In a secluded courtyard at Nordin Academy, a five or six-year-old child slowly drew his stance to a close and gently exhaled a breath.
His name was Leland. He was a boy who'd been picked up by the academy's headmaster when he was little. Since the headmaster had no children, he'd adopted Leland, and six years had passed just like that.
Leland had been different from ordinary kids since he was young. His soul came from another place—a hauntingly beautiful blue planet.
At first, he had no idea where he was. That was until a middle-aged man, flaunting four bright soul rings, took down a 500-year-old Thunder Sabertooth Tiger. A yellow aura drifted up from the tiger's corpse, and it finally clicked—he'd ended up in Douluo Continent!
This was a magical world, home to soul masters and soul beasts, with all sorts of wondrous spirit avatars: the divine purity of the Six-Winged Angel, the overwhelming power of the Haotian Hammer, the unrivaled support of the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda, and the sharp attacks of the Seven Killing Sword.
He'd remembered all this from the first moment he'd opened his eyes as an infant.
"I'm six years old now, old enough to awaken my spirit avatar," Leland murmured to himself. "Wonder what kind I'll get?"
On Douluo Continent, a spirit avatar's innate potential mostly determined one's future limits. A soul master with full innate soul power, as long as they trained steadily, could at least reach Soul Sage level. With enough effort, even becoming a Titled Douluo wasn't out of the question.
But a soul master with only level 1 innate soul power, no matter how hard they tried, could never break past the Soul Ancestor threshold.
To look no further than the Master, who he knew well. His spirit avatar, the Luo San Pao, came with half a level of innate soul power. He'd wasted half his life stuck at the Soul Honored threshold. If it weren't for the Nine-Rank Purple Mushroom that helped him later, he'd probably spend his whole life as a level 29 Great Soul Master.
Thinking about his own spirit avatar, Leland felt a twinge of uncertainty. Unlike the people of Douluo Continent, who inherited avatars from their parents, he was from another world. No one knew what kind of spirit avatar he might have.
Still, Leland sensed he was far from ordinary. His physical strength was way beyond what a kid his age should have—even some students at Nordin Academy who'd already become soul masters couldn't match him in that department.
So he held high hopes for his spirit avatar.
That said, Leland couldn't help but feel annoyed. He wasn't just some regular transmigrator. Like many protagonists in novels, he had a system of his own. But this system seemed to love playing dead. After giving him a starter gift pack at the beginning, it had gone silent— and stayed that way until now.
"I should go out for a walk," Leland decided. After his daily training routine, he liked to wander around Nordin Academy. Thanks to his impressive physical strength and the rewards from the starter pack, even though he hadn't officially enrolled yet, he was already a big name at the academy.
Every student at Nordin Academy, without fail, would greet him respectfully as "Boss" when they saw him.
Leland stepped out of his courtyard with light footsteps.
"Boss!"
As he walked along the academy paths, students around him automatically called out. Leland nodded coolly in response.
"When did they start calling me that again?" he wondered, tilting his head.
"Must've been after I taught that guy, Shawn, a lesson."
Shawn was the son of Nordin City's mayor. Riding on his father's authority, he ran amok at the academy. One time, he even dared to pick a fight with Leland. Needless to say, Leland gave him a good beating on the spot. After that, the "Boss" title stuck.Leland strolled along, heading toward a low wooden hut—that's where the Master lived.
The Master was friends with his foster father, the headmaster of Nordin Academy. Ever since the Master settled here, Leland often visited to ask about spirit avatar basics.
The Master was a stodgy scholar, and Leland was an eager student. What especially endeared Leland to the Master was his recognition and support of the Ten Core Spirit Avatar Theories. So the two got along quite well, despite the big age gap.
"Thud!" A heavy object hitting the ground echoed in the distance, loud enough to make Leland pause.
Glancing over, he spotted Shawn around a nearby corner, his heel pressing down on another student's head. Judging by the patched clothes the student wore, he must've been a work-study student.
Leland frowned. At Nordin Academy, noble students looked down on work-study students and even bullied them. He knew this happened often.
Where there were people, there was conflict—that was normal. Tensions between nobles and commoners ran deep, so he usually couldn't be bothered to interfere. The academy teachers felt the same, turning a blind eye.
But Shawn stepping on someone's head like this was going too far.
Leland paused, then walked toward the corner."Walter, you gonna submit?" Shawn was in the thick of it, flanked by his two lackeys, Leo and Gale, radiating spoiled arrogance.
"I won't!" Walter struggled on the ground, but the huge gap in soul power was clear. No matter how he moved, Shawn's foot stayed firmly in place. After all, Walter was only an 8th-level Soul Apprentice, while Shawn was already an 11th-level Soul Master.
"Won't submit?" Shawn sneered, grinding his sole against Walter's face.
"Stop!"
Shawn was just getting into it when a sharp shout cut him off.
"Who dares ruin my fun?" Shawn spun around angrily—only to have his rage fizzle out like water doused on a fire when he saw Leland.
Breaking into a fawning smile, Shawn hurried to speak: "It's Boss Leland! Your humble servant, Shawn, pays his respects."
No wonder Shawn acted this way. The beating Leland had given him back then had kept him bedridden for half a month. He'd complained to his father, but the mayor,
Taking into account the prestige of Dean Nordin,not only refused to help but gave Shawn a good scolding. Ever since, Shawn had looked at Leland like a mouse looks at a cat.
"Are you bullying work-study students again?" Leland's face hardened, his gaze boring into Shawn sharply.
Feeling that piercing stare, Shawn shrank back involuntarily, flashbacks of that beating flooding his mind...