Chapter Three: Innate Soul Power... Level Five?

How to put it—this was the prevailing atmosphere in Biluocheng. Poison soul masters were rare across Douluo Continent, yet in Biluocheng, few were not poison soul masters.

In this place, when you ate, there was a high chance your food contained some form of poison. It was either deliberately added or you unwittingly encountered it yourself. The sprawling city had almost no rats, for snakes abounded in this cursed place.

For the common folk here, their main source of protein came from spicy strips found inside houses. In Biluocheng, if you couldn’t catch a snake barehanded without getting hurt, you weren’t even qualified to seek a partner. Children as young as four or five fought with poisonous insects like scorpions and centipedes.

Even the water sources carried some degree of poison. There had even been instances of water-element soul masters training in Biluocheng’s nearby water sources, only to poison themselves nearly to death.

The reason Biluocheng remained half-dead despite being close to a gathering ground of large poisonous soul beasts lay in its harsh living conditions. Nine out of ten soul masters here dealt with poison; the remaining one was likely equipped with poison resistance. Outsiders who spent a few generations here either perished or evolved poison abilities or resistances.

The city’s approach to treating poison relied on the principle of using poison against poison: survive if you can, die if you can’t. Survival of the fittest. There were no bandits around the city, for even the city itself was toxic, and the surrounding mountains provided no soil for bandits to thrive. A single grass stalk in those mountains might have mutated into a poisonous soul beast that would leap to attack.

Here, being counterattacked and killed by a wheat stalk was a low-probability event, but by no means impossible.

Not just the Heavenly Dou Empire, but throughout the entire Douluo Continent, Biluocheng was notorious for its fierce and unyielding folk. Even during times of turmoil, no reckless soul dared to set their sights on this cursed city.

After a moment, the fragrance dissipated, and the children regained composure, though their faces bore some fatigue and their bodies lacked strength.

Though the scent could drop an ordinary adult male, this was Biluocheng—children here possessed considerable poison resistance. Moreover, these were children from soul master families, whose inherited martial souls were either poisonous or poison-resistant. Fragile children simply did not exist here...

Or rather, in a place where poison was encountered every three steps and poisonous creatures every ten, fragile children rarely survived past six years of age.

Seeing their children pulled to their feet, most of the onlooking adults barely paid attention, instead focusing their gaze on Chen Ming.

The Chen family had held land in Biluocheng for over five centuries, and their inherited martial soul, the Emerald Scorpion, was known to everyone in the city.

This martial soul and its corresponding soul beast went by many names, but besides the Emerald Scorpion, the most familiar was the name “Bilin Scorpion.”

This martial soul belonged to the “Bilin Five Poisons” alongside the Bilin Serpent, Bilin Centipede, Bilin Gecko, and Bilin Toad—universally recognized as some of the most venomous entities. Their poison was lethal upon contact with blood, and their close combat offensive and defensive abilities were top-notch, ranking among the finest martial souls on Douluo Continent.

Perhaps due to spending generations in this poisonous environment, the Chen family’s Emerald Scorpion had a venom potency far greater than others of its kind across the continent. Its poison was also more insidious and variable, difficult to predict or counter.

No other family in Biluocheng could match the quality of their martial soul.

Biluocheng had three major powers: the City Lord’s Mansion, representing the official face of the Heavenly Dou Empire; the Martial Soul Hall, renowned as a sacred place for soul masters for millennia; and then the Chen family, simply because they were formidable fighters.

Yet, after centuries of coexistence, everyone knew the Chen family’s martial soul harbored a fatal flaw for a soul master lineage. At this moment, the pressing concern was whether Chen Ming had inherited this flaw.

“Try your soul power. Be careful not to break the crystal ball. Your strength isn’t the same as before.”

Yan Jun handed the crystal ball to Chen Ming, his gaze fixed intently upon it.

Having lived in Biluocheng for decades, Yan Jun was well aware of every family’s martial soul situation. He understood the hereditary flaw in the Chen family’s lineage.

With Chen Ming’s situation, it was impossible for him to lack soul power, but the level of that soul power was a significant question.

Chen Ming bit his lip and reached out to take the crystal ball. As he infused soul power into it, the crystal ball gradually glowed. The light was not intense but drew everyone’s attention.

“Innate soul power, level five?”

Yan Jun was visibly surprised, his eyes, formerly narrowed into slits, now fully opened.

Level five was somewhat high for an ordinary soul master, though not exceptional. Yan Jun himself had been level five in his youth, and over the years, a few others had awakened at level five or above. But Chen Ming’s level five was different.

Typically, the higher the quality of a martial soul, the higher the innate soul power level should be. High-quality martial souls rarely appeared with low-level soul power, but the Chen family’s Emerald Scorpion was one of the exceptions.

Their martial soul was of extremely high quality, almost top-tier by attribute, yet suffered a severe problem in innate soul power.

Most family members awakened with soul powers around levels two or three; level four was rare. In the last century, more and more family members failed to awaken any soul power at all, with most unable to become soul masters.

In a family that had resided in Biluocheng for five centuries, the number of soul masters now barely exceeded ten, nearly half of whom were outsiders married in. Only a few retained the Emerald Scorpion martial soul.

Because of the high quality of the Emerald Scorpion martial soul, it was easily passed down, but its flaw meant most descendants lacked innate soul power, reducing the Emerald Scorpion to a highly poisonous but ordinary scorpion. This was an almost unsolvable vicious cycle for a soul master family. Other families in the city even feared marrying into the Chen family, lest their own descendants fail to awaken innate soul power.

Over five centuries ago, when Biluocheng was first established in the cursed Biluochasm, the founding city lord was from the Chen family. The city was almost their personal domain, but due to the low innate soul power problem, they eventually relinquished the lordship and gradually declined.

In recent decades, other families in Biluocheng speculated that within a century, the Chen family would likely vanish from the soul master ranks, unable to awaken children with innate soul power, potentially even losing their noble titles.

Chen Ming’s obviously different martial soul and innate soul power made onlookers suspicious.

Had the Chen family, on the brink of decline, experienced a beneficial mutation? Not only had the quality improved, but the ancestral low soul power flaw had been resolved?

Even without considering other factors, in a small place like Biluocheng, a level five innate soul power was the mark of a genius. With someone like him, the Chen family might just hold on for a few more decades. If they could survive that long and truly solve their martial soul problem, it would mean a real upheaval for Biluocheng.