Douluo Continent: The Ruler of Time, Reigning Supreme

Chapter 1 The Embarrassing System, Exploding on the Spot

Douluo Continent, Star Luo Empire.

The Soul Master Cemetery of Yuming City is located at the highest point in the western part of the city. The rough black stone tablets are like a silent forest, all pointing to the lead-gray, low-hanging sky.

The wind blew from the direction of the Mingdou Mountains, carrying the unique smell of dust and metal from the border region, sweeping past rows of stones engraved with names, making a mournful sound.

The two newly erected steles stand side by side, the stone is still very new, and the stone dust in the engravings has not yet been completely washed away by wind and rain.

Ahead, a short figure stood motionless.

He was too short; the two tombstones seemed as tall as two walls to him.

The black fabric wrapped around him made him look even more empty.

His white hair, not the withered white of old age, but like fresh snow, like the finest silver threads, softly clung to his small head, strikingly conspicuous in the bleak light of the cemetery.

Not far away, several people wearing the standard armor of the Eighth Soul Master Legion of the Star Luo Empire stood. The mud on their armor had not yet dried, and the metal surface still had several scratches and dents left by the battle. The murderous aura had not yet dissipated.

They looked silently at the white-haired child, their eyes filled with complex emotions—pity, sadness, and a hint of barely perceptible surprise.

One of them moved his lips, as if he wanted to say something to an old man next to him who was wearing an old gray robe and had gray hair, but in the end it turned into a barely audible sigh.

Uncle Hui was hunched over, and the wrinkles on his face were deep and heavy, as if carved by a knife and axe, filled with sorrow.

Looking at the young master's striking white hair, he felt as if a boulder was blocking his heart.

A few days ago, this child wasn't like this.

When the Eighth Soul Master Legion knocked on the door with the devastating news, the child was right in front of them. In a burst of golden light and violent tremors that no one could understand, his black hair turned to snow in an instant, his pupils turned to shattered gold, and his figure and appearance quietly changed, becoming the exquisite appearance of a child who was unlike any other in the mortal world.

The commander of the Eighth Soul Master Legion said that this was an unusual phenomenon caused by the innate awakening of a martial soul, which was extremely rare and a sign of genius.

But Gray felt heartbroken; the price was too high.

Yin Chen stood there, his small body ramrod straight.

The wind ruffled the silver hair on his forehead, and in his golden eyes, there were no tears, nor the usual bewilderment of a six-year-old.

It was empty inside, a bottomless, deathly silence.

Only he himself knew what turbulent secrets lay buried beneath that deathly silence.

A few days ago, when those two death notices bearing the legion's blood-red insignia were handed to him, something that had been imprisoning him shattered.

It wasn't sadness; he couldn't feel any deep sadness for his parents, who were stationed on the front lines year-round and only returned home occasionally, their faces already blurred.

The shock came from elsewhere—the barriers of cognition were shattered, and memories and personalities belonging to another world, which had been dormant for six years, were forcibly activated and awakened in a brutal way by this sudden bad news.

The last memories of my past life flooded my mind.

The streets were deserted after work hours, the high beams were blindingly bright, the horns were deafening and the tires screeched against the ground, and... that enormous, irresistible, crushing shadow—the 100-ton king.

Ha, this is what they call encountering a hundred-ton behemoth on the road, fighting with all your might, but still unable to defeat it.

Before the suffocating feeling of despair could completely engulf him, a cold, mechanical, lifeless voice suddenly rang out at the very end of his descent into consciousness:
[Soul matched detected... Energy insufficient... Forced reincarnation procedure initiated... Target world: Douluo Continent...]

[His soul core has fallen into slumber... maintaining minimum energy consumption...] These were the last fragments of his memory before he was reborn in a daze.

A few days ago, the shock of that death notice not only awakened memories of his past life but also alarmed the dormant system.

He heard that cold voice again:
[Strong emotional stimulus detected... Energy absorption in progress... System restarting...]

[New player bonus: 10 consecutive draws.]

Then, a dazzling golden light, powerful enough to scorch the soul, exploded deep within his consciousness.

One, two, three... a total of five.

The golden light was so intense, carrying a power that seemed to burn the very rules themselves, illuminating his still unstable space of consciousness.

Immediately afterwards, the cold system notification tone suddenly became rapid and shrill, like a machine overloaded:
[Error! Error! Energy overflow! Core protocol conflict!]

[...collapse...irreversible...]

[...untie...]

boom! ! !
It was as if the Big Bang, the beginning of the universe, had directly detonated deep within his soul.

He even heard the sound of his soul being torn apart, a teeth-grinding cracking sound.

The excruciating pain instantly overwhelmed everything, a thousand times more terrifying than being crushed by a hundred-ton giant.

He thought he was completely finished, that awakening meant the end, that his soul would be scattered and not even a trace would remain.

But miraculously, he did not die on the spot.

The devastating energy shockwave from the system explosion primarily targeted the connection points deep within his soul, violently tearing apart his soul space.

Three golden rays, carrying half of his torn soul, were flung into the depths of the ripped spatial rift, disappearing without a trace.

The other two golden rays, while battling the aftershocks of the explosion, merged with the remaining half of his soul, barely preserving his consciousness and his young body.

To the outside world, in the eyes of Uncle Grey and the legion's soul masters, Yin Chen suddenly burst forth with an unbearable golden aura, his white hair grew out, his golden eyes shone, and a soul power fluctuation far exceeding the scope of ordinary martial soul awakening spread out like ripples, startling several battle-hardened soul masters who subconsciously took a half step back, their faces filled with horror and disbelief.

They only saw the sudden emergence of an unparalleled genius.

But no one knew that in that split second, within the child's fragile body, a shocking and mind-blowing upheaval was taking place.

To lose half of one's soul and still stand unharmed is a miracle in itself.

Yin Chen didn't faint on the spot, thanks to one of the golden lights.

Standing before the cold, hard tombstone, feeling the chill emanating from it seep into his body through his shoes, Yin Chen's emotions were as complicated as a tangled mess.

There was a faint sadness over the deaths of her adoptive parents, but more than that, there was a deep resentment towards that shameful system. It was just a matter of getting five gold items in ten pulls, was it really necessary to just explode on the spot?

It was truly the worst system he had ever seen, bar none.

He thought with a smile on his face.

(End of this chapter)