"Brother Lin, Brother Lin, wake up quickly..."
Amidst the calls, dazzling sunlight shone through the layers of leaves onto a young man's face.
The young man's eyelids trembled slightly.
Under the stimulation of the sunlight and the shoving of another young man beside him, the unconscious youth finally opened his eyes.
The vision before him shifted from darkness to blurriness, and then from blurriness to clarity.
He struggled to sit up, rubbing his slightly dizzy head while surveying the surrounding environment.
Trees as thick as a person appeared in the young man's field of view.
The young man looked around, his gaze finally resting not far away on the corpse of a Wind Baboon.
Its head was separated from its body, a layer of fur was missing from its surface, and it was a bloody mess.
The young man's chaotic consciousness gradually regained clarity, and he realized his current situation.
"Brother Lin, you're awake!"
A delicate and handsome small face entered his field of view.
Huo Yuhao looked at Wang Lin, the joy on his face completely uncontrollable.
"Yuhao, what happened?"
Speaking, Wang Lin slowly climbed up, his face full of confusion, looking as if he had no idea what had occurred.
Huo Yuhao was currently in a state of excitement and completely failed to notice the desolation Wang Lin had hidden deep within his eyes.
Why! Why!!
We both have mental attribute martial souls, and my innate soul power was a full level seven. Why did the Skydream Ice Silkworm still choose Huo Yuhao? Just because his martial soul is mutated!?
"Brother Lin, I've become a Soul Master!?"
Huo Yuhao was still in a state of excitement.
Clearly, the million-year soul beast that had appeared in his spiritual sea gave this boy with low self-esteem a lot of confidence.
Whoosh!
A ring of pure white soul light rose from beneath Huo Yuhao's feet, slowly moving upward to his head before rhythmically descending again.
"You absorbed the Wind Baboon's soul ring?"
Wang Lin snapped back to reality, looking at that ring of crystal-clear, somewhat abnormal white soul light.
His face showed astonishment.
The desolation in his eyes converted into deep envy at this moment.
That was a soul ring at the million-year level!
"I..."
Just as Huo Yuhao spoke, the sound of a cough rang out in his mind, followed by the voice of the Skydream Ice Silkworm.
Cough cough, Yuhao, just go along with his story. This kid named Wang Lin definitely approached you with some objective. Although I don't know what his purpose is, he holds considerable malice toward you.
The Skydream Ice Silkworm, having copied all of Huo Yuhao's memories, noticed the abnormality of the black-haired, gray-eyed youth before them.
It sensed from Huo Yuhao's memories that this youth named Wang Lin had looked at Huo Yuhao with a very strong utilitarian intent during unguarded moments ever since they met.
"Brother Lin, didn't you say soul beasts are hard to come by? So I absorbed the Wind Baboon's soul ring."
Huo Yuhao did not think too much about it.
Compared to Wang Lin, whom he had only known for a few days, he naturally trusted the Skydream Ice Silkworm, which had already merged with him, much more.
"Is that so!? But how did I faint just now?"
Wang Lin looked at the soul ring, frowning slightly in confusion.
Wang Lin naturally knew that he must have fainted because of the Skydream Ice Silkworm.
It had been twelve years.
Ever since he realized he had transmigrated to the world of Douluo Dalu, and confirmed it was the Peerless Tang Sect era, Wang Lin—who possessed no heaven-defying cheats or systems—had been looking for a way out for himself.
Although the Douluo world was often called the sewer of the fantasy genre, there were gods after all, and gods represented eternal life.
Therefore, becoming a god naturally became Wang Lin's goal.
Fortunately, this body gave him a decent talent, a mental-type Body Martial Soul: the Brain.
With such talent, Wang Lin naturally set his sights on the Skydream Ice Silkworm.
The Skydream Ice Silkworm was the guide on Huo Yuhao's path to godhood, Huo Yuhao's undisputed greatest cheat.
Huo Yuhao could lack anyone else, but he could not lack the Skydream Ice Silkworm.
While the Skydream Ice Silkworm gave Huo Yuhao a million-year soul ring, it also brought him a top-tier martial soul with an Ultimate Attribute.
For the sake of the Skydream Ice Silkworm, Wang Lin, who originally lived in Star Luo City, confirmed that Huo Yuhao was about the same age as him.
Despite being an Imperial Viscount, he lived in a small village near the White Tiger Duke's mansion for a whole year, finally waiting until Huo Yuhao left the Duke's estate.
The fledging Huo Yuhao was like a blank sheet of paper.
It was not difficult for Wang Lin, who had lived two lives, to hoodwink Huo Yuhao, and he easily joined Huo Yuhao's team.
After all his maneuvering, what made Wang Lin feel helpless was that the Skydream Ice Silkworm simply did not take a liking to him.
He didn't even get a chance to meet the Skydream Ice Silkworm.
The Wind Baboon had just been killed by Huo Yuhao when he saw a flash of white light, and then he fainted.
Wang Lin could roughly guess the reason for this.
Although his martial soul was the Brain, it was also a mutated martial soul.
Soul Masters usually need to cultivate to the Titled Douluo level for their mental power to materialize.
His was already materialized upon awakening.
Wang Lin named his materialized mental power "Telekinesis".
However, when God opens a window for you, he inevitably kicks your door shut.
Wang Lin, whose mental power level was naturally at the "Titled Douluo" stage, had a sealed spiritual sea.
This was likely the reason Wang Lin was not chosen.
"I'm not too sure either. After I killed the Wind Baboon, only then did I notice that you had fainted, Brother Lin!"
Huo Yuhao followed the explanation given by the Skydream Ice Silkworm in his mind.
"Is that so? Maybe my mental power was over-consumed!"
Wang Lin casually found an excuse.
He looked at the azure sky of the Douluo Continent and suddenly smiled.
"Heh!"
"Brother Lin, what are you laughing at?"
Huo Yuhao looked at Wang Lin in confusion.
"I'm laughing at 'All is destiny, not a bit under human control'."
Wang Lin spoke casually.
"What does that mean?"
Huo Yuhao was immediately somewhat puzzled.
"It doesn't mean much. Let's go. Yuhao, since you've already become a Soul Master, let's leave the Star Dou Forest first!"
Wang Lin did not explain and prepared to lead Huo Yuhao out of the Star Dou Forest.
"Brother Lin, don't you want a soul ring?"
Huo Yuhao asked in confusion.
"No rush for now. My sudden fainting just now might be due to some issue with my martial soul. Let's find a town to rest and reorganize first," Wang Lin said.
The reason he came to the Star Dou Forest to hunt souls with Huo Yuhao before was for the Skydream Ice Silkworm.
Now that he hadn't obtained the Skydream Ice Silkworm, given the rarity of mental-type soul beasts, there was no need for him to continue wasting time in the Star Dou Forest with Huo Yuhao.
Moreover, he was a Soul Grandmaster who hadn't broken through, leading Huo Yuhao, a newly broken-through Soul Master, deeper into the Star Dou Forest to hunt souls.
If something happened, Huo Yuhao now had his "sugar daddy" Skydream Ice Silkworm and didn't fear danger.
But he feared it.
Wasting time was fine, but he couldn't waste his life!
Thinking this, Wang Lin called out in his mind: "Attribute Panel!"
A very crude blue square frame appeared on Wang Lin's retina.
[Name: Wang Lin]
[Martial Soul: Brain (Mutated)]
[Cultivation: Level 20 (Level 26 {80%})]
[Techniques: Advanced Meditation Method (Proficient) {79%}, Eight Vajra Body Technique (Mastered) {34%}]
[Soul Ring: Yellow (642 years)]
Looking at the data from Attribute Panel, Wang Lin sighed again in his heart.
Even though its name was Attribute Panel, this broken frame didn't have the function to add points at all; it could only roughly display his status.
He also wanted to rely on his own efforts to struggle a bit, but was hard work useful in this broken world of Douluo?
It was completely useless!
There was no need to mention the Shrek Seven Devils of the first Douluo series.
If not for the immortal herbs added to their bodies, other than the pre-destined Tang San, which one of them had the aptitude to become a god?
As for Huo Yuhao beside him, known as "Huo the Cheat", Wang Lin didn't need to explain his composition, right!
Why was it that since Heaven had given him a crude panel that could simply display his status, it couldn't add a point-allocation function to this broken panel?
If there was even a single ability to add points, with his Brain martial soul, Wang Lin would have run off to the Body Sect long ago.
What business would he have with Huo Yuhao?
In order to intercept Huo Yuhao's opportunity, Wang Lin had wasted a full six years around Star Luo City, and damn it, he still hadn't intercepted it.
Sigh!
There was no helping it; man proposes, but God disposes.
Since he received this result, Wang Lin did not continue to be discouraged.
He hadn't read much of the original Peerless Tang Sect, but he knew that Huo Yuhao seemed to be some kind of Child of Destiny.
Originally, he had held onto a "what if" mentality.
After all, what the Skydream Ice Silkworm brought wasn't just a simple million-year soul ring, but also a martial soul with an Ultimate Attribute.
If counting the Ice Empress, there was also a four-hundred-thousand-year top-tier soul bone.
The benefits brought were enough for Wang Lin to gamble six years of his time.
In fact, Wang Lin had deduced this outcome countless times in his heart; he was just accepting the result now.
At least he had the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well as a safety net.
He just needed to go and intercept it before Huo Yuhao went to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Anyway, if he was going to the Body Sect, it was close to the Sunset Forest.