging water, slipped into the riverbank.
Shi Yi was startled for a moment, staring at the vanishing fish. His childish face showed no sign of anxiety, but instead a hint of a smile.
"Little Yi, stop fishing! The Master Spirit Master is almost here!" A dry, hoarse, yet slightly anxious voice echoed in Shi Yi's ears.
Shi Yi turned and saw a hunched figure gazing at him from a distance. It was none other than Li Changshou, the head of Hetan Village. As the village chief, he had naturally helped Shi Yi before.
"Grandpa Changshou, I'm right here!" Shi Yi called out, barely packing his things. His childish voice was filled with excitement and anticipation.
It was also the Spirit Hall's awakening ceremony for children of appropriate age from villages near Yuehua City. There was no specific time for their arrival; Shi Yi only knew that every spring the Spirit Hall visited villages like theirs to perform awakenings for children of appropriate age.
Since Shi Yi could walk, he had witnessed four Spirit Awakening ceremonies. However, this small village of only two hundred households hadn't seen a Spirit Master in years, demonstrating the difficulty of awakening.
A small figure ran up to the hunched figure. Shi Yi took the old man's slightly withered hand and said, "Grandpa Changshou, let's go."
Feeling the warmth of Shi Yi's palm, the old man's cloudy eyes fell on Shi Yi, and a smile broke across his wrinkled face. He nodded slightly and said softly, "Let's go. The Soul Master is waiting. Xiao Yi is so smart, maybe he can awaken his soul power."
"Then I'll take your good wishes." Shi Yi smiled and walked slowly with the old man, expectant but not impatient.
"Oh, haha... You, you learned these words at such a young age." Li Changshou said with a smile and a shake of his head.
Shi Yi didn't answer, but smiled in agreement, leading the old man slowly towards the village.
No one dislikes a smart child. As an orphan in his previous life, Shi Yi had struggled in society for many years, and flattery was just the beginning.
Shi Yi's precocious intelligence even tempted many residents of Hetan Village to adopt him, but Shi Yi's naive approach fooled them. It wasn't that he held a grudge against the villagers; rather, having been an orphan in a previous life, he had long since grown accustomed to living alone.
The word "parent" was a foreign concept to him, and Shi Yi realized he had long since lost the ability to trust others unconditionally.
Everyone wears a mask in real life, and gaining a deeper understanding often comes at a price. The villagers still held onto his kindness, and Shi Yi saw nothing wrong in maintaining his current relationship. If he could, he would reciprocate their kindness.
Shi Yi, holding the village chief's hand, followed the winding path, gradually catching sight of smoke rising from cooking fires. The two exchanged greetings as they slowly made their way to the wooden house nestled in the center of the village. This served as the village's Spirit Hall.
It didn't require Spirit Hall personnel to build it; each villager would work together, believing it might be the place where the goddess of luck would descend, guiding them to change their destiny.
The exterior walls of the wooden house, stained a pale brown by age, and the roof thick with moss, gave it a rather rustic appearance. As Shi Yi approached, he could hear the chatter of children inside. He paused, waiting with the village chief beside him for the arrival of the Master Spirit Master.
Soon, a young man carrying a package entered the village. He appeared to be in his twenties, with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, and a handsome appearance. He wore a white suit with a black cape at the back. A fist-sized "Soul" character was emblazoned on the center of his chest. This was the standard attire for Spirit Hall personnel.
"Hello, respected Master of the War Spirit. Thank you for troubling you again." Li Changshou said as he bowed to the young man. Shi Yi also supported him and bowed as well.
The man said nothing, but nodded arrogantly in return.
"I don't have much time, let's get started," the young man urged.
"Master Soul Master, please." Li Changshou hurriedly led Shi Yi into the wooden hut.
Shi Yi watched the young man slowly enter. He had been here for four years and seemed to be the Soul Master in charge of this village. They didn't even know his name, but he clearly liked the title of "Master Soul Master."
As Li Changshou led the young man in, the children immediately quieted down and formed a line, each looking at him expectantly. Shi Yi glanced at Li Changshou and slowly walked to the edge of the group. Li Changshou also hunched over and slowly exited the wooden hut, as if afraid to disturb this important ceremony.
A flicker of disdain crossed the young man's face, his brows furrowed slightly, and he quickly began to unpack the package in his hands. The wooden hut was usually unused, but on the eve of the Awakening, the villagers would spontaneously clean it, naturally giving it a musty smell of wood.
The young man quickly arranged a hexagonal black stone formation on the ground. Shi Yi gazed at the black stones with curiosity, his tender hands involuntarily squeezing them. He knew that in this world where martial spirits determined everything, he would soon be able to glimpse his own fate.
"I'll call your name later. Stand in the center," the young man said calmly to the children.
The cabin wasn't bright, only a few beams of light streamed in from the windows. The young man stood in the shadows, his arrogant expression frightening the children. They nodded timidly at his words, some of the more timid ones seeming too frightened to respond.
Seeing this, Shi Yi bowed slightly to the young man, "Yes, Master Soul Master."
A hint of surprise flashed in the young man's eyes as he looked at Shi Yi, and then he heard the next words, "The village chief said that Master Soul Master is a good person, you don't have to be afraid."
Hearing this, the young man also managed to force a smile and nodded, saying, "Children, I'm here to help you awaken your martial spirits, don't be afraid."
Then, with a single hand gesture, the young man shouted, "Summon, spear."
An ordinary iron spear appeared in his hand, completely black, the tip of the spear sharp and gleaming with a metallic luster. With the appearance of the spear, the young man also performed a very showy gun flower.
This made Shi Yi, a social animal who had lived in modern civilization in his previous life, feel extremely childish. He couldn't help but secretly tap his little toe in embarrassment, but Shi Yi still applauded out of courtesy.
The children beside him looked at the young man's childish eyes filled with anticipation and admiration, and followed Shi Yi in clapping.
After the young man's embarrassing performance, the children's fear faded, and they obediently followed his instructions.
As the first child slowly entered the awakening circle, the entire wooden house alternately lit up and dimmed, and the children, each one self-conscious, followed suit.
"Sickle... let's test our spirit power... without it... you can't become a spirit master..."
"Blue Silver Grass? You don't need to test it. A useless spirit has no spirit power."
"Hammer... Moonlight Flower... Fan... Shovel..."
The children who had awakened their spirits slowly returned to their group, their faces dejected. Seeing the disappointment on the children's faces, Shi Yi's face was filled with emotion. No matter what world, changing one's destiny is extremely difficult.
"Next." Perhaps from the constant activation of the awakening circle, the young man's face wore a hint of fatigue, and his voice tinged with impatience.
Shi Yi slowly entered the awakening circle, his eyes closed, as if welcoming the arrival of his destiny. A familiar cyan light illuminated, and his body was enveloped in a faint glow. Shi Yi felt a warm warmth rising.
As time passed, the light grew brighter. Shi Yi could clearly feel something in his right hand, as if it were about to burst forth. This sensation grew stronger as his heartbeat quickened.
Suddenly, a subtle movement in his palm sent a shudder through him. "Is it alive?"
Shi Yi's eyes snapped open, a flicker of fear in their eyes. An ant appeared in his right palm. Slightly larger and more slender than a normal ant, it had a large head, a pair of compound eyes, and long antennae.
The young man gazed at the ant in astonishment. As a spirit master, he naturally sensed that Shi Yi's "spirit" was a living being. Even though he had never seen such a spirit, he could tell that Shi Yi's spirit had mutated.
"It's a mutated spirit, but it's just an ordinary ant," the young man sighed as he looked at Shi Yi.
Shi Yi stared at his palm, a flicker of excitement in his heart. Even if his spirit was just an ant, any mutation would normally awaken spirit power, and his situation seemed very similar to Yu Xiaogang's.
Shi Yi never expected to awaken some incredible martial spirit, because he knew it was unrealistic. According to his understanding of Douluo Continent, powerful martial spirits should be passed down through generations of spirit masters.
Every family has a genius in the first generation, and the martial spirit will also grow with the spirit master's cultivation. Therefore, the martial spirit passed down to the descendants will also have some characteristics obtained by the ancestors through their own efforts to improve their cultivation and add spirit rings.
"Let's test the spirit power. I don't know what kind of mutation this is, but according to my experience, any mutated martial spirit will have some spirit power." The young man whispered to Shi Yi.
Shi Yi nodded and said, "Thank you, brother."
After that, Shi Yi slowly placed his hand on the blue crystal ball in front of the young man.
(End of this chapter)