Chapter 1: Stealing the Blue Silver Emperor's Bloodline
Di Hun Village.
Yes, you heard that right—not Sheng Hun Village, but Di Hun Village.
Di Hun Village is located in the southern part of Nuoding City, within the Fasno Province. It has just over a hundred households and is only three to five li away from Sheng Hun Village.
It is said that many years ago, Di Hun Village was not called Di Hun Village, and Sheng Hun Village wasn't called Sheng Hun Village either.
One day, a soul master with the eighth title—Soul Sage—emerged from Sheng Hun Village, and so it gained the name Sheng Hun Village.
Not long after, the neighboring Lan Yin Village (now Di Hun Village), unwilling to fall behind, also claimed to have produced a Soul Emperor.
Exactly how many years ago was this?
Did a Soul Sage and Soul Emperor really appear? No one knows for sure!
But since then, the two neighboring small villages changed their names to Sheng Hun Village and Di Hun Village!
Beside a small stream, a boy around five or six years old was lying idly on the grass with a stalk of Blue Silver Grass in his mouth, his eyes closed as he basked in the sunlight.
With his hands behind his head and one leg crossed over the other, he tapped the air lazily while humming a nursery rhyme.
"Little, little Erlang, carrying his schoolbag to class..."
In the distance, Old Tom, the village chief of Di Hun Village, saw the boy slacking off again. He grabbed a carrying pole and charged over.
As he ran, Old Tom shouted, "You little brat, slacking off again! Next month is your Martial Soul Awakening. Without a good physique, how will you become a soul master? I'm going to beat you today!"
The boy's eyes shot open—this was bad.
With a backward roll, he jumped to his feet and bolted.
"Don't chase me, Grandpa Tom! What's the point of training every day? I can't become a soul master anyway."
"You little brat, stop running!"
Old Tom shouted breathlessly.
"Nope! If I stop, you'll hit me again."
No way he was falling for that—he'd taken more than a few hits from that old man's pole before.
And so, the chase began.
Half an hour later, both of them collapsed on the ground, gasping for air.
Old Tom grabbed the boy's leg and took in deep gulps of fresh air, saying in a deep voice, "Finally caught you, brat! Let's see if you dare slack off again."
At that moment, the boy was so tired he could barely speak. Forcing a child under six to run at full speed for half an hour—who was he even offending?
"I'm not running anymore. Even if you beat me to death, I'm done! I'm exhausted!"
Seeing the usually mischievous kid looking so miserable, Old Tom burst out laughing. He looked at the boy with satisfaction and said, "You finally got what's coming to you! Fine, since you've run this long today, I'll let you off this time."
After resting for a while, the two returned to the village.
Old Tom walked alongside the boy down a narrow path.
"Grandpa Tom, why are you so insistent on me becoming a soul master?"
The boy finally asked the question that had puzzled him for a long time.
Old Tom sighed and said, "Sigh… that old Jack from the neighboring village keeps boasting that their village produced a Soul Sage. He claims our Di Hun Village just followed suit and made up that Soul Emperor story!"
"Hmph! That damned old man.
But if you, brat, can become a soul master, I'll finally be able to shut him up."
Just imagining the day he could show off in front of Old Jack and slap that smug face made Old Tom burst into hearty laughter.
The boy's mouth twitched. He rolled his eyes and said, "Um… didn't you say my late parents both had Blue Silver Grass as their martial souls? So I'll probably awaken Blue Silver Grass too, right?"
The boy's out-of-place words brought Old Tom's laughter to an abrupt halt.
He raised his hand and gave the boy a chop to the head.
"Ow, ow, ow!"
The boy clutched his head and squatted down, pretending to cry in pain.
Watching the boy's exaggerated performance, Old Tom shook his head and chuckled bitterly.
"Stop howling already. I didn't even hit you that hard," Old Tom grumbled. After thinking for a moment, he added, "Last year I asked Master Su Yuntao—sometimes, a martial soul can, what's the term… right, mutate! Maybe yours will mutate into something good."
Old Tom's words made the boy stop pretending to be in pain. He sighed, got up, and walked back to his shabby little home.
Before leaving, he raised a small hand to wave goodbye to Old Tom.
Martial soul mutation? Like it's that easy! Especially when it's Blue Silver Grass. He wasn't Tang San with the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline, after all.
That's right, this boy was a transmigrator.
In his past life on Blue Star, he was a corporate drone. After binge-reading Douluo Dalu all night, he died suddenly in his sleep.
When he woke up again, he found himself as a baby.
As he grew older, it took him two years to learn the language of Douluo Dalu. That's when he found out he had a ridiculously flashy and downright irritating name—family name Zu, given name Zong. That's right, Zu Zong.
Every time Old Tom introduced him to others, he would feel awkward, so he just called him "brat." Over time, everyone forgot what his real name even was.
According to Old Tom, his late cheap father was called Zu Wang. That name came from his even cheaper grandfather Zu Di, who lowered his expectations—Zu Wang meant he hoped his son would become a Soul King. Unfortunately, Zu Wang was born with zero soul power and couldn't cultivate.
When it came to Zu Zong's generation, they lowered the bar again—just hoping the kid could at least become a Soul Ancestor.
When he first realized he had transmigrated into Douluo Dalu, Zu Zong had been thrilled. He even excitedly ran to neighboring Sheng Hun Village to meet the protagonist, Tang San.
He wanted to see for himself what kind of "villain" this controversial protagonist really was.
The result? Pfft! Tang San looked totally average. Not even half as handsome as him (Author: You do know you're ugly too, right?).
Still, he wanted to befriend him. After all, both of his cheap, deceased parents had Blue Silver Grass as their martial souls—utter trash.
If he wanted to cultivate, he had to find another way.
Douluo Dalu had scarce cultivation methods, and scamming Tang San for the Xuan Tian Gong was the only path.
But Tang San was a sly little bastard. Every time he saw Zu Zong, he acted like he'd seen a ghost and bolted.
With his "fragile and delicate body," Zu Zong couldn't possibly catch up to someone trained in Tang Sect martial arts. After a few failed attempts, he gave up.
Inside the empty thatched hut, lying on a shabby bed and staring at the familiar ceiling—no, that was a grass roof—Zu Zong kept sighing.
"Sigh… I thought that once I arrived in Douluo Dalu, I could punch the protagonist, kick the Clear Sky Sect, and marry some rich beauty—cough, slip of the tongue.
Didn't expect that even cultivating would become a luxury. My martial soul awakening is next month. Am I really going to live and die in Di Hun Village?"
Suddenly, a voice echoed in his mind.
[Ding. Detected host's unwillingness. Theft System is initializing. Countdown: 10, 9, 8…]
"Holy shit!"
"Holy shit!"
"Holy shit!"
With poor vocabulary and overwhelmed excitement, Zu Zong shouted "holy shit" three times in a row.
"Haha! This young ancestor is finally turning the tide. Tang San, you little bastard, get lost!"
[Ding. Theft System successfully loaded. Bind now?]
"Quick, quick! Bind me right now!"
[Theft System binding complete. Thank you for using.]
Having read countless web novels, Zu Zong didn't speak out loud but asked in his mind, "System, what are the functions of the Theft System?"
[Host, the main function of the Theft System is to steal treasures from all the worlds across the heavens. This includes, but is not limited to: abilities, cultivation techniques, heavenly materials and earthly treasures, bloodlines, and much more!]
"Haha, your little ancestor is about to cheat the world!"
"Little ancestor" was Zu Zong's newly chosen self-reference. Others might call themselves "this young master," but who was he? A man destined to ride over the heavens and realms—he needed something more unique. From now on, he'd call himself "little ancestor!"
[Ding. Host, don't get too excited. Theft has limitations and risks. You can only steal once per year. For every level of soul power you gain, you get one extra chance. However, if the hatred value from the target reaches max, the host will be randomly teleported within a one-li radius of the target for one hour.]
"Holy shit! That's dangerous. If I accidentally steal Bibi Dong's underwear and get teleported to the Spirit Hall, I'm dead for sure!"
[Ding. Host is mistaken. It would be worse than death.]
"You don't have to say it! Your little ancestor already knows!"
[Ding. Host has not yet used this year's theft opportunity. Would you like to steal now?]
"Steal, of course! Fortune favors the bold and starves the cowardly!"
[Ding. System is stealing…]
[Ding. Congratulations, host has stolen the protagonist of Douluo Dalu, Tang San's Blue Silver Emperor bloodline.]
"Holy shit!"
(End of Chapter)