Wu Ming.
He was born on January 11, Douluo Calendar year 2631, the same day as Tang San.
Unfortunately.
Unlike most transmigrators, he was not born in Holy Spirit Village, but in Body Village, a village north of Suotuo City, where the villagers’ Martial Souls were all Body Martial Souls.
Having lost both parents when he was young, he had no special talents.
Growing up on meals from a hundred households, the only thing he could rely on was the system panel he had been born with.
After he, who possessed an adult’s way of thinking, figured out the abilities of this system panel, he began deliberately and purposefully building his “character setting.”
From the age of three, when he became sensible, he displayed an ability to learn and read far beyond ordinary people, astonishing the villagers of Body Village and allowing him to obtain the “Clever” talent character setting—
[Clever (White): Quick-witted and able to infer one thing from another.
A difficult problem others need three months to solve can be handled by you in half a day.]
Before awakening his Martial Soul, he, who relied on meals from a hundred households, would likewise repay the villagers, either helping carry firewood, massaging the backs of the elderly, and so on.
Thus, he obtained the talents “Grateful” and “Diligent”—
[Grateful (White): You are a good person.
Others are willing to open their hearts to you.]
[Diligent (White): “Rising to train at the crow of the rooster” describes you.
Diligent and hardworking, your cultivation speed is twice that of others.]
Even though he was eating meals from a hundred households, he did not hide the fact that he could eat a lot.
People often secretly called him a “rice bucket,” and so he truly obtained the “Big Eater” talent—
[Big Eater (White): The more you eat, the faster you recover.
Whether it is Spirit Power consumption or severe injuries, as long as you eat enough, you can recover as good as new without leaving hidden damage.]
After obtaining the “Big Eater” talent, Wu Ming began training in an even more exaggerated manner.
Every day, he trained while carrying stones, ran laps around the village, and even deliberately spread the word that with effort like his, when he awakened his Martial Soul in the future, he would definitely have Innate Full Spirit Power.
At first, the villagers naturally did not believe it.
But gradually.
With the support of his previous talents, by the time the six-year-old Wu Ming had reached a height of 1.4 meters and could carry a stone about the same weight as himself, people in the village gradually began to believe that he would awaken a Martial Soul with Innate Full Spirit Power.
And so, he truly obtained the talents “Innate Full Spirit Power” and “Born with Divine Strength”—
[Innate Full Spirit Power (White): Possessing innate rank ten Spirit Power, your road of cultivation is smooth and unobstructed.
Before rank ninety-five, your only bottleneck is Spirit Rings.]
[Born with Divine Strength (White): Your strength far surpasses that of your peers.]
In short.
Character setting talents were defined by his own actual actions combined with others’ perception.
It was refining falsehood into truth!
And in the process of relying on managing his character setting to refine character setting talents, Wu Ming also gradually came to understand the level divisions of talents, as well as the efficiency of refining them.
The levels were divided into White, Yellow, Purple, Black, Red, and Gold, matching the colors of Spirit Ring ages on the Douluo Continent.
After obtaining a talent, its level was not fixed.
It would gradually evolve as the number of people who recognized this character setting talent increased, as their impression of this character setting talent deepened, and as the strength, position, status, and share of world-fate luck possessed by those people rose.
In the six years after he awakened his Martial Soul, the levels of [Clever], [Big Eater], and [Born with Divine Strength] had all risen from White to Yellow.
And on this very day, the talent [Born with Divine Strength] had advanced from Yellow to Purple!
[Born with Divine Strength (Purple): With only the strength of your fleshly body, you can drag back nine oxen and fight fierce tigers!]
This was the main reason why Wu Ming had pushed himself so hard on the day the Spirit Master academy opened.
During this period, Suotuo City was far livelier than usual.
Especially at the gates of Spirit Master academies, they were packed with Spirit Masters who had come to register, as well as parents accompanying their children.
At first, what Wu Ming had planned was to join Spirit Hall.
Regrettably, among the lower-level Spirit Masters of the Spirit Hall branch, there were no small number of Great Spirit Masters like “Blind Douluo” Su Yuntao.
Simply because the Martial Soul he awakened was the Body Martial Soul Spine, they only left him a Martial Soul certificate and never even considered taking him to Spirit Hall.
After that, he was discovered by Shrek’s Li Yusong and took him as his teacher.
Only, in order to maintain his “Grateful” character setting, he did not immediately go to Shrek Academy for further study.
Instead, he continued staying in Body Village until he turned twelve, only then coming here to take part in the entrance examination.
After passing it, he continued maintaining his diligent character setting.
His goal went without saying: it was to make his talents level up.
And Tang San and Xiao Wu had indeed been quite useful, causing his [Born with Divine Strength] to advance and reach Purple rank.
Without relying on Spirit Power, his fleshly body now possessed the strength of nine oxen and two tigers!
As for whether behavior like his would appear ostentatious…
Matters of Spirit Master cultivation—how could ordinary people be qualified to discuss them?
Ignorant and inexperienced.
However.
There was only one reason Wu Ming worked so hard.
That was to defeat Tang San, Xiao Wu, as well as Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing, all of them, during the third stage of their entrance test later!
And then—
Obtain Clear Sky Douluo’s recognition of his character setting!
After the plan to join Spirit Hall fell through, in order to obtain more talents, or to make his talents level up, the only method was to gain the attention of the strong, and the attention of people who had greater influence on the world.
The teachers in Shrek Academy’s perception of him had already more or less solidified.
If he himself could not display anything outstanding in a short period of time, it would be very difficult for them to provide much more help in upgrading his character setting talents.
The only way he could currently obtain improvement was to gain the attention of Tang Hao, this “wild” Titled Douluo.
There was risk.
But compared to the returns from upgrading his talents, Wu Ming felt that he could completely bear the consequences.
“…That’s all I wanted to say.
Remember in the future, don’t hurt your body.
For now, help me register them.
If there are suitable students, help bring them inside to take part in the second assessment.”
“Thank you for your concern, Teacher.”
After listening to Li Yusong’s nagging, Wu Ming also felt somewhat moved inside.
He put down the wicker basket together with the stone pillar at the academy gate, then took the paper and brush and helped register the names of students who passed the first stage.
“What a filial child.”
“And very hardworking too.”
“Son, once you successfully join Shrek Academy, you must learn properly from this senior.”
The parents who were lining up and waiting together with their children had already formed a rather deep impression of Wu Ming, and used him to encourage their own children.
As for Wu Ming, who had become “someone else’s child,” he still maintained his affable smile and registered each child who passed the test one by one.
Besides that, he split his focus and called out the system panel.
[Name: Wu Ming]
[Martial Soul: Spine]
[Cultivation: Three Spirit Rings, Rank 36 Spirit Elder]
[Spirit Rings: Yellow (Six-Tusked White Elephant), Purple (Ink-Hoofed Horned Goat), Purple (Cloud-Stepping Spirit Deer)]
[Professions: Staff Technique Apprentice, Chef Apprentice, Carving Apprentice]
[Talents: Affable (White), Diligent (White), Clever (Yellow), Big Eater (Yellow), Agile (White), Grateful (White), Born with Divine Strength (Purple), Innate Full Spirit Power (White)]
[Lottery Draws: One]
He focused his attention on the columns [Professions] and [Lottery Draws].
Staff Technique Apprentice was obtained after he took Li Yusong as his teacher and studied staff techniques.
Chef Apprentice—children from poor families learned to manage the household early.
Added to the fact that he had known how to cook home-style dishes in his previous life, he had naturally come with this profession.
Carving Apprentice—the stone pillar he had previously used for weight-bearing training had been chiseled out by his own hands, and through that, he had groped his way into the ability to carve.
And every time he obtained a profession, Wu Ming would gain one lottery draw, which could be used to draw character setting talents.
He could directly choose one and load it onto himself.
Of course.
This type of drawn talent could also level up.
The key lay in whether he deliberately or unintentionally revealed it, allowing others to perceive it and form a deep impression of it.
This time’s talent had been obtained when Wu Ming entered “Apprentice” level in the path of carving and reached the standard for a profession, and he had preserved it until now.
The reason was very realistic.
The two chances he had spent previously had allowed Wu Ming to understand the two “traps” of this lottery.
The first trap: the highest possible level of a drawn talent could not exceed the highest level among the talents he already possessed.
If all of his talents were White, then the highest level of a drawn talent would be White.
Therefore, the first time, he had drawn “Agile (White).”
The second trap: talents of the same type could not be stacked.
The second time, among a group of White talents, he had chosen the only Yellow talent: Great Strength.
But because at that time he had already obtained “Born with Divine Strength” and raised it to Yellow, they could not be stacked, and one had to be abandoned.
Naturally, Wu Ming chose “Born with Divine Strength.”
Other than this, the number of talents available for selection was tied to his cultivation realm.
If he was a Spirit Master, one lottery draw would only provide one talent to choose from—in short, no choice at all.
If he was a Great Spirit Master, he could choose one of two.
Now.
He was already a rank thirty-six Spirit Elder, so he could draw three talents and choose one to fix in place.
Moreover, because his “display of divinity before others” today had raised Born with Divine Strength to Purple, the highest talent he could obtain from this third lottery draw was bound to be Purple.
“I hope I can draw a talent that satisfies me!”
As the thought fell, Wu Ming registered a student who was of suitable age and had reached Great Spirit Master level, while using this final chance.