Douluo Continent: The True Self of Martial Soul, Infinite Awakening

The sheer cliffs rise straight into the sky, with fierce winds howling among the rocks, and the ever-present mist obscures the view of this colossal structure built on such a natural barrier.

This is the Body Sect, a reclusive sect within the Heavenly Soul Empire, revered as a sacred place by countless Body Soul Masters.

On the huge square paved with bluestone, dozens of children who had just turned six stood in two distinct groups.

The group of children on the left were dressed in fine clothes, mostly made of precious soul beast leather, and their brows carried an innate arrogance.

They are direct descendants of the Body Sect, with the bloodline of inheritance flowing through their veins.

The children on the right were dressed in uniform gray short-sleeved shirts made of rough material, and most of them were thin. These were orphans that powerful sect members had searched for and brought back from various places during their travels across the continent.

But at the very edge of the training ground stood a solitary figure.

What a boy he was.

He was dressed in the same gray shorts as the orphans.

He simply sat quietly cross-legged on a piece of bluestone at the edge of the training ground.

With his eyes slightly closed, his chest rose and fell with a strange rhythm, and with each breath, he seemed to resonate with the howling mountain winds around him.

His name is Ye Yuan.

Six years ago, the sect leader of the Body Sect, Poison Undying, kicked open the sandalwood door of the sect's main hall, grabbed the infant Poison Undying with one hand, threw him into the arms of the inner sect's chief steward, and decisively uttered two words: "Keep him alive."

From that day on, Ye Yuan became a well-known oddity within the Body Sect.

No one knew that a soul from another world was hidden inside the body of this six-year-old child.

In his previous life, Ye Yuan was an extreme sports enthusiast who disregarded life and death.

He free-climbed to the top of El Capitan and flew through Tianmen Cave in a wingsuit, searching for the real feeling of being alive on the edge of weightlessness and lack of oxygen.

When he regained consciousness and realized that he was in the Douluo Continent during the era of Peerless Tang Sect, and had fallen into the Body Sect which specialized in cultivating the physical body, he did not panic at all, but only felt extremely excited hidden beneath his calm exterior.

In my previous life, I was limited by the limits of the human body, and many crazy ideas could not be realized.

But in this world, there is the spiritual power of heaven and earth, the power of the soul, and the unfathomable potential of the human body.

From the time his bones began to take shape at the age of three, Ye Yuan began to hone his physique.

The steep cliffs on the back mountain, covered with obsidian faults, became his playground.

Without any protection, he climbed upwards using only the body of a three-year-old child.

The rough, sharp rocks easily severed his fingertips, and blood dripped down his wrist, splashing into the abyss below.

He didn't even frown; he simply calmly searched for the next point of leverage.

The abundant spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the Douluo Continent nourishes all things at all times, and the Body Sect occupies an excellent feng shui location.

In addition, since childhood, he has been arranged by Du Busi to soak in various top-grade medicinal baths, making his body's recovery ability terrifying.

As long as the underlying structure isn't damaged, even the most severe skin and flesh wounds will scab over and fall off after a good night's sleep.

He knew all too well the limits of muscle fiber tearing and how to stimulate the body to secrete adrenaline when on the verge of death.

This reckless, self-destructive training initially drew ridicule and provocation from many of his peers.

Six months ago, a few of his disciples and nephews, who were confident in their strength, took advantage of Ye Yuan doing core crunches while he was hanging upside down on a hundred-foot-tall iron tree. They picked up stones and smashed the branches that were hooking his ankles.

Ye Yuan fell from mid-air.

He didn't cry out. He curled up in mid-air, protecting his head with his arms, and landed precisely on the layer of decaying leaves below. He rolled over to dissipate the impact and got up.

Without uttering a single wasted word, he charged straight at the group of boys who looked to be around ten years old.

That afternoon, the training ground was filled with the chilling sounds of bones cracking and screams of agony.

Ye Yuan didn't use any fancy moves; he relied entirely on his honed muscle memory.

An 80-pound boy tried to kick his knee, but Ye Yuan dodged to the side, stepped forward and closed in, gripping the boy's throat tightly with one hand and pressing down on his arm joint with the other, then suddenly slammed down.

A sickeningly loud dislocation sound rang out, and the boy's eyes rolled back as he collapsed to the ground.

He knocked down more than a dozen children who were half a head taller than him using the most primitive and violent methods such as elbow strikes, knee strikes, and rear-naked chokes.

Seeing this, some of the gray-clad orphans tried to take advantage of the situation, but they were all disarmed by Ye Yuan, who kicked them more than ten meters away.

Throughout the entire one-sided beating, Ye Yuan's breathing rate remained perfectly steady.

He simply patted his mud-covered trouser legs, turned around, and continued walking towards the back of the mountain.

From that day on, all the peers in the Body Sect, whether they were high-ranking bloodline inheritors or unruly orphans, would lower their heads and take a detour when they saw Ye Yuan.

He earned his position as the leader of the children in the Body Sect by sheer force of his fists.

"quiet."

A powerful sound wave exploded in the air above the training ground, instantly dispersing the swirling clouds and mist around it.

Yu Tao, the inner sect deacon in charge of this awakening ceremony, strode into the center of the venue.

He was shirtless, his bronze skin gleaming with a cold, metallic sheen in the morning light. With each step he took, he left a deep footprint on the hard bluestone ground.

The previously noisy children fell silent, immediately standing up straight and not daring to breathe.

Yu Tao walked to the center of the field, where the huge hexagonal awakening array had been inscribed.

He raised his right foot and stomped hard on the center of the formation.

"boom!"

A dazzling golden light shot into the sky from the array patterns, weaving together in mid-air to form a mysterious totem.

Yu Tao flipped open the roster without looking up: "The ceremony begins. Those whose names are called, stand in the center of the formation. Wang Hu!"

A boy in gray clothes shivered as he walked out from the crowd on the right, scrambling into the formation. Golden light instantly surged into his body.

The boy groaned, his features contorted, and then his right palm visibly swelled up, with a rough layer of keratin appearing on the surface of his skin.

"Martial Soul: Right Hand. Innate Soul Power: Level Three. Go down, next..."

The awakening ceremony proceeded smoothly.

The awakening of the Body Sect is completely different from that of other sects. They do not pursue external things, but only focus on the changes in their own bodies.

But true original martial souls are extremely rare.

A dozen or so orphans in succession, most of them only awakened useless martial souls such as hoes and sticks. Occasionally, two main body martial souls would appear, but they were only peripheral parts such as hair and toes. Their innate soul power was no more than level four.

The situation on the side of the brocade-clad child has clearly improved.

The inheritance of bloodlines holds absolute dominance in this world.

The grandson of a sect deacon awakened his right arm martial soul, and his innate soul power reached an astonishing level seven.

Looking at the roster, Yu Tao's tense face finally relaxed a little.

Another incense stick's time passed, and the vast majority of children had completed their awakening, some happy and some sad.

Yu Tao's gaze fell on the last line of the roster, and his resolute eyes twitched involuntarily.

He raised his head, his gaze passing over the crowd and looking directly at the thin boy who was slowly standing up at the edge of the training ground.

"The last one, Ye Yuan."

The crowd seemed to be split apart by some invisible force, immediately retreating to both sides to make way for a wide passage.

Ye Yuan strode forward, walking unhurriedly towards the center of the formation.

His steps were extremely steady, and the distance between each step was as precise as if measured with a ruler.

Standing in the center of the formation, Ye Yuan slowly clenched his hands into fists at his sides.

Six years of brutal, relentless training, six years of physical exploitation that disregarded life and death—all for this moment.

In this world where martial spirit determines one's potential, he wanted to know what his body, forged through countless trials, could ultimately give birth to.

Yu Tao formed hand seals and poured his powerful soul energy into the array's core.

The array shone brightly, and a golden pillar of light, more dazzling than ever before, shot into the sky, completely engulfing Ye Yuan.

Standing in the center of the pillar of light, Ye Yuan closed his eyes.

There was no tearing or swelling sensation in any specific part of the body as I had expected.

Instead, a violent roar erupted from the depths of the soul.

He could hear his heart pounding wildly in his chest, heavy and powerful, like the beating of ancient war drums.

Blood surges through the veins like a mighty river, and bones rub against each other beneath the muscles, producing a clanging sound like steel striking steel.

Even the smallest cells are dividing, recombining, and rejoicing.

Outside, Yu Tao stared intently at the formation, his pupils contracting sharply.

Behind Ye Yuan, there were no afterimages of arms, legs, or eyes.

The dazzling golden light gathered and pulled wildly in mid-air, eventually slowly outlining a human figure that was three zhang tall.

The phantom had no face or features, yet it exuded a terrifying pressure that suppressed the entire world.

Its body shape and muscle lines were exactly the same as Ye Yuan, who was standing in the center of the formation!

"The...the original self martial soul?!" Yu Tao gasped, his voice hoarse from extreme shock.

Using the complete body as a martial spirit, without being confined to a single part, represents the ultimate mystery of the human body: the "true self"!

This kind of martial spirit only exists in the oldest fragments of records from the Body Sect, and has long been regarded as a vague and ethereal legend.

However, the shock was far from over.

The mutation has only just begun.

Ye Yuan, at the center of the formation, suddenly opened his eyes.

Those pupils, which were originally clear in black and white, were now completely replaced by a blazing pure gold, devoid of any human emotion, only displaying an indifference that transcended all things.

"Click—"

Centered on Ye Yuan's feet, the hard bluestone slab shattered inch by inch like a spider web, and the cracks quickly spread throughout the entire training ground.

In the darkness, Ye Yuan sensed a strange and immense connection.

He was personally brought back to the sect by Du Busi, ate the spiritual medicines of the Body Sect, drank the spiritual spring water of the Body Sect, and grew up on the land of the Body Sect.

His very existence here has forged an unbreakable karmic bond with this ancient sect.

The Body Sect of the Douluo Continent era possessed unfathomable depths and numerous powerful figures, yet it had a fatal flaw—they lacked a divine artifact capable of suppressing the sect's destiny.

For countless years, the vast fortune of the sect has been like a rootless duckweed, drifting and scattered among the mountains and rivers, unable to gather.

But at this moment, the illusory "true self" behind Ye Yuan slowly opened its arms.

The wind stopped, the clouds and mist stilled, and for a moment, heaven and earth lost all sound.

Immediately afterwards, deep within the continuous mountains of the Body Sect, the wisps of golden fortune that ordinary people could not perceive with the naked eye, seemingly summoned by some absolute authority, frantically converged towards the martial arts arena.

Golden mist intertwined and churned in the sky, eventually coalescing into a terrifying vortex hundreds of feet in diameter.

The vortex poured down like a funnel from its center, pointing directly at the illusory "true self" behind Ye Yuan.

An immense and unparalleled amount of fortune was forcibly poured into Ye Yuan's body, causing a series of dense explosions—the sounds of the human body's limits being forcibly expanded.

Under the influence of this sect's fortune, Ye Yuan's blood boiled to its peak.

The laws governing the awakening of a martial spirit were completely overturned. He didn't need any external stimulation at all; the shackles within his body were shattered one after another under the impact of this vast fortune.

The black iron color flashed briefly on the surface of the phantom.

The bronze color lasted only half a second before being destroyed.

A dazzling silvery light quickly covered his entire body, followed by a burst of blinding dark gold that erupted from his heart and spread with overwhelming force to every corner of the phantom.

"Second awakening! The martial soul autonomously guides the second awakening! And it directly surpasses the silver level!" Yu Tao's legs went weak, and he could barely stand.

He roared like a madman, and pushed his hands forward violently. His violent soul power transformed into a wall of energy, sweeping away all the children around him who were bleeding from their seven orifices from the pressure, sending them flying dozens of feet away, saving them from being torn to pieces by the vortex of energy.

The celestial phenomena have completely changed.

The once clear sky was now covered by thick, dark, leaden clouds, with lightning bolts tumbling and weaving through them.

A golden pillar of aura pierced through the heavens and earth, illuminating the entire main peak of the Body Sect as if it were a divine sacred site.

This grand, almost world-destroying image of awakening shattered the tranquility of the Body Sect that had lasted for millions of years.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Several ancient and terrifying auras surged into the sky from the depths of the hidden auxiliary peaks of the Body Sect, each aura enough to make the Soul Masters outside tremble.

Space distorted violently, and an extremely tall old man with an eerie dark green beard and hair appeared out of thin air in the void above the martial arts arena.

Poison Undying's eyes were wide open, the blood vessels in his eyes looking as if they were about to burst.

He stared intently at the six-year-old boy below, who was bathed in a golden vortex of fortune, looking like a god descending to earth.

His withered hands gripped the void beside him so tightly that his fingernails dug into the spatial rifts, and he was completely unaware that he was being cut and bleeding by the spatial turbulence.

This arrogant and unrestrained level 98 Super Douluo was now experiencing violent chest heaving and his Adam's apple bobbing up and down with difficulty.

After a long while, he looked up at the sect's fortune flowing into the boy's body, and squeezed out a few words through clenched teeth, his voice trembling with fervor:

"May Heaven bless...our sect!"