Chapter Two: A Winding Path Leads to a Hidden Realm, Awakening Insight into the Bright Village!

"Thank you, Grandfather Zhang!"

Ning Wuqian drew back from the despair that had utterly consumed him and bowed slightly to Zhang Can. When he straightened, he did not sink into the same gloom as the other children who had awakened only low-grade soul power. Instead, a look of iron resolve appeared on his face.

"I won't be disappointed by this. Some things are destined to be unfair, and all we can do is accept that. But...

"Amid a thousand mountains of green barriers and ten thousand layers of mist, one may still find the bright home hidden beyond winding paths.

"Even if countless examples of fate already lie before me, I believe I will always find a road suited to me and walk it out. So what if my soul power is only level three? Blue Silver Grass can become a god too!"

"Good, good child! You've been mature since you were little. I'm glad to hear you think that way. Come, I'll teach you how to draw back your martial soul for now. Later, come home with Grandfather."

Zhang Can reached out and patted Ning Wuqian on the shoulder, his expression warm with approval and tinged with pity.

He had watched this child grow up. Ning Wuqian had always been precociously sensible, never crying or making a fuss, fond of reading and exercising.

But heaven had shown him no mercy for it. One could only hope that, after truly feeling the gulf in innate soul power, the child could still keep thinking this way.

And as Zhang Can began teaching Ning Wuqian how to summon and withdraw his martial soul, not far away little Ning Tian had parted her lips slightly. She stood beside her father, while on the other side were Wu Feng and her father, Wu Yan.

Ning Wuqian had not spoken loudly, but he had not bothered to hide his words at all. Moreover, the hall where martial souls awakened was already quiet enough; when no talented child was being called out, almost no one raised their voice.

So she had heard what he said just now, and the ambition and defiance in his tone.

"Dad, that boy he..."

She tugged at her father's sleeve, her small heart deeply shaken by a collision with something almost cultural in its force.

"It's rare to see a child with such ambition and learning. Ning Tian, you should remember what he said just now as well. Do you understand?

"Our Seven Treasures Glazed Tower is born with its own shackles, just like innate soul power. What you must do is break the chains that no one before you could reach, and find the place where your own bright home lies."

Ning Tian's father sighed with feeling.

Had their Nine Treasures Glazed Tower not also faced countless examples dictated by fate? Ten thousand years, and in ten thousand years only one exception had appeared, a single anomaly from ten thousand years ago.

Thus, although Ning Wuqian's talent was nothing special, he still thought highly of the boy.

After all, there was a fundamental difference between a person with ambition and one without it. And since the boy was a direct descendant of the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect, if he truly became that exception, they would suffer no loss.

Mockery? Sarcasm? Indeed, there were quite a few gifted children whispering such things.

But what he saw was only a child's unreserved declaration of longing—a lofty dream, magnificent yet hard to touch.

How could one so easily break the shackles of innate destiny? Blue Silver Grass becoming a god was no simple matter, and the god from a thousand years ago was also no ordinary Blue Silver Grass; he possessed twin martial souls and full innate soul power...

Many of the elders present had developed a favorable impression of Ning Wuqian after hearing his ambition. At the very least, their first impression was that he was an extraordinary, diligent, and ambitious child.

"I understand, Dad!"

Ning Tian nodded, speaking as she looked toward the boy who had already withdrawn his martial soul and returned to his place to wait.

Her eyes held curiosity and admiration for him, after all even her father had praised him.

"Tch..."

Beside her, Wu Feng curled her lip disdainfully. What use was effort, anyway, if effort alone worked, why would geniuses exist?

She had no fondness for Ning Wuqian, not only because of his words, but also because Ning Tian's attention toward him left her displeased.

Ning Tian was hers!

A mere waste with only level-three innate soul power!

Not far away, Ning Wuqian had no idea that he had been remembered by some clingy fool, and even if he had, it would not have mattered. He would simply avoid her in the future.

Feeling the elders' gentle gazes upon him, he could not help but feel a little pleased.

This was the shamelessness of adults at work... using a child's innocence to win grown-ups' goodwill. Though the effect was not especially strong, at least he had left an impression.

He did not stand idle either. Remaining where he was, he began to use the knowledge he had accumulated since childhood, along with the meditation method he had learned, to enter meditation and connect with his martial soul.

Those words of his had not been empty bravado. He truly intended to defy fate and change his destiny!

If he had awakened with eight levels of soul power, he would have been perfectly happy to lie flat, cultivate honestly to the rank of Title Douluo, and live out the rest of his life in carefree ease.

But now he had only level-three innate soul power!

If he did not stake everything and think of a way to overturn fate, then when the Sun and Moon Empire invaded in the future, would he not end up as mere cannon fodder?

One had to know that in the future final ending, the day Huo Yuhao ascended would be the very day the Sun and Moon Empire attacked again.

A Soul Douluo might barely fend for himself, but a Soul Ancestor or Soul King was less than an ant! Run? Where could he run to as only a collateral branch of the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect? Reckoning was all but inevitable.

And the first step in defying fate was to understand his own martial soul.

How could he change destiny in a world where martial souls were supreme if he did not even understand his own?

Very soon, through meditation, Ning Wuqian established a certain connection with his martial soul and received some vague information from it.

As the martial soul of his father, Ning Wuqian had learned about this soul beast from a young age.

The Black Gold Ant was the basic soul beast of the Darkgold Terror Ant clan, equivalent to a worker ant. Above it were the Darkgold Soldier Ant, the Darkgold Terror Ant, and the Darkgold Ant King or Darkgold Ant Queen.

It was a fairly common soul beast group with a clear hierarchy, and it possessed the potential to advance further.

His father had evolved from a Black Gold Ant into a Darkgold Soldier Ant upon reaching the fourth ring.

From the information his martial soul conveyed, Ning Wuqian understood that his martial soul had undergone no mutation at all. It was only an ordinary Black Gold Ant, with no particularly outstanding talent.

That was to say, it was just like his father, who had innate level-six soul power.

Three levels might well have been the average standard for such a martial soul.

"Does that mean I can only start from some other angle? My brain from when I crossed over in high school—my supremely brilliant mind, hurry up and think of a way!"

He stopped meditating, and after leaving that state, Ning Wuqian thought desperately in his mind, hoping to bridge six years of time and space to reach the pinnacle of his own intelligence.

A path of breakthrough through that peerless wisdom!

Soon, perhaps because the Almighty who had shut one door had opened a window for him, his long-sealed brain trembled awake from its slumber.

[Naruto... Eight Gates... Douluo 1... explosive ring... chakra... soul power... the human body...]

One fragmented memory after another suddenly surfaced in Ning Wuqian's mind.

Then—

Ding!

It was as if a light bulb had lit with a clear chime above his head.

Ah—

His extraordinary wisdom had told him this earthshaking idea.

Suddenly, he had a bold thought.

However...

Ning Wuqian grit his teeth, a little twisted with hesitation. This idea would be very bitter! Very exhausting! For someone like him, a modern person who had lived in a peaceful age in his previous life, it would be an enormous challenge and torment!