The brothers' father, Aubergine, had a martial spirit of meat steak, but unfortunately, when he awakened it, he didn't awaken any spirit power.
However, influenced by his martial spirit, Aubergine was exceptionally skilled at cooking meat—especially in grilling. Not only was his technique famous in the village, but even in Soto City, his skills were top-tier.
Adding to that, with the barbecue seasoning that Aosqin had accidentally recreated from Earth's Chinese flavors, their family's food stall in Soto City's commercial street had gained quite a bit of reputation.
Their business thrived every day. Judging from the fact that they could afford to eat meat for breakfast, it was clear that their family's financial situation was quite good.
As for their mother, Yun Shuangshuang, her martial spirit was simply bread.
Given that her homemade bread was soft and delicious, Aosqin took the opportunity to introduce a Douluo Continent version of the hamburger, having both his mother and father sell it together in the city.
Originally, Yun Shuangshuang had planned to stay home to care for the two children.
However, because Aosqin had shown exceptional obedience and maturity since he turned one, and because Aubergine's older brother—Uncle Aubert, the village blacksmith—had agreed to look after the twin brothers Oscar and Aosqin, Yun Shuangshuang decided to help her husband with the food stall in the city.
After all, raising two children was still a heavy burden.
After about ten minutes of cleaning up, Oscar and Aosqin locked up their house and went toward the east end of the village to find their blacksmith uncle.
Along the way, several villagers passed by, some smiling and greeting them, "Off to help your uncle again?"
The two politely responded to such kindness. It had to be said that these well-mannered twins were quite popular in the village.
As they grew older, they were sure to become the type of "perfect children" that other parents envied—especially since Oscar, feeling he must not lose to his younger brother, was also quite diligent.
When they arrived, Oscar didn't even wait for his uncle to open the door. He pushed the courtyard gate open and shouted loudly toward the house, announcing their arrival.
"Oscar, you brat, can't you learn from your brother? You yell every day like that—what kind of manners is that?" came the grumpy voice of Uncle Aubert from inside. "The door's not locked. Just come in."
Oscar, of course, wasn't convinced by his uncle's words, but he couldn't find anything to argue back with. So, sulking a bit, he followed Aosqin inside.
After greeting his uncle as usual, Aosqin went straight to the workshop to light the furnace fire.
Oscar, unlike Aosqin, hadn't yet mastered reading and writing, so he stayed in the living room, continuing to study the common characters used on Douluo Continent by himself.
A short while later, after helping Oscar with a few questions, Uncle Aubert walked into the workshop.
His martial spirit was coal, and when he awakened it, he possessed half a rank of spirit power. Now he was an eleventh-level spirit master.
Because the flames produced by his spirit were hotter, they refined metals more effectively, so the quality of his ironworks was better than that of ordinary blacksmiths.
From time to time, he even received orders from customers in Soto City. Business was steady.
Since Aosqin was about one and a half years old, he had been spending entire days in his uncle's workshop, always helping within his abilities.
At first, being too young, he could only organize the coal conjured by his uncle's martial spirit, then study written language on his own.
Only two months ago had he begun helping by maintaining the furnace fire and operating the bellows to ensure proper temperature when refining ore.
From appearance alone, Uncle Aubert was a tall, sturdy man, with a full beard just like his brother Aubergine.
He looked like a man in his thirties or forties, but in truth, he was only twenty-four and still single.
Naturally, that made Aubergine even younger—only eighteen years old. In this world of early marriage and childbirth, Aubergine had gotten the sixteen-year-old Yun Shuangshuang pregnant at fourteen, with the twin brothers Oscar and Aosqin.
Still, their relationship was very good, and they treated their children with care and love—this was one of the key reasons Aosqin was able to quickly adapt to his new family.
Watching Aosqin skillfully pull the bellows in front of the furnace, the flames roaring up to the proper temperature for forging metal, Aubert couldn't help but nod in satisfaction.
"Xiao Qin, take a rest. The temperature's good enough now. You must have been born with divine strength.
Otherwise, even with daily training before sunrise, a three-year-old shouldn't have the strength to keep the bellows going so long.
And you learn everything so fast. Even if you can't awaken spirit power in the future, if you follow me as a blacksmith, you'll have no trouble making a living."
Aosqin only scratched his head and smiled adorably at his uncle's praise without saying anything.
He then sat down in a clean spot, focusing on watching his uncle work at the forge.
Uncle Aubert, not thinking much of it, picked up a piece of ore from the pile and began hammering.
As the rhythmic clang, clang of hammering echoed through the room, Aosqin's eyes, filled with concentration, began to show a trace of contemplation.
When he first learned that his uncle was a blacksmith, Aosqin had been thrilled.
Not because he thought his uncle might teach him some forging art like Tang Hao had taught Tang San,
but because this gave him a logical way to introduce certain things from his previous world into this one in the future.
Here's what happened: after Aosqin's first birthday—when he fully understood the world he was in and decided to integrate into it—a certain thing that had come along with his soul had finally awakened.
That night, as Aosqin was about to fall asleep, he was suddenly drawn into a space filled with technological aura.
Before he could feel fear, a familiar glowing screen of square-shaped Chinese characters appeared before him:
"This is the Omniscient Library. Here, you can analyze anything you wish to understand by scanning it.Additionally, you may select three subjects, and the Omniscient Library will provide you with comprehensive instruction. You can find all knowledge related to these subjects on the surrounding bookshelves.The library's environment can be adjusted according to your preference. Once you fall asleep, you can enter the library using your spiritual power—your soul, so to speak.Your body in the outside world will enter a deep-sleep state. To exit, simply think of leaving, and you will awaken naturally without interrupting your deep rest.In deep sleep, two hours are enough to fully recover a day's worth of energy. Do you understand? (Yes/No)"
Suppressing his excitement, Aosqin carefully read through the words on the screen.
Finally confirming that this was the very "golden finger" he had fantasized about the night before arriving in this world, he extended a trembling finger and pressed "Yes."
The light screen shifted again:
"Please choose the subjects you wish to learn: ___ , ___ , ___. (Once chosen, they cannot be changed. Please choose carefully. You do not need to fill all three immediately; you can activate additional choices within the library through guided thought.)"
Considering that he was now in the world of Douluo Continent, Aosqin immediately chose Spirit Power Cultivation and Soul Tool Crafting as his first two options.
As for the third, he decided to wait until after his martial spirit awakening to make that choice.
Once he made his selections, the space around him rippled. When it stabilized, the previously empty bookshelves were now filled with books.
He walked to the nearest shelf and picked up a book. On its cover were three golden characters: "Yun Hai Jue" (Cloud Sea Art).
It was an inner cultivation method—much like Tang San's Xuan Tian Gong—for refining internal energy, or in this world's terms, spirit power.
When he opened the book, a projection of human meridians appeared before his eyes.
A red light point followed the energy route outlined in the text, slowly moving through the body. Aosqin could feel a faint guiding force showing him how to circulate the energy.
After completing one full cycle, he felt as though a gentle airflow was moving through his meridians.
Aosqin immediately exited the library, sat cross-legged on his bed, and meditated as he had done inside the library. Sure enough, he felt the same energy flow.
"It seems that what's learned in the library can be synchronized with the body," he realized.
From that night on, Aosqin spent three hours each night meditating within the library,
reading for one hour about cultivation theory—human meridian maps, their functions,the use of small circulation during combat to increase attack power and reduce spirit power consumption, even some traditional Chinese medicine concepts.
For the next two hours, he studied knowledge related to soul tools.
It wasn't that he didn't want to craft them; in fact, the library could be arranged however he wished, including setting up a crafting platform for soul tools.
However, to become an excellent soul engineer, one first had to be an excellent blacksmith. At his current age, Aosqin couldn't even lift a forging hammer.
So, during those two hours, he focused on theoretical studies—the structural principles of various soul tools, the characteristics and distribution of metals across the continent,
and recording his own soul tool designs to be built in the future when he gained the ability.
Afterward, Aosqin would enter two hours of deep sleep,and before sunrise, he would pull Oscar to train their bodies according to the methods found in the library.
After all, to become a great spirit master, one must first have a strong body.
However, their young age limited both the training methods and intensity:they practiced yoga for flexibility, rope ladder drills for agility, and plum blossom stakes for balance and stability.
(End of Chapter)