Douluo Continent. Southwest of the Heaven Dou Empire. Fasno Province. Sacred Soul Village.
At dawn, as the sky began to brighten slightly, a rooster's crow pierced the silence. Soon after, the chorus of crowing spread across the village. Overhead, the full moon slowly faded beyond the horizon.
In the northernmost, most secluded part of Sacred Soul Village stood a small courtyard.
At the sound of the rooster's call, a young boy of about five or six years old slowly opened his eyes atop the courtyard roof.
If anyone had been there to witness it, they would've been terrified—because the moment he opened his eyes, his entire irises were pitch-black, devoid of any white at all.
His eyes were dark as ink, eerie and unsettling. Even stranger, wisps of faint black mist curled around them, giving off a sinister and chilling aura.
Yet, this eerie sight vanished in an instant, and his eyes returned to normal. The boy stood up, gazing toward the fish-belly white light on the horizon.
His short black hair was neatly cut, and he wore simple clothes. His skin was slightly pale, but his sharp eyes carried an intimidating pressure, the kind that could make others instinctively recoil.
Suddenly, those piercing eyes gleamed. He spotted a small figure darting out from the village entrance. In just one blink, that figure had already leapt a dozen feet forward, heading swiftly toward a distant hill.
"That kid Tang San is off to the mountains to train again. I wonder how far he's gotten with his Xuan Tian Technique. By the way… judging from the time, Su Yuntao should be arriving soon."
The boy on the roof murmured to himself.
As he spoke, the sharpness in his eyes faded, replaced by a bright and spirited glow.
His name was Jiang Chen, a child of Sacred Soul Village. But within the village, his reputation was anything but good.
Everyone avoided him like the plague, as though he were a venomous snake. Some had even given him cruel nicknames: "Calamity Star," "Plague God."
Everyone close to him—whether person or animal—never met a good end.
"Done training!" Jiang Chen stretched lazily, his joints cracking loudly like exploding beans. A wicked grin crept onto his lips as he leapt down from the roof several meters high.
His movement was ghostlike and light. He landed without a sound or a scratch. Anyone witnessing it would have been left speechless in disbelief.
After all, for a six-year-old boy, just climbing up to the roof would be an astonishing feat—let alone leaping down like that unscathed.
He dusted off his pants, preparing to hum a triumphant tune, when he caught sight of the corner of his yard—where two plump mountain chickens lay stiff and lifeless inside their coop.
"My chickens!" Jiang Chen cried out in heartbreak. With a single stride, he reached the coop.
He poked at the two birds. They were cold and rigid—very much dead. Completely and utterly dead.
"What a waste…" he muttered, grief plastered all over his face. He reached out and touched the chickens' bodies.
Strangely, faint black mist began to rise from the chickens, swirling into his palm and slowly seeping into his body.
As the black mist drained away, the chickens—once plump and healthy—withered rapidly into husks, dry and skinny like they'd been sucked dry by time itself.
Jiang Chen, already used to the sight, casually picked up the two corpses and headed outside. Behind him, the courtyard looked like something out of a nightmare.
The ground was dry and cracked, split by countless fissures, with not a single blade of grass in sight. It was utterly lifeless, completely at odds with the rest of Sacred Soul Village.
Both the chickens' mysterious deaths and the cursed state of the yard were Jiang Chen's doing.
Few things could withstand the strange aura he unconsciously emitted. Weaker creatures simply died. Stronger ones fell seriously ill. Even the earth beneath his feet had fractured from his presence.
That was why the villagers had named him "Plague God" and "Calamity Star"…
Though he'd lost two chickens, Jiang Chen was naturally optimistic. He quickly shook off his disappointment and went outside to bury the two birds.
After finishing, he didn't return home. Instead, he made his way toward a river not far from the village. Since yesterday's catch was ruined, he figured he'd just go and catch a few fish.
He was still growing, after all. He wasn't like that fool Tang San—always obsessing over cultivation while ignoring his own body.
Compared to Tang San's scrawny frame, Jiang Chen's body was well-developed, with firm muscles and a strong physique.
Fishing in the river was something he was long familiar with. In just half an hour, he returned with three fat fish dangling from his hand.
They were big and plump. He'd threaded a piece of straw through their gills and had to hold them up to his chest just to keep their tails from dragging on the ground.
As he passed by the small hill where Tang San was training, he paused. Just then, Tang San was coming down from the mountain, having finished his morning cultivation.
"Hey, Tang San!"
Tang San saw him from afar. When he heard Jiang Chen calling, he forced a stiff smile onto his face.
"Morning, Jiang Chen… you're up early too."
Jiang Chen walked over to him, but as he approached, Tang San's expression twitched. He suddenly took several steps back in alarm.
"No—don't come any closer," Tang San said quickly, waving his hands. A trace of fear flickered in his eyes.
Even the villagers weren't the only ones who had suffered from Jiang Chen's ominous presence—not even Tang San, protected by the orthodox Daoist Xuan Tian Technique, had escaped unscathed.
He had once personally experienced the chilling aura that suddenly emanated from Jiang Chen. That sinister energy had tried to bore straight into his body. If it hadn't been for the Xuan Tian Technique guarding his meridians, he likely would've ended up gravely ill himself.
What infuriated him most was a particular morning when he was heading up the mountain for cultivation—only to catch Jiang Chen sneaking down from the peak like a thief.
But when he finally climbed to the top, he was so angry he nearly burst a vein. The mountain wasn't even a hundred meters tall, but after Jiang Chen had come down, everything within thirty meters of the summit was withered and dead—grass, flowers, even trees—all drained of vitality as if life itself had been sucked away.
For quite some time after that, the spiritual energy at the summit dropped significantly. It took several months for the mountain to recover.
Jiang Chen curled his lip slightly. He knew Tang San was remembering that incident again.
He swore—he really hadn't meant to ruin anything. He'd only been curious about Tang San's secret training spot, wondering what made it so special. He'd tried cultivating just a little while there, but his aura had accidentally leaked out, causing the whole disaster.
Destroying someone else's training ground for no reason… even he felt a bit guilty about it.
"To make it up to you… here. I caught a few fish. You can have one." Jiang Chen didn't step any closer. He simply tossed a fish toward Tang San.
Tang San's right hand shot out, fast and precise. He caught the straw cord effortlessly, the nearly ten-jin* heavy fish landing solidly in his grip.
"Thanks," Tang San said calmly.
The two of them stood just five meters apart, but in that instant, Jiang Chen's eyes gleamed like polished black gems. His gaze turned sharp, almost predatory, locking onto Tang San's healthy, sun-kissed neck.
He involuntarily swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
He could hear Tang San's blood rushing through his veins, clear as a mountain stream. Focusing harder, he could even see the pulse of the artery in his neck, the rhythm, the sound—it was mesmerizing.
Tang San caught that sudden shift in Jiang Chen's expression, and his whole body broke into goosebumps. A cold shiver raced up his spine and exploded in his skull, making his scalp tingle uncontrollably.
"Jiang Chen… I should head back and make breakfast," Tang San said. But before the words even fully left his lips, he was already a dozen meters away, clutching the fish as he disappeared in the blink of an eye—fleeing back toward Sacred Soul Village.
"Damn it… why am I drooling again?" Jiang Chen muttered, quickly wiping the glistening saliva from the corner of his mouth. He immediately began circulating his internal energy to suppress the sudden, unnatural craving bubbling up inside him.
If Tang San's father found out, he'd probably come over and smash him flat with a hammer.