The transition from life to death wasn't a tunnel of light. For Li Wei, it was the sound of a heart monitor's flatline followed by a suffocating pressure, like being squeezed through a straw.
When he finally opened his eyes, he wasn't in a sterile hospital room. He was staring at a thatched ceiling infested with termites. The air was thick with the scent of dried herbs and woodsmoke. He tried to sit up, but his limbs felt heavy, uncoordinated, and tiny.
"I... lived?" he croaked. The voice was high-pitched, a child's voice.
Memories that weren't his own began to flood in. This was the Douluo Continent, a world where Spirit Masters ruled supreme. He was in a small, nameless village on the border of the Spirit Hall's northern provinces. He was an orphan, a "charity case" kept alive by the village head's pity and the scraps of leftover congee from the communal kitchen.
Suddenly, a searing heat ignited behind his eyes.
[Initialization Confirmed.]
[Genetic Template: Mutant X-Gene detected...]
[Primary Directive: Survival and Evolution.]
A translucent blue screen shimmered in his vision. It wasn't the gentle interface of a game; it flickered with a chaotic, red static, reflecting the unstable nature of the power it held.
[Host: Li Wei]
[Age: 5]
[Spirit: Unawakened (Awaiting Ceremony)]
[Innate Spirit Power: 9 (Potential)]
[Current Mutant Power: Deadpool (Wade Wilson Template)]
Integration Level: 50%
Current Capabilities: Advanced Cellular Regeneration, Infinite Stamina, Enhanced Reflexes.
Current Limitation: Cancerous Cell Mutation (Stabilized by Spirit Power potential). Note: Neural receptors are fully intact. Pain is not suppressed.
Li Wei stared at the screen, his small heart hammering against his ribs. Deadpool? He knew the stories. The Merc with a Mouth. The man who couldn't die. But as a former medical student, Li Wei knew the cost. Regeneration wasn't magic; it was the rapid, violent division of cells. It was supposed to hurt.
"System," he whispered, his voice trembling with a mix of terror and manic excitement. "What do I have to do?"
[Mission: The Vessel's Foundation.]
[Objective: Reach 60% Integration before the Spirit Awakening Ceremony.]
[Method: Physical Destruction and Reconstruction. Break the body to build the god.]
Li Wei looked at his small, pale hands. In this world, Tang San was likely already practicing the Mysterious Heaven Skill, building his internal strength in the morning mist. Li Wei didn't have a mystical cultivation technique. He had a curse that wouldn't let him stay broken.
The First Night of Agony
Li Wei didn't wait for morning. He crawled out of his thin bedding and stepped out into the chilly night air. The village was silent, save for the distant howl of a low-level spirit beast in the surrounding forests.
He found a jagged rock near the village well, roughly the size of a melon. He took a deep breath, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the stone.
If I want to stand at the top of Spirit Hall, if I want to survive the meat grinder of this world... I have to be a monster.
He raised the rock and slammed it down onto his own left hand.
The crack of bone was sickeningly loud in the quiet night. Li Wei's vision went white. A scream tore at his throat, but he bit his lip so hard it bled, muffling the sound. The pain was absolute—a jagged, throbbing electricity that surged up his arm and settled in his brain.
He watched, panting, as his fingers hung at unnatural angles. Then, the "System" kicked in.
Underneath his skin, he felt a frantic squirming. It felt like a thousand hot needles stitching his flesh back together. The bones ground against each other, snapping back into place with wet, metallic thuds. In less than sixty seconds, his hand looked as if it had never been touched—except for the drying blood.
[Integration Progress: 50.01%]
"Again," Li Wei hissed, tears streaming down his face. "Again!"
For the next six hours, while the rest of the village slept, Li Wei conducted a ritual of self-mutilation. He didn't just lift weights; he pushed his muscles until they tore. He jumped from the roof of the shed to shock his skeletal structure. Each time he broke, the system knit him back together, slightly denser, slightly stronger.
He discovered the first "gift" of the Deadpool power: The Lack of Fatigue. Because his cells were constantly being replaced and refreshed, the lactic acid that causes muscle soreness was flushed out almost instantly. He could sprint at full speed, do a thousand pushups, or swing a heavy hammer for twenty-four hours straight without his heart rate ever failing him.
By dawn, he was covered in blood, sweat, and grime, but his eyes burned with a terrifying clarity.
Life in the Village: The Hardworking "Freak"
As the sun rose, the village head, an elderly man named Old Feng, came out to fetch water. He found Li Wei already at the well, hauling buckets that were far too heavy for a five-year-old.
"Little Wei? You're up early," Old Feng said, rubbing his eyes. "And... heavens, child, why are you covered in dirt? Is that blood on your shirt?"
Li Wei forced a shy, innocent smile—the mask of a child. "I fell in the brambles trying to find some wild berries for the kitchen, Grandpa Feng. I'm okay now. See?"
He showed his unscarred arms. Old Feng shook his head, muttering about the resilience of orphans. He didn't notice that Li Wei's "berries" were nowhere to be found, or that the boy's grip on the heavy wooden buckets didn't waver for even a second.
For the next month, Li Wei established a routine that would have killed any other human.
04:00 - 08:00: Physical labor for the village. He chopped wood, tilled the hard earth of the communal fields, and carried water. He did the work of three grown men, earning him extra portions of food—raw calories he desperately needed.
08:00 - 18:00: "Playtime." To the villagers, he was just a lonely boy wandering the outskirts of the forest. In reality, he was deep in the brush, tying heavy logs to his back and running until his lungs felt like they were filled with molten lead.
18:00 - 04:00: The Secret Grind. While the village slept, he practiced the "Deadpool Method." He would find a sturdy tree and punch it until his knuckles were raw bone. He would practice his agility by weaving through thorny thickets at top speed, letting the thorns flay his skin, only for the wounds to close before he reached the other side.
He was 24/7. He never slept. He realized that the Deadpool mutation allowed his brain to "refresh" without traditional sleep. He would simply sit in a meditative trance for ten minutes, his cells would stabilize, and he was ready for another twenty hours of hell.
The Evolution of Attributes
By the time he had been training for three months, he felt a significant shift in his perception. The world seemed slower. His senses, heightened by the constant state of "emergency" his body was in, began to map out the village with predator-like precision.
He called up his panel.
[Host: Li Wei]
[Age: 5 Years, 3 Months]
[Spirit Power: Level 0 (Unawakened)]
[Attributes:]
Strength: 12 (An average 10-year-old is 5)
Agility: 15 (Light on his feet, faster than a common house cat)
Defense: 30 (Regenerative durability + increased bone density)
Mental: 45 (Hardened by constant, extreme physical trauma)
[Mutant Power: Deadpool (54.2%)]
He compared himself to the village children. They were soft. They cried when they scraped a knee. Li Wei had died a thousand tiny deaths in the span of ninety days. He was a weapon being forged in a silent furnace.
But he knew this wasn't enough. The Spirit Awakening was approaching. In the Douluo Continent, physical strength was the foundation, but Spirit Power was the ceiling. He needed to ensure his Spirit was something that would grant him entry into the highest echelons of Spirit Hall.
He had heard the stories of the "Golden Generation" in the capital—Hu Liena and the others. They were geniuses born with silver spoons. Li Wei looked at his scarred, blood-stained clothes and smiled a jagged, Deadpool-esque grin.
"Let them have their talent," he whispered to the shadows. "I have the ability to fail and get back up forever."
Little did he know, his first true test was lurking in the woods—a spirit beast that would teach him the true meaning of "agony" before his sixth birthday even arrived.