Soul Land: Origin of Humanity

When I emerged from the dragon domain, it felt as if I'd left one reality behind and entered another. The world was the same—towering forests, spirit-rich air, the distant song of birds and beasts—but I was changed, and so was everything I thought I knew.

I walked alone, letting the rhythm of my steps ground me. Sunlight filtered through the canopy in shifting golden mosaics. Every now and then, the ground trembled with the passing of a great beast, or the wind carried a distant roar. Yet none of it unsettled me. The weight within my heart was greater than any danger the wild could offer.

To say I was shocked would have been an understatement. Even now, as I made my way through tangled underbrush and ancient wood, my mind replayed the revelations the God Officer had laid bare.

Douluo.The name echoed within me like a drumbeat. Soul Land—my Soul Land—the world I'd once known as a work of fiction, a fantasy I'd lost myself in on so many nights. Martial souls, soul rings, the rise and fall of empires, the eternal struggle between humans and spirit beasts. But here, none of those legends had yet begun. The world was pristine, untouched by those epic tales, suspended at the dawn of everything.

The realization sent chills down my spine. I, Ye Caiqian, had not merely been reborn in another world. I had been sent to the very beginning of the Soul Land's history, to a time before humans had ever heard of martial souls, before the first divine war, before the age of gods as mortals would know them.

I wanted to laugh, to weep, to shout to the heavens and demand if this was all some impossible dream.

I paused beside a winding spirit river, crouching to watch its water—clear as glass, filled with glittering motes of energy—rush over smooth stones. I remembered the God Officer's words, his presence vast and ancient:

"This world is not merely a land of beasts or gods. It is a crucible, chosen among countless others. You are the first of your kind to approach its threshold."

I closed my eyes, reaching deep within. The cores in my body pulsed in harmony—lower dantian, upper dantian, spiritual sea. I felt the tide of fate, the luck of a planet, swirling invisibly around me. If I concentrated, I could almost sense the world's pulse, beating beneath my feet.

For a fleeting instant, I almost wished for ignorance. To know so much was to bear a weight few could comprehend. I had dreamed of visiting Soul Land, of becoming strong in a world of martial souls, of forging legends. Never had I imagined being tasked to create the very foundations of those legends, to be the first human at the cusp of godhood.

I stood and gazed at the horizon, toward where I knew my city lay. "City of Beginning…" I murmured, voice lost to the wind. "The name was more fitting than I ever understood."

As I journeyed, I became acutely aware of the world's untapped potential. There were no martial souls to awaken. No children spoke of spirit beasts as sources of rings and power—they were monsters, legends, rulers of the wild. Humanity still clung to new-made cities and tools, proud but so fragile.

I pondered what the God Officer had told me: only beast gods ruled the Divine Realm now. Humanity's age of ascension had not yet begun. The stories I once devoured had been far, far in the future. The ground I walked was the first page of an unwritten saga.

For days, my thoughts circled endlessly. What could I do with this knowledge? What must I do?

Excitement battled fear. To become the first human god, to shape history's current with my own hands—it was a dream I had never dared utter, now thrust upon me as reality. But what if I failed? What if my choices doomed my people or brought ruin instead of hope? I thought of the God Officer's words about the responsibilities of a true guardian, the law that would force me to ascend after only a century as protector.

A century. For mortals, a mythic span. For one who carried the fate of a world, barely the blink of an eye.

The path bent downward, and suddenly, I glimpsed the distant walls of the City of Beginning—my city—rising from the valley like a promise.

A thousand memories surged: teaching the first children, building the first homes, forging the alliances and systems that allowed humanity to survive in this age of spirits and beasts. All I had accomplished seemed both immense and woefully inadequate for what was to come.

Yet as I stood there, on the edge of past and future, I felt a steadiness bloom within me. I thought of my family, my friends, the countless faces who had placed their faith in me. I could not—would not—let them down.

I took a deep breath, letting the air of Soul Land fill my lungs.

I would use every day, every heartbeat, every ounce of knowledge and power I possessed to prepare this world for what was coming. I would shape a civilization that could thrive without me, lay the groundwork for legends that would outlast even the gods.

No matter the fear, no matter the loneliness, I would walk this path.

For this world—the Soul Land—was not only my home, but now, my responsibility.

I stepped forward, crossing the threshold into the city, ready to begin the next chapter of a saga that had never before been written.