THE UNRIVALED TANG SECT

                  

Chapter 1.1: The Youth with the Spirit Eyes.

The golden, glazed roof tiles atop the huge, palace-like building shone with a dazzling light due to the sunlight. The ancient workmanship that had been used to create the palace’s golden roof and red doors caused people to involuntarily feel a sense of seriousness when they saw it.

When gazed at from afar, a fog seemed to linger around the palace. The buildings that surrounded the palace were lined up neatly, just like the pattern a brick wall had. The area that they occupied seemed limitless to the naked eye. The two words ‘Duke’s Mansion’ were carved into the fifty-foot tall archway that stood in front of the entrance.

This enormous mansion that occupied an area of over 2 kilometres didn’t belong to a city. Instead, it was a singular building located fifty meters northwest of the capital of the Star Luo Empire, Star Luo City. From this you could see that the owner of this mansion held an honored position within the Star Luo Empire.

During the current time of day, the bright and beautiful sunlight would shine on the sparkling glazed roof tiles, causing a layer of dazzling gold to cover the entirety of the Duke’s Mansion. You could even vaguely see this scene atop Star Luo City’s city walls.

The back door of the Duke’s Mansion’s northern area noiselessly opened, and a skinny figure quietly snuck out.

The figure was a youth that appeared to be around eleven or twelve. His stature was reasonably proportioned, and he was wearing a grey cloth shirt that was simple but clean. He also had a small bundle of cloth on his back. His short black hair appeared neat and tidy. A determined look, which was filled with an intensity that surpassed all of his peers at the same age, was present on his handsome face.

After softly closing the back door of the Duke’s Mansion behind him, the youth rapidly ran a few steps forward. However, he suddenly stopped to look back at the Duke’s mansion, his deep blue eyes brimming with hatred.

“Mother, watch me from the land of the deceased. No matter how hard I have to work, there will be a day when I return, and trample everything here underneath my foot. Therefore, I’ll honour you by changing my surname to yours—Huo. From now on, my name will be Huo Yuhao.”

After finishing his sentence, he turned to face the Duke’s Mansion, and gazed at it deeply. Then, he turned around and walked away without any second thoughts.

He didn’t head towards Star Luo City, which was located to the southwest of the Duke’s Mansion. Instead, he went north. His tiny figure gradually disappeared into the distance as the strong midday sunlight shone on him. Although his body was skinny, the way in which he’d left didn’t give off a helpless feeling at all.

There were wide roads on all sides of the Duke’s Mansion. Huo Yuhao continued to run forward, his eyes gradually turning redder and redder.

“Mother...” The unwilling and unresigned look that his mother had had as she passed away unconsciously appeared in Huo Yuhao’s mind, causing him to tightly clench his teeth.

I have to become stronger! Mother taught me that a person can only rely on themselves. One can only live a better life if they are strong.

Scenes from Huo Yuhao’s memory unceasingly flashed through his mind.

Huo Yuhao’s mother had been one of the Duke’s personal maids, and had grown up together with the Duke. A personal maid only existed for the simple sake of serving her master, but Huo Yuhao had quietly appeared within his mother’s belly one night, twelve years ago.

She was pregnant for ten months, before she finally gave birth one day.

Despite what identity Huo Yuhao’s mother previously had, he was still the son of the Duke. Therefore, although his treatment within the palace couldn’t be described as good, it still wasn’t too bad. His mother no longer remained a maid, and relied on her child’s nobility to obtain a courtyard for herself.

As such, everything should’ve continued without any trouble, but who could’ve known that disaster would arrive so soon?

The Duke went to war as a representative of the Star Luo Empire, leaving all of the Mansion’s internal affairs to the Duke’s wife. The Duke’s wife already had two sons and a daughter, and she treated anything that could affect her children as things that needed to be suppressed. Things were quite good for Huo Yuhao and his mother while the Duke was in the Mansion, but when he left, the Mansion became the world of the Duke’s wife. Furthermore, she was the favourite daughter of the Star Luo Empire’s current emperor.

Huo Yuhao’s mother had grown up beside the Duke, resulting in her being heavily doted upon by him. Thus, she was always envied by the Duke’s wife. Once the Duke left, she immediately became the main target for the Duke’s wife. Using the excuse that Huo Yuhao’s mother had contracted an infectious disease, she chased them to the servant’s wooden sheds, which were located at the back of the mansion. Furthermore, she cut away all their current sources of income. Huo Yuhao was only two when this happened.

Huo Yuhao’s mother didn’t have a healthy body from the start, thus the arduous lifestyle that they had to live in caused her body to gradually collapse. What’s more, the servants under the control of the Duke’s wife would frequently suppress her, causing her to suddenly die from her illness when Huo Yuhao was ten.

Four thousand years ago, the Douluo Continent collided with the Sun Moon Continent, which had drifted over due to the Western Ocean. This resulted in the Douluo Continent’s landmass being greatly expanded, but also caused the frequency of wars on the Douluo Continent to increase.

The Douluo Continent had originally been divided into two countries ten thousand years ago—the Heaven Dou Country, and the Star Luo Country. However, the Douluo Continent had now been split into three countries. Of the two, the Star Luo Empire still existed, but the royal family had changed. They had fortunately pacified all of their kingdoms at that time, allowing the entire Star Luo Empire to remain united, and thus resulting in them becoming the strongest force of the three.

However, the Heaven Dou Empire was split due to the discord amongst its strong kingdoms. In the end, it was split up into the Heavenly Soul Empire and the Spirit Dou Empire.

The Sun Moon Continent that had drifted over from the west had both a vast surface area and plentiful resources. It was slightly smaller than the Douluo Continent, but it only had a single country, which was the Sun Moon Empire.

War broke out between the two continents almost as soon as they collided. The three countries of the Douluo Continent all dispatched allied armies to fight against their common enemy. After nearly twenty years of war, they finally managed to defeat the Sun Moon Empire. From that point on, they unified the two continents under the Douluo name. The Sun Moon Continent no longer existed, only the Sun Moon Empire within the Douluo Continent was left.

However, the Sun Moon Empire wasn’t fully invaded even though it was defeated. They relied on their natural advantages, as well as the conflicting views of the three empires of the Douluo Continent, to gradually form a stable, deadlocked situation between the four parties. However, wars still occurred every year. Unravel the Unknown, Unleash the Unimaginable: N♡vεlB¡n.

Due to the frequent amount of wars that the Duke had to participate in, he spent very little time within the mansion. Due to the Duke’s wife deliberately concealing the matter, Huo Yuhao’s mother was gradually forgotten by the Duke. When the Duke asked about her, his wife merely said that Huo Yuhao’s mother had fallen ill.

Huo Yuhao’s mother had suffered many bitter hardships as she brought him up. When he was six, he carried out the awakening of his martial soul within the Mansion.

Martial souls were an something that everybody on the Douluo Continent possessed. Although the Sun Moon Empire had developed in a different way compared to the other three empires, martial souls were still one of their fundamental concepts.

Everyone would naturally have a martial soul that could be awakened at the age of six. A martial soul could be anything, from a tool to an animal. Beast-type martial souls were referred to as ‘Beast Souls’, while all other martial souls that weren’t Beast Souls were collectively known as ‘Tool Souls’. However, there were naturally some martial souls that possessed mutations. Thus, they were exceptions to this rule.

After the awakening of one’s martial soul, a small amount of people would have a special power along with their martial soul. This power was called ‘soul force’. Only people who possessed soul force had the ability to cultivate, and to become the noblest profession on the Douluo Continent—a soul master.

Soul masters were separated into nine different ranks. From lowest to highest, they were: Soul Scholar, Soul Master, Soul Grandmaster, Soul Elder, Soul Ancestor, Soul King, Soul Emperor, Soul Sage, Soul Douluo, and Titled Douluo.

Soul masters would increase in power as their soul rank increased. If one managed to reach the highest level of the Titled Douluo rank, one would have the terrifying ability to both move the mountains and seas, as well as even shift the stars.

Chapter 1.2: The Youth with the Spirit Eyes

People who were between the first and tenth rank of soulforce fell underneath the category of Soul Scholar. When someone’s martial soul was awakened, their innate soulforce would signify their talent towards becoming a soul master. As such, a person with greater talent would have a greater cultivation speed. If one had tenth-ranked soulforce after their martial soul had awakened, they would be a gifted person with ‘innate full soulforce’. That person would thus be referred to as a genius soul master. A genius soul master would have great accomplishments in his life as long as his martial soul wasn’t too bad.

Although Huo Yuhao was the son of the Duke, he hadn’t inherited a powerful martial soul from the Duke. If he had, the Duke’s wife would’ve had to report his martial soul to the Duke, regardless of whether or not she liked him. From then on, Huo Yuhao and his mother’s destiny would’ve also changed.

Unfortunately, an extremely rare mutation appeared in Huo Yuhao’s martial soul.

He possessed the ‘Spirit Eyes’.

Outside of the two main categories of martial souls, there was an extremely tiny subcategory that were known as ‘Body Souls’. The martial soul that they awakened would be a part of their body, such as an arm, or a leg.

Almost all Body Souls were extremely strong, but the probability of them appearing was extremely small. It could be said that they were existences above both Beast Souls and Tool Souls, and because of this, they were greatly valued whenever they appeared.

Unfortunately, Huo Yuhao’s martial soul was an exception to this.

His Spirit Eyes martial soul had naturally appeared in his eyes. Furthermore, it was also an extremely rare spiritual-type martial soul. Under normal circumstances, Huo Yuhao should’ve become greatly valued. Unfortunately, there were two points that had restricted his development. When he’d awakened his martial soul, his innate soulforce had only been at the first rank. Thus, it could be said that his talent was quite poor, which meant that his cultivation speed would definitely be extremely slow. The second point that had restricted his development was even more fatal; not only were spiritual-type martial souls rarely seen, spiritual-type soul beasts were also extremely rare.

Whenever a soul master’s cultivation reached the tenth soul rank’s bottleneck, they would need to kill a soul beast that was compatible with their martial soul, and then would need to use its soul ring to break through it.

Not only were soul rings required to breakthrough a bottleneck, but they would also give soul masters a skill. This was also one of the origins of a soul masters strength.

Combined, these two factors practically doomed Huo Yuhao to have no achievements during his lifetime.

However, he was still the Duke’s son in the end. Thus, he still managed to obtain a simple soulforce cultivation method.

Even the children of some servants within the Duke’s Mansion were capable of reaching the tenth soul rank, and could become soul masters within three years of awakening their martial soul.

However, Huo Yuhao had reached the age of eleven this year. He’d already cultivated for five years, yet his soulforce had only barely reached the tenth soul rank. Furthermore, he’d worked three times harder than his peers!

After his mother passed away, Huo Yuhao stayed in the Duke’s Mansion for another year. He was still young, so he didn’t have any source of income whatsoever after rashly leaving the Duke’s Mansion. Thus, he could only suppress all of his grievances and hate with his heart. And, due to the oppression that he’d had to suffer through, his mind had matured much more than his peers.

His mother had told him that the only way for him to be outstanding was to become a soul master. Even if he only became an ordinary soul master, his status would still be much higher than that of other ordinary people on the Douluo continent.

Yesterday, Huo Yuhao had finally managed to raise his soulforce to the tenth rank; this was with his extremely poor talent, and after five years of bitterly hard work. This was also the day that he’d planned to leave the Duke’s Mansion.

He needed a soul ring. Even a low-tier ten year soul ring would be fine! That way, he’d have the chance to become a true soul master that possessed his own personal skill.

On the Douluo Continent, soul beasts were ranked according to the number of years that they’d lived for. The strength of their soul rings was closely related to this, as well as their overall power.

Generally speaking, soul beasts were separated into ten year soul beasts, hundred year soul beasts, thousand year soul beasts, ten thousand year soul beasts, and hundred thousand year soul beasts.

Soul masters would have to personally kill a soul beast in order to obtain a soul ring from it when it died.

Huo Yuhao knew that, if he continued to stay in the Duke’s Mansion, he simply wouldn’t have a chance to obtain a soul ring. Practically no one there was willing to help him. Due to this, he rashly decided to leave the Duke’s Mansion, even though he knew that it was an extremely dangerous thing for him to look for a spiritual-type soul beast by himself. After all, a newborn calf wouldn’t be afraid of a tiger.

Huo Yuhao quickly arrived at the main road as he walked towards the north. Although he was young, he’d already made preparations for the sake of obtaining a soul ring. Besides a set of clean clothes, he’d also brought some dry rations in his bag, as well as some money that his mother had obtained via hard work. He also had a dagger in his bag. But most importantly, he had a simple map of the continent.

Both the Duke’s Mansion and Star Luo City were located in the north-central region of the Star Luo Empire, and the area that Huo Yuhao chose to hunt for a soul beast in was the Great Star Dou Forest that bordered the northern area of the Star Luo Empire and the Tian Hun Empire. Various types of soul beasts lived within the forest, which was almost as big as a province. Furthermore, there were no lack of supreme existences inside of the forest.

If anyone else knew that the eleven year old Huo Yuhao had dared to enter the Star Dou Forest by himself, without a teacher accompanying him, they would definitely be stunned speechless. He was overestimating his own capabilities! Since he didn’t have any skills at all, he might not even be able to win a fight against a ten year soul beast!

The main road was perfectly straight, thus Huo Yuhao quickly walked along it, following the roadside. Although he was young, he was still a tenth ranked Soul Scholar. His physical strength was much greater than a normal adult’s.

Huo Yuhao gazed far into the distance as he walked forward. If one were to carefully look at him, they would see that his deep blue eyes had instantly become much clearer, and that there faintly seemed to be light flashing inside of them.

Ever since he’d awakened his Spirit Eyes, Huo Yuhao had discovered that his vision exceeded that of an ordinary person’s. At a relatively close distance, he could see many minute details that ordinary people were unable to clearly see; at a longer distance, the range of his vision was over twice the distance of an ordinary person’s.

The strength of his vision had also unceasingly increased in combination with his soulforce level. The changes that had appeared as his cultivation increased made his trust in his mother’s words increase. A soul master, I must become a soul master.

“Mother once said that I would become a control system battle soul master if I was able to obtain a soul ring. It’s not that my martial soul is bad, but that my talent is poor. Thus, I’ll just work harder and cultivate longer than other people do.”

Huo Yuhao cultivated as he advanced forward, supported by this resolute conviction. When he was thirsty, he’d look for some spring water; when he was hungry, he’d eat some of the rough biscuits that he’d brought along with him. Other than hurrying forward on his journey, he would sit down and meditate. The fact that he could actually advance three hundred miles in a single day—at his age—was nothing short of a miracle.

However, he only had seven silver soul coins and five copper soul coins him, which caused him to be extremely frugal with his money.

Ever since the war between the Douluo Continent and the Sun Moon Continent had ended, the continent had undergone thousands of years of changes. The currency used was now completely unified: one gold soul coin was equal to ten silver soul coins, which was equal to one hundred copper soul coins.

When he was young, his mother had sometimes quietly taken him outside of the Duke’s Mansion to look for some fruits and wild herbs in the forest to eat, simply for the sake of giving him a better meal than normal. Thus, the amount of plants that Little Yuhao recognised was fairly high. Many times, he couldn’t even bear to buy some cheap biscuits, so he had to resort to looking for some food in the woods beside the road as he travelled along.

Chapter 1.3: The Youth with the Spirit Eyes