This World, this damned world that knows not mercy (1)

#Background info is unavoidable, assuming readers DON'T know the story. Those who do can skip. Only a few differences.#

The golden, glazed roof tiles atop the huge, palace-like building shone with a dazzling light due to the sunlight. The ancient workmanship that had been used to create the palace's golden roof and red doors caused people to involuntarily feel a sense of seriousness when they saw it.

When gazed at from afar, a fog seemed to linger around the palace. The buildings that surrounded the palace were lined up neatly, just like the pattern a brick wall had. The area that they occupied seemed limitless to the naked eye. The two words 'Duke's Mansion' were carved into the fifty-foot tall archway that stood in front of the entrance.

This enormous mansion that occupied an area of over 2 kilometers didn't belong to a city. Instead, it was a singular building located fifty meters northwest of the capital of the Star Luo Empire, Star Luo City. From this, you could see that the owner of this mansion held an honored position within the Star Luo Empire.

During the current time of day, the bright and beautiful sunlight would shine on the sparkling glazed roof tiles, causing a layer of dazzling gold to cover the entirety of the Duke's Mansion. You could even vaguely see this scene atop Star Luo City's city walls.

The back door of the Duke's Mansion's northern area noiselessly opened, and a skinny figure quietly snuck out.

The figure was a youth that appeared to be around eleven or twelve. His stature was reasonably proportioned. He also had a small bundle of cloth on his back. His dark blue hair appeared neat and tidy, it was tied up behind his head but when it wasn't it reached down to his fragile shoulders. Right now, he was sporting a ponytail with only the backward section of his hair being thinly combed and the front was kept in it's natural unruly state, with few long strains over his forehead.

A lazy curious look akin to an old man who's experienced it all, learning something new, was present on his handsome immature face.

After softly closing the back door of the Duke's Mansion behind him, the youth rapidly ran a few steps forward. However, he suddenly stopped to look back at the Duke's mansion, his deep blue eyes brimming with nostalgia.

"I am no longer Huo yuhao nor Heem Stellar. From this moment forth I am a new person." The young boy clenched his fists as he gazed seemingly beyond the skies. He sighed many times like a weary old man.

"...Perhaps, if it wasn't due to that event and also me possessing the memories of another, I would have loved to call you mother. Sadly, this isn't some cookie cutter trope like I once so often read, my love and memories of my own mother are far too deep and long to be swayed by you in a mere 10 years. Though your faces overlap now and again. Her face is still clearer to me." The youth shrugged as if to shake off his complicated thoughts.

"The main matter at the moment is my journey and myself. I will live for myself from now on." The youth smiled as his steps grew more lively. The two souls of huo yuhao and heem stellar had in fact combined. However, unlike the common occurrence, heem had instead fused with the soul of a baby, a blank slate that he died with his color. So for all intents and purposes, heem had prevailed completely. But there was an added innocence and purity to his demeanor that wasn't obvious before.

"Ah!-" The youth suddenly exclaimed. He would have certainly drawn questioning eyes over due to his random outburst, had there been anyone in the vicinity.

"I can't exactly remain nameless can I.." The youth smiled in embarrassment upon realized he currently had no name.

"What to do..." He muttered under his breath as he continued walking, it had already been over an hour before he decided on a name.

"Wushang Shen, meaning peerless god" he smiled in content with the name but after repeating his new name over to himself for 60 seconds he realized it didn't fit with his original goal of blending in with the populace completely. Not because of the arrogance within the name but because the order of the two parts seemed off. So he switched it around to 'Shen Wushang'

He didn't head towards Star Luo City, which was located to the southwest of the Duke's Mansion. Instead, he went north. His tiny figure gradually disappeared into the distance as the strong midday sunlight shone on him. Although his body was skinny, the way in which he'd left didn't give off a helpless feeling at all.

There were wide roads on all sides of the Duke's Mansion. Shen Wushang continued to run forward, his eyes gradually turning brighter and brighter, Hello world from SAO summed up how he was feeling now, as he lived as huo yuhao and was forced to stay in the mansion, and a small corner of it at that; he had not truly seen the outside world outside of some small outings such as hunting.

Shen Wushang instantly gave in to the curiosity of this new world, he was like a baby discovering the world wasn't just his crib.

"I wonder what wonders this world will bring, although the first two or three years are predetermined to become strong, I can't give up that soul beast, the pills, that bone, and I have to find away to get that priceless item, so many things to do. Ughhhh!!!! isn't this life an extended vacation from my previous work stress, why do i have a full schedule. Curse it all." He said this but his face still couldn't help glow from the bubbling excitement, his hands were clenched as he shivered and clenched his fists with joy and enthusiasm, this was a whole different world. One of his longtime 'unrealistic' dreams!!!

How could he not tremble with excitement? ever since that moment when he became aware of the concept of reincarnation through fantasy novels, he longed to be the same as those protagonists and escape his boring world to a more exciting one, full of fantasy and magic, while he didn't get the best possible option he was still a beneficiary of such an awesome opportunity nonetheless. He had longed to ditch going to school every day in his youth by going to sleep and waking up in another world. Now, his wish had been granted although sadly he didn't meet the God emperor of reincarnation,"Truck-kun" or a pretty goddess giving him cheats but that was passable considering his current identity.

He quickly shook off the excitement and focused on his current objectives, to get all the 'crucial' things he was fated for. In all honesty, his personality lean\ed more towards not following the original storyline at all and going off randomly by himself but he couldn't do that or he wasn't willing to. If he was fated for good things why fight it? thought Shen Wushang

'Well, I'll only take some and not all, though some things are not for me since they are a by-product that fool's personality, oh my, I guess we are the same person now, thankfully my ego is what is here now and he never got the chance to grow into such a pushover. Anyways, some things are a no." Several things flashed through Shen Wushang's mind.

*************

Four thousand years ago, the Douluo Continent collided with the Sun Moon Continent, which had drifted over due to the Western Ocean. This resulted in the Douluo Continent's landmass being greatly expanded, but also caused the frequency of wars on the Douluo Continent to increase.

The Douluo Continent had originally been divided into two countries ten thousand years ago—the Heaven Dou Country, and the Star Luo Country. However, the Douluo Continent had now been split into three countries. Of the two, the Star Luo Empire still existed, but the royal family had changed. They had fortunately pacified all of their kingdoms at that time, allowing the entire Star Luo Empire to remain united, and thus resulting in them becoming the strongest force of the three.

However, the Heaven Dou Empire was split due to the discord amongst its strong kingdoms. In the end, it was split up into the Heavenly Soul Empire and the Spirit Dou Empire.

The Sun Moon Continent that had drifted over from the west had both a vast surface area and plentiful resources. It was slightly smaller than the Douluo Continent, but it only had a single country, which was the Sun Moon Empire.

War broke out between the two continents almost as soon as they collided. The three countries of the Douluo Continent all dispatched allied armies to fight against their common enemy. After nearly twenty years of war, they finally managed to defeat the Sun Moon Empire. From that point on, they unified the two continents under the Douluo name. The Sun Moon Continent no longer existed, only the Sun Moon Empire within the Douluo Continent was left.

However, the Sun Moon Empire wasn't fully invaded even though it was defeated. They relied on their natural advantages, as well as the conflicting views of the three empires of the Douluo Continent, to gradually form a stable, deadlocked situation between the four parties. However, wars still occurred every year.

Shen Wushang's current blood mother had suffered many bitter hardships as she brought him up. When he was six, he carried out the awakening of his martial soul within the Mansion.

Martial souls were something that everybody on the Douluo Continent possessed. Although the Sun Moon Empire had developed in a different way compared to the other three empires, martial souls were still one of their fundamental concepts.

Everyone would naturally have a martial soul that could be awakened at the age of six. A martial soul could be anything, from a tool to an animal. Beast-type martial souls were referred to as 'Beast Souls', while all other martial souls that weren't Beast Souls were collectively known as 'Tool Souls'. However, there were naturally some martial souls that possessed mutations. Thus, they were exceptions to this rule.

After the awakening of one's martial soul, a small number of people would have a special power along with their martial soul. This power was called 'soul force'. Only people who possessed soul force had the ability to cultivate and to become the noblest profession on the Douluo Continent—a soul master.

Soul masters were separated into nine different ranks. From lowest to highest, they were: Soul Scholar, Soul Master, Soul Grandmaster, Soul Elder, Soul Ancestor, Soul King, Soul Emperor, Soul Sage, Soul Douluo, and Titled Douluo.

Soul masters would increase in power as their soul rank increased. If one managed to reach the highest level of the Titled Douluo rank, one would have the terrifying ability to both move the mountains and seas, as well as even shift the stars, which was questionable if you asked Shen Wushang.

People who were between the first and tenth rank of soulforce fell underneath the category of Soul Scholar. When someone's martial soul was awakened, their innate soulforce would signify their talent towards becoming a soul master. As such, a person with greater talent would have a greater cultivation speed. If one had tenth-ranked soulforce after their martial soul had awakened, they would be a gifted person with 'innate full soulforce'. That person would thus be referred to as a genius soul master. A genius soul master would have great accomplishments in his life as long as his martial soul wasn't too bad.

Although Shen Wushang was the son of the Duke, he hadn't inherited a powerful martial soul from the Duke. If he had, the Duke's wife would've had to report his martial soul to the Duke, regardless of whether or not she liked him. From then on, He and his mother's destiny would've also changed.

Unfortunately, an extremely rare mutation appeared in Shen Wushang's martial soul, allowing him and his mother to be bullied their entire lives that were spent within the mansion. This mutation caused him to have an unusual martial soul.

He possessed the 'Spirit Eyes'.

Outside of the two main categories of martial souls, there was an extremely tiny subcategory that were known as 'Body Souls'. The martial soul that they awakened would be a part of their body, such as an arm, or a leg.

Almost all Body Souls were extremely strong, but the probability of them appearing was extremely small. It could be said that they were existences above both Beast Souls and Tool Souls, and because of this, they were greatly valued whenever they appeared.

Unfortunately, Shen Wushang's martial soul was an exception to this.

His Spirit Eyes martial soul had naturally appeared in his eyes. Furthermore, it was also an extremely rare spiritual-type martial soul. Under normal circumstances, Shen Wushang should've become greatly valued.

Unfortunately, there were two points that had restricted his development. When he'd awakened his martial soul, his innate soulforce had only been at the first rank. Thus, it could be said that his talent was quite poor, which meant that his cultivation speed would definitely be extremely slow. The second point that had restricted his development was even more fatal; not only were spiritual-type martial souls rarely seen, spiritual-type soul beasts were also extremely rare.

Whenever a soul master's cultivation reached the tenth soul rank's bottleneck, they would need to kill a soul beast that was compatible with their martial soul, and then would need to use its soul ring to break through it.

Not only were soul rings required to breakthrough a bottleneck, but they would also give soul masters a skill. This was also one of the origins of a soul master's strength.

Combined, these two factors practically doomed Shen Wushang to have no achievements during his lifetime.

However, he was still the Duke's son in the end. Thus, he still managed to obtain a simple soulforce cultivation method.

Even the children of some servants within the Duke's Mansion were capable of reaching the tenth soul rank, and could become soul masters within three years of awakening their martial soul.

However, Shen Wushang had reached the age of eleven this year. He'd already cultivated for five years, yet his soulforce had only barely reached the tenth soul rank. Furthermore, he'd worked three times harder than his peers. He would've worked harder too, however, he was fearful of damaging his youthful body and also disrupting the timeline.

After his mother passed away, Shen Wushang stayed in the Duke's Mansion for another year following the timeline. He was still young, so he didn't have any source of income whatsoever after rashly leaving the Duke's Mansion. Thus, he could only suppress all of his violent tendencies with his heart.

He forgot his status a few times, that was, his status as huo yuhao in this world. He attempted to talk with guards, chefs and other low level people but the duchess had put out an order not to associate with him and his mother.

It was probably due to him having a big mouth and defiant attitude but he was beat up quite often, though they didn't go too far. For the adults a kick or smack or too. For the youths around, a flurry of beatings but they didn't dare kill him as he had a thin connection to the duke. Living in the mansion, those kids had some relation or reverence to the duke in one way or another. As a servant, follower or heir.

He of course fought back, but he lost every time due to his weak physique. He eventually got used to it.

That was the story anyway.

Yesterday, Shen Wushang had finally managed to raise his soulforce to the tenth rank; this was with his extremely poor talent, and after five years of bitterly hard work, similar to the previous body's owner, as he had no way to curb it , even by knowing before. He let things flow normally without acting out so as to avoid any unfavorable changes and also to treasure the moments with this mother.

He had the time to think, so he thought about a lot, most notably was the effect of him knowing the future, there were many theories about time. However, none were proven. He had to act within the safe margin as some of those theories were both batsh*t crazy with terrible outcomes.

This was the day that he'd planned to leave the Duke's Mansion. Which was what he recalled from the previous storyline. He had a log already of the future, he made it after scraping together his memories of soul land. It was edited and rewrote several times.

He had achieved the 10th rank.

He now needed a soul ring.

On the Douluo Continent, soul beasts were ranked according to the number of years that they'd lived for. The strength of their soul rings was closely related to this, as well as their overall power.

Generally speaking, soul beasts were separated into ten year soul beasts, hundred year soul beasts, thousand year soul beasts, ten thousand year soul beasts, and hundred thousand year soul beasts.

Soul masters would have to personally kill a soul beast in order to obtain a soul ring from it when it died.

He rashly decided to leave the Duke's Mansion, even though he knew that it was an extremely dangerous thing for him to look for a spiritual-type soul beast by himself. As, he'd already seen the future to an extent with the reading from his previous life.

Wushang quickly arrived at the main road as he walked towards the north. Although he was young, he'd already made preparations for the sake of obtaining a soul ring. Besides a set of clean clothes, he'd also brought some dry rations in his bag, as well as some money that his mother had obtained via hard work. He also had a dagger in his bag, most unwilling he was but didn't leave it. But most importantly, he had a simple map of the continent. Which he endlessly cursed for being caveman art on a sheet. No, it was an insult to caveman art.

Both the Duke's Mansion and Star Luo City were located in the north-central region of the Star Luo Empire, and the area that Huo Yuhao had chosen originally to hunt for a soul beast in was the Great Star Dou Forest that bordered the northern area of the Star Luo Empire and the Tian Hun Empire. Various types of soul beasts lived within the forest, which was almost as big as a province. Furthermore, there were no lack of supreme existences inside of the forest.

If anyone else knew that the eleven-year-old Wusahng had dared to enter the Star Dou Forest by himself, without a teacher accompanying him, they would definitely be stunned speechless. He was overestimating his own capabilities! Since he didn't have any skills at all, he might not even be able to win a fight against a ten year soul beast! He was basically no better than an ordinary child. Though they'd probably give him the eye and walk away as he wasn't exactly polite. He'd either ignore them or do what he'd done a few times up to this point in this short while: "Butt out old man-I dare you to pinch my cheeks woman- hohoho fancy me an idiot do you?"

He played innocent with the big sisters though, he reaped a few small 'benefits' here and there. It was unintentional at first but since they squeezed him in a hug and said he was cute then he had no reason to resist the hugs especially with the soft 'parts' rubbing against his face. He had always been a cultured pervert- that is, a pervert with self-restraint. He didn't openly appreciate beautiful women and hardly glanced at them unless he was conversing with them directly.

It was a habit he grew up with, he was shy when he was young so he was sensitive to others' gazes and knew how uncomfortable it could be to have someone looking you up and down when you didn't know them at all. Besides what pervert advertised his pervertedness. It was a secret disclosed only to designated 'targets'.

The main road was perfectly straight, thus Shen Wushang quickly walked along it, following the roadside. Although he was young, he was still a tenth ranked Soul Scholar. His physical strength was much greater than a normal adult's. It was scary really. He could jump nearly two stories high if he gave it his all. That was only one of the superhuman feats he could do.

"I wonder what effect this soulforce will have in my spearmanship, I look forward to it." Having restrained himself from any sort of physical training or anything that could possibly affect the timeline even to a small extent, he was the same as huo yuhao would have been physically, the mental maturity is all that was different between this version of himself and the other. H e was so pent up from not being able to swing his spear that he felt his soul was constipated.

(Author's Note : #Died from spear #Hasn't learnt lesson)

Wushang gazed far into the distance as he walked forward. If one were to carefully look at him, they would see that his deep blue eyes had instantly become much clearer, and that there faintly seemed to be light flashing inside of them.

Ever since he'd awakened his Spirit Eyes previously, Huo Yuhao had discovered that his vision exceeded that of an ordinary person's so did Shen Wushang, but he naturally had a different spin that was not yet differential, the prior knowledge of lifetime does that. He had known in advance but when he was six he couldn't help but jump up and down when he awakened his own personal sharingans. The jeers of his trash spirit and low talent had no effect. His joy remained since he knew the future, But most didn't like that and the beatings increased.

He remembered awakening around the same time as his stepbrother but he had to wait a day after because 'Young master just awakened in there, you trash are not allowed to contact even the remnants of his great presence!' Those bootlickers were hardcore. He found himself losing his way and wanting to prove to them he was awesome. But that childish thought faded with time each time it was born. He was too old to be looking for attention.

He loved his eyes to death though. It was weak by normal standards but it was enough for him to swoon over. It made him feel truly special. Like he was the only Uchiha in the world, no like he ate the chakra fruit himself. It was way better than being born in a clan that all had the eyes.

If he wasn't over 50 years old he would have given in to the temptation to use his eyes everyday thankfully he restrained himself, he wanted to avoid deviating from the timeline too much until he had everything he needed. Small matters like brushing his teeth differently were unavoidable but he did his best to act as if he grew up with only this world's influence. He knew one day that the future would change due to his presence and a future he didn't know would come to be thus he would behave himself so the events of the future he needed to happen, happened.

At a relatively close distance, he could see many minute details that ordinary people were unable to clearly see; at a longer distance, the range of his vision was over twice the distance of an ordinary person's. As someone whose sight deteriorated to wearing glasses in high school he treasured his eyes more than anything. If his mouth wasn't fixed on his face he'd kiss them everyday.

The strength of his vision had also unceasingly increased in combination with his soulforce level.

When he was thirsty, he'd look for some spring water; when he was hungry, he'd eat some of the rough biscuits that he'd brought along with him. Other than hurrying forward on his journey, he would sit down and meditate. The fact that he could actually advance three hundred miles in a single day—at his age—was nothing short of a miracle.

However, he only had seven silver soul coins and five copper soul coins him, which caused him to be extremely frugal with his money, he wasn't ignorant of the manipulation, art and trick s of currency but there was only so much time to do what he needed to, which would change once his body did as he had certain plans in that area.

Ever since the war between the Douluo Continent and the Sun Moon Continent had ended, the continent had undergone thousands of years of changes. The currency used was now completely unified: one gold soul coin was equal to ten silver soul coins, which was equal to one hundred copper soul coins.

When he was young, his mother had sometimes quietly taken him outside of the Duke's Mansion to look for some fruits and wild herbs in the forest to eat, simply for the sake of giving him a better meal than normal. Thus, the amount of plants that he recognized was fairly high.

'Happy thoughts, they don't exist, no one to kill and maim, you're free spirited and kind hearted not evil and sadistic. Look food, how nice~!' He was triggered remembering the terrible conditions his childhood was spent in but he eventually calmed down.

Many times, he couldn't even bear to buy some cheap biscuits, so he had to resort to looking for some food in the woods beside the road as he travelled along. On the upside, he watched culinary videos on netflix, and other media as well as ate out at fancy restaurants so he had enough culture to contribute to the mix with this world. He treasured his mother's teachings and the spying he did on the cooks at the mansion.

He had only passed through a single other territory on his journey which were a few small villages under the rule of a baron.

The current state of nobility among the four empires of the continent were all pretty much the same, perhaps they were different once upon a time but now all systems were more or less equivalent to each other.

The Emperor was the highest authority, followed by the empress and princes and princesses. Further down in the aristocracy were the Dukes, Marquis, Counts, Viscounts, and Barons. While the Knight was a mere honorary title.

The empires were divided into provinces, counties, cities, towns and villages. Most nobility had land under their banner such as the White Tiger Duke, but as a War general civil affairs were generally handled by the duchess.