It's not even dawn yet.
Under the light of the blazing torches, the vegetable market in the city has begun to become noisy.
Shop owners come and go, preparing ingredients and goods to be sold during the day.
However, the next moment, a loud shout suddenly came, breaking the tranquility of the moment.
"You damned little cripple, you stole my meat!"
A deep and powerful voice came from the door of a butcher's shop.
In front of the table, a skinny little cripple was running away holding a piece of meat.
The rotten cotton wrapped around the tip fell off, and the inferior wooden prosthesis kept rising and falling, touching the stone slabs on the ground, making a crisp "da da da" sound.
It seems that he is missing half of his left calf and uses a wooden prosthetic leg as a replacement, but his speed is not slow at all.
The fat shop owner chased after him even though he was out of breath, but he still couldn't catch up.
The distance between the two people is getting bigger and bigger.
Finally, the fat man could only gasp for air, collapse on the ground, and yelled in vain: "Damn you little cripple, stop right there!"
"I don't want it!"
Seeing that he couldn't catch up with him, the little cripple stopped, turned back, made a face, waved his hands and said, "Don't be angry, just think of it as an investment in me."
"Bah, invest in your sister!"
The fat shop owner spat on the ground, struggled to stand up, and his fat belly jumped.
"It's okay if he stole it once. I'm kind-hearted and won't pursue it. But I'll do it again the second time!"
"Do you really think I have no temper?"
The little cripple waved from a distance, as if to comfort him: "Calm down, calm down, being angry is bad for your health."
When the fat man calmed down a little, he continued, "When my martial soul awakens tomorrow and I have soul power, I will become a soul master. Then I will have money to pay you back, right?"
There was a matter-of-fact expression on the dirty little face.
The surrounding shop owners couldn't help but laugh when they heard this.
"What are you daydreaming about, little beggar? Is the Soul Master something you can dream about?"
"The resurrection master is as thin as a skeleton, tsk tsk."
"A whimsical little cripple."
The little cripple ignored the ridicule of these people and grinned at the fat man selling meat again.
He expressed his gratitude and ran away.
The fat man dusted himself off, looked at the tiny figure going away, and curled his lips: "Pray that you really have soul power."
…
In a long-abandoned courtyard on the edge of the city.
The little cripple looked at the meat and rotten vegetable leaves boiling in the pot in front of him, added some salt, and fell into memories accompanied by the orange-yellow firelight.
His name is Fang Ling, and he is from Blue Star.
He traveled to Douluo Continent a year ago and became a skinny, dirty little beggar with his left calf missing.
The little beggar had no name, and everyone who knew him called him Little Cripple, so he gave himself the name from his previous life, Fang Ling.
The location is Tiandou Empire, Fasno Province, Notting City.
It is the location of Notting College where Tang San studies.
Although it is not a big city, it is a border and one of the trading nodes between the two countries.
It is a wealthy place with developed commerce.
But no matter how rich you are, it belongs to others.
It has nothing to do with him, a lame little beggar who started with a bowl.
As a young lame beggar, Fang Ling was really poor.
Not a penny.
All his belongings were a coarse linen shirt full of patches, a rotten iron pot he picked up, a dented iron bowl, a sharp broken knife, a pair of straw sandals he wove himself, etc.
The gap between being a modern person who had no worries about food and drink and was in good health in the previous life and suddenly becoming an ancient person who had to rely on homemade prosthetic limbs for movement and lived by begging and picking up garbage is simply difficult to describe in words.
If there wasn't an illusory progress bar in his eyes that kept moving, and if there wasn't the temptation of the magical martial spirit and cultivation that kept motivating him, it would have been difficult for him to stick to it for the whole year. Yes, Fang Ling had an unknown plug-in.
This is an illusory progress bar located in his eyes, which only he can see.
The progress bar is a thick gray straight line. It has been growing at a steady and slow pace over the past year, and is now almost touching the border.
Its origin is unknown, its effect is unknown, and no matter how many methods I tried, such as sunbathing, eating more, meditating, etc., I couldn't speed it up a bit.
Through mental communication, Fang Ling learned that the progress bar would reach 100% in two days.
When it reaches 100%, corresponding changes will definitely occur.
After the plug-in awakened, it happened to be the day for him to awaken his martial soul.
As a thin little beggar with inadequate nutrition, if he didn't have a bloody background, it would be very likely that he would awaken a useless martial spirit.
Needless to say, as for soul power, it would be good enough if it could reach half the level of Yu Xiaogang.
Without enough meat, one cannot do any of the so-called physical exercises that may be related to awakening soul power, and will only end up ruining oneself.
In order to maintain his meat intake and keep his body from breaking down, in addition to his daily catching of mice and insects, he had no choice but to steal.
Because no one would pity him as a little beggar.
From memory, I learned that the fat shop owner had just arrived in this city and his character was relatively kind, so Fang Ling dared to go there.
And he stole it. He was an ambitious man and had already noted down this favor in a small notebook. He would repay it when he became successful.
Apart from this, Fang Ling's only hope now is that he really has a bloody background.
If this background could awaken a powerful enough martial spirit.
It would be even better if he could have strong soul power and become a soul master even if he eats very poorly and has a skinny body.
Otherwise, you can only hope for some help from the plug-in, or for some benefits from time travel.
…
Two days later, Fang Ling woke up early from his sleep.
First, I checked the traps in the yard, but found no signs of them being tampered with.
Then I started to wash up with confidence.
She washed her face, brushed her teeth with Liuzhi, changed into washed and hung-up clothes, and ate a few bites of a steamed bun that she had picked up that someone else had sold.
Then he sat obediently, waiting for the destined moment to arrive.
The progress bar in my eyes seemed to be still moving forward slowly, just like Xixi was slashing it again and again. After 99.9%... nine cycles, it was finally about to end.
The seemingly motionless gray progress bar was like a hibernating beast slowly waking up.
As countless invisible moments passed, it advanced gradually over a year at an almost imperceptible pace, finally reaching its final stage.
A ray of rare light appeared like the dawn, instantly breaking the silence around.
Everything in my eyes seemed to be given new life and color.
Accompanied by this mysterious light, Fang Ling felt as if his whole body was sublimated, and his soul instantly climbed to the peak.
"Bang!"
Feeling itchy, he slapped a mosquito that was sucking blood on his face to death, then woke up from his fantasy with his face twitching slightly.