Chapter 2: The Evil and Overbearing Martial Soul
As a World with an extremely peculiar cultivation system, one that was exceedingly rare even among the Myriad Worlds, the source of power for humans in the Douluo world came from their own Martial Soul.
Through countless years of development, Martial Souls had become increasingly diverse due to inherited legacies, mutations, and the influence of various external factors. Within the enormous base of Martial Souls, many kinds of special Martial Souls existed.
Among them, one particular type of Martial Soul had become an unavoidable topic in this era. It was not the ultimate Martial Soul that only existed in legends, but the Evil Martial Soul.
The Douluo world truly possessed Innately Evil Martial Souls. These were not merely ordinary Martial Souls with dark attributes and twisted appearances, nor were they Martial Souls with the potential for Evil Transformation. They were Martial Souls that were genuinely born with evil attributes, whose cultivation methods were difficult for humans to accept, and whose Innate evil nature could not be changed no matter how they cultivated after birth.
If these Innately Evil Martial Souls were cultivated in the same way as ordinary Spirit Masters, not only would their cultivation speed be greatly affected, far below what should be expected, but some of these Martial Souls could not even raise their Spirit Power at all.
Often, only blood and Martial Souls could allow these Innately peculiar Martial Souls to unleash their true power. Only by using blood and Spirits as nourishment could the Spirit Power of the Spirit Masters who possessed them continue to grow.
10,000 years ago, the standard for judging whether a Spirit Master was evil came from that person's conduct and actions. The attributes and peculiarities of a Martial Soul were not the only criteria used to determine whether a Spirit Master was an Evil Spirit Master. Even those who possessed Innately Evil Martial Souls could become respected Spirit Masters by devouring Spirit Beasts.
But after the Spirit Empire was destroyed and the continent entered the new order established by Shrek, that standard gradually became more and more extreme over the course of 10,000 years.
Evil Spirit Masters became the original sin behind everything bad in this era, and those who possessed special Martial Souls were Evil Spirit Masters.
Even if those Martial Souls were not truly evil, perhaps merely twisted in appearance or possessing unusual attributes, being special itself became a kind of original sin. Those judged to have special Martial Souls would be treated as genuine Evil Spirit Masters.
Back when he had lain on a great rock, staring up at the starry night sky, Chen Ming had once wondered what kind of Martial Soul he would awaken after he saved enough money...
Would it be a Martial Soul that already existed on the Douluo Continent? Or perhaps a Divine Artifact or Divine Beast from legend? Maybe it would be his original body Martial Soul. Or perhaps he would not even have Innate Spirit Power at all.
Among all those possibilities, Chen Ming had naturally considered the chance of awakening an Evil Martial Soul. But whenever his thoughts reached that point, he would stop thinking any further.
Because in this era, awakening an Evil Martial Soul generally led to only 2 outcomes. Either one would completely sink into depravity and become a demon wearing human skin, or one would be killed by those around them under the name of evil.
Those who could awaken a Martial Soul considered evil and still manage to hide it for their entire lives were rare, perhaps fewer than 1 in 1,000.
It was only after awakening his Martial Soul in the midst of sickness and starvation, on the edge of death, that Chen Ming realized he had truly become an "Evil Spirit Master" by the standards of this era.
Although he still did not know what Martial Soul he had awakened, nor what level his Innate Spirit Power should be, by feeling the strength within his body and the strange sensation of reaching some kind of bottleneck, Chen Ming could confirm that he was probably an "Evil Spirit Master seedling" with extremely outstanding Innate talent.
Following his instincts, Chen Ming clumsily tried to withdraw that special Martial Soul back into his body. But as the energy continuously gathered, Chen Ming felt a sharp pain coming from his abdomen.
"No, I haven't finished digesting yet! If I release the Martial Soul now, my stomach will burst open and I'll die!"
Chen Ming gritted his teeth and circulated the energy within his body according to instinct. Only after returning to the stable state of Martial Soul possession did his condition begin to improve.
Only then did Chen Ming start carefully sensing the characteristics attached to his Martial Soul.
"My stomach isn't hungry anymore. Right after awakening my Martial Soul, I vomited out the clumps of dirt inside my stomach, then ate a huge pile of Locust Fish carrying plague and toxins, and now I'm digesting things that normal people absolutely couldn't eat. I didn't pay much attention before, but my appetite has definitely gone far beyond what can be described as a big eater."
Chen Ming patted his round belly and stared silently at his huge, elastic stomach.
He could clearly feel the Locust Fish in his stomach being rapidly digested and broken down at an astonishing speed, then converted into energy and fed back into his body.
If, at the moment he first awakened his Martial Soul, Chen Ming had only burst out with power beyond the norm under the stimulation of his Martial Soul and Spirit Power while his body was still on the verge of running dry and dying, then now his body was rapidly absorbing nutrients and recovering its origin from a state of exhaustion at a speed tens of times faster than that of a normal person.
If he ate enough, Chen Ming even felt that he could recover to his normal state in a very short time. His body might even become stronger than before.
With a trace of curiosity, Chen Ming tentatively opened his mouth wider and wider, testing his limits little by little. In the end, he discovered that his mouth could actually open in a way similar to a snake dislocating its jaw, stretching all the way down to the position of his collarbone.
Although his current body was still small, he could already swallow an apple as large as, or even larger than, an adult man's fist in one gulp.
He cautiously placed a finger into his mouth, preparing to test his bite force. A moment later, he discovered 2 problems he had not noticed before.
"First, my bite force is extremely strong. Even using only a small part of it, I can easily crush bone. Second, my sense of pain is almost weakened by more than 90% while my Martial Soul is attached, so much so that I can barely feel pain at all..."
Chen Ming looked at his crushed thumb and fell silent for a moment.
If he had not been able to feel his thumb rapidly recovering, with the shattered bones naturally resetting and repairing themselves without any outside help, he might have cried from his own stupidity.
"Speed..."
Chen Ming moved his short legs, which looked tiny compared to his round and enormous body, yet he easily burst out with agility completely at odds with his size.
His round and massive body looked as clumsy as a stubborn boulder, but Chen Ming could clearly feel that the nimbleness he possessed far exceeded what his body shape should have allowed.
"As for strength..."
Chen Ming grabbed a huge rock on the ground, one that was about the same height as him, with both hands. Almost effortlessly, he lifted the giant stone that an adult would struggle to move, raised it over his head, and threw it 5 or 6 meters away.
Several corners of the huge rock shattered on impact, scattering fragments in all directions. A few pieces struck Chen Ming's thighs and stomach, but the sharp fragments did not even leave a white mark on his balloon-like swollen body. They were simply bounced aside.
"Strength is absurdly high. Defense also seems absurdly high..."
"Although this Martial Soul has obvious problems and is probably something that can't be shown to others, for it to have effects like this immediately after awakening, without even attaching a single Spirit Ring, this might already count as a pretty good high level Martial Soul, or even a rare top tier Martial Soul, even in the Douluo world."