Douluo Continent: A Thousand Miles of Cultivation

"Why the hell do I need to read books after I've already graduated! At least give me some novels!"

Isn't a novel a book? (No! — Qian Shui Douluo)

Qian Shui was initially reluctant to learn a foreign language, and there was no one to teach him personally! Anyway, after he learned to speak, he finally knew where he was.

He came to Douluo Continent as an orphan adopted by the Spirit Hall.

Qian Shui only obtained very little useful information, only knowing that the current Pope of the Spirit Hall is Qian Xunji, and that the orphanage he was in was built by the Qian family.

"In other words, I'm at least ahead of the plot now!"

At just over a year old, his daily routine consisted of babbling and learning to speak, but unfortunately, this was very painful for Qian Shui, who had a complete worldview.

He is an adult and has no awareness of the active language learning that a real baby has, and he also lacks a proper education system!

Fortunately, his aunt was very patient, and since he had nothing else to do and was full of energy, Qian Shui learned the entire Douluo language and script very early on.

Qian Shui exclaimed, "If I had this kind of spirit on Earth, I would have reached the pinnacle of humanity long ago! Alas, technology has ruined me!"

However, quitting electronic devices is impossible, not even in a past life!

Perhaps because of the fantasy world, Qian Shui grew bigger and bigger, and his energy increased, making it even harder for him to sleep at night. Left with no other option, he had to go for a run before bed!

Qian Shui was filled with grief and indignation. He, who used to be a lazy bum, had actually forced himself onto the path of self-discipline because he was so bored! It was as if he had betrayed his lifelong pursuit!

"Yo Qianshui, you're going for a run again? This child is so well-behaved and sensible!"

"Yeah, yeah, if they become Soul Masters in the future, they'll definitely be at least Soul Emperors!"

"That's not necessarily true. With high innate soul power, he might even become a Title Douluo!"

……

Qian Shui was already tired of hearing these words. Ignoring them, he ran far away. He had heard these comments from the neighbors around the orphanage countless times. He could only sigh, "Isn't this just reckless posturing?! Once I get my cheat code and dominate the entire Douluo Continent, becoming a god will be a piece of cake!"

'You're the well-behaved one! Your whole family is well-behaved! Don't you know I hate other people's kids the most!'

Qianshui ran and ran, and Qianshui kept thinking and thinking. The sky gradually darkened. Days without a precise time are hard to endure. It is very uncomfortable to not be able to judge the time.

Therefore, Qian Shui can only run along fixed routes. It's simply unrealistic to wait until you're completely exhausted, since children grow every day.

Qianshui spent a difficult day running to burn off energy and studying hypnosis techniques.

……

The orphanage director's surname is also Qian, and she's now in her seventies or eighties. I heard she's a Soul Saint. Her status seems very high; in a place like Martial Soul City, even an old Soul Saint like her has a lot of influence.

It is said that she was brought back by the previous pope himself. Even though she could only inherit the position of director of the Sen family's orphanage due to her lack of talent, she was respected because she was a generation older than the pope.

Qian Shui's extraordinary learning ability, born from boredom, combined with the unique silliness of a transmigrator keyboard warrior (meaning he's not afraid of elders), ironically made the dean favor him. Many times she offered to adopt Qian Shui, but he always dismissed her with a puzzled look: "Didn't you already adopt me?"

Qian Shui was indeed puzzled, after all, he wasn't an orphan before, and the Douluo language wasn't as clear as Chinese, so there was nothing he could do.

The director himself lived in the orphanage, so it really didn't matter whether or not they adopted children. He was speechless and that was the end of the conversation.

But this fondness also brought Qian Shui some privileges; he could freely read the dean's books. Although he himself only felt that this was a relatively less boring form of entertainment, simply broadening his horizons.

Qian Shui quickly finished reading the dean's book, which even included some research on soul beasts and martial souls, as well as meditation methods. To be honest, these were the only things that were useful to Qian Shui.

As he grew older, Qian Shui ran faster and faster, and his endurance and distance also increased through cultivation. By the third year after his transmigration, he could already run around the three main halls of the Spirit Hall.

Qian Shui tried the meditation method, but it didn't seem to work at all.

"If Tang San could master the Mysterious Heaven Skill at the beginning of Douluo Continent, why can't I?"

Every scientific problem has a scientific solution; if there isn't, then the approach is definitely wrong!

The scientific methodology is good, but in this fantasy world, the scientific perspective should also be placed from a fantasy angle! Those involved are often blinded by their own perspectives; now, the Earthlings, without any magical stance, must have a fixed solution of 1+1=2.

Fortunately, Qian Shui had given up Falun Dafa; he went directly to ask the dean!

"Soul power needs to be absorbed through the martial soul and then through deep meditation. You can only cultivate soul power after your martial soul awakens at the age of six," the dean replied.

A local might have given up, because martial spirits are the dominant theme of this world, an established way of thinking. However, Qian Shui knew the other answer. The matter was actually quite simple; the dean's words weren't entirely meaningless, at least they reminded him of something—

Soul power needs a medium to be cultivated! More importantly, it needs to be absorbed!

"Every mystical problem has a mystical solution! That's also scientific!"

Take Tang San as an example. He practiced the Mysterious Heaven Skill. Perhaps everyone in this world possesses a Martial Soul, even if it hasn't been awakened, the Martial Soul objectively exists. While Tang San may have mastered the Martial Soul during his training, it was definitely more than just a Martial Soul!

Because the Mysterious Heaven Skill is a product of another world without Martial Souls!

Then the answer is obvious—through the body, or something more mystical, such as the spirit or soul!

It's true that Qian Shui is a materialist, but he's not a dogmatic one. The fantasy is right before our eyes, so that's the truth! It's something that truly exists!

It is very important to be certain that something truly exists, because it avoids incurring huge costs of trial and error.

Having grasped this point, Qian Shui's imagination ran wild. Cultivating immortality, self-cultivation, martial arts—perhaps what the great gods of the past spoke of were all true! Their essence is all about absorbing external energy to strengthen oneself!

The important thing is that, regardless of whether it's called spiritual energy, battle energy, essence energy, magic power, or ether, there is a kind of energy that can be absorbed! And in this world, this energy is called soul power!

"Except for the martial soul cultivation system in this world, which requires awakening a martial soul and possessing innate soul power to cultivate, the absorption of energy in other cultivation systems doesn't actually need to be so complicated. The first step is simply to sense this energy, thereby completing the qualitative change from zero to one—the sense of qi!"

In fact, people in Douluo Continent may have a slightly higher starting point than those in other systems because of the existence of martial souls and innate soul power!

Everyone here possesses a martial spirit, the only difference being the amount of innate soul power they have; otherwise, a non-physical, fantastical entity like a martial spirit would not exist.

Judging from the situation of Tang San and his disciple who was recruited overseas in the original novel, it should be possible to cultivate even if one is born without soul power, at least the Xuan Tian Gong technique can achieve this.

Ignore the arguments from my fellow viewers from the previous life, let's just start practicing first!

To avoid being disturbed, Qian Shui chose a moonlit night and secretly ran to the rooftop to begin his cultivation plan.

"Five points facing upwards, qi sinking to the dantian, emptying the mind, feeling the energy, feeling the energy..." Qian Shui muttered to himself as he assumed the Five Points Facing Upwards cultivation posture.

Fortunately, she was bored enough and found a new way to kill time, and Qianshui really calmed down.

As time went by, Qian Shui had a vague feeling, but unfortunately, she was excited for a moment and then it was gone.

Grass is a plant! After feeling ashamed of myself, I continued on my way.

The city of Wuhun was silent at night; the medieval setting made the entire city almost completely dark. Only the stars and moon in the sky emitted a faint glow.

Qian Shui tried for several days before he finally grasped a little of the trick.

First, I sensed the energy, but couldn't absorb it. After summarizing my experience, I realized that the cultivation of immortality should be guided by the Qi in the Dantian.

However, Qian Shui didn't understand what Dantian Qi was, so he could only experiment violently, theoretically feeling and fiddling around the area below the navel. In the end, he managed to find the right location and method to absorb some Qi.

Unfortunately, it dissipated quickly because Qian Shui had no idea what to do after absorbing it!

So we had no choice but to resort to brute force and tried every possible solution.

"It should be a cycle, circulating through the Great Heavenly Circuit and the Small Heavenly Circuit! But how do you do that? I've never studied meridians!"

Qian Shui rubbed her temples to calm her anxious mood.

"Temperature? Holy crap!"

There seems to be a saying that the skin is the largest organ in the human body!

Qian Shui saw a video like this while watching videos for entertainment in the knowledge section. It said that there was a woman abroad who suddenly lost all sensation in her skin, and her biggest feeling was as if her whole body had detached from her body and was floating outside!

Therefore, some people speculate that skin might be one of the mediums through which a person stores their soul.

Once the idea was clear, it was time to give it a try.

After Qian Shui absorbed the soul power into his dantian, he tried to guide it around. Based on the sensation on his skin, he roughly sensed something like a passage and tried to guide it inside.

At first, I didn't dare to suck and pull at the same time, or suck a large amount. If the experiment failed, I would be in big trouble!

After finding a complete circulation channel and storing it in the dantian, Qian Shui has probably entered the beginner stage. Absorbing the world and transforming it for one's own use, according to the standards of the immortal cultivation system, should belong to the initial stage of Qi Refining, specifically the first level of Qi Refining.

Once she found the way, Qian Shui felt relieved and continued to suck up air along the established path.

"I have to say, I really want to keep practicing. No wonder they say cultivation is great. This feeling of slowly getting stronger is really good, and my body feels comfortable. It's like soaring to new heights!"

However, it's not very realistic to keep practicing all the time. After all, the environment is noisy during the day, and he doesn't want others to discover his little secret of being able to cultivate before his martial soul awakens!

In short, Qian Shui maintained his previous habits, only he ran faster, had better endurance, and became increasingly radiant due to his cultivation.

Chapter 3 Blonde Loli

"It has to be said that a world like Douluo Continent is practically a greenhouse for fantasy!" — Qian Shui Douluo

Yes, Qian Shui found it very strange, because his way of playing caused his body to grow very quickly, but what puzzled him was that his friends in the orphanage were the same. Although Qian Shui didn't know any of their names, it didn't stop him from observing his friends.

Just as Master Ma is uninterested in money and Boss Liu is face-blind, Qian Shui also has a strange style from his past life that has remained unchanged—he is insensitive to names.

Perhaps because he found it troublesome that his playmates cried and fussed without understanding, he intensified this habit. For example, he seemed to have heard the director's name, but couldn't remember it, and he didn't even recall the last name of the aunties at the orphanage.

He had analyzed his past life. Perhaps his ability to think in images was too outstanding. He had a good memory and could remember things like objects, maps, and things with a strong sense of space.

Perhaps that's why, once you've quickly memorized the shape, you forget the name—unless it's something very important.

Just like a teenage symptom of deliberately not speaking to appear cool, Qian Shui usually behaves very silently in order to cover up the embarrassment of not being able to remember names, and may even become invisible.

Although he himself is actually very verbose and loves to ramble, the keyboard warriors are very powerful.

Setting aside the issue of his own and his companions' unusually rapid growth, Qian Shui attributed it all to innate soul power. He guessed that everyone in this world was actually passively cultivating their martial souls, but they were unaware of it, and this was the reason for the emergence of innate soul power.

As for the more fundamental question, namely, what exactly is this passive ability—whether it's the martial soul automatically absorbing energy or something else—Qian Shui has no answer yet.

This will probably only be resolved when one awakens their martial soul and begins to cultivate in the way this world does.

Thinking about this, Qian Shui really wanted to lie down and relax. After all, this thing could be absorbed by itself, so why should I be so diligent? It's not so bad to just join the main characters' group.

However, the pleasure of cultivation was just too good, like chewing on a chewy gum stick! It was impossible to stop! "It's even better than smoking XX!" Coupled with the passive bonus from habit, Qian Shui simply couldn't suppress the urge to enjoy it!

"It's almost the end of the year! It's been almost four years in the blink of an eye!" After finishing the orphanage's 'New Year's Eve dinner,' Qian Shui ran out to continue his cultivation.

It has to be said that the environment in Douluo Continent is actually too good, because his cultivation progress is too good. He enjoys himself more and more every day. The Qi ball in his dantian is getting bigger and bigger, and his own perception is getting stronger and stronger. He can't believe that he is only a little kid who is almost four years old!

As a result of habit and enhanced perception, he can now run with his eyes closed. Recently, Qian Shui has been researching whether it's possible to cultivate while running, because he remembers that Huo Qubing from Douluo Continent II once achieved this feat, but he can't recall the specific method.

He was essentially trying to break through his limits, but Qian Shui's cautious nature prevented him from doing so easily. After all, he wasn't some rich young master or someone cultivating at a university, and he didn't have any high-level healing-type soul masters around him.

Moreover, he didn't want to be discovered that he could cultivate before awakening his martial soul, as he might be dissected and studied, since he was just an orphan with an ordinary background.

It's possible that once you reach the rank of Martial Soul, you can awaken some kind of innate level 100 Soul Power, becoming fearless and so on. But that would have to wait until the Martial Soul awakens and it's a good one. It's not worth taking the risk at this stage.

While running, Qian Shui tried to circulate his soul power and absorb external soul power, but it was no use. He struggled to circulate his soul power, let alone absorb and circulate it at the same time.

……