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"Go ahead, Yuhao."
A beautiful woman in simple clothes gently nudged the black-haired boy, Dai Yuhao, her eyes filled with encouragement.
Yuhao looked back at his mother one last time. Determination flickered in his eyes as he turned toward the awakening array. He knew—this was the only shot they had to change their fate.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, the awakening array began to activate. Dai Yuhao's eyes lit up with a white glow, and mysterious patterns appeared around his sockets.
"What the...? A body martial soul?!"
The Soul Saint who was overseeing the awakening was startled. Sure, the White Tiger Martial Soul didn't show up, but a body martial soul was even rarer and way stronger! He wasn't some clueless street soul master—he knew full well just how powerful a body martial soul could be.
The Duchess clenched her right hand tightly, a flicker of murderous intent flashing through her eyes as her expression darkened.
Only Dai Huabin kept his smug look. In his eyes, the White Tiger was the strongest martial soul—what the heck was a body martial soul anyway? Never even heard of it.
"Innate soul power... Level one!"
The Soul Saint sighed and shook his head. He glanced at Dai Yuhao with a look of pity.
No White Tiger, and to top it off, only Level 1 soul power. With talent like that, Soul Elder might be his ceiling. There was once even a so-called "Grandmaster" with Level 0.5 soul power—if not for some miracle herb or treasure, the guy would've been stuck as a Great Soul Master for life.
Level 1 is still half a notch above 0.5, sure, but so what? In the Duke's mansion, that's barely better than a guard.
"Hahaha! What a little loser!"
Dai Huabin burst into laughter, full of disdain.
The murderous look in the Duchess's eyes faded, replaced by a small, satisfied smile.
Yuhao stood there like he'd been struck by lightning. His mind went blank as the sound of Dai Huabin's mocking laughter and the servants' whispers echoed all around him.
"It's okay, Yuhao. It's okay."
His mother, Huo Yun'er, hugged her frozen son tightly, her face full of pain. She gave the Duchess a slight bow, then hurriedly left with Yuhao in her arms.
She knew—if they stayed any longer, there'd only be more humiliation waiting for them.
What had just gone down in the White Tiger Duke's mansion, Meteor (Liu Xing) knew nothing about. But fate had already begun to move. The one playing the game of destiny had made their first move.
Inside the soul tool vehicle, Luan Yu looked at Fire Phoenix Douluo, confused."Big sis, what's going on? Why are we leaving in such a rush?"
She could tell that Unbreakable Douluo had taken a real interest in Meteor and Liu Ying. Now was the perfect time for those two little ones to build a connection with him! Unbreakable Douluo was famous for being righteous and extremely responsible.
If they got on his good side, Meteor and Liu Ying would have no shortage of defensive soul tools or even invincibility shields in the future!
Fire Phoenix Douluo just shook her head and looked at the two kids. Her voice turned serious."You two, show me your martial souls again. Just partial possession is enough. Meteor, you should be able to manage that too, right?"
Meteor and Liu Ying exchanged a glance and reached out their hands at the same time. After a year together, they trusted Aunt Feng. She'd never hurt them.
A fiery red light lit up the inside of the soul vehicle. Meteor and Liu Ying's right hands were now covered in silver-white mech armor, and flames danced at their fingertips.
"This...?!"
Watching from up close, Luan Yu noticed something was off too. The temperature of this flame was insanely high. And on top of that, it carried a vicious, destructive vibe—like it was born to tear everything apart. It gave her the same chill she felt when facing the Sun Moon Empire's royal martial soul, the Purple Radiance Dragon of Annihilation.
Fire Phoenix Douluo's eyes also narrowed. She'd already noticed how unusually hot the flames were, but she didn't expect them to radiate such intense destructive energy too.
"Could this be... a destruction attribute?"
Luan Yu was shaken. Fire attribute alone is already known for its explosive power—if destruction was layered on top of that... She couldn't even begin to imagine how powerful these kids' attacks would become in the future.
"It's definitely both fire and destruction—plus, it's Extreme Fire. You two... are really something else!"
Fire Phoenix Douluo studied them closely for several minutes before finally speaking again. Her gaze was serious, but she couldn't stop the smile tugging at her lips.
She already saw these two as her own kids. The more talent they had, the happier she felt.
"Extreme Fire?" Luan Yu blinked, clearly lost. She was an ice-type, so while she could tell the flames were unusually hot, she hadn't thought of Extreme Fire. But Fire Phoenix Douluo was different.
The kids' flame temperature was high, yes—but still within their tolerance level since they were freshly awakened. But her Fire Phoenix Sword's reaction? That couldn't be faked.
To suppress the Fire Phoenix Sword like that—only an Extreme Fire martial soul could do it.
And those two's mech martial souls? Yeah, no way they had any divine fire beast bloodlines hiding in there.
Luan Yu clicked her tongue. If there were people on the Douluo Continent who truly understood Extreme Attributes, it'd be either Shrek Academy or the Sun Moon Empire.
Shrek had produced several Sea God Pavilion Masters with extreme attributes, so of course they knew their stuff. Especially the one from thousands of years ago—the Extreme Fire Sea God Pavilion Master who led Shrek to rally a hundred Title Douluo and smash the Sun Moon Empire.
History described him as almost inhumanly strong. Back when he was alive, even the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts didn't dare show their faces. Though Beast God Di Tian wasn't afraid of him, even he wasn't willing to fight the guy lightly.
That was Shrek's golden age—and the Sun Moon Empire's darkest. They were forced to cede territory, pay reparations, and even rename their continent to "Douluo." The grudge ran deep.
"Big sis... but having an extreme martial soul isn't always a good thing."
Luan Yu's expression turned serious, like she'd remembered something important. According to what she knew, extreme martial souls tended to level up super slowly between Rank 30 and Rank 70.
The soul power was so pure and condensed that while they were freakishly strong in combat, the actual cultivation progress crawled like a snail. Other kids their age might be hitting Rank 40 or 50, while an extreme martial soul user could still be stuck around Rank 30.
Sure, extreme martial souls had overwhelming strength, and they could punch way above their level. Against the same attribute? Total domination. After Rank 70, they'd start leveling faster than normal soul masters. But that slow grind between 30 and 70? That was a real killer.
See, soul masters had what was called a "golden age"—a window where their soul power grew the fastest. It was basically their prime. Once that passed, their growth slowed down a lot. That's why higher-ranked soul masters often took years just to level up once. They'd simply aged out of their prime.
And that golden age? It was from Rank 30 to Rank 70—the exact phase where extreme martial souls hit their bottleneck. If they didn't break through to Soul Sage during that prime window, then even with an extreme martial soul, they might never make it to Title Douluo level.
"....."