Author's Note: 

This is not where the reading begins. These are old versions of the chapters. I'll put these versions here mostly for fun. So that people can compare the subpar writing here, compared to the current, updated levels. The story doesn't change, the delivery does.

New readers begin on Ch 1: Awakening, not here.

-----------------------------

*Sigh* "Finished ahah…" A body sitting in a darkly lit room stretched itself and leaned back onto the chair. The person looked like a young man who was about 20 years old, taking his last steps into adulthood. 

On his face there was a slight lazy smile as he was half lying on the chair in an awkward pose. He sat back up and sent a file to a site. "Finally done with this assignment" he muttered to himself and opened up youtube.

*Feels like a waste to just go to sleep immediately* He thought to himself and decided that before going to bed he should relax a little.

Soon after he opened up a random recommended video, before a ray of light made him look outside the window.

 "Of course it's already getting light outside." He softly said to himself. He just finished an assignment of his studies, but much like a few days ago it was already 5am. Birds were already chirping outside.

This was how he did things. Waiting until the last moment to finish what he has to do. He was sort of a chronic procrastinator. The reason for this however was that he simply had trouble finding motivation. Just one of many people.

He liked to stay awake during the night and had a messed up sleep schedule as well, which didn't really help his laziness either.

He stopped watching the video and opened up another page. It was a fandom site of Douluo Dalu aka Soul Land. He was quite a fan of this series as he found the world and the take on the Chinese cultivation system interesting.

Next he opened another page, this one was on his second monitor. This was probably his only hobby, anything to do with computers. He was even studying computer science and while he was still lazy about it, he enjoyed it.

On the second monitor was a word document and on it was a file called the Fluffy Panda Douluo. In here he created his own abilities based off of the series.

A Douluo was a top existence in the novels, and he decided that he would try thinking some stuff up as well since he was bored.

So far all he had written was: Guardian Greatsword. It was completely made up but his mind was already going wild with the possibilities. What would fit a giant greatsword? Well it can be both a weapon and a shield.

Though before he could start writing those down, a person walked into his room. Their hair was long blonde and this person's face looked to be around 35.

"Karni you're still up?" A feminine voice could be heard as the woman looked worriedly at the young man named Karni.

"Hah, the schoolwork took a long time, so yeah." He looked at her apologetically.

"Well, want something warm to drink?" She replied warmly.

"Yeah that'd be great, thanks." He said. She turned and left, while he turned back to the screen.

"Oh yeah, mom!" He suddenly called out and stood up to go toward the woman.

She was his mother, and she was nearing her 50s however she looked very youthful and beautiful. Even his friends teased him about it.

"When you get home today I wanna talk to you about the part time job during the summer." He told her.

"Yeah we can do that sweetie, don't worry." She again gave him a smile which was still full of sleepiness. He simply smiled back in return.

He had a very close relationship with his mom, and he loved her to death. She raised him alone and they both relied on each other whenever there were bad times.

Really he had a great life, or at least that's what he thought. He had good friends, was close with his family, and despite the laziness and the nonexistent sleep schedule, he was very happy.

He went back to his computer and went back to surfing on the fandom. He looked at his notes of abilities he just made up. *Ha wouldn't it be cool if our world had magic and superpowers. Maybe get reincarnated with the help of Truck-kun.* He laughed to himself at his silly thoughts.

He did love to daydream. Usually it was about fantastical worlds and how he would love to explore them. Even though he enjoyed his life he did find the world quite bland, he would find it way cooler if there were magic in it.

Yet despite his thoughts, when one thought about it too much, it's better the way it is now. If he had a choice of being reincarnated and becoming super strong easily, he'd decline it. He was living a very happy life after all. 

Even though he didn't live with his dad, he still kept in touch with him and through the years they never lost touch. He didn't miss anything in this world, except for the silly thought of magic.

His thought was interrupted, as his mum brought him a cup of coffee. "Thanks" He said as he took the coffee, and went back to the computer while his mum went to prepare for work.

In around an hour she came to his room and said "Okay Karni, I'm leaving, don't stay up for too long and get some sleep alright?"

Seeing her worried look he simply laughed bitterly and answered "Yeah I'm getting tired anyway, drive safe okay?"

"Yeah I will" She smiled and waved him goodbye. He waved back.

It was quite a regular routine for them. He was often awake in the morning after an all-nighter.

He went back to his computer and went to watch the anime of Soul Land, as he hadn't watched a lot of it yet and he found it quite solid. He read all of the novels except for the 4th series, and the anime was very faithful to the original.

He watched a few episodes and noticed just how tired he was.

Shutting off the computer, he went into the bed, but not before still checking his phone one last time.

"Famous Chinese actress is moving to the United Kingdom. The reason? To find her true love." Karni rolled his eyes instantly.

"Yeah right." He clicks on the clickbaity video.

The video of the beautiful Chinese actress. She had very modern looking glasses on her, she also had surprisingly ginger hair. Another surprise was her fluent english, especially for someone who just moved.

He himself didn't live in the UK, but in a small country on the eastern border of Italy, despite not having English as his first language, he was fluent.

When he heard the actress answer the question, "why she's moving", he paused the video, shut off his phone and went to sleep. "That's enough internet for today." She answered, without any shame: "To find true love."

… … …

Karni was in complete darkness, he couldn't feel his legs, nor his body. He only knew that he was somewhere, and nothing could be seen here.

*Where… is this* was the only thing he could think. His thoughts felt obstructed, like he needed an exceptionally long time to put this singular thought together.

He barely finished thinking when a bright golden light could be seen in the distance; it was a simple dot. Slowly, it was getting closer and closer.

Finally in viewing distance he saw what was in front of him. It looked like a bright, gentle golden river was running towards him in slow motion.

Yet when it got closer he seemed to see another thing behind this one. Just like the golden water before it, it was a simple small dark red dot.

If the water gave him the feeling of amazement and comfort this light felt like a big question, not wondrous or evil, just weird.

However before he could see what it was, the simple golden stream slowly reached him and he was enveloped inside it. The sensation this water gave him was incredibly refreshing and warm, and suddenly he felt extremely energised.

A deep voice was heard from the slowly approaching dark red light. "Is…This what the great flow presents as a… countermeasure?" The voice was slow and dark. It seemed to be mocking the small golden stream of water.

"Your heroes combined were… unsuccessful against me, a shame… their death was unnecessary. And now… a child? Not even your own?" Continued the voice slowly.

As a response, the stream simply seemed to enlarge, the bright golden flow forming into a wild river. And Karni seemed to have been at the very centre of it. The river was slowly turning into a vortex, the seemingly endless river joining around Karni as its centre.

"I see… so this is your choice…. Instead of letting me continue… you will entrust yourself upon this child." The voice seemed depressed as it said that, still speaking as slowly as before. But soon the sound of the ancient voice changed.

"Wait… This energy… This child… No… It cannot be, you… Wait!" The deep voice was clearly shocked and unwilling, there was longing in its voice, and helplessness also.

Karni was confused about what was going on, but before he had time to think, the golden vortex seemed to vanish, and everything went black again, with no sign of the small golden stream or the dark red voice. 

Not ten seconds later a scene appeared that made Karni's stomach turn. What was this?

It was a battlefield, or at least what was left of it. There seemed to be floating rocks that were destroyed. And the people here numbered more than 10.

All of them were dead. But they were all emitting strong auras. One was extremely cold. The other was as vast as the sea. One made Karni choke, and others made him feel at ease.

Suddenly in the distance a familiar red shine appeared, however it was much clearer now. The body was something Karni couldn't clearly see, as if shrouded in mist.

The last thing he heard was the same deep voice he heard before. But there were no words. Only a sigh.

… … …

*Gasp* Karni opened his eyes. His breathing was heavy, the kind of thing he just saw… It was horrendous.

"Why is it so cold…" he muttered. It seemed like a cold autumn morning. The day just started rising up and in the middle of an empty forest… a boy, around 5 or 6 years old, opened his eyes. The scenery he saw was incredibly calming compared to the small battlefield full of dead bodies.

His eyes seemed greyish blue, just like the colour of the sky. His hair was dark blonde and of medium length. As one looked closer, they would notice that currently, he looked quite comical. He wasn't dressed and was instead completely naked. He was looking around in confusion at the place he woke up at.

"Where… Where the fuck am I?!" he squealed in a high pitch, then looked at himself while touching his throat… "And why do I look so small… and sound so…". He looked at his body and quickly figured out what was going on. *This must be a hyper realistic lucid dream* he thought to himself. 

It wasn't the first time he had a lucid dream, and he quite enjoyed encountering one as well, however he never quite had such a realistic looking one. 

He then remembered the slow deep voice and the golden river that appeared before. That was more like a dream than this. Though the very end… didn't feel like one. He started having some doubts. *Let's at least explore this supposed lucid dream*, he thought and tried to consciously control for something to appear but nothing did. Sometimes in lucid dreams it was possible to control everything, clearly this was not the case at this moment.

*Since that is not possible let's see what this dream has to offer* he thought, not quite sure of what he should do. 

He started walking around and the more he did, the more doubts he had that this was a lucid dream. He was familiar with the concept of going to another world of course, he himself enjoyed daydreaming about different scenarios about them, and he read stories about it as well.

"No way this is a different world", he thought to himself out loud. It felt simply too miraculous, nothing special happened to him when he went to sleep! It was a regular boring routine, the same cycle he has repeated since he started studying at a university. He didn't die, he wasn't hit by Truck-kun, there was no special event outside… Except… He wasn't sure what that empty space with the golden water was.

"What about mom?" he grew worried. He decided that, if he really did come to a different world, his number one priority would be getting back to Earth; there were too many precious people for him there to just leave behind.

*Sigh*, he also knew that if he really came to another world, going back won't be easy, it will probably take him years. He felt extremely homesick at the thought of this. He wasn't one to usually feel that way, travelling during holidays was a tradition in the family, but he knew then that he would always get back home… Home to his mom, his dog, seeing dad after a long time, hanging out with friends. Now all he felt was fear and loneliness.

Deep inside he already knew that this is most probably a different world, as everything was too realistic, but he was still willing to convince himself for now that it's a bad dream.

He continued to walk for some time as he slowly found a semblance of a road, which he followed until in the distance… a town. The heartbeat fastened, it was time for the truth. He walked into the town with a low head and a sense of fear.

As he came into the town everybody looked at him funny, his clothes were very DIY, as he made them on the way so he wasn't walking around naked. However what was outside his expectations was that they didn't find it weird for him to be all alone here, they only glanced at his clothing.

At some point he noticed a row of people in the distance, most of them looked to be aged 5 or 6, all of them children. Around them seemed to be their parents with hopeful gazes. The line seemed to go into a sort of pagoda-like building that spanned 7 stories.

He stepped to the end of the line and quietly asked a boy in front of him. "What are you all standing in line for?" 

The boy looked at him weirdly and immediately asked "Are you making fun of me or are you just a dummy?" … The boy with shabbily made clothes went silent for a bit and started to blush "Actually I am a bit lost…". 

The other boy who also looked to be 6 years old answered "Well, you came to the right place for the awakening day, this leads to the awakening chamber, we are the last so we will have to wait for some time." … 

The boy with big clothes nodded as if understanding and gave his hand "My name is Karni, but um… what is this awakening you speak of?" 

The other boy laughed, but said "You got me, you were making fun of me, you have a weird name.".

Karni got a bit embarrassed as he tried to think of an excuse "Please, I just got sent here without being told anything. I have no clue what is going on."

"Have you been living in the boonies?" The boy looked kind of mad now, but still sighed and continued "I'm talking about the awakening of your Martial Soul, what else would I be talking about."

Seeing the annoyed look on the unknown boy's face, and guessing that this is general knowledge, he simply thanked him and asked, "So where exactly is this, I come from outside and I was completely lost before coming here."

The boy answered monotonously "It's the Green Tiger Town, near Star Luo City".

As the boy said that a lightbulb seemed to have lit up in Karni's head. He suddenly asked "Is this the Douluo Continent?"

The nameless boy suddenly looked at him as if looking at something completely alien. "That's a really weird way of pronouncing Douluo Continent. Just from where are you? Yeah, this is the Douluo Continent."

"Holy shit!" suddenly exclaimed Karni, and then immediately covered his mouth embarrassingly, as all the parents around him looked at him strangely. This was a 6 year old cursing after all. If they knew the reason for the reaction they would give him even stranger looks.

He actually came to the world of Soul Land? Of course he was a fan of the series, as he was deep enough into it where he would regularly search the fandom. All of these people spoke English, except for the naming convention, like Douluo Continent. Just what was going on here?

He collected himself and finally answered back to the boy. "Sorry about that, yeah I was somewhere else and then woke up in the forest, I don't know how I came here."

He wasn't lying when he said that. He really didn't know where he came from, though the place he was at was a different world, not a different place. He was also a 20 something year old on the inside.

Karni finally understood what this waiting line was for. They were going to get their martial souls awakened, THE martial souls! It was something innate connected to the soul. And it was unique from person to person, it came down to both genes and luck to get a good martial soul. 

A martial soul was something everybody in this world possessed. It could be a simple gardening tool, and with it, no one could compare to you in gardening. It could also be a mighty dragon and your physical capabilities would be unrivalled.

There was also a chance of your martial soul not having any power, and this was 99 percent of the population. Only one in ten thousand people were able to become strong with their martial soul. Or was it one in a thousand? Karni wasn't quite sure. 

The final question was in which time period he was. He knew the world very well, however the stories that were in this world were separated by 10.000 years, each with a different protagonist. He knew those stories like the back of his hand, however if he appeared somewhere in the middle, he would be a bit lost.

He stopped thinking there. Would he even get a martial soul? He was from a world without magic after all. Yet to have hopes of returning, he would not only need a martial soul, but a powerful one as well. If he couldn't reach at least the highest level, returning home would be but a pipe dream. 

Unless this is all a dream. He still wasn't convinced. 

He was sure however, that after the awakening, he would know whether he is dreaming or not. The martial soul is said to be connected to the soul (as its name implied), and he believed that this would tell him the truth. 

For now he looked around the town. Based on the buildings, the world should be as developed as Earth, not too much more nor much less, which means he is somewhere closest to the timeline of the third series, called the Legend of the Dragon King, this period is all about dragons. Maybe a bit too many dragons? Nah. You can never have too many dragons.

He couldn't really ask about the time period easily either, there was never a calendar explained in the stories. But there was a simple, if awkwardly effective idea forming in his head.

"Hey kid– ahem, friend, while we wait, why don't we talk about something, oh I know, who is your favourite Titled Douluo in history?" As soon as he said it, he cringed. Even if he knew it, it really was awkward to be so direct. *Could've given that one a bit more thought.*

But he was lucky. The kid didn't really mind and simply answered. "Hmmm at least it's a normal question this time. I don't know, it's hard to choose between the Thousand Arms Asura and Spirit Ice Douluo… ", he looked like he fell into thought.

"I think ice abilities are really cool and showy though, I would definitely choose Spirit Ice Douluo. Don't Eye and Ice powers just sound awesome?" Karni quickly added excitedly, both to find out more, and because it was the truth, he found Huo Yuhao the Spirit Ice Douluo very cool. In the moment he forgot that he wasn't home and simply went all fanboy on the characters.

The unknown boy continued as well "Yes, however don't you think the ultimate power of the Hammer and the complete control Tang San had is cool as well, having both complete control and absolute power to change everything! He was said to control the very seas!" It was clear that the boy was very passionate, however if we are honest, even grown ups would find it fun to talk about such topics.

"They were both 10.000 years apart, I wonder will another legend appear 10.000 years later?" Karni asked, hoping that the boy would also say anything about how much time has passed since then.

The boy's eyes brightened "I hope so. It might even be you or me, wouldn't that be awesome! Even if we aren't, we get front seats. Hehe." When Karni heard that he was delighted. This practically confirmed that he was next to the story of Soul Land 3, 100 years up or down. Either way he can use this information for future purposes. 

For starters, his chances of obtaining a good martial soul just went up! In this time period humans have developed along with the world. If his memory served him right, he would have better chances at getting a martial soul which he could cultivate!

The boys continued to nerd about what the history was, and it was soon time for the boy in front to get his martial soul awakened. "Though you have a weird name and talk funny, it was nice meeting you, my name is Tie Tiao, Good luck with the martial soul." He waved and nervously but excitedly walked into the awakening chamber.

Not long after, he came out looking quite happy. Tie Tiao looked at Karni and said "My martial soul is the Little Swallow, I awakened with rank 2, which means I might someday at least become a Soul Master!" He didn't look too confident, but this was already rare, as one in 1000 got lucky enough to even have soul power within them, especially so among commoners.

There were jealous eyes looking at the boy from the parents, this kid was the first to get a martial soul with soul power today, this was a testament to how rare soul power was.

"Next" a loud voice was heard from inside the chamber. It was finally time for Karni to awaken his Martial Soul, will he get an ok one, or will he be stuck here forever. On the other hand this might still be a dream!

He stepped into the chamber and was amazed at the intricate designs he saw inside, there was a middle aged man that looked to be in his 40s standing next to a platform.

"You're the last one today? Finally, I can go home and relax." He looked to be very mentally tired. The man reminded him of himself before going to bed yesterday.

"Please step onto the platform." There was someone with soul power awakened just before, he had practically no hope for Karni to awaken with a decent Martial Soul.

Karni took a deep breath, then strode towards the platform with large steps. As he got on, the inscriptions started to shine around Karni. The Soul Master soon activated a device to the side of the platform.

Karni started to glow. Will I be able to become a Soul Master? Will I have Soul Power? 

He felt his soul rumble as something came out from the very depths.

"Thi… This is?"

He felt his arm and body burn with energy, it was nothing he had ever felt before and as he opened his eyes he could see it. There was now a Staff in his hands, which looked like a Bo Staff in one of those martial art movies. It had intricate designs of gold and silver and in the middle he could see 4 symbols, as he turned the staff around there were another 4 symbols.

While turning the staff around he noticed something else. On his arm… black and white fur was coming out of it. His arm felt bigger than normal, and his hands… weren't hands, but paws.

Isn't this the legendary…?